Cover Art
Despite technological advances in graphics and what-not, games can be judged actual gameplay, etc. (yes, Uncharted 2, Crysis and Killzone 2, I’m talking to you). And if there’s one genre of game I like, it’s the RPG. And if there’s one developer of RPGs that I like, it’s Bioware. The dialogue is always well voiced, and nearly always well scripted. Which is why I keep returning to play Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights and, the one I’m currently playing, Jade Empire.
To anyone thinking “Hmm, maybe Danny’s not writing about Buddhism here.”, wrong! Hah. Because I like Jade Empire for a second reason, other than it’s an RPG made by Bioware. It is very, though not explicitly, Buddhist. Let’s start from the start, shall we?
You start the game in a martial arts/meditation centre. You are taught to respect your opponent and the need to conquer yourself. Also, the stats which your character uses. ‘Body’, which influences your ‘Health’, ‘Spirit’, which influences your ‘Chi’ (essentially magic/mana), and ‘Mind’, which influences ‘Focus’. Does that get much more Buddhist, for a game? Developing focus is essentially the only thing I’ve been doing when I meditate.
What’s more, no matter what kind of style of game you want to play (magic user, fighter, weapon wielder), without a balance of Body, Spirit and Mind, you will fail. That’s the Middle Way for you. Everyone needs a high Body stat (so they can live), Spirit is used to use magic or transformation styles (or in fact to heal yourself), and Mind is used to wield weapons (or slow down time or run really fast). The point being, there are many features of the gameplay, eg, martial arts, magic, transformation styles, weapons, support styles, healing, slowing down time, dodging, blocking, etc., but only three base attributes to govern them. Yes, you can upgrade, for instance, the staff using skill points you receive upon levelling up, but you still need a high focus to wield the weapon. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a good thing. Me, I prefer using weapons and martial styles in combat. So I have to find the ‘Middle Way’ between specialisation in Focus and balancing all of the stats.
I’m also pretty sure I saw some Buddhist statues in there somewhere, though I may be mistaken on that.
It’s not like me to go on a ramble (unless you know me personally, in which case, you probably have heard me ramble on about why Bioware’s so good), but I’ve just rediscovered how awesome this game is, and I hope you, should you get the chance, play it too. And I like the game this much, despite the Quarry area of Old Tiens Landing being screwed up due to scratches on the disc, whereby the game stops every half second or so.
Danny. _/|\_
I’m surprised how often this happens. Maybe there’s something good about the way this is done that I don’t know about. But if there is one thing that makes me not look forward to picking up my pay for my paper round, it’s when they put the coins on top of the notes.
