All for the Empire

I've recently made a return to playing Jade Empire.
I'm doing pretty well so far in that I have made it to Chapter Three in the narrative and I've collected a fair number of the NPCs. I've also maxed out the Dire Flame style and have my eye set on maxing out the Stone Immortal style (I could max out Tempest and Ice Shard as well but I have yet to receive them. Also there is wisdom in maxing out Martial and Weapon styles).

Funny thing is I'm finding that with a maxed out Dire Flame some fights are coming across as mind-boggling easy. One such situation is the Black Leopard school quest chain. Using the Dire Flame, I had little trouble in defeating the students that challenged me - so much so, I began to wonder how they managed to last for so long and whether there was wisdom in allowing Smiling Hawk to take over. Or is that kind of the point?

Still, Jade Empire is lots of fun and it's great to have an RPG based on kung-fu and having a setting ripped from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's also pleasing to have an RPG that actually works with an Xbox controller. Needless to say it will be interesting to see what happens next in this game...