[AndreaDraco83]

Since discovering Knights of the Old Republic, both me and my boyfriend (who was a previous fan of BioWare's older RPGs) have been wondering about buying Jade Empire (Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins are no brainers and we already ordered them), but I've been worried by the label "action-RPG", so I'm wondering:

1. How's Jade Empire story?
2. How predominant is the action part in the game?
3. Can I still tap the space bar and pause the game mid-action?

Thanks!

[haptsonir]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

Since discovering Knights of the Old Republic, both me and my boyfriend (who was a previous fan of BioWare's older RPGs) have been wondering about buying Jade Empire (Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins are no brainers and we already ordered them), but I've been worried by the label "action-RPG", so I'm wondering:

1. How's Jade Empire story?
2. How predominant is the action part in the game?
3. Can I still tap the space bar and pause the game mid-action?

Thanks!

There are some neat characters and moments. The story is good, as far as computer games go. Don't wanna say more so it doesn't get spoiled.

Like most Bioware games, combat with random mooks is quite a large part of it. It's tolarable in Jade Empire, even if it gets repetitive at times. It's much like KOTOR or Mass Effect in this sense.

As far as I can remember, there is no pausing during combat. The fighting is a bit different in style than KOTOR, for example; you control a single character's movements and attacks specifically, instead of point-and-clicking orders to your characters.

I'd definitely recommend you to get it if you enjoyed KOTOR. You might prefer Jade Empire.

[Crunchy in milk]

Combat in Jade Empire is 3D fighting game lite (as in yogurt).

Its all real time, you have to dodge around, time your attacks and avoid enemy attacks. You CAN pause whenever you like, you can swing the camera around and see who's attacking from where, but other than that its of little tactical benefit. You cannot queue up actions and watch the fun happen.

It is difficult, at least early on. At the start of Jade Empire you have very little hit points in the tradition of nearly every rpg. So if you're still getting used to how to dodge AWAY from bad guys and when its safe to hit back then you can die quite a lot. Even I set the difficulty to low on my first time through the beach assault. I recommend picking the sword as your weapon, it does the best damage and has a good swing speed (this decision comes at the end of the tutorial level).

This is nothing like Mass Effect, where 'real time' combat consists of everyone spotting one another, standing in place or crouching and pulling a trigger. Enemies in Jade Empire will always rush and swarm you, and you have to jump around to an advantageous position, pick some skill you've been building at level up, wail on one or two then jump to another advantageous position.

If you get the hang of it, its fun, but there are some really nasty fights that will perhaps push you to set the difficulty to easy again (if it ever left easy).

The story is fun, it tries to pick up on the kind of humor from the chinese classics 'Journey to the west' and 'Outlaws of the Marsh'. Slightly more high brow than your average episode of Monkey Magic, but a fair slice less humor than the wonderful film, 'Kung Fu Hustle'.

I'm not trying to say the combat is bad, just that for some its a learning curve. There's depth there and I wouldn't be surprised if you played it first on easy, enjoyed the story and came back to it a second time with the intention of challenging yourself.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

As with other Bioware games you'll find yourself forging forward with the gameplay to discover more
story. Jade Empire will feel like an epic adventure game in that regard.

The action is the primary focus of the gameplay so spend as much time as you want on improving your fighting skills and investing points in them, because combat is entirely in real time and you'll be dealing with multiple enemies at once.

This clip will show you a bit of the combat as well as the dialogue and character interaction. It shouldn't spoil things for your as it's the very beginning of the game.

There's definitely a bit of a learning curve with the combat. Don't worry about it too much and enjoy yourself. The fighting gets particularly fun as you upgrade skills and magic. You can set your companion to either support you or jump into the fray depending on the character you pick to come along. But overall if you've had experience with action games or brawlers it's cakewalk, and if you're new to fighting just take your time and learn the moves, especially jumping and blocking. One tip to know is to always keep moving, makes you harder to hit.

Since you're coming from an adventure game background and have played KOTOR, you'll love the story. The narrative is steeped in various ancient Eastern myths and lore (I picked up a lot from China), and many symbols and details on ideas like order and chaos, the flow of natural energy (such as in Taoism), and harmony and balance. The main story has a strong environmental theme tinged with moral ambivalence.

Hell, it's a Bioware game! That always means the story is front and center and it's usually a very good story as far as RPGs go.

You'll be doing tons of exploring just to find scrolls to read, people to talk to, nooks and crannies to investigate, and optional side quests to do, all of them to deepen the story and world for you. Like in KOTOR many of the side quests are little stories within themselves, sometimes with emotionally involving themes. One of them in a particular, about a father's eternal love and devotion to his daughter, had me tearing up.


Same sex romance is possible, though how to achieve it for male
to male characters is more obscure than the females.

[Maquisard]

Question for trep, don't look if you haven't played through:

Spoiler:

It's only on my 3rd playthrough that I even began to suspect that the child the former assassin was entrusted with was Dawn Star. And it was my most exhaustive yet. For instance, I even scored a threesome So, was she the glorious strategist's daughter? The assassin is as sensitive as a little girl, and bottles up with a more aggressive interrogative approach. Alas, you don't get many opportunities to talk with him.. In any case, slightly disturbing if your two lovers are cousins.

Combatwise, once you obtain Jade golem form, you can dispatch even the most difficult opponents quickly. Work on lowering the chi cost with level ups. Also, make sure to defeat the crazy dutch bastard and steal his rifle. Work on lowering its reload time. But, you gotta mix it up, and utilize well at least one of all the different types of fighting styles: magic, weapon, and hand-to-hand, as some enemies are immune to certain styles. So, when you run into the black flying ghosts with homing magic attacks, close in on them quickly with some jumps and tear em up with your fists. You can shoot them from afar, but it's slow, and the dodging gets tiresome.

EDIT: Also, pretty sure the Winged lion looking demon thing is more powerful than the toad, so don't even try to have the little girl channel him.

[JemyM]

When it comes to RPG mechanics, Bioware started to go downhill after KOTOR. Jade Empire is the first game to show this new direction in which you might not even bother about the combat at all, this was later perfected in Mass Effect in which character design and tactics gets even less meaningful. In JE there's a couple of "win all fights" techniques that can be used over and over again. This is the good part since you can just rush past the worst aspect of the game with ease.

While Bioware got rid of the RPG mechanics, the Role-Playing formula in which you through dialogue and quests explore a world that asks moral questions is still there. Do yourself a favor and explore, much criticism the game got was from people who simply pushed towards the ending, which allows you to finish the game in a fraction of the time, rushing right part the good bits.

That said, JE falls in the same trap as KOTOR and ME in the illusion of moral choice. If one have played Planescape Torment one know that there are many layers to a question, where as in JE, KOTOR and ME it all boils down to black/white. This "2 roads" design was poor in KOTOR, it gets somewhat better in KOTOR2 (not by bioware) in which Kreia gives some good philosophy but then falls to the same formula, it tries to not be in ME but still boils down to either naive to the point of no responsibility or to borderline psychotic. In JE they try to make an "Open Palm" vs "Closed Fist" philosophy that at first sounds like a new take, but then boils down to the same old black/white design again.

[AndreaDraco83]

Thanks guys. It's a shame that the actions can't be planned in advance and then set into motion by tapping the space bar again. I love this kind of approach. The setting seems interesting, though, and I don't mind the rigid moral ambivalence (given that, like in the Star Wars world, it is motivated by the story), even if I surely prefer things to be a little more shaded. Anyway, I think I'm going to order it and see if I can manage the real-time combat.

I'm liking so much KotOR and founding it so well written, that I really want to go back and play even older game from BioWare, to see their evolution

[Maquisard]

I'm also a big fan of all things Bioware. Sadly, haven't gotten around to Mass Effect yet. Been considering Baldur's Gate, but might as well just wait for Dragon Age.

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

Thanks guys. It's a shame that the actions can't be planned in advance and then set into motion by tapping the space bar again. I love this kind of approach. The setting seems interesting, though, and I don't mind the rigid moral ambivalence (given that, like in the Star Wars world, it is motivated by the story), even if I surely prefer things to be a little more shaded. Anyway, I think I'm going to order it and see if I can manage the real-time combat.

I'm liking so much KotOR and founding it so well written, that I really want to go back and play even older game from BioWare, to see their evolution

Since I've noticed we have quite a similar taste, I really recommend getting JE. As has been said earlier, the story's wonderful, graphics are beautiful (it's not new, but it's still a pleasure just taking in the views and the world is just alive), and while there is a fairly large amount of combat and it's real-time (with pause), it's very simple (yet doesn't get old quickly) and it doesn't overshadow the other elements.

Compared to something like Mass Effect, the story is really deep and has a lot of background stuff that makes it even more interesting and immersifying. And just the setting and the way it has been built... And there's a couple minigames which are better than in any other Bioware game I've seen

Definitely in my top 3 from Bioware...

God, I really hope there's a JE2 on the works, somewhere along the way...

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

Since I've noticed we have quite a similar taste, I really recommend getting JE.

Thanks UPtimist! We have indeed similar tastes and your opinion strengthens my eagerness to play Jade Empire

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

God, I really hope there's a JE2 on the works, somewhere along the way...

It's very possible. Bioware had stated that its team loved JE and would be very happy to work on a sequel.

[D.C.]

Jade Empire's an amazing game. The story, characters and atmosphere will have you fully immersed and the combat is pure fun. Like an old school beat 'em up with a whole lot more purpose. It's definitely an RPG, though. Play this game after you play KotOR and you'll be well on your way to becoming a BioWare fanboy.

[booB]

I keep seeing people refer to the fact that this is an action RPG... it is more strategic, like Diablo-style action, or more like The Witcher action, which is more timing-based? Or, is the action more similar to a true fighting game (with combos and such)?

[haptsonir]

Here's a video of the combat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0WsR...eature=related

[Periglo]

A note about the Jade Golem transformation: it's practically a exploit! Never had to worry about fighting once I got that one. BTW, I have great memories of this game. Perhaps because there are not so many RPGs in this setting (fantasy: 90%, sci-fi: 9%, Orient: this one? ).

[AndreaDraco83]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!

I've just finished Knights of the Old Republic and I really, really loved. The whole adventure was just enthralling and awe-inspiring and the final climax epic and breath-taking, with a great finale to boot: as I was playing Light Side, the ending was beautifully, peacefully enthralling and harmonious, with a tremendous emotional impact and an truly engrossing, epic atmosphere.

I've ordered Jade Empire (and even KotOR2, but this info belongs into another thread )

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Aren't you also planning to play Dragon Age? It launches next week. Hope you have enough time for both that and Jade Empire. Juggling two RPGs is a lot already, but two RPGs by Bioware?!

[AndreaDraco83]

I'll most certainly buy Dragon Age as soon as it comes out, but before playing it, I have to overhaul my machine, which, right now, isn't powerful enough to run it

So, I will have plenty of time for Jade Empire, because I think that I will change machine around the end of November

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by Intrepid

[ in jade empire ] Same sex romance is possible, though how to achieve it for male
to male characters is more obscure than the females.

Zevran doesn't play as so hard to get in Dragon Age.

Boxed copies of the game have already been seen on shelves in some American retailers...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yes, I've seen those screenshots. At least from what I've read in this article the writer's experience with the game - he played up 3 characters who were available to romance - seemed to go according to typical expectations based on traditional perceptions of sexuality and emotional involvement. In this case, the notion that women, even those who play fast and loose, prefer to settle with one partner, while the notion with gay men is that they want open relationships.

But a closer look at the character of Zevran reveals that it's possible he's the way he is not necessarily because he responds favourably to our male hero (i.e. gay or bisexual), but because of his cultural upbringing.

In any case it's safe to say that Dragon Age goes at least a step or two further than Jade Empire in exploring non-traditional sexuality.