"Djmyxx Review: This great developer had a great idea about a great culture and came up with a mediocre game."

Bioware, one of the foremost developers of western-theme role-playing games, has merged its brand of game development with the east. Nope, they haven't merged with Square-Enix (fat chance) but Bioware did create an RPG with an eastern (predominantly Chinese) theme. They called it: Jade Empire.

Before I delve into the game, let me state that I live in Asia and the culture depicted in the game bears striking similarities to those which have been inculcated in me from my childhood years to the present. Add the fact that I've been a fan of Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors series (I've read the novel as well) and there's a huge resemblance between RTK and many of events and features within Jade Empire. As far as contemporary Asian martial arts movies go, well, you'll find some plays of them as well in the game.

The story takes place within, you guessed it, “The Jade Empire”, a vast land ruled by the great Emperor Sun Hai. That's a long way off from the beginning though, as the game puts you in the shoes of a student in a martial arts school in a secluded town. What that student looks like and plays like is up to you.

Bioware as most know are the developers of the Game of the Year award-hauler, Knights of the Old Republic, and character development here is quite a lot less than what most expected. You have 6 characters to choose from (an extra one for the Limited Edition version) each with their own look and build. When you're choosing your character, you'll notice a description: fast, strong, magic and balanced. These have obvious effects on how you play as your character- a powerhouse like Tiger Shen can easily beat up enemies, while Scholar Ling must always be on the defensive and use her magical skills to her advantage. Adverse effects however can be remedied overtime as you're in control of which stats to increase: body (health), chi (magic), focus (weapon use). Initial skills as well can be replaced by those that can be bought- and that's bad seeing as the sultry Jen Zi could later on be played as a brawler like Shen, thereby lessening character uniqueness.

Starting out as a student with an infamous reputation in your school, you begin to get a sense of your duty and destiny, as well as get a feel of how the game flows. Knights of the Old Republic's praised dialogue-tree makes a return here. The dialogue options you choose would range from generic replies and sarcastic comments to insulting ones or those which implore you to use a certain conversation skill (Charm, Intimidation and Intuition - similar to Old Republic's usage of Repair and Computer skills and the Jedi Mind Trick). The impressive LS/DS system is also here, only renamed for convenience. The Way of the Open Palm represents all remarks and actions that are good-natured and caring, while The Way of the Close Fist is defined by evil, manipulation and selfishness. The choices you make in the game determine what “points” you'll have towards a shift towards which alignment.

As mentioned before, you'll have two skills when you begin a new game- one Martial (hand-to-hand attack) and one for Support (Heavenly Wave being mandatory). Martial skills are reminiscent of the punching and kicking you'll see in many movies; Support skills deal abnormal status to opponents, be it paralysis, electrocution or slowing them down, the upside of which is that they don't cost you anything; Weapon skills are self-explanatory and there are a several types you'll find in the game- axes, swords and even guns, all of which use focus; Magic skills are also self-explanatory, there are few though all dish out both damage, an abnormal status and cost chi; Transformation skills have you change form into a previously defeated monster, costing chi; and finally, the single Unique skill (Spirit Thief) is used to regain lost chi from an opponent. Fighting in Jade Empire is simple enough. Map a skill in one of the four directional buttons and during the battle press the button of the skill you wish to use. Press “A” for normal attacks (most of which can be chained up to three hits) and “X” for power attacks. A nice addition here are several deathblows which of course are gory and are done by using a Magic or Support skill followed up by the Power attack of a Martial skill. Blocking and dodging aren't cheap this time, unlike Fable, since the former defends against weak attacks and the latter evades strong ones. Your party members (you can only select one for a time being) can help you attack the enemy, or can lend you various powers for support like regaining focus or an increase in melee damage.

There are a multitude of side quests you can do in the game, ranging from curing an injured student and solving a puzzle, to finding a suitable husband for a thug and braving a tomb to search for a mortar and pestle. If you have played Knights of the Old Republic, the only difference here would be the quest logs which clearly define the right and the wrong action (as if we did not know yet). Quests can be given to you upon talking to important people in the current area. If you find certain battles within a quest too hard, try changing the difficulty (cheap tactic if you ask me).

Perhaps the best things about Jade Empire are the stuff that few take notice off. The atmosphere of towns are certainly contemporary Chinese, as is the majesty of the Imperial City. The houses, buildings, windows, posts, gates, chirping birds, rolling waves, EVERYTHING you see and hear in the background all marvelously intertwine to hold you in awe (well, at least for me). The dialogue in general is also exceptional, as there are many times characters (non-playable ones) quip a few lines from pseudo-proverbs, a nice touch indeed. The summary being- graphics and sound are great. Scroll and book-stands you find in your journey offer insight to supernatural and paranormal beliefs, which are good bits. There's a mission wherein ghosts of orphans cannot rest until their caretaker dies -or- he buries their remains properly--- that gives you an idea of how definitive the title is. Overall, it greatly defines what I know about the general culture of Asia, I highly commend Bioware for the effort they put into making this game somewhat authentically eastern-themed.

Then again, that may be as far as I'll go when it comes to compliments. Yes, Jade Empire is a good game in its own right, and yes, it has everything that a classic RPG should have, but it's somewhat unimpressive in some departments.

While the battle system is indeed innovative and somewhat acceptable, the enemy AI is extremely flawed, oftentimes even on the hardest difficulty, enemies can easily be beaten my marauding attacks or repeating the same techniques over and over again. While you can romance several characters (including those of the same gender) your followers are a slightly boring bunch as you'll find little to no interest in them- add the inability to control them in battle or configure their stats (there are a couple of hilarious ones mind you, but they and almost everyone else are relegated into obscurity). There may be a mini-game (even small quests related to it) a top-down shooter isn't necessarily a barrel of extraordinary fun- it's an acceptable addition, but nothing to write home about. While the Way of Open Palm/Closed Fist may offer a lot of choices, the story is extremely linear- in fact, compared to Old Republic's five planets you can tackle at any order, Jade Empire has three towns of note (the first one's a linear journey, the second can be finished as part of the story line before moving to the third) - no interchanging of order whatsoever. That being said, you can expect the story to be short (less than 20 hours for a completion, around 10 hours for a second or less-detailed game), hardly the description for a great RPG. While the story is a wonderfully woven gaming masterpiece, and a nice plot twist to boot, the fact that the game is quite short and the rushed out final hours of it greatly bring it down (face it, the story is the very meat of core-centric games).

Jade Empire was supposed to be one of the best role-playing games of all-time for the Xbox- had the developers fixed the flaws, the already-awesome background would have made sure of that. Sadly the game falls flat on its face, and with such great potential nonetheless, it would be a shame for Bioware not to redeem itself with a better sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/05