Jedi by Knight

Start with the first post in this series here: Revisiting KOTOR II: (#1) A Fresh Start.

At the end of our last post, our ship (the Ebon Hawk) had been attacked en route to Onderon; we managed to land mostly-successfully on the moon Dxun.  While Atton repairs the ship, I go exploring and discover an Mandalorian enclave.

Here I meet the new Mandalore, who’s trying to reunite all the Mandalorian clans.  These famed warriors don’t actually hate Jedi; they respected Revan (and me as well) as worthy opponents.  Mandalore promises to take me to Onderon in his shuttle if I prove myself first.

So my next hour of gameplay consisted of me running around the jungle killing various beasts.  It reminded greatly of Dromund Kaas in SWTOR.

Speaking of SWTOR, I discovered another habit from that game I need to break: hitting Esc during a conversation to abort the convo and choose a different dialogue option next time.  Does not work in KOTOR.  Pick your responses well the first time.

The good news is that through a random drop I got a purple lightsaber crystal!  And a lightsaber for Visas Marr as well.

I’ve been noticing that KOTOR II is really steeped in the in-game history of Revan and the Mandalorian and Jedi Civil wars, which may be confusing to anyone who has not played KOTOR I.  I remember the first game quite well, but KOTOR II is good at giving refreshers when needed.  And there’s enough mystery surrounding my character’s role in these prior events that it keeps the game interesting and not a boring history lesson.

Interacting with my companions continues to be my favorite part of the game.  Kreia teaches me how to read my team’s surface thoughts(!), and when I hear Atton thinking about random strings of numbers and playing pazaak in his head, he teaches me how to use that technique to block others from reading my thoughts.

Mira’s thoughts…yikes

Atton’s more clever than he seems…

While I’m off in the jungle killing stuff with Visas and T3, the rest of my team is hanging out on the Ebon Hawk.  Bao-Dur gives nice upgrades to both his remote and the scary G0-T0 droid.  Of all my companions, Bao-Dur has known me the longest, having served as a tech under me in the war.  So Atton goes to him for a really awkward conversation about my character, along the lines of “You think a princess and a guy like me…?”  Poor Bao-Dur.

In the end, I manage to impress Mandalore enough that he takes me to Onderon…but he has to be in my party.  I immediately equipped him as a melee fighter (a trick I also pulled with Canderous in KOTOR I), because I have never understood why the game starts him with a ranged weapon when he has high Strength and Constitution, but low Dexterity.

Actually, our new lightsabers made that combat pretty easy.

Mandalore

Mandalore has a contact on Onderon that can help us find the Jedi Master hiding there…except this contact has been arrested for murder.  So we must first solve the murder to clear his name, which involves talking to a lot of people in the cantina.  Some are helpful.  Some are not.

Solving the murder was fun, but Mandalore’s friend probably deserved to be in jail anyway because he’s a terrible doctor.

Um, is that a dead body in your office??

So ethical…

Onderon has an ongoing political struggle between its Queen and the General of the military forces (whom we’ve learned is the one that shot down the Ebon Hawk).  Things start to heat up right as the Jedi Master makes contact, and I’m forced to leave the planet when the General’s forces come after me.  So that thread is kind of left hanging for now, and we head on to the next closest planet: Korriban, the Sith homeworld  (Clone Wars fans know it as Moraband).

We’re at 26 hrs 35 min total play time.  See you next time for some tomb raiding!

Continue on the 6th part of the series here: Revisiting KOTOR II: (#6) Not your Revan’s Korriban