Your thoughts on Jade Empire?

[DesR85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pooeypants You must be joking. I'm running this game on 1280x1024 with an 8800GTS and NWN2 looks far better than Jade Empire at any point of the game. In NWN2, the faces actually have bump mapping (as do their body and armour)! With JE, it's just flat and pixellated!

In terms of graphics, of course Neverwinter Nights 2 look better than Jade Empire. Neverwinter Nights 2 was released late last year whereas Jade Empire came out in 2005 (the XBox version, that is. The PC version just added some extra lighting to improve the visuals).

But I do agree with Domi Ash regarding the character models in Neverwinter Nights 2. Take for example the character faces. When you look at their faces, it looked very unnatural. Almost like they're are made of porcelain or something. The faces in Jade Empire looked a lot more natural and even better than Neverwinter Nights 2. Sure, it lack the sort of details that you'll expect from any game released this year but it sure look good to me.

[Domi_Ash]

Heh, moving away from graphics, I was just making a point at another board, to people complaining how current games are all so bad and boring. Honestly, they should try JE. The writing, oh my dear god, the writing! The Scholar's Garden and the debate with Sir Rodrick is gotta be one of the best sequences I have seen in the games I played. Thoroughly enjoyable and smashingly good. I do concede that the follow-up with the Minsiter was low-brow, but hey, it seemed to enetertain my hubby immencely!

[darkpark]

Just five minutes ago, I couldn't uninstall Jaded Empire fast enough. The graphics are pretty and good enough except for the character models. Their limbs look malformed. I love the music!!!
What I didn't like.... errr what I hated about this game is the combat and the very poor control, in my opinion. I didn't like being locked onto a single enemy, not being able to look up or down, getting frequently corned by several enemies, and too much button mashing.

This was my second attempt to try to get to like this game, but I just couldn't do it. The first time I played I made into the village of Tien's Landing and today I made it upto Tien's Landing.

So... I'll either be microwaving the DVD or giving it to a friend. I'm not blaming the game. It's just not my style.

[Minalkali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkpark Just five minutes ago, I couldn't uninstall Jaded Empire fast enough. The graphics are pretty and good enough except for the character models. Their limbs look malformed. I love the music!!! What I didn't like.... errr what I hated about this game is the combat and the very poor control, in my opinion. I didn't like being locked onto a single enemy, not being able to look up or down, getting frequently corned by several enemies, and too much button mashing. This was my second attempt to try to get to like this game, but I just couldn't do it. The first time I played I made into the village of Tien's Landing and today I made it upto Tien's Landing. So... I'll either be microwaving the DVD or giving it to a friend. I'm not blaming the game. It's just not my style.

If you get backed into corners you can always double tap a movement key and do a flip. There's also a button that makes you have no target. I'll agree that there is a bit too much button mashing, but that's why harmonic combos are so much fun! For a while.

I actually just finished playing it again, and I have to say it is a great game, the only problem being the pacing. You spend way too much time in Tien's Landing and not nearly enough in the Imperial City.

Really looking forward to JE2 though, I wonder how they're gonna pull that off, coz I can't see many of the original characters returning regardless of which ending you pick.

[Shrap]

Sorry but this is what happens when you make an RPG for console then port to PC - and not vice versa. Game felt extremely 'lite' - from the way you move around, to the very linear paths, to the 'pick your type' character as opposed to real character customization you find in PC RPGs. Lot of detail in graphics, but almost no interaction with the environment (couple caskests here, some chests there). I wont hold this against BioWare as when you make RPG for console you are catering to a much less demanding market and eye candy is the norm, but when I went from intro to chapter 2 in 1 hr, I mean come on.
Also, way way WAY too much talking. Yes, PCs have sound cards - not a new technology - why am I listening to this game instead of playing it? I can watch TV for this. There is storyline- and there is fluff -and I think BioWare believes that by making people listen to a lot of voice acting, that they have made a great game for console. This is Jade Empire to me:
(TalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkT alkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalk) Fight 4 mobs, loot 8 items (TalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkT alkTalkTalk) End of chapter.

Repeat until game over.

Ok so in summary:
RPGs need items and loot, not the entire history of some fake land no one knows or cares about.
Leave the Angel or Devil crap for KOTOR, how many times can you try and exploit the same system so blatantly?
There is more but this is what's been clapping me across the face since I started playing this.
I seriously doubt I'll be ordering Mass Effect now, since this was console to PC port as well (and no doubt just as watered down and made for simpletons)

[DesR85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrap Also, way way WAY too much talking. Yes, PCs have sound cards - not a new technology - why am I listening to this game instead of playing it? I can watch TV for this. There is storyline- and there is fluff -and I think BioWare believes that by making people listen to a lot of voice acting, that they have made a great game for console. This is Jade Empire to me: (TalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkT alkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalk) Fight 4 mobs, loot 8 items (TalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkTalkT alkTalkTalk) End of chapter.

That is actually one of my beefs with not only Jade Empire but with both KOTORs as well. Bioware's trend of focusing on long dialogue filled with lots of pointless sentences, if you ask me. I really wished that they'd hire a much better scriptwriter.

[IamNorthwind]

I have yet to play it fully, however I just spent about 15 minutes messing around in that initial village...And I must say that my first impression was WOW. The developers did their research...The little npcs practicing their martial art are doing LEGIT stuff...One guy is doing a basic Shaolin exercise, and two people in a gazebo are playing Yang style Taijiquan. I am into traditional Chinese martial arts, so seeing this was happy happy joy joy for sure.

[Domi_Ash]

Quote:

RPGs need items and loot, not the entire history of some fake land no one knows or cares about.

Uhm, no? CRPGs are about story and interactions, not about looting. And you are critical of console users. Yakes. If it takes consoles to bring really good and abundunt dialogues into CRPGs, I sure wish they do console ports every time! The more dialogues, the merrier (and less loot; loot is boooring.)

[Curry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrap RPGs need items and loot, not the entire history of some fake land no one knows or cares about.

Nah, that's not what RPGs are about. You just described a typical Action RPG

[Revans mask]

Jade Empire is a amazing game, I fell in love with the game a couple of days after figuring out the combat system. The characters are amazing and so are the gender stats. The air plane game quests where some what of a let down to me. You go from a amazing inriched background to a 3rd person shotter thinking, "Is this a joke".

Other than that, I only wish that the game would have allowed me to go back to the Jade Empire and run around a bit afther beating the game.

{If a Jade Empire two comes out, im buying it}

[ifcwdjd]

Overall the game is very cool, the graphics are stunning, and areas that are supposed to be creepy (Great Southern Forest, old Tien's Landing, etc) are effectively so, and the music is great. I've played it several times, and wouldn't have a problem playing it several more. But there are a lot of gripes, mostly in the gameplay and character control.

I think the TOO MUCH DIALOGUE thing has been covered thoroughly already. They should have instead just made straight cut scenes, and let your actions define how good or evil you are, rather than what dialogue path you choose.

The fighting is good, and I like the variety of magic styles, laying on those powered attacks (like petrifying in Stone Immortal) is just plain good fun. But, yeh, I also felt there were too many useless styles, especially the support styles. I never use them, I have no idea how to complete a harmonic combo, whatever that is, and I don't care. Most of the time I just flip over people and sucker punch them to win a fight.

I don't know if anyone has ever noticed, but free target mode is worthless. You can only seem to attack in one direction, often missing enemies completely, and you'll keep slashing forever until your character finally turns around. And even when you're locked onto someone, sometimes they're at the other end of the room while all the other enemies are right next to you beating the snot out of you. Sure you can toggle between targets, and you can still hit them if they're in your path, but ugh, it is just annoying.

The levels of difficulty in the actual fighting during the game are okay, but some of the flyer levels are crazy. This is mostly in regard to the extra missions tied into Hin Goo and Lord Lao's furnace, I couldn't imagine playing them on normal or hard, they're already next to impossible on easy, and the reward you get isn't really worth all the anger and frustration. At least they're optional. But it is a shame because these are really the only side quests you get, and they're bloody hard, much more so than the rest of the game.