I’m always surprised when my plans in MMOs actually come to fruition.

Yes, my plan had been to replay the base content of Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Jedi consular in order to see the Republic side of things, and somehow that’s actually what ended up happening.

I now bring you my thoughts on the class, its story, and the Republic.

On the consular:

Having played it all the way through, I’m still not getting why the buzz around the consular story is so negative. While it’s definitely nowhere near as spectacular as the agent story was, I still enjoyed myself quite a lot.

What I like most is how well they sold the class fantasy. The consular story is all about delving into ancient lore, healing the sick, and diplomacy. I’m not the biggest fan of the Jedi (even relative to my already lukewarm feelings toward Star Wars as a whole), but the consular story captures the essence of what it is to be a Jedi incredibly well.

It’s also a welcome change of pace from the more bombastic stories video games tend to focus on. Of course, the game mechanics still involve no end of combat, but story-wise, the consular story is far more focused on making peace rather than war.

You do start to feel like a true paragon of virtue and enlightenment. That appeals very strongly to me — it may not for everyone.

I also thought it was very interesting to have so many diplomats and envoys on your ship, in addition to the usual companions, many of them compelling characters in their own right.

Though it does make me wonder where they were all staying, considering there are only two beds on the ship. Pity the poor soul bunking with Qyzen; he’s awfully spiky, and he’s cold-blooded, so you know he’d be a blanket-hog.

And once again I was struck by how very much SW:TOR does not feel like Star Wars to me. The names are the same, but the style of storytelling in this game bears no resemblance to the movies, and it’s almost hard to believe they’re nominally part of the same franchise.

Coming from me, that’s a compliment.

I do have a few complaints about the consular. One is that chapter three is by far the weakest. The unique class flavour is mostly thrown away for a very standard “save the world” story, and the one big twist is very easy to see coming.

Also, while the agent story easily could have stood alone as a solid game in its own right, the consular story does feel very much like a side-quest (albeit an unusually good one). It feels tangential to the main game, and not terribly important in the greater scheme of things.

Finally, the class itself just isn’t that fun to play. Button bloat is a big problem for SW:TOR in general, but the consular, at least as the sage sub-class, is an especially egregious case. How many different “throw sparklies for moderate damage” spells do I need? My agent had too many buttons, too, but at least they all flowed together into a natural and somewhat satisfying rotation. They all had a clear purpose within the greater whole. Sage is just playing whack-a-mole with a dozen barely distinguishable short cooldown abilities.

Companions were also at times a source of frustration.

On companions:

The consular story once again had me frustrated by how slowly you unlock companions in SW:TOR. It took me an incredibly long time to unlock any companions I actually liked.

I also found it strange — though also somewhat amusing — how unbelievably out of place the first few consular companions are. I’m playing the game’s most peaceful and virtuous class, yet my first three companions are a fanatical lizard monster who hunts sentient beings for sport because he thinks life is a game and he’s trying to get the high score; a weird, creepy pervert who is accompanied everywhere by his self-aware holographic sex doll; and a homicidal, megalomaniacal terrorist.

Qyzen, at least, did grow on me a bit, though it’s still hard to look past the “murders innocent people in the name of his bloodthirsty goddess” thing.

Tharan makes my skin crawl, though. He comes across as the sort of guy who’s going to get caught installing hidden cameras in a middle school bathroom at some point. And Zenith just seems to be the Twi’lek version of Arcturus Mengsk. I can hear him giving the speech now:

“I will not be stopped. Not by you, or the Sith, or the Jedi, or anyone! I will rule Balmorra, or see it burned to ashes around me!”

Thankfully, they were just saving the best for last.

Felix is a pretty basic character, and his arc never really went anywhere, but he’s a likable enough guy, and he’ll always be welcome on my ship, no matter how scrambled his brains are.

Nadia, though, is the one who was worth the wait.

I gather Nadia is a character the community is somewhat divided on. I certainly grant her eagerness and naivete can at times be a little abrasive.

But in the end I was won over. Her joy and wonder are just too infectious. Surprisingly, even despite the severe limitations of an MMO, I’d rate Nadia as one of my favourite Bioware romances to date; it’s a sweet story, and it plays out well.

I particularly liked how in this case it was more a case of Nadia pursuing the player character than the other way around. Normally in Bioware romances the NPC doesn’t display any interest until the player does. It’s like a switch goes off in their head and suddenly they like you.

Which is of course exactly what happens, but the artificiality of it is painfully obvious. By making her the aggressor (for lack of a better term) in the relationship, Nadia comes across as a lot more real.

I also thought it was interesting how Nadia appeared in the story long before she became a companion. I am left to wonder why they couldn’t just make her a companion right away,* but at least it gives the player plenty of time to get to know her, even if they can’t adventure with her until near the end of the game.

*(I understand there’s nominally a story explanation for it, but it feels a bit flimsy.)

On the Republic:

This was of course also my first time seeing the Republic side of things.

I don’t like it.

Now, I’m not sure exactly why I find the Republic so uninteresting. Part of it is definitely that the moral choices are a lot easier. I really agonized over a lot of the Imperial choices, but bar a handful of exceptions, the Republic choices are usually between “do the obviously right thing” or “be a petty, evil prick for no reason.”

But even beyond that, the Republic just feels so colourless and bland. Maybe everyone is just so nice the faction doesn’t feel real. Maybe it’s how dorky their uniforms are. Maybe I just like British accents a little too much.

I may still play Republic classes, but it’s clear my heart lies with the Empire. And that’s pretty surprising, because I never like playing the bad guy in games.

On the future:

Against all odds, I’m still enjoying SW:TOR, even if a few of the game’s bad habits are beginning to wear heavily on me — like the lengthy travel times enforced by its sometimes wonky quest flow, and its ludicrous over-abundance of trash mobs. I don’t see myself leaving it behind any time soon.

Right now I’m still thinking I’ll finish the inquisitor storyline at least before moving on to the expansion content. Maybe a few other classes, too — we’ll see. I do want to finish at least most of the class stories eventually, though I can’t guarantee my interest will last that long.

One thing in my favour is that nearly all my characters were created during a double XP event, meaning they’re all a fair bit ahead of the leveling curve. I can afford to skip quite a lot of the non-class content, which should keep things from being too much of a grind.

My plan is still to return to my agent whenever I finally move into the expansions, and I don’t currently expect to play any other characters after finishing their class stories, but we’ll see how it goes.

I may be taking more detours into other games along the way, as well. Right now I feel a strong, sudden call from a old flame… a wild frontier where a young Yukifyo woman can make a name for herself…

* * *

By the way, I finally figured out the issue with images on my blog, so you should now once again be able to click screenshots for full-size versions. Which I certainly hope someone is going to do, since I am unjustifiably proud of my screenshoting skills.

Last night, I at last wrapped up the Imperial agent class story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In the end, it did actually manage to live up to the hype that has surrounded it for so many years. It’s definitely going down as one of my favourite Bioware stories to date.

It’s very much a slow burn story. There’s not necessarily any point of it that’s boring, but it does take a long time to get to the stuff that’s truly memorable. But once it finally hits its stride, it’s well worth the wait.

I don’t know how the agent story compares to the other class stories, but I have to say this didn’t feel like just a class storyline to me. It felt like the main plot of the game. It wasn’t pared down or seemingly unfinished or otherwise lacking the way class or faction-specific content in other MMOs tends to be. The Imperial agent storyline could easily have worked as a standalone RPG.

As always, Bioware’s skill with character writing shone through. By the end, I was reflecting on how attached I had become to Vector, Lokin, and Temple (I’m still airlocking Kaliyo and SCORPIO at the first opportunity), but what was even more impressive was the deep, violent hatred I had developed for my enemy.

It has been a long time since a villain or group of villains — in any medium — has inspired such a depth of loathing in me. Maybe Adrian Zorlescu in The Secret World.

Bioware’s excellent character development really does go both ways. They can make you absolutely adore a character, but they can also build a character who is so vile, so insufferably smug and irritating, so utterly despicable that it’s all you can do not to punch your monitor every time they appear.

I also found the ultimate conclusion of the story immensely satisfying. Looking online afterward, I was surprised to discover just how many different variations on the ending there are, but it looks like I got the best one. The best for my particular head canon, anyway.

It does make me a bit sad that Bioware didn’t have the resources to continue the class storylines, but it’s obvious they never could have. Even WoW doesn’t have that kind of resources. It can’t be done — they simply bit off more than they can chew.

I hope I at least get to see Keeper again. I like the cut of her jib. Would love to see her become a full companion somehow at some point. I know it’s not too likely, but a man can dream.

Speaking of companions, that is one minor blemish on the experience. Companion stories could have been handled better.

Let me summarize the climax of every companion story for you:

Companion: “I’m going to do a cool thing.”

Me: “Can I come?”

Companion: “No.”

Me: 😦

And then the camera fades out briefly, and the companion returns to tell you of their adventure. I imagine it’s another resource issue, but there were companion missions in the early game that let you go out and do things. You’re telling me I have to trek to the ass end of the galaxy to help Kaliyo get revenge on someone who talked back to her five years ago, but I can’t be there for my boyfriend on the most important day of his life?

It’s not right, man.

The layout of companion content is odd, too. New conversations are relatively rare in the early parts of the game, but near the end, they’re popping up after nearly every mission. I don’t know why they couldn’t have been spread out more.

Same deal for unlocking companions. I was stuck with nothing but Kaliyo for a huge stretch of time, but I acquired SCORPIO so late I’m not sure why they bothered including her at all. Why couldn’t they space those out better?

Still, this is on the whole a minor nitpick that doesn’t much detract from an otherwise excellent experience.

Of course, there’s still plenty to do. I still have expansion content awaiting me on my agent, though as I’ve said before I’m not in any rush to do so. I’m not sure my patience will last, but right now what I’d like to do now is finish one or two more class stories (at least consular to see the Republic side of things, and maybe inquisitor as well) to get a full view of the launch story before moving on to expansions.

I may also end up playing other alts down the line, too. Both knight and warrior have companions I want to get to know, and I’m still somewhat intrigued by the trooper story, even if the class itself didn’t impress me much. Bounty hunter is tempting as well, purely because I’m a Grey DeLisle fanboy.

I don’t think I’ll be done with SW:TOR anytime soon. This is why I followed through on my original plan of cancelling my subscription and buying enough cartel coins to eliminate the worst restrictions. Which brings me to…

Making the switch from sub to preferred:

As I wrapped up the agent story, I was also getting used to life as one of the unwashed masses without a subscription.

On the whole, it hasn’t been too bad so far. It’s very different from what I had been expecting; either the information I had read was out of date, or I had misinterpreted it. Probably a little of both.

Firstly, action bars. I had been led to believe I would lose access to some of my action bars after the switch, but this was not the case. Nothing changed. Granted, I don’t use the full compliment of action bars, but at the same time, I can’t imagine why you would need to, even considering SW:TOR’s outrageous case of button bloat.

Similarly, I had been led to believe I would be limited to six character slots, which would force me to decommission one character (likely the level 60 smuggler I made purely to farm Gree reputation), but I actually have eight, which allows me to have one of each class. Will come in handy if I ever decide to make that bounty hunter.

I had also been led to believe my cooldowns for quick travel type abilities would go up significantly after I let my sub lapse, but they didn’t change at all. With full legacy perks, this means I have no cooldowns at all on quick travel and the fleet pass.

But one thing I had never seen mentioned is that I can no longer use my stronghold to reach the fleet or my ship. The good news is the legacy perk to teleport to my ship isn’t too hard to get, so it’s not the end of the world.

In the end I had to buy less unlocks than I expected to. Kind of frustrating that I bought more cartel coins than I needed to, and I’m not sure what to do with the leftovers. I bought some extra legacy perks (rocket boost FTW) and stronghold decorations, but I’ve still got over a thousand left. Despite having some of the most aggressive monetization in the industry, SW:TOR has a surprisingly unappealing cash shop. Usually I buy clothes in these things, but most of the outfits are less interesting than what I already have, or too expensive.

My agent has been max level for ages, so I can’t judge the impact of the reduced XP until I spend more time with alts, but as a subscriber I was always well ahead of the level for each planet I was on, so I can’t imagine it’ll be too problematic.

The one thing that is bothering me, surprisingly, is the credit cap. I’ve never been very wealthy in the game, so 350,000 credits seemed like a nice high ceiling, but turns out I hit it quicker than I thought, and the warning messages about approaching the limit are far more insistent than I realized. It’s irritating, especially as I slowly run out of things to buy.

Still, on the whole, life as a preferred player isn’t half as bad as I had feared. So far, anyway.

This ultimately only further baffles me in regards to Bioware’s decision-making. Supposedly the point of their free to play model is to offer a free trial and then entice people to stay subscribed, but it doesn’t work. The absolute worst experience you can have in SW:TOR is as a new, level one player who hasn’t paid before. The later in the game you get and the more you’ve spent in the past, the less reason there is to keep spending.

It’s like the world’s wonkiest buy to play model.