Revisiting a Classic:
"Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" (2003)
- Part 5 of 11 -
Tatooine
Hey fellow Hivers! Here we are again with another installment of my "Revisiting a Classic" series on 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, also known as KOTOR.
If this is your first time seeing one of these posts, here are the link to my previous KOTOR posts:
Part 1.5 of 11 - Steam's KOTOR Mods
In my last post, my Light Side Scout-Consular character Varen Thard and his crew aboard the Ebon Hawk helped liberate our Wookie friend Zaalbar's tribe from his evil brother and the intergalactic Czearka Corporation.
Not only that but we got a new party member, an old ex-Jedi named Jolee Bindu, and another piece of the Star Map which would lead us to the mysterious Star Forge that Darth Revan and Malak had been looking for before they won the Mandalorian Wars and turned against both the Jedi and the Republic.
Varen meeting Jolee on Kashyyyk.
Varen talking to the Star Map AI on Kashyyyk.
After Kashyyyk I had the choice of going to either the planets Tatooine, Manaan, Korriban, or Yavin. In my oldest play-throughs I only made it up Korriban or Yavin where I learned about KOTOR's infamous twist, so I wanted to avoid those two planets for now--so I chose Tatooine due to wanting to not only complete Bastila and Mission's side quests but grab another new party member as well: the assassin droid HK-47.
Tatooine - Quests
Returning the Stowaway to Dantooine
The strange thing is I don't remember seeing any children on Dantooine.
So one of the things I made a note to do after completing all the quests on Kashyyyk was to take care of a stowaway girl on my spaceship, the Ebon Hawk. I vaguely remember a green Twi'lek guy on Dantooine asking me if I'd seen his master's runaway daughter so I had an idea of what to do: return the girl to her father, or that green-alien babysitter guy. So I flew back to Dantooine, did a fun-little space battle on my there from Kashyyyk and earned some Light Side points for reuniting this girl with her family. It was a little strange that they never explained why this girl ran away from her family and hid on my ship but I was provided no more information and decided to head to Tatooine instead of ask around ... but got stopped by a yellow Twi'lek woman with a message for one of my party member's Bastila: her sick dying mother was looking for her on Tatooine. And just like that, my character Varen and his crew had our third reason to head to the Sand Planet -- the first being to locate the next Star Map and the second to find Mission's brother Griff who was supposedly working for the Czerka Company on Tatooine.
I can't explain why but I love these little mini-games of shooting Sith ships from a swivel turret -- but I hate the swoop racing in KOTOR haha.
Docking Bay Bandit
Bastila daydreaming while Mission and Varen do all the work haha
No sooner after we'd landed in the Tantooine town of Anchorhead and Force-persuaded the docking-bay attendant to give me free-parking for my spaceship -- a wild bandit attacked. Well, a Twi-lek thief specifically. Not sure what this guy was thinking but he pulled out not one but two vibro-blades so I took him seriously and had Mission blast him with a Critical Shot from her blaster-rifle while I simultaneously immobilized and strangled the life out of him with Varen's Force chokehold. Long story short, this dude was defeated and looted before his body hit the ground haha.
Gizkas Galore
Tatooine was turning out to be quite a busy place: before I could even exit the Anchorhead docking-bay and head to town, some bug-eyed alien with a butt-chin told me the crate full of Gizka critters they'd delivered to my ship had broken ... spilling the Gizkas everywhere. One, what the hell is a Gizka? And two -- why is there a crate full of them on my ship? But Mister Butt-Mouth doesn't explain and basically tells me, "Too bad, so sad. See you later and enjoy your Gizkas!"
And *SPOILERS* long after I completed Tatooine, those damn Gizka things were still hopping and squeaking all over my ship.
Sharina's Husband
As I said before, Tatooine's a busy place. Once I finally step into the main square of Anchorhead I meet a poor widow woman named Sharina.
Her husband Fizark's dead, murdered by pig-faced relic hunters, but instead of revenge Sharina wants me to sell her late husband's less piece of treasure -- an old wraid plate. Supposedly they can't be sold without an expensive relic-hunter's license but Sharina doesn't have money, only the wraid plate. She asks if I could sell it for 500 credits and please bring the money back. In previous play-throughs, I was a Dark Side character so I took the Wraid Plate sold it, made way more than 500 credits off of it, and then told her to get lost because I was keeping the money. But this time I'm a good guy, a Light Side character so later I sold that plate for 500 credits but came back and gave her 700, lying that I'd gotten way more than she expected because the last thing her late husband Frizka found ended up being pretty valuable. I know, I know, I'm a hero but honestly I did it for the Light Side points and for the compliments from Bastila and Mission: it made sense to have them in my party on Tatooine since their side-quests were here.
And along the way, I may have ran into the exact pig-faced aliens that murdered Sharina's husband Frizka in the local cantina ...
... And when these dumb swine tried to ambush me later out in the desert, we showed them a secret Jedi recipe called ... Desert Pork Chops!
Step 1: Make piggies fly
Step 2: Make piggies fry !!
Step 3: Let piggies simmer for maximum flavor.
Bastila's Mother
So after leaving the hunter's cantina, some generic blue alien starts complaining about Bastila's mother and even after recognizing Bastila and myself as Jedi armed with lightsabers he calls Bastila's mom a rancor (a big ugly Star Wars monster) and tells us the very-much hated woman is impatiently waiting for Bastila at the cantina on the other side of town. You'd think Bastila would at least Force Push this due for trash-talking her sick dying mother but she basically turns to Varen and says, "I don't care if she's dying but I would like to see my dad again." Supposedly, Bastila remembers her mom bullying her dad into treasure-hunting and sending her away from the Jedi as a kid without letting her say goodbye to her dad ... so off we went to the other side of town.
En route to the Tatooine town of Anchorhead's other cantina, Varen and his crew Bastila and Mission ran into three Dark Jedi -- or more correctly, one Dark Jedi and two Sith Assassins. One of the mods for the Steam version of KOTOR adds more enemy-variety.
The last time Dark Jedi and Sith Assassins showed up -- my guy Varen got flung through the air like a rag-doll.
The last time Malak's lowly-lackies jumped me on the Wookie planet Kashyyyk, the battle started off a bit rough but in the end my Wookie party-member Zaalbar obliterated while Varen shocked them from a distance. This time, instead of Zaalbar, I had Bastila who has a knack for ignoring battle-commands and kind of just doing her own thing ... not sure if that's a bug or an unintended mod I forgot about.
Last time, they rushed me and I got Force-Pushed around the battlefield ... this time a Sith Assassin hit me with Life Drain while I was Force-Lightening his friend, which impressed me because I hadn't seen them try that before. I would applaud them if they weren't so weak but if I remember correctly it's the Sand People who are Tatooine's toughest enemies.
This was a good battle. Everyone got a kill: my guy Varen, Bastila, even Mission who actually blasted a Sith Assassin point-blank and defeated him.
A little after that last fight, I finally enter the next area of Anchorhead and find the cantina on the other side of town. Inside I find Bastila's mother and they have a little sour reunion where we learn that Bastila's father is dead and that Bastila's mother wants her to go out in the desert and retriever his holocron for her. After we leave, Bastila proves how much she hates her mother by contemplating whether she should just keep her father's holocron for herself.
I hated how dark the cantina was here -- the one on Taris was way brighter: this is the Tatooine cantina after I turned up my brightness!
I understand that Bastila dislikes her mother but the old woman is dying and wants to see her dead husband through his holocron before she dies: Bastila can get it back later when her mother passes anyway.
The holocron is in the Krayt Dragon Cave. When we return it to Bastila's mother I persuade them to make-up and get Light Points for fixing their relationship.
Nico's Contract & Swoop Racing
I'm really enjoying KOTOR so far but I don't really care for the Swoop-Racing mini-game. If you've read my posts before then you know how much I despise it ... it's just not at all as exciting as pod racing. Sometime the past isn't as great as the future, all though the prequel and Old Republic stories are pretty killer and badass.
My guy asking this Hutt to stop playing into his species' galactic stereotype.
Anyway, these are two separate posts but they don't deserve a ton of attention. For Nico's Contract, you just bribe or in my case Force-persuade a sleazy Hutt alien to stop being so ... sleazy and Hutt-like, and by that I mean ripping-off and scheming his clients, especially his best racer Nico. And the other quest, the Swoop Racing was not enjoyable to me but thankfully I was able to find an easy-to-install racing mod for KOTOR that made things much more bearable.
I feel bad ... bad-mouthing KOTOR's swoop racing. It's not super awful but I just don't see the point of racing on a track if there's no other opponents on the road to bump shoulders with.
Here's a GIF of KOTOR swoop-racing.
It's not ugly but not exhilarating either.
Buying Assassin Droid HK-47
In order to deal with the Sand People Camp I'll find in the desert later it's important I find someone who speaks their language: enter HK-47. He's a bit expensive -- 40000 Credits -- but I'm able to use the Force to get the Ithorian shop-keeper down to 2000 Credits.
HK-47 isn't just an interpreter, later after I level him up he'll be a beefy tank which will be useful in case I don't wan to use my other tanks -- Canderous, Carth, and Zaalbar. Last time I played KOTOR, this droid's snarky dialogue made for a good Dark Side companion.
Hunter's License & Mission's Brother
Varen and his crew are on Tatooine in search of a bunch of things, one of them being Mission's brother. His ex-gf Lena said he got a job with Czerka Company, the same one that enslaved the Wookies before I helped them revolt, and so I go to the Czerka Office in Anchorhead. Once there, I meet a woman who after some persuading, tells me Griff was kidnapped by Sand People. In order to go out and rescue him I need a hunting-license which I Persuade her to give me under the excuse that I'll kill Sand People and give her their staffs. The hunting-license is necessary because I can't enter the desert without one.
I was a bit conflicted by the Sand People when finally out in the desert: they were very angry and attacked me without talking -- but I was a Light Side Jedi who felt striking down these desert natives.
Sometimes they'd just keep spawning at random and I'd have to mow down waves of them with my Force Lightning which thankfully hits more than one target at a time.
One of the ways of dealing peacefully with the Sand People is to provide them with a vapor-generator they ask for. It makes sense since they live in the desert. Plus, this was a good bargaining chip to let me see the captives they had -- some Jawas and a Czerka worker they'd captured a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately, no matter what I did ... every time I opened the last cell: Mission's brother Griff was always dead. It was probably just a glitch, but another bug persisted where despite showing Mission her brother's dead body she kept saying we needed to keep looking for him -- that he was probably out in the desert somewhere all alone and needed her help ... it was kind of sad.
I felt bad and took Mission back to the ship at the docking bay and switched her for Canderous. Now I had to Dark-Side aligned party members. I bought a bunch of stimulants and grinded a bit in the desert, killing tons of tons of giant orange lizards which gave us not just experience but credits too.
And then I took one last trip to the Sand People Enclave, got the Star Map location, and never returned again.
Kray Dragon & Star Map
I absolutely hated how my Tatooine adventure ended but it was almost my fault for forgetting how my crew gets to the Star Map. The game sort of teases a big boss-fight with a giant creature called a Krayt Dragon but confronting head-on results in immediate death, so you don't even get a chance to kill it like with the rancor on Taris. Some Twi'lek relic-hunter puts a bunch of mines near the entrance to the Krayt Dragon's cave and you lure it our with some desert bison to kill it.
Last time I was here on a Dark Side play-through, I fought the Taris bounty-hunter Calo Nord here on Tatooine but since I killed him on Kashyyyk there was no big boss fight at the end of this desert adventure, which was a bit of a drag. For one of Star Wars most popular planets, I expected a lot more from Tatooine.
At least I got the Star Map, fixed Bastila's relationship with her mom, and ... hopefully gave Mission some closure in some small way by cleaning up the desert a little.
I'm going to have give Tatooine a lower score than Kashyyyk and maybe even lower than Dantooine because I just expected more here, so I'm going with a score of ....
6/10
Even without the sound, I can still hear the awful noises these guys make
These guys couldn't hit sand in a sand-storm.
The funny part is, this planet would've been an easy seven or even eight if it had more bosses -- or a boss, at least. Wiping out the Sand People Camp is very easy with area-of-effect damage and getting jumped at least two or three times by Dark Jedi would've made things more interesting ... or at least more than three guys. The Sith base on Taris was more difficult than any of their little ambushes.
Next stop -- the water world of Manaan!
Feel free to leave comments and questions below!
See you all on my next KOTOR post!
IMAGE & GIF SOURCES:
KOTOR Cover Poster
All screenshots and GIFS created by me, except those listed below:
Anakin GIF
Sand Person GIF