|| JEDI KNIGHT || Chapter One –>
So here we are again. Another class in my sights. This time I’ve decided to do it a bit differently, and I’ll probably try to keep these reviews more so in this format than the previous one with the Sith Inquisitor. Namely it will be more of a general overview of the story, with much less detail on the individual worlds that they take place on. There will still be some spoiler-ish material, so please be warned, but I won’t go into the individual world story lines and instead focus on the general story of each act and my opinions of it. So let’s see if this works a bit better for people.
So, the Jedi Knight – a classic hero archetype if there ever was one. I personally played a very, VERY light side Jedi Knight because they really appeal to that idea of the self-sacrificing heroic lawful good paladin. I only racked up a total of 150 dark side points and most of that comes from skirting the Jedi Code with Miss Kira, but we’ll get to that later. For now let us set our sights on the prologue of the Jedi Knight’s tale.
The first twenty levels are a very slow build up. A mysterious fallen Jedi has been rabble rousing the local flesh reavers into a frenzy and its up to you to stop him. The story on Tython doesn’t really play too much into the overall story much at all really. All it does is establish you as someone who knows how to get the job done to the Jedi Council so they can send you off to your first relevant mission. But it’s not a bad little self contained story. The mystery is somewhat interesting and the interactions give you a lot of chances to be a goody goodie or a mister bend-the-rules-Jedi. Including a chance to flirt with some of the locals. There’s some nice minor twists in the plot that keep it somewhat interesting for the extent of the ten levels you’ll be going through it.
During your time on Tython, you’ll meet fascinating characters like your master, Master Whats-his-face. No seriously, this guy has next to no personality other than his fabulous voice acting. He’s gruff, he believes that the Force has a plan for all of us, and you’re first padawan in some time. Other than those details, you don’t get much from him. Hell, I got a better impression from Kira’s former master, Kiwiks, than I ever did from my own master. Yet despite only training under him for a short time before you are made a knight and sent off to Coruscant, you’re supposed to develop this deep Father/Child like relationship with him that plays out. I guess this is a lot like Obi-Wan in the original films. Luke trusted the crazy old man in the desert a wee bit too quickly in my opinion. Even if he hesistated on the idea of coming with Old Man Kenobi to Alderaan, he bought the whole “I knew your dad.” thing without a second thought, and do we really need to remember the first in a series of overdramatic NOOOOOOOO’s we get in the series comes from Luke seeing Obi-Wan get smacked by Vader after only knowing the guy for what seems like maybe a day or two. Crap, Luke didn’t even get that worked up about his Uncle and Aunt dying and they freaking RAISED him. Anyway, in short, Master Whats-His-Face is Obi-Wan.
The other couple of characters you meet include your first introduction to Kira Carsen – your soon to be padawan and potential love interest for the guys (Fetish here! Get your Teacher-Student fetish here! Only 15 levels in! Get it while it’s hot!), Master Satele Shan, daughter of Gary and Mary Stu, and the best companion in the entire storyline: T7! Which I am sad to admit I didn’t get to use nearly as much as I wanted because I was a Guardian advanced spec. Seems to be my lot in these games, I never pick the right abilities to use the cute companions. Didn’t need Blizz for my Powertech either. But T7 is hands down one of the most delightful and entertaining companions in the game. Perhaps it’s the simplistic nature of his DroidSpeak? “T7+Jedi=Best Friends Forever” is a pretty darn adorable way of communicating. Plus T7 is always so eager to help, optimistic and cheerful. I honestly felt a bit bad when T7 would give me a -1 Affection eye roll. I mean, if Kira or Doc does it – screw it, have a gift – but for T7 I felt like I let the little guy down.
Anyway, after busting the bad Jedi, getting your saber, and becoming “Your Name Knight of the Republic” – a title that has no punctuation, so it seems like your last name is Knight, which is even funnier with a legacy name since that becomes your middle name (Vrykarion Vrykerion Knight… of the Republic) – you are finally sent on your way to Coruscant. Coruscant is more or less the actual prelude to act one of the story, but it comes off as completely unnecessary. You spend 6-10 levels wandering around the city attempting to track down a Sith lord that has stolen the files on several secret military weapons around the galaxy. There’s a bit of twist at the end when they reveal who the Sith lord actually was, and even more so that he’s the son of a bigger and more important sith lord. This essentially gives the Daddy Sith Lord a reason to hate you for the whole of act one and to send his goons after you.
That however is where the problem for me lies. He doesn’t NEED a personal reason to come after me. I am a Jedi Knight that is on a mission to stop him and his plans to build a doomsday device. The whole “you killed my son” plotline does nothing but bog it all down. Instead of fighting off his servants to save the worlds from military experiments turned against their former masters, you get a bunch of nitwits picking fights with you over their bosses personal baggage. Was being a threat to his plan not enough of a reason to want me removed from the picture?
As for characters, the Jedi gets the most companions the quickest out of any character I believe. Getting T7 on your starting world, and then Kira Carsen part of the way through Coruscant. While it seems weird to be having your own padawan before you hit level 20, it’s fun to have Kira around. She has a nice rebellious Jedi thing that works well with both Light Side and Dark Side Jedi. The Light Side has a pupil that you can teach, and the Dark Side has what essentially amounts to an enabler. Kira also has probably one of the biggest interactions with the actual class storyline I’ve ever seen during Act One, but I think we’ll save that for when we actually discuss that storyline. However, because of that heavy narrative interaction it makes sense that you would get to know her early. Heck, you actually first meet on Tython when she’s sassing off with her then-master Kiwiks. On that note, is it normal for Jedi Knights and Masters to just pass around padawans like interns? Kira essentially gets handed off to you and suddenly she’s YOUR padawan. What happened to training with Master Kiwiks? Do I need to fill out some paper work?
T7 on the other hand is just an adorable yes-droid/cheerleader. I love him. That’s all I have to say about that.
In the end, the prologue for the Jedi Knight is decent at best. I have often compared to be the inverse of the Bounty Hunter. The Bounty Hunter starts amazingly and kind of dwindles in the second and third acts, where as the Jedi Knight starts simple and can be borderline boring but ramps up the epic storyline the further you get. Because of this, I supposed it’s a bit hard to judge the prologue on it’s own. There’s a lot of people I’ve seen get turned off on the class story because of this first bit, and it’s sad. All I can really say is – Yes, the storyline is a bit dull at the start. It’s the Fellowship of the Rings, lot’s of walking and talking and only a few colorful dashes of actions. But believe me, you’ll hit Two Towers/Return of the King territory soon enough and you will not regret playing this story at all by the end. But that’s a tale for next time when we delve into Act One. See you then!
And as always, I appreciate any feedback on these posts as I figure out a good formula for them.
|| JEDI KNIGHT || Chapter One –>
Vrykerion 
You might want to mention how incompetent the republic military is as well 😉 well that’s what I thought while playing the Jedi Knight prologue XD
I honestly laughed out loud when I saw the “Fetishes! Get your Fetishes here!” bit XD Jolly Good show that 😀
Oh believe me, the Republic Military will get an earful when I get into Act One and talk about their “secret projects”. 🙂
I’m glad I’m not the only one who was slightly confused about how Kira becomes your padawan. I thought I had just missed or forgotten about some important part of the story during my frequent alt-hopping, because at first she was just travelling with me as a temporary measure and then she was suddenly my padawan. I was never really sure when exactly that happened…
You would think there would be some kind of formal process to transfer padawans. But it appears that the Jedi Council was pretty lax in the Old Republic. Heck, even when you become a knight it’s kind of like “Yea. Sure. Whatever. You’re a Jedi now. Go to Coruscant.”
Yeah, you’d think there’d be some sort of certificate to be handed out… or at least a little party. 😛
There is some lax Padawan action in the Jedi Consular story as well, but it is much later on, so at least you get a feeling that you are prepared to take on a Padawan.
As a side note to feedback on the class stories, I think it has been great so far. General overview of what you do, and important points. My favorite parts are when you relate it to something, like in the Sith Inquisitor one when you talk about being a gopher for the Sith. That, I think, gives the best impression about what is going on in the story at that point.
Ive recently played through my second jedi knight, at char creation, i had an idea that he would be an easygoing and funny jedi, bit arrogant in “don’t worry ladies, I’m here to save the day” kinda way. But the dialog choices weren’t there and most of the time when i thought i was choosing one of those, my character just came out as an total jerk.
Also, you get some dialog choices when a new companion is being introduced, which you can do only then, eg while on hoth, you can say to rusks soldiers “if you cant do your job, you are worthless” on multiple occasions, but that aspect of your personality can be displayed only on hoth, otherwise the choices are just not there.
But what frustrated me the most, which i didn’t notice on my first play through, there are SO MANY dialog choices in lieu of “why am i the only one who can handle this? don’t i get some backup? or maybe someone more experienced should save everything for once?” which kinda highlights my problem with JK storyline, he gets so important so fast that its hard for me to suspense my disbelief. I get it, I’m the best at what i do (stabbin’ fools with light sticks), but still “this is a threat to the whole order, you deal with it padawan while I, a jedi master, will sit here and meditate.” Consular had at least some unique powers with the healing ritual, but knight just jumps around and drops bodies.
Not sure if you’re still doing this. But it’s been a help in getting back in the game and remembering where I left lol. Thanks bioware for making a story summary tab… Anyways the only thing that bothers is the lack of names. Master-whats-his-face and “some sith lords son” really don’t allow you to connect back in to the game.
Thanks for the feedback! The lack of names thing comes from the fact that this was always meant to be a fun, silly review of the storyline and not a comprehensive summary of the events. I ended up using names like that for characters that – while they are apart of the narrative – never made the impact or effort that caused me to learn the characters names.
Darth Angral is a major antagonist for the course of the first chapter, his son? A minor annoyance for 1/3rd of one planet. Your master – who after replaying the story a half dozen times since this review was originally written I know is named Orgus Din – is pretty much a glorified babysitter and quest giver. So when I wrote this review which was almost 5 years ago, he didn’t make much of an impression on me. Still doesn’t to be honest.
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