Jade Empire: Special Edition

miss this at your own peril it's not a perfect game but what little nitpicks there are do not degrade over time - it is an excellent adventure of style and grace, with hours worth of worldbuilding to explore. or you could rush through it and hate it but then you'd be missing the point on purpose.

I remember playing Jade Empire on the original Xbox years ago as a kid and teenager and I loved it then. The story, the music, the fighting mechanics, even the graphics at the time were stellar and untouchable! While the graphics have aged a bit as well as some of the mechanics, the story and gameplay are still as engaging and wonderful as ever. Playing this nostalgic game after so many years is nothing short of a treat! And the version of the game through GOG is smooth, considering how old it is. I wish I could give a higher rating! If you haven't had the pleasure of playing Jade Empire, do yourself a favor and play it. It is one of the best and most unique stories I've ever come across.

The world feels rich and well thought-out and it's definitely a breath of fresh air from typical RPG fare. You play as the star student of a Chinese Martial Arts school who is sworn to rescue their master and defeat the corruption invading the realm. I don't think I've ever played a game inspired by Chinese mythology so everything feels fresh and there's a good amount of lore to be picked up from conversations and scrolls throughout the game. Fortunately, the incredible atmosphere can also be felt in the gameplay, as the combat is based on different martial arts and techniques that are very well integrated into the lore. You can use magic, martial arts and weapons and the character can do simple and heavy attacks, in addition to blocking and dodging. Frankly, though the combat has great potential, it was one of my least favorite aspects. The movement while in combat is not very smooth and the controls were not as responsive as I would have liked. The game also adapts the morality system to better fit with the setting, but it's not really a big departure from classic good vs. evil. The story is absolutely gripping. It took me a couple of hours to fully grab me, sure, but I was in from the start and it only gets better as you start to gain followers, because we know that Bioware truly shines with the liveliness of the companions and this is no exception. There are a couple of romance options too but I was unfortunate enough to be locked in with a character I wasn't interested in thanks to what I thought was some innocent flirting, so beware. At this point graphics are obviously outdated -though the art is often quite beautiful to look at-, but the rich setting, the memorable music, the fun characters and interesting side-quests together with the strong story made this for a super enjoyable RPG that I strongly recommend everyone to try.

As said a bit everywhere, tTaspects, but some negative ones too. The positive one is for sure the universe. The samurai/martial arts universe, and the east mythology, is attracting. The combats/characters mechanism reflects smartly some cliché about this universe, which makes it fun. The characters and dialog are interesting, the quests are well written. The graphic engine (the same as Knight of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is ok and the design is colourful. We're not at the level of Okami (on Wii) but it's still quite nice. So, what's wrong then... The biggest negative point is the scenario of the main quest. If you have a small video game culture, you'll know since the first paragraph how it's going to end. If you add to this the fact that the whole game is VERY linear, you end up with very nice character and quest dynamic but you can't get caught by the plot. Sad. The other negative points is the character-building that is a bit too simple, which makes every character look the same in the end. In short, nice universe and some good ideas in the fights, but poor scenario and character building.

The story is fantastic. If you're primarily playing for the story you will definitely be delighted. The combat, however, is somewhat lackluster. The 'rock paper scissors' model they attempted falls flat and gets incredibly boring after you've done it 3000 times. There are areas where monsters respawn over and over and all you want to do is pull your hair out and wish for a 'sneak' button. It was really really nice not to have an inventory to worry about and it worked out well. I've asked myself a hundred times why I'm finding rat spit and ogre dung instead of just coin, and why the bandit mercenaries that have robbed thousands of gold only have 12 silver a piece on them. That's all eliminated in this game and believe me, you will NOT miss it. Overall, my only disappointment was the repetitive and boring combat. Everything else, voice acting, inventory, story, quests, side quests, leveling mechanism, it all worked well. If they did a sequel, I'd only like better combat and a little more complexity in the statistic system. Everything else is five stars.