Jade Empire

"Tries to be a good game and tries to construct an authentic Chinese setting, but fails at both and insults our intelligences in the process"

Jade Empire is a relatively high-profile RPG set in a fictional representation of dynastic China. You'd expect it to be good, given that it was produced by Bioware, which released the, in my opinion, overrated but still thoroughly enjoyable Knights of the Old Republic, and given that it received a breathtaking 10/10 rating from IGN.

Alas, this is not the case.

Although the graphics and sound (that is, the more technical components) of the game are certainly not to the game's detriment, everything else is. In other words, the creative design of the game is atrocious. Especially culprit are the writing, the combat system, and the attempt to depict the Imperial Era of China. None of these are anything more than mediocre in themselves, and they combine together to create a completely unsatisfying experience.

Graphics: 8.5/10
Jade Empire looks great. It certainly uses the Xbox's power to generate lush and beautiful visuals, both from the game models and the associated lighting and shading effects. Moreover, Bioware is improving upon its ability to design not incredibly ugly models of faces, both of the protagonist and of all the other characters, though it still has a way to go before it can approach the skill of its Japanese contemporaries.

The quibble I do have is at the higher level design decision, though it's a pebble here in contrast to an avalanche later. Basically, the graphics are great, but I get the feeling that they were modelled off whatever Google Image Search came up after a couple of quickly thought out keywords. It all looks Chinese on the surface, but there's no real depth; no unique details that really make the visual experience authentic. There are few props or smaller objects in rooms, for example. Nor is there any huge variation in characters' fashion. Basically, there's no deeper style, unlike the beautiful Mediterranean vibe of Final Fantasy XII or the creepy, silent medieval European atmosphere of Vagrant Story. This ultimately makes the game less immersive.

As above though, that's not that big of an issue. However, when we consider other aspects of the game...

Plot, Setting and Writing: 2/10
We can describe the way Jade Empire's plot works and plays out with the following word: insulting.

To summarise the story: in the pseudo-Chinese setting of the Jade Empire, you play as a martial artist ready to leave a martial arts academy. Very soon into the game, the academy is burnt down, your teacher is kidnapped, and you have to rescue him. The rest of the story involves spirits, the afterlife and the battle between demons and the Jade Empire's Chinese heaven, etc.

The above summary doesn't make the game's story sound too bad. However, I'll now outline my two major criticisms:

First, without spoilers, the way the plot does unravel is really not great at all. Mostly, it's horribly clichéd. The characters all fit one dimensional archetypes. Unless a person has never read an adult or young adult non-fiction book voluntarily in their life, they'd find the characters boring. Also, the plot's events, and the way events string together, is also extremely predictable. This is made worse by the emphasis the story's structure places on the plot twist between two thirds and three quarters through the game, because the plot twist can be seen from the game's beginning and isn't very good in its own right.

Something also has to be said about how the game resolves plot tensions: through combat. There's an absolutely atrocious sequence in which you face your own doubt. And after this, instead of a philosophical consideration of the subject of doubt worthy of Soren Kierkegaard, what happens is... an enemy called 'Doubt' appears and you fight him. And when one of the major villains is having a huge inner conflict between his good and bad sides, instead of an emotional sequence such as that of Return of the Jedi, what happens is... you start playing the good side, and have to pummel the snot out of the bad side. And so on. My point is simply that the game designers picked an incredibly cheap, and in fact plain silly way to pass the player across bumps in the plot.

Something also needs to be said about how Bioware seems to be plagiarising itself. Flushed with the success of the KotOR, the game developer seems out of ideas, and so feels the need to rehash what it's previously done. Most suspect is when you join your enemy's academy. Since, as I'll discuss later, Bioware seems happy enough to cheaply rip off the names of characters of classical Chinese literature, why can't they rip off the more profound storylines as well?

Admittedly, all of the above might not have been too bad. As long as the way the story is actually executed and presented is well done or even decent, the plot might still be compelling. But second, the way the dialogue is written and the setting is verbally constructed (through dialogue, and otherwise) is absolutely horrendous, and completely unbelievable. First, flowing on from how characters are one dimensional, characters also have one dimensional dialogue, creating the impression that they're driven by narrative imperative rather than the fact that they're supposed to be real human beings.

But second and more importantly, the dialogue in the game reflects modern Western culture, not a dynastic Chinese setting. For example, consider the following script excerpt from a minor sidequest:

- Yes dear.
Do I have to slaughter that thing for you to show me some attention?
- No dear.
Are you lying again?
- No dear.
Are you listening to me?
- No dear.
[SLAP!]

This is a joke that originates from middle class Western marriage woes, not ancient Asian culture, and it offends a player's intelligence to try to pass one off as the other. More than that, it's also a joke that isn't funny in itself anyway, for anyone who's over ten years of age and so has heard it several dozen times.

Outside immediate dialogue, a few comments are also needed here about setting. The setting Bioware has attempted to construct, while visually fine, seems to have been helped along by a third grader, at least on the level of writing. For example, calling one of your party's characters 'Black Whirlwind' is not a homage to the classic Chinese novel Water Margin, it's simply senseless referencing. It's as if the next Final Fantasy changed its protagonist's name to George Bush at the last minute: it wouldn't be clever political satire, it'd be throwing in a name for no reason. Also some of the 'original' names are simply stupid in themselves, for example when a philosopher is named 'Bladed Thesis'.

So to conclude this subsection when reading over this review: I wondered if the absolutely horrendous writing, plot, and setting of the game is in fact an elaborate parody. The fact that the game seems to take itself seriously makes me think that's not the case. It also makes me weep that trash like this can get released.

Gameplay: 4/10
Though Jade Empire lacks anything worthwhile regards to plot, it might still be worth buying, if it was fun in its own right simply as a game. However, this is not the case.

First, let's look at combat. The problem with combat is that it's too simple to be more than fleetingly enjoyable, but the game puts huge emphasis on it anyway. To briefly summarise how the game's fighting system works: you have several fighting styles to choose from, which can be categorised into groups such as barehanded 'martial' styled, weapon styles, and 'transformation' styles where you turn into a demon with different abilities. However, most of these 'styles' lack the elaborate move combinations of actual fighting games, but your options are basically to do a weak attack, charge a slower but stronger attack, or to block. The weirder styles, such as when you turn into a horse demon, tend to waste the equivalent of your mana points, chi, and are less effective anyway, and so are more gimmicky than useful.

So the problem? There are two ways to near guarantee victory every fight. The first is to enter the 'Focus' mode wherein you move so quickly that your enemies seem to act as a snail-pace and are therefore helpless, and employ a combination that lets you replenish your Focus meter, so remaining in the super-fast mode indefinitely. This requires some, but not much skill. The second is simply to block indefinitely until your enemies start charging a powerful attack, and while they're vulnerable hit them. This requires no skill, and illustrates how silly the combat system of Jade Empire is. Now, this wouldn't be an issue if the gameplay wasn't combat-centric: consider Planescape: Torment, where combat is laughably bad, but no one cares because the game is and never was about fighting. But since a huge amount of time in Jade Empire is spent on combat, especially given my above note of how the game enjoys substituting meaningful dialogue with combat, the lack of sophistication in the fighting system is unacceptable. It's enjoyable for the first couple of hours, but then becomes mindless, then boring, then plain tedious.

Gameplay outside combat is nothing to write home about either. Such gameplay revolves around dialogue-centred sidequests. This doesn't work well because first, as we've noted, the dialogue is horrible. Second, the moral choice system which dominates the game isn't very interesting. To explain, in the game's sidequests you usually have to make choices between Open Palm and Closed Fist, which essentially means that given a choice you pick either good or evil. The problem is how generic and boring the choices tend to be, not really requiring any thought: I've previously reduced the Open Palm / Closed First dichotomy to choices of good and evil. This is despite the games' characters advertising the Open Palm and Closed First philosophies as intricate and sophisticated worldviews. Thus, instead of actual moral dilemmas, such as in Obsidian's Knights of the Old Republic II, a choice might be to save the benevolent fox spirit or to kill her. In other words, there's nothing here that makes me really want to keep playing.

Audio and Sound: 6.5/10
The voice-acting of the game is realistic and believable, though of course it can't redeem the horrible script. All characters' lines are voice-acted, which does enhance the little immersability the game does possess. However, there are also no real standout performances, unlike say Kreia of Knights of the Old Republic II or well, everyone in Planescape Torment.

Musically, the game is passable. Tracks do have an Oriental feel. However, nothing's really memorable. Still, the sound of the game: voice acting, music, and other audio, is overall a small plus in Jade Empire in contrast to many huge minuses.

Replay Value: 5/10
Someone might be surprised at this score: 'But you can choose to be either good or evil, so replaying is more than warranted!' Well, yes. Your choices between Open Palm and Closed Fist alternatives lead to different consequences that you can't see in a single playthrough. Also, the main endings are similarly based on Open Palm or Closed First choices. This does admittedly imply that the game deserves at least one extra playthrough.

However, a few observations. First, the game is very short: twelve hours without long sidequests if you have no idea what you're doing, and if you do know what you're doing then twelve hours even with sidequests. Thus the added replay from the moral choice system isn't a positive quality in its own right, but in fact a remedial virtue for a shortcoming of the game, which otherwise would mean that the game would deserve a 1/10 for replay value. Second, the choice you make to pick between endings is made in the last half an hour of the game, so multiple endings isn't really something that significantly enhances replay value. Third, as I've noted, the moral choice system in itself isn't very compelling, so a second playthrough doesn't really offer that much. This is especially since the results of your choices of course vary depending on the context, but they nearly all boil down to people profusely thanking you, or dying/being scared off. Therefore, what replay value the game does have is terribly generic.

Conclusion
What I thinks happened is that Bioware entered a creative frenzy for Knights of the Old Republic, but when they got to this had grown lazy and decadent. The best that can be said about Jade Empire is that it looks pretty. Nothing else, really.

Recommendation: A half decent rent, but definitely don't buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/08

Game Release: Jade Empire (US, 04/12/05)