Jade Empire is a largely unknown RPG developed by BioWare, and released in 2005 for the OG Xbox- and later on the PC with the Special Edition in 2007, it released to critical acclaim, but was a financial flop- only shipping around 500,000 Units by 2007, and has kinda turned into a cult classic, (in fact I was actually introduced to the game through this group). Now that you know what this game is, let’s get into the review and see if it is for you

Gameplay- The gameplay is a cool mix of old BioWare elements and badass martial arts moves, the combat system is very smooth and fluid and was their most action-packed combat system, at least in the sense of previous BioWare RPGs (like KOTOR and NWN), you get multiple different styles of fighting that changes your way of fighting, and some enemies have resistances to fighting styles- making you change it up so the gameplay doesn’t get stale. Overall- it’s a fast, fluid, and fantastic combat system, in my opinion, it’s likely the strongest aspect of the game, and the difficulty is a little on the easier side if you play on normal (except at the end) but that can be easily fixed by putting the difficulty up).

Story- The story takes place in… Jade Empire (I know, so surprising) a beautiful eastern empire that has been corrupted by the emperor Sun Hai. You (AKA The spirit Monk) are a student at the Two Rivers Academy training under the illustrious and yet mysterious Master Li. However while training, a elite squadron of troops under the emperor known as the Lotus Assassins attack the Academy and take Master Li, this sets The Spirit Monk on his quest throughout the beauty of Jade Empire, meeting companions and doing fun quests. Overall the plot is rather predictable (Except for a pretty badass twist near the end!), not bad by any means, but kinda a good vs bad story, but the beauty of this story is the extremely likable characters and world building, it has that BioWare flare, definitely a great story, but definitely not BioWare’s best.

Quest Design- Overall, I would say this is the weakest part, many quests simply turn out to be “go to A and deal with B” which is pretty disappointing for BioWare, however there are some very great ones once you get into the Imperial City, but overall, it felt like an oversight, and a lot of the choices you made in the side quests were extremely empty and didn’t show up in the later game. Don’t get me wrong, the quests were mostly fun to do, but didn’t have that extra layer of depth that BioWare showed

Graphics- Since it was released in 2005, its expected to not be as good as 2018 (and is why is pretty negligible within my score system, but still important to mention), but I was still rather surprised, the world was SO beautiful, and sometimes I just had to stop and look at the world, but the characters are a little blocky and janky, also the animations are buttery smooth, even better than most games today

Music- I enjoyed the music, I don’t really have that much to say since I didn’t go into depth with the music theory of it, but it definitely fit the world

Closing Thoughts- Overall this game is a Hidden, but flawed, Gem. Not BioWare’s best, but if you love RPGs, and especially BioWare, you will love this game!

8/10