IGN gives Jade Empire a............

[injunwal]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

I should have some impressions tonight. I got the LE yesterday but never played it. I ended up playing MLB on PSP online with Mgo and then we jumped over to WoW

[jfsolo]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

I played it for about 2 hours last night. This game won't be for everyone. If you are unable to fully embrace the Chinese Mythology theme of the game then you should probably stay away. If you can, and have a least a modicum of interest in the RPG genre, then I think you should enjoy this game tremendously. I'm not going to say anything new here, but I will add my two cents.

I'm not a big graphics whore, as supported by my love for the PS2 2-D strategy RPGS like Growlanser, Disgaea and the like, but I am simply blown away by how beautiful this game is. The colors and the textures... the detail of the character models... the emotional range of the facial expressions leave me in awe. Other who are more savvy about these kinds of things can probably explain it better than me, but this is what happens when you get people who know what they're doing and can get the most out of the hardware. Wow.

The story is the most important thing for me in a non-sports game. If you have any interest in Rpg's and haven't been living in a cave for the last five years, then you know that story is what Bioware does best. They may frak up any other part of the game, but their games will have a great story. Now I'm only a couple of hours into the game so its hard to compare this game to all of their other titles, but I think this one has a chance to be one of the best. I LOVE Sci-Fi, so I really dug the KOTOR games, but there's something about the "realistic" earth based setting that draws you into the story in a different kind of way. It's like when you happen to turn to the history channel by accident and end up watching a two hour bio on Ghengis Khan. I can't stress enough how much the great character models/facial expressions give depth and dimension to the characters. Once again you must be able to embrace the Chinese Mythology angle. Me? I'm dying to know more about the history of the Jade Empire.

Unless it's a strategy RPG I usually look at combat in games as a necessary evil to get to the next part of the story. In most games I tend to get the control scheme down about 10 hours into the game. People who like games like Devil May Cry, and Ninja Gaiden, will probably find the combat a little too easy and lacking some fluidity. Folks like me who are use to turn based RPG's or games like KOTOR or Morrowind, may struggle for a while, but will soon get the hang of it. The fighting is more about strategy and deciding what style takes advantage of your opponents weaknesses the best.

The graphics of the game are so good that it could lead you to take for granted how wonderful the sound, music and voice acting is in this game. I'm nitpicking when I say that some of the characters sound too American to me, but that was probably done intentionally.

It's also nitpicking to talk about how some other games are better when it comes to camera work and loading times. It's like harping on Lebron James, or Dewayne(SP?) Wade's jumpshot.

For fans of Bioware who are open minded its a no brainer. For others it should at least be a rental just to take a gander at the masterful craftsmanship of the game.

[TCrouch]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Something I noticed as I played this game for hours last night...it's almost like Bioware took the Star Wars universe and plugged it into Imperial China.

****MINOR SPOILER ALERT************************************

For instance:

1.) You have Emperor Sun. He is the equivalent of The Emperor (obviously).
2.) You have Death's Hand. Black armor, Emperor's right hand that slaughters everybody. Hello Darth Vader.
3.) You have Master Li. Your mentor who has some affiliations with the evil guys. There's your Obi-Wan Kenobi parallel.
4.) You have your main character. Abandoned at birth, last of his kind, etc. Luke Skywalker to a tee.
5.) Dawn Star is the typical female counterpart, much like princess Leia.

You can already tell that you are going to be forced to combat the Emperor and the poisoning of his mind, but it's funny how Bioware wanted to break out of the Star Wars universe, and instead created another universe using almost the exact same elements.

Hopefully something extremely surprising happens that breaks it out of the "same story, different setting" feeling I have, but it was an interesting Epiphany I had while playing. I'm still enjoying the hell out of it, or I wouldn't have played it until almost 1am last night. I just found it interesting all the similiarities between JE and SW, especially since it's a developer that has only developed one other huge game, and it was SW.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

It's funny you mention the Star Wars story, because my class was talking about this the other day in English. One student was saying how almost every story writen can be related or compared to Star Wars in one aspect of another, and in that sense it is possibly the greatest story ever.

[Kodiak33]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Hopefully something extremely surprising happens that breaks it out of the "same story, different setting" feeling I have, but it was an interesting Epiphany I had while playing. I'm still enjoying the hell out of it, or I wouldn't have played it until almost 1am last night. I just found it interesting all the similiarities between JE and SW, especially since it's a developer that has only developed one other huge game, and it was SW.

Bioware has done other huge games, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Obsidian is the one that worked on KOTOR 2.

<edit> Oops, tried to reply and hit the wrong button, sorry. See reply below. -TCrouch

[Jistic]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

It's funny you mention the Star Wars story, because my class was talking about this the other day in English. One student was saying how almost every story writen can be related or compared to Star Wars in one aspect of another, and in that sense it is possibly the greatest story ever.

What's even funnier is when Star Wars was first out back in the day they used to compare it to the Bible, which truly is the greatest story(ies)ever.

Thanks for the impressions. Nice BG reference Jfsolo! SOunds like this might be up my alley. I think my wife would love it too. She's an RPG freak.

[TCrouch]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Shawn was telling me that that's because Lucas ripped off Star Wars from a combination of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Herbert's "Dune". I'm guessing that would be why Jade is ripping off Star Wars, who in turn ripped off Chinese history and lore in the first place with a mix of Dune style Sci-Fi? Talk about funny.

[TCrouch]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Bioware has done other huge games, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Obsidian is the one that worked on KOTOR 2.

I was referring to the XBox console. Has Bioware done anything other than KOTOR on the XBox? To my knowledge, they only did the one game until this. I've played all their games on PC, but didn't know that anything else on the XBox was developed by them other than KOTOR1.

[Jistic]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

I was referring to the XBox console. Has Bioware done anything other than KOTOR on the XBox? To my knowledge, they only did the one game until this. I've played all their games on PC, but didn't know that anything else on the XBox was developed by them other than KOTOR1.

Did they do the first Baldurs Gate? Even though that was more a dungeon crawl. I know that was PS2 only but I believe they ported it to Xbox later?

[mgoblue]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Shawn was telling me that that's because Lucas ripped off Star Wars from a combination of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Herbert's "Dune". I'm guessing that would be why Jade is ripping off Star Wars, who in turn ripped off Chinese history and lore in the first place with a mix of Dune style Sci-Fi? Talk about funny.

couldn't Jade just be based off of Chinese history alone? and not really Star Wars? Having good and evil, with the respective heads of each side, isn't really a new theory

I do see the parallel, and I think it's because Jade wanted the good/evil paths and decision making that slightly limited their story ideas...

[TCrouch]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

couldn't Jade just be based off of Chinese history alone? and not really Star Wars? Having good and evil, with the respective heads of each side, isn't really a new theory

I do see the parallel, and I think it's because Jade wanted the good/evil paths and decision making that slightly limited their story ideas...

Of course. I could buy that if the main character didn't have his family (and people) slaughtered by the "evil menace". He's the "last of his kind" as a Spirit Monk, much like Jedi, etc. There are just way too many similarities to be purely coincidental.

[Kodiak33]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

I was referring to the XBox console. Has Bioware done anything other than KOTOR on the XBox? To my knowledge, they only did the one game until this. I've played all their games on PC, but didn't know that anything else on the XBox was developed by them other than KOTOR1.

Yea, you're right. I think KOTOR was the first game for the Xbox they made.

[Kodiak33]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

Did they do the first Baldurs Gate? Even though that was more a dungeon crawl. I know that was PS2 only but I believe they ported it to Xbox later?

I meant the PC Baldur's Gates. I'm not sure who did the Dark Alliance games.

[shon]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

I played for about an hour and a half and so far it is pretty good. I have enjoyed my time but have found a few things I don't like.

As stated before the graphics are nice, although I have a projector and turned on the 480p support and there were quite a few jaggies, so I went back to 480i and let the projector due the 480p work.

The combat is something that is very different. Even though it is real time it feels turn-based. All the moves(animations) take a certain amount of time and you have to hit and block accordingly. I noticed that when the opponent blocked it was usually always for set amount of time like a turn. It does require strategy to know which style to use when, so the combat is fun and dynamic. You can also change difficulty anytime you think it is getting easy or hard. I was a little frustrated because many times last night I would press A which is the basic attack and not be close enough to the enemy and I would hit air and I couldn't stop until the animation was over.

I have not seen any framerate issues yet although loading times can detract a little from the gameplay.

Although I have "complained" about a few things I still really like the game. From the graphics to the sound to the story they really have made a great rpg.

I will update when I get more playtime which should be tonight because the wife will get home late. wheeeehuuuuu...

[jfsolo]

Re: IGN gives Jade Empire a............

couldn't Jade just be based off of Chinese history alone? and not really Star Wars? Having good and evil, with the respective heads of each side, isn't really a new theory

I do see the parallel, and I think it's because Jade wanted the good/evil paths and decision making that slightly limited their story ideas...

They definately didn't stray too far from their comfort zone in terms of the large themes. I would image that in the next few years as they become more accustom to creating their own original universes they will vary their general plot paradigm.