Knights of the Old Republic's Story isn't all that good...KOTOR 2's is better.

[Red Hawk]

I've replayed both Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games recently. The original Knights of the Old Republic received much praise when it first came out. For example:

"Knights of the Old Republic asks you to do two things really: a)guide the story through your conversations and decision making and b)utilize the hybrid turn-based combat system to whoop ass on whoever needs it. Both elements are extremely rich and very rewarding once you get into the game and understand what's going on." -- IGN

Though the PC version review at Gamespot had this to say:

"The game's main storyline isn't remarkable and eventually boils down to squaring off against your standard bad guy, and the main plot twists along the way don't really seem plausible. You'll encounter so many great little subplots and characters as you go along that this really won't matter."

Now I loved Knights of the Old Republic, from the moment I first got to play the game (2005/2006, I believe). It's one of the first games I ever played that had a serious attempt at storytelling. But despite being serious, was it really a good attempt? Going back and replaying it...the game's story just doesn't hold up. And the reason it doesn't hold up is because of the characterization (or lack thereof), both of the villains and of your own main character.

The villains are incredibly one-note. The villains you face either simply want power, get off on being jerks to other people, or are personality-free mercenaries hired by the first two groups. The villains that the main villain sends after you, Calo Nord and Darth Bandon? Next to no development for the former, absolutely no development for the latter. They make Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3 look like a competent, welll-rounded individual. The villains for each sub-quest in the main quest? Kashyyk: Chuundar is just out for power. Korriban: Uthar Wynn has power and likes it that way (Yuthura is a little more complex, but she sort of counts as an anti-hero as she tries to ally herself with the player and can be turned good). Manaan: There is an interesting subplot about the Sith trying to subvert the Selkath by kidnapping and reeducating their youth, but the Sith master behind it turns out to be just some faceless dude with barely two lines to squeak together. Tatooine: Czerka is the villain I guess? There's no real personified antagonist on Tatooine. Darth Malak himself is where he is simply because he desired power; there's sort of a dynamic that you, the player, used to be his master, but that is never used for much more than you shouting out "I am stronger, I am your master!" and Malak shouting back "No, I took your place, I am stronger!" Then when you beat Malak, he's just kind of like, "Ok yeah, you were stronger all along" and dies.

The villains are all simply bland, uninspired, and undeveloped. The second game had much better villains. Kreia's motivations cannot be pinned down to anything as simplistic as she just wants power or gets off on being evil (and in fact she despises people with such simple motivations). Sion has a personal vendetta with the Jedi, and continues his existence just to kill them despite being in constant pain to do so. Nihilus is inhuman in his motivations, driven by an uncontrollable hunger. And the individual villains? GO-TO does things because he believes it will help the Republic, in his rather distorted view. General Vaklu fights on Onderon both out of a desire for power but also out of a genuine belief that his world would be better off if they left the Republic. Atris believes that she is ensuring the future of the Jedi even as she falls to the Dark Side. Azkul on Dantooine is pretty flat, though.

And even setting the second game aside, just look at antagonists from other RPGs...I'm not going to bother to list them all, but the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age series, Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex Human Revolution, etc, all had better antagonists. Even Skyrim, for all its bare bones plot, had a more interesting antagonist in Ulfric Stormcloak than anything in Knights of the Old Republic.

The other half of how this makes the story bad is the main character. And the tragic thing about it is that it had all the potential to be an amazing story. You, the player, were this vaunted Darth Revan all along? Your mind was destroyed in an attack (or, possibly, the Jedi Council erased your memories) and the Jedi Council gave you new memories? It was the idea of Bastila, your supposed friend, to use you to uncover secrets locked in your forgotten memories? That's brilliant. There are so many possibilities for open-ended character development there. What kind of effect would that revelation have on a person? How would you cope? Do you reexamine your motivations and decide what you want? If you were "light side" before, does the knowledge of the true nature of your past cause you to fall to the Dark Side? Do you examine the teachings of the Sith as you never felt motivated to do before? Or do you resolve to keep fighting for the Jedi and the Republic because you genuinely believe what they stand for? Do you keep fighting against the Sith but distance yourself from the Jedi? Do you blame Bastila personally for what she took part in? Do you find it in yourself to forgive her for that, after taking time to think on it? Maybe the Jedi didn't so much as "reprogram" you as they caused your personality from before you fell to the Dark Side to resurface. Maybe that way, they can be seen as restoring you to your true self, so all your actions are genuinely your own? If you are Light Side, do you ever have to confront the fact that your former self is responsible for atrocities?

Nope, nothing so complex! There are three basic attitudes you can pick upon the revelation:

1. I am not Revan anymore, I serve the light.
2. Yes! I am Revan! Bow before me, you worms!
3. Oh, I'm Revan? Huh...ok.

The character of Revan is really no character at all. There's no arc where there was so much potential for an arc. Either he's a successful Jedi experiment or a failed Jedi experiment. If Revan chooses to stay with the Light Side, it's not because of any personal growth or decisions which he had agency in: it's because the Jedi Council's reprogramming of Revan was successful. Revan has few personal motivations to stay with the Light Side; any underlying motivations can just be seen as Jedi reprogramming. And if Revan turns back to the Dark Side, then it's because of his nature from before the reprogramming resurfacing and undoing the reprogramming. Light Side Revan is the product of a grave violation of human rights. What the Jedi Council did to Revan is no ultimately no different than what Malak did to Bastila, reprogramming her by torturing her until she gave in to the Dark Side. And it doesn't help that Revan's light side dialogue options really sound like someone who's been programmed to take such a simplistic (and corny) view of good and evil seriously. "I am a servant of the light" "You are no match for the light", etc. Heck, even if the game went as far as to seriously suggest that Revan's lightside behavior was only because of Jedi programming (thus also allowing the player to refute the notion) that would be a point in the game's favor. But no, it's hardly ever brought up, and if it is it's quickly brushed aside without really allowing the player to respond.

The Exile (I refuse to use that stupid sounding "canon" name) is a much more interesting and developed main character. There are a few things that the game predefines for you -- you followed Revan into war against the Mandalorians, but you returned to face trial before the Jedi and were cast out of the order. Instead of fighting, you left for remote corners of the galaxy, and were only recently found. But why? Why did you follow Revan into war? Why did you choose to face trial before the Jedi, unlike the others who had followed Revan? Why did you leave Republic space for a time? The game leaves you with many options to answer these questions, and it influences the story because it can be seen as why you do what you do in the story. The game even has a whole level, the Sith tomb on Korriban, which is essentially a character study on the character of the Exile (and also is sort of a callback to Luke journeying into the cave on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back). It makes for a compelling main character.

And again, there are better examples (to varying degrees) of main characters in other games: Hawke from Dragon Age II and Adam Jensen from Deus Ex Human Revolution are both better. The Warden in Dragon Age Origins can have an arc thanks to the events that establish the character in each origin story. Commander Shepard is fairly bland himself (and has a similar missed character opportunity in being dead for two years then coming back), but his actions can at least be seen through the lens of the background you pick for him, and he does get something of an arc and personality in Mass Effect 3. Overall good main characters in RPGs are harder to find than good villains, but there are much better examples than Revan.

So what do you get when you put a flat, uninteresting hero up against flat, uninteresting villains? A flat, uninteresting story, that's what. Nothing interesting really ever happens in the main story for Knights of the Old Republic, aside from the one moment where you find out you're Revan that ends up going nowhere. The next most interesting thing might be Bastila turning to the Dark Side...but that's both clichéd and boring, because that too was forced by Malak rather than something that actually came out of Bastila's character. And its resolution is nothing special either, it just boils down to if you have enough persuade points to save her. Now I'm not saying that the RPG element of using persuade shouldn't have been there, but that there should have been consequences for Bastila's fall. Maybe you could make a difference in her actions but ultimately she still turns her back on the Jedi? Maybe she has to die in order to stop Malak? Something interesting that could have you in suspense. But nope, you just talk no jutsu her back to the light side, and she's standing with you in the celebration at the end.

So, if the story's not all that good, what is good about the game? Well, there are party members which are interesting to talk to, Jolee and HK-47 in particular. Some characters even get an character arc, like Carth (I've never really agreed with how fans seem to dislike Carth). But none of that really ties into the story (as opposed to many of the party members playing important roles in the story in KOTOR 2). The setting is fun to explore, but it's really just borrowing and building on the established Star Wars world. Maybe it's fun and challenging to use a deep RPG battle system to defeat your enemi--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4LqtBFGz8

Oh. Right. (starting at 2:10)

I still love Knights of the Old Republic for some of its characters and for being part of forming my gaming tastes to what they are now, and for being a game that does prioritize the story, but the story itself...it kind of sucks, really. And I think that some of the similar problems with Commander Shepard's character can be traced back to Knights of the Old Republic, as much of the same BioWare team for Knights of the Old Republic went on to make Mass Effect. Knights of the Old Republic II (which was handled by a entirely different team at Obsidian Entertainment) had a much more original and interesting story thanks to a better main character, villains, and overall writing, IMO.

So, if you guys managed to get through that ponderous text wall, what do you think? How does Knights of the Old Republic hold up compared to its sequel and to other games?

 

[zinfamous]

That's a whole lot of writing for something that is just plain wrong.

 

[Red Hawk]

I'll be frank: The main plot and character of Knights of the Old Republic is just as aimless as the plot of Mass Effect 2 can feel at times.

 

[Jaydip]

The problem with KOTOR 2 is it feels uninspired and rushed (lucasarts take the credit here).It had potential but it was ruined due to bugs and incompleteness.But if you play KOTOR2 with the content restore mod it becomes a great game.

 

[Red Hawk]

It becomes a more complete game, but I think the core of what made KOTOR 2's story better is present even in the unmodded game.

 

[Jaydip]

I don't know, I believe I love the storytelling premises of BW/Obsidia.I enjoyed Kotor more as I liked Revan better while Exile seemed like a letdown.We all like people with dark pasts but I think that Revan is probably the most overhyped character there is.I am playing SWTOR now and he has a ridiculously large fanbase.

 

[Red Hawk]

The Exile's past is arguably just as dark as Revan's. She was right beside Revan in the Mandalorian Wars, and it was the Exile who gave the order to activate the "mass shadow generator" that devastated Malachor V and slaughtered the Mandalorians en masse. And, unlike Revan, who as a character can absolve himself of responsibility for his dark past thanks to memory loss and a reprogrammed personality, the Exile is still the same person who did those things. The responsibility for it falls to her, as do the consequences.

 

[Jaydip]

Actually Revan remembers everything in the end, you can even atone for your crime during your encounter with Malak.

 

[Red Hawk]

I don't recall Revan remembering everything.

 

[Jaydip]

Yeah he does, you can even say that you are sorry to drag Malak into this mess.

 

[MalazanEmpire]

I hated how the story of Mass Effect resembled the story of kotor. Searching for the conduit, searching for the star forge.... and all the same tropes. And then people come and say MASS EFFECT had the best story ever ! xd

 

[Revolution 11]

KOTOR 2 was undeniably rushed and fell short of what it could have been. But I generally agree with the OP on which game has the more interesting characters and plot.

Keep in mind that Kotor 1 is more like A New Hope where the audience gets to enjoy a mechanically solid, enjoyable classic where everything has been done before but this time, everything is done well. Luke is the bright-eyed hero, Han is the cynical anti-hero, Leia is the sassy princess. Star Wars created some of these tropes but the others existed before that. Yet in Episode 4, all of this was done well.

Kotor 2 is more like Empire Strikes Back. The good old villains now have more depth and complexity. I enjoy both games for what they are.

Off topic, Bioware tends to strictly follow a preset formula. There was a handy chart somewhere which shows how Bioware creates the hero, villain, supporting cast, settings, and plot. It is the same across all their franchises.

 

[frozentundra123456]

It becomes a more complete game, but I think the core of what made KOTOR 2's story better is present even in the unmodded game.

Kotor 1 is one of my favorite games. I agree the story is a a bit simplistic good vs evil, but that does not really bother me. I also feel the good vs evil captures the atmosphere of the star wars movies, at least the first 3.

The moral ambiguity of the second game was interesting, and I would have loved to see a third game to bring some closure to the exile/revan duo. The second game for me was spoiled by kria and the force plot line. She hated the force, but taught it to the exile. Maybe it is because the game was unfinished at release, but the plot was just too full of holes and contradictions. I still liked it, but was ultimately left frustrated and unsatisfied at the end. I started to play it again with the restored content, but could not seem to get it working properly.

 

[desura]

I was blown away by the story in the first game. Everything about the first game was really amazing to me. It was actually one of the first games I'd ever played where you had a 3d camera around the avatar...and the reimagined star wars worlds were incredible as well.

Now, let's talk about SWTOR. I'm actually finding that it really drags and kinda sucks. A big thing for me is that it is so obviously about dice rolls and there's very little that you can actually do skill-wise. All you can do is monitor the game while it plays itself for you.

 

[zinfamous]

Now, let's talk about SWTOR. I'm actually finding that it really drags and kinda sucks. A big thing for me is that it is so obviously about dice rolls and there's very little that you can actually do skill-wise. All you can do is monitor the game while it plays itself for you.

play wise--that's an MMO for you. I find the story to be quite good, though. At least as an Inquisitor/Assassin. You have to do the Flashpoints to follow the Revan/Kotor plot line, though.

 

[Red Hawk]

Yeah he does, you can even say that you are sorry to drag Malak into this mess.

Hmm, I don't remember that, though it could be because my replay is only up to right before going to the Star Forge. But in any case, it's pretty clear that there is no arc to get to that point. You don't personally remember what you did, through dreams or something of the like (which could have been effective). It doesn't factor in to your temptation and possible fall to the Dark Side. You can have a whole planet's subquest after discovering your identity. For me, I always leave Korriban last. That's perfect as an opportunity to show Revan dealing with the psychological consequences of his true identity, getting re-exposed to the teachings of the Sith and either falling to the Dark Side or choosing not to. But there's no personal arc for Revan on Korriban. You either make cryptic comments about how you should know more than everyone else thinks, or you flat out declare that you are Darth Revan returned (and no one takes you seriously on it).

Kotor 1 is one of my favorite games. I agree the story is a a bit simplistic good vs evil, but that does not really bother me. I also feel the good vs evil captures the atmosphere of the star wars movies, at least the first 3.

The moral ambiguity of the second game was interesting, and I would have loved to see a third game to bring some closure to the exile/revan duo. The second game for me was spoiled by kria and the force plot line. She hated the force, but taught it to the exile. Maybe it is because the game was unfinished at release, but the plot was just too full of holes and contradictions. I still liked it, but was ultimately left frustrated and unsatisfied at the end. I started to play it again with the restored content, but could not seem to get it working properly.

That's part of what made Kreia a complex and interesting character. She doesn't leave that apparent inconsistency unexplained; when you ask her why she uses the Force when she despises it, she says she uses it like a poison, using it to work toward a goal so she will never have to use it again.

Speaking of holes, how about the Star Forge? How is it that the Sith kept the source of their ship production secret for years? I get that any Republic ship which entered the system would crash. But no one noticed that any Republic ships attempting to track the Sith back to their ship facilities went missing around a specific area? There was no one in the Sith Empire who could give the Republic information on the Star Forge's location? It's highly implausible that the Sith could have kept it secret and hidden so long.

I was blown away by the story in the first game. Everything about the first game was really amazing to me. It was actually one of the first games I'd ever played where you had a 3d camera around the avatar...and the reimagined star wars worlds were incredible as well.

The game was definitely a step forward in storytelling and presentation. But there's a difference between making everything look and sound nice and actually having a worthwhile story to see and hear.

Now, let's talk about SWTOR. I'm actually finding that it really drags and kinda sucks. A big thing for me is that it is so obviously about dice rolls and there's very little that you can actually do skill-wise. All you can do is monitor the game while it plays itself for you.

The Old Republic failed to draw me in. Not much else I can say about it. I would have preferred if it was single player instead of an MMO. :|

 

[desura]

I honestly wish that SWTOR had taken the Guild Wars model instead of trying to make it another WOW.

They actually could have had a really profitable game IMO that way. Like, $50 purchase, plus $30 expansion every few months.

But anyways, they are giving away what should be the best part of the game: the single player storylines, while charging for MMO parts that honestly I don't care about. So stupid.

but back to KOTOR, it was one of the first games I ever played with a branching storyline that sort of felt like I was in a conversation. Really loved it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I guess the bottom line for me is how I felt at the end of the game. Kotor 1 left a feeling of closure and accomplishment at the end of the game.

Kotor 2 otoh, just left me stunned, and not in a good way. More like WTF, that's it?? Where is the rest of the game?? I spent 50 hours of my time for this ending??? I know it was rushed, but as the saying goes, "it is what it is". That would have been made more bearable if there had been a kotor 3 to continue the story, but unfortunately that never happened.

 

[Red Hawk]

I guess the bottom line for me is how I felt at the end of the game. Kotor 1 left a feeling of closure and accomplishment at the end of the game.

Kotor 2 otoh, just left me stunned, and not in a good way. More like WTF, that's it?? Where is the rest of the game?? I spent 50 hours of my time for this ending??? I know it was rushed, but as the saying goes, "it is what it is". That would have been made more bearable if there had been a kotor 3 to continue the story, but unfortunately that never happened.

I personally like the story and themes of the ending, but you're right, KOTOR 2 was much more open-ended, even with cut content restored, than the first game. In the long run, that did prove to be to the game's detriment. KOTOR 2 never got a proper conclusion to the plotlines established of Revan and the Exile facing the threat of the "True Sith" -- and by "proper" I mean an actual game written by the team at Obsidian, rather than a lackluster novel that takes all agency away from the people who played as Revan and the Exile.

 

[Via]

You can add all of the restored content you want, it won't make up for play testing and game balancing. KotoR 2 becomes MUCH too easy about 1/2 way through the game.

You can spam force wave over and over and kill everyone in the room with a single hit. There's no challenge in most cases, and I found myself losing interest pretty quickly. I was just trying to get through the game, and that's never a good sign. Even then - I hit a game-stopping bug both times I played it.

The developers obviously didn't have the time or money hire game testers to balance the game.

Those things aside - I enjoyed the story of KotoR 1 more anyway.

 

[Red Hawk]

Oh, definitely, KOTOR 2 is way to easy with regards to gameplay towards the end. But it's just an agitated expression of a problem that existed in the first game. Force Wave spamming could still get pretty ridiculous by the end of KOTOR 1.

 

[DaveSimmons]

KOTOR 2 was undeniably rushed and fell short of what it could have been. But I generally agree with the OP on which game has the more interesting characters and plot.

Keep in mind that Kotor 1 is more like A New Hope where the audience gets to enjoy a mechanically solid, enjoyable classic where everything has been done before but this time, everything is done well. Luke is the bright-eyed hero, Han is the cynical anti-hero, Leia is the sassy princess. Star Wars created some of these tropes but the others existed before that. Yet in Episode 4, all of this was done well.

Kotor 2 is more like Empire Strikes Back. The good old villains now have more depth and complexity. I enjoy both games for what they are.

Off topic, Bioware tends to strictly follow a preset formula. There was a handy chart somewhere which shows how Bioware creates the hero, villain, supporting cast, settings, and plot. It is the same across all their franchises.

Agreed. Both were good games. 1 had the fun, simple story (despite the Revan reveal) while 2 had more depth, better characters, and a more mature take on the force, especially the dark side.

 

[ThinClient]

Wall of text crits for 9999. KOTOR2 wasn't even finished when released. The gold release features missions you can't turn in because the turn-in NPC isn't even in the game. He's there, his dialogue is there, his model is there, but there's no call to spawn him.

KOTOR2 is only good after the community patches.

Both games are pretty good.

 

[zinfamous]

The Old Republic failed to draw me in. Not much else I can say about it. I would have preferred if it was single player instead of an MMO. :|

It basically was a single player game, though. If that is what you wanted, then just stick to the story and call it a day. Of course, you end up paying a sub for a single player game, and that sucks, but there you go. Now, you do need to team up to complete Flashpoints, which mostly has its own plotline that ties to KOTOR, and you do need to complete the last one to finish the "singleplayer" game, IIRC, but most of them can be ignored.

Either way, It always felt like an expensive single player game to me. The MMO stuff was primarily endgame material.

I honestly wish that SWTOR had taken the Guild Wars model instead of trying to make it another WOW.

They actually could have had a really profitable game IMO that way. Like, $50 purchase, plus $30 expansion every few months.

But anyways, they are giving away what should be the best part of the game: the single player storylines, while charging for MMO parts that honestly I don't care about. So stupid.

Exactly, and agree on both points. But I will say that as repetitive as it is, TOR offered/s a bit more as far as endgame/MMO content than GW2 currently does.

Once you've done your various dungeons and grind FoTM until you lose your sanity, there isn't much left to GW2. It's still fun, I dig it, even though I currently seem to be taking a break from it. (It's because of the "Living Story" nonsense. I hate that crap)

 

[Zenoth]

Very nice post Red Hawk, I read all of it.

You put lots of details about KOTOR's story(ies) enough so that it refreshed my memory about it, since I haven't played KOTOR in years. What I clearly remember about it is rather blurry by now. What I do recall is that I really liked the voice acting quality (regardless of the dialog/script quality itself), being able to take my [character's] own decisions - which at the time was something completely new for me - and seeing interactions between my character and "my crew", which again for me was something new at the time. Additionally, romance options for me back then in video gaming (at least to that extent) was a first, which impressed me (probably more due to the voice acting more than anything else, Jennifer Hale did a fabulous job with Bastila, at times I prefer her voice acting for that character over Shepard's). And, of course, the soundtrack was (still is) phenomenal, long live Jeremy Soule.

If I'm not mistaken KOTOR was BioWare's first attempt at making a Star Wars game, and due to its timeline (4,000 years before A New Hope, I think?) they had to create most of its context's and setting's lore, since of course there's no actual canon for any events in the Star Wars universe occurring hundreds or thousands of years before A New Hope (other than the Extended Universe, but even then most of the EU's own self-contained canon is set within the old trilogy and after Return of the Jedi). Maybe if there had been existing lore in the Star Wars universe that happened to be set within KOTOR's timeline then BioWare would have been able to simply "improve" upon it, and just add writing and characters to it, rather than attempting to make most of it from scratch, which they did. I believe that in turn might have contributed in getting lost into actually making that lore instead of concentrating more on character development and individual back stories or codex's for each of them. In other words it probably cost them development time and human resources to focus on creating the base pillars first.

But, on the other hand, you could argue (and I do, actually) that BioWare actually decided on their own to set KOTOR so far away and before A New Hope in the timeline exactly because they wanted to attempt creating pretty much everything and the game's own canon for themselves to start with. So even if there had been official canon lore for 4,000 years before ANH then maybe BioWare would have chosen to set their game before that old canon regardless because, to repeat myself, they wanted to risk going where no one had gone before in Star Wars' timeline, which to be completely honest is a big risk and I think it showed (in retrospect I do agree that there's a definite lack of meat around the character development's bones side of the game, for sure).

So, just to be clear here, I'm not saying that I disagree with you about KOTOR suffering from a "lack" of good story telling, or good writing perhaps (or maybe just not enough of it). It's indeed most likely weaker in reality than how I remember it from old memories of the game (and at the time I would have been very easily been impressed by almost any story telling because, to me, games like that at the time were still relatively new). I'm simply trying to remember what I can on the subject to find possible causes as to why it ended up as such. Now it doesn't make KOTOR any less enjoyable nor does it suddenly rust my appreciation of it. I remember completing it three times and I would probably still enjoy it today although I would surely pay more attention to the story/writing/script issues here and there.

The "big hits" in KOTOR's story were of course the "You are Darth Raven" twist (let's be honest, very few of us would be able to frankly say that they actually saw that one coming) and, potentially, Bastila Shan's turning to the Dark Side of the Force. I also still remember being surprised (and very impressed) by the revelation of/existence of the Star Forge (that thing being able to spit virtually infinite ships kind of stunned me, if I recall correctly). But yes that's pretty much about it, come to think of it. But then again the praise and all the raving around and about KOTOR (especially at the time) didn't just refer to the game's story, it was a combination of pretty much every game aspects being successfully glued together and fitting within the one another (or fitting well enough anyway) that impressed the gamers out there. I'd like to add that I truly believe that the reason(s) as to why, overall, it was so loved (and still is today amongst gamers) is because KOTOR was, frankly, ahead of its time at release. In my opinion, it was similar to Half-Life's impact (no necessarily on the industry with its engine, but in terms of "experimental" and relatively new game-play mechanics), it was, finally, a GOOD Star Wars game to say the very least (there's so few of them, guys) and back in 2003 (gosh it's been a decade already?!) it offered way more to the gamers than what they themselves could have expected from a game (or a Star Wars game), it was jam-packed with quality content.

Today, reading this may seem exaggerated (or nostalgia poking its nose in my thoughts as I type this), but ten years ago it was just amazing. I cannot deny, however, that sometimes nostalgia does blur out perceptions and memories, the game's overall story wasn't mind-blowing, but it was enjoyable and entertaining enough for me to keep going "to see what's going to happen next", and that, ultimately, was what mattered to me.