EII: ep 3 – The (Knights of the) Old Republic games – (LEGENDS)

[00:00:00] OK, David. This is where we're supposed to choose a side. Green or black? John, my soul is as black as night. Your turn. I am black for life. So we're not fighting? I thought this is where HBO wanted us to pick sides and fight and stuff.

[00:00:24] Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on the pod. But we seem to agree on one thing. We both really like the show. The politics, the drama, the lore. It was made for the Lorehounds. And since we just finished recapping season one,

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[00:01:05] a hardened conflict with itself and an inescapable urge to read the book fired and led by George R. R. Martin. Dragon seeds may experience burning. Welcome back to the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast. I'm your host, Alicia, and we're back to continue our pre-acolyte

[00:01:38] Star Wars coverage catch up blitz. And this time we're adding a new voice to the mix. Welcome, Marchen. Hello. Happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Today we're going to be getting into the Knights of the Old Republic games

[00:01:52] and the Old Republic MMO, and these are all still legends properties, but these are games that people are still playing today. And the MMO is still getting updates. I think there's like six updates out now. Yeah, probably. And the Knights of the Old Republic remake,

[00:02:08] which by the way, I'm going to start calling it Cotor, just Cotor, because that's far fewer syllables and people call it that. Sure, on the same page here. But yeah, there's been a remake long in the work, so we'll mention that a little bit later.

[00:02:24] And the new canon has already started making references to key characters like Darth Revan, so we're going to expect more lore to be pulled over. Just a quick note for future listeners. We're recording this episode on May 10th, 2024. The content of this podcast was accurate on the date

[00:02:41] recorded to the best of our knowledge, but that might change as more content is released. We will issue update episodes from time to time to cover anything that's been added to or changed in the timeline. And please do check out the Quickie Intro episode to the podcast

[00:02:56] if you haven't yet to learn how this all works in more detail. And also check out the previous Dawn of the Jedi episode for an overview of the first era of Star Wars history and especially for context for this episode,

[00:03:08] the Old Republic overview, which sets the stage for the era in which the games we're talking about today take place. So, yeah, I'm here with Marcin, who's agreed to lend his Star Wars gaming expertise to our Lordive. Welcome and thank you.

[00:03:24] And yeah, you're one of my favorite people to chat Star Wars shows with. And just to share with the listeners, what is your Star Wars background? Thanks, I'm honored. I mean, to be honest, I consider myself more of a casual gamer and Star Wars media enjoyer.

[00:03:42] It's, yeah, I wouldn't really call myself an ultimate source of knowledge for any kind of Star Wars lore. But yeah, I guess I do have quite established opinions about different Star Wars shows and movies and different kind of media that I was exposed to.

[00:04:05] So, yeah, my initial exposure to Star Wars started in the beginning of the 90s, I think, when I first saw reruns of the original trilogy on TV. And well, that got me interested in the lore of the universe. And well, around the same time,

[00:04:30] I started my adventure of video games and first video games that I remember being exposed to. First platform that I remember actually playing games on was NES, Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Brothers.

[00:04:47] So I played it so much that I could actually beat the game in one sitting. And how long do you remember? How long would that take? About four hours, I think. OK, OK. Stuff like that. So it wasn't that long.

[00:05:02] I mean, not at least for ten-year-old me back then. So yes, I'm that old. But yeah, it's I quickly transitioned to PC gaming and started exploring all the games that were available on that platform at the time. I was interested in especially in first person shooter games

[00:05:26] like Doom or Duke Nukem or Wolfenstein 3D. And it was around that time. It was after I saw the original trilogy of Star Wars on TV when I heard about this game called Dark Forces, the first person shooter game. And it's it's interesting because at the time

[00:05:52] a video gaming was was that it's infancy. So usually it was more about game playing and graphics, which seemed mind blowing at the time rather than any kind of storytelling. So it was very refreshing to see a game that that's tried to

[00:06:10] show something in a in a in a much bigger world and with much more established characters. And yeah, I remember being very interested in that. And I guess starting from then, I discovered my love for storytelling in video games and mostly single player games

[00:06:32] that I that I wanted to play at the time. So I don't remember if I actually managed to beat the game at the time because it seemed very hard with dark forces, the dark forces. Yeah, but I remember that it was very unique

[00:06:49] and I was drawn to it mainly because because of the storytelling and characters that were portrayed. So I guess that was those probably my gateway. Yeah, to the Star Wars to this crossover between gaming and Star Wars that that only grew bigger from then.

[00:07:09] Yes, you've played you've played a bunch of Star Wars games. Can you give us a quick rundown? Yeah, so. Yeah, it started with dark forces, but but then as I as I started progressing within gaming and started discovering different different types of game and genres,

[00:07:29] it sort of evolved and as the new Star Wars game came out, I became interested. I wanted to check it out. So some time after the dark forces, I played X-Wing versus Tie Fighter, which I remember at the time required a joystick to play.

[00:07:46] The game wouldn't even start without joystick having OK, just connected to your system. And at the time, I couldn't even justify playing. I mean, purchasing a joystick just for one game for my PC. So thanks to my friend who was generous enough to just lend me

[00:08:06] a joystick at the time I could play and enjoy the game. So yeah, but after that, it was, I think, perhaps at the end of nineties beginning of two thousands when I remember playing Jedi Academy, which I worked.

[00:08:21] I thought that time was an amazing upgrade over over the dark forces, which, yeah, I thought was kind of like a natural progression, natural upgrade in graphics and storytelling and in general game design. And I think that's that's when I started really getting into all the

[00:08:39] all the Star Wars games. Right. So soon after that, I got into Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Rebellion, Empire War. So now we're moving more to strategy type of gaming. Rebellion, I remember being particularly hard. I don't think I ever finished that game.

[00:08:59] I attempted several times, but it was it was a brutal strategy with a lot of multitasking and requiring a lot of forward planning. So it's but I still enjoyed it. It was an amazing game to play at the time.

[00:09:15] Empire War, yeah, all the fans of real time strategy games heard about it for sure. It's it's being kept alive even now. And there's a dedicated community of players who are developing mods and allowing the game to be played online. Really, it's still going. OK, yeah.

[00:09:33] So even though there's no official support for it anymore, there are numerous updates and mods for it. So I guess there's also a big hope for kind of a remake or right, some some sort of interest from major publishers to capitalize on it, I suppose.

[00:09:53] Then, yeah, I guess what I was very interested at the time was the Republic Commander, which I heard is actually contains everything that I mentioned before, which is great characters, storytelling and amazing, amazing world building. What's even more interesting that is that the game

[00:10:13] is focused on the Republic Commander. So the clones basically who I created for special tasks to provide the services for the Republic or fulfill missions for the Republic and yeah, for the old Republic. Yes, OK. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I remember not being able to play the game

[00:10:37] because they didn't have Xbox and it was an Xbox exclusive at the time. So I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy it, still hoping to do it maybe now. And then we quickly moved to the culture games.

[00:10:50] So so the first Knights of the Old Republic, the original RPG game that came out. I remember it being an amazing experience and something that actually made me fall in love with video games that are set in the Star Wars universe. Right.

[00:11:08] Yeah, before that, I actually I think I my favorite genre of video games is RPG. In the meantime, during yeah, during that evolution of of getting into Star Wars games, I played obviously various different types of games. My love for RPG started with Fallout series,

[00:11:30] so especially Fallout one or one or two. Fallout could so be a planet in the Star Wars universe. But I suppose so. Yeah, yeah. It was a completely different world, which is definitely something smaller compared to all the Star Wars lore.

[00:11:52] But still it was I enjoyed the freedom that it came with. And and I remember being amazed at how free the game felt. Even we could actually attack anyone and kill any NPC and do whatever we wanted in the game.

[00:12:09] And it wouldn't really stop us from from finishing the main storyline. We just had to do it in a different way. So it was it was a mind blowing approach to game design at the time and how the story can be interactive in a way,

[00:12:26] which if you think about it, it's yeah, I mean, the game like that being released in the mid 90s. It's still something amazing. So yeah, since then, since finishing Fallout one and two, I never got to experience this kind of freedom until the first Kotor,

[00:12:45] which brings us into Star Wars. So then we're going to talk, of course, about the Kotor games today. Have you played also the old Republic MMO? Yes, I started it. I didn't really play a lot of it because, as I said, I'm more of a single player gamer.

[00:13:07] I don't really play a lot of MMOs. Yeah, I find them generally a little bit too confusing with all their options and other in general quests. You and I are both missus traffic. We're missus traffic gamers. You just like yeah, I guess maybe.

[00:13:24] Yeah, maybe I'm more of an introvert gamer. Yes, I don't really need to connect with others. But yeah, I can get into it a little later. Well, and also just to for everyone at home to clarify, you know, all the games that you're talking about

[00:13:40] were released before that switch to the new canon. So they're all this is all considered legends, what Marchion's been talking about. And I know you've played a bunch of other games that are going to come up later in this podcast timeline, like The Force Unleashed Games

[00:13:57] and Battlefront and... Oh, yes, yes. Definitely. I mean, The Force Unleashed. Yeah, it's perhaps not really considered to be the best Star Wars game. But yeah, the character, right? Yes, the character and the storytelling was definitely great and the whole media campaign at the time

[00:14:22] was very compelling, especially that it talked about it was exploring the power of the Darkseid and how the main character had those amazing abilities and could actually show them in game and show the true power of the Darkseid.

[00:14:39] So that was something that was quite special at the time. And I remember being drawn into it so much that I even bought PS PlayStation 3, especially for that game because it was not released on PC. It was only released later.

[00:14:53] So I really wanted to get my hands on it so much that I bought a PS3 for that. So I'm sure to had much benefit of it for years later. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I definitely discovered a lot of amazing games.

[00:15:08] Yeah, the last of us, Wing Wing, for example. But yeah, that's definitely one of the first games that I wanted to play on PS3 and then Battlefront. Yeah, that's actually so, yeah, that goes a little bit against what I said before,

[00:15:24] because that's practically the only MMO that I really enjoyed. But it's more of a shooter. So it's not really a game that requires a lot of time. It's easy to just jump into it and play a mission of more like a first person mission

[00:15:43] where you capture the flag or try to gain advantage over the other team. So yeah, it was I found it fun. It was quite nice to to explore the game. I mean, my idea of it as a shooter is honestly

[00:15:59] why I haven't given it a shot myself yet. But I do promise to at least try it out before we get to that point in the timeline before they switch out the servers, perhaps. But but of course, yeah, my favorite

[00:16:13] one of my favorite games overall are the the Jedi games, which obviously also come much later in the timeline. So I hope that you will come back and talk because you know, you played before me. And so I'm like messaging you like I'm stuck on the stupid.

[00:16:30] Yeah, and me understanding the pain. Yeah, yes, I mean, definitely that's yeah, these are the newest entries, the newest big games and Jedi night games and the storytelling again, it's just yes, yes, gorgeous. Amazing characters, amazing storytelling.

[00:16:50] And yeah, just in general, the true power of the dark side as well. That can be seen this time from the other side, not wielded by our own character, but by the characters that we are forced to to fight against. So yeah, these are definitely memorable moments.

[00:17:07] Yeah, so guys start playing because then there's going to be full spoilers come in eventually. Oh yeah. But we're here today to talk about three games in particular in timeline order. Those are Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic,

[00:17:20] Coder 2, The Sith Lords and the confusingly named sequel Star Wars, the Old Republic, which is set 300 years later. And that one's the MMO. And I do know the plots and a lot about the game mechanics of these games.

[00:17:34] But I haven't I've only played like little samples of each myself. So I'm glad we have Marchion here to speak from personal player experience. Yes. So the Knights of the Old Republic, this is, you know, the one that started this whole thing.

[00:17:49] It's an RPG first released in July of 2003 by Bioware. And it was originally an Xbox game, but now also available through platforms like Steam and on iOS and Android and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, it's really it's especially loved for its writing and character development.

[00:18:06] Now, I also just have to note, there is also an online series of miniatures called Coder Opportunities. We're not talking about that today, but if anyone has experienced with this opportunities game, I don't really know much about it. So I'd love to hear.

[00:18:21] Please check out the email in the episode notes. It's SW Timeline podcast at gmail.com. Wondering what it's like to play that game and does it tie in well with the video games and comics? Because there are a bunch of the prequel comics.

[00:18:36] Do you have you read any of them? The comics, to be honest, no, no. I'm more familiar with comics about Darth Vader, to be honest. Right, right. The new ones. Yeah, the new ones. But yeah, from that time, I don't know. I don't really know.

[00:18:54] Yeah. I mean, so they did. They had a series called Star Wars Tales of the Jedi first. And of course, this is all legends. Basically everything we're talking about today's legends. I'll let you know what gets pulled over.

[00:19:06] And so Tales of the Jedi was a collection of comics covered from about like 5,000 to about 4,000 just after BBY and was released in the 90s. And so this was covering around something called the Great Sith War. But to be honest, like especially in legends, it's just.

[00:19:25] Yeah, four schisms and like at least how many great Sith wars? Anyway, it's just war over and over and over again. I think they might be simplifying that slightly for the new canon. But Coder basically takes place in the aftermath of this great Sith war.

[00:19:44] And there's also a 50 issue Coder comic series, which covers like right up to the time of the game just about. And even another one after that, five part sequel called Coder War. And yeah, none of this is canon. So we're not going to be covering it in depth.

[00:20:03] But if you want to check them out yourself, then yeah, please let us know what you think. But we're going to dive right into the game. So Knights of the Old Republic is set in 3956 BBY.

[00:20:16] So again, that's before the Battle of Yavin, basically before the original Star Wars movie. And the sequel is set four years later. So again, this means the games take place nearly 4,000 years before the time of the original Star Wars films and also thousands of years before the Acolyte.

[00:20:35] The opening crawl of the Coder game is 4,000 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Republic verges on collapse. Darth Malik, the last surviving apprentice of the Dark Lord Revan, has unleashed an invincible Sith armada upon an unsuspecting galaxy. Crushing all resistance, Malik's War of Conquest

[00:20:57] has left a Jedi Order scattered and vulnerable as countless Knights fall in battle and many more swear allegiance to the new Sith Master. In the skies above the outer rim world of Taurus, a Jedi battle fleet engages the forces of Darth Malik

[00:21:13] in a desperate effort to halt the Sith. I can say that the Sith's galactic domination. So just to spoil, we're just going to spoil the whole game plot here. That's this is what we do just to run through it real quick.

[00:21:33] So it's an RPG, meaning you can play different ways, as different characters, but the basic plot goes something like this. You wake up in a Jedi spaceship in the middle of battle with the help of Republic Jedi, Mandalorian droids and some other companions,

[00:21:47] especially a pilot named Karth O'Nassie, a.k.a. Fleet, you escape the doomed ship and get caught up in quests, maneuvering through Sith blockades, exploring ruins and especially rescuing a powerful Jedi named Vastila Shan, who can sway the outcome of the war with her battle meditation talent.

[00:22:06] Along the way, you face slavers, racers, gang wars and even a bounty hunter named Kang. You grow from simple soldier to a force-wielding Jedi while unlocking the secrets of astronomy and exploring the galaxy. You'll, for example, get to know the tattooing of your a desert planet

[00:22:22] that will come up again and again and again and again and again in canon stories. Star Wars storytelling probably spends more time on this planet than any other in the universe, by the way, even though it's supposed to be random remote in the outer rim.

[00:22:36] But this game is where Star Wars fans first met the Krait dragons, which is our sand dragons we'll talk about more. And you also hit up other top locations of Star Wars lore. So like the jungle planet of Kashyyyk, where the Wookiees are from.

[00:22:52] Can you do a Wookie impression, Margin? No. I don't know. Mwah. I don't know. I attempted one in the last episode. It was OK. OK, OK. But if anyone at home can do a better one, as I said in the last episode, please send them my way.

[00:23:17] Email them. We're going to put together a compilation. All right. So the story continues. After sorting through tales of Wookiee betrayal and a mad Wookiee in the Shadowlands, visiting the Sith homeworld of Korban and searching other planets

[00:23:32] of all kinds to find Darth Malak and even his master, Darth Revan himself, you come to the game's pivotal confrontation with you for it turns out, and I warned you about spoilers, y'all, you've been Darth Revan all along. Darth Revan all along.

[00:23:51] The Jedi and Bastilla had your mind wiped, but now she's turned to the dark side. So it's up to you whether you will champion the side of the dark or the light in your final battles and ultimately destroy the Star Forge

[00:24:04] or use it to construct your fleet to conquer the galaxy. So, Marge, what were your some of your most memorable moments in this game? Yeah, I mean, it's such a huge game. And yeah, there's there's so many moments there. But I think, well, personally,

[00:24:26] I'm always an enjoyer of more of a darker themes in Star Wars, perhaps, well, a little bit more mature or more serious. I'll admit I'm always drawn to the dark side and to the power of the dark side. Unashamedly so. So, yeah, I mean, without a doubt,

[00:24:48] my most memorable moment is on Korriban, the whole section of the game where we get to visit Korriban and we get to explore ancient Sith tombs and we get to learn about the original Sith culture as a species and how they how they viewed the force,

[00:25:11] how they use the force and and how it was eventually exploited by people who were also drawn to the dark side and learned from their culture how to take advantage and how to subdue others, how to become the ultimate Sith Lord, if you will. So, yeah, I remember

[00:25:34] it was very interesting to discover all that lore and how the dark side or how users of the dark side evolved at the time and and how ancient it all was and how much even older than all the Jedi orders or let's say light side users.

[00:25:53] So, yeah, the whole exploration of how of that background was was very interesting. And the most memorable quest on Korriban was when we had to pass the final trials of the Sith master Yithra Wyn.

[00:26:11] Yeah, we had to pass all the trials in the tomb and in the final tomb. I remember that we throughout our experience in the Sith school or Sith Academy on Korriban, we could scheme against others and and we could lie to them.

[00:26:28] We could talk to other characters to undermine someone else. And yeah, I remember it was it was that it truly felt like a real RPG and how the dark side users would would behave. So what was interesting is that we always had dialogue options

[00:26:48] that were truly evil and sinister. And then we could even sometimes attack whoever we wanted, even though maybe it was uncalled for or if we felt like we were talking to a weaker character, we could just try to get rid of him.

[00:27:04] So at the final trial given by Uther Wyn, we had an option of aligning ourselves with Twillik character. I forgot her name, but. Was Mission Val. The street urchin and she had her wookie companion, Zalba? I'm not sure. It was it was not really part of our team.

[00:27:30] It was she was she was one of the the Sith apprentices. And never mind. I don't think she was meant to actually join us. Hello, quick editor's note. March and look this up after that recording and her name is Uther Bann. OK, back to the conversation.

[00:27:48] But we we had an option of aligning with her just throughout the time of our time on Corba. So I remember by following her suggestion, we could we had an option of actually working together and helping each other throughout the trial of Uther Wyn

[00:28:06] against obviously the Sith rules and against his will, which I actually I remember taking that option and working together with her to to help each other in passing the trial. And at the end of it, obviously, our sit master knew about it all along.

[00:28:25] And at the final trial, our final passing of it, he showed up and revealed that he knew about the plan all along. And he gave us an option of punishing the Twillik for her wrongdoings or well, or just dying ourselves together with her.

[00:28:47] And I remember having an option to choose between aligning with Uther Wyn or with the Twillik against Uther Wyn. And yeah, like a true Sith Lord or true Sith Dark Force user, I decided to band together with with the weaker character

[00:29:07] against the more powerful character to kill him, which which turned out perfectly. But at the end of it, we also had another option of turning against Twillik and killing her, which I immediately jumped on this opportunity. And you do play much darker than me. Yes, yes.

[00:29:30] So in the end, after after all this quest, I earned a lot of dark side points. Coulter is a game that uses a morality system where each action can earn us a dark or light side point. So whether it's a good deed,

[00:29:48] whether we are helping others and doing Jedi things or we are doing bad things and well, just subduing others, killing others. It can earn us dark side points. So I remember at the end of this quest, I earned so many dark side points that when my character

[00:30:06] finally emerged from the final tomb, it really looked like like a papatine almost with with those eyes like dark dark side Force user covered with red eyes and totally pale and covered in those weird blue veins. So yeah, I it's just I remember being blown away

[00:30:32] how how the game actually allowed me to to be the worst possible character and to be the worst possible picture of sit and yeah, managing to just rely on on on their own power and not without any regard or empathy or or help for others.

[00:30:52] And yeah, I mean, I truly felt like, yeah, I'm on the sit and it's on one side. I was excited about the choice and about the freedom that I had. But on the other hand, I I had this final moment where I thought, what have I done?

[00:31:10] What have I created? What have I created? So yeah, the Anakin moment from. Oh, at least you may swing to die. You got to keep your limbs and ability to walk out around. And yes, yes, thanks to my wits. And but the way that you align,

[00:31:29] it affects what abilities you can use, right? Like you have different access to different powers, depending on. Yes. Yes. So the morality system actually is very interesting because it allows us to choose different force powers. So on the light side, obviously, these are more defensive powers,

[00:31:49] which I admittedly haven't used that much. But on the dark side, it's obviously force lightning and force grip or force paralysis, I think. So yeah, there are those very offensive, very powerful abilities that can give us a huge advantage on the battlefield, obviously.

[00:32:13] But not so much as a help for our characters in our team. Or so, yeah, it depends. We are we're more empathetic and more character oriented and defensive on the light side and very offensive on the dark side, which actually fits very well. You know, that makes sense.

[00:32:32] And just to jump back to you were talking about a twillock character or I say twillock, it's a debate. But just since we haven't mentioned it on the podcast for those who don't know this is a common species that's it's the type of species where they have

[00:32:48] they don't have hair in their heads. They have these like two fleshy appendages, which sounds worse than it looks. But popular characters like Hera are twillocks, twillocks. Yeah, anyway, we'll be definitely talking about more than more as they go on.

[00:33:05] But just so you know, that's a very common race. So this uses a the game uses a Wizards of the Coast D20 system like D&D, does it have that feeling? Yes, yes, definitely. It's structured very similar to Baldur's Gate to the original Baldur's Gate.

[00:33:26] Yeah, it's much yeah, it's developed much more because it's an older game, but it's it's it's a weird mix between live action and turn based game because we can pause at any time we want from what I remember

[00:33:42] just by hitting space we can we can just stop the game and assign all the Q of force powers or any any kind of actions offensive or defensive to be performed by our character and by character in our party.

[00:33:58] So I think we can have up to three characters in our party in Kotor. And yeah, we we can choose whatever whatever action available to any of the characters and and light them up and just hit space again to just see it play out in

[00:34:16] in the time. Cool. Oh, that's fun. And the characters are completely customizable like in terms of character creation, right? Gender, blah, blah, blah design. Yes, you have three classes scout soldier and scoundrel and later three Jedi subclasses, Guardian, Sentinel or Consular. Did you have any favorites amongst us?

[00:34:39] Yeah, so in that system and in the dungeons and dragon system, my favorite characters are always magic wielding characters. Yeah, so yeah, because I usually enjoy seeing all the magic effects and and playing with them, seeing how they and how we can interact with the world using that.

[00:35:00] So I guess force powers actually perfectly fit into that system. So my favorite was was the Jedi Consular because that's the that's a character that specializes in force powers and force wielding. So yeah, yeah, it's it was more of a

[00:35:17] stand back and cast spells character rather than get in the get in the action and use the lightsaber. That's how I play games to extend over there and let me throw things at you. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's freedom of RPG games,

[00:35:35] especially party based RPG games is that we can choose characters that are more offensive and will defend us and we can standard a little bit in the back and use our powers to aid them. And do you have a preference between the term based combat in this game

[00:35:54] or live combat like we see in the Jedi games later in the timeline? Yeah, it's very different. It's obviously it's much less action oriented. I think for RPGs, I do prefer active pause option, perhaps fully turn based.

[00:36:13] Yeah, it's it's OK, but I think I prefer the the active pause OK way the most I suppose it's more cinematic. It fits more with a game like Koto right? I think I mean, yeah, it makes it makes it feel more lively.

[00:36:27] I have to say like the Jedi games, it took me a little bit getting used to just how they actually you have to you have to actually like you can't just smash buttons in that game, basically.

[00:36:40] And I was always used to growing up, you know, I also grew up at the same time as you. And I liked RPGs and I was used to RPGs is sort of like a strategy game. You know, you think about OK, going to this combat,

[00:36:54] how am I going to stack the spells and use my items most efficiently? And that's not stuff that you can do when you're just, you know, now, right off. No, yeah, the new Jedi games are more similar, definitely more similar

[00:37:07] to I'd say Tomb Raider games where it's just an action adventure game. And and there's no there's no time to stop the combat and strategize and think about what's what's going to happen and how we want to use our abilities.

[00:37:22] It's more about, yeah, we need to have a good control of our character. But at the same time, we need to think on our heels and react to what's happening in order to progress through the game. So, yeah, it's definitely a different approach.

[00:37:38] It's those games play much closer to the Force Unleashed games. Perhaps we are not as powerful as in the Force Unleashed, but it's it's more of an action game in that sense. Right, you get to shove your light saber through people. Yes, yes.

[00:37:58] I like the force pulling anyway. So we've been promised a remake of Knights of the Overpublic for the PS5 for this game has been promised for a few years now. And they're still they're kind of being coy about updates.

[00:38:15] But we kind of we've recently gotten some saber interactive who took it over from Asper in 2022. They kind of gave a little snappy response recently, like it's alive and well. We keep saying it's fine. Just let us develop the game.

[00:38:31] Have you heard? Yes, well, yeah, I mean, I've been following the news from from the sidelines. I mean, definitely it's an exciting news and exciting prospect. I definitely played a game if and when it comes out. Well, it seems to be a time for remakes.

[00:38:46] There are a lot of games that are remade which some games that are not even that old from perhaps 10 years or maybe even not not as old as that. So I think if there's any game that deserves to be remade

[00:39:02] brought up to current standards of graphics and game design, it's it's this one. Yeah, obviously, it has to be done well if if there are any changes or any updates they need to work. So it's always a tricky situation

[00:39:21] where fans expect the best out of it and the most while resources are limited. And obviously, maybe it's not always possible to make the game. That's that's perfect. Well, I think yeah, I think they it sounds like they're going for perfect. They know expectations are high.

[00:39:41] But, you know, I just I know these things take time and I know that things have started to take longer time, especially since the pandemic. So I'm I'm patient and if and when if and when it does get released,

[00:39:54] Marchion, let's play it and then come back here and talk about it, even if it's a legend. Yes. I mean, let's give them as much time as they need to. Yeah, maybe it'll be canon, but no, probably

[00:40:07] even if it's still legends are going to talk about it if it comes out. And also in April of 2019, Kathleen Kennedy, she's, you know, high up Lucas Films, she was asked by MTV News about a potential night of the old Republic adaptation.

[00:40:24] And she said that they were developing something to look at. No idea where things might fall. So it seems this is there's some other reports that they're sort of touring around with maybe making, you know, a movie or TV adaptation of this.

[00:40:40] But that might have also fallen by the wayside given that a lot of Star Wars plans in the past few years is falling by the wayside. We'll see, we'll see. It would be interesting. But yeah, this sequel film trilogy did reference Darth Revan.

[00:40:58] So he is officially canon and we're just waiting for the canon version of his story. So that brings us tonight to the old Republic two, which we're going to get into after a quick break. We'll be right back. OK, welcome back. We're continuing our old Republic games discussion

[00:41:39] with Knights of the Old Republic to the Sith Lords. And this was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. So this is a different studio from the first one. But Bioware did support them. Apparently Bioware wanted to do more of their own IP games. So Obsidian was happy to license this

[00:41:57] and they are known for one of the fallout games. New Vegas and also South Park, The Stick of Truth was it was a fun game that I played. The second game, it does get a little less attention

[00:42:07] than the first one, but it seems like people who have played it seem to love it even more than the first because of the storytelling. Like it's a game about broken people dealing with the ravages of war. What do you think, Marjom? Which story do you prefer?

[00:42:22] Well, personally, to me, the first one was definitely much more memorable. OK. But the second game has definitely has stronger characters and influence of our character on them can be much stronger. So there's there's dialogue is trees are much more broad and we can sway characters

[00:42:45] to do our own alignment so that if we are more aligned with the dark side, we can actually talk our companions to the dark side as well. So it's so new dynamic. Yeah, it's definitely expanded much more.

[00:43:03] And I would say character relations are much bigger in the second game. Storytelling, yeah, sadly, a lot of parts of this game were cut. So it's quite obvious, especially towards the end. The story just follows very quickly

[00:43:20] and it feels that there are a lot of scenes that were cut out. Right, just just to bring us to the final boss fight and the final ending. But yeah, there are some there's a bit of a sentence to restore the content.

[00:43:35] Yeah, and I even I noticed even recently that on Steam, the version of the game is called restored content version one point something. So it seems like it just it became an official Steam release with this content included.

[00:43:53] So I'm not sure how that worked out in the background, but yeah, I definitely like to check it out. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, I think that that was a fan led effort that they just did so well that just incorporated it to quote unquote fix the game.

[00:44:11] Yeah. But just to set the stage, this is the story. So again, this game is released in 2004 in our timeline, but it's set in 20 or sorry, 3951 BBY in Star Wars years. Yeah. And again, you can totally customize your own character here, but you're not playing Revit again.

[00:44:30] This time you're playing someone called the exile. So this story starts five years after the climatic battle of the prior game. But now in a time of seeming relative peace, the Republic is quietly collapsing from within, unable to cope with the fallout of that prior devastating war.

[00:44:47] And it's your job to witness the scars of the galaxy and help it heal, sometimes revisiting planets from the first game like the Jedi planet of Dantween, sometimes exploring new ones. You are a former Jedi general kicked out of the order

[00:45:01] for participating in the Mandalorian Wars and massacring millions of Mandalorians. After living in isolation for many years, self severed from the force, you're pulled back into galactic politics and struggle when it is believed you are the last surviving Jedi of the 50 year Jedi civil war,

[00:45:19] so called because to most of the galaxy, the Jedi and Sith are two sides of the same coins, quote unquote, squabbling over religion. It turns out that the other surviving Jedi and Sith are in hiding and they're still fighting from the shadows.

[00:45:33] Now along the way during the game, you encounter a colorful collection of companions depending on your character alignment, including Mandalore himself, the leader of the Mandalorians, whose legacy plays an important role in later canon lore. And we obviously talked about him in the last episode,

[00:45:50] and you get closer and closer to a powerful triumvirate of Sith. But this trio is feeding off the force to thrive and that's leaving holes of cosmic destruction spreading across the galaxy with the screams of the force getting so loud that they threaten to

[00:46:05] deafen the force altogether and you can't let this happen. So you begin to hunt down the Jedi in their hiding spots to unite them against this catastrophic trio and this new Jedi council informs you that you haven't actually healed your connection to the force.

[00:46:18] It's only through force bonds that you have been able to wield other people's force connections and similar to the way that the Sith can use other people. So they want to the Jedi council wants to sever your connection

[00:46:32] to the force until a mysterious force user, you know, named Kraya intervenes and surprise, she's part of the Sith triumvirate. But the other two Nihilus and Sion, her apprentices had betrayed and exiled her. So you are torn between Kraya's dark, mistrustful philosophies

[00:46:50] and the more wholesome collective healing ideas of light side users like Chodohabat, a member of the snail like Aethorian race who turns up regularly in this universe by opening yourself up to your companions, exposing your pain to each other.

[00:47:05] You find many of them can also be open to the force and trained as Jedi and helping them heal of their disparate personal traumas helps you heal yourself or you can choose a dark side and follow the path of Darth Nihilus sucking all hope out of the galaxy.

[00:47:20] Choose the side of the lights and it's up to you to rescue your companions, convincing Darth Sion to end his agony and embrace death and battle Kraya healing the source of the wounds echoing through the force. Now, Martin, which side did you choose? Let me guess.

[00:47:35] Well, no surprise here. Of course, it's the power of the dark side. So how did the game end for you? It just like total devastation. Although yeah, I did play through this game twice. I remember so just because there's to see two different endings and

[00:47:55] yeah, so one ending is basically defeating Darth Nihilus and basically taking over his place as the ultimate Sith Lord or yeah, defeating him and restoring order to the galaxy and restoring the balance to the force. OK, so the mechanics, I guess they're pretty similar to the first game,

[00:48:21] right, but with improvements and yes, we have we have some new abilities, some new force powers. So yeah, natural progression of the RPG system, just like with RPGs that came up at the time in Dungeons and Dragons systems.

[00:48:42] But obviously customized to Star Wars universe or force power oriented users. And the graphics are look a bit improved as well. Slightly improved, I think. Yeah, it's it's not a big difference, but I do remember that back to time my PC suffered a little bit more

[00:49:04] from while playing that game compared to the other ones. So some particle effects were improved, I think, and especially fog or mist effects were. I think perhaps I had to switch them off altogether. Oh, yeah, to make it run better. To make it run better.

[00:49:21] Yeah. So I remember some some graphics were slightly improved, definitely. Yeah, there are highly custom light sabers in this one. Um, yeah, I think definitely more colors and. Yeah, we could do a dual wielding or we could use the light staff as well.

[00:49:48] But it sounds like the coolest new feature in the game is your ability to force bond and how that like leads to you your ability to influence how other players like other NPCs alignments. Yes, that definitely stands out. It's it's a big improvement of the first game.

[00:50:04] And it's definitely draws from from the mechanics of Baldur's Gate, where character interactions were one of the most important parts of the RPG system. And it's similar in this game where where we have big influence on other characters in our party and we can, in a way,

[00:50:24] get judged for our actions as well. If we go too far from the character alignment, they'll start voicing their discontent at our actions. OK, and it also depends what kind of character we have in our party while solving some quest. Right. We could get different character options

[00:50:46] or say dialogue options or different cutscenes depending on who's in our party. And if they actually disagree with with our choices or not, or if they just get along with it and continue with our own alignment. So and if you're inconsistent in your alignments,

[00:51:05] I've heard characters react to that as well. Like, it's possible. I think I I I I min maxed. So I rather I played if I played Dark Side, I just played Dark Side completely or I don't think I played more of a great character. OK.

[00:51:25] So yeah, perhaps that's something that I still should do. Yeah. And the game has four psychos in it. Four psychos. Yeah. Like there are like we have in in the Jedi games where, you know, we have the psychometry. Yes, yes.

[00:51:50] But I'm not really sure if that's I think that was somehow related to Kraya. And I think we could recall some memories by using her powers or by talking to her at least as far as I remember.

[00:52:07] I'm not sure if we could use that on our own completely. Yeah. Or perhaps she gave us this kind of power, some or threat down the line of progression of the game. So OK. Yeah. Yeah. And it's with Kraya that you form a sort of force dyad,

[00:52:27] which is something that Bob and I talked about in the last episode. Yeah, I think it's Kraya is an interesting one because she has a complex reason for being a Dark Side user. Like she's just basically to she's not evil as much

[00:52:40] as too independent. Is that the vibe you get? Yeah, well, I always remembered her as more of a gray character. She she just she was always very careful about what she revealed to us. And I remember dialogue with her was never obvious.

[00:52:57] OK, so compared to me, who always chose either the worst dialogue option or the best option, we would say, well, the more Dark Side or Light Side dialogue option. She was she was always more gray and much, much careful in our

[00:53:15] in her responses to us, at least from what I remember. So so she wouldn't she would never really disagree or disapprove or approve of those extremes that I was throwing at her. Right. Yeah. So I think I think at the end of the game,

[00:53:34] it was possible to actually influence her and make her see the Light Side or the Dark Side. OK. If I remember well, yeah, depending of how what was our final alignment. So it's possible that, well, one could consider it as if we

[00:53:51] actually stayed more more in a gray side. We could see that as her influencing us and just following her neither here nor there. No, alignment. Yeah. And her her students turned, you know, nemesis are kind of pretty iconic.

[00:54:11] So we've got the demon like Darth Nihilus, who's aptly named. And I feel like people still talk about Darth Sian a lot, who's a one eyed mass of twisted flesh, too angry to die, which is literally his lore, like he just will not

[00:54:26] let his body fall apart and die. He's just held together by a sheer strength of the force of hate. Yeah, of hate. So yeah, I guess Darth Vader has nothing. Yeah, has nothing against him. And there was a third game planned, but it was canceled in 2005

[00:54:47] because Lucas Arts was running short on funds around that time. But the story was adapted to a tie in novel Star Wars, The Old Republic, which is also, of course, Legends continuity, not canon. So if you are interested in more of this story, then definitely read

[00:55:04] that Old Republic book series that's also covered on the Legends Lounge podcast that I mentioned last time. So Revan still, like I said, confirmed in Canon, definitely one of the most iconic figures from Legends. One of the most powerful Sith or Jedi to ever live.

[00:55:23] I don't know if they're going to tone him down in Canon, but in Legends, Darth Bane, who we talked about last time, based his rule of two on Revan's teachings. So he's super important in like where the Sith become later.

[00:55:38] And I forgot a fun fact about Darth Bane. Did you know this much in that Darth Bane is named Bane? He chose to name Bane because when he was a child, his father used to say he was the bane of his existence.

[00:55:51] I think I remember reading about that or yeah. Yeah. Daddy issues. But we also have, yeah, Revan and Malik are an iconic duo. They were kind of besties who were turned against each other by both Sith and Jedi because the Jedi were doing some messed up

[00:56:08] mind control stuff in there too. And yeah, Revan, he ultimately regrets taking his friend's jaw and then later his life. And but Revan had series B for the Mandalorians. So he defeated Mandalorian single combat in Legends and he wore the helmet from a fallen Mandalorian,

[00:56:27] which he swore not to take off until they were defeated. So he was really, but the Mandalorians very much respected him. And in the Legends follow up book that's with his name it said after these games, he and Bastilla are together and have a kid

[00:56:44] and the exile from the second game we find out was once a subordinate of Revan and the two team up with Darth Scourge to take out the corrupt Sith Emperor Tenebrae. But Scourge has a vision that a different Jedi is going to be the one to kill Tenebrae.

[00:56:59] So he's like, well, bad situation. And he turns on his allies to get closer to the Emperor and Revan ends up in sort of a stasis drawn for like 300 years. He's just basically he's pulled out sometimes to torture him from information and then put back in.

[00:57:14] And but he's this whole time using his talents to suddenly impose his will on the Emperor. So like you do in the second game, a little bit to slow down the Emperor's invasion plans and Bastilla we see his wife left behind with her son

[00:57:32] tells her son that she knows Revan must have succeeded in his quest that we never returned because the invasion he first saw never came. So kind of a fucked up ending, but appropriate for Star Wars, I think. But then, yeah, getting into the plot of the Star Wars

[00:57:50] over Republic MMO game after 300 years, Revan is freed by Republic forces and then killed by Sith Imperials. But his mind is so splintered from those centuries of torture that his soul splits in two. We've got the light Revan and the dark Revan.

[00:58:08] And dark Revan, his will is so strong that he wills himself back to life. And he learns that someone has killed the Sith Emperor that he wanted to kill. So he decides what's probably a good idea in this case

[00:58:22] is to bring the Sith Emperor's soul back, his spirit back so that he can completely destroy it. And thus all of his influence and others are like, oh, cool, dude. Yeah, let's bring back the guy we just killed.

[00:58:38] So the Republic ends up teaming up with the Sith Empire to stop him. And the person who one of the people who killed the Emperor and one of the people who ends up taking out Revan is his own granddaughter, Satil Shen.

[00:58:55] And she is also famous in Legends for having given up her own son so that he couldn't be used against her, though she named him and he helped her later, but whatever. But she ends up teaming up with Darth Maher to defeat Revan on Yavin IV.

[00:59:10] So yes, the moon after which BBY is named ultimately disheartened by all the loss. She and her ghosty new bestie, Maher go into a meditative exile together, which is I'm taking as a euphemism. So yeah, this story is from the Revan book in comics

[00:59:30] and this Star Wars, the old Republic game, which is an MMO Bioware first released in December 2011. Apparently one of the most expensive games ever made at the time. And did you play it when it came out, Marjan? Yeah, I played for a little bit when it came out.

[00:59:49] But as I said, I was put off by all the mechanics of a typical MMO game, especially quest structure was a little bit generic. It just consisted of a lot of quests that asked us to go there and pick up those 10 plans or over somewhere else

[01:00:07] and kill 10 of those beasts and come back to the giver of the quest. So yeah, I stopped playing it after a while and I kind of got back to it not that long ago. I think perhaps maybe last year, a couple of months ago.

[01:00:28] And well, while I do appreciate all the work that they've done in the meantime, it still feels a little bit dated. It's more than 10 years old now. And it's not really, I would say up to the standard. I mean, it's still the old mechanics of fighting

[01:00:48] and it just feels much more like a world of Warcraft type of. Right. RPG MMO rather than something a little bit more modern. So what I do appreciate about the game is that it has its branching introduction. So depending of which character we choose in the beginning,

[01:01:10] with which character alignment and class we choose when starting the game, it throws us in different scenarios in different starting settings. So if we choose to be set, we actually start in Korriban, which I thought is very interesting and that's the only starting point that I played through.

[01:01:34] I didn't really finish it, I do admit. But yeah, I did enjoy coming back to Korriban and revisiting the tombs that I've seen from Koto all those years later. Yeah, I did. Yes, well, in our timeline it is much less. But yeah, so that's definitely something I enjoyed

[01:01:58] and even for a brief moment. Yeah, it's character progression and character development is definitely much expanded. And we have a lot more force powers available to us and character progression is quite detailed. And we can also customize it completely the way we want.

[01:02:20] So we can choose different races, we can choose different body types or faces. Or yeah, so it's very customizable and that's definitely something that's built upon previous games. Yeah, so the last update was in 2022, but I guess that would be an expansion pack.

[01:02:45] So maybe you have to get to the end of the game to get that new content or get past the other. Yeah, I never got that far. I mean, they do release some smaller updates in the meantime, but these are more like bug tricks and perhaps maybe minor.

[01:03:01] The last big story update was 2022. Yeah. So this one, it's set in 3626 to 2643 BBY. So it covers basically almost a century, like 80 years worth of time by now. And the Sith Empire has reemerged, but it's recently made a tenuous piece with the Galactic Republic,

[01:03:25] which is the old Republic. And if you're interested in the story, you know, in addition to obviously the game, there's tie-in comics and books that fill in more of the story before and after. But it's still being played and updated

[01:03:41] and apparently it was closing in on a billion in lifetime revenue in 2019 on a 200 million development budget. So I guess they're making it worthwhile. They are getting the most out of this game. Yes. And you got a three act storyline that didn't, yeah, like March and said,

[01:03:59] it varies depending on which of the eight game classes you've chosen. This is another Galactic War setting, of course. This time it's the 28 year Great Galactic War, which has wrecked the galaxy and the Jedi are being blamed. So the order leaves Capitol Planet Coruscant

[01:04:18] to return to the planet where the order was founded in legends again, Tithon. And while the Sith once again control their home planet of Korba. And depending on which faction in Classy choose, yeah, your your cross paths with different live players

[01:04:33] and in game characters like smugglers and plethora of Jedi and all the sorts of Star Wars stuff you'd expect. Do you have any moments you remember of the story side of things from this game? No, not as much.

[01:04:47] Yeah, as I said, the beginning and all the scheming that you can do on Korban is still there. So so that's definitely apart from those rather boring quests of just doing 10 of something and coming back to the giver of the quest.

[01:05:05] We do have the option of of lying and scheming and playing out the proper RPG character as as as a Sith would or let's say proper dark side character would. What I find very interesting is that previous games actually kind of funneled us towards force usage.

[01:05:27] While, for example, in the first Cotor game, we started as a different class because obviously we didn't have prior memory of who we were. As as Revan, so we could start as a soldier or as a pilot or smuggler. We eventually as we progressed through the story,

[01:05:50] we had to choose the Jedi alignment that we kind of discovered again and into our force connection. While in Cotor MMO, we can actually be a bounty hunter or a smuggler or agent and we don't really need to be a force wielder.

[01:06:11] I mean, obviously, yeah, that's that's what everybody wants to be eventually. But yeah, we don't have to play rogues. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's it's interesting being a bounty hunter and just and just perhaps aligning or joining with some

[01:06:28] force users in our party, but but playing as a fully as some other iconic character. The type that we got to know from from all the Star Wars movies and and other media, I think that's very interesting. As I said, I never really got that far.

[01:06:48] But yeah, I think it's a very interesting option and probably something that is very appealing to a lot of people. Hence the the immense popularity and and the money involved in it. Yeah, as you mentioned, I think one thing that I noticed

[01:07:08] is obviously the graphics are better than the Cotor games because it's newer. But the design, you know, considering these games are supposed to be 300 years apart, it just strikes me how everything looks the same and it looks the same like it looks in the main movies and everything.

[01:07:24] So I do have to compliment the new canon. One thing that they are doing well, especially now that we see the high Republic, which is after what we're talking about now, we see that there's a distinctive look there and we see with the acolytes

[01:07:38] that there's a progression from that like white and gold high Republic look to the more brown monk Jedi look. So I have to wonder when the canon side gets to, you know, remakes the old Republic stuff in canon,

[01:07:55] what things will look like if they're going to extrapolate that backward even more. And yeah, I'm. Yeah. Well, I do find while the graphics are improved, I do find them a little bit more cartoonish, to be honest. OK. The original Cotor games were still quite darker.

[01:08:15] In their design, even though graphics are more simple. I it had those darker tones in it, especially the second games, I think. Yeah. It does a little bit more mystery. The Cotor MMO feels to me, it feels a little bit more cartoonish.

[01:08:33] There are colors are popping much more and and it's not perhaps I didn't get to some parts of the game that are there may be more terrifying or right. But yeah, it's it has a different atmosphere.

[01:08:50] So yeah, perhaps that's one of the points that also made me not really get too much into it. Yeah, it's also it's a free to play game, which sometimes I find frustrating because then, you know, to progress more quickly, they want money and then

[01:09:06] I just want to. Yeah. I mean, definitely it's it's it breaks the immersion having all those options in the menu. The game bugs you constantly to purchase more points, to purchase, purchase more credits and they try to tie it in within the lore and within the game universe.

[01:09:26] But still, it's just feels a little bit too artificial. Right. So yeah, it breaks the immersion and my opinion a little bit. Although, yeah, admittedly, that's the only way to design such a big game and allow it to be played by so many people.

[01:09:42] It has to be based on some live events or or some things that are time based. So to get people at the same time. To get. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, it does sound like it's got a cool amount of customization.

[01:09:57] So the eight different classes are on the Sith side or on the dark side. It's bounty hunter, Sith warrior, imperial agent and Sith inquisitor are on the Galactic Republic side is trooper, smuggler, Jedi knight or Jedi counselor. So did you go for a Sith inquisitor or Sith warrior?

[01:10:18] Inquisitor, of course. OK. Yeah. Yeah. And all the powers that come with it, the dark side powers. Yeah. And you can choose different races. Do you which races did you choose? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I chose the Darth Maul race. Oh, the Zabrics. Yes. Yes, exactly.

[01:10:39] Because somehow it felt fitting. Yeah. And your character has a voice because usually when you play these kinds of games like the NPCs can have voices, but then you just see text for your own character, but in this case, the characters voiced. So if I remember well,

[01:10:58] your character has voice, but only in certain dialogue, only in the dialogue main dialogue choices that are progressing the main story. I think all the smaller quests, we just click on the right option. And and that's it. And we just get a response from the other.

[01:11:19] Yeah, because that would be a lot from the other characters. Yeah, I think I'm not even sure if it existed in the beginning. Perhaps they introduced it later in some other updates of the game. But yeah, it's only those those main story points where it's a little

[01:11:35] bit more interactive like that. Otherwise. And you can romance your NPCs. That's very Baldur's Gate. Uh, I believe so. Yes. I'm normally, yeah, I normally stay away from that. Somehow, yeah, I'm more into just the power of the dark side.

[01:11:53] And I'm not really not really bonding with others that much. But yeah, I think it's it's definitely an option. I'm definitely a romance or like in Baldur's Gate, me and Shadow Hearts are together. Well, I mean, hey, it's an RPG game and then the more options, the better.

[01:12:13] Yeah, no, it's good when it allows you to play different ways. I but the thing about MMOs is indeed you need to coordinate with other live people for these raids, which is exactly if you have like a regular

[01:12:27] group that you do this with as a social activity, but it can be kind of annoying if you're like, I just like to play this game sometimes when I have free time. You know, yeah, exactly. And have your social fix outside of gaming. No, perhaps.

[01:12:40] Yeah, but the you get to visit 17 different planets, including a lot of like really important ones in the Star Wars universe. So that's cool and space combat is always cool. But yeah, so I'm going to go ahead and guess that of the three games,

[01:12:55] the first cotor is your favorite. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I feel that this is the best established game in terms of how well rounded it is, how well designed it is. Yeah. And those memorable moments, especially the twist in the middle where we discovered that we are actually.

[01:13:14] Revan. Yeah. And in my example, I actually played as the dark side and I gained so many dark side points that it's actually very clever in the middle of the game how how our characters revealed.

[01:13:29] And when he takes off his mask, we see actually our face behind the mask. But it's a it's some flashback from from the time when we still had our memory and and we actually see our face the way

[01:13:45] how it is, how it portrays the our progression through the game. OK, at that moment. So I had your Vani. I had my Vani Palpatine look and it fit perfectly well because Revan was on the dark side at the time.

[01:14:02] So I was I was even more blown away by by how well it was all tied together that they actually use the model of a character the way how it how it looks like in our game, not that it was a cut scene

[01:14:18] or CGI cut scene that that was predefined. So it was a very clever idea that obviously worked for someone who played on the on the light side as well, because, well, I mean, OK, Revan could use his force to make himself look nice or,

[01:14:35] I don't know, could use some sort of illusion to hide his dark side looks. But yeah, I think I think there was a there was definitely a clever thing and one of the best twists ever, I think. Yeah, or at least that's how I remember it.

[01:14:52] No, I mean, I think it's it's generally remembered as such. It's yeah, it's one of the reasons in any kind of media. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why people are still playing this very dated game. Yeah, yeah.

[01:15:04] So we're all spoiling it, unfortunately, but well, yeah, I mean, we warned you upfront. Exactly. Exactly. So would you say is Kodor your favorite Star Wars game overall? Or is there another one that's taken the cake? Yeah, it's a very high choice.

[01:15:19] Yeah, I would say in terms of RPGs, it's probably my favorite RPG game. OK. Is it is it my favorite Star Wars game? It's definitely high up there. Yeah, I mean, RPG games are among my favorites. So yeah, I tend to agree.

[01:15:40] But yeah, what are the other top contenders? I would say Jedi games, the more recent Jedi games and perhaps the first the first Force Unleashed. Right. It was it was not a perfect game by any means, but it actually made us feel

[01:15:59] if they're great job portraying the dark side and the power of the dark side and what what truly character strong in the dark side can do within that universe. So so it actually it was it was more of an action oriented game and easier

[01:16:17] and not not so choice based, but it's nevertheless, it actually did a great job in what it set out to do, I think. OK. Well, if anyone is after hearing us talk about them interested in these games, don't worry, we well, we might have spoiled the biggest twist,

[01:16:33] but we definitely didn't spoil all the details. It's still worth playing. Oh, no, these are these are massive games that they're still worth playing. Well, thank you, Martin, for being here to talk through your experiences with them.

[01:16:48] I hope that you'll be back to talk about more major Star Wars games and maybe even some films and TV shows in the future. Sure, why not? And for listeners, the next episode for now is if you're listening

[01:17:01] around the time of release is Bob and I will be back with an overview of the era three, the High Republic. And then after that, we're going to sneak in a quick look on the upcoming eclipse game. And I think Martin's going to drop in with his opinion

[01:17:16] on the eclipse game as well of what we know. So we'll tell you it's not a game that's out, but it's a game I'm very excited about. But yeah, we're zipping through these early eras

[01:17:25] and then we'll be again, looping back into fill in this part of the timeline. It's more content is added in canon backdating episodes. So the timeline is always a quick reference for you. And new listeners can listen to it all in order,

[01:17:38] but we will be lingering in this third High Republic era a little longer than the first two. First, Bob and I will help you get prepped for the new series, The Acolyte, which starts June 4th already with that overview of the current High Republic canon.

[01:17:52] And we're going to keep it a high level overview. We're going to come back and talk about the books later, but we will be paying special attention to characters to concepts that are likely to be important for the Acolyte TV series.

[01:18:04] Yeah, I suspect the Acolyte's going to trigger more people to want to read the High Republic series of books. Do you have any interest in them, Martin? In the books, yeah, the books. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think I mean, I think that a lot of people

[01:18:21] people love these books and of course it's a mixed bag. You know, there's a bunch of books. Some are better than others, but people are really loving them. And I think that's the reading is going to spread with the show coming out.

[01:18:35] But then after that, we're going to take a look at season one of Young Jedi Adventures, which is a show for preschoolers. But it's adorable and it's set in the High Republics. So we're covering it. We're going to talk about the main character, some worldbuilding elements.

[01:18:50] And if you want to watch along or just get a little taste of the show, then start with the shorts, which are in a separate bin on Disney Plus. So you'll find the show and then you'll find separately the Young Jedi Adventures shorts.

[01:19:05] And we're also get a new voice on that episode, checking in, Xiaoqi, who's not only the parents of a young child, but a professional animator and someone, Martin and I know in real life. And after that, it's time for the main event of this era for now,

[01:19:20] which is the Acolytes and John from the Lower Hounds and I are going to be doing weekly, scene by scene episode breakdowns with Bob checking in to talk lore references. And we're going to do that cross coverage with the Lower Hounds feet.

[01:19:34] So, yeah, Martin, thank you for joining me to talk coder today. I'm looking forward to talking more Star Wars games. This episode has been produced by me, published by the Lower Hounds. More Lower Hounds content. Watch out for the Bad Batch finale and Tales of the Empire,

[01:19:50] an episode that should be coming out probably just before this one did on. But that'll be on the Lower Hounds feet and also coming up is Doctor Who coverage X-Men 97 Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

[01:20:02] That's all stuff that I'm doing, but also House of the Dragon fans should check in the recapping season one right now to get ready for season two. And on our affiliates, Radio Active Ramblings is currently covering Invincible season two rings and rituals is wrapping

[01:20:18] up their recap of season one of Rings of Power. Properly, Howard is finishing off their felonies and faquese season. And you'll find a Lower Hounds link in the show notes with links to all these podcasts where you can subscribe on your platform of choice.

[01:20:32] For those of you listening live, see you again later this week in the High Republic. OK, David, this is where we're supposed to choose a side green or black. John, my soul is as black as night. Your turn. I am black for life. So we're not fighting?

[01:21:16] I thought this is where HBO wanted us to like pick sides and fight and stuff. Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on the pod, but we seem to agree on one thing. We both really like the show. The politics, the drama, the lore.

[01:21:29] It was made for the Lower Hounds. And since we just finished recapping season one, we couldn't be more ready to defend our black queen in the dance of the dragons. And with the season pass option and supercast listeners can get early,

[01:21:41] ad free access to each weekly scene by scene deep dive. Plus our custom show guide with all the characters and connections. See you in the Lower Hounds podcast feed each week for our dragonfire hot, but probably positive takes. The Lower Hounds House of the Dragon

[01:21:56] covers is also safe for team green consumption. Side effects may include a deeper understanding of Dragon Lore, a heart in conflict with itself and an inescapable urge to read the book fire and blood by George R. R. Martin. Dragon seeds may experience burning.