Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Part #39

Part 39: Unknown World

Part 39: Unknown World

Last time, we found the final Star Map at the bottom of the Manaan ocean, and that means we've now got the hyperspace coordinates pointing us at the Star Forge. We'll head that way very soon, but first we should finish our conversations with our party members.

We'll start with Canderous.

He's still thinking about the business with Jagi so we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out what he has to say about that, but he is willing to talk about his time working for Davik so let's hear it.

Beating up people who wouldn't - or couldn't - pay, strong-arming his competitors, killing who he said. It was busy work, nothing decent.

Not much of a challenge for a Mandalorian war hero, that's for sure.

I've killed many people. I can't say I'm proud of it, but I have. Criminals, competitors, businessmen, police... women, children... Jedi were a better challenge, but they hardly ever poked around in the Under City. ... Until you came along... But I never wanted to challenge you. Never felt the need. Maybe I knew I couldn't win... just like all those years ago.

The "Jedi were a better challenge..." line is not subtitled on Xbox.

Maybe you would have. But you're not who you were back then, I can tell. You've changed... and maybe I have too. I remember a time when I could do anything I wanted... Kill, maim, murder... It was all the same to me. But now... now that I'm older, I can look back and regret...

That's surprising. I didn't know Mandalorians knew the meaning of the word regret, unless it was in the context of regretting not killing someone.

It feels like... like something has changed inside and I don't know what it is. Bah! This is unbecoming of a warrior! Let's get on with everything before I start getting sentimental or something.

Interesting. Canderous seems to be reflecting on his life choices a little bit, but who knows if that'll ever result in anything. He himself doesn't seem to be sure what's happening.

One more chat with Jolee, let's go.

We'll start by asking his opinion on the Sunry trial and its end result.

Well...

...maybe? Maybe not. Sunry is absolutely 100% guilty of murdering that woman in cold blood, which probably should result in some kind of punishment. Then again, she was a Dark Jedi and her death was technically beneficial to us and the Republic in general because she would surely have gone on to kill many more people herself, but murdering your mistress by shooting her in the back while she slept is still pretty fucking cold.

Bah. I don't want to talk about this anymore. My jaw aches.

Come on, you didn't even get started. Let's bother the old man again.

Sure, why not?

Oh no, not another one!

That's what I said!

*ahem* Now where was I? Oh yes, the story... you almost made me forget about it. Nice try, but I'm not that old just yet. Heh heh.

Damn, our incredible distraction tactic failed.

The young man follows the snake into the forest. He clears the branches out of its path and helps it over obstacles. He even works to keep it fed.

This is a very long story.

Shush! Many nights pass and still the young man continues to follow the snake. He even follows it into the sands of the great desert. In the desert, the snake eventually grows hungry. It turns and bites the young man, its poison quickly working its way into his system. Finally curious, the snake looks at the boy as he lays dying and asks, "Why were you foolish enough to follow me all the way out into the desert?" The boy looks back and replies, "Did I follow you? I thought I was leading you away from everyone else..." And then he died.

The boy must have been too busy dying to worry about the snake suddenly being able to talk, because he's taking that remarkably well. Or maybe, just maybe this story isn't meant to be taken completely literally.

I've told you before that you have a destiny before you. This does not mean, however, that your future is already written. They are not the same thing. You have the choice of which direction you take your destiny in. More than engine-sucking Andor, certainly... but even he had a choice. So far you've chosen to take the lighter path. Can you stay that course, even through the challenges ahead? We'll have to wait and see.

Due to the way the game mechanics work, we couldn't really turn to the dark side at this point even if we wanted to. Well, we technically can, and there is a point where you commit to one of the paths for good, but we've already spent all our points on light side powers and there is no way to respec so a shocking last-minute heel turn would only make us weaker.

I do that because I think it's important. More important than remaining in my home and pretending the galaxy doesn't exist. That's why I'm here.

Now, then... I've chatted enough for one lifetime. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?

Let's do that.

This conversation completes Jolee's personal quest, so he won't be regaling us with his tales anymore. I'm glad I was able to at least show off all of his content, because a lot of it is pretty entertaining.

Now then. We could head to the Star Forge system immediately, but as I mentioned at the end of the last update, we still need to pay one last visit to Suvam at the Yavin station.

So, let's head over there first.

Bye, Manaan, and good riddance as far as I'm concerned. All that backtracking got really old really fast, especially since your party members tend to get stuck on geometry a lot while navigating Ahto City. Manaan was also the longest of the Star Map planets at least in terms of updates, as we spent six updates there. Of course, a couple of those updates mostly consisted of the Sunry investigation and trial, which is completely optional.

Alright, Suvam, show us what you've got.

Can't wait!

Oh. An invisible Trandoshan. That's probably not good.

More invisible Trandoshans. Definitely not good.

Suvam is understandably surprised to see a bunch of lizardmen materialize inside his station.

The Trandoshans still don't have any voice acting in this version.

No, I'm pretty sure we did.

The big climax of Suvam's storyline is this last skirmish with the Trandoshans. There are... I think seven Trandoshans in total, and they can actually be kind of nasty if you're not paying attention.

There are several Trandoshans on the sides of the room, just tossing thermal detonators at us. That is not a situation we particularly wish to be in for any length of time.

This Trandoshan is not having a good day.

Neither is this one. Each Trandoshan is worth a rather generous 700-750 XP, and Zila ends up gaining a level here.

One last Trandoshan, and that'll do it. Everyone's gained a level now.

Hopefully, I'll have time before they send someone else to investigate... maybe rig their ship to take off somewhere else... Thank you for your help, at least. I know I couldn't have taken them on my own. I'll let you look at my special stash. It's the stuff I wasn't showing them. It won't be cheap, but if you want it, you can buy it.

"If" we want it?

Damn straight we want it! The Mantle of the Force and the Heart of the Guardian are unique lightsaber crystals, which are very expensive but completely worth it. Not only do they have crazy stats, they also boost the stats of other crystals you have equipped and provide various bonuses for them. We can't quite buy both with our current funds, but that's nothing we can't fix by selling off some crap we've accumulated.

Alright, level up time. We've got the master versions of Force Focus and Jedi Sense now.

We'll also take Improved Flurry because why not, it's not like we have a lot of other feats we'd particularly need at the moment.

For our Force power this level, we'll pick Throw Lightsaber. This isn't necessarily something we'll use a whole lot in combat even though it is nice to have a ranged attack, but there is a moment later in the game where this power comes in very handy indeed. We'll get two powers at level 20, so we'll still be able to get Knight Speed and Master Speed for those delicious extra attacks.

20, by the way, is the level cap in the original KotOR.

Juhani gets an extra STR point and some stuff that doesn't really matter much.

Jolee gets Force Wave because I'm stupid. As I mentioned a couple of updates ago, AI companions can't use Force Wave so it's kinda worthless most of the time.

The Trandoshans each drop 1000 credits, some healing items, and most also have three thermal detonators. Thermal detonators sell for a handsome sum, so we'll offload them to Suvam for a nice profit.

We'll buy the Light Exoskeleton and the Baragwin Shadow Armor. Most of the armor here isn't really worth it to us because we'll be spending most of the rest of the game with an all-Jedi party, but I figured I'd get these light armors for Mission because I'll be putting her in the party shortly.

Err... that is not how that is supposed to look.

Neither is that, for that matter. The emulation bug in the upgrade screen seems to affect the special crystals a lot worse than the regular ones.

No such issues during gameplay, thankfully. I gotta say I will miss our green and purple sabers, but these look nice as well.

Now it's time to go to the Star Forge system. This is the point of no return, there is no coming back so hopefully you've done all the quests you wanted to do. We have (aside from Juhani and Carth's dialogues because the Leviathan was the cutoff point for those, including romances), so let's go.

The Star Forge awaits us.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be a temple of some sort (with architecture looking quite similar to what we saw in the Revan flashback earlier)...

Hey, Bastila's not dead! Well, of course she's not. Malak wants to turn her to the dark side.

I guess he's currently in the process of attempting exactly that.

This scene appears in the trailer FMV at the start of the Xbox version, along with many, many other scenes from the endgame.

Malak was never the smartest or most creative guy, we know that much.

He is, however, extremely creepy in this scene, as evidenced by the way he strokes Bastila's face there.

Bastila is still refusing to give in to the dark side.

We don't know how long this has been going on, or how long Bastila will be able to withstand Malak's torture. I wonder if Zila can see this happen due to her Force connection with Bastila, or if this is just for the audience's benefit like the earlier scenes with Malak on the Leviathan where he talked to Saul Karath, Calo Nord or Darth Bandon.

Here it is. The Star Forge system. This is what we've been searching for.

And here is the contraption itself, which looks quite a bit like the Sith emblem in this game. Or, well, the emblem looks like the Star Forge, really. We don't yet have any idea how it actually works, but it does appear it's sucking energy from this star. That probably has something to do with its functionality, but we have no clue how the Builders created it or how it creates ships and weapons as quickly as it does.

You know, these ships. The invincible Sith fleet.

Some backup would certainly be helpful.

You sure about that, Carth? The alarm seems to indicate otherwise.

This scene is also in the trailer.

These guys aren't going to report anything if we can help it.

Would've been nice to get a unique fighter battle FMV for this, though.

At least the background is unique, with the blue planet up ahead in the distance.

And, of course, the Star Forge itself on the opposite side. The battle itself isn't too exciting, so let's just cut ahead.

This short scene is unique as well, because obviously they couldn't reuse the regular "fighter battle won" cutscene due to the fact that shows the Ebon Hawk jumping to hyperspace at the end.

That's probably not good.

A crash landing is the last thing we need at the moment, but there's not much else we can do right now. Hopefully, the landing won't be too hard.

This planet is very pretty. Is that a Republic cruiser in the water? How did that get to the Star Forge system?

That landing was actually quite smooth, all things considered. Well done, Carth.

It was fine, Mission.

That is going to complicate things.

Oh yeah, we still had the gizka on board. If they're still on board when you land on this planet, they actually should leave the Ebon Hawk. I say "should" because they actually didn't this time. They'll be around until the very end of the game, but that's okay because they're basically part of the crew by now.

Could the Star Forge itself be generating the field, or is it coming from the planet?

This is also true. Too bad we didn't know about the disruptor field before we called for backup.

Okay, apparently the disruptor field is coming from this planet, and the source is pretty close as well. That's good, because otherwise it would've been a real problem to disable that thing.

We do, of course, need those ship parts if we're going to leave anytime soon.

Yeah, that too.

Can't really do much about that, unless she is close by as well.

Well, we say that, but do we believe it? Bastila said multiple times that she's always struggled with the dark side.

Jolee isn't optimistic, either.

I'm still not a fan of how some of these light side choices have you completely denounce your identity as Revan without giving you the option to go "yeah, I'm Revan but I'm not Darth Revan anymore."

We can probably find the wreckage of a downed ship along the way. If we're lucky we can salvage some stabilizers from it to get off this planet.

Right, so we've got two objectives. 1. Find ship parts, 2. Disable the disruptor field. Seems simple enough, but surely there must be more to it.

Indeed, Mission. Indeed.

We've got this. That's the only option, really.

Well then, let's explore this planet we're on.

Welcome to what the game calls "Unknown World". This planet really does look pretty nice.

Before we do anything else, let's level Mission up. She gets Sneak Attack IX, which is the last rank of Sneak Attack and provides a sneak attack damage bonus of 9-54.

The Baragwin Shadow Armor is good, but not the best option we've got for Mission because we're not using stealth.

There we go, that's better. We also equip Mission with the Sith Assassin Pistol, which is a decent blaster that also deals 1-10 ion damage on top of the regular energy damage output.

Please don't point that thing at us, Mission.

Well, onward and upward. We're not finding anything if we stay on the beach and admire the view of the ocean.

Hello, who's this? Looks like... Builders, actually.

Yep, definitely Builders. They look just like the one in the mind prison.

The actual name of the Builders is Rakata, and we'll be learning a lot more about them and the Infinite Empire soon. These guys just seem like... bandits, honestly.

They're just as susceptible to lightsabers and Force powers as anyone else.

When we finish off the Rakatan warriors, these Duros emerge from behind some rocks.

That's what we're here for!

Fellow victims of the disruptor field, presumably.

Our ship sank far out to sea, but a handful of us were able to make it to this island... more than you see here, though.

Of the 10 of us who remained here, we two are the only remaining survivors...

The only beings who crash here that can hold them off are the Mandalorians, and we dare not go near them... we know of their depredations too well.

what

I guess it'd make some sense for Mandalorians to crash-land here as they wander the galaxy. How did the mining survey ship find its way to this system, though? Traveling to systems without the proper hyperspace coordinates is a really bad idea, and as far as I'm aware only the Star Maps can point you to the Star Forge system.

With their weapons they raid and kill other survivors, and can fight off the natives as well. They seem to have some sort of invisibility or light cloaking shield that hides them until they strike.

But we cannot delay here much longer... The longer we stay, the more likely either the Mandalorians or the natives will find us and kill us.

Hey, we've got plenty of room.

I think our crew could handle them.

I could have sworn these guys could be persuaded to stay on the Ebon Hawk as merchants, at least on PC, but that apparently is not the case. I must have been thinking of some of the salarians from Virmire in Mass Effect. Speaking of merchants, there are none on the Unknown World and there's no way back to the other planets, so hopefully you brought enough healing items and that kind of stuff.

It would be worth the risk, rather than stay here and face certain death... I thank you one last time, human, for saving us. We shall remember you, and hope that, should you escape, you will tell the Republic of those of us stranded here.

The Duros wander off, never to be seen again. Will we remember to inform the Republic about them? Probably not, not that we get that option to do so in-game anyway.

Right. Let's move on.

Up the hill, we run into more Rakatan warriors.

One of them is an elite warrior, who is stronger than the rest and awards ten times the XP, but still goes down easily. We do so much damage and our Force powers are so strong that most things can barely scratch us.

Here, we have a choice. Should we head left here, or keep going forward?

The path to the left actually leads away from the temple we can just about see here, so we'll keep going forward. We were told to investigate the temple, so we'll do that first.

Gizka may or may not be native to the Unknown World.

As I said, this planet is quite pretty.

This path leads straight to the temple, so let's go see about disabling that disruptor field.

The Rakatan warriors have tamed rancors to fight alongside them. Thankfully, these rancors are young and far less dangerous than their fully grown brethren, but they're still not a joke or anything.

The Rakatans don't fare too well.

The rancors, on the other hand, can be a bit more of a pain. We are doing damage with Force Wave, but they don't get knocked down.

Mission, however, does.

Stasis works great on rancors, so the rest of this should be a formality.

That'll do it.

And there is the temple. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that this is the same temple we saw in the Revan reveal cutscene.

There are some rancors stomping around the temple grounds, but we'll ignore them for now.

All we need to do here is enter the temple and deal with the disruptor field.

Or not, apparently. How are we going to get past this thing?

As we explore the grounds, we run into the Mandalorians the Duros mentioned.

We should probably start by taking down the captain.

The Mandalorians like tossing grenades because they're jerks.

But with the captain cut down, the rest of them won't pose much of a problem.

Sure, let's just take his head. Why not? Who doesn't love carrying a severed head around the place? We also find the Mandalorian Assault Armor, which actually comes with a helmet. I'd give that to Canderous if he was in the party, but he's not so never mind that.

The Mandalorian head is actually for a minor sidequest that we're about to lock ourselves out of.

Hm. This area looks too safe.

The story of The Sith Lords Restoration Project, summed up in three images.

Since there are mines all over the place, we'll take control of Mission and walk around so we can find the mines and disarm them.

These are plasma vents, which are actually just deadly plasma mines.

Instead of disabling this one, Mission decides to walk over it. Well, whatever works.

This right here is what we came for. The ship parts we need to fix the Ebon Hawk, just sitting out in the open. There is another way to obtain the parts, but this is quicker and easier.

We'll return to the Ebon Hawk shortly, but first we'll explore the rest of the south beach area.

As we head west, we have to deal with a pair of wild rancors. These are stronger than the young rancors, but still not nearly as fearsome as a fully grown rancor would be.

Maybe someone in that settlement can tell us how to get past the temple shield. Or maybe they'll try to kill us, like everyone else we've run into so far.