Jade Empire

"A very good RPG, but something's wrong here..."

RPG's for Xbox are very rare. It's sad to see a console with such power miss out on so many RPG's. Whether this is due to the console's poor performance in Japan, or Microsoft's lack of interest in that market, it's simply an unfortunate issue. Western RPG's, in general, can be described in a few traits; they are too short, they are very thin on plot and character developement, and they are very easy. Jade Empire looked to change this, though.

Jade Empire succedes on quite a few levels, but it suffers from the problems mentioned in the above paragraph that plague many Western RPG's. I was hoping that this game would be at least nearly as good as the Shenmue series, (which are really the only other martial arts RPG's that I can think of,) but ultimately, Jade Empire feels incomplete.

The game's graphics are very nice. Incredibly detailed and very vivid, the environments in this game are amazing. Towns are filled with people, paths are filled with enemies, and battles are (for the most part,) very fluid. The character models are also very well done, looking like real people. (Although unfortunately, their faces and facial expressions seemed rather robotic.) When you visit a place like Dirge, with it's heavy snowfall and destroyed buildings...it's not difficult to believe that a huge tragedy had once happened there. (Although the game doesn't throw in too many emotional moments, there are a couple of them.) Visuals are nearly perfect, although sometimes the spoken dialogue would cut off a word or two, and there were some issues with loading during combat. What almost ruins the perfect graphics is the INSANELY long load times. I'm talking 30 second load times just to get from one area to another. Every time you die and load your last save....ANOTHER 30 second loading screen. A big cutscene starts...another 30 second loading screen. The loading screens were terrible, and it's amazing that they got into a game like this. I thought Fable's loading was bad...but this game's is torture.
Visuals overall- Except for some disgraceful loading times and lame facial expressions, the graphics in this game are spectacular.

Gameplay-wise, Jade Empire's very fun to play. The action-based combat system works well, giving you many options and moves at your disposal. The leveling up system's also great, and allows for plenty of customization. The system's deep enough and doesn't really involve too much button mashing. The game itself is fairly linear, but that's fine. I don't really have anything against that. When in towns, you're basically allowed to do what you want. There are quite a few tasks to complete that are not plot-related, for those interested in that.

If the gameplay has any flaw, it's the ease of combat. Battles only gave me problems in this game...about 2 times. One was a time when I ran out of spirit, (spirit, by the way, can be used to heal your character or to be used as a powerful move against enemies) so the battle was much harder than it would have been. The other challenging battle was the final boss, (and only sort of challenging). There you go. This game is EASY. Even easier than Fable. In fact, in this game, there were SO MANY styles, moves, combos, etc. that I didn't even KNOW about until after beating the game, and if I had known about these while playing, then this game would have been almost embarrasingly easy. At least there are no complicated tutorials; much of the info about the combat system is presented to you at the very long loading screens....(at least they put them to some use) but that's about it. Oh, by the way...you can change the game's difficulty at any time, (Except during combat,) which is good, but I played on the default setting, and this game is simply too easy. When the game's most "brutal and fearsome" villain goes down with almost no struggle whatsoever, you know there's a problem.

Another small flaw is the exploration. (Or lack of it.) As I said, I have no problem with linear RPG's, but this game...was too linear for it's own good. While in towns, you can certainly talk to people, but you can't enter any buildings whatsoever. (Except 1 plot-related building per town, basically.) Now....after playing the Shenmue games, where almost every single building in the towns are open for exploration, this was a little embarrasing. Even Knights of the Old Republic (Bioware's previous effort) featured much more of this than Jade Empire. And there aren't really that many towns to begin with! (You start the game in a town, and there are 2 more towns. THAT'S IT.) After a certain point in this game, though, you are not allowed to explore at all. So if you are into sidequests, do NOT leave town before completing them.
Gameplay overall- I realized that I did not talk much about the gameplay....well, aside from combat, there isn't much to discuss. There is little exploration, and the few towns and cities that are in the game are not very interactive. (Although there are many quests to complete in 2 of the 3 towns in the game.) But overall, Jade Empire was extremely fun. That seemed to have been the goal. I have to wonder, though, what hardcore RPG gamers will think of a game that makes no effort whatsoever to be challenging.

The voices in this game are great. Although too many sound the same, as in many Bioware games, overall, the acting was top notch. They got some well known talent for the voices. John Cleese even has a cameo! Overall, very little to complain about as far as voice acting is concerned. (By the way, be sure to listen during the credits for a hilarious "interview" with 2 of the game's characters...really one of the funniest things I've heard in a video game in a while.)

The music in this game is very cool and epic. Although there isn't much of it, (You often hear songs repeat) the music really sets the scene. What's a little disappointing is the developers' idea to keep the music FIRMLY in the background. When on a path, or exploring through town, music often plays very low, or not at all. (One example would be when at Tien's Landing.) And...the music, overall, wasn't very overwhelming. It was cool and epic, but never very memorable. (Except maybe the game's main theme.) I've been spoiled by the Shenmue games. In those games, the music involved you in everything. It took almost center stage, (Particularly in the 2nd game.) The decision to keep Jade Empire's music in the background was unfortunate, but the music (when you can hear it,) is definitely good. Just....not overwhelming.
Sound overall- voice acting was great, and the music was good. Although the music isn't nearly as much of a presence as it was in the Shenmue games, it still gets the job done.

The plot of Jade Empire was a very good one....although it seems to be going directly against the gameplay. With unbelievably easy gameplay, it feels like Jade Empire was targeting a casual audience, yet this plot is so bizarre and out there that I really don't see anyone except very Asia-enthusiastic gamers having the patience for it. Those who manage to get into it, though, will find a very interesting, mythical, and well-told story with some cool characters.

With this (mostly) positive review, you may be wondering what my review title was all about. It was about the feeling after finishing the game. While the plot was very good, it was never truly absorbing. You hardly got to know any of the characters at all, and....the world, as well. You explore only 3 towns in this game's world. (as well as an assortment of paths, etc.) The loading screen often mentions Phoenix Gate, "the biggest city in the East" WHY are you never able to see this city? Why are you only able to visit a few locations in the Jade Empire? So little of this empire is explored, and rarely do you actually see the any of the problems that the game accuses Death's Hand (a main villain) of causing. This game's plot needed to be more of an adventure. It needed to give you time with the characters and time to explore this world. Instead, they basically throw plot point after plot point at you. You visit a couple towns, do a bunch of stuff there, visit some area, a plot twist occurs, and then...you're about to finish this game. The ending also left so much to be desired. There are many choices you make in this game. You can be either "a mean person" or a "nice person." Eventually, your choices affect the game's outcome. I've seen 2 of the game's endings...and the GOOD one is much better, since it actually explains what happens to each of the game's characters. But neither ending is any good at all, really, lasting only a couple minutes. They definitely both end up being fairly anti-climactic. After the ending, I thought to myself, "this is it...?" Not the best way to end a game....Also...my completion time for this game was only 13 hours. UGH. I felt like I spent $50 on nothing.

Now, I reviewed Fable, gave it a great score, and said that the game's short length (11 hours) was a weakness, but not a huge one. Jade Empire is different, though. It feels like the smaller game, it feels somewhat rushed, and it felt like they had originally planned to do more, both with the plot and the game's world, but simply ran out of time. To see it simply end when there was so much more that could have been done was just sad. There is a big plot twist, and after it is all cleared up, the game reaches it's final bosses. But there was another 15 (or more) hours of gameplay that SHOULD have been there. 15 more hours of story, of exploration. 15 more hours of seeing this world, and of getting to know the characters. 15 more hours of this game's great combat system. This game ends fairly abruptly, and after only 13 hours of gameplay. I just felt like I had wasted my money, which makes no sense at all, especially considdering how great the game was. But that's the way it is. Fable, in it's 11 hours, was about as long as it's type of gameplay warranted. The Shenmue games, although not long games at all, left you with the feeling that you did so much....(man, what awesome games...) Jade Empire, though, feels like it's potential was completely cut in half. There were so many things left to be done, but the game simply cut itself short. As I said at the beginning of the review, RPG's on the Xbox are very rare, and they tend to appeal more to the mass market than to RPG fans. Jade Empire should have been the exception, but unfortunately, it simply wasn't. Who is this game for? The plot, which involves many spirits, ghosts, legends, and gods, will be too weird for most casual gamers...yet the gameplay is so easy, and the game-time so short, that it won't interest many RPG fans. By ending this game where they did, Bioware wasted a lot of potential. Hardly any of the characters in the game were given any sort of developement, and I hardly got to see ANY of this amazing, well developed world. There is definately more to the Jade Empire than 3 towns. There are many other empires, as well, apparently. This world was HUGE, but very little of it actually made it into the game. How disappointing.

Hopefully, that explains my opinion on this game. It was a great, often amazing game. The plot was imaginative, the graphics were great, the combat was great, the music and voices were great...but the fact that this game ended so abruptly when there was plenty of room, (and reason) to continue the plot, as well as the fact that the ending simply doesn't pay off, left a huge mark on this game. Something is definitely wrong here. Do developers really not think Western audiences are capable of playing a lengthy RPG? This "epic" adventure was cut short from it's deserved length, and I feel like I wasted my money on a game that I easily could have beaten in a rental. Yet...this game was amazing. 5 (or so) hours into it, I never would have thought I would be typing "Jade Empire" and "wasted my money" in the same paragraph! But here I am, typing this right now, at the end of my review. I end my review on this note; casual gamers, give the game a try. You may be surprised, and may even like the strange plot. RPG fans, give this one a rental ONLY. You will beat the game very quickly...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/05, Updated 04/21/08

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