Jade Empire
I picked up Jade Empire for a few dollars on Steam after my return from vacation. It's something I missed when it was new for some reason (probably playing something else at the time), but always had at least some interest in. Most strikingly, I find the feel of the game can be summed up remarkably well with a relatively simple tag line.
Jade Empire is a single-player RPG in a Chinese-flavored fantasy setting produced by Bioware between SW: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.
There's a story that involves the personal journey of the main character uncovering their history and facing several twists. There are followers to pick up along the way with unique appearances and personalities, a few of which can be "romanced" (albeit very simply). Combat is real-time with one active follower - being able to switch between several martial arts techniques in combat does stand out, though. There are side missions to be found while pursuing the main character's destiny. There's a morality scale that has some limited impact on the game and isn't quite good/evil, but still fairly close. Seriously, it feels so very much like the evolutionary step between Bioware's work on KotOR and Mass Effect, which some transitioning to a non-licensed IP and some shift in the systems of the game.
For a game almost ten years old, it plays decently. There's some running around and backtracking that is a minor annoyance, but the game moves forward through combat and scenes reasonably quickly most of the time. Though a few fights did become entirely too drawn out. The later chapters are definitely shorter than the earlier ones. I didn't foresee all of the story twists, which is something. Maybe it didn't suck me in as much as it could have, and the ending is a little dismissive of the stakes, but none of that really drags it down. Overall, it's a pretty good game, and there isn't a lot of competition that I'm aware of in the Wuxia-fantasy RPG genre.
Jade Empire is a single-player RPG in a Chinese-flavored fantasy setting produced by Bioware between SW: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.
There's a story that involves the personal journey of the main character uncovering their history and facing several twists. There are followers to pick up along the way with unique appearances and personalities, a few of which can be "romanced" (albeit very simply). Combat is real-time with one active follower - being able to switch between several martial arts techniques in combat does stand out, though. There are side missions to be found while pursuing the main character's destiny. There's a morality scale that has some limited impact on the game and isn't quite good/evil, but still fairly close. Seriously, it feels so very much like the evolutionary step between Bioware's work on KotOR and Mass Effect, which some transitioning to a non-licensed IP and some shift in the systems of the game.
For a game almost ten years old, it plays decently. There's some running around and backtracking that is a minor annoyance, but the game moves forward through combat and scenes reasonably quickly most of the time. Though a few fights did become entirely too drawn out. The later chapters are definitely shorter than the earlier ones. I didn't foresee all of the story twists, which is something. Maybe it didn't suck me in as much as it could have, and the ending is a little dismissive of the stakes, but none of that really drags it down. Overall, it's a pretty good game, and there isn't a lot of competition that I'm aware of in the Wuxia-fantasy RPG genre.
Two things make that game exceptional for me: 1) The demon possessed little girl 2) Kang the Mad. "You handled the guards well, with your punching and kicking. I was going to make more of an explodey thing, but the kicking worked well, too.", "If you stage a combat related accident for Gao, like say, falling down a flight of punches, I'll replace the inductors on the Dragonfly and we can fly away!" etc.
ReplyDeleteBioware usually has at least a couple stand-out NPCs in some fashion. They had their moments, though I wouldn't put any of them on par with HK-47, myself. ;) I was amused by the little old-style flying shooter minigame (instead of the turret minigame from KotOR). I am just a tiny bit appalled at the ending, though. I went Open Palm and got what I presume is the "good" ending, where people live more-or-less happily ever after, but given the events that precede it, I keep asking "How?!" I mean, the whole mess started because the Emperor defied the order of things by "killing" the Water Dragon to save the Empire from drought. The hero(es) go right this great wrong, allowing the dragon to fully die and defeating those who took her power. And... the Empire is okay rather than falling back to the desperate drought that it "should" have had? Shouldn't restoring the natural/heavenly order mean the Empire falls so (as I think the Water Dragon said) something new could come to be?
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