The BIG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Retrospective 

Thanks for watching as always. If you want to see more, be sure to check my channel and subscribe!! Correction: My voice dupes at 2:49:10-2:49:25

Oh thank god, another multi-hour long story analysis on a game from the early 2000’s by someone I never regularly watch. I shall consume this media voraciously and eagerly await more.

I'm a simple man I see a Kotor retrospective, I spend several hours watching the Kotor retrospective

"Don't call me that. I'm not Revan anymore. I'm SuperRad Lemon now." Love that.

HK-47 is the best companion in both games. His dialogue is almost always golden.

Its a shame that we haven't had games like these for almost 2 decades. You would think a starwars role-playing game would have been released twice in that time considering how fondly the 2 kotor games are remembered within the community.

As a kid on a trip in NYC I picked up two Xbox games while out and about with family. My choices weren’t random, but they were entirely based off the cover art and pictures. I was very ignorant to great games and hadn’t found my preference in games up until that day. The two games I bought that day were Elder Scrolls Morrowing and KOTR. Little did I know I had grabbed up two of the greatest games of all time.

I got an eye condition rendering almost blind for a few days and I've searching for good long videos to listen to while I recover and rest. This video is just what I needed (I already listened to your MH videos). Thank you.

Ah! As for the Sentinel class, it gains immunities to certain powers. One thing I dislike is fear. When you level up the sentinel they gain immunities to the highest form of fear. It’s not much, but I prefer that.

On the topic of Jolee Bindo and the Gray Jedi, while I like the concept of them as individuals who follow the Light without adherence to the politics of the Council or fear of indulging in their emotions, they've never really existed beyond the lip service of the fans. Hell, even in this game and the sequel there is no mechanical benefit to trying to walk the line between Light and Dark. As far as the game is concerned, there's only value in adhering to either good or evil, everything else is muddying the waters.

The fact the remake to this game got cancelled recently makes this retrospective hit so much harder

I love going through both KOTOR 1 and 2 role playing as a Jedi who has given up their blade and uses blasters. Early game play is pretty rough but by mid game you are melting through everything and it ironically makes the malak fight rather easy so long as you’ve picked up a force power that slows or stops him. You can just lead him around blasting away in it. It makes me wish there was a game or story that pursues this path. I know the sabers are cool but a Jedi that’s put their skills into blasters would be pretty cool. Great vid btw same with Vegas. Top notch

I'm a bit upset you didn't really go in-depth on how amazing Korriban can be as a light-side character. You can actually redeem many of the students you meet in the Academy, either by showing them how the sith failed them or by persuading them back to the light. The runaway students you can save and allow to escape; Mekei, the one in the tomb you fight alongside with, can turn away from the dark side even without guarantee he will be a Jedi. And the backstory of Yuthura Ban, showing how she joined the Darkside to save the slaves....but the drive for power made her forget why she turned in the first place and never did anything she set out to do, showing how the darkside really is a corruption and how the Jedi failed to give her peace of mind for it either. It is almost as nuanced as Manaan.

Jedi Sentinel only really shines in KOTOR 2, where skills become much more important due to the crafting system

omfg this is so long, I can't wait. Idk how I keep finding wildly long reviews for games I played 20 years ago that I consistently enjoy. These long videos are perfect for a night off from work. My cat and I are huge fans.

As someone else mentioned, "thank god, another multi hour long analysis". And it is a video-essay for one of my favourite games ever! Never watched you before, but this was awsome.

you can cheese the Calo Nord fight, you can run past him and ignore him completely, if you do this 2 or 3 times, he just... dies. this is because Darth Bandon has to appear, so if you just ignore him he just dies without cause. Bioware didn't make it so you can't flee the battle and they didn't count on people doing that. However, he isn't a problem to kill so ignoring him makes you miss out on loot. Jolee Bindo is also the origin of the phrase "pulling a Bindo" (secret marriage). Manaan has a trap of sorts. a point of no return, if you screw up, you have to restart the whole game. in my first playthrough back to this game for many years, I forgot to take the side mission involving finding some Selkath youths. If you do not take this mission before going into the sith base, you will be executed by the Selkath when you exit the base and if you don't have a save game before you entered, you have to restart the whole game. I made this mistake, don't do what I did. what I find most fun about Korriban is when you encounter some Sith acolytes for the first time (Lashoe and the others) and they ask you to tell a joke and you have Canderous with you, you tell a joke about some Mandalorians, he has some comments about that.

I feel the need to add my voice to the choir singing praise for your long-form content. As someone who started Monster Hunter with MHW, I loved learning the history of the games from your videos. Now Fallout:NV, DD, and KOTOR, your videos are a magical retrospective down memory lane and I thank you for it. You've put a lot of time and effort into these videos and it really shows. Thank you.

i think the twist is fun because, regardless what you thought your backstory was, you are actually something else. and it doesn't mean you weren't LIKE that character at one point of your life, but, you became something else.

fun story i played KOTOR 2 before KOTOR 1 it made the reval in KOTOR more of a mind blown moment because i was waiting to see Revan

I'm not trying trying bribe you, but I'd pay for more content like this. Multi hour long breakdowns of classic games. This is brilliant.

What you didn't want to go into the woman's runaway sexbot on Dantooine? Fun Fact: Nearly 20 years ago, I walked AROUND Calo Nord on Tatooine and he's been standing there waiting for me ever since. 🤣

2:10:15 I'm so glad you observed this! This is why I think RPG's with morality alignment systems should only trigger or apply to what you DO, not what you say.

Jade Empire's arena was really good, too. And it had some extra plot stuff thrown in.

Man you keep making what you enjoy. It really shows in how in depth you talk about these games. I hope Dragon Age Origins is on the list. If not I fully understand, but I feel like there is so much worth looking into.

Dude I am so pumped for the Kotor 2 one. Immediate sub

1:45:00 - I actually do know why they have random encounters in this area. I'm trying to find the exact source, but it has to do with a technical limitation and the size of the area. From what I remember, they couldn't pre-populate it all because it was too much for the game to keep track of or something like that. Without any real occlusion, I think? Man, getting old sucks, but I remember someone talking about specifically this. This was the solution to not make it feel totally empty because of the limitations of the tech.

Protip: You can skip the puzzle/fight with the replicating droids before Malak. Just bash the elevator door and follow him.

20 min in: not just historical for kotor, but gaming as a whole. Its up there in all time 'twists', like Samus being revealed to be a woman

Just FYI for anyone unaware you can also use force drain (I'm told force stasis works as well but can't confirm that) to kill Jedi husks in the final Malak fight. Additionally after Malak drains the first one all the rest will be marked as hostile and can then be killed with almost any type of attack.

I've recently started to discover retrospectives, and they are some of my favorite types of media. I will spend days consuming these. I am still early into this one, but love it already. Thanks for making these! I will be watching almost all of them. 💁🏼‍♂️😅

I love listening to these! I find it relieving to hear someone talk about videogames who isn't trying to be such an edgelord all the time. You seem like a decent person and the sparse social commentary is always welcome (to me) and I appreciate that it doesnt feel preachy etc etc etc

The arena quest in the first Fable game is also very fun! One of my favorite things each time I play through, I love testing out how different builds work and play in the arena.

Man, I love this game, still utter genius and gets better every time you play.

thank you for the indepth content... this is one of the most underrated pair of rpg , I still find new info and gems every time I try a new playthrough

I love watching long form video essays on things I know I like to get other people's perspectives on it, what they like and don't like, and maybe get some insights into other things I might be interested in tangentially. Also gives me something to focus on for long stretches of time that I can't quite replicate with other things lately, love these videos. This one especially because Kotor may be the first game I fell in love with on a console other than my Gameboy and Pokemon. I got to borrow a cousin's Xbox and Kotor and I wish I could know how much time I spent on it and 2.

Love seeing retrospectives over my favorite game of all time.

Kreia had some of the best dialogue ive seen in a video game. Her entire story arc throughout kotor 2 is amazingly well done.

Hey man when I was 10 I didn't know what the hell Arboreal meant lol.

I finally listened to the whole video besides playing it two times at night and then falling asleep during Taris.

Never thought that even in this year someone would look back at this game. It's nice that even though I finished it several times, I've learned some new facts here. Btw, I'd love for you to analyze the Xenosaga trilogy because that one is DEEP with its lore and inspiration by Nietzsche's works and is overall a series of good games.

Something that doesn’t get mentioned often is that there is an option to have visas use a blade weapon on herself in order to weaken nihilis when fighting on his ship. As long as during the fight visas is equipped with a blade weapon, there will be an option in a cutscene for her to sacrifice herself to weaken nihilis.

Weirdly enough I have always loved Taris and love to see how fast I can 100% every quest and dialogue option, and then get to Dantooine. Once on Dantooine though I end up liking only a few of the quests before happily moving on and enjoying every other planet. I think it feels like on Taris I have the freedom to do anything I want as I slowly gain the power and resources to leave. One I'm on Dantooine I am stuck and restricted to whatever I am being told to do by the Jedi Council, with no agency. And then once I am off Dantooine and on to any other planet I am again in the driver's seat making my own decisions and doing whatever my character thinks is best.

I have so many memories of KOTOR. This was the first game my brother ever played for me, because I wanted to do the RP parts but couldn't handle the combat (still can't, just not my jam lol). I remember so strongly the quest on Kashyyk, where you have to decide whether to allow the people to believe their hero died nobly or tell them the unsightly truth. I was SO SURPRISED when I got dark side points for preserving their hope and following the hero's wishes. It changed so much about my perspective of Star Wars and opened me up to question things, which only helped me engage with the fandom.

A multi hour retrospective about a beloved video game by someone I've never heard of... I'm all in!!! A new subscriber

My work day went by a lot better thanks to you. We will watch your career with great interest. Cheers

It's funny you mentioned the Oblivion ost when you spoke about the Manaan music because the composer for Oblivion also did the music for Kotor. And honestly you can kinda tell when you listen to them to back to back, very much his style.

Now that I have finished the video I just want to say a job well done. Watching this had me start another playthrough. Keep up the brilliant work super rad

I sure look forward to watching this video, as I love any long form critique of my favorite game series of all time

oh no fucking way you did another retrospective I don't know how you do it you're probably one of the foremost authorities on MH in the western world and you're pumping out these longform reviews you and grimbeard are just like the two most criminally underrated dudes on the platform

The Malak fight drove me absolutely insane when I replayed kotor a year ago after not playing it for years. I tried playing a full dark side counselor, but he hits so hard and resists most force powers. I eventually gave up and made a light side jedi guardian where I used no force powers other than force heal, but I still failed because both characters didn't have the only force power that actually affected Malak whirlwind.

I've been playing this game again but this time with a few mods installed, not gone crazy just a few things here and there and it's great how there is still a community for this game and how well it seems to hold up as a standard for games, despite some things being dated. Something about this game it has an infectious replayability to it. I'll be sure to watch this video over the course of the week as it seems even you have a lot to digest in it.

Look forward to the kotor 2 video, and yes taris is a pain, but I've been replaying two and yeah I feel like the mining station and the citidel/telos is a lot more of a slog because I like the flavor of taris with its multiple levels and types of people on it.

I literally just beat this game for the first time a couple days ago (on Switch). I loved every bit of it, I find myself playing old games rather than new even owning a Series X. I just started Kotor 2 wish me luck.

This was a great video. As a major Star Wars fan who never played this, it was wonderful to see

Between this and the Fallout videos, I am now fully obsessed with your channel. Here’s hoping we get massive analyses of Force Unleashed, Outer Worlds, and every other fallout game that isn’t 76 :)

There's another game that with a morality system that (from its in-game description) is comparable to Mass Effect's Paragon & Renegade system. That game is Jade Empire. Its morality system was SUPPOSED to have shades of gray in both like it does in Mass Effect, but Bioware didn't have such a good grasp on writing gray morality tales until the Dragon Age series & the Mass Effect Trilogy came along!

I can confirm that the enemies that are sent after you in the star forge do eventually end, even on the highest difficulty.

Thank you for this retrospective! Truly a walk down memory lane. I can't wait for the one you do on TSL! I agree with you on liking that one more. It's refreshing to listen to someone who shares my ideas on both the Light Side and the Jedi. Always frustrates me. I know Lucas backed out on the concept that it's the Force, and then the Force's dark side which is a corruption. It still makes more sense to me, especially since the flaws of the Jedi are the flaws of mortals, not of the Force itself. Your opinion on Gray Jedi reminded me. I don't know if you've ever heard the Gray Jedi Code but it sounds to me like the most hilariously arrogant thing I've ever heard.

I love this game and really like your review style. Starting the video now. Appreciate the hard work, sir.

You always know how to make me happy. I got tomorrow off of work and I wasn't too sure what I was gonna do with myself. If this is anywhere near the quality of your MH retrospectives, I'm looking forward to tomorrow way more than I was. I love finding channels that have similar interests as mine. Thanks, in advance, for being so consistently great with your content.

I love how the dogmatic debate about how the force works from a theological stanpoint is not a debate within the star wars universe but is whitin the fandom. With things like grey jedi and the like

I do love alignment systems in games. Even in a cartoonish level being able to impact a story and its outcome really is exciting to me and makes me want to play again. I feel more games could get away with it even if it is just a simple karma system.

Very liked and subscribed - what a huge volume of analysis! Thanks boss.

I remember playing this game when I was 8 or 9, some of my earliest really strong memories. I'm shocked about just how much of this I vividly remember while watching. Stuff like discovering I could exploit the stowaway child for dark side points and repeating that over and over until I got it maxed out is something that still crosses my memories to this day. And getting force lighting was the coolest thing ever as a child.

I'm not even halfway through this video yet, but I appreciate the immense effort put into this project. Long-form content like this is personally my favorite and it's made even better by the fact that I already love other retrospectives of the KOTOR series of similar length. This video will make a fine addition to my collection👍..... Alright just finished the video, great quality and a very in depth and fair analysis of KOTOR. Looking forward to KOTOR 2 as I enjoy that one far more than the first installment👌

Best star wars RPG experience for sure.

50:30 While you and many of the people watching may already know this, for those who dont, if you equip Carth with the Sith uniform and dismiss him from your party before agreeing to trade them to Gadon for the security papers, you'll be able to keep the uniform. It doesnt have any purpose here beyond aesthetics but thats still a good enough reason for me!

My favorite thing about Kotor on xbox was the ability to create a super jedi. It takes a while, depending on how far you want to advance your character, but it's worth it if you want to feel truly powerful. Max skills, feats, powers, and attributes as high as you want to make them. I think the furthest I ever maxed them was 80

The droid fight in the Star Forge if you have the "Destroy Droid" force power, and if you have upped your force powers. You can EASILY desimate the droids. Bruh the "Destroy Droid" force power, you can kill (I think) 3 at once.

Love is not the path to the dark side. The inability to let go is. You can love, and be loved, but when the time comes for what you love to die you must let it go.

Will be sure to try this, thank you so incredibly much💕💕💕

I had heard of KotOR but I first got to know the story in the novelization of the sequel book, Revan. At that time I was recovering from a brain injury that left me feeling much the same as Revan. I recently beat KotOR 1 on my Xbox Series S. The controls need to be updated but I loved the story.

I can't explain why but these essay like reviews are definitely a vibe!

You had the most calm tone when saying like sub and comment I had too

Hello there! I just love your super long videos. You‘re a true MVP of youtube Superrad! Thanks so much for Kotor and this trip down memory lane!

My favorite way to play kotor is to bump the difficulty up to hard, solo, using only blasters. The best build is a scoundrel, as they have the sneak attack feat, also they boast the largest amount of skill points to spare which adds more depth and planning to the combat encounters like planting mines. Oh man it's fun.

Alek and Revan were both knights even they fell to the darkside, they both chose it. Even as sith, the only reason Malek was the apprentice was because Revan was stronger. He even tried to take the mantle of the master and that's how he got the mettle jaw

Ayyy I just started playing this again yesterday. Excited to watch this.

You’re upload prompted me to play the game for the first time before watching it. Followed that up with KOTOR 2. Completed two play through of it and I’m now back playing through the first. Absolutely fell in love with these games.

every time i watch something about starwars i always come out hearing that lucasarts is the best company in the world. they give so much creative freedom and always look after the people they work with

I always disagreed about the whole darkside points for killing Bendak. He is himself a murderer, and his bounty is a government contract. Bendak is more than willing to kill anyone who will step into the dueling ring with him. I find it akin to finding and getting rid of the Mandalorian crusaders on Dantooine.

When I beat Malik the first time I did it by running around the arena using throw lightsaber every time my force regenerated enough to use it.

Long time KOTOR fan here, recently started playing modded (on my second playthrough now). I love it and after my current KOTOR playthrough I’ll move on to modded TSL. On the matter of Taris, what keeps it fresh for me is difficult mode at level 2

if kotor 2 wouldve come out during the 360 era all that beautiful DLC

I've played 100s of games if not over a thousand and Kotor is easily in my top 10 it's an amazing game.

I love the way you think about the "good side" ending. This is precisely why I feel like the dark side ending is the most suited to our character ... If you think about it, even if you spend the whole game doing good and earning light points, the revelation of you being lied to by everyone you considered like the good guys should make you snap, and fall to the dark side again. Just after that you end up on THE sith planet, when you can discover everything there is to the dark side, go and fight Bastila who just conviniently for you joined the dark side, and then you get to kill your old apprentice, get revenge on the jedis, get the girl in the end and feel very good about it all. I actually really enjoyed that ending. The light side one is very much like you described it, leaving a bitter taste. I fully understand why this is the cannon ending, but it's not the one that felt the most "realistic" to me.

I know very little about Star Wars or much about theses type of games. But I still watch, great video.

Does Jolee knowing you were Revan from the beginning, recontextualize his choice to come with you? I feel like that wildly changes his motivations of joining you either lightside or dark side path

What you said about liking Star Wars before, but this making you a real fan resonates with me. KOTOR (1) is one of my top 3 games of all time, and will always have a special place in my heart. 2 is good as well, but 1 edges it out barely. Revan is too good.

Man Superrad you have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone to do a thorough retrospective of KOTOR. Thank you!!

Imagine if at the very end after you save Bastilla the Jedi Council relegates it as "another test for yourself and Bastilla" that "went over well". The ultimate trolls.

I can’t wait for the KOTOR remake, this is May 2023 BTW

Thanks SuperRAD. This prompted me to re-install KOTOR and have another bash at it. I completed it twice, but... hell, it's been years... time for some nostalga, eh? As a side note a few years ago I met a guy who would later become a very good friend. One of the things that made us friends was talking about KOTOR.... turns out, he had NO IDEA you could install crystals to enhance your light sabres.... I had to show him..... somehow he'd gotten a LONG way into the game without any "upgrades"!!!! Now, what I've never done is get past the tutorial of KOTOR II... so, whilst I watch this and re-play it, I'll be lining up a KOTOR II run as well... Can you import your original character across or not? I'm guessing no, if they are from different games studio's....

2022 and we're still getting long form in depth videos made about this game. I've seen so many at this point and still insta-click whenever I see one.

Thank you. I check out a couple of your other videos, good luck!

This is where the fun begins!

imma watch the shit out of this i love longform retrospective about genious games

I like your critique of the ending. most people will say taris is too long, but I've never heard anyone say the apology to malak was weak or that ask that we completely gloss over the fact that you started the war, even if you lost your memory and helped end it. especially considering your memories are returning gradually throughout the game.

Youre right about the Jedi and the Sith. The light became as such to counter the corruption of the depths of darkness. But the force itself, is balance. Revan walked that line between light and dark like no other and thats why he's one of my favorite characters. Excellent retrospective! Cant wait to start the second one