Jade Empire is one of the best games ever made.
User Rating: 9.7 | Jade Empire: Hisui no Teikoku XBOX
Jade Empire is the long awaited RPG from BioWare, the makers of some of the most recognizable games ever such and Baldur’s Gate and the 2003 game of the year, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jade Empire is the first game from BioWare to be set in an original setting, although the game is inspired by ancient China. Any fan of BioWare’s other works, particularly Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will be more than pleased with Jade Empire, due to the many similarities of the other BioWare Games. Although it is very difficult not to compare this game to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic because they are so similar, Jade Empire could actually be BioWare’s greatest game ever made. Jade Empire is a very unique game in many ways, such as the fighting system, and most noticeably, the setting in which the game takes place. Jade Empire should take the average gamer around 20 hours to beat the first time through. Although a 20 hour action game would be considered a rather “long” game, today’s RPG standards would say that Jade Empire is fairly short. Although it is debatable, this could actually work in the favor of Jade Empire because if the game were any longer, it might have started to feel repetitive and boring, which is most certainly not the case with the game at its current length. No matter how you look at it, Jade Empire is just an unbelievable game filled with intriguing characters, a rich and interesting storyline, and excellent gameplay mechanics that will most likely satisfy just about any gamer. One of the many reasons that BioWare’s other games were so successful is that they had very interesting stories. Jade Empires story most certainly does not disappoint. Some would say that it is actually the best story that has every been in an RPG. Jade Empire also follows in the path of Knights of the Old Republic in letting you choose whether you want to be a “nice” character, or an “evil” character. Jade Empire calls these two options either following the way of the open palm (nice) or following the way of the closed fist (evil). The game also does a nice job of tying up its loose ends. The thing that makes this game's story so unique is that depending on your choices in the game, there can be different outcomes in the story. Whenever you talk to an NPC, a list of dialogue options appears, and you are prompted to pick whichever one you like. There are usually a total of three different dialogue options that appear, most of the time having one being a response that will lead you down the path of the open palm, one being a neutral response, and one of which will lead you down the path of the closed fist. These three options will also lead to a total of three different endings, one of which will be for open palm characters, one of which will be for neutral characters, and one will be for closed fist characters. This is where the game gives most of its replay value because the different endings give you much incentive to go back through the game a second or third time to see the other endings. The setting of Jade Empire is very interesting. You play a young student at a martial arts school. Your master, Master Li soon gets captured and you are supposed to find him. The game looks very comparable to action movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are some minor differences in that there are actually forms of airplanes in the game and a few other “futuristic” devises. The landscape is lush and realistic as well. When you are running through a field, you will see the grass sway from side to side as you run past it. It is too bad that the environment was more interactive because besides breaking the occasional vase, there really isn’t anything you can do. There are also many “supernatural” things in Jade Empire such as ghosts and demons that you will see frequently. It is a shame that there is an option to go into what Jade Empire calls, “focus mode” in which you will run very fast through the environment in exchange for a chunk of your focus meter. This option really makes it so you don’t get to appreciate the environment as much as you could have. The fighting system is very unique, and is one of the most fun aspects of the game. In the lower left corner of the screen, there are four different fighting styles you can have mapped to your directional pad, allowing you to change styles almost immediately. There are a total of five different kinds of fighting styles and each of the different styles have different variations of the style, for example, there are a total of 4 different martial arts styles. The five different kinds of styles are martial, which is the style that you are going to be using most throughout the game. There is the weapon style, which is also going to be used very frequently throughout the game. There is then the magic style, while not as useful as the martial and weapon style, can be useful in the right situations. Magic styles range from being able to freeze enemies, to being able to shoot fire bolts. There is the transformation style in which your character has the ability to transform into a mighty demon, and then last there are the support styles which allow you to do many different things such as shock an enemy into wondering about for a couple seconds as you wail on them. Most people will probably enjoy Jade Empire a great deal, especially if they are fans of BioWare’s other games. It could possibly be one of the best games ever, and is most certainly the best of BioWare’s previous games. Gamers can look forward to an interesting story line, great characters, a lush and beautiful setting and some great open-ended gameplay in Jade Empire.
