Beyond Good and Evil is a great game for all you pacifist adventurers out there.
----------Battle System----------
Beyond Good and Evil reminds me of the Legend of Zelda and this is not a bad thing. I love Zelda clones, but the control scheme, items and health system is to similar to not mention. Jade uses a bow-staff as a weapon, but there's no upgrades for it, so she never gets stronger. The biggest difference is Jade requires alot more stealth than Link in games. Although in Windwaker there's a few times where you need to use stealth to get passed guards or lights, alot of Beyond Good and Evils missions are similar to this. The only times where you'll need to fight is by fighting aliens, bugs or any other non-humanoid creatures. The times where you need to fight a humanoid is pretty rare. This adds to the puzzle solving in the game.
Similar to the Metroid Prime scanning system, you can go into First Person view to take pictures of animals within the world. After you finish a roll of film you can trade it for special items and Pearls. You'll find more Pearls within the game by defeating bosses, completing minigames or found hidden within stages. You trade these pearls to the Mammago Garage to upgrade your ship and other assorted items. You also have a credit card and gain credit points after taking pictures of animals. You can use these credits to buy items scattered around the world in vendor machines.
Throughout the game you'll get special items that help you advance in the game. You'll find keys, a glove that shoots discs in First Person view (you can snipe enemies with this as well). You can find a Pearl and Animal Detector within the game, this helps you complete all the Pearls and Animal pictures. The items list is not exactly as large as Zelda, but its a short game so you make good use for the few items you have. In the game you only play as Jade, but you also get a partner that will come with you on your quest. Depending on the current storyline, you can bring along with you Double-H or your uncle Pey'J. Similar to Star Fox Adventures you can control that character by selecting commands for them to do. You can ask one of them to stand on a trigger while you go through a door or ask one of them to break down a wall for you. Unlike Star Fox Adventures your partner will fight along side of you and help you out. They're not the best of help though, so you'll be doing most of the fighting. Like Zelda, your HP is repisented by hearts. You can find PA-1 hearts through out the game and give them to either Jade or your partner. You control how many hearts you have and you can switch them in and out at anytime of the game. When a character leaves your party the items go back into your stock.
There's alot of racing within this game aswell. Some are sidequests to gain pearls. They lack the depth of a full blown racer like F-Zero or kart game like Mario Kart, but that is expected.
----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Jade, a photographer / reporter, kind of a den mother for orphans and a member of an underground resistance group. It's your job to expose the corrupted government of the Hillz and to spread the word with underground newsletters. I loved the story, I don't think I've played anything similar to it. The dialog is usually pretty good and even talking to the people on the streets is pretty interesting. The best part is watching propaganda videos on the walls scattered across the town.
----------Graphics----------
The graphics really impressed me. I think there was a few pre-rendered cutscenes, but most of the game is told in game cutscenes. The in game cut-scenes are really good, possibly better than Kingdom Hearts. The characters just show alot more emotion than most games can create. Xenosagas might have the best in-games cut scenes I’ve seen, but Beyond Good and Evil is pretty close.
I love the colors in the game, they use alot of greens and blues. The Ocean looks great, its amazing to find a giant whale just splashing around.
----------Sound----------
The voice overs are awesome. Every character has a ton of personality to them. Jade is soft spoken, Pey'j has a tough guy voice, Segundo is effeminate Cuban, while the stoner Mammago guys talk in a Jamacian accents. The music is epic and keeps you glue in the game. This is some of the best music I've heard in a game, it's up there with Final Fantasy.
----------World Map----------
The world map is small closed in map similar to Ocarina of Time, but the world is mostly made of water and full of island like Windwaker. The size is closer to Ocarina of Time though. You ride around early in the game on a ship that your uncle built. Everytime you upgrade it at the Mammago Garage you can unlock new areas to explore. Your final transportation is a flying ship, you barely get enough time to enjoy it before the game ends though. You can view an overhead view of the whole world map when you're looking for Pearls or Animals locations. There's only a few safe areas in the game, and only one of them is a town. In the town you can play minigames, buy items, talk to people and find secrets. There's only about four or five dungeons within the game, pretty small. There's plenty of secrets and animals to find on the world map though, so that can keep you busy for a couple hours.
----------Time to Complete Game (first run through)----------
14:00
Very short game, I completed it 100%. I haven't played it for 8 months, but I'm pretty sure there's no reward for beating it, although there was a hint of a sequel after the credits.