Developer : Microsoft Game Studios
Release date : April 12, 2005
Synopsis :
Jade Empire is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare, originally published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005 as an Xbox exclusive. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 2007. Later ports to macOS (2008) and mobile platforms (2016) were handled respectively by TransGaming and Aspyr. Set in a world inspired by Chinese mythology, players control the last surviving Spirit Monk on a quest to save their tutor Master Li and defeat the forces of corrupt emperor Sun Hai. The Spirit Monk is guided through a linear narrative, completing quests and engaging in action-based combat. With morality-based dialogue choices during conversations, the player can impact both story and gameplay progression in various ways.
Development of Jade Empire began in 2001 as a dream project for company co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, who acted as the game’s executive producers. Their first original role-playing intellectual property, the game reused the morality system from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but switched to a real-time combat system. The game’s many elements such as its combat system, the world and script, the constructed language created for the game, and the musical score by Jack Wall drew influence from Chinese history, culture and folklore. Upon release, it received generally positive reviews but sold below expectations. It was followed by a PC version, which provided the basis for future ports and itself met with positive reviews.
The game is set in the Jade Empire, a fictional far-eastern kingdom based on elements of Ancient Chinese history and Chinese mythology. Humans live side by side in the mortal realm with mystical creatures and monsters, while the heavens are ruled by the August Personage of Jade through a Celestial Bureaucracy. Human sorcerers are able to harness the Five Elements in their magic.[5] There are two languages spoken in the Jade Empire: an unnamed primary language (represented by English) and Tho Fan, the “ancient tongue”; once common, Tho Fan’s speakers have become scarcer in the Empire, though most inhabitants are able to understand it.[6] In the Jade Empire’s recent past, a devastating drought threatened to destroy everything, but the drought came to an end through the actions of Sun Hai, current ruling emperor of the Sun dynasty, leading to him being worshiped as the Empire’s savior.: 2 Key locations include the isolated village of Two Rivers, where the story begins; Tien’s Landing, a former major port now shunned due to its dark past; the Imperial Capital, seat of Sun Hai and center of the Jade Empire; and Dirge, a ruined temple haunted by the spirits of its inhabitants.
The protagonist, whose gender and name can be selected by the player, is a Spirit Monk rescued as a baby when the forces of Sun Li destroyed their order. Raised in the isolated village of Two Rivers, the protagonist has been trained in martial arts by Master Li. During their adventure, the protagonist is accompanied by and gains multiple followers. These include Dawn Star, a Two Rivers student who can communicate with the dead; Sagacious Zu, a hermit with a dark past; the Black Whirlwind, a dim yet quick-witted mercenary; Henpecked Hou, a former arena fighter-turned-bunmaker; Wild Flower, a girl who shares her body with the benevolent spirit Chai Ka and the wicked spirit Ya Zhen; Sky, a former thief seeking revenge against his daughter’s killers; Kang the Mad, a genius inventor who is in fact the banished deity Lord Lao; Zin Bu the Magical Abacus, a celestial trader and representative of the Celestial Bureaucracy charged with cataloging the destruction caused by the protagonist; and Princess Sun Lian, the daughter of Sun Hai who goes on covert missions using the alias “Silk Fox”.
The main antagonists in Jade Empire are led by Sun Hai, current ruler of the Jade Empire. He is represented across the Jade Empire by Death’s Hand, a black-armoured figure who leads the Lotus Assassins, a formerly monastic group who have turned to terror tactics to maintain order. Other characters include Gao the Greater and his son Gao the Lesser, who serve as the antagonists during the early narrative; Abbot Song, the head of the Spirit Monk order at Dirge; and the Water Dragon, shepherd of the dead and a key guide to the protagonist.
Shortly after completing their training at Two Rivers, the Spirit Monk helps fend off an attack by a Lotus Assassin, facing undead opponents in the process. Master Li reveals the Spirit Monk’s past, his own identity as Emperor Sun Hai’s brother Sun Li and role in the destruction of Dirge, and the increasing threat of the undead that is tied directly to Sun Hai. During a final training session to recover an amulet of their people, the Spirit Monk meets the spirit of the Water Dragon, who reveals that Sun Hai has incapacitated her and left the Spirit Monk as the land’s only hope. Master Li’s preference for the Spirit Monk pushes the impatient Gao the Lesser over the edge, leading to his expulsion. Gao the Lesser then kidnaps Dawn Star and summons Lotus Assassins allied with his father Gao the Greater. The Spirit Monk rescues Dawn Star and defeats Gao the Lesser with help from Sagacious Zu, but the Lotus Assassins—led by Death’s Hand and his second-in-command Grand Inquisitor Jia—destroy Two Rivers and capture Master Li.
Using one of Gao the Greater’s airships, the Spirit Monk travels to the village of Tien’s Landing. During their time there, they fight and defeat Gao the Greater and learn that Master Li was taken to the Imperial Capital. While there, the Spirit Monk finds two missing pieces from their amulet, acquires a map of wind currents that will allow passage to the Imperial Capital, and helps the village by purging the neighbouring Great Southern Forest of a corrupting force and closing a large dam, which allows trading vessels to navigate the river again. They are also joined by Wild Flower, who guarded one of the amulet fragments; Black Whirlwind, who was hired to eliminate the monsters in the Great Southern Forest; Henpecked Hou, on the run from his wife; Sky, who was freeing slaves taken by the Lotus Assassins; and Kang the Mad, who was held captive by Gao the Greater. They are also first attacked and then aided by Silk Fox, who is determined to topple Death’s Hand.
Using Kang’s special airship, the party travels to the Imperial Capital, where Silk Fox meets them in her true role as Princess Sun Lian, Emperor Sun Hai’s daughter. While in the Capital, the Spirit Monk gains access to the Lotus Assassins’ ranks by competing in a local fighting tournament. Once among the Lotus Assassins, they dismantle them from within before retrieving the final amulet fragment from Grand Inquisitor Jia. Death’s Hand then attacks, but Sagacious Zu sacrifices himself to collapse the Lotus Assassin base on Death’s Hand. Led by Silk Fox, the group then infiltrate Sun Hai’s palace, confronting the Emperor as he interrogates Master Li and finding him withered through using the Water Dragon’s stolen power. After the Emperor’s defeat, Master Li kills the Spirit Monk and steals both the completed amulet and the Water Dragon’s power, setting himself up as the new Emperor.
The Spirit Monk is guided back to the living world by the Water Dragon and the ghost of Dirge’s abbot, who reveals that Sun Li had conspired with his brother Sun Kin to seize the Water Dragon’s power and kill Sun Hai after taking Dirge. The brothers’ plot failed as the Water Dragon’s power made Hai immortal. Kin was killed, while Li escaped and killed the Spirit Monk’s rescuer, taking the child to mold into a weapon against Hai. Death’s Hand was created by the Emperor by binding Kin’s spirit to Li’s armor. Returning to life in Dirge, the Spirit Monk reunites with their companions and holds off a vast assault from Li, who also sensed their return. In their final confrontation with Death’s Hand, the Spirit Monk can either free or enslave Sun Kin’s spirit. Infiltrating the Imperial Capital, the Spirit Monk’s party fights their way through the palace and discovers the Water Dragon’s body, torn open and preserved in a state between life and death to provide endless water to the Jade Empire. The Spirit Monk then goes to confront Li.
Depending on the player’s choices at these points, one of several endings plays out. If the Spirit Monk surrenders to Li, they are remembered as a hero who knew their place, as the Empire becomes an oppressive dystopia. If the Water Dragon’s body is further corrupted by the Spirit Monk, then they usurp Li’s stolen power and emerge as the next Emperor following his death. If the Spirit Monk destroys the Water Dragon’s body, then her spirit is freed, and the dead are able to find their way into the underworld, causing the people to rejoice and hail the Spirit Monk as a hero of the Jade Empire.
Source : Wikipedia
