Jade Empire Retrospective

The folks at Continue Play have cranked out a retrospective review of Jade Empire, BioWare’s Asian mythology-inspired RPG that set the action-heavy tone that the studio has been leveraging ever since. They wind up at a score of 7/10, and back it up with both favorable and critical commentary:

This is bolstered by the varying degree of opponents the player is likely to face. Between ghosts, spirits, demons, celestial creatures, guards, thugs, homunculi, and animals, the game requires that players vary their combat styles to suit the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents, leaving even a somewhat heavy combat system to become the highlight of the game. Although some combat can feel forced, especially given certain opponents will be outright immune to one or more martial styles, there is still balance there. Unfortunately, this immunity also means that players who haven’t leveled a certain way can occasionally find themselves facing down long odds that can turn a particular battle into a chore rather than a joy. More often than not, this is not the case and the majority of the game is still rewarding for players who like explore the world, and take the opportunity to do side quests and optional missions.

The biggest tragedy of Jade Empire comes from how inconsistent the entire process feels at the far end of it. Although the narrative has a very appreciable consistency and certainty to it, the gravity of it all is let down by the less than stellar delivery. The ghosts and spirits are all very verbally troubled by the circumstances, but the environments and general tenors all feel completely static. Completing a quest doesn’t change much of anything in the open world and so fighting feels like a shoehorned game mechanic rather than being part of the on-going narrative. NPCs will occasionally remark upon some plot point or another, but they’ll fail in making them felt as well as spoken of. Combat styles will arrive mostly via purchase rather than being taught by masters, and stat boosts and upgrades will happen primarily in flavor text rather than seeming to change anything other than the occasional physical appearance. Villainy and positivity appear more as stats on a sliding scale than they result in anything terribly significant. All of this leave the game lacking some of the impact it could have, and leaves you wondering if it quite lived up to its potential.