A Day Off
Last week as you might be able to tell from the posts I made during it… was extremely stressful. As a result I ended up taking off yesterday as a sort of “mental health day”. It was absolutely glorious, because essentially I sat around playing video games and watching Netflix. I won’t talk about the Netflix viewing because I will save that for Saturday, but I will talk about the games I played. More than anything yesterday was a day devoted to Star Wars the Old Republic. I have this mad mission to somehow finish the rest of the class storyline that I have not completed before the launch of Fallen Empire at the end of this month. I know that seems a bit mad, but I am enjoying myself especially since we are in this length lag period in Final Fantasy XIV content. Over the weekend I finished up Smuggler, and yesterday I completed Sith Warrior. At this point I have completed Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, Smuggler and Sith Warrior… and I think quite possibly the Warrior is the most satisfying conclusion yet. The most interesting thing to me is how the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior class stories end up making a nice set of bookends.
The Jedi Knight storyline is deeply impersonal. It always felt less about your own exploits and more about you essentially saving the galaxy. What I mean is that the Jedi Knight storyline, IS the story of the game. Every major story arc event that trickles down into other characters seems to stem from a conflict brewing for the Knights. The end result is that it feels like you are more a slave of events and you doggedly follow the main story arc as the Republic war progresses. Sith Warrior on the other hand is a completely different experience. It is more personal, and more about your ambitions and your power as you ascend from an apprentice all of the way through essentially the Dark Council. I don’t want to go into a ton of detail but the end result is a much more satisfying experience. Every obstacle in your path you personally get to remove by your own hand. Last night I mentioned to a friend that the Sith Warrior storyline felt more “Sithy” than the Jedi felt “Jedi” but I guess in the grand scheme of things that isn’t true. The Sith are by nature about thinking inwards, and the Jedi are about thinking outwards… and the Jedi storyline being detached from more personal vendetta… I guess IS what a Jedi should be.
The interesting part about playing a Sith is that you know someone is always about to betray you. So you go into the equation knowing that none of your allies are really ever your “true” allies. As the story progresses they really find ways of driving this point home, and in many ways you have to deal with that fact or at least find ways to get past it. In the end however every decision made leads you towards an epic conclusion allowing you to take out all of your frustrations. The Sith Warrior story may be my favorite so far, just because there are so many epic moments where I absolutely feel like this avatar of wrath blazing a path through my enemies. I started off trying to play a mostly Light Side Sith… but as the events started reaching their conclusion I found myself succumbing to the darkside and began taking those “red” options to dispatch those who betrayed me. In truth I ended the story line in a fairly “grey” state, which I guess is fitting. In truth if I were a force user I would more than likely be a renegade that tried to live between the two factions, because it feels like the true path of the force is to find a balance between the two extremes. To draw on the dark side and your rage when you need to defeat an enemy, but draw on the calm and peace when you need to solve issues. My friend Tam mentioned something and it is absolutely true… making a “good” choice Sith side feels more rewarding because people are shocked and amazed that you did not force choke them into submission… whereas everyone expects it of you on the Jedi side.
Hunting Prey
After finishing off the Sith Warrior I decided to flip over and start working on my Bounty Hunter that was just now getting to Dromund Kaas. I figured I wanted a bit of a break from the “Sith” thing and having just finished playing a Smuggler I did not really relish playing a cunning character quite yet. This leaves the Bounty Hunter, which has always felt a little odd to play. As a Trooper the abilities felt like they made more sense, so I will have to sort through the bar and try and figure out what abilities I actually should be using. I did not want to re-roll my character so I am playing Powertech, but planning on going one of the non-tank options. At some point I am going to play a commando, which seems like it is far more satisfying to have a bit damned cannon than two pistols of the bounty hunter equivalent. I think I will be fairly happy as a bounty hunter as soon as I can get my hands on some armor that LOOKS like a Bounty Hunter. If I could run around in a color variant “Boba Fett” Mandalorian armor… I would be super happy to play this character. Until that happens however… I think I will ultimately be rather disappointed.
That is honestly one of my big complaints replaying content is that SWTOR should have made the getting of your class armor more of an important thing as you level. There is an iconic look for each of the classes, and as you travel through the content you should start adding pieces of moddable armor to allow players to complete that “fantasy”. Smugglers do a fair job of getting a few pieces of Han Solo-esc armor, and Jedi Knights eventually get a set of armor that feels like the armor+robe appearance you often see. However the other classes… seem to be a little less determined. Jedi Consular is the story of having to suffer through a whole series of stupid looking armor sets, never quite finding one that really fits the class. Bounty hunter so far, feels like I got my armor by scavenging bits off of my kills… and I guess in a way that fits. All I really want is to look like Boba Fett… is that too much to ask? I need to sort through my various cartel market options and see if I can find something I will be happy with. If my characters look good I enjoy playing them regardless of how they perform, and my fear is that I won’t really get into this class until I can make him “not look stupid”.