4. The Characters
The characters of an RPG can make or break it. You only have to look at the 'Mass Effect' trilogy's success to see how important the characters were to the fans, and the fury that followed when 'Mass Effect 3' did not conclude the story of those characters. The characters of 'KOTOR II' are central to the story. Without your party members, running round the galaxy looking for clues of lost Jedi would have been a lot less fun. They not only add significantly to the enjoyment and depth of the game but are seriously interesting (in my opinion Obsidian have written some of the best Star Wars characters with this game). Kreia alone could be a reason why this game's story is so unique, she is neither Jedi nor Sith, has some quite individual philosophies and does not bow down to anyone or anything. What really made the party members so unique is that the player could tell most of them could not stand each other, whereas the only trace of hatred between party members in 'KOTOR' is characters mistrusting Canderous for being a Mandalorian. It is obvious that Kreia and Atton (the fool) dislike each other from the off, Bao-Dur hates the guts of Mandalore and of course the remote's pestering of GO-TO are but a few disputes. This provided entertaininment when the characters would interact with each other, something that I felt was not present enough in the original 'KOTOR'. The scene in the Telos Academy where Kreia claws through Atton's mind to expose his darkest secrets is one such example of how the party members only cooperate because of your presence. In the Star Wars Original Trilogy the characters did not entirely trust each other initially in 'A New Hope' but go on to become friends. Few of the Exile's crew would call each other friends. This adds to the desperate nature of the game's story, the party members clearly would not keep each other's company by choice but because of the Exile's mission they put up with one another, just. Making characters seem real and human is hard for any writer to achieve, in a fictional universe even more so. It is a testament then to 'KOTOR II' that nearly all the characters feel developed. As I said earlier the game introduces a greyer tone to the Star Wars Universe and the characters are no exception. Characters who may not be particularly bad can still have done terrible deeds in their past, Atton has hunted and tortured Jedi for the Sith and Bao-Dur obliterated thousands of lives with the mass shadow generator at Malachor V. It adds a deeper layer to their characters to know that they actually have a past, and that it is not at all pretty only serves to bring Star Wars closer to our own gritty reality, where decent people can do atrocious things. Only the droids can be considered one dimensional because of their programming and lack of emotion, but even then it was interesting to hear the logistical arguments of GO-TO and the hilarious justification for mass slaughter by HK-47. The ability to influence your party members did frustrate many gamers who felt they could never predict when influence could be gained or lost, but the system added to the intelligence and realism of 'KOTOR II', that these characters are not just drones who will stand idly by but characters with individual morals and judgements. This meant it was difficult to gain influence with every character in one playthrough; meaning that when the player replays the story they can discover new things about party members they might have missed in their first play-through, personally I think that's good replay value. Influence added new story arcs when it came to training certain party member to be force users, characters then could actually develop as you played the game, changing their characteristics depending on your allegiance to the light or dark side. The ability to change the nature of characters is something not many RPGs even today can master.