Jade Empire forgotten in vain and unnoticed by the majority pearl
Snow-capped mountains are gilded by the rising morning sun. An ancient temple, once dedicated to the service of the water goddess.
An ancient Shepard, helping spirits to find a path to the underworld, has today disappeared into prehistory.
Below, the jade-colored fields shine, a rich and fertile land, ever green, nourishing its farms.
From it rises nobly the heart of the empire, the Imperial city.
Its bright colors, the usual rhythm of the population, like music, setting its own timbre from the diversity flow.
A sumptuous palace which flutters above the city, it is home to the emperor and his family.
Somewhere far from the might and power of the empire, across the rivers and through the forests, crossing the swamps, is a hidden village in a valley, and here, in the martial arts school, our story begins.
Choosing who you will be, what kind of character will appeal to your interest and become the most suitable.
Accurate and fast, unyielding fighter, a proficient in fighting styles
Scholar who knows the enemy's weakest points, using chi energy like a gentle stroke of the hand
A strong and durable fighter whose mass allows him to deal with long and heavy weapons without giving the opponent a chance to get close to him
Perhaps a dual-wielding character will be more to your liking, that was my choice for the game
Let's set a venue, where the story shall start and where it would take us. I'll share a tip, play the first segment of the game yourself and ask yourself the question 'Did you like it ?', and if the answer is positive, continue to read :)
Jade Empire's authors from the studio BioWare are known to many, thanks to this game, the studio gained additional experience points in creating amazing and remarkable projects. Without Jade, there wouldn’t be the necessary steppingstone that drove its unique style to glorious artistical form. Jade empire was originally released in 2005 as exclusive for Xbox, it was published for pc two years after.
Story, it is an integral part of any game and often even the core part, it can often be said that the player becomes captivated, fascinated by the narrative and the way of presentation, it is able to bring the characters to life, make them come alive in our imagination. Patience is something we often lack, and this game will demand it from you, as travels will take you to the far points of the map, you will meet new faces living around the empire and making sequential choices will require the player's patience, special hero's attributes and training skills.
Two rivers will be our protagonist’s home, childhood memories will play an important role in his or her story, this place will be our training base, a meeting point with our future companion, an introduction to finding out future goals and enemies.
Here we will learn the game’s controls, movements, abilities and attributes, and why it will be vital to learn and master balanced use of martial arts in different techniques.
The choices we will made will affect not only the beliefs of our protagonist, but also the world around us.
As a computer gamer, I can say from my own experience that I have learned to use all ten fingers, to react quickly and promptly to work cooperatively with both hands at the same time.
Moving character during the fight, changing abilities or weapons using the upper keys, making complex combos, but this game showed me that there is always room to stretch upwards, as you progress and learn more variety in the skills that the hero learns.
I began to learn with him, figure out how to combine brute force with a form of combat, how to heal yourself with chi power, and one of the most interesting to turn yourself into a monster.
A good example would be the conjecture of a forest that will be filled with evil spirits, some of them will be ghosts of dead people, and others will be spirits that are remotely similar to humans.
And at some point, you will die, the fight will seem unfair, five against two, there isn’t an opportunity to use weapons, and magic can work conditionally, only the use of fists and feet, the martial techniques learned by hero will serve you in defeating these opponents.
You will fight as long as necessary until you understand the essence of this game. Strategy doesn’t always give you the opportunity to think out your next move, it is not always about hiding and waiting, sometimes you have to make a decision faster than you can imagine. And if you figure it out, you'll be able to improve it until the end of the game, it won't get any easier, and dying at a certain point in the game will pay you back with a difficult price to raise.
Spirits and ghosts will be one of the most common enemies, as in this world the maintaining balance is the main task of Gods and powerful divine beings, however, this balance will be disturbed and lead to unpleasant outcomes, creating disasters that we will have to deal with.
The battles will not unfold only with angry spirits, we will face many dangerous opponents.
People who follow demons to gain the power given by them
Demons and Monsters having their own interests in the chaos and suffering found among the people
Bandits and Pirates
The emperor's personal protector and executive order, the Lotus Assassins, later their ranks will be joined by an army of golems
The history of the Empire is as old as the secrets it holds. Although not all of them are destined to be discovered, however, many of the scrolls will contain information that will help us better understand its people and its culture. But only those of you who will be observant will uncover this opportunity.
At the very beginning of the game, in the village of Two rivers, near the school, there will be an altar with a riddle, this puzzle can be solved in different ways with different rewards, for using brute force, you will be rewarded with certain quantity of money, and altar saying that although it is an effective way it is too easy, but by observing and exploring the altar more deeply you will get a relatively smaller reward in money, but in experience and knowledge much greater.
During the journey, the understanding of the philosophy of this game becomes clearer, learn, observe, explore out and participate. Develop as a hero and the player seeking for his own path with an outcome that will reveal your true face as path of an open palm (paragon) or path of a closed fist (renegade).
With each next location, with each next step, the responsibilities on your shoulders will became only heavier to bear, as a player you will discover protagonist's true past, the importance of his or her role in these event's.
Even gain an insight into white and black personalities of people we come to trust. Sometimes the betrayal may come from long trusted person, while true loyalty can be found in those with whom we had only met and had talked only a little.
The road will always be difficult and long and travel may become boring when you are alone, but when you travel with someone it always involves much more fun.
This is how I can describe the role of our companions in protagonist's life, each of them is an individual, with their own personality and their own viewpoints on life, although conversations with them open with reaching certain point of progress, still talking with them is pure pleasure. Especially by following the relationships that develop between them. What is relatively unexpected looking at today's games, is the possibility of losing them, one of them can leave or die, of course for BioWare it has become an integral underlining step, so as always take your time with the dialogues and enjoy while you can.
Try this game with your emotions, avoid spoilers, just you and the game, the inseparable bond between you and your character, because each story will feel entirely different. And an advice for those who will play it on pc, may encounter complications, on one such take a visit to this site and download a patch that fixes it :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=197207529
While looking for concept art works from the game, I came across an article about the spiritual continuation of Jade Empire, that was supposed to be released before Mass effect, but unfortunately, or maybe even for the better, this game codenamed Revolver remained only at the level of sketches.
Compare for yourself, a couple of sketches are from Jade Empire and the other from Revolver
What do you think 'Is it a Spiritual Sequel ?'
I'm sure I won't be the only one who notices the similarities that form a viewpoint in mind, how various projects have taken inspiration from these sketches at the level of ideas or fulfillment. Some of these drawings are inspired by earlier games released games, some ideas may have laid the foundations for BioWare's future games, some maybe have inspired other game developers.
As a tip, don't be afraid to take inspiration from others, as anyone can transform an existing drawing or idea into something completely different. Inspiration can come from the least imaginable place, and one of the biggest examples of this statement is nature.
Admit it, nobody can create a new bicycle, everything new is a well-forgotten old. And when drawing inspiration from nature, similarly, to drawing inspiration from another author's work, we should remember that someone created nature, maybe it was his masterpiece, just as the author can create a world on paper
You are what You Play :)