Jade Empire Retrospective

The editors over at Eurogamer are offering up a retrospective article focused on BioWare’s console-exclusive but later-ported-to-PC action RPG, Jade Empire. Here’s a snip:

For better or worse, Jade Empire ended up becoming the mid-point in BioWare’s journey from clumsy yet lovable nerd to the popular kid everybody loves to hate. It definitely wasn’t another KOTOR or Baldur’s Gate, but it was still miles away from the polished cinematic antics of Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect.

As a result, writing – especially during the game’s opening few hours – was incredibly wonky and exposition-laden, stats and skill advancement were so simplistic as to be nearly nonexistent, and storytelling cliches from BioWare’s Old Way lurked around every turn. Take its grand arc – you’re the conveniently orphaned Chosen One. You set out on an epic journey to Fulfill Your Destiny after your hometown exploded. Your merry band of mouthy sidekicks included the Childhood Friend, the Brooding Bad Boy, the Charming Rogue, the Loud Idiot, and the One That’s Not Human. If you’ve played a BioWare game, you’ll have heard this one before.

Jade Empire was not, however, by any means terrible. Instead, it became the embodiment of BioWare’s gangly teenage growth spurt, prone to tripping over its own two feet. And all the while, tremendous potential stirred just beneath the surface. The world and its mythology, especially, were a breath of fresh air in a genre distressingly content to perch atop D&D’s reliable shoulders. Drawing from all manner of Chinese legends, action films, and martial arts philosophies, it was like a cobbled together book report written by a kid who loved the fantasy of the place, but – perhaps willfully – ignored the reality. Yes, Jade Empire absolutely was an Americanized cultural mishmash, but don’t mistake it for ill-informed exploitation. The game was a work of honest reverence in the same vein as, say, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and that “China’s Greatest Hits” approach was part of the charm.

Ultimately, though, I’ll keep pining for a Jade Empire sequel in hopes that BioWare revisits the game’s flawed yet fascinating moral philosophies – perhaps with separated Mass Effect-style meters or none at all, as in Dragon Age. After all, what sort of Way of the Closed Fist practitioner would I be if I took some silly meter’s slight undulations as Gospel? I’m defined by the choices I’ve made – not what some arbitrary pile of points tells me about them.