I originally played the game on Xbox but after playing the PC port, there really isn't any competition as to which is better. The PC version adds in two new styles as well as upgrades for two weapons, a new character and two more enemies, The Rhino Demon and the Ghost Lord, both of which fit right in to the original cast of enemies. The Story is interesting if a bit simple by BioWare standards, but it benefits greatly from an interesting setting in Imperial China that is fairly uncommon to see.

The writing is as always well done that added a real sense of immersion, it always felt like there was a whole world out there outside of the land you're exploring with use of clever characters and dialogue. One such moment was when the Water Dragon mentioned how while the Jade Empire prospered many lands suffered because of it which helps add to the feeling of a world outside the Empire. The characters and followers are also well written but I always felt as if the team was much smaller and less diverse than it was in reality. This is most likely due to many of the characters having no real impact on the plot with only about half of your followers really needing to be there for plot progression after their initial introduction.

In terms of graphics the game does a good job of holding up with a good mix of cartoonish colors and realistic models and faces, which helps the game stand up well over a decade after its release (so long as you can handle somewhat low poly count and a few graphical glitches here and there).

The combat is where most people find fault with the game due to it's simplicity, and they are not wrong. The games combat is very easy to abuse with a combination of Paralyzing Palm/Storm Dragon and any attack the enemy isn't weak to but I think most people forget that this was BioWare's first attempt at a real time combat system that didn't rely on pauses and dice rolls like KotOR. For the most part, the combat gets the job done.

The game length was my biggest gripe. This is most likely due to the game quickly coming to an end just as it starts to reach its high point. The first three chapters of the game take up more than half of the run time which is fairly disappointing as the game still has another 4 chapters to go that is completely linear with no side quests to be had. The game felt very rushed after the plot twist which may have made sense in a story-telling perspective, but it made the later portion of the game feel as if there should be another 30 hours of content.

Overall, I feel as if Jade Empire is overlooked by many. I feel as if its initial reaction of hate was due to it not being as polished as BioWare's previous game KotOR, and that its niche setting and glaring flaws made many people overlook this fantastic game. If a sequel is to ever be conceived I hope that the flaws are addressed as the world of Jade Empire has a lot of potential to expand upon because as of right now, Jade Empire doesn't do enough justice to what is a really interesting setting.