Hey, fellow Hivers! I'm back again for the next leg of my classic Star Wars: KOTOR experience on desktop through the Steam platform.
Hopefully I can continue to find cool official and fan posters related to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic because we still got Leviathan, Korriban, Yavin, Lehon, and Star Forge System/ Space Vessel to cover.
If this is your first time seeing one of these posts, here are links to my previous posts:
We've done Endar Spine, Taris, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, and Tatooine. Now we're arriving at the the halfway mark of Manaan -- the water world and its main hub of Ahto City.
The aquatic planet of Manaan's Ahto City in background, and my crew's Ebon Hawk spaceship in foreground.
The natives of the aquatic planet of Manaan are a catfish-faced frog-like race called the Selkath. Manaan is a rich planet because of its naturally-occurring resource of an ocean-bottom material called Kolto which it harvests and sells to both the Republic and the Sith -- due to Kolto's extraordinary healing properties. Due to this business arrangement, Manaan maintains neutrality while doing business with both warring sides, and has a strict policy against the theft of Kolto and most violence on the planet.
Here we can see a Sith officer and a Republic soldier verbally attacking each other since all physical violence is basically outlawed on Manaan.
A Selkath from Manaan on left, my character Varen on right.
The Selkath are the standard aquatic extra-terrestrial with a focus on the more as amphibians rather than fish. They have the usual gargled voice to remind others that they originate from underwater. While I don't know much about frogs or catfish, it seems the Selkath have a somewhat very organized society ruled over by a council -- or at least that's how it works it Ahto City. Not sure how it works for the rest of the planet but I'm guessing it's pretty unified due to the reliance and economic supremacy from their Kolto imports.
We get a short scene of Darth Malak getting news that I killed the bounty hunter Calo Nord on Tatooine so his apprentice Darth Bandon -- who doesn't even have their own unique character model -- says they'll be the one to defeat my character.
After that short scene of the bad guys aboard the Sith ship Leviathan, my character Varen and his crew run into an old friend of Carth's who tells him his son is still alive on Korriban which sets that as our next destination after Manaan.
I chose Carth and Jolee as my starting crew for Manaan because they had side quests related to the planet.
After triggering Carth's side quest for the next planet Korriban, I switched him for Bastila because I much prefer going into battle with three Jedi and find the grenades in KOTOR are much too OP and kind of break the game. Another reason I add Bastila is because this time I'm trying to make my play-through a little more interesting by triggering a romance between my guy Varen and her.
After getting past customs on Manaan, I check out a cantina to restock on stimulants. It always surprises me how they didn't add a drinking mini-game here or a small fight-scene where someone does or doesn't shoot first.
Side Quests on Manaan
Courtroom of Justice on Manaan -- Republic Lawyer left, Sith Lawyer right, Five Selkath Judges in background, and my guy Varen in shaded foreground.
The side missions on the planet Manaan are: Sunry Murder Trial, Missing Selkath Youth, Swoop Racing, and some Assassination Missions.
As a Light-Side Jedi I skipped most of the Assassination Missions because it didn't fit my role-playing as a good guy. Despite that robbing me of some quick big-amounts of experience points, I'd rather grind on Tatooine by killing endless Sand People and Giant Orange Lizards than murder people for sleazy Hutt crime lords.
If this isn't your first time reading one of my KOTOR posts, then you already know I hate Swoop-Racing ... but I also added a mod that makes it super easy but I still don't think it's worth going into detail over.
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Sunry Muder Trial
This was one of the game's more interesting side-quests: a Republic War Veteran and old friend of my party member Jolee is supposedly framed for the murder of a young Sith woman. Because violence is against the law on Manaan, they might put him to death unless you prove his innocence. Unfortunately you learn that not only was Jolee's friend cheating on his wife with the Sith woman but that he truthfully did murder her in cold blood ...
... But because his guilty verdict might result in the Republic being punished by Manaan with Kolto price-hikes or complete withdrawal (basically no health potions for one side of a war), I find myself carrying out what I've been asked to do, which is prove the old man's innocence . At first I thought some party members would object but they understand that this little lie will end up saing millions, if not billions, of lives in the war between the Republic and Sith.
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Missing Selkath Youth
We all remember our rebellious teenage years -- maybe not if you had too much fun -- but the Selkath youth decide to get extra-risky by joining the edgiest gang of them all: the Dark Side. Or at least that's what I'm led to believe when some Selkath youth start trying to kill me ... forcing me to use the Force.
He's blue until he spots me and then the blaster-pistol pops out and so does my lightsaber and I got no choice but to show him my Jedi Dance: the Force Tango of Death.
Luckily, I don't end up having to kill all of these wayward fish-youths but I was disappointed the game didn't give me the option of persuading or Jedi mind-tricking them out of being these Dark Jedi's dumb henchmen -- it felt disrespectful to fish people.
Especially this fight here: three versus three? That's it? Varen and his crew have been grinding in the burning sands of the Tatooine desert through endless Sand People and dinosaurs. I honestly felt bad for these three.
And after all that, the Selkath Police then tried to arrest me for ridding them of pesky Sith and freeing most of their corrupted fish kids.
This was a hard sell: yes, I put down some of your unruly youths ... but I did clean out some Sith from your guy's basement?
Main Quests on Manaan
A lot of stuff happens on Manaan but mainly: my guy Varen and his crew infiltrate a Sith base to hide evidence that the Republic is doing shady side-deals for the Selkath's Kolto, we take a submarine deeper into the ocean where we kill some psycho Selkath at Hrakert Station and stop a machine that woke up an ocea-god ready to wipe out Manaan as the galaxy knows it.
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Infiltrating the Sith Base
Jolee and Bastila fighting Sith Soldiers at the Manaan base.
This quest felt like the Sith Base mission on Taris but just with bigger rooms and more Dark Jedi ... so bigger and a little better. I ran into some weird situations where the grenades the Sith soldiers threw almost KO'd my party a few times -- or the Dark Jedi suddenly started using Force Powers before physical attacks, which was great but caught me off-guard. Against my better judgement hours earlier, I recently got the Force Suppression ability which weakens enemy Force-Powers but since I'd so rarely used it. ... I completely forgot I had it until I got Force-Stunned maybe twelve times in this base ... which I repeat was actually a pleasant surprise.
My character getting Force-Stunned immediately after opening a door.
A lot of this mission overlaps with the Missing Selkath Youth, so other than a few other fights -- it's basically finished once you retrieve the evidence that the Republic is cheating on their deal with the planet of Manaan.
Bastila attacking while Jolee Force-Tornadoes a Dark Jedi.
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Hrakert Station
A liquid-pressure minigame to avoid the insta-kill shark boss
Probably one of the most interesting parts about the planet Manaan is the underwater mission. It feels very claustrophobic, plus when you're down there -- the game throws the Selkath enemies at you in groups of four which was nice because I liked the idea of my character Varen's crew being overwhelmed more often.
Hrakert Station is a lot of long dark hallways with three or four droids or psychotic Selkath waiting to attack you in groups -- which was nice! Another great part about this area was that there was plenty of loot to rummage through. Just tons and tons of stimulants for my Jedi and other more technical gear for my non-Jedi party members.
Some of the people you rescue try to suffocate you because they're scared.
Some kind of giant fish the Selkath on Manaan secretly worship as a god because it has psychic powers -- Force Powers?
Don't get wrong -- Manaan is probably my new favorite planet, and might even be better than Kashyyyk BUT ... they did that stupid thing again where they show a big boss that you can't fight. It's like the Krayt Dragon on Tatooine again where it insta-kills you unless you do some special story-action -- which maybe makes sense since it's supposed to be a fish god?
After a liquid-pressure mini-game, you find the Star Map.
Finally, my character Varen's found the third or fourth Star Map ... I don't know I've lost count after all this time. Maybe it's the fourth -- because first there's Dantooine, then Kashyyk, then Tatooine, and now Manaan ... unless Dantooine doesn't count for some odd reason.
Anyway, Darth Malak's apprentice Darth Bandon shows up: that guy who doesn't even have a unique character model. It was a bit of a head-scratcher to see that they'd given Calo Nord the Bounty Hunter a unique look but not the side-kick of the game's main villain: quite odd.
I laughed when the Dark Jedi beside him switched on his lightsaber but when Darth Bandon kept talking he switch it off ... like, "Oops. My bad! I can wait!"
I found it funny that this was considered a boss battle when I had much more difficulty fighting five or eight Sand People on Tatooine -- but it also probably helped that I did some grinding for EXP in the desert for a while.
Once again, it's three on three ... and that's in my favor.
I forgot to mention that before going to Hrakert Station I did a little extra-grinding on Tatooine thanks to the infinite respawn of the Sand
People and Cheetoh-Dinosaurs so I have the Force Storm ability -- which is quite the crowd-clearer and does a nice dose of damage on singular opponents.
The battle starts with Juhani air-lifting the Dark Jedi into Force Whirlwinds, my guy Varen stat-buffing our squad with Force Valor and Energy Resistance, and for some reason ... Darth Bandon keeps debuffing Bastila.
I don't think I've ever explained the stat-buffing and debuffing in KOTOR 1. Your main stats are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. Strength determines how much damage melee weapons do, including lightsabers unless your Dexterity stat is higher. Dexterity determines how much damage long-range weapons do, how good you are at dodging, and determines your lightsaber damage if it's a lot higher than your Strength stat. Constitution is health and defense. Wisdom determines how many times you can use Force Powers, how effective they are, and how much you can resist enemy Force Powers ... or maybe Charisma determines that last effect. If anyone knows different, please correct me.
Anyway, some Force Powers affect just the character casting them, one opponent, all opponents, or your whole party. I usually use Varen to buff my party while using Juhani or Bastila or Jolee to debuff or stun the enemy.
Wiping out Darth Bandon's sidekicks with Force Storm, while Juhani interrupts his attacks, and Bastila stands around useless.
As far boss battles go, I liked the dark narrow underwater hallway but was very surprised at how little life Darth Bandon had -- and that he didn't have more Dark Jedi with him. A battle that was five on three would've made more sense at this point but I guess three is a number they like sticking to when it comes to ending fights like this.
Final Thoughts on Manaan
Manaan is clean and pristine in the same degree that Kashyyk was dark and dangerous. There is a big difference though: Manaan is much more important to the overall story of KOTOR than Kashyyk and we get to fight a lot more Sith and Dark Jedi on the water-world. Another great strength of this level is that it acts as a good lynch-pin for being half-way through the story ... and I don't think that Kashyyyk could've pulled that off.
Also, there were quite a few times when my main character Varen died while fighting on Manaan -- even with his new Force Storm ability and I think that's because Manaan is much more of a challenge. The health of enemies was just a little bit higher but they definitely packed more of a punch now when they attacked. It reminded me that my Scout-Consular MC is a little bit of a glass-cannon and that I need to work on his defenses more as I progress through the game -- although my other party members do a great job covering that weakness.
Final Grade for the Water World of Manaan:
7.5/10
My character Varen ... if he had NOT killed Darth Bandon.
