joiedecombat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
joiedecombat) wrote2010-10-14 07:21 pm
joiedecombat) wrote2010-10-14 07:21 pm
Entry tags:
and now I am back to having no games to play
Recently finished playing Jade Empire. It was unexpectedly short, but still a BioWare RPG, with all the usual trappings: a karma meter, an assortment of endearingly dysfunctional party members, dialogue trees with plenty of opportunities for snark, a major third-act twist, and a male love interest who not only has no problem taking orders from a woman but is generally more concerned with her mental health than the chances she might get hurt saving the world (indeed, he pretty much takes it as given that she'll kick everything's ass handily).
I found the gameplay of the PC version kind of unwieldy, but the combat system being built around various martial arts styles was fun, and I kind of want to replay a bit and experiment more with it, since I ended up relying heavily on two or three out of like two dozen possible styles. (Admittedly, the ones I used were really badass - the longsword style, which basically made me a walking cuisinart, and White Demon, which is straight up just hitting things really hard until they die. And occasionally some Paralyzing Palm for variety.)
The flyer minigames were freaking annoying, but fortunately mostly skippable. It really is an awfully short game, though; I did every sidequest I could find and still finished it in just a couple days. I didn't get all of my party members' backstories out of them, though, so there's still some replay value in that as well.
I found the gameplay of the PC version kind of unwieldy, but the combat system being built around various martial arts styles was fun, and I kind of want to replay a bit and experiment more with it, since I ended up relying heavily on two or three out of like two dozen possible styles. (Admittedly, the ones I used were really badass - the longsword style, which basically made me a walking cuisinart, and White Demon, which is straight up just hitting things really hard until they die. And occasionally some Paralyzing Palm for variety.)
The flyer minigames were freaking annoying, but fortunately mostly skippable. It really is an awfully short game, though; I did every sidequest I could find and still finished it in just a couple days. I didn't get all of my party members' backstories out of them, though, so there's still some replay value in that as well.