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Jade Empire: More retrogaming?

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Akima:

--- Quote from: Valdís on 13 Apr 2013, 09:14 ---While we're straying a bit from EA: Opinions on Jade Empire, Akima? I picked it up on some Steam sale but haven't played it yet.
--- End quote ---
I'm sorry Valdis, but I missed your question in the EA thread, and since it's a bit off-topic in there, I'm creating this thread rather than necro the old one from 2005.

I like Jade Empire a lot. I played the Mac version, which is the PC version "bottled" using Cider (like Wine for Apple, get it?). I had to solve a couple of technical graphics issues that I will cover in another posting if anyone is interested, but otherwise the game ran very nicely on my iMac with no performance issues at all. BTW, the gay kiss revealing patch I referred to in the other thread will only work on the PC/Mac version, I believe.

Jade Empire is very pretty to look at, and listen to. The environment is beautifully-rendered (not forgetting that the game came out in 2005 for XBox and 2007 for PC) and the nature-sounds draw you in. After I'd been playing for half an hour, I was ready to move to Two Rivers, the village seemed so idyllic! The "fantasy China" background is a little bit stereotyped, and lets a bit of Japanese influence bleed in, but the cultural mish-mash is no worse than you see in Western-fantasy RPGs. Overall the cultural treatment is pretty respectful, and I had no problems with it. It was certainly very refreshing to play a game in which my avatar actually looked something like me...

I enjoyed the characters, and I think the story is good. I don't play a lot of computer games, so I might not be the best judge of the game-play. I liked the real-time, "fighting game"-style combat, which felt much more tense and involving than the turn-based combat of other RPGs I've played. I liked the simple inventory system, because I often find the micro-management of equipped items, potions etc. required by some RPGs irritating and obstructive. Some of the fighting-styles you learn are game-breaking, but you do not have to use them. The difficulty of the fights is a bit all-over-the-place, in that some of the lower-level battles are much harder to win than the final boss-battle. One in particular is very tough on normal difficulty, a bitch on hard, and don't get me started on the super-hard Jade Master setting.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend Jade Empire. I wish Bioware had done more games in the same world.

Blue Kitty:
I loved Jade Empire, I wanted to play as every character and get every ending and I never got bored. The underworld part was kind of BS though, what with the soul stealing boogeymen. I'm sad they haven't made a sequel.

RedWolf4:
Mmm, yes, I remember playing this as a kid (Goddammit I AM aging) and it was some of the best fun I'd had with a game on the original xbox. The graphics were neat, the story was good, and it didn't overwhelm you with stats and fetch quest and crap. Overall quite nifty for my first bioware game.

Not to mention the drunken master guy was flipping hilarious sometimes.

Akima:
I know it's an old game, but Valdis hasn't played it yet, so let's not spoiler, or at least use spoiler tags.

Blue Kitty:
Sorry, I was trying to be vague about that portion

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