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

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I agree. I don't think it matters much, and you can always just give up and return later if things are too hard.

Was sick the past couple days, so last night I finished up Jade Empire and promptly went to bed.

Really did enjoy it, it was a nice change of pace between PoE and DoS, and I forgot how much I loved the little game of "uncover all of the mini-map" in old 3D RPG's

Ending Thoughts:

Spoiler:

I really did enjoy the plot twist of Master Li being the ultimate boss. I kind of didn't expect it (thanks to everyone who kept that in spoiler tags) And the linear small chapters were perfect for me in my sick state, they were perfect bite sized chunks to play between naps. Maybe it was being sick though, or maybe knowing DoS was up next, but I kind of resented that whole linear section because I was ready to be done and move on.
So while I had the most fun during it, I really wanted it to be over

Final thing about the game that always made me laugh. Have an epic 8 minute fight with a big bad enemy, get 950xp. Turn around and read a book 1400 xp

On to DoS!

Skraut wrote:

Final thing about the game that always made me laugh. Have an epic 8 minute fight with a big bad enemy, get 950xp. Turn around and read a book 1400 xp.

Knowledge is power, eh.

About to enter the necropolis. I think I've cleared all quests in the Imperial City proper except for for the final arena fight and some flyer missions, the first of which kicked my butt multiple times.

I don't have nearly enough money to buy all of the styles (not that I'm using much besides Leaping Tiger, occasinally the sword, and a bit of Stone Immortal when I need distance). I could get more by selling a few high level gems I'm not currently using, but I don't want to lose those just in case they come in useful later. The returns on the gambling game seem far too low to be worth my while. Oh well.

I'm definitely enjoying the writing of some of the characters in the game. I was not only chuckling several times, but one backstory was really sad to me:

Spoiler:

Hapless Han in the arena

Sounds like good progress! The Necropolis had some of the more difficult parts of the game for me, but that was largely due to my fighting style choices.

That's fine by me. There's been nearly no challenge so far aside from two fights and two flyer missions.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

That's fine by me. There's been nearly no challenge so far aside from two fights and two flyer missions.

I was in the same boat by the Imperial City. I could crush any physical opponents with one hand tied behind my back because of the way I'd built my character. Spirit opponents, however, were a major challenge. It took me a few levels of skill points to get things under control again.

Finished it last Sunday.

I enjoyed it, but felt it could have been improved upon. Like I've mentioned, the combat was - with few exceptions - without challenge. I stuck with just two styles through 98% of the engagements. Only needed a new style (thousand cuts) for the plot twist fight, which felt suitably epic because thousand cuts wasn't powered up at all, and so the battle went on for quite some time.

Spoiler:

The fire demons in the arena gave me fits though...at least until I figured out to use my sword on them.

Same goes for the flyer sections. Somehow I also ended up with the opposite romance partner of the one I actually tried to get (though in terms of a long-term relationship, this partner was without a doubt the better choice).
The setting and story are obviously quite unique and I would have loved to see more of them - a more fleshed out world with more locations would have been nice. It felt like I spent too much time in some areas. Sir Roderick also had so much potential, and it's a shame he didn't stick around.

I wouldn't mind revisiting this universe if they ever made a sequel or spin-off, but I'm also glad to be done with the original.

I played my original XBox version. I assume the loading times were much much shorter on a modern pc in addition to the game looking much crisper. It's impressive that the art style still looked decent to me in 2018.

Just a friendly reminder that there are about 2 weeks left to wrap this one up!

Get that Jade Golem style cranking and stomp your way to victory! You can do it!

I've been on an unexpected and unplanned hiatus from gaming for the past ... gosh, almost 2 months! I'm ready to jump back in and I'm going to attempt to finish Jade Empire. I was really enjoying it, I hope I can pick up where I left off.

SillyRabbit wrote:

I've been on an unexpected and unplanned hiatus from gaming for the past ... gosh, almost 2 months! I'm ready to jump back in and I'm going to attempt to finish Jade Empire. I was really enjoying it, I hope I can pick up where I left off.

Welcome back. I have confidence in you!

Finally got through the game and I really enjoyed it mostly for the story and the characters. Henpecked Hou made me smile and was a unique companion, the little girl left me sympathizing with her plight, and black whirlwind was just out there. The appearance of Ser Roderick was fun and didn't feel phoned in. The story was rather straight forward, but I liked a lot of the side stories which are the strength of Bioware. I especially love the open world chapters of 2 and 3 and, as always, wish there had been more. The linear chapters were not as good, though the lotus blossom headquarters and Durem were still pretty interesting.

Spoiler:

I noticed the similarities between defending Durem and the Witcher's defense of Kaer Morhen, though the way the Witcher gained friends was more subtle and rewarding.

Like others, I did NOT like the fighting system as it was not well implemented. For instance, I noticed in the more challenging battles, the defense would come up well after the strike I was blocking hit me, followed by another. Most of the battles were won by spamming particular abilities or cheesing some particular weaknesses. I can see why they had ghosts and demons as gimping some abilities were necessary to make some of them more challenging. Of course, this does not make a well built out fighting system, where in say Arkhaam Asylum, you could have mixed enemies and a way to handle each without having to change your entire fight style.

And that flyer mini-game was frustrating. I avoided it when I could, but I'm mad about one thing

Spoiler:

I was not able to get the final formula for Lord Lao's furnace because I just could not beat the final boss, so matter what I tried. The globes would reconstitute quicker than I could finish them off.

Compared to Mass Effect or KotOR, this is definitely a weaker effort where they were trying to establish their independence. I wouldn't mind a sequel with a better battle system and some improvements, but they just let this one go, and the same people aren't there anyway. I definitely love Bioware's role-playing and am glad I got to go back and finish Jade Empire. Thanks for the PC RPG group and letting us play "together".

Congrats on finishing, Dwango! And nice reflections too.

Spoiler:

I messed about with the furnace part just a bit, then gave up. I was so far into the story by that point and a bit confused by the whole thing. I was tempted to Google it, but by that point I wanted to keep going with the main story and finish.

Game #3 is a wrap! Feel free of course to keep discussing and playing the game, but the official playthrough is complete.

Here are Jade Empire's final numbers...

Final Stats
Players Starting: 35
Players Finishing: 17
Completion Percentage: 48.6%

Jade Empire finishes third of three games with numbers of finishers.
Pillars of Eternity still holds the record with 20 finishers.

It finishes second in completion percentage.
Dragonfall still holds the record with 55.9% completion.

That's 55 RPGs completed over three games by the group in 2018, not including those who have already finished Divinity: Original Sin.

Great work everyone!

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