Apistat Commander
12-29-2005, 10:27 PM
So, uh. I beat Jade Empire a few minutes ago. Time for a miniature review. Spoilers ahead!
Well, let me start this off first by saying that Bioware is the best RPG developer of this console generation. Yeah.
JE's several steps ahead of KotOR's graphics. It really shows. I was "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing at the wonderful water effects and the grass that swept as I ran through it. The graphical prowess in this game really shows when you're in the outdoor environments, like the marshlands and meadows.
The story's surprisingly pretty good, considering the material they're working with (mystical spirit monk martial arts master saves the world with the help of friends), but the writing's pretty spot-on. I have to admit, I was surprised a few times when the story took unexpected turns, like Master Li's betrayal and Death's Hand being his brother, and when a story can surprise me in an RPG, you know it's pretty good.
The fighting, although a lot less complex than most action RPGs, is deepened greatly by your different fighting styles that can be upgraded and equipped with the touch of a button. I like how it took different arts to defeat different opponents (support arts don't hurt demons, ghosts are immune to weapons that aren't your fists and feet, humans are usually made short work of with blades, etc.), but when you get right down to it, it follows a really simple formula: pummel your enemy until he/she/it begins using a defensive shield, use a power attack to break through it, then continue pummeling. I wish it could've been more fleshed out, like more different types of attacks within each martial art, but I found myself not really minding, as the fighting was just fun.
Time for complaints. Transformation Summons (turning yourself into acquired demons for a short time) are WAY too strong. If you have a demon summon equipped, you can make short work of any enemy you face. Hell, I just used the Jade Golem on the final boss, a Sun Li powered by the magic of the Water Dragon Goddess, and killed him off in a few seconds. Then again, I was fighting on the student difficulty level, so maybe the demons aren't as powerful on the higher difficulty levels. I'm going to see about that later on.
It's fun as hell to be evil, but it -really- pissed me off when, at the final dungeon, my character suddenly shot up really high on the good meter and stayed there. Goddamn it. I worked for -hours- making Mai Saito a complete bitch, killing tonnes of people I had "saved," leading a royal family member to his death, killing gods, and blackmailing people, and all of a sudden I become this Good Samaritan just because I'm about to go on to the final boss fight? Bollocks. I was -really- hoping that reaching the end of the game with an evil character would allow me to have a bad ending where I totally mess the world up and join the evil side, but I ended up with a good ending anyway. Damn it.
Overall, this was a -very- good game, and now that I've beaten it, I can finally pay more attention to KotOR (which still hasn't really impressed me yet), although I'm still making a good character save file tomorrow morning.
4/5
Well, let me start this off first by saying that Bioware is the best RPG developer of this console generation. Yeah.
JE's several steps ahead of KotOR's graphics. It really shows. I was "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing at the wonderful water effects and the grass that swept as I ran through it. The graphical prowess in this game really shows when you're in the outdoor environments, like the marshlands and meadows.
The story's surprisingly pretty good, considering the material they're working with (mystical spirit monk martial arts master saves the world with the help of friends), but the writing's pretty spot-on. I have to admit, I was surprised a few times when the story took unexpected turns, like Master Li's betrayal and Death's Hand being his brother, and when a story can surprise me in an RPG, you know it's pretty good.
The fighting, although a lot less complex than most action RPGs, is deepened greatly by your different fighting styles that can be upgraded and equipped with the touch of a button. I like how it took different arts to defeat different opponents (support arts don't hurt demons, ghosts are immune to weapons that aren't your fists and feet, humans are usually made short work of with blades, etc.), but when you get right down to it, it follows a really simple formula: pummel your enemy until he/she/it begins using a defensive shield, use a power attack to break through it, then continue pummeling. I wish it could've been more fleshed out, like more different types of attacks within each martial art, but I found myself not really minding, as the fighting was just fun.
Time for complaints. Transformation Summons (turning yourself into acquired demons for a short time) are WAY too strong. If you have a demon summon equipped, you can make short work of any enemy you face. Hell, I just used the Jade Golem on the final boss, a Sun Li powered by the magic of the Water Dragon Goddess, and killed him off in a few seconds. Then again, I was fighting on the student difficulty level, so maybe the demons aren't as powerful on the higher difficulty levels. I'm going to see about that later on.
It's fun as hell to be evil, but it -really- pissed me off when, at the final dungeon, my character suddenly shot up really high on the good meter and stayed there. Goddamn it. I worked for -hours- making Mai Saito a complete bitch, killing tonnes of people I had "saved," leading a royal family member to his death, killing gods, and blackmailing people, and all of a sudden I become this Good Samaritan just because I'm about to go on to the final boss fight? Bollocks. I was -really- hoping that reaching the end of the game with an evil character would allow me to have a bad ending where I totally mess the world up and join the evil side, but I ended up with a good ending anyway. Damn it.
Overall, this was a -very- good game, and now that I've beaten it, I can finally pay more attention to KotOR (which still hasn't really impressed me yet), although I'm still making a good character save file tomorrow morning.
4/5