Same. The moment he appeared I thought, oh great, another by-the-numbers rogue. Not only is he that, he's also whiny. "I guess I'll go fix the ship all by myself." Um, yeah, because you're probably the only one here who knows how to fix ships.

You don't have to give a detailed write-up, but how did you like DayZ and H1Z1?

This. In every other BW game, when the time comes to GET SERIOUS with a companion for romance, it is made quite obvious if for no other reason than you're talking SOLELY to that companion. Plus, there's no stupid "ARE YOU SURE?" line like you're a dummy, it's just very obvious by the dialogue and the sole focus on that companion what is about to happen.

I thought his death was pretty abrupt. He just runs into view yelling, "Self-sacrifice!" and dies. I think the writers were trying to make it mean something since HK is very blunt and direct, so for him to say it that way would have "hit the feels" as they say, but it came across too ham-fisted for my taste, but that's me. I'm of the view that HK needs to be put on the shelf for a while, as his character's starting to suffer from overuse, so I wasn't very sad about his absence. For the game, though, I thought it was humorous how the characters made a few throwaway remarks about his death and that was it. Unintentionally, I think, the writers cemented the point that SW characters in general don't give a rip about droids.

If that's true then I've apparently missed the romance with her, as I did what you did...assumed the flirt was for Theran and just picked to talk to Lana. We chatted, and that was it. I have kissed her and almost kissed her before Koth ruined it, and I figured that was enough to get things rolling. I guess we'll see how things go post chapter 9.

Haha that was one of the main reasons I created a new lvl 60. I head-canoned him as a brand new character so I could romance Lana and my other 60s could be true to their respective gals (Risha and Kira).

The issue is this: a lot of players do want more story, but story is very quickly consumed. Please recall the devs (Ohlen, I think) commenting that they expected players to go through a class story in a matter of months, when in fact players were blasting through it in weeks. Therefore, devs spend months producing what will be eaten up in weeks, maybe days (the ease of the KotFE content doesn't help this). Then, those same players who requested story will float off to other games and eat up those games' content. Meanwhile, end game/pvp players are far fewer, but will stick around longer. So...who should BW cater to, the more numerous short term folks, or the fewer long term folks? I'm not suggesting I have the answer, but I'd wager that's the talks BW has in regards to the direction to take the game.

What clued me off was the war table on Odessen and Odessen as a refuge a la Skyhold or even Haven. But yes, the OP's examples make sense, especially you getting iced long enough for galactic scenery to change, new factions to take over...almost like Bioware moving the cardboard backdrops in a play after the curtain has dropped. I wasn't a fan of the story either way, but I can understand the principle of borrowing elements from more successful stories (or in this case, games). Writers of all mediums do this. What matters is if those elements can be given a fresh spin that contains the spirit of the element from its source but a new, creative coat of paint to engage the player. I don't feel this was pulled off in KotFE. Everything was so by-the-numbers, as others have pointed out. For me the worst offenders were bland characters, particularly the villains, who just had absolutely no spice to them. Vaylin and Arcann should have been at each others' throats, to the point of competing for the throne. Even the most cursory glance at the historical accounts of familial lineage as it relates to a throne shows siblings were always VERY ready to exile, displace, incriminate, or straight up murder one another for the top seat. Especially given that the SW universe, as presented by Bioware, seems quite egalitarian in letting the gals be leaders.

I felt that way back in chapter 3 when you're escaping with Lana and you run into wave after wave of three sky troopers. It just becomes so, so monotonous. Chapter 7 and 8 are terrible with it, too. It's literally like the devs couldn't figure out anything more inventive to throw at you (even variations of enemies to make you change up tactics a bit) than waves of the exact same enemy. I'm sitting there, staring blankly at the screen, pressing different attack keys just to kill trash over and over again.

Very good point. It feels like a group of people/soldiers/characters who just get to use the Force and lightsabers because those are the "cool" toys of the SW universe, huh? This is a problem that all of Star Wars stories, whether prequels or EU, have had for a while. I call it Force/lightsaber abuse. Basically, Jedi/Sith are recognized universally as the "big boys" of the galaxy (maybe the Mandalorians could be included in there...maybe) and therefore writers (video games, novels, comics, TV shows, even Lucas himself) use them and their powers ALL THE TIME. In SWTOR, literally any moment a Jedi/Sith is confronted by anything, they pull their lightsabers. And what happens? With such overuse, the powerful image of the Jedi igniting his lightsaber is rendered terribly ordinary. Not to keep taking everything back to the OT, but whenever somebody pulled a lightsaber it was a BIG DEAL. Business was about to pick up. Now, you feel like if a mouse droid made a threatening noise to a Jedi, he'd pull his lightsaber. Because everybody loves those, right? Same with Zakuul. It's like the writers for the story thought, hmm, we need a new civilization that's as bad as the Jedi or Sith...hmm, what to do...I know, let's give them lightsabers and Force use!! The mystique, aura and coolness of the lightsaber and Force use have been watered down so much that pulling a lightsaber is just as routine as pulling a blaster. Everyone has one.

I agree with this quite a bit. It's like rather than iron out the complexities around the story you've told so far and keep it going (I'd argue with a strong enough vision you could get 5+ expansions out of a Repub/Sith Cold War or all-out War), somebody just decided to hit the reset button and go OT.

You know, I don't even mind a Big New Bad Guy coming down the pipe, but I felt like the Zakuul Empire was just a lazily re-written Sith Empire, gold and white instead of black and grey. There's absolutely nothing remarkable about them. They have a bunch of neat looking capital ships that...just look neat then get blown up by the Gravestone. Arcann and Vaylin are so generic they might as well be in a B-movie. Vaylin aping the whole "I kill my minions because I'm evil hahaha" is done so badly it's laughable. She even says at one point, "I killed another because I'd killed three and I hate odd numbers." I'm like, really?

Yip. I had a 60 smuggler and a 50 JK, and since I wanted to romance Lana and I didn't want to ruin the romances with Risha and Kira, I created a new JK and thought of him as my old JK's little brother. My old JK was the great hero of the 1-50 story, and the new one kind of was off doing other things during that time. Now, it's sort of like the new one's time has come while the old one is busy doing, well, whatever he's doing. Whenever Kira or the others speak about him or to him in the beginning, I just thought of it as friendship talk...the old companions knew of my new JK, he was just always in the shadows during the 1-50 story. Same with the dialogue with Lana when she's like, it's great to see you again. I figure she's met the new JK on occasion while adventuring with the old JK in Shadows of Revan. Oh, and my old JK was a pretty by-the-book good guy (my smuggler was my grey area character) so I'm playing the new JK as a bit more rebellious, more willing to push the boundaries and hear out what Valkorion has to say. We'll see!

I thought Shan was better (that may be what you're saying) if for no other reason than he wasn't "trying." He just did his thing. I'd prefer just a standard, serious character (a bit like Lana, really) over a "trying" character any day. And that's what's so obvious with Koth. The writers are "trying" to make him this lovable rogue, and for me at least, it just comes across as annoying. On the Gravestone, Lana and my guy were starting to get romantic when Koth knocks some stuff over to get our attention and obviously stop the mood. I mean, a suave, cool character would never, ever do that. The action made Koth come across as the whiny, jealous "other" guy who has to spoil it for the two kids about to do a little kiss-y kiss kiss since he can't get a girl himself. Now, his action may not have meant to be interpreted that way, but that's sure what it looked like. The suave guy would A. already have the girl or B. move on. Oh and the part where he says, "I guess I'll go fix the ship by myself..." loudly and stalks out. I'm thinking, uh, well, you're the ship guy. I'm the Jedi, Lana's a Sith, Seyna's a Zakuul knight and HK is a droid. So, um, yeah, you should shut up and do your part and go fix the **** ship. Han Solo did not whine about Luke, Leia, the droids or Obi Wan fixing the Falcon. He just went and FIXED THE FALCON, because he knows about ships and how they work. Sorry, a bit of a rant but Koth has to be one of the most annoying companions I've seen in a Bioware game (or any game) in a very long time. About on the level as Corso.

I'm on chapter 6, and from what I've seen so far, it's all quite dull. The twist near the beginning is good, and you actually get excited...until you realize the villains are completely dull. They're bad guys because the story tells us they're bad guys. I was hoping for some kind of drama between Arcann and Vaylin, and maybe that's coming, but so far they're just a dull brother/sister set. No intriguing interactions, no drama, no jockeying for power...nothing to add spice to the villains. Koth is pure, pure annoying. He's such a standard rogue. Absolutely nothing to like about him. The tension between he and Senya feels forced. HK-55 is okay, but proof that the HK character may need to be retired for a while. HK is the definition of diminishing returns. Lana's the only companion I care about. The questing is so empty. At one point, I get a choice to go with Lana or Koth. I pick Lana, and we do a quest. I come back, then discover I have to do Koth's quest, too. As in, it wasn't really a choice. On top of that, I have to go right back out into the EXACT SAME AREA as Lana's quest, only now I'm grabbing Koth's items. There's a superweapon ship, which confronts a fleet of hundreds of other ships, and somehow manages to escape into hyperspace. I get that the ship has a Big Gun, but really? It destroyed what, like 2% of the Eternal Fleet and somehow, with dozens and dozens of capital ships unloading turbolasers on its butt, the ship is able to escape. Riiiight. The story just seems lazy. I really hope something juicy's coming down the pipe in the next few chapters, because all of it just seems so...done before. Unoriginal. Standard stuff for a Star Wars story.