Another complete masterpiece from BioWare. What more RPGs should be like.
The combat was exceptionally smooth and fast-paced. Part of the draw is that there are so many combat styles to choose from. It was hard for me to decide just what to hotkey to the d-pad. Eventually, I decided to go with my normal sword style, which was an average speed and pretty long range(and which eventually upgraded to this giant Dragon Blade, which was sweet), dual swords, which were very fast but had a very short reach, a fire magic style, which could be pumped out in rapid fireballs or charged up for a larger fireball, and had a powerful area attack that would severely burn enemies for awhile, and last but not least, a rock magic style that controlled very much like the fire style, but its area attack would cover a much larger space. The AI was very lacking pretty often, though some fights could be somewhat annoying. But because of the constant style-changing, combat always feels fresh. Despite what many people say, I never encountered any problems with the framerate, though the long loading screens were frustrating. Jade Empire is a very linear RPG, but not in a tedious way. It also throws some pretty unexpected plot twists your way. Pray after the Mass Effect trilogy finishes, BioWare starts on a Jade Empire 2, for it certainly deserves it.