Jade Empire

Plot synopsis:
=== Setting ===
Jade Empire takes place in a fictional kingdom inspired by ancient China. The game developers had a constructed language, Tho Fan, created for the game by Canadian linguist Wolf Wikeley. The language has been designed to sound ancient and distinctly Asian. Tho Fan does without the verb "to be"; instead, articles are 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 exactly the same audio track to say successive sentences, as also occurs in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
=== Story ===
Chapter 1: Two Rivers
The game 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 Golden Delta.
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 claims to have opposed the act and to have saved the student and the Dragon's Amulet.
He sends the student to a cave beneath the school, where the student 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 met in the swamps around the village, head off in a borrowed flying machine towards the Imperial City, where Master Li has been taken.
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 Marvelous 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.
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 Ka 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.
The student then heads to the Great Southern Forest, which is owned by 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 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 and plagues of 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 Assassins' 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 the deed 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.
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 reveals what truly happened at Dirge. He explains that Sun Li wore the armor of Death's Hand and killed the abbot when he tried to stop Sun Li and his brothers. The brothers arranged for Dirge's fountains to be tainted with human blood, weakening the Water Dragon, and Emperor Sun Hai killed Sun Kin (later Death's Hand) 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 the student's 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.
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 Master Li, now the Emperor. As they make their way through the palace they discover that Emperor Sun Hai had stopped the drought by cutting open the Water Dragon's corpse and letting the water that flowed 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 to defile the water, weakening the Dragon, and then claim her power after defeating the new 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 follows the Open Hand and 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 follows the Closed Fist and 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 on whether the student chose to enslave or free the Water Dragon, and also on what romance options the student pursued.
Dawn Star: If the student chooses the path of the Open Hand, then she either settles down with the student, settles down on her own, or rules the empire with the student. If the student talked her into a Closed Fist philosophy or abandoned her, then she 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 is male and romances Silk Fox, he and Silk Fox will rule the empire fairly, or with an iron fist. If the student is female and romances Silk Fox, Silk Fox will either rule the empire fairly with her 'companion,' or will rule with an iron fist, and both the student and Silk Fox will 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 romances Sky, they leave the imperial city and live on the outskirts of Tien's Landing, unless the student is male, in which case they continue on their adventures through the Jade Empire, not content to settle down in one place.
Black Whirlwind: Black Whirlwind initially takes a contract hunting demons for the Celestial Bureaucracy, but the red tape annoys him and he ultimately leaves. After leaving the Empire for some time—he is likely responsible for a sudden influx of outlanders with missing limbs—he returns, vowing to never leave the Jade Empire again. He gets bored a week later and heads north.
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 remain trapped in Wild Flower's body causing her to wander the empire as a raving lunatic.
Ya Zhen: Ya Zhen will either serve the student until the student passes away, at which point Ya Zhen moves to bigger plans, or else will 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 will continue to appear on the student's doorstep every year on the anniversary of their victory. 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 (the 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.
Yet another ending is available if the Student agrees to the terms of surrender presented by Sun Li 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 Sun Li laughing evilly; the decision to surrender has ultimately led to misery and corruption in the Jade Empire.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, action, flashback

Review:
Every gamer and I mean everybody should play this game, especially RPG and action/adventure fans.It has a brilliant, wonderfully crafted story, great voice acting, fantastic characters (and development), great dialogue, shocking plot twists and surprises, cool and easy to learn battle system, gameplay that is so well done, great graphics, locations, visuals, enemies/monsters, I could go on forever.
The overall story without the sidequests isn't too long (around 20 hours or so) but with the sidequests, you can easily play for much much longer, and the sidequests are just as fun and worthwhile.
They add to the story as well.Once you begin the game, you won't want to stop playing.
However, you will read the opinion of a pretty satisfied gamer.First off--I love anything Chinese, be it food, films, or pseudo-Chinese video games.
This is pseudo-Chinese in that it takes famous Hong Kong cinematic elements such as kung-fu and interesting character names yet for some reason shies away from actual Chinese culture.
I get a kick out of people calling themselves things like "Sun Li the Glorious Strategist" and being serious about it.Pros (and there are several, in my opinion): The game is beautifully designed--the environments are often stunning and the character models look great.
You can follow "The Way of the Open Palm" (which is what I'm doing, former Girl-Scout that I am) or you can be wicked and follow "The Way of the Closed Fist." Both are pretty self-explanatory and in the game it's almost painfully easy to distinguish which response goes with which path.
And it gets better--bad guys react to different voice tones than good guys, which is expected.The combat is touted as the central aspect of the game, since kung-fu has revealed itself to Americans has an art form.
(Many people refer to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" when talking about this game--it isn't that dull.) There are oodles of different styles to choose and they each fall under different headings--magic, martial arts, support, or weapons-based.
You have to change styles and see what sends 'em reeling.There is some great voice acting in this game as well.
(Kim Mai Guest makes her appearance in it--she's in TONS of video games.) I think all of it is pretty good, as it usually fits the character, I didn't notice any repetition, and the dialogue is well-written.
(And the characters words come very close to matching their lips.) I have noticed several laugh-out loud moments, usually when my character chose the wrong conversation style (I tried intuition and it didn't work).The last pro--the Dragonfly minigame.
Taking on all the side quests adds a huge amount of dialogue, especially if you keep saying the wrong things.
I guess it's because four hundred times more recording would have been required to come up with all the answers your character can make.
(Actually, your character will yet out style changes during fights, but that's the only time you'll hear them.) The second-to-last con, and it's enough to annoy anybody, are the frequent load times.
Your character can sprint through the whole game until you run into one of those load times.
It has a fantasy sound to it and the developers could have saved some time--it was created ages ago.) All in all, a game easily recommended to almost anybody..
It's a fun game, with a great fighting system, fun characters, and an interesting plot.Who DOESN'T like the "comic relief sadist", and Sky, the smart aleck thief.
Plus, characters often have interesting "twists" which adds to the fun.All in all, I'm hard-pressed to find flaws...You can switch styles, which prevents boredom, and even get a GUN!
Other people will talk about other things, so there is no point covering exposed ground, so I will talk about my favourite part of Jade Empire, the voice acting.
then kick yourself for not knowing that same actors voice was Simon Templeman when you first played Jade Empire!
Besides the expertly delivered voice acting, the rest of the game is top notch.
Trust me this is an amazing game and if you don't like RPG's then Jade Empire is the perfect one to convert you..
its a completely different genre and can't really be compared (if you did though, multiplayer in a game will ultimately win out, especially if its as good as halo 2's is...).
The problem with keeping it out is that it has a very similar feel to KOTOR except the combat is real-time.
but the game is an RPG and i guess its more storytelling that difficult...) and the same techniques work on every enemy no matter what style you use.
I remembered completing KOTOR when I was 8 years old and I recently discovered my love for science fiction with the Mass Effect games.
I haven't played any of the Dragon Age games though...
However in terms of their games on their own this is actually one of the weaker BioWare entries but trust me when I say compared to their usual standards this means nothing in terms of quality.You are the last of the Spirit monks.
You are trained at a class of martial artists by someone who claims to have rescued you from the empire massacring the Spirit monks when you were an infant which means that now people who have died won't go to the Spirit world and the Emperor is responsible.
So you fly around the empire, recruit people and help restore everything from chaos.Okay, the characters are the worst in a BioWare game (which again translates to not bad but it could have been great).
If you pick this game up looking for something on par with Juhani redeeming herself from going to the Dark side in KOTOR, Wrex trying to bring his species reputation up a bit from violent savages, Mission's home-world being destroyed right before our eyes or Thane doing a good last act before dying then there is almost nothing here that is even close.
The most interesting character by far is Wild Flower - she has no identity as a creature native to the spirit world ties itself to her throughout life and even helps her to stop from dying.
Each is interesting if I told you it on it's own but almost every single character has some kind of past with these guys that just gets old - when you get down to it, it's revenge, redemption all that stuff and while there is some character development outside of that - I barely remember these characters and being that I can name every character from all their other games without thinking - that is saying something.The combat though is excellent.
Basically controlling the D-Pad to select what fighting style you want and different buttons in combat do a Max Payne-ish bullet-time and a button to heal you.
There really is strategy involved in doing the combat in terms of mixing and matching styles and weapons to ensure you win fights.
If being in an RPG where you can talk to a Python isn't a selling point - I don't know what is.I also enjoyed the mini-game touch.
If you decide to attack as opposed to avoid the Empire you are treated with an Atari or NES style mini game where ships fly in from the left right and top of the screen while you shoot them down.
Oh and the betrayal about a third away from the end, it was nowhere near a surprise considering the character's nickname.Basically while it has the formula for being a great BioWare game it is no wonder why this never really made it anywhere.
The combat really is more of the selling point to this game and while some of the characters may get interesting what usually happens to them is you exhaust their dialogue options too quickly and barely have to talk to them for the rest of the game..
One might make a case that any game in which you can verbally spar with a John Cleese- voiced obnoxious twit is automatically worth playing.
Still, the quest ends with an absurdly overpowered weapon as a reward - and that's Jade Empire in a nutshell: flashes of brilliance mixed with unbalanced combat.Neither one of BioWare's finest RPGs (the Baldur's Gate saga, Mass Effect 1&2, Dragon Age: Origins, KOTOR) nor of their weakest efforts (Dragon Age II, NWN OC), Jade Empire is elevated by its fresh, original setting, inspired by a mythological version of ancient China of a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" wuxia flavor.
I like Tolkien as much as the next guy, but for once it's nice to have fox spirits and ninjas instead of elves and orcs.There is much emphasis on combat (real-time, action-oriented), which unfortunately isn't that great.
A few initial styles are pretty much deadly already, and some later powers - cue the infamous Jade Golem stance, the closest thing to a "I win" button I've ever seen in a RPG - so hideously overpowered that the game might as well have skipped to the end credits the moment you obtain them.
It's like adding to the rock-paper-scissors hand game a fourth shape (let's call it the Death Star) which trumps all others: you have no reason to use anything else, if not as a self-imposed challenge.Still, characters, dialogues and plot are compelling enough, and there are a few effective twists and choices, with a morality system focused, more than on a good/evil dichotomy, on a predecessor of the paragon/renegade system seen in Mass Effect..
The only game I like more than this is Halo.
The voice acting is beautifully done and all the voices match what the character should sound like.The only downside to this game is that it is a bit easy and the martial styles are very simple.
These are the only real problems with the game.The story is very well written and original.
The story was so good I have played through this game three times, and I am just starting to get all the additional storyline, i.e. romancing characters like Dawn Star and Silk Fox.I can keep talking about this game forever, but you need to play this game to find everything out.
Buy this game if you like RPG's or action games.Basically a few things in this game keep it from being perfect.
Jade Empire is the type of game you can start playing on a Sunday morning and continue to play till it gets over, no matter the time it takes to complete.
It took me 40 hours to complete the game (that's how big it is).Anyways the games starts with a character selection (as do all the RPGs).
The Emperor killed the Water Dragon and used its spirit to become powerful and end the drought that affected the Empire 20 years ago.
Your objective is to rescue your Master, help the spirit of Water Dragon and end the destruction caused by the ghosts.Since it is an RPG, you can choose to be the good or the bad guy.
Be good and honorable and you get Open Palm points; be a jerk and you get Closed fist points.The story is good and the cast of supporting characters are interesting as well as annoying, but not boring (Kang, Zu, Black Whirlwind are my favorite supporting characters).
However the story after Act 5 becomes too cliché, melodramatic and the twist in the tale (your master is the bad guy and most of your supporting characters are related to each other in some way) felt unnecessary.
You can choose from various martial arts styles, weapons and magic styles and even transform into an animal demon or ghost.
Your followers have various skills (you can only choose one follower at a time) and you can command them to fight alongside you or enter support mode, where they won't fight but your attributes will be recharged over time or you will deal more damage with various styles.The game boasts of a real time fighting system, but that is simply not the case.
During the fights, your character doesn't do what you want him/her to do or does it seconds later, after your previous moves have been completed.
The fighting is pretty good though and you will love it.
If I really had to nitpick, there are no cheat codes for the game and that this is not a complete open world game - There are only two areas to explore - a small town and a big city (which is actually pretty small).
Compared to KOTOR, this is a disappointment...I highly recommend installing the Jade Empire in Style mod when playing a new game.
In addition to adding various new styles and armor sets, it also fixes the fighting and the style points system and makes game play more fun.
So to summarize the game:The Good- Soundtrack, graphics, fighting game play (especially after the Jade Empire in Style mod), characters and side missions.The Bad- The cut-scenes (badly rendered and you cannot skip them).
The Boss fights (the Emperor, your Master and Death's Hand are easily defeated, whereas the Lotus assassins and animal demons and spirits are much tougher.
Good short game with great ambiance but weak points.
Summary Jade Empire is a beautiful looking game with a proper plot with twists supported by good sounds and visuals.
Replayability is low, despite the option to choose from several starting characters and the option to play a new level of difficulty.
No new content is opened up and you are forced to the same combat options regardless of the character chosen.
I was especially impressed by the way the music changes with the setting while keeping the music in Asiatic style.
These side quests are varied in content.The supporting cast of characters is varied and interesting.
Many of them have interesting tales to tell and you can even have a romantic affair.The good thing is that Jade Empire sets down a very good stage for the player to act upon.
After leaving the imperial city the story is just a single path of combat to the end, before Tien's Landing it has the feel of an introduction.That the game is actually longer than it has content is partly because there is much repeated.
This is especially true for battles against the powerful monsters like Death's Hand or the final battle in the arena in the imperial city.
Indeed it looks like the more difficult a battle is the longer the cut scene is.A second thing is the combat.
On the face of it the combat offers enough different options, amongst it something called styles.
Since you need to spent skill points to develop styles to more effectiveness you find out you only have enough to develop the styles you got early in the game.
Besides it is a guess each and every time how effective a new style is and you can't reuse skill points already spent.
In fact the basic style you start out with affect the most monsters.
In addition the effectiveness of styles are reduced because the more advanced ones cost magic points(called chi) while the basic one's are free to use.
Especially powerful styles are an enormous drain on your chi and can only be used for short while.
I created a character which mainly used weapon styles.
The reason was that you need to buff both chi and focus when using such a character.
So when using weapons you need to buff two stats while if you use basic and magic styles you can concentrate on one stat.
In addition you can actually choose a style that regenerates chi, but there is no style that does the same for focus.
And finally weapons styles don't affect ghosts and, because of the plot, there are a lot of ghosts in this game.In other words, while there is potentially a lot to choose from in reality your options are limited to a small set of well developed styles and some you choose for fun or spent points by accident.There is one other weak feature, that is the unlock-able Jade Master difficulty.
When you have gone through the game you can replay it in Jade Master difficulty with the stats and styles you ended the first game with.
What not happens: you don't hit harder and all the magic and support style's you and your enemies do the same damage as in the basic game.
Since there isn't a way to improve the skills beyond the basic set you find that the battle's just take longer to complete.
Nevertheless besides these weak point it is an entertaining game that, when due time has passed can be replayed..
I don't know if I'll need to use any but it doesn't hurt to be safe than sorry) If you like playing action and/or RPG games you'll really like "Jade Empire".
But before I start rambling, let me break it down: Pros: Easily learned button controls(I don't know about you, but having games where I have to press A + B + R trigger + Left thumbstick up...just gets annoying and in heated battle, it's hard to remember).
The sound matches the game and setting quite well.
Another plus is that the sound never overpowers the game or gets so bad one is distracted.
The story itself is quite long and I find myself being just as interested in the dialog and movie scenes as I do in the quests and fights.Cons: In a game so great there isn't many.
Also, if you're like me, character customization is a HUGE factor in any RPG.
Oh, and you can choose which of like 6 characters you want(and you can rename them).
And I've never been able to totally immerse(sp) myself in a game like I can when it's truly, a unique and personalized character.So that's it.
That way you'll be certain this is the game for you(and i doubt there will be many of you who don't buy it hehe).