Confessing that you love Bastila is the "easy" way to bring Bastila back. There's another dialogue path that also works, but it's deceptive: you can't use any of the [Persuade] options other than romance--they all fail. You have to pick a specific series of dialogue choices that can convince her that she's redeemable and can start by using her Battle Meditation to help the Republic win the current battle. As a female protagonist, this is an available option. But it's tricky to work out if you're playing blind. - Lewis

There is a reason both Kotor games are available on every single Xbox console generation

This game was so good that I'm still playing it.

(Kotor 1 spoilers in this comment) 21:07 I think my favorite version of this is doing Korriban as the last planet. You can flat out tell a bunch of people at the sith academy that you are Darth Revan and they all just laugh at your hilarious joke

Something I found interesting, but couldn't expand on.......when you pick the planet to go to right before you get captured the first time by Malak's ship, choose Dantooine. He'll tell you that he destroyed the planet. Once you escape his ship, you'll continue to and even land on Dantooine, but it looks like it's at night. However, when you get off the ship, you're on one of the other planets with part of the star map.

Apologies in advance for the sporadic dips in microphone quality.

I would say that this is a "Star wars movie" in game form and it's sequel is a "Star Wars phyilosphical debate" in game form. And I love it.

I just want kotor 3 😭

As I listen to this during a very difficult time in my life I keep thinking, damn this guy is just so good. Such a good distraction, a well researched and written video. We dont deserve you, man. PS Im replaying KOTOR on my phone atm lol what crazy times

And it is a most beautiful blend of OT and PT aesthetic and elements. It has everything good from both mixed together and presented in a new yet familiar way. (Kind of what I thought the ST would be.)

X-Wing was a great Star Wars game. It put you in the role of one of the background characters of the movie taking part in off-screen adventures. It was not a reskin (other games had previously tried to capture SW space combat admittedly). It was not a game of the movies (like most movie video games). It was a brilliant example of taking a cool part of a popular movie that was perfectly suited to a video game and making a great game that had the feel of the larger universe. You were not a jedi, you were not saving the galaxy or killing the emperor. You were a pilot taking part in space battles.

Definitely do KOTOR 2. IMO one of the most thoughtful games ever made.

Ah the nostalgia....early 2000s rainy friday afternoon coming from school and playing KOTOR till early hours....Thank you for making this brings back so many memories,best Star Wars game ever!

Been looking forward to another video of yours, and it just so happens to be one of my favorite games! Truly one of the greats that I feel deserves a proper remake.

Jolee gets regularly outshined by Kreia, despite them having extremely similar views of the force.

KotOR and KotOR II were the reasons I got a Xbox. The second game was flawed, but it had an amazing story with deep philosophical questions about Jedi, Sith, and the Force. KotOR made me a fan of BioWare and it became the standard for what I want in a Star Wars game.

Now we wait for the KOTOR 2 Analysis.

"Knights of the Old Republic" wasn`t the best game I ever played on PC but it was a fun experience and the introduction of Revan and Kreia made The Sith more than the two-dimensional baddies they were depicted as in The Films,Novels and Comics prior!

"You People"! Priceless! That character's facial modelling is..I dunno, man but, it's creepin' me the hell out. Revan's pretty cool though. So are some of the other races they came up with. This series is always being recommended to me and the review managed to give me a look without spoiling it. I might just have to go back and play these. I usually don't watch reviews unless I've played through. It's more of a retrospect. Another great job! Thanks, man..

I finally finished KOTOR 1 and I really enjoyed it. It's amazing how much Mass Effect 1 draws upon this game and in some ways ME1 feels like more a refinement of what KOTOR tried to do. I wish Taris wasn't so bad because it was a major stumping point. That and the Unknown Worlds too. They are stumping points on what is otherwise a very good SW game.

Yavin 4 is onky a progression vendor, selling better and better high end items as you find more star forge. It's little more than a space station

kotor and kotor 2 are my favourote entries into the star wars franchise. and probably 2 of my favourite rpgs. kotor 1 however has a bit of a special place in my heart. partially because i used to call myself ravem in games. which made me double blow my mind with the whole revam thing. i though we would have a duel or something. na in my heaf cannon all the jedi did was give him a name change haha

@6:18 Ah yes, the part of the game where you're a dual-wield melee character, but you only have one lightsaber. I remember it well :)

When telling the adaptation from D&D-type game to a Star Wars one, the classes: yes! What we (my LAN-party friends and I) felt and thought when we played this back in the late 800s, was "this is SUCH a Star Wars game!" Not only were the classes correct-they are technically correct, the best kind of correct-but the essence of the OT is felt everywhere (as opposed to modern Star Wars, that got everything wrong). This was EXPECTED of a proper Star Wars Game. Man... KotOR is such a jewel... The only other game in similar pre-requisites as good is maybe Alien Isolation. Of course, this is Star Wars at its very best. The movies, all of them, fall far shorter.

Great video. Well done and I enjoyed it very much!

I loved this video, thank you for making it. I'd like to underscore another element. KOTOR came out in 2003, soon after Attack of the Clones had been released. Back then, although we didn't really loathe the first two prequel movies, a lot of people, a lot of fans were left wishing for "something more" out of the Star Wars universe. We had learned from the movies that the Star Wars world was much larger, deeper and more complex, with a whole history of its own and innumerable places, people, mysteries, stories that waited to be told. We saw the Jedi Order and we wanted to learn more about its millenary backstory, its philosophy, its practices and customs, we saw the Sith and wondered about them; we saw the Republic and we wondered how it had came to be. KOTOR did exactly that. It answered every fans' prayer and fleshed out a universe that we wanted to dive right into, from why Jedi used differently colored lightsabers all the way up to the conflicting philosophies of the Jedi and Sith Codes. It nailed everything right: the visual style, the sound effects, the voices, the in-game technology, the different alien species, the mystique. All while delivering an excellent self-contained story, classic characters and a reasonably fun video-game. Trust me, it was a fanboy's wet dream back in the day. For us, it defined what Star Wars should have been about, the first true taste of the universe beyond the Skywalker family saga to which movies have never been able or willing to shake free from, even these days. It's an enormous shame that Disney has shelved it. In my headcanon, KOTOR will always be canonical.

what an amazing video, very well done.

Video: Most players use the Jedi characters in their party. Me: You haven’t played KOTOR without HK-47 as a party member. I was disappointed HK-47 never got his own action RPG game. Travel the galaxy collecting bounties and blasting meatbags.

Excellent excellent work again, I seriously love this channel and it’s some of the best stuff on KZfaq, I love it when you review games I’ve played, it makes me see them in a different light. Well done again and keep up the good work

Just finished your Silent Hill 2 video now moving onto this. Was gonna do 3 but i love KOTOR with a passion

KOTOR is truly a masterful game in general, it has a twist that is up there with Empire and Luke's father. The writing of this game is lightyears better than anything JJ and Rian have done with the Disney Trilogy.

Wonderfullly well done analysis!

Haha! Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet ballet, Knight's Dance! I love it!

Huh, in regards to that intro I was going to say "Does a cross medium adaptation really give it a wider appeal in the case of a fundamental cultural touchstone like star wars that a significant fraction of the developed worlds population grew up with?" Then I remembered I didn't watch the original trilogy until college but played the shit out of kotor as a kid

Superior analysis. Well done, sir!

They didn't mind wipe him, his mind was destroyed, they simply reprogrammed it with a new identity and healed him. Go back and check the exposition. That doesn't mean they didn't use him and show their true colors, cuz they did,

This game is one of the best of all time, just amazing!!! good video!

Great video, felt like I was watching a G4TV type of style video from back in the day! Thanks for this friend.

I'm not much of a Star Wars fan but the Knights Of The Old Republic games are so good I don't care. Alas the sequel was rushed like hell and rarely talked about. Despite it being a great game itself. It's even better in some respects.

I always played on the evil path... So much fun being the curse of the galaxy :-D

I'm from the future. Boba Fett isn't everyone's favorite Mandalorian anymore..... It's a baby of Yoda's species!!!! He's the cutest thing ever.

it was my understanding that revan purposfully avoided being on the starforge because of the extreme corruption

Man you REALLY took this game personally xD No shame, I did too back in the day ^^

Little late to the party but great analysis. I think you should know though that the stuff you showed of Yavin in the video is actually content from a mod.

I'm gonna say it right now: The Knights of the Old Republic games are better than cliche crap that all of the movies are. I now await the hate comments I'll get for this; but sometimes you gotta put your controversial hat into the ring.

Lovely video, it was a pleasure to watch and listen to. Thank you.

Fantastic video! I have only one note - Infinity Engine is a predecessor to Aurora and was used to make D&D games up until NWN. KOTOR ran on Odyssey Engine, an updated version of Aurora :)

N64 had two great games with Shadows and Rogue Squadron. I loved those games. But KOTR blew me away. Played it on XBox. I loved it, but it crashed so much on me.

Ignoring canon from SWtOR and the Darth Revan Novel, I feel like the Dark Side ending for this game works a whole lot better in relation to the sequel, like how Revan disappeared from the Korriban Academy, instead of his jedi-enforced retirement. I wish there was more of a middle ground with some kind of "true" grey ending.

Really enjoyed!

These are great to watch, you deserve more subs! keep it up

This is dope!

Never lowered the difficulty, just did every side quest before moving on and I was always prepared

Morrowind was great. I don't think I spent more playing a game then playing Morrowind.

Awesome video! And what you said from 1:32-1:37... that's exactly the reason why I prefer Outcast over Academy. Academy's story just seems to lack something that Outcast doesn't for me

Great work

Have to disagree with the canon genders. Romancing Bastila was better than romancing Carth, but that was it. Playing KOTOR2 with a male puts you in a special place surrounded by the variety of female cast (especially the Handmaiden).

Oh. My. GAAAAAAAAAWD! Not to fanboy out, but I’ve been hoping for a new Aesir analysis for months! It takes a lot of time, effort, and love to do a deep dive analysis the way you do them, and this is an amazing addition to the standard you’ve set for game analysis. I started by listening to your Silent Hill 2 piece at work (still my favorite), and, as an Literature major who loves deep dives into works of storytelling, I’ve enjoyed your wild ride through retro story and game design. I hope you keep doing these projects for as long as you love doing them, because you are one of the best. You’ve said before that KZfaq isn’t a career thing, but if you ever put out a Patreon page or a Ko-Fi then I would happily contribute to you making these spectacular pieces. These are truly labors of love. It’s wonderful and refreshing to see someone who loves games, loves stories, and loves telling the stories of games.

I thought listening to the sand people's history was so cool...for someone like me who's always found the tusken raiders interesting that was a real treat...great vid by the way 🙏

The mandalorians have never had galaxy domination on their mind. They want to be tested in battle, and they did what they had to do to get the republic to take them serious. They conquerd worlds just to draw out the republic that just sat there and let the galaxy suffer (like they always do) when they could have stopped this much earlier. Revan and Malek just didnt want to sit back like the rest of the republic and forced the conflict. Not saying it is a nice and loving way but that is their core belife of the mandos.

Aesir, great work

Question at around 42:00 when talking about Darth Malek is the player character and their party in the background?

I had this on the original Xbox back in the day. Loved it. Never got to play the sequel :(.

I would send this video to all my friends who played (and love) KotOR but they don't like to watch 1 hour long videos :/

11:00 It's kinda funny, but I always do the opposite and play KOTOR 1 female, and KOTOR 2 male. As far as KOTOR 2 I think the maverick jedi rising the call of war I think makes a bit more sense as a masculine move, and KOTOR 1 the relationships just feel like they work out better as female between Bastilla and protagonist and the others also being a little more emotionally open to you as compared to how closed they are in KOTOR 2.

Man, you are really a master of video essays and analysis. This channel and your work needs more exposure.

KOTOR 2 KOTOR 2 KOTOR 2 KOTOR 2

@17:00 that reminds me of one of the creatives from Bethesda involved with early Elder Scrolls. Something along the lines of the best PC RPG will be inferior to table top DnD type games because it lacks the creativity of a person in the role of Dungeon Master. As a side note even a sandbox game has limits so a player in over the table game could make an in character narrative suggestion outside the script and a dungeon master could accomodate it by expanding the scope of the game but a PC can not.

Great analysis yet again

"Spaceballs is no longer an accurate parody of Star Wars." That is until The Last Jedi, then it retroactively becomes relevant again.

Revan is now canon! That doesn't necessarily mean Disney will keep the character -exactly- the same, but hopefully they do the character justice if they ever put him on screen.

can you list the mods used in the gameplay footage?thanx

Holy shit dude, you said Lehon and I was like whaaaaaat is he talking about. I had no idea that was the name of the Rakatan planet lol. Hey you learn something new every day.

large chucks of tthe Kotor lore were taken repurposed and reimagined from much older Tales of the Jedi, but the revan and mandaloirans wars time charaters are all uniquely bioware., but it wasnt all invented for the game. the cannon wasnt just starting to being fleshed out it was out there just not digitally in D&D form and hadnt yet been trivialized and discredited by the prequals and lucas changing his mind discrediting previously established expanded licenses.

Played this game on IOS cause I don’t have an Xbox or PC, loved the game itself but bloody hell are the clumsy elements enhanced in the IOS version.

Fantastic video.

Another hour of your beautiful Icelandic voice? Oh you treat us too well

at the end of kotor 1 there is supposedly a way to turn Malak back to the light but Idk because I haven’t beaten it at a good guy yet

God I loved playing the imperial agent class so much!! Got no experience like that in any other game!

Dude this was awesome, KOTOR was the best Star Wars thing for me for my generation. You did a pretty good job representing the experience, although the combat is purely subjective. I happen to really enjoy the combat, but more accurately you would play the game for the interactions with the NPC & marveling at interacting with a world that was previously basically only statically interactive by movies. Wish fulfillment is totally right, it hits basically all the checkboxes for desired features of a Star Wars video game. But overall the takeaway from the game is a much more concrete conceptualization of the force & the morality systems of SW. It's WAY better of a way to experience something, say Star Wars, than previous generations having to be stuck only with watching it in a movie.

Reven trailblazes a path walking on the darkside, then revisits his actions walking the same path in the light.

Why did the follower at the beginning of the game have a blue suit instead of red? I played it yesterday and it was red

jolee bindo a gray jedi? more like a great jedi am i right?

4:48 where can I find this video?

You, sir, are a true scholar and a true gamer. Your content is top-notch. Hope to see more in the future.

Honestly, I'm happy kotor isn't in the Star Wars canon because that gives it freedom to be it's own thing. Right now, fans are working on Half Life 3 in frustration of Valve's lack of closure to the story. In the same sense, I can imagine the same thing to occur for kotor one day (I hope). With that, if kotor were to remain in the star wars canon, it would be limited by episodes 1-6. If that were the case, no good ending would come to the 3rd edition, because 4000 years on the same pointless battles between one arbitrary side and another would continue on. I want there to be closure; a good ending. I want the lessons of Kreia, the discoveries of the Exile and the growth of Revan to all mean something, instead of them all just dying and nothing changing as the current canon would suggest. By being removed from the canon, the story is no longer dictated by one company out to make a profit. Instead, the fans can decide what truly happens; whether by just accepting the stupid conclusions drawn from the book(s) and the MMO, or by creating something with the same philosophical and enjoyable fibre that the first two games had.

1:30 theirs more to it than that but still you halve to admit spinning is a good trick

you get a sidequest from Canderous to go tell all the Mandalorians you meet on these different planets, if you haven't killerd them, that they are to join clan Ordo and rebuild. Finally someone said it, the great Boba Fett is a bumbling buffoon. I still remember the first time I played KoToR 1 and find out towards the end that I was Darth Revan, it was a really good way to tell the story and you just go "oh, that makes sense, the memories and all that". If you do all the companion side missions, you will know why they follow you. Bastila's is quite interesting, you can get her to confess that she loves you, you then kiss and she runs away to hide. of course you need to do this before the scene where she gets taken by Malak or you won't be able to complete it. KoToR 1's story is better than KoToR 2, but, I find KoToR 2's game play to be better, you could do more things, costumize your lightsabers more and such. the work bench upgrade was a huge thing. also, did you know that if you picked Jedi Guardian, selective a normal attack on an enemy far away would make you force jump over to him? I found that out by accident. Only Jedi guardians can do this.

I played Kotor 1 as a male, and when i started 2 the first time Revan is mentioned (by Atton) its as a female (giving you the dialouge option to say "no, Revan was male"), which makes me wonder if I was supposed to play 1 as a female...

38:41 wait, what mod is this where the Bandon cloaked Sith walks towards you there? :o is it part of the base game? I never crossed it.

I have to admit I prefer KoTOR small fighting bar over TOR pages of abilities where did that ability go scroll fest.

One of the other key things that PC RPGs tend to lose compared to their tabletop forebears is the possibility of defeat. This probably went without saying when you mentioned having a Game Master, but I wanted to mention it anyway because, while I don't play tabletop RPGs very often, when I do, defeat is often far more entertaining than victory. Defeat forces improvisation out of both the Game Master and the players. In CRPGs, "defeat" is only ever possible via dialog, and defeat in combat is game over. As a game master, you have to minimize the possibility of a game over as much as humanly possible.

Did they cut some planets for the Xbox version cause you mentioned two planets that I don't remember and I just played it and beat it for the 100th time like two months ago.

36:16 "HK-47 is a red-pilled genius*" fixed it.

36:16. Don't you talk shit about my droid

Hey Aesir, what mouse pad you using?

welp, time to play through KOTOR again

I could finish Knights 1&2 before I made it through one Morrowind loading screen.

"A slight change to combat that would function the same in the character's hands would be..." *Aesir proceeds to describe the Vitality system from D20 Star Wars.* I'm not joking, by the way. What you're describing is almost exactly how health works in the tabletop Star Wars RPG Bioware was referencing. It's even why character's don't have, "health," but instead have, "vitality." The system is simple. You have Wound Points equal to your Constitution score. That's how much damage your character can actually take. Then they have an ever growing pool of vitality. Vitality isn't health, it's just a depleting ability to avoid suffering injuries and dying in combat. From what I remember, there's one major wrinkle with Star Wars that sets it apart from D&D. Critical hits BYPASS your vitality and are applied directly to your Wound Points instead of multiplying your damage taken. This means that a single critical hit can really mess up your day. Bioware took the term, "vitality," but used it as a replacement for normal D&D health, so the entire system that makes combat in the tabletop game they were adapting really lethal was scrubbed.

Kotor 1 and 2 are the best star wars games