Jade Empire is an action RPG developed by Canadian developer BioWare. It was published by Microsoft and released for Xbox worldwide in 2005.^[2] Later released was a two-disc Limited Edition containing extra content.^[3] On May 10, 2006 BioWare announced that it would release a PC version of the game for Microsoft Windows, to be published by 2K Games. This version was released on February 26, 2007 in North America^[2] as a Special Edition. It was also released on the Steam delivery system on February 27, 2007. In 2005, senior BioWare staff suggested the possibility of a sequel;^[4]however, on January 2007 BioWare staff said there were no plans for Jade Empire 2.^[5] Despite Bioware's denial, continual hints of Jade Empire 2 have surfaced; some are as recent as December 2007.^[6] Further information: Game classification Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay interaction. ... Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally use gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... A video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of video games into suitability-related groups. ... The ESRBs logo. ... The USKs official logo. ... PEGIs logo Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is a European video game content rating system. ... 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A sound card (also known as an audio card) is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs. ... An Action-RPG is a type of computer role-playing game which requires quick action or reflexes from the player. ... BioWare Corp. ... Microsoft Game Studios (MGS), branded with current logo and moniker in 2002 (formerly the Microsoft Game Division or Microsoft Games), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. ... For the Xboxs successor, see Xbox 360. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Windows redirects here. ... 2K Games is a video game publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 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Gameplay

Overview

Jade Empire follows the style of the wuxia genre and is based in a mythical setting inspired by ancient China. The player (who can be either male or female) progresses through an adventure based on traditional martial arts, and he or she is able to discover and develop new fighting styles^[7] (either martial arts,^[8] weapon styles,^[9] magic styles,^[10] support styles or transformation styles). During combat the player can switch between styles by hitting a pre-assigned direction on the D-Pad. Combat is not turn-based, but is in real time and gives players the ability to control how and when his character dodges or attacks. In this fashion the player has the ability to change styles during combat and possibly initiate a Harmonic Combo.^[11] Wǔxiá (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: , Mandarin IPA: , Cantonese Pinyin: mou5 hap6), literally meaning martial (arts) heroes, is a distinct quasi-fantasy sub-genre of the martial arts genre in literature, television and cinema. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... A turn-based game, also known as turn-based strategy, is a game where each participant plays in turn. ...

The traditional RPG stats are not featured in this game; rather, they are replaced with just three: Body, Mind, and Spirit.^[12] These primary stats control the secondary stats of Health, Focus, and Chi (respectively), and the conversation skills of Charm, Intuition, and Intimidation. Focus is used by fighting with weapon styles (such as a longsword or a staff) or by choosing "focus mode", which slows the movements of other characters, allowing the player to attack at high speeds. Chi is a character's spirit energy. The player can use it to heal himself, to charge up a powerful "chi strike" to deal large damage, or to use it as "mana" when casting spells or transformations. Health, focus, and chi can be replenished by collecting power-ups left by defeated enemies in combat or by using Focus Shrines and Spirit Fonts found in the game world. Additionally, certain party members^[13] have the ability to add their power to yours—refilling your stats while they remain out of harm's way. For other uses, see QI (disambiguation). ... The Longsword is a type of European sword used during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1250 to 1550. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Magic points (MP), mind power, or mana, are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing games (RPGs). ...

Certain aspects of Jade Empire's gameplay engine, dialogue and quest systems are handled in a way that is very similar to BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games for the Xbox and PC. Players can speak to NPCs in the game's towns and other areas, asking questions for information to learn more about the world, the storyline, and other characters. Many of these NPCs will offer the player side quests that can be completed for experience points and items. These quests often have more than one method of completion depending on whether the player chooses to follow the "High path" (in the game referred to as The Way of the Open Palm^[14]) or the "Low path" (The Way of the Closed Fist^[15]). The player can respond to questions or take courses of action that are consistent with the philosophy he or she follows; different actions will affect a character's alignment and his or her ability to cast certain spells or equip certain items. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is an RPG video game originally for the Microsoft Xbox and later for PCs running Microsoft Windows. ... An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ... A quest in a gaming context, especially in MMORPGs, is generally a task or series of tasks, which a player or group of players may complete in order to gain a reward. ... Experience points (often abbreviated as exp or xp) are a representation of a characters advancement and improvement in skills in role-playing games. ... In Dungeons & Dragons and some similar role-playing games, alignment is a categorisation of the moral and ethical perspective of the player characters, non-player characters, monsters, and societies in the game. ...

There is also a vertical-scrolling airplane shooter included in Jade Empire as a mini-game, which is triggered by certain events in the storyline. In the mini-game, only the health and chi bars are active. Chi is replenished by shooting enemies, and is used for special attacks specific to the mini-game. The yellow focus spheres will upgrade your primary cannon up to three times. Red health spheres refill your health bar as in the main game.

Jade Empire also features the constructed language Tho Fan developed by Wolf Wikeley, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics at the University of Alberta. A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... Tho Fan is a constructed language created by Wolf Wikeley for the Xbox game Jade Empire. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... The University of Alberta (U of A) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. ...

Philosophies

Much of the game places emphasis on the two major philosophies in the world of the Jade Empire, the Way of the Open Palm and the Way of the Closed Fist. These paths bear a close resemblance to the "Light Path" and "Dark Path" described in the BioWare title Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Thus one who follows the Way of the Open Palm is not necessarily good, and one who follows the Way of the Closed Fist is not necessarily evil. BioWare Corp. ... Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is an RPG video game originally for the Microsoft Xbox and later for PCs running Microsoft Windows. ...

According to the "Way of the Open Palm," the key to maintaining the universe is by being in harmony with nature, one's surroundings, and one's station in life. As an effect of being in nature with one's surroundings, one is expected to actively assist in lessening the chaos in the area, through the assistance of lessening burdens. While this seems "Peaceful", the Way of the Open Palm is strict in another form: one should not act outside their station and purpose in life.^[14]

According to the "Way of the Closed Fist," on the other hand, the purpose of life is to follow the ways of serving oneself — to face one's challenges head on, challenge one's station in life, and work to become self-reliant. The emphasis of the Way of the Closed Fist is combat, turmoil, and constantly challenging oneself, which is why many of those who are evil tend to be considered to follow the Way of the Closed Fist, in that they bring about chaos in the universe.^[15]

Context plays a large part in the interpretation of these philosophies. For example, an evil follower of the Open Palm path could enable the suffering of others in order to achieve greater order,^[14] and a good follower of the Closed Fist path could encourage self-reliance in others, thus making them happier.^[15] For instance, if a follower of the Open Palm came upon a peasant being attacked by a gang of bandits, he would help because it is the right thing to do. Conversely, if a follower of the Closed Fist encountered this situation, he would reason that the peasant must survive on their own merit, or die. However, the Closed Fist student might also help the peasant if he felt that the peasant was too far out of his league for such a battle to be a valid test of his strength. For example, if a common thug came upon this situation he may not help the peasant due to concern for his own safety, but then later claim he was merely following the way of the Closed Fist. In this way, the Closed Fist tends to be misconstrued as evil.

Despite the philosophical nuances, the actual game play in Jade Empire for the most part casts Open Palm actions as selfless and heroic, and Closed Fist actions as selfish and thuggish.

Character Histories

Player Characters

Prior to starting the game, the player must choose one of either six or seven playable characters, depending on the game version. The sex of the character is by far the most important factor at character creation, since it will determine the various romance options as well as the responses of many non-player characters throughout the story. There are no differences in combat capabilities between the sexes. An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ...

The default playable characters are labeled "fast" (Mind specialists), "magic" (Spirit specialists), "strong" (Body specialists), or "balanced." However, this distinction is largely irrelevant since Mind, Spirit, and Body can be independently customized before the start of the game, as well as within the game through natural level progression.

The male playable characters are Furious Ming (fast, tattooed), Lu the Prodigy (balanced, stocky), Monk Zeng (magic, dressed as a Buddhist monk), and Tiger Shen (strong, heavy-set). The female characters are Radiant Jen Zi (fast, diminutive), Scholar Ling (magic, contemplative), and Wu the Lotus Blossom (balanced, wide-eyed). Monk Zeng is only available in the Limited Xbox and Special PC editions of the game. The names of the characters can be customized prior to starting the game. Other than sex-based differences, the Jade Empire plot does not distinguish among the player characters (e.g., all male characters will have the same dialog response options, and will be received the same way by the story). As a minor detail, some NPCs will give a vague description of the player character's appearance. Categories: Buddhism-related stubs | Buddhist terms ...

The player character models all share common expressive traits. Through most conversations, the faces of the playable characters are calm and expressionless. When choosing a rare humorous or witty response from dialog options, a slight, barely perceptible smile appears on the character models. When choosing a mean-spirited or angry response, a much more perceptible scowl shows itself. Many of the pre-generated video cut scenes are rendered separately for each player character model.

Non-Player Characters

During the course of the game the player will meet various non-player characters. Some will have the willingness to join the player's party and thereby become a follower. Many more characters will not become followers, but will present opportunities for side-quests or casual conversation. An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ...

Further information: List of Jade Empire characters

Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

Romance

Jade Empire gives the player-character the option to form a romantic relationship with several of the non-player characters, including characters of the same sex. Successfully romancing a character results in them standing outside your tent on the eve of the battle against the golems, whereupon unless you choose to reject them, your character and the NPC will lean in to kiss (although if the character is of the same sex, the camera will pan away before the actual kiss itself). Male characters can romance Dawn Star, Silk Fox or Sky. Female characters can romance Sky or Silk Fox. Male characters can also romance both Dawn Star and Silk Fox at the same time. If this is the case, the cutscene and dialog at the tent implies that Dawn Star and Silk Fox spent some time together in their grief and lead the player character off for a menage-a-trois. When romancing a certain character, the opportunity arises to influence his or her way of thinking. For example, the normally calm and collected Dawn Star can be persuaded to stand up for herself and become an altogether less mellow person, effectively following the path of the Closed Fist. A ménage à trois (also sometimes known as a trio, threesome, or three-way) is a sexual relationship involving three people. ...

Plot

Setting

Jade Empire takes place in a fictional kingdom inspired by ancient China.

Tho Fan is a constructed language created by Canadian linguist Wolf Wikeley for the game. The language has been designed to sound ancient and distinctly Asian.^[16] A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... There are a wide variety of languages spoken throughout Asia, comprising a number of families and unrelated isolate languages. ...

Tho Fan does without the verb "to be"; instead, articles — words like "a" and "the" — would be used to mark tense. In the game, the Tho Fan phrases do not actually match up to their on-screen translations — most of them are actually a set of a few dozen pre-rendered phrases. In fact, the game will often use the exact same audio track to say successive sentences. For other uses, see Copula (disambiguation). ... The redirects here. ...

Story

Chapter 1: Two Rivers

The begins with the player cast as a martial arts student under the tutelage of Master Li, head of the Two Rivers martial arts school, based in the in-game geographical locale of the Golden Delta.^[17] Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

The player's training is interrupted as the town of Two Rivers comes under attack from an aggressor in a strange ship who summons ghosts to attack the student. The attacker is defeated by Master Li, who comes to the student's rescue and reveals that the attacker was a member of the Lotus Assassins, a mysterious force serving the Emperor of the Jade Empire. Gao the Lesser, a rival of the student, issues a challenge for a duel and loses. He is expelled from the school after he attempts to use explicitly forbidden magic on the student. Master Li explains that the student is the last of the order of Spirit Monks. He, a brother of the Emperor and leader of the Empire's army, had ordered an attack on Dirge, where the Spirit Monks' temple existed, in order to end the Long Drought. He claimed to have opposed the act and to have saved the student and the Dragon's Amulet. A semi-military organization created by Emperor Sun Hai to enforce his will and carry out any of the more brutal tasks he deemed too important to be entrusted to the imperial army. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

He sends the student to a cave beneath the school where he or she finds part of a Spirit Monk amulet and has a vision of the Water Dragon, the entity whose death at the hands of the Emperor ended the decade-long Long Drought but left spirits roaming the land. Dawn Star, one of the students at the school and a friend of the player, is kidnapped by Gao The Lesser. The student rescues her but returns to find the village in flames and Master Li kidnapped. The student, Dawn Star, and Sagacious Zu, a man whom they had met in the swamps around the village, head off in a borrowed flying machine towards the Imperial City, where Master Li has been taken. Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

Chapter 2: Tien's Landing

The party crash-lands their machine in Tien's Landing and sets out to find a new flier and a wind map that will show them the way to the Imperial City. The new flyer, called the Magnificent Dragonfly, is taken from the base of Gao the Greater, the father of the dead student of the first chapter. Gao the Greater is working with Grand Inquisitor Jia's elite subordinate, Inquisitor Lim, and is distressed to hear of his son's death. The player tracks down and kills him, and recruits Sky, a rogue, and Kang The Mad, Gao's personal engineer. Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

The party goes to a recently drained area near Tien's Landing, which flooded when the dam was first constructed. The Lotus Assassins opened the dam in order to search the ruins of old Tien's Landing. The student fights Chai Ka, a demon bound in the body of a little girl, and learns that Chai Kai was sent to protect the student and that the Lotus Assassins already have the amulet. The player can then close the dam or destroy the controls, keeping it open forever. Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

The student then heads to the Great Southern Forest, which is under the ownership of Lord Yun. The player then has the option of helping the Forest Shadow defeat a demon known as the Mother, or helping the Mother's cannibalistic demons destroy the Forest Shadow. In either event, the player can convince Lord Yun that the forest is recovering and get his wind map. Inquisitor Lim will ambush the player at this point; the player kills him and recovers a piece of the amulet.

Chapter 3: Imperial City

The party lands in the Imperial City and meets up with Silk Fox, who is revealed to be Princess Lian the Heavenly Lily, daughter of the Emperor. She is unconvinced that her father is behind the sickness the plagues the land, and believes that Death's Hand, the black armor-clad head of the Lotus Assassins, is responsible. After joining either the Executioners or the Inquisitors, the student's party infiltrates the Lotus Assassin's training ground to recover the last part of the Spirit Monk amulet. Sagacious Zu reveals that he was one of the Lotus Assassins who killed Master Li's family. During their quest, the party helps Master Gang assassinate his superior, Master Shin, making it look like an accident, and puts a corrupted Spirit Shard into a Jade Golem, causing it to malfunction. The golems go out of control, damaging the underground complex. The party battles two Jade Golems and a handful of Lotus Assassins, killing Master Gang in the process. They also find Grand Inquisitor Jia, who reveals that the Emperor knew about what Death's Hand and the Lotus Assassins were doing and had, in fact, ordered them to do it. The player kills her, but Death's Hand arrives. Sagacious Zu sacrifices himself to save the student, burying Death's Hand in rubble. Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

Chapter 4: Imperial Palace

The party fights their way to the Emperor's throne room where Silk Fox learns of what her father has done. He is aware that the Water Dragon's death is stopping the dead from reaching the underworld but is mad with power. The Emperor knocks down everyone in the throne room with a blast of magic and summons guards to attack the student, who defeats them. The student battles the Emperor, who is able to alternate fighting styles and damage immunities. The student kills the Emperor, but Master Li gets up, takes the Jade Heart for himself, and kills the student.

Chapter 5: Spirit Monk Temple

The student wakes up in the underworld as a spirit. The Water Dragon reveals that Sun Li had planned this all along; he wished for the Water Dragon's power and needed to obtain the amulet and defeat Emperor Sun Hai. The student meets up with the spirit of Abbot Song, who tells him or her what truly happened at Dirge. He reveals that Sun Li wore Death's Hand's armor and killed the abbot when he tried to stop him and his brothers. The brothers arrange for Dirge's fountains to be tainted with human blood, weakening the Water Dragon, and Emperor Sun Hai killed Sun Kin when he and Sun Li attempted to oppose him. Abbot Song then reveals that one of his order attempted to escape with the student, but Sun Li, who had escaped from Sun Hai, killed the student's guardian and assumed his identity. The player and Abbot Song make their way through Dirge and learn that an evil being has taken control after the fall of the temple. The student reaches the place where the Water Dragon was slain, and defeats aspects of his or her darker emotions. The student then returns to life, and the rest of the party, who learns about this through Dawn Star, flies to Dirge to reunite with their friend. Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ... Notice -- The following list is a collection of prominent characters from the award winning video game Jade Empire by Bioware. ...

Chapter 6: Defending the Temple

While the student was dead, Sun Li realized that action would have to be taken in case the student managed to return to the realm of the living, and he retrieved Death's Hand from the rubble of the Lotus Assassin headquarters. He then sends the Imperial Army against Dirge. Sky pretends to betray the group, and lures Death's Hand out so that the student can defeat him in single combat. However, this is not enough to defeat him; Death's Hand rises again, but the student uses the force of his will to expel Sun Li's influence. The player may then release Death's Hand, use him as a slave, or convince him to seek redemption.

Chapter 7: Back to the Palace

The party flies back to the palace to confront the Emperor. As they make their way through the palace they discover that the Emperor had stopped the drought by cutting open the Water Dragon's corpse and letting the water that flows from it feed the Empire. The student chooses either to destroy the Water Dragon's body, thus freeing her spirit and allowing the dead to find the underworld, or defile the water to weaken the Dragon and claim her power after defeating the Emperor.

The student reaches Emperor Sun Li, who first sends Constructs of Bull and Elephant demons, the most powerful in the game, after the player. Sun Li then encases the student in stone and attempts to defeat the player with the force of his own doubt. However, if the student's companions survived, they will reduce the number of enemies that must be fought in each of the two stages. Sagacious Zu appears and helps free the student from his mind.

Emperor Sun Li offers to help his student live in legend forever, if the student dies without fighting. If the player makes this decision, the student is remembered as a hero for knowing his or her place as Sun Li looks on and laughs. If the player does not, Sun Li attacks, and the student defeats him.

Endings

If the student chooses to free the Water Dragon's spirit, then the end sequence shows the people of the Jade Empire cheering the student and their party. If the student chooses to enslave the Water Dragon, the end sequence shows the Lotus Assassins kneeling at the feet of the student. After this end sequence, there are short text summaries detailing the fate of any characters who survived the adventure. These vary depending upon whether or not the student chose to enslave or free the Water Dragon, and also what romance options the student pursued.

Dawn Star: She either settles down with the student, settles down on her own, rules the empire with the student, or if the student talked her into a Closed Fist philosophy and/or abandoned her, wanders the Jade Empire alone.

Silk Fox: If the student does not romance Silk Fox, she will become Empress of the Jade Empire. If the student does romance Silk Fox and the student is male, the student and Silk Fox will rule the empire fairly, or with an iron fist. If the student is female, Silk Fox will either rule the empire fairly with her 'companion,' or will again rule with an iron fist, and both the student and Silk Fox don the Silk Fox costume to silence dissenters.

Sky: Sky will use the Guild for good purposes, or serve as the student's consort or as the new Death's Hand. If the student is female and romances Sky, they leave the imperial city and live on the outskirts of Tien's Landing.

Black Whirlwind: Black Whirlwind will roam the empire cutting off heads, eventually making his way around the world.

Henpecked Hou: After a series of mishaps, Hou starts a delivery business which he immediately uses as a method of escaping his overbearing wife.

Chai Ka: Chai Ka will either return to the heavens, freeing Wild Flower and giving her the gift of life, or he will remain trapped in Wild Flower's body causing her wander the empire as a raving lunatic.

Ya Zhen: Ya Zhen will either serve the student until he or she passes away (resulting in him moving to bigger plans) or serve the student forever and loyally.

Death's Hand: Death's Hand will either become more evil, mutating so badly that his armor cannot hold his demonic form, or he will spend the rest of his days wandering the empire as a crusader for good, in order to make up for his past misdeeds.

Kang the Mad: Kang will continue to invent machines until an explosion appears to take his life, although strange machines continue to appear on the student's doorstep every year on his or her birthday. As Lord Lao, Kang's lack of danger affects his imagination in building machines, so as a radical solution Kang starts arming the mobs that chase after him. If the player chose the Closed Fist ending, Kang works for the emperor(player), worrying his use will eventually be worn out and he will be disposed of. Eventually, he crafts a portal to another dimension and disappears in a huge explosion, taking an entire lake with him.

A third, alternate ending is available if the Student agrees to the terms of surrender presented by the main antagonist in the final confrontation. The ending sequence features a statue of the student being praised years later by a class of children with a skin condition similar to that of the Lotus Assassins. One child asks what life was like before the protagonist's honored sacrifice and is quickly shushed by his teacher as a Jade Golem readies an axe to quell such questioning. The sequence ends with the main antagonist laughing evilly.

Reception

Criticisms

Although generally well-liked by both reviewers and players (winning Game Informer's Game of the Month award and 2005 Xbox Game of the Year from IGN) some elements attracted criticism. One was the problem of loading screens, a trait shared with BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic. Some effort was taken to combat this, such as having the “team gathering/home base” areas separated from the main “town/village.” Going there would bring up a mini-loading bar, rather than a whole new load screen. Also, some areas incorporate the use of an elevator device to mask the game loading to a new area; these include the Imperial Palace and the Headquarters of the Lotus Assassins. This serves to remove drag time in waiting for the game to load, but one area of the game that draws constant attention to long and frequent load times is the arena sequence, in which the player must endure a loading screen before and after every match, many of which can last up to a minute. The PC version of the game also uses loading screens, but on newer systems the load time is dramatically reduced from the Xbox version.

Another area that attracted some concern was the ease of the battle system. Even on higher difficulty settings the tactics are rather facile and tend not to change. For instance, the player attacks until the opponent blocks, the player then uses the special attack to break through the block, and the process is thus repeated. However, enemies immune to certain styles forces players to diversify their skills, and some encounters require special techniques to win (to defeat one boss, the player must knock down some pillars to collapse the cave, while another boss is able to become immune to certain attacks at will.)

Some have claimed that the game is too short. However, it takes longer to complete if the player takes on various side quests along the way, and replay value is added with the different endings and the ability to follow the Way of the Open Palm or the Way of the Closed Fist. According to the developers, the average playtime is approximately 26 hours (assuming that no dialogue or cut-scenes are skipped and all the quests are undertaken). Compared to BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic, there is less of a variety in locations (for example, Jade Empire only has one major city and two small towns, one of which is inaccessible after a short time). Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is an RPG video game originally for the Microsoft Xbox and later for PCs running Microsoft Windows. ...

Awards

Awards include:

• E3 2004 Game Critics Awards: Best Role Playing Game^[18]
• Electronic Gaming Monthly's June 2005 Game of the Month award.
• Included on Game Informer's "Top 50 Games of 2005" list.
• Gamespy's 2005 Xbox RPG of the Year, Top 10 Xbox Games of the Year.
• IGN's Xbox RPG of the year; Xbox game of the year; Best Story on Xbox 2005; Best Artistic Design on Xbox.
• Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences': RPG of the Year; Outstanding Character Performance: Female.
• MetaCritic's RPG of the Year, 2005.

See BioWare's page on their official Jade Empire site^[19] for a complete listing. E³ logo The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E³, was an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association. ... The Game Critics Awards are a set of annual awards held after the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) since 1998 to current. ... Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated to EGM) is an American video game magazine. ... Game Informer (often abbreviated to GI) is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Versions

Limited Edition

A Limited Edition of Jade Empire was available for those who pre-ordered the game, except in Canada where all copies were Limited Editions. Eventually, they would appear on all store shelves. The Limited Edition version has a different box art than the original. It has a red, reflective background instead of the sky blue, and the words "Limited Edition" was printed on the bottom of the name. This version of Jade Empire was packed with an extra disc that contained the data for the character model Monk Zeng, a magic type character, a "Making of" video by G4, and three game demos: Forza Motorsport, Conker Live & Reloaded, and MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf. The game itself is also slightly different; the first staff that can be chosen is Tien's Justice instead of the Golden Star. Forza Motorsport is a racing simulator video game developed by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox gaming system. ... Conker: Live & Reloaded is a video game for Microsofts Xbox console. ...

Special Edition

The PC version of Jade Empire is known as the Special Edition. It is based on the Xbox Limited Edition", and also includes the Monk Zeng character but not the Tien's Justice weapon style (both of which are available in the Limited Edition described above). Changes from the Xbox version includes increased resolutions up to 1600x1200 (1920x1200 in Widescreen), new special effects and redrawn textures, two new martial styles (Iron Palm and Viper), a new rhino demon transformation, new monsters, new high level weapons, an improved AI, with enemies able to take cover more often; a new "Jade Master" difficulty level, with ability to import save games; a new world map interface; and keyboard and hotkey support. It also contains a bonus art book and poster.^[20]

Like the original version, the Special Edition has also been criticized for being too short and for having rather easy battles using a simplistic battle system,^[21] getting an average review score of 83% according to Game Rankings.^[22] Other criticisms included a lack of cheat codes, and the ease of changing your alignment (hence changing the ending) at a point near the end-game which effectively discounts any good/evil deeds you've done for the majority of the game.^[23] Game Rankings is a website which keeps track of video game reviews from other sites, and combines them to present an average rating for each game. ... Cheat codes are codes that can be entered into a computer game to change the games behaviour. ...

Trivia

• There are several similarities to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The player can choose the Open Palm or Closed Fist path in the same manner that you can follow the Light Path or the Dark Path, and in KOTOR, you can join the Sith Academy on Korriban just like you can join the Lotus Assasins.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is an RPG video game originally for the Microsoft Xbox and later for PCs running Microsoft Windows. ...

References

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External links

• Official Jade Empire website
• BioWare website
• US Microsoft Jade Empire-page
• UK Microsoft Jade Empire-page
• Jade Empire at MobyGames
• Netjak Review
• Gamespot Review
• 1up Review
• IGN Review