Are you saying the Drunken Master guy is a great character? I didn't find Dawn Star particularly compelling, either. Sort of the proto-Tali, maybe.

I liked Silk Fox, Wild Flower and the former assassin guy who's ame eludes me at the moment. I really didn't like Black Whirlwind though and dislike how the game railroaded me into helping him against Viper.

As for how to make the game longer, that's simple. More towns. More exploration. There's this huge world they built and we only visited a tiny fraction of it. We didn't even explore that much of the Jade Empire, just two villages and the capital.