Despite how obsessed the world is with Martial Arts, there aren’t a lot of non-fighting games that feature them in any serious way. Even if they do, they’re side scrollers and the like. Well, evidently somebody at BioWare said, “Screw that! Let’s make a martial arts game set in a weird, fictional version of China! We’ll make up our own language instead of just using Chinese! The game will have demons, gods, and magic! And flying machines! And maybe a little girl who acts as a conduit for an otherworldly guardian?” Somehow, it got greenlit, and we ended up with Jade Empire, one of the more interesting RPGs to come out of BioWare.

Sometimes strange ideas manage to survive the hell of corporate nonsense, and I'm glad that Jade Empire did. — Sometimes strange ideas manage to survive the hell of corporate nonsense, and I'm glad that *Jade Empire* did.

Jade Empire is a real-time action RPG that focuses on marital arts, magic, and weapons combat. You have three stats (body, mind, and spirit) which feed into three resources (health, spirit, and focus). Weapon use drains your focus, and magic use drains your spirit energy, but you can use your martial arts as long as you’ve got health. You gain experience from defeating enemies and completing quests, which you can use to upgrade your martial arts, weapons, and magic skills as well as your three main stats. You have a number of companions that can assist you in battle or provide support, like slowly regenerating your spirit or health. You also have a number of transformation skills that allow you to transform into several kinds of demons that you encounter throughout the game. There’s a sort of morality system called the Open Palm and the Closed Fist which is affected by your quest and dialogue choices.

The UI in Jade Empire is non-intrusive, which is always good. The focus here is on the in-game world, rather than hardcore RPG-ing. — The UI in *Jade Empire* is non-intrusive, which is always good. The focus here is on the in-game world, rather than hardcore RPG-ing.

Jade Empire tells the story of a martial arts student from the little town of Two Rivers. One day your teacher reveals to you that you’re the last of the Spirit Monks, an ancient order who protected the Water Dragon, the god of life and death. You find out that she is unable to perform her duties, so the ghosts of the dead cannot pass on and are wreaking havoc. Your village is destroyed when the empire discovers this, and you embark on an epic quest to seek revenge. You will travel from the swamps near your village, to the heavenly realms, to the imperial city itself on this quest, and meet many companions along the way.

Welcome to an epic quest of discovery, revenge, and belonging.

It’s an odd game, really. The focus on martial arts in a somewhat open world is fairly unique. It’s not a sandbox, like Sleeping Dogs or the Yakuza series of games, but calling the areas “levels” would definitely be wrong. The areas are extremely varied and interesting. They range from simple villages, to grand cities, and even the heavenly realms of the gods. Jade Empire also has a really vivid and interesting retelling of a lot of Chinese mythology and Daoism that really helps with the world building. There’s not a huge amount of reused assets or, so every area feels unique and memorable. There’s also a really cool use of color palettes to set the mood for area. The heavenly realms make good use of bloom and bright, airy colors while the caves of the cannibals are filled with sinister purples, blacks, and browns. Each area has a number of side quests and a few main quests that allow you to move the plot along, so you never feel as if an area overstays its welcome.

The most unique part of Jade Empire is the combat, for sure. As mentioned, you have a number of different martial arts, weapons, and magic skills that you can improve over time. I think whoever designed the combat was a big fan of classic beat-em-ups, because the combat works very similarly. You’ve got a light attack, a heavy attack, and a block. You can also do an area of effect attack to knock enemies back, as well as the ability to augment your attacks with spirit energy to do extra damage. You can also use your focus to slow down time temporarily as well as power your weapon styles. You choose a few styles at the beginning of the game, but you can find many more throughout your adventures. What’s interesting is that you can miss a lot of styles completely, which adds a lot of replay value to a fairly linear game. What’s also really nice is that your morality standing plays into certain combat styles, which are more effective if you’re aligned with the right morality. The martial arts systems can feel a bit dull after a while, though. The moves never change, despite upgrading. While you acquire more different kinds of skills, you aren’t really given enough upgrade points to upgrade all of them, so you pretty much have to choose a few to use for the game. I think a Witcher inspired style of combat would be better, where you moves change based on distance and speed, rather than just using the same ones over and over again.

You can see a martial style, a support style, a weapon style, and a magic style in the hotbar in the bottom left here. All of the styles work together to make you a formidable force.

Your companions are another serious high point in Jade Empire. You collect a large variety of them, most of which can assist in combat, though a one is a mobile item shop, and one only provides a unique martial arts style. All of your companions have rich backstories, motivations, and side quests all their own. They’re a bit disappointing when it comes to supporting you in combat, though. They don’t do a lot of damage, and are generally better used for their support abilities. It feels like missed opportunity, because they have all have the same combat effectiveness, so the only reason to bring different companions along is their different support abilities.

Most companions offer direct combat support, or some other passive effect. There's not much difference between them in actual combat, which is disappointing.

Worth Playing?

Yes. Jade Empire is a really fun game. It’s got enjoyable combat, interesting companions, and a really imaginative and beautiful world. There aren’t many games about China, fictional or otherwise, so it’s really cool to see one that does everything so well. I would highly recommend this game if you like role playing games, games with a non-Eurocentric focus, or strong art design.