Jade Empire on the PC

[SolidSnake]

I just picked this up and the game honestly rules. I'm sort of glad that I didn't pick it up for the PC. I really like the rpg feel, but with a more interesting fighting style.

Has anyone else been playing? I've put in about four hours so far.

[Thanaeon]

Played it through once-and-a-half on XBox, but not on PC.

[nonsense]

Played it through on Xbox. I liked it well enough, but I felt it sort of fell short of what it could've been (the Closed Fist path is particularly uncompelling).

However, I loved the hell out of the flying minigame.

[Madcat]

What are the controls like?

Playable with keyboard and mouse, or would a gamepad be needed?

[Slimy Git]

I just picked it up on PC. It's freaking fantastic. The controls work reasonably well with keyboard/mouse. Well enough I haven't tried using a game controller.

<wonders if Tar Markvar is watching>

One thing I'll comment on with this game is the editing. It's phenomenal, almost so godlike that it distracts from the game. You watch this guy shift from effect to affect, totally avoid use of passive voice, and masterfully monitor the writers use of who that and which, and you think -

"GODDAMN this guy is a genius, he's like the Rembrandt of editing, but in a bad-ass heavy metal guitar solo way. He must have balls like cantaloupes! I hope he doesn't corner me on the Internet and punch me in the face for inappropriately using a semicolon."

</wonders if Tar Markvar is watching>

No, but really, it's a great game. :-)

--S.G.

[Tar Markvar]

I just picked it up on PC. It's freaking fantastic. The controls work reasonably well with keyboard/mouse. Well enough I haven't tried using a game controller.

<wonders if Tar Markvar is watching>

One thing I'll comment on with this game is the editing. It's phenomenal, almost so godlike that it distracts from the game. You watch this guy shift from effect to affect, totally avoid use of passive voice, and masterfully monitor the writers use of who that and which, and you think -

"GODDAMN this guy is a genius, he's like the Rembrandt of editing, but in a bad-ass heavy metal guitar solo way. He must have balls like cantaloupes! I hope he doesn't corner me on the Internet and punch me in the face for inappropriately using a semicolon."

</wonders if Tar Markvar is watching>

No, but really, it's a great game. :-)

--S.G.

Everything about that game is phenomenal except the editing and about 45% of the style and item descriptions. Whoever wrote those was a complete loser.

[Unseenlibrarian]

I have been having a great deal of fun since I picked it up Tuesday morning. I especially appreciate what I'm told is one major change from the X-box version; you can assign up to ten different styles to the number keys or your number pad, instead of just four, assigned to the D-pad.

Also...(spoiler for those who haven't played)

I was told that the transformation styles are universally bad. I just got Jade Golem. This appears to be an I-win button from the time you get it until Chapter 6: I've been one and two-hitting boss fights, including the battle with the emperor at the end of Chapter 4. Some of the other demon forms also work pretty well in the early game, especially when battling other demons. Was I just told wrong?

[Fade]

Hulk Smash style ('jade golem') continues to be extremely effective all the way to the endgame, particularly if used with Focus Mode. I haven't used the other Transformation Styles much, but Horse Demon style looks like it could be pretty useful. Red Minister would be very useful if you didn't get it so late in the game.

[Tar Markvar]

I hated the Transformation styles for many reasons, not the least of which is that 4-second delay after choosing the style, during which you can do nothing but the monsters can attack you and your Chi is still drained. I don't know if they removed that delay for the PC or not.

Still, a powered up Jade Golem style is a gamebreaker against most bosses. I found the game to be more fun when I ignored that style completely.

[BioWareJay]

I did not not end up using the Transformation styles very much when I played through it a few times. I liked the straight fighting instead. I think my favorite styles were 1000 cuts which had the best looking regular strikes and the Tiger claws for that huge leap of a heavy attack. That always looked good.

[Ottergame]

I hated the Transformation styles for many reasons, not the least of which is that 4-second delay after choosing the style, during which you can do nothing but the monsters can attack you and your Chi is still drained. I don't know if they removed that delay for the PC or not.

Still, a powered up Jade Golem style is a gamebreaker against most bosses. I found the game to be more fun when I ignored that style completely.

Aggreed. I never bothered with them, and I don't feel I missed out on anything. Or magic styles, for that matter. When I played through, my Chi served as a heal, and nothing more.

Now that I have it on the PC, I might run through with a very high Chi character and use nothing but magic and transformataions.

[Thanaeon]

I did not not end up using the Transformation styles very much when I played through it a few times. I liked the straight fighting instead. I think my favorite styles were 1000 cuts which had the best looking regular strikes and the Tiger claws for that huge leap of a heavy attack. That always looked good.

Me, I like Legendary Strike the most. The flying jump kick as the power attack looks fantastic!

[summerstock]

I liked using White Demon with the little/quick 3d avatar... tiny person, big punch. It was amusing.

Paralyzing Palm was the most overpowering thing that I used. Paralyzing Palm - White Demon go smash - Paralyzing Palm - White Demon go smash... throw in Spirit Thief now and again.

[Fade]

Aggreed. I never bothered with them, and I don't feel I missed out on anything. Or magic styles, for that matter. When I played through, my Chi served as a heal, and nothing more.

Now that I have it on the PC, I might run through with a very high Chi character and use nothing but magic and transformataions.
Don't forget Chi Strike.

[MadDogMike]

I too know Kung Fu :D . I've just finished everything in Imperial City up to the Necropolis (I was SO tempted to wreck the play, but I've been playing too Open Palm to do it really). The Arena is freaky tough stuff towards the end of it, I swear; I about screamed and reached through the screen to kill Qui when I was informed I had to refight ALL the champions up to that point to win the last fight. Black Whirlwind is hysterically funny, and I'm somewhat peeved there is no "hug" dialogue choice when dealing with that cute little girl Wind Blossum (the Other went straight to my "kill this guy before Death's Hand" list when he called her an insect; hope I get a chance to pound him in-game). Oh, and great cameo by John Cleese, though I HATED the duel there.

[Ottergame]

Don't forget Chi Strike.

Eh, I never bothered. For me, unless you updgraded a style all the way for Chi damage, is wan't worth losing out on the healing chi could offer.

[Tar Markvar]

that cute little girl Wind Blossum (the Other went straight to my "kill this guy before Death's Hand" list when he called her an insect; hope I get a chance to pound him in-game).

Wild Flower. :)

Glad you hated the Other. I loved him, he was so evil.

[Wookie]

My thoughts so far

-Looks great. Good Camera angle but, unfortunately I haven't figured out how to change it.

-The voice acting in the game is good and the writing is great, but I feel like my dialog choices are pretty drab.

-My kung fu hero can basically pursue one of three personalities via the dialogues: "I want to help you, person I just met, here let me put aside my world saving quest to save your ox", "I don't care about you, or your problems, unless you can pay me" or "Wussy. You could fix your problems if you were strong like me. And your crying just annoys me."

-Oh noes! My character's health, chi, and focus don't normally regenerate themselves, making me all paranoid about running out of them. Thank you Dawn Star for your support ability, which is super awesome to use to recover all my chi and health at the end of a fight.

-Flipping and rolling around in combat, tripping up your enemies, and learning how to take advantage of your opponent's fighting style is pretty key to the game.

-Learn how to break you opponent's block or you will likely be frustrated every time they use it.

-A Thousand Cuts is the worst at breaking blocks, takes 3 combos to put down a decent mook, has horrible range, and the best speed.

Sum: Great interruption speed, but you have to get close and you're going to suck at breaking enemy blocks

-Leaping Tiger is the best at breaking blocks, takes 3 combos to put down a decent mook, has okay range, and good speed.

Sum: Great power attack for breaking blocks, all around good, but no specialty besides a good attack for breaking through blocks.

-Legendary Strike is good at breaking blocks, takes just under 3 complete combos to put down a decent mook, has the best range, and good speed.

Sum: Great all around ability, but no specialization in any particular facet of combat.

-White Demon is okay at breaking blocks, takes just 2 complete combos to put down a decent mook, has good range, and the worst speed.

Sum: Great damage, but poor attack speed.

-Out of all three attributes I find its most worthwile to throw everything into Body. You'll be great at both charming and intimidating others. All of your other attributes will improve on their own, but you're always going to want a lot of health. Focus runs out too quick to matter except at key times (and if you like weapons you should spend the points so they don't cost focus to wield at all). Chi can be regained the same whether you have 200 or 2000 of it. All the chi in the world won't save you when you're dying before you can heal. But health (which depends on a high Body stat) is what will keeps you alive and keeps you (the player) from losing your cool and fighting poorly when you have low health.

[Naxuul]

Chi and Focus are rather key at times. High chi is necessary for using magic and using magic is about the only way to make the 1000 ghosts you face in the game go down fast enough to not annoy me to death. Focus is necessary for all that damn golem bothering that made my magic-based character throw fits. Generally health doesn't need to be that high, though 1/3rd to 1/2 your points should go in Body, because with dodging you're rarely ever hit. Well unless those freakin' Tempest casters stunlock you with their unfair AE Tornados.

Oh yeah, always be nice to your stupid companions. Especially your romantic ones. I found out Sky will spazz out and not like you anymore for one comment made shortly after getting him.

-Naxuul

[SolidSnake]

Chi and Focus are rather key at times. High chi is necessary for using magic and using magic is about the only way to make the 1000 ghosts you face in the game go down fast enough to not annoy me to death. Focus is necessary for all that damn golem bothering that made my magic-based character throw fits. Generally health doesn't need to be that high, though 1/3rd to 1/2 your points should go in Body, because with dodging you're rarely ever hit. Well unless those freakin' Tempest casters stunlock you with their unfair AE Tornados.

Oh yeah, always be nice to your stupid companions. Especially your romantic ones. I found out Sky will spazz out and not like you anymore for one comment made shortly after getting him.

-Naxuul

I have found some of the magic to be the most enjoyable as well, so Chi is definitely worthwhile. What breakdown are you using to assign points as the game goes on?

[Elizabeth Brooks]

I did not not end up using the Transformation styles very much when I played through it a few times. I liked the straight fighting instead. I think my favorite styles were 1000 cuts which had the best looking regular strikes and the Tiger claws for that huge leap of a heavy attack. That always looked good.

My first time through, Jade Golem was a heady drug. Second time through, I tried to avoid it. I still like the magic styles, however.

Now if only I could go through with Closed Fist without feeling guilty.

[Naxuul]

I have found some of the magic to be the most enjoyable as well, so Chi is definitely worthwhile. What breakdown are you using to assign points as the game goes on?
For me I put all my initial points into my starting martial style, since it's pretty much 90% of what I use early game and with all five dots in damage and speed it's much, much better. Then when I get Stone Immortal/Tempest I build those up, I actually visually prefer Ice Shard and Dire Flame but frankly they suck monkies compared to the aligned styles. Then when I get to Chapter 3 I pick out which weapon I feel like using, Mirabelle was the choice this time which turned out to be a bad choice for a low-Focus magey character, and then bonus it as much as possible. Spirit Thief gets speed bonuses as I feel like it, a Support Style will get bonused sporadically(I chose Paralyzing Palm) and finally i'll bonus a transformation style, Horse if I want to be fair, Jade Golem if I want to pwn.

-Naxuul

[Aegypto]

I got this game yesterday. I've only made to the swamp so far, but I'm digging it a lot.

[Rhombus]

I really enjoyed Jade Empire on my PC... only real gripe is pretty minor, and is the same with the KOTOR games, LOW REZ FMV cutscenes. They ruin my groove, dammit.



Also, minigames can suck my balls. Not that I haven't enjoyed one or two minigames in the games I've played but, goddamnit, it's the principle of it. I don't like getting my CRPG on only to be interrupted by some twitch game... it's like stopping in the middle of a TRPG game and the GM saying everyone has to step outstide for a quick game of football.

[Wookie]

I made the mistake of taking a martial style I didn't like, on the assumption that I'd have all of the styles later and the one I selected would have cost me the most.

Keep in mind I know I don't want to spend points to improve this unwanted style, so far inot the game I've been playing a character with level 1 fighting abilties the entire time.

I can tell you this much. If you don't upgrade your styles your enemies will seem really really tough. I was warning my girlfriend how tough the badguys she was about to face were, and what crazy tactics I had used for my underpowered character to beat them without losing health, and she creamed them using nothing but her mightly upgraded basic attack combo.

Then when she fought a boss who was actually tough, she proved that she shouldn't have relied on her powerful fast attacks to win. Learning to adapt my fighting style and defense to my enemy again and again because I was so weak had served me well in making this boss fight long, but relatively easy. She tried to defeat him with brute force and power, and ended up having a very rough time.

[Ghola]

I'm wondering about the controls as well. I played it on Xbox originally but since the "special edition" is for PC only I'd like to know how it works with a keyboard before I buy it.

[rattusmortis]

I'm wondering about the controls as well. I played it on Xbox originally but since the "special edition" is for PC only I'd like to know how it works with a keyboard before I buy it.

It controls pretty much like any third-person PC game:

WSAD to translate forward, backward, left, and right, and the mouse to "steer."
Double-tap a directional key to dodge
Left mouse is attack, right mouse charges a power attack.
Spacebar blocks
1-9 are your style hotkeys
Dialogue and menus are point-and-click


More importantly, the game is beautiful in 1600x1054 widescreen. Shame about the FMVs, though.

[Wookie]

Now if only I could go through with Closed Fist without feeling guilty. Yeah I just started a closed fist character so I could get the tempest style and see what else I'm missing. I thought I could act like a heel wrestler and an evil ninja and pull it off in a fun way, but it still gets me.

I was actually told by someone that its a surprize me and Gao (my rival) don't get along better, but maybe he's just jealous of how horrible I can be.

I thought I could promote strength, show impatience, drive and cunning and net myself some closed fist points easily. But no, you have to be really heartless to gain points. Despite what the game may say, it looks like the best way to gain closed fist points fast is to be a monster and then gloat about it.

[Rhombus]

It controls pretty much like any third-person PC game:

WSAD to translate forward, backward, left, and right, and the mouse to "steer."
Double-tap a directional key to dodge
Left mouse is attack, right mouse charges a power attack.
Spacebar blocks
1-9 are your style hotkeys
Dialogue and menus are point-and-click


Actually, 1-0 are the style hotkeys... and there's a few other keys for stuff like chi enhanced attacks and so on.

Remappable, too, which is nice.


Shame about the FMVs, though.

True. Having blurry, washed out FMVs when you've been playing the in-game in crisp high rez, is a downer... but to be fair if they'd upped the rez they'd most likely have had to make the game a 2 DVD release because while realtime rendering is a resource pig, FMV is a storage pig. Not to mention the time and money spent on rerendering it all... so while it's a bit of a downer, it's understandable.

[Something Else]

Why do games even use FMV anymore?

[Rhombus]

Why do games even use FMV anymore?


It's falling out of practice pretty rapidly.

Originally FMV was for when you wanted to show a flashy scene that the real time rendering couldn't handle - especially true in the days before real time rendering could handle volumetic and specular effects. Being light on resources but heavy on storage kept them in solid favour for a long time.

These days, most of the FMV you see in PC games comes from console games that are optimised for SDTV display so they look BAD on a monitor.. BUT for devs/publishers who want ultraslick cutscenes at high rez, FMV shits all over real time rendering (RTR). The visual quality is fantastic and still above what a real time graphics engine can output. It's the advantage of being able to have each frame take a few seconds on a render farm rather than 30+ frames per second for a real time rendering engine (on a good day).

Also, FMV has the advantage on not doing strange things to in-game assets that some RTR cutscenes have done... such as losing character models, trapping character models and so on.

[theeviltwin]

anything new in it?

[Madcat]

An annoyance that the game shares with other console ports - no ability to name your saves.

[Fade]

There are a couple of new enemies and a couple of new martial styles (Viper and Iron Palm), plus a new difficulty level (Jade Master). Details here (http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/932971.html).

[Wookie]

The replayability factor on the jade master difficulty sounds very, very neat. Now you can go through the game multiple times and learn every technique and style if you want.

[Silent Wayfarer]

It is apparently not out in Singapore yet. Most annoying.

[Fade]

The replayability factor on the jade master difficulty sounds very, very neat. Now you can go through the game multiple times and learn every technique and style if you want.
And use some of the late-game styles (like Red Minister) through the entire game.

[Albert]

What they should have done was split the Open Palm and Closed Fist paths into 'Good' and 'Evil' aspects.

Open Palm 'Good' - you help others through the game, sacrificing of yourself when necessary.

Open Palm 'Evil' - you solve every problem people have, stifling their own growth.

Closed Fist 'Good' - you encourage people to face their own ordeals, thereby growing strong.

Closed Fist 'Evil' - the brutal thug that the Closed Fist path currently has so much of.

Closed Fist 'Good' ending - you slay the Water Dragon, knowing that it will cause a drought that will shatter the Empire, and then spend your life building a new order from the ashes of the old.

Closed Fist 'Evil' ending - you bind the Water Dragon to you, using your Spirit Monk powers to do what the Emperor could not - rule as a god while leaving the gate to the afterlife open.

Open Palm 'Good' ending - you sacrifice yourself into the Water Dragon, allowing it to be reborn but preventing the drought that had been held off.

Open Palm 'Evil' ending - you choose to maintain the Water Dragon as-is 'temporarily' (ie, until the danger of drought passes away), becoming the new head of the Crimson Lotus and spending your time keeping the dead quiet and the populace pacified. You are still waiting for the right time when the Empress dies of old age, sixty years later.

-Albert

[Tar Markvar]

What they should have done was split the Open Palm and Closed Fist paths into 'Good' and 'Evil' aspects.

What you should have done is include spoiler tags. You totally gave away the endings, dude.

Well, except for the hidden one:
When Master Li tells you to join him, you have the opportunity to say yes, at which point you sacrifice yourself for the higher order, and you see the ending in which Master Li wins.

[MadDogMike]

Just finished Open Fist for the first time; very awesome game. Deeply moving overall, though I somehow wound up with a weird bug where despite getting the Dawn Star + Silk Fox romance cutscene it treated me as if I just picked Silk Fox alone at the end, which annoyed me; I worked damn hard for my threesome! :D Jade Golem is very much an "I win" button in fights; I made it a point to not turn it on for the final one and just stuck with my Legendary Strike.

Some spoiler bits...
Black Whirlwind was hysterically funny at Dirge; I about fell out of my chair laughing at 100 kills when it announced "just kill the golem already!". I still can't get the "seemed like a gap in your defense" line people kept saying about my martial arts - was that meant to imply why Sun Li was able to kill me so easy? I'll have to watch again sometime, but I swear it almost looked like he killed me with the Five Fingered Exploding Heart Technique from Kill Bill, which was a nice in-joke if so. I was delighted as per my earlier expressed wish that I did indeed get to go kick the Other's fanny inside Wild Flower; dummy just turned his back on me to attack Chai Ka, which I used the Dragon Sword to demonstrate was a Bad Idea. Somehow I was not surprised to find out Kang was really Lord Lao in disguise; explained a lot about the setting if you assumed all the tech items in it were invented thanks to his association with Gao the Elder. Those damn mini-games were insanely difficult though; never did finish the one with the guy at Imperial City, though obviously I finished all of Kang's missions (I never want to see that electric sphere boss again!). And finally, I was pissed that the humorous credit sequence I'd heard about did not appear; wonder if the bastards moved it to the Jade Master difficulty.

[Unseenlibrarian]

Some spoiler bits...
Those damn mini-games were insanely difficult though; never did finish the one with the guy at Imperial City, though obviously I finished all of Kang's missions (I never want to see that electric sphere boss again!). And finally, I was pissed that the humorous credit sequence I'd heard about did not appear; wonder if the bastards moved it to the Jade Master difficulty.


The minigames from the mechanic in the imperial city get -so much easier- when you have Mist from Kang's second mission, and can go temporarily insubstantial to throw off the homing planes while you keep shooting them. One of the ship upgrades the mechanic gives you makes the lightning boss very easy, since with one strike it destroys the entire outer ring of stones.

[Tar Markvar]

Just finished Open Fist for the first time; very awesome game. Deeply moving overall, though I somehow wound up with a weird bug where despite getting the Dawn Star + Silk Fox romance cutscene it treated me as if I just picked Silk Fox alone at the end, which annoyed me; I worked damn hard for my threesome! :D

That's the way it's written. It's a limitation of the way the game is made and the fact that the threesome is essentially an easter egg, that the developers decided not to spend the money to make it a "full romance" when a very small number of people would ever get that "romance ending."

I personally think it was a good decision, considering what could be lost spending money on that. :)

Some spoiler bits...
I still can't get the "seemed like a gap in your defense" line people kept saying about my martial arts - was that meant to imply why Sun Li was able to kill me so easy?

Yup. That's all meant as a foreshadowing for that moment.

The "Master teaches you everything except the one thing that's needed to beat you in case he ever needs to beat you" thing is a popular meme in martial arts fiction. :)

[spoiler[And finally, I was pissed that the humorous credit sequence I'd heard about did not appear; wonder if the bastards moved it to the Jade Master difficulty.[/spoiler]

Yeah, I understand that was removed for the PC version. No idea why.

[MadDogMike]

That's the way it's written. It's a limitation of the way the game is made and the fact that the threesome is essentially an easter egg, that the developers decided not to spend the money to make it a "full romance" when a very small number of people would ever get that "romance ending."

I personally think it was a good decision, considering what could be lost spending money on that. :)

Bah, why have it in there then if you're going to wimp out at the end. Besides, all it would have taken was altering the ending text; they had the romance cutscene, I just didn't care for the fact the character epilogues acted like I hadn't made the choice I did.

Yup. That's all meant as a foreshadowing for that moment.

The "Master teaches you everything except the one thing that's needed to beat you in case he ever needs to beat you" thing is a popular meme in martial arts fiction. :)

I'm guessing I was OK later on the principle of "fool me twice, shame on me" then.

Yeah, I understand that was removed for the PC version. No idea why.

Bastards! Anyone know if the credit sequence is posted on Youtube anywhere or something then? I tried looking but couldn't find it (though I found the other two endings; kinda depressing to me).

[Fade]

Some spoiler bits...I still can't get the "seemed like a gap in your defense" line people kept saying about my martial arts - was that meant to imply why Sun Li was able to kill me so easy? I'll have to watch again sometime, but I swear it almost looked like he killed me with the Five Fingered Exploding Heart Technique from Kill Bill, which was a nice in-joke if so. [/spoiler]
Master Li taught you the basics of martial arts and very cunningly concealed a flaw in the fundamentals of your style, that only he knew enough about to exploit. To everyone else it functioned as a trap, a seeming weakness that really wasn't. Apparently the dead abbot at Dirge was supposed to help your correct your style now you knew about the flaw, but the developers forgot to make that explicit.

[Juriel]

Antialiasing is disabled on ATI cards...
So I just went into the .ini and manually changed the FSAA to 1.
And now I have a working 2x AA, and the game actually looks like something.

[Dragon_Blooded]

I just finished the game today with an Open Palm male character. Found it very entertaining, although combat is really, really easy: I just used Storm Dragon to paralyze everyone (I guess you could have the same effect with Paralyzing Palm), and finished them with Longsword or Leaping Tiger. I'm going to play the game again in Jade Master difficulty, with a Closed Fist female, focused on magical styles.

As for the attributes, even though my character was mainly a Weapon/Support/Martial style combo (so I didn't need much Energy), I've found Energy more useful than Health overall, since, apart from using it to fuel magical and transformation styles (Jade Golem was my "OhshitImdying" button), you can also use it for Chi Strike (which do crazy damage at higher levels), to heal yourself (and, since healing is instantaneous, Health ends up acting as Energy that can't fuel anything), and is extremely easy to replenish with Spirit Thief.

And yeah, The Black Whirlwind is crazy funny at Dirge: Just take a look at his quest log, with the hilarious Daily Reminders ("Have you got your axes? If not, you're probably dead"), and "Conquer the Southern Continent" as one of his Completed Quests.

Overall, a very entertaining game, if a bit too easy.

Eduardo Penna

[Juriel]

Played it for a day now, as a possibly-Closed Fist female with a maxed (for my low level of 6) Spirit. I figured I might try the magical things, since the martial side was so cumbersome. And I'd heard how easy the game was, so figured I can beat it with any combination anyway.

Though it's early, it's turned out that Chi feels pretty much like what Dragon_Blooded above says - you can use it for Chi damage and as extra health (since you can heal while doing something else), so not having much health hasn't really felt like all that big of a problem. Just cannot get hit many times in one go.

I do find distributing skillpoints into the styles to be badly thought-out, though - you can max out some four or five styles in total, so this system really does not encourage you to gather styles and use many of them, because the damage difference between an unbuffed style and a fully-buffed one is 200%.

[Wookie]

You can even use chi to heal yourself while you're otherwise made helpless by a status effect. If you like using lots of powerful effects then spirit is a good investment. It will allow you to power your way through a big confrontation with your huge chi reserves, and you can always stunlock your last standing opponent and drain them dry.

I also found Leaping Tiger, Longsword, and Storm Dragon to be a really damn effective combination (and you can get Storm Dragon from the second town you visit once you close or break the dam). Ice Shard was useful in the begining when I wanted to attack and whittle down groups of enemies from a distance, although I didn't spend any points in it. Red Minister and Jade Golem are pretty damn uber.

I found the demon weapons by searching and mapping every area I went to thoroughly, and the damage they can do is quite good (+50% more damage than your normal weapon style). The fact that you get them for free by finding them is also a great plus.

From what I've seen of the game on Jade Master difficultly enemy damage is upped (I'm not sure how much, because after going through the game already you're bound to have a huge amount of health). The really big change though is how much health every enemy has. I felt like the only way to defeat anyone in any decent amount of time was to use harmonic combos or fully upgraded styles with chi damage. Harmonic combos usually don't even leave orbs anymore to recover your health, chi or focus in the middle of a fight.

[SolidSnake]

I just finished the game today with an Open Palm male character. Found it very entertaining, although combat is really, really easy: I just used Storm Dragon to paralyze everyone (I guess you could have the same effect with Paralyzing Palm), and finished them with Longsword or Leaping Tiger. I'm going to play the game again in Jade Master difficulty, with a Closed Fist female, focused on magical styles.

As for the attributes, even though my character was mainly a Weapon/Support/Martial style combo (so I didn't need much Energy), I've found Energy more useful than Health overall, since, apart from using it to fuel magical and transformation styles (Jade Golem was my "OhshitImdying" button), you can also use it for Chi Strike (which do crazy damage at higher levels), to heal yourself (and, since healing is instantaneous, Health ends up acting as Energy that can't fuel anything), and is extremely easy to replenish with Spirit Thief.

And yeah, The Black Whirlwind is crazy funny at Dirge: Just take a look at his quest log, with the hilarious Daily Reminders ("Have you got your axes? If not, you're probably dead"), and "Conquer the Southern Continent" as one of his Completed Quests.

Overall, a very entertaining game, if a bit too easy.

Eduardo Penna

How long total did it take you to beat? I still have a ways to go myself. I've been playing with an "good" male character too. Very entertaining so far

[Naxuul]

How long total did it take you to beat? I still have a ways to go myself. I've been playing with an "good" male character too. Very entertaining so far
My game read about 17 hours and i'm just about at the end, maybe a hour of stuff left.

-Naxuul

[Juriel]

Hmm. I wonder if you can get the exclusive new styles in multiple ways. Because the game dropped me a second part of the evil style (Viper) after some conversation options, as I was just clicking through to be able to quit the game at that point. Later, when I replayed that part, I chose a much more fitting (for Closed Fist) conversation path, and it did NOT give me that style. Now I wonder if I missed it forever.

Apparently, being greedy and selling people into slavery is more in line with Closed Fist philosophy and styles, than getting someone to be strong for once and kill someone to gain their freedom. Good thing that got cleared up, though the game tries to lie about the philosophy behind it - nice to know it's just 'me meanie' path of being. Bleh.

[Zombie Shakespeare]

I hated the Transformation styles for many reasons, not the least of which is that 4-second delay after choosing the style, during which you can do nothing but the monsters can attack you and your Chi is still drained. I don't know if they removed that delay for the PC or not.

lrn2play nub, toad demon style is one of the most powerful styles in the game. Firstly, you can quickly max out the attributes for it, turning chi consumption into a non-issue. Second, it is the only style in the game that gives you an easily repeatable, ranged aoe attack in the form of the slam. It is quite easy to get multiple opponents lined up and then repeatedly slam them to death. The only downside is it takes a little struggling up front to get it rolling; however, if you wish to keep the game challenging for the entire time, I do not recommend trying this.

[Madcat]

Wow, attittude, much?

Anyway, one of the truly disturbing things about the game is the way that Dawn Star and Silk Fox sway when you're flirting with them.

[Tar Markvar]

lrn2play nub, toad demon style is one of the most powerful styles in the game. Firstly, you can quickly max out the attributes for it, turning chi consumption into a non-issue. Second, it is the only style in the game that gives you an easily repeatable, ranged aoe attack in the form of the slam. It is quite easy to get multiple opponents lined up and then repeatedly slam them to death. The only downside is it takes a little struggling up front to get it rolling; however, if you wish to keep the game challenging for the entire time, I do not recommend trying this.

Lrn2read, nub. I didn't say Toad Demon wasn't exploitastic, I said I hated the styles. I think they're stupid in concept and flawed in execution, both technically and from a balance perspective.

[SolidSnake]

Hmm. I wonder if you can get the exclusive new styles in multiple ways. Because the game dropped me a second part of the evil style (Viper) after some conversation options, as I was just clicking through to be able to quit the game at that point. Later, when I replayed that part, I chose a much more fitting (for Closed Fist) conversation path, and it did NOT give me that style. Now I wonder if I missed it forever.



hmm, i'm playing open palm and not sure if i've noticed the same thing. I'll definitely check it out hen i play through again as closed fist. Hopefully there is another chance for you to get that style. Maybe just replay the part again to get the stle back? don't know

[Fade]

The slaver thing is the only place to get the second scroll (for either style).

[Juriel]

The slaver thing is the only place to get the second scroll (for either style).
Right. I guess I'll just edit the 2da's and make the scroll findable in a container somewhere else, then. How do you mysteriously gain the secrets of the Closed Fist special style by choosing the LESS Closed Fist option in a random conversation? Bah, I refuse to accept that.

[Ghola]

I just finished the game today with an Open Palm male character. Found it very entertaining, although combat is really, really easy: I just used Storm Dragon to paralyze everyone (I guess you could have the same effect with Paralyzing Palm), and finished them with Longsword or Leaping Tiger. I'm going to play the game again in Jade Master difficulty, with a Closed Fist female, focused on magical styles.

I'd say you will be happier for avoiding Storm Dragon next time. It's not just broken, it's practically an "I Win" button (that said I really appreciated it in that mass arena fight)

Focusing on magic should give you more of a challenge, as the immune critters become a real pain and (imo) the magic styles are cumbersome to use.

[Aegypto]

After an hour or so replaying the final combat, I've finished the goddamn game.

I swear that by the end the end the AI was mocking my sorry fighting skills - after reloading for the nth time,the main villain wasn't even bothering to attack me and meditated for a while as I started punching. And yet it almost kicked my ass again.

A very nice game, though I concur it's generally too easy. I might try a magical character next time.

[Olive]

Got this a few days ago and almost at the second town. I didn't do the coloured lion thing in the school - did I miss out on much?

[anowack]

Got this a few days ago and almost at the second town. I didn't do the coloured lion thing in the school - did I miss out on much?

No; just an extra technique that gives a minor bonus.

[Fade]

I swear that by the end the end the AI was mocking my sorry fighting skills - after reloading for the nth time,the main villain wasn't even bothering to attack me and meditated for a while as I started punching. And yet it almost kicked my ass again.
Spoilers, I mean it:Jade Golem style is an 'I win' button for both Emperor fights. They're not immune, and with a fully upgraded golem in Focus mode they go squish extremely quickly. The hardest fight for me was the fountain in Dirge.

[Aegypto]

Spoilers, I mean it:Jade Golem style is an 'I win' button for both Emperor fights. They're not immune, and with a fully upgraded golem in Focus mode they go squish extremely quickly. The hardest fight for me was the fountain in Dirge.

I tend to avoid using Jade Golem - not only is an 'I win button', it feels terribly slow and cumbersome, and not very fun to use. I think I used it only two or three times, against Inquisitor Jia and some red ministers I stumbled while wandering around Dirge.

Also, another question for people who have finished the game.

What was up with the baby Sagacious Zu rescued years ago? I assume that she was Sun Li's daughter, and that she may have been Dawn Star, but I don't think I ever got the full story.

[Unseenlibrarian]

Also, another question for people who have finished the game.

What was up with the baby Sagacious Zu rescued years ago? I assume that she was Sun Li's daughter, and that she may have been Dawn Star, but I don't think I ever got the full story.

That's the case; if you get the full story out of Zu before he dies, the Water Dragon fills you in on the rest, and you can tell Dawnstar and use it against Sun Li in a dialogue option.

[Aegypto]

That's the case; if you get the full story out of Zu before he dies, the Water Dragon fills you in on the rest, and you can tell Dawnstar and use it against Sun Li in a dialogue option.

Thanks. I think Zu tried to tell me about it in the Assassins' Fortress, but I was feeling snarky to him, so he never finished the tale. Never be snarky to your followers. :)

[Tar Markvar]

Thanks. I think Zu tried to tell me about it in the Assassins' Fortress, but I was feeling snarky to him, so he never finished the tale. Never be snarky to your followers. :)

Feeling snarky toward Zu is common.

Especially the way he was "sneaking" through the Assassins' Fortress. He must be a true nnja if he can sneak in plain sight, while talking, like that.

[Unseenlibrarian]

One thing that annoys me about the game: Every weapon-focused NPC has some special "Their swords cut ghosts, but yours don't, loser!" appended to it. Because god forbid, you'd want to focus on a single style.

[Wookie]

Well since you can't switch your allies during battle I think thats to help the player from being extra screwed against immune creatures.

Most NPC combatants, ie. the ones walking around that *aren't* your allies, actually have to obey the usual immunity rules in most cases.



More news, Jade Master campaign mode is ridiculous. Not only are enemies 4 times as tough as they are on normal, but they also do nearly 4 times as much damage. If you played through easy mode this is going to be an even bigger shock for you.

Oh and you can't change the difficulty in this mode.

But you can hack it to play at a different difficulty. Just modify your diffmodify.2da file its relatively straightforward the hardest mode is jade master, you can change its difficulty to whatever level you want and you can customize it. If you want to make the game insanely hard you can do that too.