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If you were among the throngs of gamers floored by the excellence of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, get ready to be dazzled once again. Yes, believe it or not -- Jade Empire excels in every aspect greater then you can possibly imagine.
BioWare once again gives us the choice between the moral "Way of the Open palm" or the much more entertaining immoral "Way of the Closed Fist." I didn't want people to make fun of me for being nice, so of coarse I chose to be be an ass with no regard for humanity or anything else, for that matter. Regardless of your moral choices, you'll be thrown into an intriguing and engaging story of ancient Chinese culture with plot twists ready to evoke a real sense of pride or, in my case, guilt. I really did feal guilty when I sold that poor girl into slavery, but I'll be damned if the rat demon didn't deserve to die for eating that duck! Unlike KotOR, however, there are a good number of differences resulting from the moral path you choose to follow, from missions you can complete to items you can use, and at sub-20 hours, you'll probably see yourself running through a second play through just to see the differences.
Despite sometimes odd-looking animations, Jade Empire is beautiful. From the smallest of details to entire landscapes, BioWare made sure to impress. The only shame is that the world is almost entirely void of any sort of interaction. Although some small frame rate issues during combat, the graphics are as solid as you'll see and the character designs are stunning. It doesn't stop at the character design either, because every important character has a voice and for the most part, the voice overs are pretty damn good--and there's a damn lot of them. You'll spend more time talking and exploring then you ever will fighting. Throw the loading times into the mix, and the combat will be far too spread out, considering how much fun it is.
The combat system offers insane amounts of individualization, and that's never a bad thing. Regardless of what base character you choose, forming a physical, staff wielding, magic hater is just as plausible as a weak, sword wielding, magic lover. With a damn many fighting styles to choose from and map to the d-pad, from support to physical to weapon styles, and your choice of sidekick from the 8+ allies you eventually recruit, you'll start to shape your character into a unique ass-kicking machine. You'll need all of those styles, too, because certain enemies are immune to some while other enemies are immune to others, so ignoring your hand to hand combat is just as dumb as ignoring your weapon combat skills as you level up and decide which to improve. A fortunate improvement over KotOR, however, Jade Empire now features its battles in real time, dropping that old and boring turn based combat we've become so accustomed to. All of this customizing ultimately leads to one thing though: button mashing battles that take little thought beyond block, jump, evade, and strike. The only real difference is what type of style that strike will be a part of. Though harmonics combos linking different styles together are available, they're fairly pointless when it's easy enough to just button mash the enemies to death.
Then there are the odds and ends that really don't deserve their own paragraph. Money is seemingly pointless also, as the only purpose it serves is to allow the purchase of various items that do very little to actually modify stats in comparison to the base stats already in place. Leveling up allows you to boost your Health, Chi, and Focus, which affect your HP, ability to wield magic to and heal yourself, and ability to wield weapons respectively, though the level ups never offer a noticeable difference. You'll also level up your fighting styles via a point system as well, though producing more damage is seemingly the only advantage of leveling up. Items are rare and consist of only amulets that modify your character slightly, and can sometimes only be equipped according to your moral alignment. Occasionally techniques are found that offer permanent changes to your characters stats, unlike the amulets which can be equipped and un-equipped. Unfortunately for me, I didn't learn of the ability to enter a Focus mode outside of battle to rush through cities much quicker, and I was stuck doing it the slow way, sort of like finding out there's a run button in a traditional RPG after 40 hours of walking... not like that's ever happened to me before. Unfortunately for those who like rushing through games, you'll miss out on tons of stunning visuals that deserve to be seen when running in Focus mode.
When all is said and done, Jade Empire's faults are minor and accomplishments great. At its heart, Jade Empire is just an ancient Asian culture themed, dialogue heavy and story driven game that repeats and builds upon everything KotOR did right in a brand new setting. If you enter with the right expectations, Jade Empire is entirely satisfying and much better than Knights of the Old Republic. As a final note: for all of the rat demons out there who encounter someone and ask that someone to find them ducks for dinner, run. Run very far away, because I will smite thee!
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