Enough fighting styles and sidequests to satisfy most desires, but it still seems like people speak in Tho Fan.
Although this review will be pretty self-explanatory, I'm going to address the individual categories and their respective scores as given on GameSpot.
Gameplay: 8/10
The game begins as a spar between a fellow student of the Two Rivers school which is led by Master Li. In this spar, the basics of battle are explained--combo attack, dodge, block, power attack, and healing. These basic techniques for battle are undoubtedly easy to learn, however, learning the right technique to counter or surpass an enemy's may take another battle or two... literally.
Your attributes can grow as your level rises thanks to experience from enemies. At each level gain, the character is given three points to apply to their general traits. Along with increasing your body, spirit, and mind traits (health, chi, and focus, respectively), you can also choose to apply "style points" to certain fighting styles. Depending on the nature of the fighting style (i.e. martial, support...), its speed, strength, and other characteristics can be improved as you level up as well. At first, improving your fighting styles appears time-consuming, but in the later levels, when 10+ style points are awarded, improving a favorite style is no longer a burden.
Although Jade Empire features, what I believe, to be an entertaining, unique battle system, its strength lies in the plot and storyline. However, its strength also breeds its weakness--too much dialogue and reiteration. I quickly grew tired of listening to the voice acting and read ahead when the game allowed. The voice acting will be addressed later in this review, but the expressions of characters were not strong enough for me to be involved in their speech; I would rather just read the words that came out of their mouths. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Tho Fan, so those dialogues had to be read anyway.
Graphics: 8/10
I thought this game looked fantastic. I'm not familiar with its rendering on the original X-Box console, but I plan on doing a juxtaposed comparison in the future. I was pleasantly impressed with the animations during battle, but once again the character animations during the voice acting was lacking in enthusiasm and realism. If I wanted to read a book, I would, but I wanted to play a game and watch sensational cinematics that would accompany my short, battle sequences.
The environments were very saturated and, although I remember seeing some character models several times, their speech animations were almost so good that I could be deaf and understand.
Sound: 8/10
Voice acting was marvelous, like the Dragonfly. How often does a game have a language created just for realism and that extra, Asian sensation? I still have to decipher Tho Fan to fool my Chinese friends into thinking I know another language.
Background music was repetitive and I can remember a few instances of where resonance was almost piercing in the "evil" parts (e.g. the appearance of ghosts). Nonetheless, the background music was suitable to its respective environment. As for another repetitive element of sound, the main character's taunts in battle were the only excuse to lose health in battle. Timing of sound effects was rarely flawed, but, once again, bone chilling at certain moments. The predictability of monsters helped me push the mute button in time.
Value: 9/10 & Reviewer's Tilt: 9/10
I shook a Closed Fist towards my TV at times, but I recommend Jade Empire with an Open Palm. Although I will not be playing this game through a second time immediately, I look forward to trying the opposite choices in dialogue sometime in the future. If the Limited Edition character were another female, I would choose her, too, but I guess I could try out the monk spade weapon style.
Altogether, I feel that this game is definitely worth the $20 price tag. The storyline was so strong that it that kept me playing 'til the end. Experimenting with different fighting styles was rewarding and prevented a monotonous, battle system. Mini-games kept me coming back for more also.
I would recommend Jade Empire for someone with an interest in martial arts, gods and demons, and a profound storyline to remember.