Missing a middle?

[MogTM]

Am I the only person who thinks this game had too long of a begining (very leriear, few side quests befor you leave the school) and end (after you impress the Lotus order, everything is VERY liniar)

I thought the middle section where you could actualy do many diferent quests to develop your character was good, but there were only *two cities*. Contrast that with Knights of the Old Republic, which had five.

[silverybane]

Yeah, I was a little disappointed when I heard that there are only 2 major cities. (I've only begun my game) But I heard the ending was excellent =)

[Faust]

I missed your post when it was made a few weeks ago. However, I'd have to say that you peg the game's largest problem. It had a very good set-up and a very good ending. However, by the time it felt like you should be in the meaty middle of the game, it was nearly over.

As I've said elsewhere, I enjoyed the game, but would have liked at least one more major city area to explore. It would have helped build tension in the main plot, provided more side quests, and allowed for greater NPC development. All in all, Jade Empire was a decent game that could have been truly great if it had about 1/4 to 1/3 more content.

This "short scope" is a disturbing trend in recent RPGs. I can stomach the relatively ease of combat (though I miss greater challenges), but I really get frustrated when RPGs don't go at least 40 or 50 hours. I'm not asking for FFX lengths on every RPG, but it would be nice to see American developers attempt grander scopes in terms of story and game duration. Perhaps this is part of the limitation of preparing dark and light paths through everything (i.e. ends up causing shorter scope over all, as development time is put toward this).