Phineas's Review of
Jade Empire

Overview: Do you like RPG’s? Do you like Fighting? Do you like Asian mythology? And finally, do you like Kung-Fu? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions – then you probably already own Jade Empire. If not – GO BUY THIS GAME! Jade Empire is the first unique intellectual property to come from BioWare for the current generation of consoles. The makers of Knights of the Old Republic, which is the holy grail of sorts for the Star Wars fans out there, have left the lightsabers behind in favor of a katana and some hard hitting martial arts action. Jade Empire throws you into the world of the….umm….Jade Empire. It is a world of martial artists, demons, spirits, and flying contraptions. And this world is gorgeous. From the first moments to the rolling credits, you will be immersed in a world steeped in Asian mysticism and flair. The storyline of Jade Empire is that which RPG fans have come to know – you are the hero destined to save your world. But the RPG clichés end there. BioWare has done a wonderful job of creating an epic and fairly original storyline. You are an orphan raised in a small village by your teacher Master Li. You have always known you are different and you are always reminded of it by Li. As your training draws to a close you are told of what makes you unique and how that uniqueness will save the corrupted Empire. You see, when people pass from life unto death in the Jade Empire they are met by the Water Dragon. The Water Dragon’s role in the heavens is to bring you to the Wheel of Life and return you to the world in a new life. However, this is not happening. The dead do not stay in their graves, and have taken to disturbing the living. It is your job to uncover the mystery and to set things back into balance within the Jade Empire.

To do this you will start the game with a number of unique characters each breed with a specific combat specialty. Play as Furious Ming if you favor speed, or play as Wu the Lotus Blossom if you prefer a balanced fighter who can do it all. Now, keep in the mind, that as your character levels up you can put points into your basics (Body, Chi, and Focus) and into upgrading styles learned. So, in effect, you can create any kind of character you want. So the only real thing to take into consideration when picking your character is aesthetic preference. Your basics (Body, Chi, and Focus) all shape your character and determine the main build of your character. Do you want a fighter who will pick his fists over a sword? Then make sure you plug a lot of points into Body. If you want a savior who specializes in magic then make sure to keep Chi at the forefront (Chi also heals you in battle). And finally, a soldier who has a lot of Focus can use weapon styles longer and more effectively.

Battle in Jade Empire is real time. This replaces the stagnant battle system found in KOTOR. In battle you can switch back and forth between any of the styles you have learned with ease. Simply assign styles to your d-pad and karate chop away to your hearts content. Combat has a decent sense of strategy too. Enemies with strong armor are resilient to fighting techniques but are weak against weapon styles. Ghosts are often immune to many magic styles but are weak to physical attacks. So finding what style fits what fight is important to winning. Aside from simple fighting, magic, and weapon techniques is that of Demon techniques. As you defeat Demons in the game you can acquire their spirits and then transform into them in battle. You become a major damage dealing juggernaut while sacrificing speed in the process. Demon forms are especially helpful against large groups of enemies or against other demons. For the most part, combat is very fluid and intuitive. However, two of Jade Empire’s biggest flaws (that I feel many reviewers in their awe of this game are choosing to ignore) come through in combat. One is the battle camera. The camera in Jade Empire can be mind numbingly annoying. This is bad news for you controller hurling players out there. The camera attempts to rotate and follow the flow of action. But at many times you will find yourself unable to see many of the enemies aside from the one your are currently engaged with. Instead of the camera remaining fairly zoomed out to give you a good view of the overall action, it will zoom in to the enemy you are fighting, leaving other enemies to attack you at will without you seeing it coming. Also, may of the battle screens later on in the game are very small and contain multiple enemies. This confuses the camera even more and it will rotate violently at times trying to make room for itself to give you a good view of the action. Is all this annoying? Yes. Will it make you not want to play the game? Probably not. Its is good enough of a game to push through the annoyances. The second issue with combat, which is not really a design flaw but more of an unneeded addition, is Focus Mode. In Focus Mode you can slow time for your enemies by consuming your Focus and attack enemies more easily without fear. However, you won’t really need or use this. It is really only useful in situations with multiple enemies. But even then you can simply just perform a area sweep move to knock all enemies back (which every style can do). To be honest – I never once used Focus Mode because I had to in this game. All in all, these two issues aside, there is not much to say to the discredit of Jade Empire.

Then there is character interaction. You will meet a very colorful bunch of followers throughout the game. You’ll meet a cook who specializes in the drunken master style of fighting, and you’ll meet a little girl who shares her body with a demon from the heavenly realms. All the characters you meet are very well fleshed out and unique in and of themselves. You can choose to take any follower you have into battle with you as an aid. They can either help you fight or support you; each with his or her own unique support skill. Some characters make certain fighting styles more effective, while some characters will regain your chi or focus for you during a fight. How you use your allies is up to you. Jade Empire follows closely to its bigger brother KOTOR in many ways in terms of character interaction. You can be either good or evil in this game. Although a better way to look at it would be being either “selfless” or “selfish.” You can go through the game helping all you come across or you can look out for yourself and your interests in any situation. This manifests itself in helping others but still wanting a big reward for yourself in the end. So you are not really evil, just a selfish jerk. Discussion trees are also much like KOTOR. You can answer in a reassuring and helpful way, or in a sarcastic and apathetic way. What kind of warrior you are going to be is up to you.

Graphics: The graphics in Jade Empire are absolutely gorgeous and easily some of the best that have been seen on the Xbox. From the lighting, to the colors, to the small details – Jade Empire excels in driving the character to take a moment to simply take it all in. From the cherry blossom trees flowing in the wind, to the beautiful seascape sunsets, there is never a moment in Jade Empire where you will not marvel at what you see. You will find many nice touches throughout the world. From the fictional writings of the language of Tho Fan found on walls and scrolls to finding paper lanterns shifting in the breeze. The colors and graphical design of this game scream Asian influence. You will feel as though you are being transported into ancient China or the like while you play this game. BioWare simply did a wonderful job of creating a game with a distinct cultural feel to it. The graphics in battle are impressive as well, although they can cause it to slow down at times. Spells and transformations and attacks are as beautiful to look at as they are violent. As I said, the sheer amount of rendering that can go on in a battle sometimes caused the game to lag a bit - but nothing too frustrating.

Music: Much like the graphics, the sound design in Jade Empire does an equally good job of creating a mythical and Asian feel to the game. The music in towns is very soothing, often created through the use of wind instruments and strings. And battle music is grandiose, being led by the beating of large drums. Towns are bristling with the chatter and the sounds of civilization, while forests are peaceful and serene with often only the noise of your feet running through the leaves to be heard. If you are a fan of music from movies such as Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – then the music in Jade Empire will make you feel right at home. Character voice acting is surprisingly good in this game. Character voices are well fleshed out and contain a good amount of emotion. You will feel the malice in the voices of the evil and hear the compassion in the voices of the kind. In terms of sound, Jade Empire is an audible masterpiece.

Final Thoughts: As I said before, there is not much wrong with Jade Empire. Aside from the annoying camera angles and the very rare moments of slow down, the only way you may not like this game is two fold. One, if you simply don’t like RPG’s. Two, if you believe this game is simply an Asian KOTOR. That could not be further from the truth. Jade Empire is wonderful game that will take you through an amazingly well designed and thoughtful world of Asian mysticism and martial arts grandeur. The game has a great deal of replay value not often found in RPG’s. You can play through the game with all the different characters, and there are enough options in storyline throughout that you will effectively be able to have a new experience at least a couple of times through. The game isn’t particularly long for an RPG. I beat it in 34 hours, but I did EVERYTHING. If you are an anal RPG player, then you will be playing a for a decent amount of time. If you choose to simply do the mission critical aspects of the game – I would wager you could beat this game in around 25 hours. It simply depends on your play style. But rest assured, much will be missed in Jade Empire if you do not take the time to smell the roses, if you catch my meaning. I easily see this game being a contender for GOTY in many publications and media outlets.

Take up your sword or staff warrior and defend your world – the Jade Empire needs you.

Grade: A