Jade Empire: Special Edition

First the positives: - Really great story. Nothing really to surprise if you're used to Bioware plotlines but really elegant overarching plot and interesting characters that are worth exploring. - Imaginative combat (that is also a negative but we'll get to that). The idea of utilising complmentary styles that serve different purposes - one to slow down the enemy, another to attack, another to attack at range and also limited "bullet time" to thin the herd or escape sticky spots. In theory, it should add up to varied, fun combat. - Lovely worldbuilding. Most of the sidequests are interesting to do and add to the atmosphere of the world. - John Cleese Negatives: - Too many enemies are immune to magic and support styles meaning you're basically dodging and button mashing weapon and martial styles. It would have been much better to make some styles work more effectively than others against certain enemies instead of limiting the styles so badly that 30% of the fights are quite boring. - The game is far too easy. I'm not very good at most games as I started late and don't have the reflexes of native gamers, but I had almost no problems on Grandmaster difficulty, mashing my way through most of the game. In fact, planning my attacks carefuly was less effective that just running in with weapon style and crushing everything. - The camera is absolutely apalling - The few difficult fights are just hard by virtue of enemy numbers or over-healthed single enemies. There's only one boss fight that was really, really fun where you had to switch styles constantly as the enemy had shifting immunties but that was over way too quickly. - There is one style that is so freaking powerful it destroys the game unless you deliberately nerf yourself. I didn't upgrade this style all game but it was still more powerful than my fully upgraded styles and simply hammered enemies at the end. Jade Empire is great fun but it should be so much better, The bones of a truly great game are there.

I played this on xbox when it came out, and overall I enjoyed it. However, the story and characters don't have the depth I've seen from other Bioware games, and the time it took me to get through the story was about a third of what it would normally take me with an RPG. The morality system seemed rather simplified compared to other games like KotOR, and while it did make a minor difference, being that the choices were very black and white made it seem rather weak. While I don't regret playing it and I did have fun, it's not a game I'd replay for the story unless this special edition expands on it. The one thng I would say is worth getting this game for is the setting. Beautiful environments, good voice acting, and absolutly stunning landscapes made this game worth playing for me. Combat was nothing special, but it didn't drag out or make you feel overpowered, and interactions with NPCs and your companions was well done. So, not my favorite game, but I did enjoy my time with it.

Granted, this is made easy by the number one complaint everyone has with this game: it is just too small, too short. Not particularly short by today's standards and it's length is just right for the story it tells, but when compared to other RPGs, even those without an open world, it suffers pityfully. The world it created is enchanting, one would like to explore it more; the story is not completely linear, but it's nowhere near to AAA titles. It has however something most of later games under EA have not: a soul. While not epic and lacking in secondary themes, the quests are astoundingly good: not a single FedEx and very few pure kill quests. Instead you will have a chance to star in a theatrical play with a political subtext, search for a husband for a bandit leader, participate in a cultural debate against an outlander (voiced by John Cleese!) and many more, very often moving your heart. I refrain from mentioning what you'll face in the main plot, but it is likewise suitably varied, and in most cases offer multiple resolutions. No grind here, no artificial padding, the game never becomes stale. While you sadly get only a single follower to fight with you, the overall set of companions travelling with you is second to none, with only Dragon Age II coming close: a mad sciencist (who "makes things fly and things explode"), a drunken giant of a man always looking for a fight, a demon, a tight-lipped cynic with a suspicious past, a mysterious agent with the intention of single-handedly toppling the system, and all of them have an interesting backstory with ties to the plot. It's not perfect. It introduces perhaps the best morality system of any game and then completely fails to follow it, reverting to the 'unscrupulous asshole or saint' dihotomy. Most dialog options lead to the same reply. The fighting styles aren't balanced, fighting is simplistic (install the 'Jade Empire in Style' mod, it helps!). None is however so bad as to detract from the melancholic story.

...I didn't enjoy the combat, despite the many different styles that were available, so I switched to the easiest difficulty setting at some point. Really, it was the refreshing setting, the well-written characters and the fascinating story that kept me going, and I'd say it was worth it. The world is where this game really shines. Heavily inspired by Chinese mythology and culture, this is far from the average fantasy world you have seen so often. The graphics, while definitely dated, do a great job in bringing this world to life. You may not visit a huge number of places throughout your journey, but they are all unique and have a great atmosphere to them. I never doubted that there really was a great empire behind the boundaries of where the game allowed me to go. The story is compelling and full of mystery and intrigue. You meet very different and interesting characters along the way, many of which have their own agendas and goals, some of which may not fully coincide with yours. And not everyone is who they appear to be - in fact, barely anyone is. There are many twists and surprises, some of which you see coming, some not. Not all of them were equally strong, but overall it is a very fun journey. Yes, it is fairly linear, but I didn't think that was a big problem. The morality system is very similar to Knights of the Old Republic, but from what I've seen (basically, the "good" side), it is a bit more ambiguous and subtle. In fact, when I played through KotOR I with a dark side character in my second playthrough, I ended up hating the story because of how little sense it made and how badly written the "evil" choices were most of the time. I think that this kind of thing was avoided in Jade Empire, though I cannot be sure. Maybe, some day I'll do an "evil" playthrough, but I somewhat doubt it. Oh, and the music is very good. It fits the world and atmosphere perfectly, and is in itself a nice change from the usual generic fantasy music.

Jade Empire is a fantasy RPG, with demons, ghosts, martial arts, magic, firework-propelled aircrafts and huge dose of "vaguely oriental" themes. It still looks and sounds beautifull, even if the graphics ar erather dated. The game runs on the same engine as kotor (And, from what I've heard still uses turns "under the hood"), but is more real-time action oriented. Theough it is much *much* lighter on the RPG elements, Uses 3 stats, which determine a buch of stuff, the equipment is "pick 3 items that grant me bonuses I want" (later on you can equip more of them) There are multiple "styles", each having a light attack chain. a heavy attack and an AoE attack. Styles are separated into: physical straight up damage dealing (they also finish "combnations"); Support - debuffs and opening "combinations"; Magical - ranged attacks using up chi (which also can be used to heal or deal more damage); Weapon - they use a weapon bigger damage, attacks use up Focus (bullet time you can use basically at will), as well as Transformations, which let you well, transform into one of several forms. The combinations can be used to spawn health/chi/focus pickups on killing the target, which is their only use. Also, now you have only one companion at a time, in one of 2 modes: attack or support, attack is rather straightforward, they will fight together with you (and they ar erather useless), support on the other hand makes them buff the player, some regenerate resources, some increase damage dealt with certain styles. It presents a unique moral framework, based on the martial arts philosophies described in the tutorial... but almost immediately shallows it into old "good" and "evil", which is a tremendous shame. The game is also linear, at few points allowing you to choose in which order to do the current selections of subgoals. It is a fresh breath of novelty between all the typical western fantasy settings. On a side note: I recommend using the "Jade Empire in Style" mod