Jade Empire: Retrospective Review 

The main Jade Empire and villain theme are some of my favorite pieces of music BioWare has ever done. This game really deserves a sequel.

This is definitely the most unique game BioWare has done. They actually were working on a sequel but it was dropped in favor of Dragon Age. Because they saw much bigger success with Mass Effect and Dragon Age they just forgot about it eventually.

It makes me profoundly emotional watching this video and reading everyone's lovely comments. I've played hundreds upon hundreds of games over the past 20 years and nothing has ever managed to produce the sense of wonderment that this game does. I was in '05 and am still now enchanted by it, I can't overstate what a unique and exceptional title this is. I was reticent to replay the game and stubbornly refused to for years for fear of tarnishing childhood memories. Eventually I reinstalled it in '19 expecting to cheapen my cherished nostalgia but immediately fell under it's spell, bewitched by it's atmosphere and spirit. In an age where games have been reduced from art to mere products Jade Empire harkens to a reality where commercial success comes second to passion and unbridled creative expression. A masterpiece, the likes of which are doomed to the annals of history.

One of my favourite aspects of this game was there was no inventory management, unlike other RPGs where you constantly swap in new gear and have to haul loads off to vendors (what's the point of having magical gear when all gear is magical). Your character's power derived from his abilities and not his equipment, the way it should be. More games should take this approach.

This is the best game I’ve ever played. I had it upon original release when I was 10, and even though I beat the game, I replayed it multiple times and still bought it 10 years later, and I found even more things to do and explore/ways to play the game that my ten year old brain didn’t even conceive.

Jade empire might be once of the best games ever made. Im mad we cannot get a remake or at least a part 2

Played this years ago, unfortunately quite a while after release so I was late to the party, but yeah, I was impressed. There aren't that many games set in ancient China, even a fantastical version like this, and I was always a fan of those old shows like the Water Margin, and even Monkey, though that was a Japanese production of a Chinese tale. You can see the Bioware morality system in its relative infancy in this, and it's nice how they tired it into essentially soft vs hard martial arts which come across as very similar to the Light and Dark sides of the Force. Shame they never made a sequel. I'd have been all over that.

I just LOVE the game. Everything about it is wonderful. The atmosphere, the the story, the characters, the lore, the class / skills, the combat (sucked in some parts) but the music ... OMG, the intro music. I feel Goosebumps to this day every time I listen to it.

This game has been my favorite for... more than 15 years, and I have played a lot of games. Jewels like The Witcher 3, Bethesa's fallouts and TOS, Red dead redemption 2. But When I was younger and I played this game, my first xbox game back then, it was just something else. I really hope that this game gets remastered or more like a remake, taking the original concepts and making it even better than before, with more areas to explore, quests, more freedom of movement and so, and ofc, a sequel or prequel would be amazing to receive too, such a fantastic world with a well made fantasy lore. In my humble opinion, it deserves more.

I played Jade Empire back to back with the 2 Kotor games and outside of combat you could definitely tell that they came from the same mold.

Jade Empire was incredibly fun. They did so much right with the game, cheesey martial arts film tropes and all.

Love this back on the original Xbox. I remember still playing it even on my 360, years later. Such a shame we never got a sequel.

Dead IP, you say. As a Spirit Monk it is my duty to bring it back to the cycle of rebirth then so that we get that sequel I'm so desperate for.

I always appreciate a good review that avoids spoilers! Thank you!

completed this game recently and I must say it's a beautiful RPG game. It's a game that allows you to pursue eternal peace. Not a lot of games does that besides very few. The martial arts switching is a gameplay aspect that truly brings out the beauty of Jade Empire. My only argument for this game was that I wish the storyline were longer. I was also anticipating to explore more maps of Jade Empire's villages and cities; us fans didn't get that. Sad. If this were to received a sequel, I strongly believe bioware will make the game even better by providing more maps and sub quests. This game is a 8.5/10 for me

A remake is much needed

Played this a lot as a kid. It was the first “proper” game I ever completed by myself and it was awesome. Never quite figured out the golden aura stuff but mixing the different styles was really fun regardless.

I played the hell out of this game back on the Xbox and the flyer mini game is the only instance of throwing my controller with rage that I've ever had playing games. Still loved this game though, especially the blunderbus cheese.

Great review as always! I played this game so many times. I do hope one day somehow this IP will be revived, it has potential.

I played this game through like 7 or 8 times. So many different combat styles, sometimes using the ginormous gun

I remember playing this when I was a kid. I didn't own an Xbox yet,I've always went to my aunts house for the holidays and my cousins had xbox and I'd always be on it playing Jade Empire.

Id absolutely love to see them revisit Jade Empire with a sequel.

Great review. I would add few Words on the music. It is exquisite and I still use it while runing Far East themed tabletop RPGs' sessions.

I really loved that game. The combat was super smooth and versatile for the time and the atmosphere was amazing (actually still thinking about that from time to time). I'm waiting for a second part ever since :D

I just obtained a clean original Xbox copy of this one for my Xbox collection & after your enticing review of it now I can't wait to dive into it, thank you!

Love this game; wish the world had a chance to flourish in a sequel.

Another cool thing that I just remembered was that if you were super aligned with the way of the clothes fist, your shadow would have tentacles your eyes and fingertips would go black, and if you were aligned more with the light side, your body had a healthy glow and you had a blue halo of sorts around your head

This was one of my favorite games in the early 2ks. Though didn't actually play the game until a few years later after it released when it released on PC. Still, remember loving all the kung fu styles, and magic styles, and weapon styles. Don't think there is any other rpg in that sort of style.

Loved this story so much. I try to come back to this game once a year

Randomly rented this from a video store to play on Xbox when I was 13. Pulled back to back all nighters on school holidays to finish it. Blew my mind. Great game.

damn this game needs a sequel or a remake or remaster something....such a gem it was still is i go back to it from time to time

I loved this game & I was in college when this game came out. I have it on my iphone & my xbox one now and I've played it through (open palm and closed fist 8-10 times). I agree, this game deserved a sequel. I sometimes think of Master Radiant, it felt good to avenge him...

I still love this game even if it’s a bit dated! Always so much fun.

One of my all time fav game when I was a kid. Can't believe they releasd it on PC and just now found out about it.

Glad there is still so many people remembering game. To think it could have gotten a sequel based off the bad ending

One of my absolute favorites!!!! So sad it wasn’t given a 2nd sequel :(

I loved this game as a kid had to do a mild speed run since my older sister let me rent it, passed it within 16 hours, played for 14 hours straight and slept for 3 hours just to play again. Not the fastest speed run but it was my first try.

This is one of the few BioWare games I have never touched at all, I would love to try it out, might be worth the technical working, thanks for the review.

The game is like $10 on the Xbox store. It’s backwards compatible on the newest system and looks and runs great. I’d recommend playing it there over pc.

As a fan of RPGS and Kung-Fu movies this game was definitely a love letter to both. I know this game's sequel was pushed away for Dragon Age, and while I looove that trilogy, I gotta admit I'm sad this was shelved! I hope there will be another resurgence in love for martial arts in media, so the sequel can get it's time to shine. The developers who created the combat system seriously deserves everything because it is unique but feels amazingly to play. I'm a novice when it comes to game that require quick precision actions, but this game pushed me just enough to get outside of my comfort zones without completely turning me off. That's a feat for a game with such a unique combat system!!

Nice review. Picked up Operencia on sale recently. I don’t think you played it, but could have missed it. It’s like 60-40 crpg-puzzler. It’s fun so far (2 hrs in).

Bit late to comment but I'm glad I was not the only one who started with leaping tiger style. XD Those claw moves looked clean. Nice detailed review but there is 1 more note I'd love to add and that's how humorous some of the dialogue options and quests can be in this game like the quest with the cook in the tea house who challenges your character to eat his special dishes. This one had me laughing so hard specially with the closed fist option. 😁

Оh maaan, you throw me back into my 16-s. I had a blast with this game as a kid. I still remember the secret quest you could do to obrain the Viper style. (the style with the fastest guard braker strike and poison dot damage. Honestly it was kinda broken. Although most fights you could cheese with combination of one support and one damage style. Switching between the electric one (fast attack insta stuns enemies and then you do whatever you want with them... It was a bit cheap and cheesy, but tons of fun nonetheless. The main thing you missed about the combat system is that it is rock-paper-scisors type of thing. And you have support styles damage styles, weapon styles and polymorph styles. Furthermore you can obtain certain styles only by doing a specific thing in a quest. For example wether you decide to side with the old good guy and get paralyzing palm, or side with the bad guy and get hidden fist is something you simply need 2 playthroughs to see it all. You have two hidden styles. Way of oppen palm (For good guys) Viper style for evil guys and I think you need 3 choices of corresponding open palm or closed fist in 3 particular instances of chain event quests to unlock them :) Other than that you can learn pretty much everything. It was kinda funny how I was playing this game on 60fps back on my 32 bit system, but folks these days with those powerful machines have to suffer this gem of a game on 10fps. Feels bad man :D

In my opinion this game was not only unique but one of the best games pre 2010. It's still a top 10 for me just because you can do so much or so little.

Mortismal, I love your channel and this is my favorite game. Thanks for reviewing and playing the game. Also, I wanted to comment that the game although short is made for new game plus and is significantly better the more times you replay the same character's savefile on Jade Master (New game plus) mode.

Was randomly thinking about this game today and had to watch something on it, thanks!

Great video! Replaying this game after 10 years.

I've had the Gog version across three computers, it ran on all of them from the same copied file. I also have never played past the village burning since the first time I bought it.

Its really short is the problem I had with it back in the day, and I mean you finish the game before you get close to maxing out your combat stats, it really needs another 8 hours or so of game IMO.

This game actually had a really cool story an interesting world lots of neat characters fun environments, great music the combat for the time wasn’t perfect but dude it was pretty decent and I liked how you could switch in real time and you got to unlock more styles and upgrade them as he went there was even some humor and the Open world style choice were different dialogue and things happen in the game because of it couple great twists in the game as well. Really really well done. Definitely played this game multiple multiple times. I don’t even know how many hours I would spend playing this game total but I know for a fact that I definitely played more than 12 hours in one sitting at least once when I was a kid

I was able to get the Steam version to run by circumventing Steam's launcher, and launching the game directly through the exe. file. That was a few years ago, so new problems may have popped up since then.

I still have this game on the OG xbox, such a good game

Love this game, underrated classic. Other suggestions for underrated classics (available now in Steam), Anachronox and Sudeki.

just now playing this game lol never thought i would be interested in it as a kid but now 29 i said what the hell why not. so far i enjoy it and it gives me the kotor feelings so pretty nice.

I loved this game so much when it originally came out.

I bought this original Xbox game during 2020 I have it loaded on my xb1 but I have yet to play it. It's on my list.

Hey this is a really great video! Pretty much exactly what I was looking for as far as information on this game. It’s been a long time since I’ve played it; time to break out the OG Xbox I guess

Great game ! Loved playing it at release. Just digged out my Steel book copy of it, and found my old burned CD with the preorder DLC fighting style in it with the game :-)

Love this game. I had so much fun while i played it. The fox heaven is awesome. And i wished one of the foxes would of joined the team

It's a shame Bioware never made a sequel.

Haven't touched the game since way back around its original release, but I remember enjoying it - though I also remember the late game feeling extremely rushed and not being fleshed out nearly enough. Let's see if my memory is at all reliable! EDIT: Kind of! Whoo!

Loved this game dude!

Just finished the game. Had some issues with combat, but thanks to the frog and stone giant transformation I was able to watch the credits with only 21 hours of game, literally beating everyone with brute force. Great game.

This was my favorite game until Dragon Age 2. I refuse to update my kindle tablet because android version 8+ will not run it.

Great video! Ever thought of a neverwinter nights 2 review?

I just saw this video was posted in the RPG Watch page. Always check with it once in a while, always a great site for info.

This is one of my favorite games of all time.

This game is MONSTEROUSLY underrated but it also has its fair share of problems. Only one companion at a time, the lack of towns, and the lack of NPCs. If this was fleshed out like KOTOR it'd be a peak gaming experience.

The EA's Origin store version of the game doesn't have those technical issues, which EA owns Bioware so it makes sense.

Awesome review. Ever considered looking at what CRPGs are worth getting for those of us with an iPad? Quite a few out there, but I’ve no idea where to start. Love your work!

After seeing (not playing) Nioh 1 and 2. I could see a Jade Empire souls like remake.

playing this right now I love this gem💎

For an incomplete game it wasn't bad I loved this back in the days

Oh I forgot about this game. I played this back on the old Xbox and I think I really liked it. I think. I certainly don’t remember any negative feelings, or feeling like it was a disappointment after Kotor (like the way they had a true classic with Dragon Age, but then completely shit the bed with the series afterwards)

i remember playing this a long time ago when i was younger. i played it and was instantly hooked lmaoo. but sadly there was a point in the game that it would freeze and i couldn’t continue the game. so i never got to beat it :(

Sadly but frankly, you have to but it on Origin or non steam in order to play it. Origin it works with almost zero issues for me. An occasional glitch but nothing a quick load doesn't fix. Spent 12 hours over a week to try and get JE to work on steam and it wasn't worth the headace.

Anyone coming here in 2024, I made a really simple Steam guide to help you fix this game. It's called "Simple, Short Guide to Get the Game Running (2024)" and I hope it helps. I am on Windows 10, so I can't speak for Windows 11. Also for what it's worth, he said he wished there was more game here. It does have three different endings (good, evil, neutral), companions and fighting styles and quests locked behind different alignments, as well as different outcomes to quests. So if you are someone who replays games, there's reason to do at least three playthroughs. So don't hesitate to give it a try, you can get this game on sale for like $3.

Lol... my Xbox didn't work right and had INCREDIBLY long load times, so this game took me DAYS to complete... I didn't realize it was "short"!!!

I used to play this game on X-Box back in the day, and I recently bought the PC version from GOG. The manual shows the controls for a keyboard and mouse, but it's awkward to play. Can the fight controls be programmed on a PC gamepad? I want to know before I spend the money for one. Thanks in advance!

Really one of the most fun games I've played on Xbox back in the day.

Up to 273k Subs now WOW! Good going and deserved. Have you trued epic games lord of the rings return to moria?

Need a remake asap

5 minutes in I figured out the villain, not through any brilliant deduction, but rather lazy writing and using a trope common in a lot of martial arts movies. I remember thinking I really hope that's not it and being very disappointed when it was. This is a game that would definitely benefit from a remaster/remake.

Remember playing the evil character in this game and he was really evil with some options.

I would love to see/play a One Piece movie or game with a story similar to Jade Empire.

The only game where I actually felt bad playing the way of the fist.

Yeah Its a fun game. Get it on GOG to avoid most of the technical issues.

great video i played jade empire 17 years ago and it was amazing but today is my pile of shame to big with great games to play something like jade empire a remake would be great. but i think not enough ppl bought it 17 years ago

Man, I completely forgot I had this game EDIT: I've it on EA Origin though, because they gave it for free years ago. Not sure how well that runs

I though this was a very good game, but the story was very predictable. KOTOR's twist, though, had me completely shocked. Still, I'd love to see a sequel to Jade Empire. Outstanding work from Bioware.

If any game deserves a reboot or sequel, it's this one.

Thanks for the vid! The GOG version doesn`t have these kinds of problems.

So glad i never bought this game. I hate games that are so broken they can only run after you manually fix files.

My one and only issue with this title is that if you walk the closed fist path you can not finish both romances of silk fox and dawn star. You can on the open palm path but not the closed fist path. Even tho the game allows you to romance both for 95%of the game. It truly felt like a glitch.

thanks for the review, this is the only bioware game that i've never played.

I love your reviews. Also the old ones

Never played this, but def played KOTOR. I'm going to guess you are the god who disappeared.

Jade empire is the Greatest Canadian Anime of all time

this game was a masterpiece

This game is AMAZING!!! it's ALL about the "Golem" power!!!