Hey, I've recently finished KotOR 1, and can anybody please enlighten me, how is it that reviews laud its story in such superlatives, whereas in reality it's a whole bunch of Bioware clichés coupled with general gaming clichés... Chosen one, only you can save the world, evil guy for the sake of being evil blah blah and all those NPCs behaving irrationaly "I hate you" -> show him an item -> "now I see the truth I was wrong" lol, wish people got convinced like that in RL (by me, of course). One plot twist in the middle and one interesting character (HK-47) and some interesting pieces of Sith philosophy (that probably came from Star Wars sourcebooks rather than Bioware itself) didn't justify all those 70 hours it took to finish. There are so many examples of more interesting writing even in the gaming world, even by Bioware itself I just can't phathom how such a generic story could be labelled great by anyone (or "greatest ever", as one reviewer exclaims).

Now, since I have KotOR2 I decided to give it a try since it was made by Obsidian for a change... I'm on Telos, and so far it seems like Obsidian managed to turn this whole thing on it's head, the dialogues and characters seem quite interesting, the intrigue less blatantly obvious. My first question: will this trend continue? Or will it devolve again soon into yet another copypaste of generic clichés?

The one problem with Kotor2 though is the whole crafting/upgrades thing. Ugh, such a time consuming mess, with an extremely clunky UI. No way to tell easily what I already have, equipped by whom, who can craft what and why and I expect it's all gonna get compounded when the roster gets bigger.... Tell me please, if I ignore this whole system, will that handicap me too much so that the game becomes too frustrating? (or perhaps I need to go old-school style and make notes on the side to keep track of the thing lol, I did finish the old Might and Magic after all xD)

Here we go again...

Again? Elaborate?

No. It's pointless.

You are a Planescape fanatic with entrenched ideas, who is over in the BG forum and here dissing anything that's not Planescape. I won't waste my time, that's why I said it's pointless.

It seems to me that it is you that has made up your mind quickly and entrenched yourself. "Dissing anything that's not Planescape" lol. As if I haven't made enough references to other games and what they did right (in the BG thread). As if I haven't pointed out that I did have fun with Baldur's Gate. As if I haven't pointed out that KotOR2 starts out quite good.

I'm currently playing both KotOR2 and Baldur's Gate so that's why I'm on these forums. Sharing my experiences as a point of reference and wanting to learn about the others' and seeking some answers so I can make more informed decisions regarding my playtime and just plain exchanging views.

You just obviously don't like debating is all. And I perhaps smell certain "preconceptions" about Planescape: Torment and its fans.

And if you don't want to waste your time, why did you waste it, saying you don't want to do it?

Oh, well, I'm going back to playing Baldur's Gate ;)

KotOR is generally seen as the the more traditional and simple RPG of the two, with a clear Star Wars black and white mentality and a adventure story. As you said, you are the hero, you have companions, you save the Republic (or doom it). It is a lot of fun in that sense, but doesn't really make you think or surprise you.

KotOR II is very different, it is a dark/grey story with a somewhat smaller scope and the protagonist as well as the companions are much more interesting. Kreia is seen by many, including me, as one of the best NPCs out there. There often aren't obviously good or bad choices. The game plays with the Star Wars stuff like Jedi and Sith philosophy in an unusual way.
If you've liked Peragus and Telos so far, then you MUST play on. Those parts in the beginning are the weakest parts of the game according to general opinion (though they are clearly still very good) and it just gets better and better. Much better.
I won't say more, as I'm sure you'll enjoy it, by what you've written.

Regarding your gameplay question: Upgrades don't matter at all. The fights in this game are easy enough that you can beat it with any main character. I've actually never messed with the upgrade system once after my first playthrough, except for lightsabers. You should configure them, but that's only a couple of items altogether. There will be parts in the game where you'll play one of your companions without assistance, so you should disable Auto Level-Up and apply skills yourself, otherwise that sections will be tough.
In general, you must play with the TSLRCM mod, which restores content that isn't in the game due to it being rushed out to the market prematurely at the time and also fixes all remaining bugs. It does not make sense to first play the game in its vanilla state, install the mod.

Finally, I should note that though I've written "in general opinion" a few times above, those are mainly MY positions. And even I disagree with that in some ways, for example I've always been a fan of Peragus while it turns off many.
And while I enjoy KotOR, KotOR II is one of my favorite games of all time, on second place actually.

Thanks, very informative. Obviously, each of us speaks for themselves.

I feel relieved about what you said about the crafting system.

I hate messing with mods, actually, though maybe I'll have a look at it. But I've already started the game, so will my saves be compatible?

The Auto Level-Up is disabled by default in Gog's version I think. Putting points in skills is fun IMHO, I try not to turn such things on.

I wonder what's wrong with Peragus for people though. I haven't read those opinions, and personally, I found it very interesting. There was tension, mystery, "what happened there", felt kind of like System Shock a bit. Ofc, it was a bit weird when after the buildup of tension the dreaded Sith Assasins arrived and I was able to kill each one in a few hits, but it is difficult to make enemies really scary/powerful in a game.

The problem with KotOR for me really was abysmal writing, dialogues etc. It's funny how you hear exactly the same lines and concepts in other games almost copypasted. At times I was asking myself "am I playing (the bad parts of) Mass Effect again?" cause there was a lot of overlap there. In KotOR 2 I haven't yet heard many (or any) copypasted lines.

And it was ridiculous how suddenly the characters changed their views after hearing something that they should have been aware of anyway, especially the (non-Force) Persuasion checks. Imagine a random person talk to Hitler "but Hitler, you cause pain to Jews by doing so". And Hitler goes (wooden voice-acting here): "Yes, now I see the truth, all this time I have been wrong, I didn't realise I've hurt them so much" and dispands NSDAP. It doesn't work that way. And I really wonder how far would we go, if our judical system worked the way it does on Manaan.

It's very simple, there is an installer available. It functions just like a patch.
Unfortunately vanilla saves are not compatible...
This may seem foolish, but in your shoes I'd actually almost install the mod and start over. It may seem unnecessary, but in the wide world of mods, this one is the most essential. Everyone should play the game with it, and everyone agrees on that. You'll be able to play the game without it, but you'll find it lacking in some aspects that wouldn't have been necessary and the ending will.... **** balls.

Peragus is a very slow and lonely start to the game. There are hardly any NPCs and it is a dark and quiet place. Even your enemies are droids, not people. Many who came from KotOR where turned off by this, since they expected something similar to the first game, with Taris being a living and breathing world. As I said, I personally enjoy the station as well.

I don't feel/think the same way about the dialogue and choices in KotOR, I think you're exaggerating quite a bit.