2/10

 

Warning: Post is filled with spoilers from the Jedi Consular's story.

It had a good start on Tython I felt. Repercussions to your actions, and you actually had to pay attention to things you were being taught, a very good start. Then at level 10, the good story ends and a new one begins.

 

Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 was just plain bad. First thing I'm going to nitpick on is the fact that Bastila was part of the noetikons. I read the Revan book before the game was released and I want to remember that she was no longer part of the Jedi Order. At the end of the book (second warning, stop reading now if you don't want any spoilers) Bastila sits with her son and her grandchildren. When did she have time to become part of the noetikons? Unnecessary reference that didn't add to the experience. Quite the contrary, in fact.

 

Throughout chapter 1 you do the same thing over and over. You do not collect any clues. You hear the name Parkanas on Coruscant. Then you hear the name Vivicar on Taris. Malachor 3, things went bad, we all get it. Even if you wouldn't get it, your character will. The story writing was so bad, that before the last stage of chapter 1 your character is on auto-dialogue, explaining things. Things that your character could have figured out before going to Tatooine.

 

And there are NO repercussions. On Coruscant I was actually immersed in the story, I loved that my character had to sacrifice herself in order to save others. And being a roleplayer, I thought that towards the end of chapter 1 my character would perhaps let a person die in order to preserve herself, not because she's evil but, rather, she's weak as a Jedi. Never happened. I didn't see any effect from saving all the Jedi, so I kept saving them. "But why do you look so weak?" yeah, that got old on Coruscant...

 

At the end of the story, I decided to kill Lord Vivicar. I do not doubt that you could have saved him but I really didn't feel like going for such an ending. So I killed him, and I was contacted on my holo that my master was dying. But when I head back to Tython, my master is there among the other jedi and congratulates me on becoming a Barsen'thor. What the hell is a Barsen'thor? I sure as hell haven't heard of it. Besides, I pretty much failed with my mission, causing hundreds, maybe even thousands of great jedi masters to die (if the guilt trip I got in the mailbox is any indicator). Yeah, I'm Barsen'thor... no, that title sucked and every time I was called Barsen'thor I cringed.

 

Chapter 2:

I started chapter 2 in Feberuary, but I got so damn fed up with the story that I quit the character altogether for several months. I picked up my character again in May, and levelled her to 50 through PvP, and I continued the story in August. That's how impressed I was by the Jedi Consular story.

 

The story starts with you trying to save a bunch of politicians or something on a ship, right? The ship is haywire and set to crash on a planet, and everyone on board is dead or something other than that, correct? Someone comes up with a plan to blow one of the engines so that the ship will crash onto a nearby moon, which in my opinion sounds like a decent idea. Then a young girl intervenes, saying that she can.. steer the ship into the atmosphere or some other crap like that? And she's got no piloting experience whatsoever? And the ship is, apparently, very, very big. Alright. No. Not in a thousand years, no. I get that Qui-gon made a stupid bet on chance, trusting a kid he'd just met. That's a whole different thing.

 

So no, I decided that "pfft, the ship can't possibly be large enough to alter the orbital path of a moon." Turns out, I was wrong. I get another nice guilt-trip in my mailbox explaining about excessive floods on the planet the ship was bound to crash on. So my character had ruined a planet in addition to causing several hundreds/thousands of jedi to die, and she's the Barsen'thor, an exemplary Jedi of the Jedi Order.

 

So moving on... the plot is that we have a spy on board our ship, I think? Again, I took like a 6 months break from the story. We set out to help the Rift Alliance because the good ol' bearded man told us to. I loved that guy, by the way, he was awesome. We help Tai Cordan with Balmorra and pretty much liberate the entire planet and meet up with Zenith, our first decent companion. I liked Qyzen, but he really didn't have much of a place in the consular story. It felt like he was there so that Consulars could have a cool alien with them. Zenith, however, was cool. Merciless towards imps and could probably be perceived as a bad guy. I like him.

 

I can't remember anything from Quesh except for the obvious choice of either making medical supplies or weapons with some venom. I didn't care and just told the fish to do what he thought was best, and then I scolded the rift alliance for keeping secrets from me. Then on Hoth we... chased a guy with some prototype armor and met Lt Iresso, who then asked to be stationed on our ship. He's an alright companion, I suppose. It just... feels like the consular companions do not fit with the story as well as other classes companions do. You have no reason to take these people with you, aside from Zenith and Nadia. Don't get me started on Tharan and his ridiculous pink holo.

 

And, the conclusion of chapter 2! Royalty is being attacked on some ship and Jimmy the Slim was the Sith Lord all along. That blew my mind. He was a body type 1, for crying out loud! He was no imposing figure at all! And the change in his attitude made me think of stories that children come up with. "Ahahaha! I was the bad guy all along, you fool! And now, I shall crush you with the strength of the dark side, because I'm also a super arrogant ****!" No. Just no. No. NO! The idea is okay but it's executed in such a bad way I'm afraid my face might just merge with the palm of my hand.

 

You then learn of the children of the Emperor, because the Sith teaches that one must always give up ones secrets before death. "You are about to kill me but let me first tell you of the network of spies the Emperor has planted in your Republic! Mwahahaha, now I'll die with a smile on my lips, knowing that you are all doomed and that you cannot use this information that I gave you to stop the Emperor's plans."

 

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3 had the worst beginning ever. So you learn of the Children of the Emperor, and that was my main concern at the time. The Jedi, however, was more concerned that they didn't have an army large enough to fight the Empire. I didn't think much of it, I mean, what could be done? The jedi had apparently repaired the noetikons and you get to talk with those guys again. They ask me if I managed to save my master's life, and my options were: Yes. Yes. Nevermind that let's talk about business. Funny thing though, SHE DIED. Or I think she did, that's what Syo Bakarn said on the holo... but she was there at my ceremony... but the mail said she was dead... Excellent story writing right there.

 

Anyways, moving on. The only thing I thought to ask the Noetikons was about the existence of the Children of the Emperor, and how such a thing would even be impossible. Do I get to ask such a question? No! I get to ask how to magically conjure up an army for the Republic. WHAT?! Aah... *mind blown*... that's when I stopped for another week or so, to recover. Anyways, moving on (again), you travel to Hoth, talk with some Rakata, learn about the Esh-khas. The Esh-khas are a brutal race but some of them are nice. You recruit the nice ones. Woop, Esh-khas in the republic, the galaxy is saved.

 

Moving on to Voss... actually, from here the story is almost okay. What happened after Belsavis is the only reason I'm giving the story a 2/10. If there's one thing the Consular story really lacks, it's character growth. We don't get to know our opponents until we beat the snot out of them. That's bad. That's extremely bad. However, we do get to know the fat pale guy on our ship quite well. I didn't like his character too much, he was always so positive and happy about things. Awful traits, am I right? Well, when he died I actually felt something. I felt for Nadia, and for the first time in the story I actually cared.

 

I thought I would hate to have Nadia as my companion, but I was wrong. She's exactly what I wanted to see in a padawan companion. She's eager to learn, yet she's also struggling with her emotions, and she lacks self-confidence. She had a very nice character and I genuinely liked talking to her on my ship. Although I did teach her that it was okay to use force powers to keep that pesky pervy freeloader Tharan F#"&"&"&!rax at bay. In fact, if I could, I would encourage her to choke him and throw him out the airlock, but alas, she wasn't that good of a companion.

 

Helping the Mystic on Voss was a good story in itself. For the first time in the entire consular story, you did something that was more "down to Earth." No liberating entire planets or killing sith lords that are thousands of years old and stuff. Nope. Just helping a Voss mystic in order to gain his favour. That was sweet. I genuinely liked Voss. Then they had to go and screw it up at the end. Your contact-person was another child of the emperor. In hindsight, child of the emperor is such a fitting term, because they all acted like little children.

 

The fact that Syo Bakarn was the first son of the Emperor didn't come as a surprise to me at all. It's just a shame that Syo Bakarn lacked character throughout the entire story. He was a monotome old man that I really didn't care for. Had they done a better job on his character, then the ending of the consular story would have been pretty sweet.

 

They sold the story of the Jedi Consular as "seeking the mysteries of the force," but I didn't feel that at all. You're a padawan up until level 10, and you beat a full-fledged jedi master around level 15. Of course, she was sick and insane so maybe you had an advantage there... but still, my character didn't feel "mortal," for lack of a better word. Your character is essentially Superman with an immunity to kryptonite.

 

The story could have been good, but it was delivered in such a poor fashion. If I could change something about chapter 1, I would make this change: Every jedi that you save shows up to help you in the struggle against Lord Vivicar. If you save all jedi your character should be significantly weaker, not in the actual game but at least in the cutscenes. If you do not save any of the Jedi, then you remain strong, and it makes more sense if you can take on Lord Vivicar that way. I mean, the story literally tells us that our very young jedi is at his/her weakest stage when going to face Lord Vivicar, an ancient Sith Lord who has the power to subdue thousands of jedi masters... I know it's a fantasy sci-fi setting, but even within its own rules, that just doesn't make any sense.

 

Pleasure finally writing a long rant about this, it's something I've wanted to do for quite some time.

 

[Edit] Reading my own post, I seem to have forgot to mention that the good ol' bearded man disappeared from the story without notice. He started our journey with the rift alliance, and at the end of the story, we meet up with Saresh? That in itself is also extremely poor storytelling, in my opinion.

 

This is why the writer of the story was "let go", there is no question about it, even if it's speculation. I haven't leveled mine fully yet, but I really lost interest in doing so, after reading this. I read it because I didn't care about spoilers as I have already read that the story is poor, this just puts the icing on the cake, just in the negative sense.

 

I really wanted to make a shadow for PvP, I guess I'll just PvP to 50, along with some planet missions I suppose.

 

I've also read the Revan novel and it disappoints me that she (the writer of this story) pisses all over everything Drew wrote.

 

9/10

 

if you liked kotor 2 more than kotor 1 you will prob like it.

 

if you preferred kotor 1 you prob wont like it as much

 

its very good for the archetype(force mystic-ey) and fits my picture of a perfect jedi well, one who prefers not to fight, but will if necessary, one who focuses on diplomacy, and when they do have to fight, tries to fight defensively, trying to convince the enemy to stand down, rather than to just defeat them, one who is a master of healing, rather than offence(yes i realise you can spec for damage--i usually do myself. but the archetype as a whole is kind of the traditional priest or cleric with a healing and shielding focus)

 

it also has plenty of epic heroicness to suit my tastes as well. knight story was trying to hard, and you saw it coming from level 1. consular focuses much more on the war as a whole(which is why i prefer the republic--they focus on the actualy war whereas the big epic point of all the sith classes other than bh and to a much lesser extent IA is climbing the social ladder to win the evil peoples popularity contest). consular also gets to fight a...well,

a bunch of jedi masters, showing the consular epicness considering the consular was weakened while fighting them from doing all the shielding techniques, and still could defeat all those masters

. my overall favorite story, next being trooper, then knight, then BH then smuggler, then IA, then inquisitor, then warrior

 

I generally liked KoToR 2 better, because it had better game play, the crafting tables had better option. But the story in KoToR 1 was a little better.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Fallerup

Rate the Jedi Consular's storyline 1-10.

 

Never had that great story line in an mmo what goes true 1-till max lvl. There where few what picked my interest for a few quests, but then its starts to be a common mmo story line plagiarism, not like here in swtor.

 

10/10 I like the hidden Hermes line in it , )

If there would be a new consular AC, I would roll it to 50 as well.

 

6/10 - smugler ( I felt like my character is non-stop chewing bubble-gum, and I was wondering when he starts singing Elvis)

2/10 - trooper (Sir yes Sir, roger that, Sir yes Sir, roger that....)

I'd rate it 6 of 10 as well. I've completed Knight, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter and Consular. I enjoyed the Knight story by far the best. Agent would rate next...Consular..solid 6. BH was about the same as consular, so so. Trooper/Commando seems the most ugtastic boring to me for my lvl 34 character. Having a hard time advancing. My inquisitor also has an unexciting storyline at lvl 24. Edited October 22, 2012 by Cooltrip

7/10

 

enjoyed all 3 chapters, found that in some other toons the second chapter lagged (BH was worst for this) but enjoyed the story throughout including the first chapter which seems maligned by a fair few here

 

Corellia was especially enjoyable.

 

Iresso and especially Zenith were dull. Nadia was sweet, Qyzen alright and Theran/Holiday amusing

 

An enjoyable playthrough overall. Done BH, SW and IA. As far as stories go

 

BH 5/10

SW 7/10

IA 8/10

JC 7/10

I initially would of quoted it around an 8 or 9 out of 10 as it kept engaged the whole storyline and the handling of the shadow (even though I went single saber and yes it is viable but at a minor dps loss). Although after playing the Imperial agent storyline and comapting the two it drops to around a 6/10 IMHO. Mileage may vary.

I thought it was a solid 8 or 9. If you go into it with the mindset that it is not really about you, but rather that it is about setting in motion a bunch of events that will cause greater change, it can be very interesting. As a Consular player, I envisioned my character as a diplomat, so I thought this worked out really well for me.

 

I can understand why some players would dislike it though.

 

My only gripe is that the two romanceable companions join so late in the game that any romance with them feels rushed and forced.

Edited November 16, 2012 by SnakeAes

One of my favourites.

So much so I have played it twice through and look forward to doing it again sometime in the future.

Admittedly its not a story for everyone. But if you like Politics, Diplomacy and knowledge rather than smashing your way to victory, its a winner.

8/10 for me.

(Didnt like the ending so much).

JC: 3 (boooring)

Tr: 2 (the 1 extra point is for C1 being at least somewhat interesting)

JK: 8 (would be 10 if C1 wasn't so boring)

Sm: 5 (average)

 

IA: 9 (awesome. very personal but with the greater good in mind)

SW: 9 (love it. the companions being amazing is a nice bonus)

SI: 7 (The entire story is about you personally which I like)

BH: ? (haven't gotten past Alderaan yet)

 

 

Oh look Empire has the better stories. Who'd have thought?

JC: 3 (boooring)

Tr: 2 (the 1 extra point is for C1 being at least somewhat interesting)

JK: 8 (would be 10 if C1 wasn't so boring)

Sm: 5 (average)

 

IA: 9 (awesome. very personal but with the greater good in mind)

SW: 9 (love it. the companions being amazing is a nice bonus)

SI: 7 (The entire story is about you personally which I like)

BH: ? (haven't gotten past Alderaan yet)

 

 

Oh look Empire has the better stories. Who'd have thought?

 

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I don't think the JC story is boring at all, and I'm shocked that anyone likes the Inqusitor story which was absurd from beginning to end. But that's the rub, people can like different things.

5 out of 10. I'd give it more, but the chapter one felt very clunky. You really didn't know much about the protagonist until they very end, when it's pretty much dumped on you. I would have loved little teasers along they way....like brief encounters where you catch up to him, have a brief fight, then he escapes at the last minute. Or he surprises you, and you get away only through luck or a comp saves you or whatever.

 

thread in a few of those, and a little more progression then "who is parkanas....who is parkanas....who is..oh its him." that's really what it felt like. By the end of it I was commenting on each conversation, "Oh, let me guess. you found ANOTHER jedi that is corrupted. And you want ME to save them...again."

 

What about having us go to a planet for some benign reason...like freeing a group of outcasts on nar shadaa from slavery, and encountering him there, and being saved by one of the corrupt jedi who went there to hide from the guilt of betraying parkanas then we have a story weaved in with this jedi who is fighting their guilt and is helping us to free the slaves as a way of assuaging themselves.

 

that would be the perfect way to get more of the parkanas story in. without giving away that it was parkanas. He could call himself Darth something....like the old darth that took over him. so you know that the jedi betrayed parkanas, but no clue who this mysterious sith lord is that keeps infecting the jedi. Then...at the last battle on Nar Shadaa, your guilt ridden friend finally gives in to the guilt and parkanas takes hold, and we have to fight them. and once we beat them, parkanas is exposed. brief fight with him and he escapes. said guilty jedi has no clue who the mysterious sith lord is, but we've had a taste of him now. and somehow parkanas is connected.

 

I mean, that right there is interesting. you have a huge effort to save innocent lives, a grieving and guilt laden superior jedi to assist you, a personal struggle perhaps (don't like what the jedi did, hoping to help him turn around through freeing the slaves...). you have weakness, challenge, triumph, betrayal, and are left with a mysterious sith lord, slipping away at the last moment, barely missing your grasp. The current story has no connection with the overlying plot. you fight a bunch of mobs, fight a jedi gone bad, and they all say "were sorry parkanas!" then in a 10 second conversation on your ship, the entire plot catches up with what you just did. blech.

 

There were so many different ways they could have done each planet. It would honestly take me about 2 hours to put together a plot line for my above idea that would trump every planet in the first chapter. I've no clue why they had this wash-rinse-repeat cycle with the consular story. If it weren't for chapter 2, I probably would have given the story a 2 or 3.

 

Chapter two saves the whole series. if they had simply made ch. 1 a bit more interesting, it would have been an awesome story, but i can't give it much higher then an Okay and doable. I mean...compare it to the smuggler story! from the get go, your ship is stolen, your dealing with thugs and con-artists to get info on who took your ship, you finally get it back to find a stowaway on it...and then your on a wild goose chase to find an immense treasure from a legendary crook!. By the end of Coruscant, i was firmly wrapped into the story and loving it. on my consular i had to take yawn breaks.I haven't even got past Taris and the smuggler story has more interesting stuff then the entire ch.1 of the consular.