As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of the pre Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe books and comics. I find it interesting they wanted nothing to do with the EU and thought it was smart to alienate myself and all the other fans who faithfully bought the books and spent time in forums, but they seem to keep mining it for content and even more interesting they don’t want to turn their crappy High Republic into a tv series.
Of course we could play a drinking game for when we hear “updated for modern audiences”, “i never played KOTOR”, or showcase the diverse cast
SWTOR is a weird beast; an MMORPG that plays like an RPG that has one of the best storylines I've ever seen in an RPG(for Sith players, if nothing else. Though the Imperial Agent storyline is chefs kiss)
It's one of the few RPGs I've ever seen that has your character go from 'poor slave desperate to survive to ruler of a galactic empire' and does it right.
It drives me insane I'll never get that in a single player game. SWTOR is weird.
LS SW is unironically one of the more interesting playthroughs in the game.
Damn, right!
Being snarky to Baras is half the fun of the SW story, and a LS playthough means you also get to demoralise a lot of Jedi by pointing out they are the ones always picking fights with you.
One of the earlier missions while trying to track down Jaesa can be turned from a potential 2v1 to a 1v1 by playing it diplomatically and pointing out how deranged one of the two Jedi present is, eventually leading to the other one walking away in disgust at how bloodthirsty his ally is.
Don't get to romance Jaesa as LS until a very long time after that part of the game though, as she was originally the DS romance choice and Vette was the LS one since you needed to pick LS options to remove her shock collar and even have the possibility for a relationship. By the time Jaesa returns players have either reunited with Vette or probably hooked up with Lana Beniko, so Jaesa is not only playing a very late third pick but winds up against two far more developed characters, despite Vette's potential death for some players reducing her development for others since she's no longer a core companion and therefore doesn't get as much dev time from that point
It's the only MMORPG that actually let's me fucking roleplay any way I want without shoe-horning me into a specific role.
I still love the mission in the 'Rise of the Hutt Cartel' where you basically get to flirt and sass with your Imperial Minder... only she doesn't know who you are. And when you finally meet face to face, she freaks out because she's been chastising one of the most powerful people in the Sith Empire.
And I'm just over here thinking... why? Why can't I get this shit elsewhere? What the hell is up with this timeline?
Some would point out that RotHC was the start of Swtor going woke, it's where the first couple of gay "romances" were before becoming more widespread.
Imp side there was the red skinned sith who could actually die if you didn't intervene to save him, while Pubs had the human female coordinator trying to help with the crisis of the planet being destroyed. The "romance" options for either, significantly diminished as they were compared to the actual romances in game, were only available for characters of the same sex.
Swtor is one of those games I would love to still play but modern Star Wars is such a shitshow no part of its franchise is safe.
On top of all the MTX shit Swtor was bloated with from the Sequels and lots of other random things, the 3.0 revamp ruined a lot of classic features about the game simply so dailies could be inserted to older content zones and more timesinks and grinds could be forced upon players. If a pre 3.0 private server existed I would be there but it's one of the few games of its type that it doesn't seem to have one.
Regarding the IA, it's a tricky story to recommend because on the one hand it's the best written so you would think telling people to play it ASAP would be good. But on the other hand there are so many cameos and Easter eggs littering the story you will miss them if you haven't already done the other 7 stories.
The old twi'lek leader from near the very start of the JK story back on Tython? Shows up at the very end of the IA story.
And the whole story is like that. If you don't know what to look for so many details get missed.