The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 3: Jade Empire (Over)

Finally made it to chapter 4.

Spoiler:

Inquisitor Jia was a complete pain in the ass. I must have did that fight 15 times and nearly quit the game entirely because of it. Before her, I was cruising, killing things very easily. She just doesn't fight fair, however. Paralysis constantly. She can interrupt all your attacks. Ok, Jade Golem destroyed her but I didn't even remember I had that until I read a tip. Ugh. Still, it was a stupid fight. It should be removed along with the unskippable cut scene that preceded it.

This version of a Bioware game seems so simple. Maybe I have fond memories of KOTOR but they way they layout choices seems so stilted here. The whole temple area before Jia was like that. There were a couple of choices to make but there wasn't much to the whole area. It didn't feel populated. No one noticed I let all the prisoners go and killed the guard. I cleared out all the people in the hall group by group. Hey, maybe the guy who got extra oil used it for something! Maybe its too easy to look behind the curtain. It kind of works but games (like the Witcher 3) just do it so much better now.

Guys! Guys! I finally started! Oh....almost everyone's done.

Anyway, playing the limited edition on Xbox (means I have a fancy box and a selectable monk character).

I chose to leave my comfort zone and go with a magical character (Scholar Ling). I almost always do ranger/figher type characters. I have the suspicion that in Jade Empire there might not be that much difference to a regular fighting character though (aka, I'm not casting magic missile from 100 feet away).

Apparently an attack is happening. Sounds like I'll soon have my first battle that doesn't involve sparring partners.

Yeah your initial character choice is rendered more or less meaningless after a few level-ups and the acquisition of a few buffs and techniques.

Spoiler:

Fixed a Dam
Freed Slaves
Killed the Gao's
Killed a Mother

And in the midst of "The world is coming to an end" drama: (because this is a BioWare game after all)
Helped a gang boss find true love
Helped a troll grieve for the Ox he killed
Recovered a family heirloom for a merchant, and taught a thief to respect his mother
Helped a bunch of ghosts find peace

Chapter 2 down. Really enjoying my time with this

You are chopping wood, getting things done. Nice work!

Made it to chapter 7. It really does get linear after chapter 3. I don't think there's much left now. The end is in sight!

Yeah, I'd say it was something like this...

Chapter 1: 2 inches wide
Chapter 2: 4 inches wide
Chapter 3: 8 inches wide
Chapter 4: 1 inch wide
Chapter 5: 1 inch wide
Chapter 6: 1 inch wide
Chapter 7: 1 inch wide

You are almost there, for sure!

And completed. Hey, I beat my second game for the CRPG club! I might have gotten Pillars in there too if I was around more this summer.

Jade Empire clocked in at just over 21 hours for me. I liked it but didn't love it. Stilted is probably my best description. A lot of it just didn't land for me. Environments were empty. Combat exploration was very straightforward. The combat itself was ok but I started wishing it was more interesting about 1/2 way through. The game gave me a present when it allowed me to bash everything in the head with Jade Golem. The Chinese mythology combined with flyers and other oddities didn't mix well in my opinion. It just feels that the Bioware style was done better before and much better since.

On to Divinity Original Sin!

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Yeah, I'd say it was something like this...

Chapter 1: 2 inches wide
Chapter 2: 4 inches wide
Chapter 3: 8 inches wide
Chapter 4: 1 inch wide
Chapter 5: 1 inch wide
Chapter 6: 1 inch wide
Chapter 7: 1 inch wide

You are almost there, for sure!

I'd say that was exactly right. I kind of hoped that there was another chapter like 3, which was the best part of the game in my opinion. I kind of was ready to move on, though.

Congrats, fuzzyslug! Welcome to Level 2!

Interesting. I found that I liked the game better when it was on rails. From the beginning I never felt like it did a good job creating an open world feel, so in Chapter 3 when things got wide, I started getting impatient. It felt to me like the game went off the rails a bit there, and I really wanted to know what was going to happen with the story. Once things got going in a line from Chapter 4 on, I connected with the game much better.

Maybe it's a matter of perception? To me, the way the game started felt like it was a linear game, so all my expectations went that way.

I finally made it to the Imperial City, after I had an impromptu meeting with a heavenly fox, who told me to “take care of” that MILF (Mother I’d Like to Fight) I had previously heard about. I think I’m now almost done with the City — virtually all quests completed, except the main story-advancing one deep in the Necropolis. Shouldn’t be too much further to go, I think.

And done!
I really blasted through the second half of the chapters. The linearity helped, as I am on this side of feeling that the more open sections weren't fleshed out enough to remain all that interesting. The main story line was fun and the world was unique, and the art was really good considering the age of the game.
There were a ton of annoyances that really hampered my enjoyment, which might be why I wasn't really into wandering and completing side quests all that much. The haphazard auto-saves, the way cutscenes and dialog were slow and jerky in terms of cutting back and forth between styles, and the almost random difficulty spikes between and even within battles really emphasized the need for several polish runs during development that apparently didn't happen.

I can really see the seed of what would become modern Bioware (whom I run hot and cold on). While I'm not sure I will ever really enjoy their modern approach, I'm glad they at least managed to put together a distinctive (if possibly formulaic at this point) mechanical and storytelling style.

So I put this one to bed glad I saw it, but not really expecting to ever desire revisiting it.

Congrats on finishing, imbiginjapan! I can relate to a lot of your observations.

I think you're spot on with some tweaking to the combat, for sure. Jade Golem rules them all!

Partway through chapter 2 and at level 6. So far I'm mostly open palm, but had a few closed fist moments as well.

The closed fist dialogue choices are usually nearly impossible to choose. It's like, do you want to be nice, or do you want to see if you can be the biggest dick in the universe? Like, Joffrey Baratheon horrible.

Exception:

Spoiler:

Anyone who beats the crap out of someone daily for reneging their promise is simply not marriage material. Taking Ai Ling out was not, at least not entirely, a closed first move.

Question that has probably been asked before - techniques are automatically equipped upon purchase, right?

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Interesting. I found that I liked the game better when it was on rails. From the beginning I never felt like it did a good job creating an open world feel, so in Chapter 3 when things got wide, I started getting impatient. It felt to me like the game went off the rails a bit there, and I really wanted to know what was going to happen with the story. Once things got going in a line from Chapter 4 on, I connected with the game much better.

I agree with this and imbiginjapan's similar comments 100%. I usually love the open world part of modern games, often to the exclusion of the main story, but this one didn't click with me at all. I still did most of the side-quests because I am sucker that way, but it was only once I got into the Necropolis that I really got hooked.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Question that has probably been asked before - techniques are automatically equipped upon purchase, right?

Yes, you find/earn some of them too.

I'm fairly sure there is somewhere in the character menus where you can see the ones you have but there is no way to disable them.

I saw them in the menu, but it wasn't clear if they automatically boosted or if I had to select one. Finally took pics of my stats before and after buying one to be sure.

Most of the way through chapter 2 and am level 10 now.

In case this helps anyone else having framerate issues, I had to do every fix in this thread (with the exception of the "extra tweaks" post, I didn't do those) and finally got the game in playable condition. This is after having to fix the crash at startup. I was about to give up hope, but now that it's running well, I'm even more excited to get started!

Finished up Chapter 3

Spoiler:

Broke up a slave trade ring
Helped a man who was not dead yet reunite with his son
Killed defeated a whole bunch of ghosts while helping a gravedigger
Finished off a bunch of bounties
Helped a wronged woman kill the man who gave me bounties, then killed her at her request
Took to the stage to perform a grand play as it was originally written
Defeated Master Smiling Hawk and Turned First Brother Kai into the master at The Black Leopard School
Defeated John Cleese in a battle of wits and fists
Tattled on a poisoner
Killed the Serpent, broke up the Guild
Claimed victory over all comers in the Arena
Joined the Executioners
As an Assassin Acolyte, I killed a rival master, then my own, then everyone else I could while the Lotus Assassin base crumbled around me

I'm still slowly picking away at this. I'm near the end (I think) of chapter 6, so shouldn't be much longer.

Looks like a few people getting closer!

SillyRabbit wrote:

In case this helps anyone else having framerate issues, I had to do every fix in this thread (with the exception of the "extra tweaks" post, I didn't do those) and finally got the game in playable condition. This is after having to fix the crash at startup. I was about to give up hope, but now that it's running well, I'm even more excited to get started!

A few of us ran into similar issues, yes. There are some links to fixes in the first post as well, in case you run into something else. Once I fixed mine up, I didn't have any other problems the rest of the way.

I saw the links in the OP, but couldn't find a fix for my particular issue, so I thought I'd add another resource.

SillyRabbit wrote:

I saw the links in the OP, but couldn't find a fix for my particular issue, so I thought I'd add another resource.

Ah, got it. Good to know! I've added your link to the first post as well. Thanks!

Mission accomplished! The Jade Empire has been saved!

A few random thoughts in no particular order, despite being a numbered list (no real spoilers, but just in case):

Spoiler:

1) Henpecked Hou is the most entertaining character I've seen in a long while.
2) Remember when CGI cutscenes were of higher resolution and quality than the rest of the game, due to engine constraints? This remastered version really makes the CGI show its age.
3) I went full Open Palm because I couldn't bear to take any of the other dialog choices.
4) Save early, save often. I racked up over 250 separate saves during the course of my game.
5) Jade Golem style truly is "easy mode" for almost all of the subsequent fights.
6) I can generally maintain a suspension of disbelief for most things, but the entire concept of flyers in Jade Empire broke it for me.

Congrats on wrapping it up, merphle!

We're slowly but surely getting a good number of finishers to the game. Up to 14 now!

And yeah, I had a boatload of save files by the end too.

Save early, save often. Time honored tradition.

I'm signing up for this late. I've finally come back to Pillars of Eternity, and just put in a surprising amount of time, and need a change of pace. Maybe I can even get internet points for this one!

Ok, I got a bit distracted by a certain webhead, but that's all wrapped up and I'm focusing back on the Jade Empire. I am in Tien's landing and I have a question. It may be a spoiler, so I will hide it:

Spoiler:

Should I do the forest before the dam? I usually run all side quests I can access before the main quests, but I believe the forest is supposed to be difficult.

I'm finding the game as ok. I'm used to saving often and talking to everyone. I'm hoping to get out of Tien's Landing over the weekend.

I think you can do them in any order, if one area gets too difficult you can leave and come back later.

I did that one first and had little trouble with it. Even ground out an extra level or two.