Star Wars: The Old Republic: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

 

{{quote|''[[Arc Words|You were deceived.]]''}}

 

 

The game boasts "immersive storytelling, dynamic combat, and groundbreaking companion characters". It was released on December 20, 2011 (Dec. 22 for some of Europe). During E3 2012, it was announced that players would be able play for free up to level 15.

*** Lord Zyn on Korriban. He's pleasant, cheerful, always smiling and generous with his praise both in conversations and in reporting your performance to your overseer. You really have to remind yourself that he's an interrogator who tortures people with force lightning to squeeze out information from them and does a [[Squee]] of delight when he hears you tearing through a subject. He also compliments you on your ''unusual'' interrogation methods if you get a confession out of the poor guy shackled to the table without zapping him.

*** Lord Zash, the Sith Lord you're trying to impress, is extremely polite during your first meeting and corrects herself when she accidentally calls you "slave" instead of Acolyte. The next time you see her {{spoiler|she catches your [[Jerkass]] Overseer playing favorites with Ffon and kills your rival when he admits to attempting to steal your victory in the tomb}}. Even her Codex bio warns that any Sith Lord that is that polite and amiable must have some serious [[Hidden Depths]].

*** Darth Lachris: She's casually murderous, yet she genuinely enjoys your relationship (when a warrior) and you can even start a sexual relationship.

** Doctor Charnagus on Nar Shaddaa is an especially unsettling example. On the one hand, he's been {{spoiler|grafting parts of Republic soldiers onto Imperial agents so that the Empire can plant them as saboteurs}}, and he seems quite proud of the procedure he's using; nevertheless, he greets the Republic PC politely, reasoning that it's "only fair" that the PC want to rescue the abducted Republic Captain who's currently on his operating table. He helpfully wakes the Captain up to tell him that he's been rescued: "Isn't that wonderful?"

* [[Alien Arts Are Appreciated]]: One of the category of companion gifts are labeled 'cultural artifacts', which are generally works of art created by alien species around the galaxy.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: You ''can'' enjoy the game just fine without reading/watching anything else, and the in-game codex helps a lot too. However, between the online Holonet, the comics, [[Revan|the novel]], and all the [[Continuity Nod|ContinuityNods]] to the [[Knights of the Old Republic|previous two games]] and the whole [[Star Wars]] [[The Verse|universe]]... let's just say that there's ''a lot'' of stuff for fans to enjoy in there.

** Justified/not-quite-but-almost-averted by the reveal at the end of the Voss quest chain that there ''are'' non-chaotic evil Gormak -- {{spoiler|the Voss}}.

* [[Ancient Conspiracy]]: {{spoiler|The Star Cabal.}}

* [[Ax Crazy]]: {{spoiler|HK-47}} himself makes an appearance.

** The Sith governor of Balmorra enjoys crushing rebels a little too much. The lines used to flirt with her are hilarious because of it; player characters can only... spend quality time with her, by acting like a complete sociopath.

* [[Bad Boss]]: Imperial Intelligence tries to keep The Empire together, but still has to answer to the Sith. They often get caught up in Sith power struggles as a result, and that is never a good thing.

* [[Badass Boast]]: It seems that everything that comes out of the Bounty Hunter's mouth is either this, or him asking for pay.

* [[Daddy's Little Villain]]: The [[Backstory]] for Sith Warrior [[Player Characters]]. Contrast with [[Made a Slave|the Sith Inquisitor's back-story]]. There's also Darth Zhorrid, daughter of Darth Jadus.

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: The Emperor. {{spoiler|He has visions that the Jedi Knight will be the one to stop him and defeat him. So he possesses the Hero's friend and attacks them while they are weak. And if Kira hadn't snapped out he might have pulled it}}

** It is worth noting that Malgus is a reformist and deeply hated in some Sith circles for his radical views. The only reason he's not directly targeted is his lack of a political power base and the fact he has no desire to get involved in the backstabbing politics of the Empire. So whilst the Empire has members who aren't simply in it [[For the Evulz]], the darker aspects still very much remain.

** The devs have said that for this MMO, it's entirely possible to play as a Light-side Sith, meaning your own character could be an example of this trope.

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: For level 10 Imperial Players, {{spoiler|this is what happens to the crew of the Black Talon if it was decided to execute the captain; the bridge crew tried to desert and others tried to stop them.}}

* [[Evil Army]]: The Sith Imperial Army

** One of the imperial officers on Balmorra {{spoiler|If you select the dark side option in the quest finishing dialogue and tell him, that in cave 52 were jedi, not just weak force sensitives, he will tell you, that he loves killing rebels ("There is nothing as good as seeing rebel scum running out of a cave full of gas, right into the blasters of your batallion – Well except sunrises, but for those you have to get up early")}}

** The Agent is faking it, and some NPCs will call them on it.

*** Though Imperial Agents are advised to drop the Imperial accent when going undercover on Hutta.

* [[Explosive Stupidity]]: If a team [[No Fair Cheating|hogs the ball]] in a corner for too long in [[PvP|Huttball]], [[Comedic Sociopathy|the Hutts will get bored]], and [[Blood Sport|detonate it]]. The ball is made out of Uranium...

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Most non-Jedi and non-companions in the Republic, if they aren't repeatedly [[Shoot the Dog|shooting the dog]], or just corrupt, have done this, or so it seems. Taken to extreme levels for the Republic Trooper storyline, {{spoiler|where [[It's Up to You|you, and your companions, are among the few Republic Special Forces to not defect with Tavus.]]}}

** An unusual variation occurs with {{spoiler|Darth Malgus on Ilum. Malgus, who up to that point had primarily been a Sith who could be generally considered [[Blood Knight|"honorable"]], suddenly turns against the Empire in a bid to reform it into a more alien-friendly place. Naturally, this only counts from the Imperial perspective: he was always a villain from the Republic point of view.}}

* [[Fake American]]: The Imperial Agent has to lose his/her [[Evil Brit]] accent when dealing with the Hutts outside Imperial space. [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|It doesn't seem to stick when dealing with side quests on the same world, however.]]

** Strangely enough the Sith Warrior can be an expy of Darth Malgus, a powerful and intelligent warrior underestimated by his superiors with a cute Twilek assistant.

** The only class that avoids this is the Imperial Agent, who's used to represent influential Imperials. So... Grand Moff Tarkin: spy and ladies man?

*** Or possibly [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Mara Jade]] (without force ability)

** This isn't just the classes; Companion characters are designed to channel Star Wars Tropes like the [[The Big Guy|Big Aliens]] and [[Robot Buddy|Protocol and Astromech Droids]],. Non-player characters also channel Star Wars characters; Satele Shan, for instance, acts as a cross between Mon Mothma, Leia, and Yoda. Grand Moff Kilran is clearly inspired by Tarkin, even channeling some of his lines. Darth Malgus also has elements of Darth Vader in him. Even the ships all channel starships from the movies! And then we get to the non-Star Wars examples...

* [[Machine Worship]]: At least one of the workers maintaining the Works that power and maintain the [[City Planet]] Coruscant holds this view. Considering how ''long'' the planet has been like that, with buildings built on top of earlier buildings, it's not too surprising that he considers people "mere mortals," in comparison.

{{quote|'''Republic Trooper [[Player Character]]''': ''[[Sarcasm Mode|We'll call it "Operation: Machine Rescue"]]''}}

** A Bounty Hunter's primary means of dealing damage (and [[Healing Shiv|healing]]) are rockets. Lots and lots of rockets.

* [[Made a Slave]]: The Sith Inquisitor backstory. A little silly when you're playing a Sith Pureblood, the elites of the society. {{spoiler|There's a reason for it, though}}

** We have every reason to believe that the Sith Emperor engineered events in the Galaxy for over a MILLENIA to prepare for their return from Uncharted Space.

** The leader of the Revanites is ''convinced'' that the Emperor is actually a centuries old Revan, or being controlled behind the scenes by Revan. ''[[Revan]]'' reveals {{spoiler|that the Emperor is being subtly influenced by Revan trapped in stasis.}}

* [[Meaningful Background Event]]: As an Imperial Agent, while talking about {{spoiler|Karrel's death to his rival}}, you can see Kaliyo in the background eavesdropping.

** Passing comments are also made in many storylines hint at the events of other class's storylines.

* [[Moral Guardians]]: A group of them are condemning the game for featuring homosexual relationships, claiming that they'll brainwash kids into pursuing homosexual lifestyles.

** Note that [[Did Not Do the Research|the game doesn't feature homosexual relationships at this time.]]

** More conventionally, previews of the character creation screen have shown that each player chooses from a plethora of them... namely by picking which class they want to be.

* [[My Country, Right or Wrong]]: The main motivation of a Lightside Imperial Agent in their story. The people s/he's fighting often [[Villain Has a Point|have a point]] that The Empire is evil, but s/he only cares about protecting it's citizens.

* [[Nice Hat]]: While most hats are...not that nice, Smugglers get quite a few that are.

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: Imperial characters save 98% of the Imperial population from being wiped out by {{spoiler|Revan.}}

* [[No Fair Cheating]]: During play-testing, many matches of [[PvP|Huttball]] [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8648702#edit8648702 descended into] hogging and turtling around the ball. So, the ball is [[Explosive Stupidity|made of uranium]], [[Blood Sport|and if the Hutt spectators]] [[Comedic Sociopathy|get too bored]]...

* [[No Points for Neutrality]]: [[Averted]], a first for [[BioWare]] games that include a [[Karma Meter]]. There will be specific rewards and gear for players who mix their decisions.

* [[Novelization]]: ''Fatal Alliance'', ''Deceived'', and ''Revan'' later in 2011.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: During the Great Hunt when you and another Bounty Hunter are going after the same target, the other BH uses this to get close to the target. Revealing their identity could be a spoiler for anybody currently playing the game, so the BH in question is {{spoiler|Murghir, on Balmorra.}}

** Some of the patches they released could've used some time on whetstone. Example: as of 1.1.3, using mouse button 5 on any icon caused the game to crash. Quickly fixed as of 1.1.3a, but you'd think they'd have caught something that nasty during testing...

* [[Oh Crap]]: Malgus gets one a split second before the soldier he's grappling with sets off a grenade at point blank range.

** Light Sided Agents can turn this into a borderline CMoH though. {{spoiler|You get the option let the guy go, faking his death, telling him (truthfully) that one son did survive and giving a hint of where he is. Later, you get a letter from Keeper saying that somebody mysteriously rescued the surviving son, and hints that he knows full well who did it. His reaction is more [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids]] than true disapproval.}}

* [[Poison and Cure Gambit]]: A Mandalorian commander on Tatooine challenges you to take on his people's rite of passage: to take a vicious sandpeople-made poison and run out to their camp for the cure. Should you accept the challenge, you have 15 minutes to obtain and take the antidote ''or die trying.''

* [[Politically-Correct History]]: In the Republic Taris is remembered as a prosperous city world that was destroyed by a Sith Lord. The fact that it was a xenophobic segregated shithole mostly dominated by organized crime is almost completely forgotten.

* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: The Sith Empire is extremely racist and considers humans to be superior to all alien species, even those that can be considered more Near Human than alien. Those of partial Sith descent are treated like nobility, partially due to their inherent Force sensitivity.

* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: Often taking the lightside path will lead to better results, or the darkside path is pointless and counterproductive to your goals. Players who wish to be fully darkside will have to grasp the [[Villain Ball]] tightly.

* [[Prestige Class]]: Every class chooses between two Advanced Specializations around level 10. Each one opens up two unique skill trees, and one that's shared between the pair.

* {{spoiler|[[Previous Player Character Cameo]]: Revan makes an appearance.}}

* [[Psycho for Hire]]: A recurring theme for the [[Bounty Hunter]] class' Dark Side options. Early in their storyline, they can {{spoiler|[[Off with His Head|decapitate]] a man, [[Decapitation Presentation|then present the head to his wife]], [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|just because]] a Hutt ordered him to.}} Did we [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|mention this game is rated T for Teen?]]

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Several minions and mercenaries will walk away if you just ''ask'' them to and abandon their now desperately alone former boss because they're just not ''paid enough'' to face the likes of you.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: To greater and lesser degrees, most classes' companion crews are this. Jawa tank? Kilik joined diplomat? Incredibly patriotic droid? Check check check!

* [[Rail Shooter]]: The game's space battle feature is of the Third Person Tunnel Shooter variety.

* [[The Real Remington Steele]]: Early on in the Imperial Agent's class quest, the player steals the identity of a pirate called the Red Blade. The real Red Blade eventually learns of this and [[Boss Fight|is not amused]].

* [[Reconstruction]]: If you view it as a direct sequel of [[Deconstructor Fleet|Knights of the Old Republic 2]], this game very much brings Star Wars back to its space fantasy roots.

* [[Shout-Out]]: In the [http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/smuggler-character-progression character progression video] for the smuggler, the smuggler finds himself, in a desert area, facing off with a Sith, who ignites his lightsaber and goes through a complicated and impressive routine. The smuggler pulls out his gun and [[Raiders of the Lost Ark|just shoots]] [[Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight|the guy dead]]. Can easily double as a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. Also, for Imperial players, the mission in which they retrieve Revan's mask contains a scene straight out of the beginning of The Lost Arc.

** Several of the server names are from [[Knights of the Old Republic (Comic Book)|the KotOR prequel comic]]. Also, the central hub for Republic players is named Carrick Station, apparently [[The Call Knows Where You Live|due to events in]] continuation/sequel comic, ''[[War Arc|War]]''.

** One of the Imperial Quests on Belsavis is reawakening a rebellious Cathar prince from a long stasis. The title? "[[King Arthur|Once And Future]]"

** May be a coincidence or just a rather obscure shout-out, but one of the former Champions of the Great Hunt is [[Hitman (Comic Book)|The Defenestrator.]]

** Gyl Rosen from the end of the Sith Inquisitor's first act; a Nar Shaddaa crimeboss now in possession of the Inquisitor's ancestor's lightsaber. When you go to retrieve it from him, he rather arrogantly tells you that you are going to listen to his offer, and that he is backed by four of the toughest mercs on Nar Shaddaa; "They make the Sith look like schoolteachers". He then tells you that you either become his "personal Sith" and work for him, or you pay him three million credits for Lord Kallig's lightsaber. {{spoiler|At which point you can say "No", and shock him instead. Enraged, Gyl orders his mercs to attack, only to discover he doesn't pay them enough to tangle with a Sith. And then you can kill them all anyway, only to discover they're just regular mooks, hardly the Sith killers Gyl tried to fool you into believing they were. It's very pleasant to have Gyl screaming at them to kill you when moments before he was attempting to boss you around.}}

* [[Space Cold War]]: The whole game is the [[Cold War]] {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|In Space]]}}, with both sides constructing planet-destroying superweapons and supporting numerous planetary conflicts, secretly or openly. The biggest difference is that both sides ''want'' a hot war.

* [[Spikes of Villainy]]: The concept art for the Inquisitor class high-end armor.

* [[Spirit Advisor]]: The Sith Inquisitor occasionally receives guidance from the spirit of their ancestor.