Jade Empire is a Bioware RPG consistently finding itself on the top 50 lists of RPGs of all time. Unfortunately before its release, it was hyped to be one of the best RPGs ever made. So what happened? Well there are a few critical mistakes I think were overlooked when developing the game.
1. The vastness of the Empire was never established-
The driving mechanism of Jade Empire is twofold. The first driving mechanism stems from your own personal quest to find out your fate as a spirit monk/help your peers achieve their long term goals as well. The second mechanism is to save/rule the empire. When you reach the end of the game you essentially decide whether to save the empire or rule it. Unfortunately while the game tried very hard to convince you to care about the Empire and prove how large it is (think of the progression of areas, small town, to medium size city, to large city) it doesn't provide you a diversity of culture one would expect with such a large place. We need to go to the Prosperous East or the North to view how the Empire is from the eyes of others. The fireworks ending of the people applauding your victory is only sweet if you actually believe you saved something massive. The sheer scope of the Empire is never proven to the player, making it hard for the player to leave the game with chills when they finish it.
2. The moral scheme doesn't work-
Now there has been a series of critiques placed against morality schemes in general, especially when it works with the good/evil (open palm/closed fist) dichotomy, but barring all those critiques the morality scheme still falls flat in the game. That's because being good is favored in terms of character relationships. What I mean is that the characters in your entourage tend to all lean to either morally good or morally ambiguous backgrounds. The only real "evil" companion is Ya Zhen and he is literally counter balanced by Chai Ka, making most of the companions not very willing to support your heartless lifestyle. I know you can turn some of your companions to the darkside, but most of their background stories just don't make that kind of switch coat behavior plausible. Sky: saving his daughter Sagacious Zu: on a journey of repentance Silk Fox: Concerned with Father and Country. The rest of them are either clearly good (e.g. Dawn Star, Wild Flower, etc.) or ambiguous leaning on the side of good (e.g. Whirlwind, Hu). The point is that as a player you grow with these characters and the thought of treating them like shit the entire game makes no sense. It makes no sense that they stick with you and it makes no sense for you to have them around you. We face a similar dilemma in KOTOR 1 (Gasp did he just criticize KOTOR 1, blasphemy!). Nobody in your crew seems inherently bad except for maybe Canderous and even then that's dispelled to be a tough guy on the outside, soft on the inside ruse (HK is just an ass). KOTOR 2 is far more accommodating, allowing various companions who are both good and bad to join you. The point is I don't like being bad in JE because then I look like an ass to my companions.
Furthermore, one might argue well Closed Fist does not equal evil. And theoretically that'd be true. And philosophically that'd be true. But your normal closed first interaction proves otherwise. Honestly all I do is pick the option that results with more people dying and that's how I get my closed fist points. Sometimes Closed Fist even leads you to senselessly killing people. Bladed Thesis' ghost makes it pretty clear that Closed Fist isn't senseless evil and must have purpose. But often it just feels like as long as you act like a complete ass, then you will consistently get closed fist points. A good way to demonstrate the nuance of the morality scheme would be to bait players into doing things that removed Closed Fist points. All of a sudden you can't kill willy nilly, you need to be purposeful in your evil deeds.
3. Broken Gameplay-
The gameplay in JE is tons of fun, until you realize how easy it is. The game tries to make combat difficult, but when you can jump out of any enemy attack, block nearly every enemy attack and do twice the damage of any potential enemy, then the game becomes a joke. By the time you reach the halfway point you're pretty much indestructible. Also, the lack of styles is pretty apparent. I guess a wider diversity of everything would have made this game better.
Jade Empire felt like a trailer to a much better game. I'm unsure if they ran out of space or simply wanted to cash in, but the game was clearly rushed out too early.
1. The vastness of the Empire was never established-
The driving mechanism of Jade Empire is twofold. The first driving mechanism stems from your own personal quest to find out your fate as a spirit monk/help your peers achieve their long term goals as well. The second mechanism is to save/rule the empire. When you reach the end of the game you essentially decide whether to save the empire or rule it. Unfortunately while the game tried very hard to convince you to care about the Empire and prove how large it is (think of the progression of areas, small town, to medium size city, to large city) it doesn't provide you a diversity of culture one would expect with such a large place. We need to go to the Prosperous East or the North to view how the Empire is from the eyes of others. The fireworks ending of the people applauding your victory is only sweet if you actually believe you saved something massive. The sheer scope of the Empire is never proven to the player, making it hard for the player to leave the game with chills when they finish it.
2. The moral scheme doesn't work-
Now there has been a series of critiques placed against morality schemes in general, especially when it works with the good/evil (open palm/closed fist) dichotomy, but barring all those critiques the morality scheme still falls flat in the game. That's because being good is favored in terms of character relationships. What I mean is that the characters in your entourage tend to all lean to either morally good or morally ambiguous backgrounds. The only real "evil" companion is Ya Zhen and he is literally counter balanced by Chai Ka, making most of the companions not very willing to support your heartless lifestyle. I know you can turn some of your companions to the darkside, but most of their background stories just don't make that kind of switch coat behavior plausible. Sky: saving his daughter Sagacious Zu: on a journey of repentance Silk Fox: Concerned with Father and Country. The rest of them are either clearly good (e.g. Dawn Star, Wild Flower, etc.) or ambiguous leaning on the side of good (e.g. Whirlwind, Hu). The point is that as a player you grow with these characters and the thought of treating them like shit the entire game makes no sense. It makes no sense that they stick with you and it makes no sense for you to have them around you. We face a similar dilemma in KOTOR 1 (Gasp did he just criticize KOTOR 1, blasphemy!). Nobody in your crew seems inherently bad except for maybe Canderous and even then that's dispelled to be a tough guy on the outside, soft on the inside ruse (HK is just an ass). KOTOR 2 is far more accommodating, allowing various companions who are both good and bad to join you. The point is I don't like being bad in JE because then I look like an ass to my companions.
Furthermore, one might argue well Closed Fist does not equal evil. And theoretically that'd be true. And philosophically that'd be true. But your normal closed first interaction proves otherwise. Honestly all I do is pick the option that results with more people dying and that's how I get my closed fist points. Sometimes Closed Fist even leads you to senselessly killing people. Bladed Thesis' ghost makes it pretty clear that Closed Fist isn't senseless evil and must have purpose. But often it just feels like as long as you act like a complete ass, then you will consistently get closed fist points. A good way to demonstrate the nuance of the morality scheme would be to bait players into doing things that removed Closed Fist points. All of a sudden you can't kill willy nilly, you need to be purposeful in your evil deeds.
3. Broken Gameplay-
The gameplay in JE is tons of fun, until you realize how easy it is. The game tries to make combat difficult, but when you can jump out of any enemy attack, block nearly every enemy attack and do twice the damage of any potential enemy, then the game becomes a joke. By the time you reach the halfway point you're pretty much indestructible. Also, the lack of styles is pretty apparent. I guess a wider diversity of everything would have made this game better.
Jade Empire felt like a trailer to a much better game. I'm unsure if they ran out of space or simply wanted to cash in, but the game was clearly rushed out too early.
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