RPGWatch Feature: Jade Empire SE Review

I would have to disagree with this pretty strongly. I think that the dialog in the game would have sounded really dumb with fake Chinese accents. Remember Deus Ex in Hong Kong? I hate S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s English dialog because of the silly sounding Russian accents.

I dunno - I think there is a huge divide between Deus Ex's embarrassing accents and STALKER. STALKER was good enough that when you had English and Russian in close proximity it wasn't jarring.
 
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It doesn't have to sound fake like in Dx . I'm sure an alternative way could be found. Nevertheless it wasn't such an huge issue, dialog itself was great and voice acting top quality, i just thought some eastern flavours would have not hurted..
 
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I don't really like fake accents in any medium. Either perform the dialog in its native language, or perform it accent-free. If I speak a native language with somebody who is also a native speaker, then I won't detect an accent. Nobody has an accent in Jade Empire because they speak perfect Chinese, and so do I (in game). That's why I think that it's more of an immersion-breaker to have English with foreign accents than it is to just have perfect English. A fake accent (I can't think of one that I have ever seen that I have liked) conveys that the character is not speaking his native toungue (which is wrong, because he is supposed to be). That's why the first guy who talks to you in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. kind of annoys me. I coudn't stop thinking about how much better his character would have been if his dialog had been Russian with subtitles.
 
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Translation and voice acting is a complex topic. Anybody remember the dwarfs with Saxonian accent, in Baldur´s Gate I think ?
 
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I don't really like fake accents in any medium. Either perform the dialog in its native language, or perform it accent-free. If I speak a native language with somebody who is also a native speaker, then I won't detect an accent. Nobody has an accent in Jade Empire because they speak perfect Chinese, and so do I (in game). That's why I think that it's more of an immersion-breaker to have English with foreign accents than it is to just have perfect English. A fake accent (I can't think of one that I have ever seen that I have liked) conveys that the character is not speaking his native toungue (which is wrong, because he is supposed to be). That's why the first guy who talks to you in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. kind of annoys me. I coudn't stop thinking about how much better his character would have been if his dialog had been Russian with subtitles.

All I can say after playing about an hour of 'Day Watch' is ... if you had that image in your head, you would gladly take STALKER :D
 
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Do you mean Night Watch, or is there a Day Watch game coming? (Speaking of which, the movie was pretty cool and the sequel comes out tomorrow. Too bad it probably won't show anywhere nearby).
 
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Translation and voice acting is a complex topic. Anybody remember the dwarfs with Saxonian accent, in Baldur´s Gate I think ?

The german version of Baldur's Gate 1 is the reason I always try to get the english versions of non-german Games ;) (well, except from Giants^^)

The guy responsible for the translation thought it was funny to get as many Accents as possible in the Game - it was one of the most immersion-breaking things I have seen... I ordered the english version after I couldn't stand the flood of totaly out-of-place-accents any more :(

I still had use for my german discs, after one of the english CDs exploded in my CD-Drive a few years later - I simply could game on with the german disc :)
 
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I bought a used XBox a year or so ago mostly to play this game and I was not disappointed. It's not at all an open-ended Oblivion-type game so complaining about not being able to go anywhere is valid but it's just not that type of game. It's a fairly linear story-driven game and it's extremely well done in my view. The story, atmosphere, and how the various areas and tasks wrap into the whole are the strengths of the game; if all of that were done poorly (or not at all) then I would barely have enjoyed (or not enjoyed) the game.
 
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The guy responsible for the translation thought it was funny to get as many Accents as possible in the Game - it was one of the most immersion-breaking things I have seen... I ordered the english version after I couldn't stand the flood of totaly out-of-place-accents any more

Do people acctually listen to these dialogues? I read 5 times as fast as those people speak... and when I am into the game... I never have the time to stay and listen.... well in Gothic I did sometimes because the characters there are acctually talking and doing something like a gesture so sometimes I acctually don't just read the dialogue....... but in a game like BG I never saw the point... it is just a piece of text being read that has nothing to do with the character.

The exception was Planescape Torment IMHO the voice acting there was really good. I enjoyed listening to it.
 
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Do people acctually listen to these dialogues? I read 5 times as fast as those people speak...

That was one of my issues, too. People were getting the idea that I was a powergamer who didn't care about dialogue based on me skipping through conversations so quickly. I had to tell them that no, I actually just read fast enough to be that far ahead of the VO actor... and I hate finishing a line and then waiting another twenty seconds to have the VO actor finish it, too.

Mass Effect should see the advent of shorter lines, as we get better at that -- assume that people don't want to look at the same twenty words for thirty seconds, even if we have awesome big name actors doing the voices.
 
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Well, NWN was a toolset with a game attached. I would guess the reviews would have been a lot better (and fewer) if they didn't throw in the OC at the last minute. Oh, and I love BG2 and the IWDs. Great games. (preferences)

It looks very much like the feel of KotOR tried system for console RPGing. My guess this is sort of a practice product to delve into other gaming genres and doing their own IP. Since you say its only 20 hours I'll have a look at it. It kind of reminds me of that Prince of Qin sequel only in 3d.
 
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Do you mean Night Watch, or is there a Day Watch game coming? (Speaking of which, the movie was pretty cool and the sequel comes out tomorrow. Too bad it probably won't show anywhere nearby).

Night Watch I played in full, there is now a Day Watch release available
 
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off topic, this is the first time I've heard of Day Watch. Have there been any news posts about it. I have not heard anything good about Night Watch, unfortunately.
 
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off topic, this is the first time I've heard of Day Watch. Have there been any news posts about it. I have not heard anything good about Night Watch, unfortunately.

Is it any good? From the screenshots, it looks similar to Night Watch.

Day Watch sort of came out of nowhere for me. I was looking on GamersGate for stuff to review for another site (basically told - whatever isn't already reviewed or spoken for) and saw this. I am still reading the Day Watch book, which is nice.

The game so far is very much derivative of the Night Watch game - but for me that isn't such a bad thing. There are improvements to the interface and the Twilight isn't quite so murky and ugly. But it is still the same basic game with tons of warts - cutscenes are rough, translations are awful, and you do still spend the majority of the game looking at the real world through something akin to a water filter.

I will have some fun and post my review when done - but would I recommend spending $30 on it? Um ... no, certainly not based on what I've seen so far.
 
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Translation and voice acting is a complex topic. Anybody remember the dwarfs with Saxonian accent, in Baldur´s Gate I think ?
Oh god, yes...
 
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Gothic 1 & 2 are the only games I can recall where I took the time to listen to the dialogue, instead of just reading through it.

Regarding JE - good game, solid setting, fun to play something that's not a classic fantasy clichè with knights and what not. Too bad it's so restricted and short, if the writers and developers had been given more time and money to develop it (with a different engine) it could've been truly amazing.
 
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Just finished it. My original impression didn't change -- good, clean fun but nothing unforgettable. I liked the setting, I liked the twisty, turny plot, I liked the action and the character development, and I liked the visual design. I didn't particularly mind the on-rails storytelling (that's just a part of the genre). I liked most of the fights, although a couple were a bit unbalanced and used the "quantity over quality" challenge mechanic that I always found a bit cheap. For example that really long one very early in the game in the ring that ends up against the bearded guy with the Leaping Tiger style. I died repeatedly when facing him, and wading through the weaker enemies over and over again wasn't fun, just tedious.

However, IMO it missed one pretty big opportunity: that bit about the Open Palm and the Closed Fist. It was all explained very nicely, but in practice the game played as "open palm = teh g00d, closed fist = teh 3viL." It would have been so easy to do right, too:

(1) Instead of two resolutions to dilemmas, give four: open palm, closed fist, dumb goody-goody, pointless cruelty. Only award points for the first two. For extra credit, don't make the choices between open palm/dumb goody-goody and closed fist/pointless cruelty exactly obvious.

(2) Include some unintended consequences: have a con-man fleece you for being a dumb goody-goody (or even an open palm follower); have the "innocent civilian" you whacked as closed fist/pointless cruelty turn out to be a serial killer.

Overall, I'd give this a 7/10. Polish up those fights just a bit more, and it'd be an 8/10. Do the philosophies right, and it'd be very close to a 9/10.
 
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