A unique twist to the Role-Playing genre.
User Rating: 8.8 | Jade Empire: Hisui no Teikoku XBOX
Jade Empire was one of the most hyped games for the Xbox. It was supposed to be a RPG that was set in a open-world in ancient Chinese times. Jade Empire delievers on all these accounts. This game is an RPG but it really doesn't feel like it. You have to level up your character in many ways like improving his attacks, magic, and even how he talks like charm. You have four weapon sets and they are all assigned a direction pad arrow and you can switch your weapon/stance on the fly. You can level up you weapon/attacks as well so you might focus on a weapon that suits your style of fighting. There's the RPG element (I haven't explained all of it) but the action really gives the RPG a 'layer' so the RPG elements are unnoticed. The action is so swift and fast and really is the highlight of the game. Just like BioWare's Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic game, you will walk around exploring the world while talking to people and seeing the story unfold. You pick you person at the beginning of the game from a variety of characters. The RPG elements do bring you in the game and really gets you engaged but overall it's the story that really shines. The story is about an epic journey of an already known 'warrior' that wants things in his life to move on. Basically he wants the spotlight he wants the action and he's ready to step into the world. I'm not going to explain the plot in-depth, I'm just going to give you a brief overview. Since you can talk to anyone you want, you can talk in the way you want. There's three or four choices of what you can say, and they are usually in a category of nice, medium, and mean. The story will unfold diffently and people will react to you diffently with the choices you make like someone will ask you how much money you spent on a object and you will lie and say 50 bucks even though you spent 30 and they'll give you 20 bucks back. The open world makes this game engaging, you can go around in shops buying objects, and uncover other hidden objects along the way. The only problem I had with Jade Empire is the replayblity. This game isn't very long, and when you beat the game your just stuck with some minigames. And the game itself is pretty easy. This game is what it's hyped to be but missing that certain something. It would be cool if each person had their own storyline. But there's really nothing negative to say. I enjoyed this title, and I would say absolutlely a rent and maybe even a buy. It's not really true to the RPG genre but leveling up the character in ways never seen before may deliver. 
