Newbie's First Time with KOTOR I & II

Well, many years after the fact, I'm finally getting around to playing these two games. Thing is, I know almost nothing about them and as such don't know what to expect. Not only is this my first time playing a KOTOR game, this will be my first time playing a SW game, period!

Anyway, I'm borrowing both games from a friend of mine in PC version. I'm hoping my 2007 Gateway laptop will be up to the task of running these two games, but it's been having lag problems lately and will sometimes completely freeze up--this all seems to be due to a general lack of memory space available. So yeah, I'm hoping playing these two games will still be feasible. (That and I've never played on a computer before--I'm used to playing on consoles with controllers in front of my TV. Alas, I don't have an Xbox, and my friend who's loaning me the games only has the PC versions anyway.)

At any rate, I'm seriously a blank slate when it comes to these games. Let's start with the first one. I know the protagonist you control is Revan (former Jedi who turned into a Sith and is now an amnesiac and thinks he's a Jedi again?) and the antagonist/final boss is Darth Malak, Revan's former pupil, I think. Also, I know you can control what kind of person your character becomes (light side, dark side, scoundrel, etc.). And that's about all I know about it. I want to play this game in the most canonical way possible. So I want Revan to stay a Jedi. Should I keep him as a consular? Or warrior? I'm thinking warrior. Also, what does Revan's canonical face look like? I'm guessing like a male light skinned human, but I don't know if that's ever been confirmed. Also, any other tips for avoiding the dark side?

Another goal I have for this game (and the second) is 100% completion. I have this tendency to want to experience everything in a game, and this will be no exception. My main concern is about anything that is permanently missable. So does anyone have a list of items/upgrades/side quests/anything at all that can be missed forever in either one of these two games? From the TV Tropes page linked in this paragraph, I know you can miss two entire planets that will be destroyed by the Sith--it also mentioned something about a side quest with a runaway girl on your ship. Are there others? And at what point do these occur, so I know to do everything that I need to do on them?

Also, about how many hours will 100% completion of this game take? Both KOTOR I and KOTOR II?

So I think that's all the questions I have. I searched, but I couldn't find a similar thread to this, so I hope the mods are alright with this thread. It's mainly for me to ask my questions (and for anyone else who's similarly new to the series to ask stuff too) as well as a kind of blog/chronicle of my first ever experiences with the KOTOR series (I'll be starting the first game probably this Monday). I've heard tons of good things about them both and have been wanting to try them out for a while. Well, here goes!

 

if it's your absolute first time, and you want to do everything i'd say you're probably looking at 100+ hours without a huge problem. i rented it the first time i played KOTOR and was even trying to cut some stuff out and it still took me 45 hours to get through that one. i might have just been slow,but was doing everything absolutely as fast as i could so i don't think so. plan accordingly.

 

Thanks, Trimaj! And good Lord, this is going to take quite a long time, isn't it?

Anyway, going back to my first post, does anyone know which two planets get destroyed by the Sith, and when does that happen? I want to make sure I do and get everything I can there before they're gone. And when should I do the side quest with the runaway girl on the ship?

 

Well, since you asked...

Taris is the first place that gets destroyed. The point of no return is when you have Canderous take you to Davik's estate. If you have any sidequests still open when he offers to take you there, don't go.

Dantooine is the second place that gets destroyed. This occurs after you get the third Starmap (the one on Dantooine and two of the others).

The stowaway girl appears after you get your first Starmap after leaving Dantooine. If you want to complete that one though, you need to do it before Dantooine is lost.

Hope that helps.

 

IIRC, it's actually impossible to get 100% completion on either KOTOR, since quests only appear if you made a particular decision, or have a specific number of dark/light side points (I may be getting confused with Mass Effect though). Also, bear in mind that there are multiple outcomes to, and ways to tackle, almost every quest, with some having as many as six or seven outcomes. It can also be difficult to get full completion on KOTOR 2, since having some quests unlock is due more to luck than your actions, due to the rushed release (Atton Rand's Jedi training, i'm talking to you!).

As for classes, it's more a matter of personal preference than anything else. It's not like Mass Effect or Oblivion, where your class affects your entire game experience - IIRC, the only major combat ability that's locked depending on your Jedi class is force leap, which isn't that much of a big deal anyway.

 

[image=http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m2/Sista_ZeL/ET202.jpg]
Beeee goooood

 

Pretty much that, yeah: taking the high road in conversations (i.e., not being a selfish jerk) to NPCs and party members, performing noble and heroic deeds and otherwise being Jedi-ish, not Sithly. Some actions will be more obvious than others. For example, while in Taris, after beating all arena challengers, you may have the option to challenge Bendak Starkiller to a deathmatch. While Bendak isn't exactly a good guy, challenging him to a death match nets you some Dark Side points. IIRC also agreeing with the less than noble statements of less noble party members like, say, HK-47, Canderous, G0T0 and Kreia might also net you some dark side points.