Score: 94
Overall User Average: 9.33 / 10 (94.0%)
Gameplay User Average: 9.17 / 10
Graphics User Average: 9.33 / 10
Sound User Average: 9.67 / 10
mentat
Date reviewed: October 26, 2005.
Overall: Take the gameplay of Bioware's popular KOTOR series and mix it together with a completely original story/ universe and you get Jade Empire. As the name suggest Jade Empire is a sprawling RPG set in an ancient, chinese inspired, fantasy world. The reason I enjoyed this title and the KOTOR games so much is because of their original spin on the whole RPG genre. I love kung fu and Sci Fi much more than D&D style fantasy so this game was perfect for me.
Gameplay: Like most RPG's you get to choose your character at the start of the game from a handful of character classes and body types. Quick slender martial artist, beautiful magic user or burly shoalin monk. There are a few others but not that many. The cool thing about this game as with the KOTOR games is the ability to choose your own path, be it the way of the "open palm" = good, or the way of the "closed fist" = bad. This mainly helps determine which styles of fighting you will be able to learn later on in the game and how nice or evil you are to the NPC's. Some masters will only teach you if you follow a certain path. I also liked being able to choose one of your followers to either fight along side you or give you xtra powers during battle. The fight animations are smooth and fluid looking and changing from one style to the next gives the game a more kung fu movie feel during combat. Expect to do a lot of talking and exploring. None of which gets boring thanks to the superb dialogue and stunning envionments. Some people have complained that the combat is too easy. I didnt really notice since I was more caught up in the storyline but if your looking for a Ninja Gaiden level of challenges than maybe this game might not be for you.
Graphics: Pretty awesome. There are some things that probably could've been done better but overall I found the graphics to be superior to those in the KOTOR games (and those are pretty cool on there own merit). Everyone you talk to has a cool look to them, but, they're the only ones who move their lips when they speak. Your character remains silent during conversations which bothers some people, me, I didnt even notice.
Sound: I really dug the music and combat sounds in the game. The way the characters say their attacks as they use them makes the game feel more like japanimation or a kung fu movie. I've heard complaints about how the characters voices dont sound "chinese" enough. IMHO I think they sound fine and seem more reminiscent of the old english dubbed kung fu movies. I think if the developers had tried to do stereotypical chinese accented english voices it might of come off as lame and, well, stereotypical.
Suggestions: Make the combat a bit more challenging and definitely make a part 2 this game is a winner.
Overall: 100 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 100 %
Sound: 100 %
Hero
Date reviewed: October 20, 2005.
Overall: i have to say this is a well made game. the setting consist of a mixture of ancient chinese history, mythology, and martial arts. The limited edition comes with an extra disc going into the background and research involved in order to create this game.
You start off as a student of a martial art school in some remote peasant village until predetermined events take you on a rescue/revenge journey.
lots of similiarities to Bioware's own "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" like following the path of good or evil and collecting followers along the way. but in a way i was somewhat disapointed because i found KotOR to be much more enjoyable than jade empire. however this is still a very enjoyable game.
Gameplay: The parts that make the gameplay fun in a rpg like jade empire is the plot, stat-building, and the combat.
I found the storyline to be a little slow and slightly boring with a less than stellar twist ending as compared to KotOR.
I was also never drawn into the jade empire universe because they would only give you tidbits of historical relevance throughout the game.
Your character had three main attributes: Health, Chi(magic), and focus(time slowing). you gain points that allow you increase these attributes which in turn change your personality characteristics. Your personality characteristics would affect how you could best interact with the NPC's in the game by using intuition, intimidation, or charm to get what you want. I enjoyed this becuase it made it easier for me take advantage of my strengths and boost certain attributes to influence the npc's without having to guess at what motivates the npc.
a big change from KotOR is the switch from turn based combat to real time combat. Here is where jade empire got to shine. they gave you a multitude of fighting styles and made it so that you could easily switch between fighting styles while comboing your opponents. Unfortuneatly they made enemies more easy than difficult and you could pretty much pass the game with a couple of repetitive combos and using only a select few fighting styles.
Graphics: The environments were truly beautiful and detailed and i would like to say that the architecture of the buildings definetly had an ancient chinese feel to them. the detail of the environments was along the lines of Sudeki if anyone ever played that.
as for the characters they were a bit to plain and repetitive for me. a peasant who got killed in one village would appear again as a hired mercenary or villan in another village. even your own character wasnt much to look at and you didnt have the option of customizing your own clothes or changing costumes like you did in knights of the old republic. which is the reason why i only gave it a 4 instead of a 5.
one thing i did like about the characters but i didnt notice until the end is when you talk to people if you put it on a intimdation option your character snarls at npc's or if you use charm they smile at them instead.
Sound: personally, i like the sound of the game and the effects. been a while since i played it but i was never annoyed by it and some of the music definitly fit the moment (even if those moments were a bit cheesy). The voice acting was pretty good.
Suggestions: i think you needed to work on the enemy AI a bit more because the game felt too easy. Also, it did not feel that different to be open palm vs closed fist.
Overall: 70 %
Gameplay: 70 %
Graphics: 80 %
Sound: 100 %
Xbox Masta 4
Date reviewed: August 31, 2005.
Overall: If you are into RPG games Jade Empire really does a great job in this department. Go around battling supernatural enemies, explore the world, and enjoy the storyline. Everythings great, especially the limited edition. I wont spoil that, I'll let you see what it has in store for you.
Gameplay: Gameplay is great. Use magic. A great part of this game is there is paths to choose to go through. Feel like insulting the people you have conversation with? Go on ahead. Feel like being polite and straight forward, you have that option as well. Storyline is great with this, so choose the path you want to go through.
Graphics: Graphics are up to par, really shows what the xbox is capable of doing. Graphics all around are great, no complaints.
Sound: Sounds good. Hear people talking is a plus, and not always done accurately. They nailed it on this one, I was shocked.
Suggestions: No suggestions really. I'm glad I picked this game up, it really turned out to be a game I liked. Not too many games get 5 in all categories. Make sure you make a sequel, because I can only hope it will be just as good if not better than this one.
Overall: 100 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 100 %
Sound: 100 %
stilljam
Date reviewed: May 9, 2005.
Overall: Jade Empire takes as its background the epic majesty and beauty of ancient China, and everything that entails - pagodas, kung fu, tea, dragons and spiritualism, and spices it up with a smattering of what we've come to expect from fantasy scenarios - demons, magic and monsters, to create what amounts to a kinda Fable-with-paper lanterns. Kinda.
At the beginning of the game, you are a promising student at an idyllic mountaintop Kung Fu school, but all is not well. There are strange rumours that ghosts have been blocked off from the underworld, and cursed to continue to roam the lands and plague the living. Before long, you find yourself embroiled in an epic quest which will eventually take you right into the heart of the Empire and beyond.
You have a large amount of freedom in how your character develops. You start off by selecting a name (Furious Wang, in my case), sex, and body type, and then you can select the types of skills you wish to develop as well as a magical weapon.
The game is absolutely packed with fighting styles to develop, and no two characters will end up the same. There are "Martial" styles, all with cool names like Leaping Tiger, ; styles, which do little or no damage but are beneficial in drawing energy from opponents or setting up stronger attacks, "Weapon" styles, ranging from double swords to a large blunderbuss, "Magic" styles, which are fire / ice / lightning-type attacks, and "Transformation" styles, which allow you to change your form into that of a huge demon or somesuch.
As you progress through the game, you'll earn experience points to spend on developing these styles, so you'll need to choose the ones that work best for you in different situations. Some enemies can only be fought with certain styles which forces you not to become too dependent on any one, and you'll also need to bear in mind that different techniques also take a chunk out of one of your three energy bars (Health, Chi and Focus) so it's necessary to use a fair bit of strategy as you brawl in the streets.
Switching styles on the fly is simplicity itself, allowing you to blend a unique fighting style of your own, while the combat as a whole is superbly entertaining.
Of course there's a lot more to it than just fighting. Story-wise, it's one of the more intriguing yarns of recent times, and there are smatterings of dialogue here and there which are by turns superb, or funny, or shocking.
Jade Empire doesn't offer much of a challenge in the conventional sense. It's easily entertaining enough to keep you playing through to the end, but there are few times when you'll feel it's really testing you. Thankfully it takes quite a while to finish, and the story and the game itself are both very rewarding - the journey, it seems, is the worthier part. And also one you'll be tempted to play through again, as every experience can be wildly different.
As you'd expect from RPG master developers Bioware and publishers Microsoft, Jade Empire reeks of quality. It's right up there, proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with Knights of the Old Republic and Fable as one of the finest adventures on the Xbox today.
Gameplay: As the game goes on you'll be tempted to walk either the low path or the high path. The Way of the Open Palm vs. The Way of the Closed Fist. Every conversation gives you numerous options, allowing you to deal with situations either peacefully or with often-hilarious insults and violence. This makes your game tailored to your style, as missions which require you to follow one path or the other may become available depending on how your actions shape your character.
Graphics: It's a beautiful game to look at, in a setting we have seen used surprisingly few times before, which makes it feel fresh throughout, with gorgeous sunsets of pink and orange effectively setting the mood for much of the time.
Sound: Most of the voice acting is superbly done, and even includes the odd star name, most notably John Cleese, who plays the role of a hilarious stuck up English gentleman (quel surprise?), and Firefly's Nathan Fillion, who voices your character's nemesis at the school.
Suggestions: No Suggestions
.A brilliant adventure in a setting we've not seen much before.
.Combat is handled extremely well.
.In terms of dialogue, plot, etc. it's one of the best-written games of recent times.
Just make sure you make a second one
Overall: 100 %
Gameplay: 100 %
Graphics: 100 %
Sound: 100 %
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