Jade Empire saw the day light on Xbox,in 2005.Now,it's time for PC possesors to enjoy it...or not?!
You begin the game as a student of martial arts in Two Rivers,a little town in Jade Empire.You know nothing about you ,only that you are more special for your master than others and your destiny will be great.In the moment when your Master Lee has decided to tell you the truth about you,about him the town is attacked and from this point the story begun.A very immersing
story,but I prefer to let you discover it... You can choose male or female from four classes : magic,fast,balanced and strong( only male).Each character is different from others because of three attributes,each of them increasing the properties of your character: body --> health, spirit-->chi and mind-->focus.The chi is used for elemental attacks, for healing yourself and for increasing the damage of your attacks.The focus consumes when you use your weapons or if you want to move and attack very quickly.It's something like slow-motion or bullet time if you want.But those three attributes influence three skills, too: intimidation, intuition and charm who help you in conversations with other npc-s.From the beginning you have two styles of martial arts and once you advanced in the game you learn others more powerful.There are summoning styles in which you can transform in different beasts or demons ( horse demon , jade gollem etc ),elemental styles who use chi like flame or earth style , support styles who do damage only when you use chi to boost their power and have different abilities like slowing,paralyzing or shocking the opponent.In these moments you can initiate a harmonic combo ( like a fatality ) using a powerful strike of an attack style.Attack styles are the most used and are very beautiful realized ( iron palm , legendary strike , viper ) , the motions of your character being superb . The person who likes kung fu should be very pleased by the game because she has what to see.Some attack styles include weapons like one sword or two or axes but all styles have three types of attack: normal,powerful and area. As you can see , you have a lots of styles , so you have also a lots of ways to kill the enemies. But some of them are immune to some styles , so be careful.When you kill enemies and complete quests ( there are many ) you gain experience and reach higher levels.In this moments , you can increase your attributes and some characteristics of your martial style like speed,duration or chi damage. So , for those who like dungeon and dragons universe, with a lots of variables, skills, attributes and other things ,avoid jade empire because it isn't so complex. The game's sound track is absolutely superb.It contains very beautiful songs with Chinese and Japanese influence.It makes you to stop advancing and listen the game's sound track wich is perfect.The feeling, the atmosphere , the locations ,the visual aspect of the game....All of them are so good, so perfect ...they make the game world to be so immersing, so beautiful even if the graphic engine isn't so " next-gen" like others of the year 2007. So,finally,what can I say???The game has some bugs , some low textures ( the faces of some npc-s ) but these things are completely disappearing because of feeling, storyline, atmosphere , points in wich the game is shinning. I think that Jade Empire Special Edition is another superb game, another good rpg made by Bioware who waits all of you to play it. So good job Bioware!!!! And you ???What you waiting for????