Not sure about buying Knights of the Old Republic (1 Viewer)

I'm a huge Star Wars fan but my only experience with RPGs was one of the Final Fantasy games (one of the PS1 games). And to be honest, I didn't like Final Fantasy, I felt as though I was watching the game instead of playing.

While KOTOR plays very differently from the Final Fantasy games, it's still an RPG and thus shares a lot of the core elements with the FF series (as well as all RPGs). So when you say you didn't like Final Fantasy, it really depends on what specifically you didn't like about it that will determine whether or not you will like KOTOR.

Personally, I love the game--in fact, it's probably one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and it's definitely creeping up on my all-time great games, period, list. But here are some similarities to FF that you should be aware of:

As with all RPGs, you start out as a relative weakling, and a huge focus of the game is leveling up by killing monsters for experience, and gradually gaining better equipment, abilities, and character stats. Also, the combat is not quite truly turn-based, but there are turn-based elements to it. Meaning you tell your character to attack, and he attacks until you tell him to do something else. It isn't like Splinter Cell, where your success in a battle depends on your skill with using the thumbstick to aim, etc. It is dice-based, meaning that a dice is rolled (figuratively) and that determines whether or not you hit and how much damage you do. You have no control over the fight other than choosing the action you will take. (It sounds a lot more limiting that it really is, actually it's very cool the way it's done, but it should be pointed out that the game is doing the fighting for you--you do not control every swing of the saber.)

There is also a broad, over-reaching story and tons of side-quests, which serve to flesh out the Star Wars universe and provide the opportunity for your character to level up. Party management is a key aspect as well, as you are responsible not only for your character, but an entire group of people who eventually end up joining you (just like FF, you can take two others with you at any one time). The CPU will control their actions by default, but you can switch to any of them on the fly and queue up a different action.

So there are some definite similarities to FF that you should be aware of. It's a great, great, game and I agree with everyone that you should at least give it a rental to see if you like it (ESPECIALLY if you are a Star Wars fan), but depending on what, exactly, you didn't like about FF, you might also object to that element in KOTOR.

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To me, the distinction between a game like KOTOR and a Final Fantasy-type RPG is that the encounter/combat system in KOTOR is much smoother

I agree. The battles are more up tempo which keeps the game flowing. Also you don't get mysteriously attacked every fifteen steps you take. You can usually see the enemies you are about to face.

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