I’ll go further and say literally everyone I know who vehemently hates The Last Jedi and has played KOTOR 2 (which is, admittedly, a small number) also hates KOTOR 2, though this is completely anecdotal and my real hot take is that Star Wars discourse is fucking exhausting and it needs to stop.
3 Likes
Now is the perfect time for someone as gimmicky and in love with camp as Jordan Vogt-Roberts because now is the only time in history where Logan Marshall Greene can play Solid Snake and Tom Hardy can play Big Boss.
I can’t really back this up with hard evidence as I haven’t seen TLJ or played KOTOR 2 in quite some time, but I seem to remember that another link between them is that they’re actually not THAT condemnatory of SW as a thing. They toy with ethics in compelling ways, but both Kreia and Luke are ultimately like “Be better than us, future generation” instead of “Fuck this hot garbage into the ground”
2 Likes
Y’all want a Star Wars take? Rogue One is just a worse version of Halo Reach’s story, almost beat-for-beat.
7 Likes
Yeah, pretty much. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts about them.
2 Likes
Counter argument that it is a good way to judge growth and feel good about making progress. Years ago playing League going from Bronze to Silver felt really good.
I also prefer playing people near my skill level so ranking systems help a lot. Worst part of CS was playing people who were far and above better than me and my team. Makes you feel like you’re trash at a game.
I have not played Halo Reach, but I will choose the interpretation of this take that implies that Halo Reach has the greatest video game story ever delivered
1 Like
It’s certainly the best Halo story IMO.
3 Likes
I like this take, actually. Best Star Wars movie inspired by the best Halo game, nice
3 Likes
I guess a related take: the best Star Wars videogames are better than the best Star Wars movie. I’m not sure how much I actually believe this but what I’m trying to say is that Star Wars movies are just kinda fine and have the capital they do cuz right place, right time.
No Star Wars movie hits the heights of the SWTOR Sith Inquisitor “MORE WOMEN PRISON GUARDS” story.
The most important part of Star Wars has always and will always be the sound a lightsaber makes.
2 Likes
Oh whoops I should have specified: ranking systems in games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
2 Likes
Heavily disagree there. You don’t really get punished much for a low ranking in those games, even if you get less currency, because new moves and abilities require a certain about of understanding and experience with the game mechanics. As you start doing better, you can experiment with more stuff as you get more currency, encouraging growth.
DmC probably handled it best, though, with much easier easy and normal modes than usual, and a lot of bonuses for exploration and level completion, encouraging replay as you get new abilities, and even a demo room for moves you’re thinking about getting.
(Apologies, as this isn’t strictly about video games, but I couldn’t resist with the recent Star Wars hot takes)
Star Wars discourse can be incredibly exhausting for a variety of reasons, but one of the things that I dislike most about the deeper takes on the SW universe is the tendency for people to try and bring moral complexity to a series that I think, at its core, is pretty straight forward.
It’s obviously a little more complicated than “Jedi=good, Sith=bad”, but the amount of people I see try to “both sides” the light side and the dark, or the Jedi and the Sith, weirds me out. I understand the want to get more complexity out of it when we live in a time where moral ambiguity is all the rage in pop culture, but I just can’t agree with takes that basically say “the Jedi are as bad as the Sith”.
Now, no doubt the Jedi of the Old Republic (especially the Council) are quite often dogmatic assholes, serve a corrupt government, and believe themselves to be above the law, but the Sith are constantly portrayed as straight up evil. The dark side of the Force twists people’s best intentions into something monstrous, and the people who give in fully to it almost always end up using that power to harm others.
One of my favorite things about KOTOR 2 is how I don’t think it tries to equate the dark side with the light side on a moral level, but instead speaks to the vast majority of people in the galaxy who don’t care about the distinction between dark and light, Sith and Jedi, and how the constant fighting between the two only serves to harm the galaxy as a whole.
Star Wars is one of my favorite things, like ever, and I love thinking entirely too deeply about the dynamics of that universe, but I just don’t see the justification or need behind constant takes like “Qui-Gon was a Grey Jedi” or general Sith apologia.
1 Like
Man, SWTOR gets really wild, doesn’t it? I should revisit it once I’ve replayed the KOTOR titles
It’s the secret sequel to the good parts of Dragon Age: Origins.
Do you think it’s more worth it to favor the story you like best, or the class you enjoy playing the most because it’s an MMORPG?
its pretty unremarkable as an MMO so i’d say story. they’re all basically WoW classes with some talent trees shifted from one to another.
My favorite thing about SWTOR is that it was a big retcon for most of kotor 2 because lucasarts hated how that story went.
The last (and only) truly great Naughty Dog game was Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The crash games were okay. The Jak sequels went in the wrong direction. Uncharted 4 is the first halfway decent uncharted game, the previous ones are outright awful games. The Last of Us has great narrative ambition but it’s wrapped around a very mediocre 3rd person cover-shooter with simple stealth that revolves around noise-makers, and superficial crafting elements that are meant to convince you that you’re managing resources when you’re really not. Jak & Daxter, however, is a truly great video game.
2 Likes
