I've started seriously playing this forgotten Bioware game, and I'm about a quarter of the way through the Imperial City. I'm experiencing Jade Empire in a way I haven't ever tried before, which actually makes the game feel cleaner and more straightforward, if slightly less customized.
The Plan
Whenever I've tried to pick up Jade Empire past my first playthrough, I didn't want to have the same low level of difficulty that made me feel like I was just plowing through the game. During one try (where I made it to just about where I am now; even used the same character model), I refused to level any of my martial styles, and only used gems to boost my character. This worked up until the arena, where I was still holding my own, but doing very little damage. Rather than violate my pledge not to level the styles, I sort of gave up.
This runthrough I'm doing the opposite: Sell all gems, and never use a single one, ever. I was also challenged to level Heavenly Wave to maximum (which I've done), and I've not yet used any demon forms (but I tend to do that anyway, since it feels like cheating). In addition, I've tried to keep my looting to the minimum, but I think this game sort of expects you to loot. I wish you'd get some sort of good citizen award for not stealing from random citizens, but I wonder if these pots and chests are there to be opened, just because it's something people expect to do in a game like this, akin to finding secret items in adventure platformers or whatever.
As far as actual story choices I'm going with what comes naturally, so I'll probably retread a lot of old ground. Since Dawn Star is the only appealing character for me, both as battle support and as a love interest, it's been a bit difficult trying something new, but I'm making an honest effort to try to get old Silk Fox to accept her role as a noble (gar, it's really hard, though, since I'm all about her being the rebel... if she wasn't such a jerk to begin with :) ), and I've been changing up my support or attack character to different people to hear their impressions of what's going on and to try out their abilities (I like Henpecked Hou as a character, but drunken style is more an irritation than useful, since you're stuck using it until the alc runs out), although Dawn Star's support effect is still the most superior by just about any estimation, since chi can be used to heal as well as power magic and stronger attacks.
Some Impressions Reaffirmed
The above philosophy seems to work to make the games more the right level of challenge for me, especially when there are multiple enemies (single enemies are still pretty easy to pound on repeatedly). It reduces a bit of the flexibility that the gem system offers, but the game speeds up when you don't have to worry about configuring gems to fit a situation (what a pain that was), even if it feels less and less personal as a result. The added cash DOES allow me to buy a lot more techniques, though, which has expanded tattoo-dude's endurance in all three stats. I have to fight harder to win battles without the stats the gems give me, but I feel like I sorta earn it this way.
What's funny is I'm often reminded that you know when a battle is going to happen in Bioware's Mass Effect 2 by all the waist-high junk lying around. In Jade Empire, it's open spaces and mismatched stalagmites. The latter you can destroy, sometimes for powerups, and the former is pretty much a necessity given how narrow the range of attack is on a lot of the martial styles. The battle systems in a lot of Bioware games tend to telegraph what's going to happen, and here I feel like I'm moving from one setpiece to another a lot of the time (here's where conversations happen, here's where battles happen).
This playthrough has also shown me just how important the music is to my initial positive impression of the game. A lot of the aesthetic and emotion comes directly from the really well-done score. The art style is still phenomenal, even if it looks pretty dated on our sharper resolution TV, and some of the storylines still hold up.
One of my favorites, an emotionally affecting story of guilt and retribution, was actually marred by one of the more annoying bugs I've ever seen, but never experienced before in Jade Empire: I killed the pirates first, then finished up most of the Dam except actually opening it and doing the orphanage side quest, then I finished up the forest. When I returned to the orphanage to begin that sidequest, the game would hitch up every few seconds, each pause lasting for half a second, for as long as I was in the area. I tried to see if there was something else that needed clearing out, but no, it just continued. I had to sit through this irritating stutter for the whole of the orphanage quest. It wasn't as emotionally involving when the little ghost children paused and jittered, but it still got to me like it always did. Of course I chose the good option.
Teeter-Totter Ethics
Which brings me to one of the bigger problems I have with the game. I guess KOTOR was similar, but every choice in Jade Empire, with some nice exceptions, tends to feel like "Do the generous thing, or be a jerk." The jerk options don't work for me; it's not the kind of game I like to play, but when there are hard choices I'm willing to do things that might be frowned upon in some ethical circles. Jade Empire allows choice, in that you can be a belligerent bully if you really want, but those choices don't always pay lip service to the Open Palm / Closed Fist teeter-totter, and often feel arbitrary, like they were slipped in for people who have a pornographic desire to watch virtual characters suffer. Beyond the temptation once in a while to let onscreen characters pull themselves up by their own bootstraps rather than get help from me all the time, those dialogue options feel like evil voices in your head, telling you to kill everyone, rather than actual choices.
Given that ancient China, the obvious inspiration for the setting and culture of Jade Empire, has a history filled with philosophical debate on ethics, humanity, and morality I would have thought they'd have more to draw on as far as tough decisions, but I realize that what Jade Empire really is is The Bioware Game.
The Bioware Game?
The Bioware Game(!) is a single style of design that has evolved over time, with minor variations, since Baldur's Gate. Even when many people felt abandoned when KOTOR changed the focus of the general system, with the binary morality and archetypal NPC companions that need to chat, The Bioware Game seems to have been slowly evolving through several iterations and different skins. You still see shades of Baldur's Gate's sensible/mercenary/asshole trichotomy (is that a word?) in some of Jade Empire's choices, and while Closed Fist originally was sold as something not evil, just more about competition and inner strength, it wound up being the dark side of the Force a lot of the time.
I would say that in some ways, I like what Jade Empire does a bit more than, say, KOTOR, or what I've seen in Mass Effect, in that talking to companions is slightly less frustrating because they're all hanging out in the same spot, and have arrows over their heads if they have something important to say. Saves me having to hear them bitch at me with a canned phrase for talking to them too much. Thank the glorious, manifold heavens that real life conversations don't go in loops like that.
Jade Empire also tries to undercut the chosen one aspect that seems to run through a lot of entries, and in general Jade Empire manages to play some interesting tricks with its narrative that make it stand out from its bretheren. The dialog choices, when they have more choices than the trichotomy, can also be a bit more interesting too. I'm actually a fan of the influence system, since I don't feel like some all-powerful god using mind control on everyone-- some stuff is just destined to fail, and some choices are easier than others. They also manage to sidestep the boring morality axis a lot of the time with the influence dialog options, since some of them can be manipulative even though they're supposedly nice, and intimidation can be a tough-love option. Since the options aren't necessarily color-coded (though you get hints from the character's changing facial expressions) it feels less like the blue-route, red-route from Mass Effect.
Still, Mass Effect did improve upon this system by actually breaking the teeter-totter and letting you do a bit more of what you want, though I still wonder if getting rid of an all-knowing morality tracking system might help the player focus on actually making contextual decisions, rather than just worrying about accumulating points.
Down that Road
If they ever make a sequel (and I've heard conflicting reports leaning toward "probably not"), beyond breaking away from The Bioware Game mold, it would need to really change its fighting system around. While I'd like a more tactical approach, if they were to continue going to go the full action route they might want to make it a bit more deep and flexible, since a big part of my frustration has been the repetitive nature of the moves. Boy, does it need an interrupt to stop you from mindlessly carrying out your entire attack combination while you're about to be pummeled.
One idea I had was actually to make it a bit more like an actual fighting game, where you have one button stand for a repetitious style, another for another style, and maybe one more for a third style, all already set on your button array. Then you can combine those button presses to find interesting combinations, or tap repeatedly on a single button to follow through on a set combination. The latter is easy to pull off in a crisis, and your character will likely complete it faster, but then they will be more open to deflection and counter-attacks because of its predictability, forcing players to improvise more.
Being able to unlock more maneuvers WITHIN a style might make the styles more interesting. It's diverting to collect a bunch of different styles, but why not make the styles themselves correspond to different philosophy choices (sort of like real martial arts schools), with branching paths within those disciplines, instead of having a bunch of shallower, yet often similar, disciplines that you have to switch between? In a sort of Soul Calibur way, they could also have different attacks be horizontal and vertical, in addition to styles being useful against certain enemies (do away with immunity, and make some styles just significantly better than others, so you don't put a lot of points into a move you can't even use).
I have some other impressions that I'll share later, including a design discussion, if I don't expend all my qi first.
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