In my case, the lack of a lightsaber is not what made the beginning of KOTOR slow, because, to me, Star Wars is not all about being a Jedi. Han Solo-ing it for the first chunk of the game would have been swell if Taris had been a little more integrated into the full story. As it was, events seemed tangential to the main story in a way that later side quests didn’t. It also played a little too much like TutorialLand, though I’m sure that was by design.
To tell you the truth, I found becoming a Jedi way too easy. Talk to a Jedi Master, watch a cutscene and–hey presto!–the Force is with you. I understand the story reasons for why it happened so quickly, but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a little too pat.
Haven’t played the sequel, but I’m probably going to tackle Jade Empire first. KOTOR wasn’t perfect, but if JE is similar, I’m sure to have a smile on my face.
I’m one of those people who never got into KoTOR, though I watched other people play all the way through it in bits and pieces and I gave it about an hour or so of playtime.
The opening wasn’t just poorly paced and cliched, it was horribly written. Come on, “I’m calling you on your communicator?” I know writing good exposition is probably beyond the talent of people who make videogames(seeing as it’s difficult for people who make books and movies), but could we at least not have the most ham-handed exposition I’ve ever seen?
I didn’t like how the Dark Side was juvenile, not devious. There’s more to being evil than being a dick, Bioware. And come on, the game still had the “Pick between evil benefit and good no-benefit. Oh, you picked good? Here, get the benefit anyway. Or get an even better one down the road.” crap that has characterized RPGs since, well, forever.
Oh, and the inclusion of melee weapons besides lightsabers was exceptionally stupid and completely breaks the “Hey, I’m really in Star Wars!” vibe. At no point in any of the movies are metal swords presented as a viable alternative to blasters. And since you knew you’d be a Jedi sooner or later you didn’t even bother with ranged weapons.
This despite only a goddamn retard would pick a sword over a gun. Part of what made Jedis cool was that they used sword-like weapons. It helped establish them as a a noble and archaic order.
Sheesh, as I mentioned before, and as Thomas so patiently explained, the lightsabers in KOTOR are part of the character development. To their credit, Bioware and Obsidian managed to build into their games character development beyond simple stat crunching. Apparently that was lost on you.[/quote]
Not at all. I just don’t think it takes 10 hours to develop the idea that my character 1) Was a Jedi, 2) Was exiled, 3) Is now in a position to become a Jedi again. I’m not knocking the writing or the characters, as they’re excellent. I’m saying that delaying the actual progression to full Jedi status didn’t do anything to enhance the experience. The five dozen people who repeatedly hammered home the point that “You were a Jedi, but you renounced it, and now you can never be what you were!” never changed the fact that I knew damn well I was going to become a Jedi, so why beat around the bush for five more hours? Make the plot point and get rolling already. If you’d gotten your Jedi gear after the second major section (the orbital terraforming platform on the planet whose name I can’t remember), it wouldn’t have detracted from the storyline at all.
KotOR 1’s progression to full Jedi made a lot more sense, IMO.
But I guess some people just want to jump around and play Star Wars kid…
Or some people get bored when RPGs spend hours postponing the inevitable by repeating the same dialogue using different characters.
To be fair, the vibroblades and what-have-you in KOTOR aren’t so much in keeping with the films as they are with the d20 tabletop Star Wars RPG. It is quite possible and even feasible in d20 Star Wars to drop enough damage resistance on your happy ass that blasters are almost worthless, but somebody with a knife can carve you open.
I’ll also make the point that while the Endar Spire was pretty annoying in KOTOR, I didn’t mind Peragus in KOTOR2. I also found the incidental character bits and exploration engaging enough that I wasn’t bouncing off the walls for the next thing, but I’ve also never been an enormous Star Wars fan. I like KOTOR in spite of its license, not because of it.
They were inspired by a large range of sources including “Journey to the West, The Water Margin, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” To read more on the inspirations for Jade Empire, check this thread on the Jade Empire boards – note you may have to login to read this particular thread (I did), I’m not sure why, as most of the threads are readable as guest.
We also read a number of very old Chinese novels, including Journey to the West, The Water Margin, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These three are sometimes called the great novels of wuxia–wuxia (pronounced “woo-sha”) being the ancient basis for the modern martial arts genre.
Journey to the West, The Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are wuxia? Uh-oh…
For the professional reviewers out there, much “weight” is placed on the platform? The two reviews so far say something like “the best RPG on the Xbox”…but given the paucity of RPGs on the Xbox, does that scale Jade Empire to some degree?
Not trying to say it doesn’t deserve the scores (I wouldn’t know) but I’m wondering if it would score the same on the PS2 - assuming the reviewer thought FFX-2 (or something) was better, or is it absolute?
I sure hope this comes out for PC. I’ve been wanting an action game by BioWare that isn’t orcs and elves or Star Wars, and Jade Empire really looks like something new and exciting. I’ve loved the martial arts theme ever since I played Moebius on the Apple ][.
Jade Empire, much like every title from Bioware is a game that you will play more than once and it clocks in at roughly 25 hours for a single run-through.
Wasn’t KotOR somewhere in that range? I didn’t end up playing all the way through, but thought that’s what people were saying about it…
In any case, count me in on the side that is happy w/ this news. There are too many games and not enough time to play them, for them to be 40hrs. Besides, most of those are just stretching it out. I’d much, much rather have that content condensed into 25 great hrs.
Wasn’t KotOR somewhere in that range? I didn’t end up playing all the way through, but thought that’s what people were saying about it…[/quote]
It seemed to be 30-40 for most players. I never finished it either, because the Endar Spire made me want to strangle myself with the controller. I exaggerate slightly.
I thought KotOR 1 and 2 were more in the 15-20 hour range. Maybe I just rushed through it, but I seemed to get through it pretty quickly, as well as doing a large majority of all the sub-quests.
It took me about 40 hours to complete KoTOR the first time around, including every Light Side quest. My second time through it was about 30 to 32 hours. KoTOR II was around 45 hours for me, but I’m the kind of guy who uncovers every area of every map and opens every container. Also, customizing, upgrading, breaking down and creating items/weapons/armour in KoTOR II can soak up quite a few hours.
That ramped up to about 75 hours if you waited for all of the aliens in KOTOR to finish their language animations instead of just quickly scanning and skipping through their subtitles.
