Jade Empire: Anything I should know before I start this game? (character, mods, etc)

[AntiFreze]

Is there anything I should know/do before starting? Is it better to be a male/female? what class? etc. or do you not get a choice?

Also, are there mods to make it better, patches, etc?

 

[AllWhacked]

There are no classes per say, you can interchange any character (male/female) and mix and mash martial arts styles. I ended up with the Monk since it was an extra character added for the special edition. The one thing that sucked about this game is that their clothing didn't change as you don't get armor. You get jewels that increase your stats. You can also add points to various martial arts styles. Like in any RPG, if you want to max out your character I suggest you pick one of the early styles that you like and max it out. Then max out spirit leach and paralyzing palm. For animal transformation, pick jade golem. I think I ended up puting a single point in one of the elemental styles (I think stone) so I could pull off a Fist of the North Star move and cause my enemies to explode in bloody bits. You are also only allowed 1 NPC to accompany you. I tended to pick the girl who can heal you and left her in that capacity. Having her aid you tended to get her knocked out quite frequently.

 

[Via]

Once you start - keep playing.

I've tried to start this game many times, but I always get distracted and leave it for a while.

Then I come back to it and forget how the controls work, or just lose my rhythm. It's frustrating.

One of these days I'm going to take a free weekend and put 20 hours into it.

The graphics are pretty good for an older console port.

 

[AntiFreze]

very cool, thanks for the heads up. Jade Golem it is.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Jade Golem was OP as hell from what I remember.

 

[coloumb]

Once you start - keep playing.

I've tried to start this game many times, but I always get distracted and leave it for a while.

Then I come back to it and forget how the controls work, or just lose my rhythm. It's frustrating.

One of these days I'm going to take a free weekend and put 20 hours into it.

The graphics are pretty good for an older console port.

Same here...I think I've tried to play the game about 3 times so far in the past few years but always end up playing something else...

 

[shortylickens]

Still downloading. Been at it for two days.

 

[Dumac]

Transformations made the game too easy. First, I just spammed Toad Demon. Then, I spammed Jade Golem.

 

[ManBearPig]

i liked this game a lot.

 

[katank]

For martial styles, leaping tiger is by far the best and easiest to use.

Feel free to abuse both spirit thief and storm dragon. Both are excellent.

Storm dragon in particular is OP. Regular attacks from it stun. Quickly switch to another style to damage and then back to stun again. You can stunlock and wear down bosses w/ minimal risk.

Area effect of storm dragon is also insane. Turn on focus mode and you can then use power attacks to perform harmonic combos which generates focus orbs. This allows you to cut your way through a horde of enemies quickly.

Single weapon styles aren't very useful. Max out dual axes or dual swords to give some crowd control abilities.

Mirabelle is also a very fun weapon style to use. Why fight tough enemies in melee when you can shoot them?

Some of these tactics don't work quite as well on highest difficulty level (focus orbs don't drop often enough, mirabelle chews up too much focus, etc.) but should allow you to dominate on normal and do pretty well on hard.

Another thing is to avoid reading spoilers. This one had a great storyline which deserves better than being spoiled.