Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 2, 2005 7:55:02 GMT -5
Overall: Buy it, buy an Xbox to play if you don't have one.
Game Summary: Martial arts high fantasy rpg combining the best elements of all the classic myths and movies. Start as a lowly student in a school under a kind master. Find out that the Wheel of Life is broken and the dead can't get to the afterlife and are trapped in this world. Things quickly spiral from there eventually leading you to decide the fate of the empire. Gods, demon's, spirits, hidden schools, sacred magic, and a great group of compainions make up the middle.
The good: amazing world, amazing story, amazing graphics, etc. Visually this has to be one of the top on the Xbox. The plot is incredible (typical of Bioware) with enough side quests to make your head spin at times. The cities you visit are huge and actually full of people. There are so many npcs that it actually feels like a city. The best npcs though are the ones you get in your party. I have never played a game with better more original characters. You can spend hours just listening to thier backstories. As far as backstories - BioWare set to create thier own licence, their own world and man did they do a good job. If there was a Jade Empire RPG (pen and pencil) I would buy it based on that game. Character customization is fairly unique (only 3 stats but each martial art can be leveled up in 3 areas and there are something like 20 arts), combine this with a system like Materia from FFVII.
The Bad: real time combat. Actually I didn't have much problem with this but it will scare away people used to the usual BioWare games (Baldur's Gate, Knight's of the Old Republic, etc.) The combat is extremely fluid and looks amazing (like a hong kong movie as it should) but does get a bit frustrating at times when you get a series of cheap hits in against you. Once you figure out a strategy that works though the combat gets much easier (Mine was Storm Dragon to stun then Long Sword or Leaping Tiger to hit while stunned, repeat unill dead).
The other bad: the minigames. At one point you get a flying ship modeled after a dragonfly and powered by chineese style rockets. Ever time you flew this somewhere you did a minigame. The minigame was a top down shooter. I know of at least one person who found this incredably controller tossingly frustrating. Personally I have always been good at these (watch your ship not your enemies) so it didn't bother me too much. There was only one fight that actually was very difficult and did frustrate but was eventually beaten.
Summary: Bioware wanted to top Knights of the old Republic and I think they at least tied it if not sucseeded. Kotor was Awesome and it was Star Wars, this is awesome too and has just as compelling a world. Everyone shoud play this game.
Game Summary: Martial arts high fantasy rpg combining the best elements of all the classic myths and movies. Start as a lowly student in a school under a kind master. Find out that the Wheel of Life is broken and the dead can't get to the afterlife and are trapped in this world. Things quickly spiral from there eventually leading you to decide the fate of the empire. Gods, demon's, spirits, hidden schools, sacred magic, and a great group of compainions make up the middle.
The good: amazing world, amazing story, amazing graphics, etc. Visually this has to be one of the top on the Xbox. The plot is incredible (typical of Bioware) with enough side quests to make your head spin at times. The cities you visit are huge and actually full of people. There are so many npcs that it actually feels like a city. The best npcs though are the ones you get in your party. I have never played a game with better more original characters. You can spend hours just listening to thier backstories. As far as backstories - BioWare set to create thier own licence, their own world and man did they do a good job. If there was a Jade Empire RPG (pen and pencil) I would buy it based on that game. Character customization is fairly unique (only 3 stats but each martial art can be leveled up in 3 areas and there are something like 20 arts), combine this with a system like Materia from FFVII.
The Bad: real time combat. Actually I didn't have much problem with this but it will scare away people used to the usual BioWare games (Baldur's Gate, Knight's of the Old Republic, etc.) The combat is extremely fluid and looks amazing (like a hong kong movie as it should) but does get a bit frustrating at times when you get a series of cheap hits in against you. Once you figure out a strategy that works though the combat gets much easier (Mine was Storm Dragon to stun then Long Sword or Leaping Tiger to hit while stunned, repeat unill dead).
The other bad: the minigames. At one point you get a flying ship modeled after a dragonfly and powered by chineese style rockets. Ever time you flew this somewhere you did a minigame. The minigame was a top down shooter. I know of at least one person who found this incredably controller tossingly frustrating. Personally I have always been good at these (watch your ship not your enemies) so it didn't bother me too much. There was only one fight that actually was very difficult and did frustrate but was eventually beaten.
Summary: Bioware wanted to top Knights of the old Republic and I think they at least tied it if not sucseeded. Kotor was Awesome and it was Star Wars, this is awesome too and has just as compelling a world. Everyone shoud play this game.