Jade Empire: Special Edition

When I first got my Original Xbox an EB games employee suggested Jade Empire and Halo and games to buy. Since then I have beaten Jade empire 3 times on Xbox Original, 2 times on the 360 re-release, once on PC on the Origins client and am purchasing it again here. The game is short in comparison to Skyrim or other openworld RPG's but it delivers its content well and doesn't overstay its welcome. The variety of fighting styles, choices and hidden areas and missions give the game a lot of room for replayability, and the starting characters while not really customizable are varied enough in delivery that they provide room to play through differently, particularly the beginning of the game before you really unlock more martial styles. I personally enjoy shorter more crafted experiences and to me that is what Jade Empire is, its got great moments, moves well and doesn't stagnate. You can beat the game in one sitting if really grinding main quest, or stretch the linearity a little to the side and discover many hours of extra content in missions and martial styles. I missed my now favourite style on my first playthrough completely. The fanbase of the game can get pretty ridiculous but there is a real gem here, before DragonAge 2 and nuBioware this game really has heart and soul and is a great western made Chinese Kung Fu RPG and it's pretty awesome something like that even exists.

When I got JADE EMPIRE I got it simply because it was Bioware. Bioware had never let me down, yet. And... They didn't with Jade Empire either. While you don't get the typical NPCs that Bioware was known for traveling with you - the lore, the game mechanics, and the people in the game - create this incredible experience. The game's puzzles are fun, the fights are fun, everything about this game proves that Bioware simply knew how to put a game together.

This was one of my favorite games 20 years ago when I bought the first Xbox console, still hoping for a sequel or at least a remake ...

Where Dragon Age was looking back to BioWare's Infinity Engine days, Jade Empire was experimenting with a non-Western fantasy template, something still highly rare in gaming today. In the place of turn based, D&D influenced rulesets, Jade Empire attempted an action RPG hybrid, and succeeded for the most part while failing in some critical respects. Where Mass Effect took from KotOR's crew template and sci fi quarters, Jade Empire put you in a distant, imagined Asian past with a similarly interesting party. The obligatory binary morality system is still in place, but is cleverly reinterpreted here, with a more satisfying thematic unity. Sure, it still boils down to a Light/Dark path with corresponding powers and content, but it still shook up the system. BioWare's coup de grace has always been (again, in my opinion) its excellent supporting cast. They may not tell the most original or well paced stories, nor have the most unique settings to place their games in, but their character writing is usually quite good. They are archetypal here as well: you'll have all the token Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic/Good/Evil party members. The cast in JE aren't the strongest amongst BioWare's classic roster, but they are still fun to adventure with and a couple are quite memorable, without spoiling anything.

Jade empire is definitly a good game. With it's great asian touch right at the beginning it sets a great inttroduction for the game that it keeps more or less until the last areas of the game. Everything has sort of a "Mulan" feeling to it. The gameplay is split between fighting and simply walking around and taking quests or buy stuff. But here is one of the shortfalls this game has to offer: while there are plenty of attcks to learn it doesn't get even remotly challenging to defeat foes or solving quests. So you will make your through this game rather quickly and see the other big problem of this game: it seems heavily cut towards the end, right after an important story twist. I do not want to spoiler anything but right after an important story twist it feels like you will make a long way to your final enemy and confront him in an epic battle. But what the game gives you instead is a surprisingly similar sequence you had gone through just a hour ago. While this might seem like a minor issue considering the game does fairly good until then, it leaves a sour taste on the tongue. Anyway, if you like such settings and want to play a not too long RPG for the next two weekends, this might be just what you're looking for.