KotOR 2

[Ashrem Bayle]

Some stuff...

I agree. If I had to complain about one thing in the game, it's how the Jedi characters where so much more powerful than the non-Jedis. For instance, I loved HK-47, but he was nearly useless in combat.

Hope they iron that out in the sequel.

 

[drothgery]

I hadn't really thought about the "too many NPCs" problem, but it's there. Minor spoilers...

Spoiler

For example, towards the endgame, your main character plus another two Jedi is nearly unstoppable, making people like Carth, Canderous, and Zaalbar totally superfluous. Mission and the droids remain useful for their skills (Demolitions, Computer Use), but for pure combat beatdown you can't beat 3 Jedi.

Although it is a lot of fun to do the level ups for not one but nine, count 'em, nine, (N)PCs.

I'm not sure that's enough of a spoiler to warrant warnings. In any case, Zaalbar's got some use as a second melee guy (with Juhani -- only T3 has less of a story, but she's the best melee character), and Canderous (

Spoiler

or HK, if you've got the Repair skill to upgrade him

) is useful when you want a ranged attacker in the group (Carth, though, just sucks as a combatant, though he and Bastilla have the most complete backstories of the NPCs).

What I thought was a little problematic was that there were never any scenarios where you'd take three characters and do Thing1 while you took another three and did Thing2 -- and that there were times when if your main character didn't have a skill, you couldn't use another character

Spoiler

at least on Xbox, I couldn't use T3 or Zaalbar, who had much better repair skills than Anna Averre -- lightside soldier/guardian -- or Jacob Draal -- lightside scout/counselor -- to repair HK

. And there were times when this would certainly make sense

Spoiler

like any time you end up in prison on Manaan, you ought to at least have a chance to run a jailbreak

.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Supposedly the new game will have more parts in it that force you to use your other NPCs,

Spoiler

similar to the Leviathan level in KotOR 1

. I also agree that

Spoiler

it's stupid that only your main PC can use Repair on HK-47

, but hey, they needed to do something to make skill points useful. My favorite NPC is actually Jolee, who seems like he'd be perfect for a recurring role in KotOR 2. But I guess it's not to be.

 

[Neo]

Official site was updated earlier today, now has some screenshots and mroe concept art added to it, along with 2 desktops.

 

[drothgery]

Supposedly the new game will have more parts in it that force you to use your other NPCs.

That's not really what I was thinking of. Heck, a pet peeve of mine is RPGs that force you to use the 'main character' all -- or almost all -- of the time when you've got more characters available than you can keep in your party. And forcing a certain party for no logical reason has always annoyed me.

Spoiler

For example, Bastilla and Carth are about the worst possible people to have in your party for the mission to the Leviathan's bridge, by what you know at the time. If you're trying to be sneaky, you want Mission and Juhani. If you're trying to blast your way in, you want Juhani and either Jolee (if he's got area-affect powers) or Canderous. You don't want the mediocre-fighting Carth, who's got emotional issues with the evil admiral, or the average at everything Bastilla.

.

I was thinking more along the lines of Final Fantasy VI, where there are a lot of scenarios where you have to run two or three parties in parallel.

My favorite NPC is actually Jolee, who seems like he'd be perfect for a recurring role in KotOR 2. But I guess it's not to be.

Spoiler

Since the game seems to allow for the possibility that Revan ended up a Dark Jedi who killed Jolee in KotOR, it would be kind of difficult to have him in the game.

 

[Neo]

I completed the game with the following.

first time round with Canderous and T3 Love Mandaloreans so he was a must and the loyal steadfast droid companion was a given... I mean you dont see Luke leaving R2 D2 behind now do you

It was definitely a tough fight on the star forge at the end for my little droid though. Thankfully with the little twist near the end ensured they survived to the end of the game

 

[Shard O'Glase]

1 hope I have for the light side/dark side dynamic is that it isn't so easy to slip back to the light side. I mean I'd have the dark side pegged and then I'd do one act that was semi good or at leas tnot outright evil and I'd be close to balanced. It was kooky, I didn't mind the swing at the big decision moment but in other situations it was flat out irritating.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Heh. A friend of mine (who's a real goody-two-shoes ) has tried to
finish the game three times as a dark-sider. Three failures.

 

[takyris]

Wow. Interesting takes. I'm apparently a complete non-minmaxer and not a very good tactician to boot. I liked Carth. Once you get good enough blasters and get his attacks up to the point where ranged power-attacking is viable, he puts out a fair amount of ranged damage. Mainly, though, I played for the roleplaying experience and the story. I pretty much went with Bastilla, Carth, and Mission as my standard companions, with the others only brought in as necessary. And I was a Scoundrel/Consulor(sp?), so it wasn't as if I was even minmaxing with Mission...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Wow. Interesting takes. I'm apparently a complete non-minmaxer and not a very good tactician to boot. I liked Carth. Once you get good enough blasters and get his attacks up to the point where ranged power-attacking is viable, he puts out a fair amount of ranged damage. Mainly, though, I played for the roleplaying experience and the story. I pretty much went with Bastilla, Carth, and Mission as my standard companions, with the others only brought in as necessary. And I was a Scoundrel/Consulor(sp?), so it wasn't as if I was even minmaxing with Mission...

Well, it`s probably a bad habit, this min-maxing.

Still, my first game on the Light Side was with a Scoundrel/Consular, and I must admit, it was a bit difficult in the one-on-one fights, because I didn`t max the character for melee combat. (well, at least not in the beginning). But in the end, it didn`t matter. You can get through the game with every combination of classes and characters, I think.

Mustrum Ridcully