Jade Empire - Retrospective @ Continue-Play

Taylor Hidalgo of Continue-Play posted a new retrospective article for Jade Empire, and included a new late review of the game for anyone still interested in the game.

At the end of the day, it’s hard not to recommend Jade Empire. For its flaws, it still manages to feel really interesting in how the multiple styles and game dynamics can interplay. Combat is, at its peak, festive, messy and genuinely fun to explore. At its worst, it’s somewhat burdened by how clinical it all feels. If the events of the game had any interplay whatsoever, or the world did anything other than existing in a semi-permanent state, it would be so much greater; it’s just a genuine shame to see such potential go to waste.

More information.

I still play Jade Empire almost ten years after its release. It's a shame Bioware never made another game using the setting despite talk they were going to.

The eastern setting was great, but the game feels a bit short and too linear for me.

Yes, I love the setting! The combat was quite fun as well! Even if there are a lot of flaws.

Fantastic game! Lots of hot female NPC's and worth to replay just for the romances. Awesome world, excellent battle system, enjoyable minigames.

Never got beyond the opening stages of this game. Will add it to the backlog

I liked setting and the story but combat was just dull but it didn't ruin my enjoyment.Too bad there was never a sequel.

The combat felt too consoley. As NO says => dull.
Apart from that worthless combat system, the game was definetly fun. A shame Bioware felt it's better to pay for star wars MMO license than create another game with their own setting.

I suspect it was EA and not bioware; I mean if your a company and you see another company having success (WOW); and you can't do anything original you copy them.

multiplayer was never bioware specialty though I suppose nwn ran ok with small groups.
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Never tried starwars mmo; actually have not played any mmo since text based diku-muds in the 90s; the mechanics are geared towards grind because they have to keep you hooked for years ($$$$) and that just isn't my style. Besides most of time when I play games I spend 50% of my efforts doing something else on the side - try that with an MMO (esp one with pvp). Hum. Now back to trying to understand why there are two sides and not 1 or 4 or 8 or whatever.

Originally Posted by joxer
The combat felt too consoley. As NO says => dull.
Apart from that worthless combat system, the game was definetly fun. A shame Bioware felt it's better to pay for star wars MMO license than create another game with their own setting.

I have been so totally intrigued with this game over the years that I have 2 digital copies and 2 physical copies. But I have never played beyond a few minutes after install. My physical copy has a great manual, poster and art book but I can never just devote myself to a full play session.

Perhaps this retrospective will do the trick, OTOH I am in the middle of Lords of Xulima and my quick tasty bite of Balders Gate 2 looks intriguing. Soooooooo . . . . . .

I watched my old man play some of this game. He enjoyed it quite a bit.

He would have beat the game had he not run into a dead end. There were these spectral enemies that he couldn't figure out how to damage. They'd kill him everytime.

Myself, I never got much into it. I tried my hand at that battle and still got creamed. The game certainly had some cool things, though.

Will love to see a new Jade Empire one day too…

On the contrary, I disliked JE setting a lot. Not sure exactly why… But something just rubs me in the wrong way. Hard to explain but feels like they are stereotyping ancient china setting but at the same time so western? (Like speaking pleasant American/Canadian English and do whet would be so controversial things especially like romance with 2girls etc)

I enjoyed Jade Empire when it was first released. It was shorter than a typical Bioware game but still longer than some other games.

I prefer playing games on PC, though, so I never replayed it and it wasn't quite good enough for me to want to purchase and play it again. Maybe someday I will.

It's great to see someone doing a review to bring this game to the forefront again.

On the downside, I kept wondering why the reviewer never mentioned the major cause of the flaws are being designed for a console system. Then I looked around a bit on the page and noticed the site seems to be console centric. It's why bioware tried to redesign the fighting once it was being released on PC.

Also there is a thread here about Jade Empire with the mod Jade Empire in Style by Pecoes. The game dynamic is changed to gain xp with each kill, also gender unlocks (for female romancing female) and many other fixes. Sadly I haven't undated the page in years but the info is still useful and not hard to google.

both are, imo, very typical, high-budget, fake-kung fu movies (happy to recommend some if you're into them!). similarly, jade empire was OK, if you overlook the terrible combat, paperthin setting, and fake oriental garbage.

Loved the setting. It holds a lot of potential. If they're not into making a more tactical JE sequel, they could still make something along the lines of Mass Effect, though it would have to be more open.