Your thoughts on Jade Empire?

[superbob263]

I think it is a sub par game end thats all I have to say about that.

[Zefie]

Just yesterday I relized it's a much better game than I relized
There are a lot of things I didn't relize and I've played it three times!
But, none the less, a really good game. Unfortuanatly, it's too short

[Masquerade_007]

Can't believe that someone would dislike Jade Empire. I've played a lot of great games and Jade was just the perfect game for me. I'm not even a fan of martial arts games. And the twist people!! The twist blew my mind, I thought it surpassed the twist we got in KotOR 1! I was dumbfounded, dumbfounded! I know I'm totally preaching about this game but, it's just so hard for me to fathom that some would diss this game. The graphics were amazing, the soundtrack is perfection, the followers were interesting, the storyline fufilling... I just.... need to take a breath. *Phew* However, I do agree when someone said the game could get repetitive, I don't think Jade Empire would be a game you could play over, and over, like tons of rpgs. I also know that the combat wasn't very difficult (thats just how me likes it!!) even with the difficulty raised it wasn't too hard. Also, bioware claimed to be saving a lot of material for Jade 2... do I see a second one? Noooooo. I was completly upset with how short this game was. The second time I beat it it took me about a day and a half. I never wanted it to end *sniff*

...Well I wrote a lot, seemed like a successful rant!! Woop Jade Empire!

[FredrikNo1]

i loved this game, fun combat, great graphics and very balanced.
Nice story, whats not to like?

[Mephisto]

I thought Jade Empire was and still is an amazing game
in a way after doing 3 characters you feel like doing all of 'em!
I like it for the following things:
good training system
easy to level up - health chi and focus then points to techniques
you can propaly romance followers for once
extremely good scenery
best story in a game i have seen for years - excellent bioware
i love the characters deaths hand , Master Li , Prince Kin
I like the way Prince Kin was imbued into Deaths hands armor.
Cool but slightly annoying mini game with flyer.

there is many more which i could think off

Mephisto

[Macen Press]

I totally agree it is an amazing game and the only thing i didnt like was the lack of customization but apart from tht it was gd. WOULD RECOMMEND THIS GAME 2 ANY1. Now i hope the next kotor game will ave a combat system like this.

[Cyro]

I liked it, it was different without being... well, weird.

I was impressed with the alignment system, I felt it was a refreshing change from the standard good/evil paradigm. The combat system wasn't brilliant, but there was nothing wrong with it, and the setting was unusual enough to be a change from the standard fare fantasy or sci-fi backdrop.

[Drunkside]

One of the best games i have ever played, just tooooooooo short.

[Fierce]

Well, I played Jade Empire until the Imperial City and I must say I am rather dissapointed. Graphic is medium quality, the fighting system is more like from an arcade game of poor design, it is very linear and the good-or-bad system is totally ripped of the KotOR. Although it is quite fun to play the game, I can't allow people to call it "one of the best RPG's" ever. It just not deserve this title. Really, it is not soooo good, no matter what people say, trust me. I played number of best-quality RPG's and it does not stand up to them.

[Sweethart Rose]

I just finished the game yesterday and I enjoyed playing game. I started doing the Jade master mode. Founding that it very hard. More likely I need more practice.

[AmpaSand]

I found it interesting the first time i played it.

Second time i gave up as it revealed itself to be more linear than a ruler. the comber boild down to maxed out styles and button bashing. the loading times left me cringing. The "evil" opition had so much of the KOTOR1 "i'm afraid etc" sop that there was no point other than it made the game slightly harder. the gems and techinques helped like a soggy cornflake while the transformation styles let you kill the final boss in a 1v1 fight in 3 seconds even on th hardest difficulty. (jade golem chi strike focus all maxed) your character always ended up on Lv 22 or so and the enmimies got just plain boring. the twist was cool first time but second it was like um yeah. and why on earth would you surrender to the emporer in the final battle? the side quests were short and uninvolved while the main quest had so much riding on it that if you missed a cut scene you could be wandering around for an hour getting though the game but not knowing what you were doing. also all the doom and gloom was really sad. I felt like slapping some of the charcters saying come on snap out of it! The only funny part was the european that sounded like basil faulty! And his gun.

[Bardess]

I like it, but I think the difficulty's unbalanced - first fights in the game I barely survived, while the last one I found so easy that I thought I set the game to easy when I did not!

For some reason, it didn't strike me as deep as KotOR and it seemed shortish.

The characters to choose among are so nicely done, though. I love the girl in red and the guy with tattooed back.

[Elias De vere]

What a fantastic game. Completed it on student in under 2 days, and i had so much fun. The look is amazing, the styles are so intelligent, and the story wasa really clever. The Sun Li twist was really clever, and i didn't see it coming. It also is amazingly quick to play, but then i didn't do many sidequests, and i missed out on the outlander fight as my game would have problems round it, with loading up the arena. the actual imperial arena was brilliant and really clever, and the followers were really well done. I must say it is one of the best games i have ever played, and now i want to play again. One thing though, the romance thing could have been played up more, and used better. the best use of romance in a game, saving Bastilla on lightside ending in KOTOR. Still 5 out of 5 for the game.

[Scottg]

Having *just* finished the game.. I found many things to like and also many things to NOT like.

From a "glass is half full" perspective:

I liked:

The graphics - they were good (attractive) and not overly intensive to graphics cards (gs 7600). They certainly were not "great" though.

The plot - its a good story line, with some unexpected twists (..not so much the "ending" but rather the "end" before the "end").

The NPC development - believable characters with different personalities, story lines, and very good voice acting. The more important NPC's were all done well. Some of the lesser NPC's were a bit "cookie-cutter" bland (..but thats to be expected).

The progression system - a good "RPG'ish" system with experience points for improvements. Practically speaking there are limits which allow for more specialized yet flawed characters. Additionally, improvements *generally* match the progression of the game. Also the various combat styles allow variety, are interesting both in effect and graphically, and work fairly well with the combat system.


From a "glass is half empty" perspective:

What I did *NOT* like:

The combat system - there are numerous problems here.

First, the game is a little to centered on combat (..and strangely when it isn't, it doesn't have enough).

Second, I absolutely *HATE* the way the game fixes an attack against one opponent. Sure, you can always turn that mode off (once combat has commenced), but that doesn't work well (and its still awkward). That leaves "flipping" though opponets manually to focus your attack on the opponent you want to. Unfortunetly, either poor remedy requires that you must physically perform an action that makes it that much more difficult to fight. In other words you should be focusing on the fight itself and not the controls to fight. (..The game Dungeon Lords, though deeply bugged, is an infinitely better combat system that is effectivly "free form" and realistic - its what the developers for this game should have done.)

Third, *MOST* of the actual attacking is (as others have said) - pretty much mindless button pushing. Where it is NOT is with a power attack to overcome a defensive block, AND an area attack, both of which are mouse button manuevers which can be executed without "thinking" about the controls of the game. Another interesting aspect of attacking is choosing the correct style for any given opponent(s) - unfortunetly you *DO* have to think about the controls here (..and even if you have a game pad, you still have only 4 styles to choose from fairly readily). (..note that thinking about the style is one thing, thinking about how to get to that style through a mediocre control system is another.)

Fourth, defensive measures in the game are not well represented. The manuver "Block" itself is poor (though perversly works rather well for your opponents). Just as a simple manuever its supposed to block anything but a power attack.. Well, IMO thats stupid - some how a blocking maneuver can block both melee AND magical attacks? It just doesn't make sense from any roleplaying game I've seen. Worse still, it often doesn't work well - i.e. it takes to long to get a block in place, and ANY opponent moves to overcome that block with a power attack rather quickly (..far better than you can). Slightly more interesting (at least conceptually) is an "attack" designed to produce a defensive measure - usually through the use of varying combat styles. Unfortunetly *most* opponents when "attacked" by a disabling effect, *VERY* quickly recover from it (even with a "maxed" duration count for that style). Practically speaking then, the defensive "attack" is only marginally useful. Finally you have "Focus" mode - which *IS* well balanced in the game and effectivly produces a competitive advantage that is more defensive in nature.

Fifth, the combat styles are not well balanced nor are they well "placed" as the game progresses. The Transformation style Jade Golem is too powerful, regardless of where it is in the game's progression. The PC specialized Martial styles appear to late in the game. In fact (in conjunction with those specialized styles), other "alignment" based styles also appear to late in the game. Worse still, many opponents are simply immune to these other styles (i.e. there are a large number of Demons and they are immune to both magic and support combat styles - and some have so many hitpoints and/or block & attack so well that they are practically immune to Martial styles - even with Chi Strike). That leaves Weapon styles as the best overall style (except against spirits which are immune), and here the game is broken.. Pole weapons are vastly inferior to swords. Additionally, the best weapons (axes) not only are available only late in the game, but also require a new skill set expenditure. (btw, the "axes" are superior "mechanically" as well - i.e. they *can* be more than simply a "button pusher" attack.) The real "penalty" here with weapon styles is that they require focus.. EXCEPT that with a fairly minor overall expenditure of points you can eliminate this penalty (..which breaks the game a bit IMO).

The plot progression - while I liked the over all plot quite a bit, there were several times where the game felt like it was "dragging" AND almost the last quarter of the game where it was "rushing" to the finish. Up through all of Tien's Landing the game progresses just about right - not to slow, not to fast. The Imperial City section however was often slow and tedious - with some sections overly developed (The Arena), and other sections woefully under-developed (The Black Lepoard School and the Scholar's Garden). The Golden Way section had little point to it except a much needed change of scenery. The Necropolis was so tedious that it felt like the plot progression was standing still. (..do this, do that, get some experience points, yawn.) In fact, other than as a very minor adjunct to the Lotus Assassin plot - the Necropolis felt like it was not only done before (and much better) in the Great Southern Forest, but also that it bore *very* little relationship to the rest of the Imperial City. Perhaps worse than this is the "whirlwind" tour that finishes up the rest of the game after the Imperial City. EVERYTHING that follows after this feels rushed, and most of it is not very original. In fact it feels as if the developers ran out of capital and had to cut a lot of corners to make a deadline.. Whats outrageous though is that this is the second time the game is released - in this second release they could have easily spent some of their initial earnings to make the game better beyond late in-game new fighting styles. Wankers.

Oh well..

Anyway, thumbs up - marginally.

(and note, this game *does* have replay value with various different combat styles to choose from and maximise, different characters, different romance plots, and different alignment choices.. still, I don't see myself playing it more than twice (once "evil" and once "good") - but it *was* enjoyable and worth the expense.)

[Domi_Ash]

I can say that watching my husband play the game is fascinating - there are some great dialogues and beautiful area artwork. The story is wonderful, the characters interesting....

But I tried playing it myself, and ye gods, how are you supposed to control the thing at all? You need to press that button to walk this way, and another button to walk that way... and you need to keep *moving* while attacking or something, otherwise you just hit air.... And ye gods, I keep pressing that 'walk forward' button in combat, and nobody is moving anywhere anyways. Except for the opponents who are gliding happily in all directions with the ease that makes my stumbling character incredibly jelouse. I am supposed to be the best student in the school? HA! Just wait till I can make it around the corner of the fence with all my amazing dexterity! Then I am going to... er... flip in place? Why did I do that? Aha, I pressed it twice. Now, what are those dark blue... OUCH! YAKES! Oh, f*** why can't I just select the character to attack and let my gal do the job? *She* is the martial artist after all.

And when I see the battles my hubby is doing in the game a bit later, with tons and tons of opponents spawning just as the other ones are defeated and your character is barely alive, and your styles have to be switched with the *number pad* and you can't fix whichever style you want as a default, and the pause is "P", not the scrollbar like in all other Bio/Obsidian games.... In other owrds, Oh. My. God. I don't think I will ever going to be able to play it on my own

And get this - a female PC does not have any designated romance for herself. She has to get the male PC's leavings. Pfft.

At any rate - a great game to 'watch' if you are not the twitch game person. But playing it... far too complicated for someone like me, who never played anything of the kind.