Your thoughts on Jade Empire?

[DesR85]

I played the game and to be honest, I wasn't very impressed by it. The story strike me as pretty boring and uninteresting. The combat mechanics are too simplistic up till the point that simple button mashing is enough to deal with enemies. Not to mention how repetitive it is. And as what the others had mentioned, the character customisation is very basic (even more basic than Fable's, to be honest).

As for the dialogue, it's still the same old one guy giving a long lecture and followed by another doing the same thing when talking and it happens on various occasions. Not to mention how long the dialogue sequences are. Something I always detest after playing the KOTOR series.

All of the above really put me off after 1 or 2 hours of playing Jade Empire. I admit, most people like this game, but I don't know why I was quite put off by it. Perhaps it could be that I'm starting to loose interest in RPGs in general, I don't know.

[Domi_Ash]

One or two hours? Did you got to Tien's Landing? Tien's Landing is where the cool, funny dialogues start.

On the subject of dialogues, the only flaw I noticed is anachronisms. While in the beginning I think it was carefuly edited (ie 'at a drop of a lotos blossom') later in the game I saw "geez", "okay" and a couple other no-no's. Heh. But other than that, it is great dialogues. Well, *I* think.

[Scottg]

Originally Posted by 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.

Sky is the designated romance for female players.. (it just so happens that he is also a "switch hitter" for males.) Just as Sky is a male romance option for males, the princess is a female romance option for females. Frankly though, the "romance" for ANY character is quite weak in plot development.. In fact it was *very* odd that my evil furious ming was committing all of these atrocities through out the game - all the while with Dawn Star as a love interest and physically present to object (and strongly object) to my actions.. and she still wants to be with me. Perhaps she has low self esteem and wants to make me a better person , well it didn't turn out that way - instead I killed her after bumping nasties .

As far as the controls are concerned - basic movement you can get with a little practice. However the more involved actions.. just plain nutty. I'm sure its better though with a macro capable game keypad, but even then it would require about 30 minutes of programming to get all the keys and actions to do what you want - and several hours to "train" yourself to use those keys without to much thought. I'm not sure I have the tolerance for it.

[DesR85]

Originally Posted by Domi_Ash

One or two hours? Did you got to Tien's Landing? Tien's Landing is where the cool, funny dialogues start.

I don't think so. I've only gone as far as the Swamp Cave before quitting in disgust.

[Scottg]

Originally Posted by DesR85

I don't think so. I've only gone as far as the Swamp Cave before quitting in disgust.

Then you have cheated yourself.. but perhaps not by more than about 40 dollars worth.

The plot does get interesting, quite a bit different than the "setup" in the school.. and there are numerous styles to try. IMO at the beginning of the game the easiest by far is leaping tiger. Try the white demon.. not quite the same button pushing experience. Also, combat gets a *LOT* harder in certain sections of chapter 2. And Domi_Ash is correct, the dialouge does get better.. in particular Henpecked Hou is outrageously funny once you get to the Imperial City (specifically asking about kids). Chp 2 (Tien's landing) also has a nice *different* "feel" to it than the first chapter.. in fact I think its the best chapter in the game.

[DarthSpiden]

I think that jade empire was very repetitive, like the only part i truly enoyed was when you went into the lotus's lair that changed things up a bit. i also liked the battle arena!!! besides that, however, the game lacked something that the KOTOR series and fable has.

[Domi_Ash]

Sky is the designated romance for female players.. (it just so happens that he is also a "switch hitter" for males.) Just as Sky is a male romance option for males, the princess is a female romance option for females.

A 'designated' for me means the romance that a male player won't see under any circustances. In other words, a female PC version of Dawn Star. There is no such content in the game, and it sucks imo. Not because of any sexuality issues, but because a female PC does not have anything special.

I don't think so. I've only gone as far as the Swamp Cave before quitting in disgust.

Ah, sounds like my reaction to PS:T, and seeing how the advices of 'you just need to play further' put me on edge with that game, I won't advise you to just tough it out. Maybe it's just not your game.

But I think that the game would have benefited drammatically if the first section with the school was shortened or writen with the same generosity and humor as the Tien's Landing. And if Dawn Star was not such a sour prune. Gods, and people critisize Elanee in NWN2. Dawn Star really overdoes it with 'Oh, this feels unnatural. That feels unnatural." The land is ridded with Ghosts, you dummy. It's not a natural order of things. And the way she purses her lips in the end of each conversation just drives me nuts. The next NPCs you get after Zu and Dawn Star are much less traditional, and very funny I love all three if them so far!

[DesR85]

Originally Posted by Domi_Ash

Ah, sounds like my reaction to PS:T, and seeing how the advices of 'you just need to play further' put me on edge with that game, I won't advise you to just tough it out. Maybe it's just not your game.

You're right. There is no point to continue playing a game if it really isn't your cup of tea. Same thing happened when I tried playing Fallout 2, Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion and Gothic 3.

[Domi_Ash]

I am with you on NWN1, but NWN2 did manage to hold me beginning to end, though I had hit a terrible low by the end of Chapter 2. But anyway, I do love JE more and more with every passing hour.

Though I have to say that one scene, where two NPCs show up to help he PC out together chatting made me miss the party even more, because the sequence was so good, and just showed me how much I love having NPCs talk in a game environment, not in some specifically designated place.

Another interesting thing that I think we've encountered if not picked up both female NPCs, and though both look (arguably) pwetty, they just don't hold the candle to the male NPCs for the entertainment value and fun of interaction. I so wish it was one of the males who would have had a useful support style, not the Magenta Girl.

It looks that the balance of male vs females NPCs is heavily shifted toward the males. That's too bad, because I keep hoping that Bioware comes up with an interesting, not annoying female NPC. I don't think they had one since BG1 times.

[swordsman5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, although it was too short. I've played through with 3 different characters now, 1 good, 1 evil and one balanced, and there's not a lot to choose between the different methods, although there are certain items/styles you won't get playing an evil char. Although the game is short it is still good value for money, I suppose I've spent about 70 hours on it and I would have spent a darn sight more than the £20 the game cost if I'd spent that time down the pub!!!

[Soulforged]

***THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS HERE***

Many things have already been said about the many elements on this game. To summarize my view on this elements:
Gameplay: Poor, it tries to implement a SPR (scissors, paper, rock) system, wich is not fun compatible with an action RPG, it's not as dumb as Diablo, but it becomes a button masher on most occassions. One companion at the time is becoming annoying, apparently Bioware is going to do the same on Mass Effect. Also the Good - Evil mechanic felt analogue to the one on KOTOR, just dumbed down because it doesn't have much more substantial effect on the outcome.
Graphics: The graphics are at par with the games of the time, they're good and it's one of those games in wich bloom really brings things to life.
Design: One of the bests I've ever seen, from the characters to the scenery. The only point in wich it fails is on the underused lethal scenary, wich is great on the first fight by the beach, as an example, but later disappears totally or is underused. The breakable scenary is great during fights, and more of it would have been even greater. The whole backgroud history Bioware has created is pretty good, kudos to that.
Plot: The plot starts cheesy, and continues pretty cheesy with some good interludiums on Tien's Landing, but most of it is cheesy. The ending, wich feels rushed, is a proposterous cheap shot. And this is the main rollereyes feature of the game, forget combat and dialog. The game could have ended as an average cheesy RPG with you killing the Emperor, instead your old master all of the sudden decides to betray you, it feels arbitrary, and it's clearly an ad-hoc device to advance the plot without any real sense of coherence. Really I fail to see how this game has a good story at all specially considering the last portions...
Dialog: The dialog is rounded to medium. There's points in wich it stands out at the hights of Vampire Bloodlines or Fallout, and then there's times in wich not even a 5 year old could withstand the temptation of rolling his eyes. At best the dialog is pretty cheesy, at worst it's proposterous, following the declining of the plot it gives you an arbitrary ridiculous ending in wich you CHOOSE to be killed, my only reaction to that was: --- Really there was no need for that.
Replay: Two times as best, if you like to see all the possible ways to end some mission, but you can also save and replay that save if you want (considering that there isn't lasting effects for your actions on previous iterances and the endings are totally arbitrary and disconnected). So there isn't much replay value unless you give some consideration to the other cheap shot that is unlockable content on an RPG game, including Jade Master difficulty.

[Pooeypants]

The graphics were an insult, even though they claimed to have updated hundreds of textures for the PC, I have yet to see the evidence for it. Most notably, the character faces on most of the NPCs are very poor and badly pixellated in some cases. Now, seeing as this is an RPG of sorts, there is a good amount of dialogue and camera focuses on the face it seems that they've really dropped the ball on that. I mean, just look at Neverwinter Nights 2, not the best looking game in the world as it's just an upgrade of their old engine but the attention to detail on some of their NPC's faces are astounding and helps to immerse the player.
Frankly, I'm amazed it took 2 years to push this out on to the PC (though it's not as bad as the atrocious Halo 2 for the PC).

[Domi_Ash]

Uhm, what resolution you are running it with? On my system, JE looks stunning, with beautiful smooth facial graphics. It's NWN2 character graphics that lacks, imo, with some "sharp corners" still remaining from the NWN1/KOTOR times. Ammon Jerro's eyes that roll to an 'empty' space look particulary disturbing. I think I have a high-end system with very high resolution. (Don't ask me for numbers).

Anyway, I find JE's graphics superior to NWN2 where the characters are concerned, with area graphics being aboutthe same, but JE taking the cake for the originality. We just made it to the Lord Lao's furnace, and I really love all the details in that area. The artwork in JE actually has a certain style, which I do consider superior to the generic NWN2 environments. About the only graphic deficiency I noticed, is that you can walk through some characters and some characters merge into the walls. It looks unsettling.

The story so far has been wonderful (we made it to the Imperial City, so I am trying not to read the spoilers, sorry, and can only judge on what I have seen) and quite immersive. Character dialogue still sparkles. We for example just ran into a city guard who speaks about the Lotus Assassins taking over every serious case with a very understandable grudge; the Lotus Assassin doing propaganda on the Scourge of the South was brilliant and very funny; a lovely bun-makers couple had entertaining value, though the lady sounded far too old for her avatar, but the dialogue rang very true.

I dunno, so far I am almost salivating over every 'not filler' dialogue we see. It's brilliant, and exactly how I'd have liked to write dialogue, if I was not an unfortunate ESL.

[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!

[Domi_Ash]

I am not joking. To my eye, JE looks far better than NWN. But then again, I never liked NWN2 character models, with their way too sharp corners. It's better than NWN1, but imo insufficiently so. And the cloaks, ye gods. They look really bad. But nope, I see no pixelation on JE faces at all.