Every time Bioware makes a new game it seems to be better than their last. I thought it impossible to top Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but they did it with Jade Empire. It has been a while since I have been so engrossed in a game.
Gameplay/Story – Story has everything you would want in a game. It has a strong cast of characters, a deep plot, and that twist that blows you away. While the plot twist isn't quite as amazing as the one in Knights of the Old Republic, it will still surprise you and get you more involved into the game. There are no real low points in the story and you always seem to be on edge to see what is up next. The story takes place in the land called the Jade Empire. The Jade Empire is like China and Japan from times long ago, but all of the mythology those lands tell are reality in Jade Empire. The Jade Empire is split off into different sections, and you will get to visit a few of them and get to discover the magical world.
As for the gameplay, everything is nearly perfect. The combat system is one of the most polished systems I have ever encountered. The only one I could really say was better would be from Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. In Jade Empire you can have countless numbers of styles to choose from and you will have four styles ready at all times that you can switch on the fly depending on the opponent you are facing. There are three important bars in the top left corner of your screen and they all matter for your combat. The top bar is your health, the middle is your chi, and the bottom is your focus. You can refill your health by using you chi, but your chi is also used for combat. You can enhance your attacks by applying chi to it. Also some attacks such as turning into certain creatures and magic styles will use chi. The focus bar can be used to slow down time allowing you to get out of sticky situations when low on life and chi. Focus is also used for weapon styles. Using weapons draws from your focus, when you run out of focus you can't use weapons anymore. One of the main things about having different styles and what actually makes you use different ones is the fact that different creatures are immune to certain styles.
As for quests, you have your main quests that are given to you without you having a choice, but you can do them on your own terms. The middle of the game is full of side quests. You'll get the side quests by talking to random people in the towns you visit. Some will be pretty simple to do and others will require going across the town a few time and will be rather complicated. All in all, there are enough side quests to keep you busy if you don't want to continue on with the main quests right away. Leveling up is done in two steps. You gain experience points from beating opponents and completing quests. When you gain a level you get three points to put towards your health, chi, and focus. Along with that those points will also affect the ways you can influence people. Influencing people can be done by intimidation, charm, and so on. After that section you will get a certain amount of points to put into your fighting styles. Each style has a number of upgrades that will cost more points with each advancement of each upgrade. Also, there are techniques you will find throughout the game that will help you improve certain parts of your character. You can get these from merchants and opening chests. One more thing to help improve your character is gems. Gems have attributes that you can receive and are only different than techniques in that you can remove the gems and replace them with other ones whenever you feel like it.
You have a party system in Jade Empire, just like in Knights of the Old republic, with two exceptions. Instead of bringing two party members with you, you only get to bring one with you at a time. The other exception happens to be the fighting style your party member uses. They can be set to attack mode where they will attack opponents when you do. You can set them to support mode, also. In support mode they will not attack, but they will give you advantages when you attack your opponents. You can switch between attack and support modes at anytime you want to best suit the situation you are in.
Graphics – Graphics would probably be the one part of the game that lacks the most. Some things are spectacular like character motions and scenery. Some things are lackluster, like some of the character models and an occasional skipped frame. The frame problem didn't happen much, I only encountered it twice during the game, but it's frustrating when an opponent disappears out of nowhere and appears somewhere else on the screen when you're attacking them. There really isn't much else I can say about the graphics, they're pretty much what they should be aside from that.
Sound – The sound in the game is spectacular and awing. The music is perfect in that is doesn't distract from the game and it fits in just right with the pace of the game and the atmosphere that the game sets. The voice acting is some of the best I've encountered. Nothing sounds out of place at all. All of the words spoken sound natural for each situation that they are spoken in. Bioware even created an all new language for the game that some people you meat in the game will use. You'll learn the background of the language and why some people still use it through interaction in the game.
Replay Factor – I'm going to put the replay of this game pretty high. The sheer amount of fun this game brings is enough to play through it more than once. It also follows the dark side light side path that Knights of the Old Republic used. In this one it isn't so straight forward. You follow either the open palm or closed fist styles and each one will give you a slightly different experience in the game. One complaint many people have with the game will be the length. It can be completed in twenty hours, but I call those people fools. The game is still an amazing experience and the length in this one will lead to more of a desire to play through it again. Plus the shortness can be contributed more to the game not being a turn based combat RPG. You get through the combat much faster in this one instead of wasting your time with every enemy for a minute or so.
Bonus – There are two key points to this game that give it a boost. One being its timing. Jade Empire comes out at a time when quality RPGs are far and few in-between. Not only is Jade Empire coming at time when it is needed it comes as one of the best RPGS of this generation at a time when it is needed. The other bonus is the mini-games. The mini-games happen to be a nice change of pace during the game and you get to replay them whenever you want to without having to go back through the game.
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