To ward off angry internet men (there's always a few), let me just say I really enjoyed this game. Jade is a breath of fresh air for character development in video games. The diversity of characters you interact with is wide and there are all kinds of amusing encounters, and you do develop some emotional to attachment to the populace and the rebels. Music's good, game play is okay.
But the ending is really straight out of final fantasy. She's magic? Really? You spent the whole game rationally navigating the social and political system of your planet, developing abilities, uncovering conspiracies, foiling plots, making allies - and it ends on religion.
Put another way, some of the best posts here have talked about the game being a celebration of cultural diversity. Couldn't everyone have come together in the end and put an end to the conspiracies? Founded a new political order based on tolerance? That could have been written. Instead, it takes one individual (it always does) being "magic" to Save the World (TM). I guess they thought gamer's egos couldn't take just being a part of the solution? Had to be the whole thing?
It's annoying just because the rest of the game is SO good.

yea, the ending was rather poorly explained. sort of she becomes supernatural and its over, without really explaining what the $%#%@# is going on. good game otherwise tho

That is a major complaint, though I heard that it was because they already planned to make BG&E 2. Let's hope it turns out as good, if not better, than the original!
(disclaimer: I have not been looking at any info that may have been released up to this point about BG&E 2, if there are videos, interviews, or whatever that may show the game already going in the wrong direction, please tell me so it's less of a shock later)

Agree with all complaints listed here. The ending was really out of left field in addition to being significantly harder than the rest of the game.

I had no problem with the style and content of the ending. I was always expecting some kind of alien ending... and it was hinted at during numerous cutscenes in the game (right from the defeat of the first boss). *
What did slightly disappoint me was that after getting the rocket ship, there seemed very little to do. It almost felt like they'd planned a lot more content, but had to cut it (hence the game being short).
It felt like after being able to fly around the world, it should (in true zelda style) open up some new areas. Infact it only really opened up one area in the world, and the moon.
From that point on there were no pearls to collect, almost no pictures to take, and very little to explore or discover.
The moon was essentially just a load of long, empty corridors. Other than the flying boss fight, and the end boss fight, there wasn't much to do. I think i completed the entire moon segment in about 20-25 minutes. They should have had more creatures to find and photograph at least...
But that was my only disappointment with the game.
*slight spoliers*
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plus it tied in with a lot of the stuff about Pej, her parents, etc.

Hi guys and gals. I would have to agree with the initial post here on the ending, but would also like to add that what truly lost me was final fight with the last boss. That coupled to poor control with the mouse (really, since when does invert mouse mean invert Y as well as X?).
I still haven't finished the game - I got so sick of chasing down the... thing... and not being able to hit it and somehow just couldn't work out how to make Jade hit upwards that I gave up. It's now in my "To Do but most likely will never get around to" pile. Along with Sacred.
Everything else I liked though and loved the rest of the game.

Were her powers supposed to have a magical/mystical origin? I just assumed it was some sort of alien power.

You just have to jump when the thing is over you. Then you can hit it.
On the topic, I just finished it yesterday and I completely agree. They really did not NEED all that mystical stuff. They did without for 95% of the game. But it looks like the end game was rushed AND there were BGE II and BGE III planned back then. Poor sales meant no BGE II then.
For the new project of BGE II, just check Youtube for the trailer.

Hi !
I just finished the game. Really good, in my opinion. Well worth the few bucks that GoG charges for it. Come to think of it : even if you don't play the game and just download the soundtrack, it's still a great deal...
Well, during my playthrough, I saw the title of this thread but was afraid to open it, because of spoilers. I was somehow expecting a poor ending, but actually I was pleasantly surprised. I did not see that much references to supernatural phenomenon or even religion in this ending. From my point of view, Jade was a part of the big Domz boss that Pey'j and probably others managed to capture and trap into a human form. The bio-technology in this universe seems advanced enough to do so. Then, during the course of the game, the Domz capture people and remove their life-energy. Being a sort of special Domz, Jade manages to give the life-energy back to the population in the end. Well, I've seen endings far worse. The only disapointment I had was at the end of the credits, when Pey'j appeared to have been infected by the Domz. But, well, since they were planning on doing a sequel, I can understand. I'll just pretend I've never seen this scene :-)

Only the soundtrack is already available for free.
Beyond good & evil was crap. The word people use to describe the damn game was underrated.
I still don't know what that means.

Well, I understand that the game cannot appeal to all audiences but still... I really enjoyed it. It's refreshing to play a game where game designers took some risks, and not a new remake of quake or warcraft.
Beyond Good and Evil is heavily story-based, since the various different gameplays (exploration, combat, racing...) are just OK, but not extremely addictive. So, if you don't like the story or the setting, well... the gameplay won't be enough for you to enjoy the game, obviously.

I just beat this game like a minute ago.
I have to agree, the game pulls a Watchmen ending. They build up this world to where the ending completely contradicts the entire story. It's bad story telling.
But I liked the game, up until *SPOILERS* she magically brings Pey'j back to life */SPOILERS*.

This. It's clear the alien at the beginning knows her name. Isn't the whole twist that Jade was actually made by Peyj to channel the power of the aliens in order to destroy them? It's been a while since I've played, but that seemed to be what the story implied.

Pretty much the content was cut. Originally I believe Hillys was actually only meant to be one of many planets, and that the Domz were attacking lots of planets, with the story being focused on a more galactic level, but it all had to be cut, hence the ending, while hinted at throughout the game, is never fully explained. That's what I heard anyway. Shame really, I would have liked to have seen the end result if ubi hadn't cut the budget.

That's roughly what seems to be going on. I don't think Pey'j was alone in the scheme, though. Jade's parents were clearly in on it, at least. I hope BG&E2 (hoping it's still coming) answers some questions.