So I just re-watched the first three movies and I realized something: cinematic fights are all about evasion/parrying and then eventually one (or up to 3-4) landing blows that end it. This isn't consistent with TOR's mechanics. Instead, you can hit something well over 200 times before killing it. This extends to TOR's fresh-from-combat cinematics where you have LS/DS choices of killing or not -- after hitting them 200 times, often the DS choice will be hitting them one more time for the kill.

 

How is this explained/supported by the lore? How do you keep immersion from breaking with this in consideration?

Game mechanics are not canon. This is said time and time again. Having "abilities" and a "force meter" alone defies lore and the entire leveling system is based on basic rpg mechanics, not Star Wars lore. Edited March 10, 2012 by Forgon

So... you just ignore it? That's disappointing.

Well..theres nothing else but to ignore it. Its like that in most fighting/FPS games, you can only take so many hits until it becomes unrealistic in terms of someone can survive such a beating...or somehow taking a .357 magnum round to the chest and still live. So game mechanics sometimes need to take priority over realistic and in this case lore aspects, otherwise players would die from one shot with a blaster or swing of a saber. Edited March 10, 2012 by Wolfninjajedi

Just think of it in cinematic terms. . . "hit points" aren't actual health, but a measure of "combat longevity." The more you block, dodge, parry, evade, and so on, the more "combat longevity" (i.e., hit points) you use up, until, BOOM, the hit happens that you cannot block/dodge/parry/evade, because you're out of "hit points" (i.e., combat longevity.)

That's what I was looking for! <3