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Jade Empire Retrospective | An Extremely Comprehensive Critique and History
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611,524 Views • Sep 10, 2021 • Click to toggle off description
"I know, I'll do a review of Jade Empire next! That will be quick"

Today we're looking at Jade Empire - the bridge between Bioware's days as a hardcore CRPG developer and their more modern cinematic output. It's an incredibly unique game - critically acclaimed but also highly flawed - an iconic Xbox original game yet a complete commercial flop.

Strap yourself in because we're going deep and we won't be coming up for air.

Patreon - www.patreon.com/IFinishedAVideoGame
Twitter - twitter.com/IFinishedAGame

Credit for the incredible thumbnail goes to the immensely talented - @MicahTheBrave

All media in this video is used for the purpose of review, commentary or criticism and is defined as fair use under US Copyright law.

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Chapters
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:40 - I - What Even is A Bioware?
00:12:38 - II - Set to Fail
00:20:58 - III - A World of Promise
00:26:09 - IV - Having Actual Morals
00:34:33 - V - This Charming Man
00:40:12 - VI - Real Time Stunt Action
00:44:14 - VII - A Heavy Dose of Bioware Narrative
00:50:57 - VIII - Twist and Shout
00:55:46 - IX - Rough Around the Edges
00:58:35 - X - Jesus, It's Still Loading
01:00:50 - XI - Follow the Yellow... Straight Line?
01:06:37 - XII - The Black Leopard School
01:14:11 - XIII - Faintest of Side Content
01:19:49 - XIV - The Walking Stick Conundrum
01:30:38 - XV - Refusing to Follow the Crowd
01:42:27 - XVI - The Grand Messy Finale
01:57:16 - XVII - Could Jade Empire Ever Come Back?
02:03:58 - Goodbyeeee

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#JadeEmpire #Bioware #Retrospective
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Views : 611,524
Genre: Gaming
Date of upload: Sep 10, 2021 ^^


Rating : 4.933 (165/9,723 LTDR)
RYD date created : 2022-04-09T21:16:48.921459Z
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YouTube Comments - 2,085 Comments

Top Comments of this video!! :3

@JenTenZen

2 years ago

I love this game. Instead of a sequel, I wish they’d just remake it. It’s an excellent story, it’s obscure enough, that most people won’t know the twist and the technology is there now to really do it justice.

1K |

@atodamadre3197

2 years ago

I feel old seeing everyone talking about playing this when they were kids. I bought this on day one and played it. I was 30. Such an awesome game.

366 |

@Frikgeek

2 years ago

The Mirabelle rifle is actually super broken and probably by far the best weapon in the game. By using your dodge roll you can completely skip the lengthy loading animation and the rifle will magically be ready to fire when you finish your dodge. This speeds up your rate of fire like fivefold while also letting you reposition after each shot. The only problem is the high focus cost but it's managable for a weapon-centric build with high focus.

266 |

@Tawleyn

1 year ago

What's best about the twist is that every time they mention your fighting style, they always say something to the effect: "Your Master must have been an amazing teacher. While fighting you, I always felt like there was an opening - a flaw that I could take advantage of. But when I moved to strike, it closed up and I was punished for it." Every time it was pointed out my first time playing I thought "Wow, that's the kind of style someone called "The Glorious Strategist" would create, something that tricks people into thinking there are opening where there are none, leaving them vulnerable." It's because Sun Li knows that flaw. Nobody knows how to exploit it except for him. It was such a perfect twist.

86 |

@wwyd4akb

1 year ago

Master Li's betrayal absolutely broke my mind. Mainly cause it all made perfect sense, but I had no clue it was coming.

82 |

@DaveNavon

1 year ago

It's been almost twenty years, yet Sagacious Zu still randomly pops into my mind every now and then.

92 |

@ismfofbiggestfan

2 years ago

I absolutely loved Jade Empire.. I played through it like 30 times as a kid. One of my all time favourites.

67 |

@Keyboardwarrior1337

1 year ago

If any dev reads this: I'd like you to know that I played this game during a particularly difficult time of my childhood. It helped.

180 |

@solikeletsbenerdy

2 years ago

I love this messy masterpiece it's one of the few games I actually played with my mother or atleast I watched her play the game and beat it and i am currently in the process of beating it myself to honor her death so thank you deeply this retrospective really hits home for me ❤️

269 |

@FalenDragmire

1 year ago

1:03:00 I would like to point out that there isn't just one heaven that all of the gods reside in. Each god of major influence (like the Forest Shadow) has their own personal heaven that they reside in, which is what you go through during the forest section of the game. You're not going through "all of heaven"; you're just going through the Forest Shadow's personal heaven.

41 |

@jayrichard2970

2 years ago

I wanted a sequel to this game more than I’d ever wanted a sequel in my life.

56 |

@calemr

2 years ago

I absolutely love the IDEA of the game's morality system. The way it's mean to be more morally grey, more realistic, and with justifications on both sides. I loved meeting the two masters who describe the two alignment options, and the "Low Path" one explains how if you solve everyone's problems, be a hero, then they'll remain weak, fail to grow, never learn to solve their problems for themselves when you're not there to save them, while also saying that it's still within that belief to save someone's life, IF they would die. Corpses can't learn or improve themselves, after all. Or if you're rewarded, because wealth can be a form of strength in itself, applied correctly (ie: Into the hands of a mercenary like yourself.) Aaaand then there's a bunch of blatantly evil choices in some quests, that even goes directly Against that ethos, encouraging you to let peasants get murdered by multiple armed men, or backstab people for no reason beyond "I want evil points to make Tempest style stronger." One of the FIRST closed fist options is "Permanently cripple a fellow student to save a few coins on medicine.", How does THAT "promote growth through hardships"? It's actively Preventing growth! I kinda wish the game had had Open Palm, Closed Fist, And "Just being a sociopath." Options, To help show how those last two Aren't meant to be the same. But sadly, to a bunch of the writers, they apparently are the same.

72 |

@marciopinho6100

1 year ago

Jade Empire is a true hidden gem. Great game.

62 |

@jvanmudifaj1391

1 year ago

Just did the quest with the doctor trying to transplant the splean to his daughter. And if you chose to go to the other doctor and the father gives his life to save her, with wild flower as your active compion the Guardian will note that such selfless acts of love are very favord by the celestials and perhaps this will alow his to reincarnate a better person next life.

27 |

@AlexTraven

1 year ago

Honestly I always wanted a fresh reboot of Jade Empire rather than a sequel. The game had so much potential that they could honestly bring it back to life

15 |

@IFinishedAVideoGame

2 years ago

Lots of ideas for more videos so brace yourself for more deep dives to come! Obviously I hugely appreciate everyone who's watched, commented, liked and subscribed! It all helps so much!

17 |

@PussInBoot414

2 years ago

Gotta say, I loved Jade Empire when I played it. Had multiple playthroughs and I did often think how on earth did it not get a second game. I think my age factored into me cutting it some slack. If I played it now I’m sure I’d feel a lot of the same points as you made. Still, great game. Very happy to to see it represented and critiqued.

41 |

@jeyo6265

2 years ago

just got through the intro, and had to pause to interject after hearing the statement D&D worlds were created by wizards of the coast. When released, Baldur's Gate was based on properties conceived under the TSR banner, and though TSR was acquired the year prior to Baldur's Gate by WOTC, and may have led to them offering some creative input in the last year of the games development, to give them world building credit just has to be wrong. Forgotten Realms, the D&D based setting for Baldur's Gate, was already richly established by the time the game started development and ownership of the licenses involved changed hands. Just a niggle, but I hate when corporate entities get wrongly credited as creators just because they had the monetary clout to buy the intellectual property rights to licenses.

46 |

@jamesgrosiak3406

2 years ago

I absolutely loved this game. I can't recall how many times I played through it, but it was a lot (I was a younger man with less responsibility and infinite imagination) and I've always wondered why it fell into such obscurity. I was a bit too young to understand launch windows and copies sold - I just assumed a good game meant sequels. It appears I carried that assumption into my adult life, because I can remember bringing up Jade Empire to my brother or friends many times over the years and questioning why it never got a sequel. I didn't know about its launch issues or its horrendous sales numbers. I also had a good pair of rose-colored glasses when looking over all the game's shortcomings (call it ignorance in my younger years and nostalgia in my older ones). This was a great retrospective on a game that still doesn't get enough attention, all things considered.

11 |

@squigglytext

1 year ago

This game is one I always go back to. I have fond memories of playing it as a kid, and for me it was just as magical as KOTOR I still play it once every few years

9 |

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