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Jul. 6th, 2024 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kradeelavbetween being in turbo clean mode with purging my resources/"future projects" folders, and having a spot of KOTOR 2 nolstagia thanks to one of neotula's reblogs, i found my last KOTOR 2 loveblog text post, while playing through it for the first time.
KOTOR2 might be the only game to stand with FF7 as the kind of game I played "after" the prime childhood nostalgia age, and still sit for a long while in total awe that I hadn't lost the capability to be influenced. Actually teared up at the ending, too.
In the previous posts I loveblogged up until Telos, I think, lol which was barely 1/5 of the way through, but I'll try to hit some of the highlights.
* pre-Korriban wise in terms of level design and the little sidequests: Telos felt like Taris 2.0 which is not exactly a compliment lol (still mercifully shorter), but Nar Shaddaa right after was when the game hit its stride and started to throw the kitchen sink of deconstructions at you.There was a section where a group of thugs stormed on board your ship while you were out yakkin with the Hutts and you had to go in and reclaim it; given in gameplay your ship is framed as the sacred space where you relax and aren't expecting combat mode, that was one hell of a gameplay-and-story whiplash that felt right in the way that FE9's tiny gameplay details pushes the themes.
* something that was hilarious to find out afterwards -- see, atton grew on me rapidly for an obligatory dude lead stand in. I was pretty constantly thinking "dude has a surprising amount of practicality" which .... LOL .... that was BEFORE i knew he was a torturer for the sith THAT I LEARNED AT THE VERY END!!!!! this is doubly hilarious considering I used to RP as one for 10 years (gestures at username here)
* krad 🤝 star wars interrogators
* Duxon/Onderan was a bit meh and I'm glad I wasn't expecting like, RepComm level delicious focus on the Mandalorians; this was very much a game that was about the Force (and trauma) (and echoes) (and the grey). And yet, there was still something... (note: unfinished)
* I debated for a long while rating this (mod included) a 5/5 or a 4.5/5 - the only point off is how unbalanced the difficulty felt in two areas, Nar Shaddaa when you weren't playing as the Exile, and the re-added HK factory. I don't think I'm bad at KOTOR given I actually felt the endgame bosses were pretty easy and was still playing on normal, but the HK factory was so hard I had to hunt down how to install cheats and hit god mode very temporarily, or else it was not gonna happen
* kreia, kreia, kreia ... I know she annoyed some people but her emphasis on ruthless practicality of seeing all sides high key lines up with a lot of my personal philosophies, so i /my exile ended up really bonding with her - didn't make max influence, but MAN when she stabbed herself/the exile to drive home the point? owwww. that was another one of those brutal moments where the gameplay literally echoed how I was feeling.
* It was either deep in the Korriban tombs or Atris' chamber that the architecture went from "wow" to "I want to draw this" - (note: unfinished, but the scads of screenshots i took and found in similar folders echoed this. damn they're just as powerful two years later).
tl;dr - sudden keen need to replay it. the text post doesn't capture how much how its atmosphere stuck with me, much like Myst. some screenshots I get a visceral feeling of forbidding terror and yearning immersion, the highest compliment I can give a game.
neotula's reblogs, i found my last KOTOR 2 loveblog text post, while playing through it for the first time.KOTOR2 might be the only game to stand with FF7 as the kind of game I played "after" the prime childhood nostalgia age, and still sit for a long while in total awe that I hadn't lost the capability to be influenced. Actually teared up at the ending, too.
In the previous posts I loveblogged up until Telos, I think, lol which was barely 1/5 of the way through, but I'll try to hit some of the highlights.
* pre-Korriban wise in terms of level design and the little sidequests: Telos felt like Taris 2.0 which is not exactly a compliment lol (still mercifully shorter), but Nar Shaddaa right after was when the game hit its stride and started to throw the kitchen sink of deconstructions at you.There was a section where a group of thugs stormed on board your ship while you were out yakkin with the Hutts and you had to go in and reclaim it; given in gameplay your ship is framed as the sacred space where you relax and aren't expecting combat mode, that was one hell of a gameplay-and-story whiplash that felt right in the way that FE9's tiny gameplay details pushes the themes.
* something that was hilarious to find out afterwards -- see, atton grew on me rapidly for an obligatory dude lead stand in. I was pretty constantly thinking "dude has a surprising amount of practicality" which .... LOL .... that was BEFORE i knew he was a torturer for the sith THAT I LEARNED AT THE VERY END!!!!! this is doubly hilarious considering I used to RP as one for 10 years (gestures at username here)
* krad 🤝 star wars interrogators
* Duxon/Onderan was a bit meh and I'm glad I wasn't expecting like, RepComm level delicious focus on the Mandalorians; this was very much a game that was about the Force (and trauma) (and echoes) (and the grey). And yet, there was still something... (note: unfinished)
* I debated for a long while rating this (mod included) a 5/5 or a 4.5/5 - the only point off is how unbalanced the difficulty felt in two areas, Nar Shaddaa when you weren't playing as the Exile, and the re-added HK factory. I don't think I'm bad at KOTOR given I actually felt the endgame bosses were pretty easy and was still playing on normal, but the HK factory was so hard I had to hunt down how to install cheats and hit god mode very temporarily, or else it was not gonna happen
* kreia, kreia, kreia ... I know she annoyed some people but her emphasis on ruthless practicality of seeing all sides high key lines up with a lot of my personal philosophies, so i /my exile ended up really bonding with her - didn't make max influence, but MAN when she stabbed herself/the exile to drive home the point? owwww. that was another one of those brutal moments where the gameplay literally echoed how I was feeling.
* It was either deep in the Korriban tombs or Atris' chamber that the architecture went from "wow" to "I want to draw this" - (note: unfinished, but the scads of screenshots i took and found in similar folders echoed this. damn they're just as powerful two years later).
tl;dr - sudden keen need to replay it. the text post doesn't capture how much how its atmosphere stuck with me, much like Myst. some screenshots I get a visceral feeling of forbidding terror and yearning immersion, the highest compliment I can give a game.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-13 08:18 am (UTC)i find you mentioning it recently funny... another friend mentioned to me JUST a few weeks ago that he thinks i, in particular, would probably really like KOTOR 2 ("KotOR II is exactly the kind of thematically and symbolically rich mess of broken characters and unfinished themes that I think would be your jam" was his exact phrasing lmao) and... wait wtf i'm just now noticing they made a Switch port? wait i love playing stuff on my Switch. this is great
anyway no idea when i'll get to it but definitely bumping this game MUCH farther up in my queue lmao, thank you for your ever-present benign influence LOL
(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-13 06:16 pm (UTC)the original also had some cut content missing (much like the drama around Mass Effect 3) and it seems like the switch port restored it much to the same level as the steam version i played so you should be good to go there 8D