Jade Empire

[Mithrandir]

Open Palm/Closed Fist: I was really hoping for some kind of philosophical 'bad guy' role, wherein you actually obeyed some set of precepts that differed, somehow, from "kill everyone for fun and profit." Nope, that's exactly what it is. No philosophy or subtlety. Plus, that caveat that Shining Mountain puts in at the beginning of the game, about "tyrrany from without/tyrrany from within"? It comes up exactly *once*. So much for philosophy, which is annoying.

Yeah, the lack of many real philisophical choices after they set the two Ways up so well at the beginning was a big disappointment. I think PS:T completely spoiled me in this regard. Sometimes I wish I could just wipe PS:T from my mind so that I wouldn't have such high expectations for RPGs... but then I inevitably end up just going back and playing it again.

Pacing: not at all impressed with how fast the game goes after chapter 3. Could have used another large chapter. Say, the Prosperous East? The Wall? The domain of the Horselords? Hou's wife? Anything?

It was odd how they kept talking about The Wall, the Horselords, and the Prosperous East/Phoenix Gate and yet you never visited any of those places. The closest you got to any of those - MINOR SPOILER - was fighting Zeng Hai's spirit in the Lotus Assassin fortress. Maybe they wanted to just show off the admittedly pretty good back story they wrote for the Jade Empire? Maybe stuff got cut out? Maybe they were laying the groundwork for a sequel (Jade Empire 2: Attack of the Monkey King)?

*shrug*

I also wasn't a fan of how they brought in the "European" culture as Sir Roderick. Took away from the focus as the game being mythical Asian. I would rather have had the game stay centered around the Jade Empire 100% of the way through and not drag in imperealistic European tones.

Allies pretty cool. (too bad dawn star's the best, yet dumbest; Hou's the coolest, yet nearly worthless...)

Me getting Hou for the first time:

"Drunken style? Shweeeet."

5 minutes later

"Holy crap, it's still the exact same as the other styles. This blows and Hou sucks. Back to Dawn Star meditating in the corner."