A Fantastic Video Game, Who says real time isn't better than turn base? HA!
User Rating: 8.2 | Jade Empire: Hisui no Teikoku XBOX
Jade Empire is a great video game similar to the Star Wars Knights of the old republic series except instead of the turn base elements you play in real time combat, which allows you to control your characters every move making the game more enjoyable than taking turns like the average rpg style games. Im not a fan of rpg games I stopped playing them after PS1 died, I enjoyed Legend Of Dragoon, Crono Cross, Final Fantasy 7 and 8, Parasite Eve, And that was all the RPG games I ever liked during the time. I wouldn't nessaccarly say Castlevania Symphony Of The Night was an rpg game but it shared some of the elements, allot of them actually. Anyway Jade Empire sets you in a myth world of china with all sorts of characters to meet ( I hate it when my review sounds similar to everyone elses). From the start of the game you get to select four characters, two men characters or two female characters. I chose the man with the tatoo's all over his back since he seemed the most original and looks similar to Lu Kang from Mortal Kombat except he has short hair and tatoo's minus the Bruce Lee "wooo sounds effect ." The combat system is simple and will become easy to get use to (this I like allot), no frustraiting learning curves like turn base RPG games, and no sissy voice acting kid styled characters like all those homosexual anime styled rpg games that everyone seems appreciate. Jade Empire is more of a "real mans rpg game" like Star Wars Knights of the old republic, great voice acting, terrific plot, and a great interactive combat system. Some of the area's you visit in the game are not as interesting as the many worlds you visited in the Star Wars KOTOR series. The imperial city looks great and its big in size. A prolem I had with the game is that most enemies are immuned to some of the best attacks, if that wasn't the problem then you would have the camra that often gets right in front of you during certain fights blocking your angle. Plus there wasn't a way to adjust the camra to move in closer to the character it would seem 6 inches far behind making your character seem small. You can't control any of the other characters who will join you on your quest, this was sort of dissappointing. I havn't met all the characters yet, I bought the game on ebay a few days ago. Some of the characters I met so far are boring looking and all the male characters for some reason have their hair in a strange bun style. Some of the characters don't even look like the belong in the game either or from the era that was chosen in the game. As far as difficulty go, Jade Empire is for everyone and anyone. Unlike lousy companies that only target one gamer type and expect everyone else to suffer and get mad at the game if the difficulty is over done. Sure I guess its ok if people like to be challenged to death but I am one person who will gladly beat the hell out of the person who does the game difficulty and I'd beat them so sensless with my controller just to show them how "difficult" I am or maybe hire 7 people to gang up on them and see how fair of a match it'll be then say " quit whining we are challenging" like all the f*ggots on every gaming site that run off at the mouth. Jade Empire will allow you to adjust the difficulty anyway you want, so if you are having problems with it on Master difficulty you can always adjust it to student, if you prefer a greater threat you can try Grand Master. I rather stick with Master since the AI will fight back at least but won't be much of a push over as they were on Grand master when I had to fight a giant elephant and two white foxes I deffinatly had to lower the difficulty. One hit and I came so close to dying plus I had forgot to save my game when I had full life. Then you have to listen to all that talking over again if you forget to save during battle with your full health bar. I can do without magic since all creatures are immune to it. The game doesn't require much skill but then again this is a good thing. Any real company know that it is best to get as many gamers interested in your game as possible, forget trying to impress the so called " hardcore types" by over doing the difficulty. Thats why I never liked Ninja Gaiden as much as I would have "IF" it was fair but the truth is its only fair for people who play it so much that they claim every hard game is "easy." You know these people spend allot of time playing games constantly on hard or just like to bluff for respect on the internet by even bigger liars than they are.
The graphics are ok but not all that great in some parts of the game. Its nice to see the light reflect off the characters, some character models look better than the others. Levels in the game can often seem too bright and colorful that you might have to adjust the color on your TV unless you can adjust the in game color some how. Jade Empire deserves a good rating but unfornatly there are things missing in the game. Sure you meet dozens of characters but once again you cant control them, level them up, or give them different moves. For instance if a certain character uses a sword, then they will continue to use the sword through out the entire game, you can't switch them to attack using their fist or kick. Somtimes they even die fast even on Student difficulty. The game is worth having in your collection, its fun, and interesting. Reminds me of a game I had a long time ago for xbox, I forgot what it was called it was called legend somthing. 
