Sequels That Should Have Been – Jade Empire 2

Greetings dear reader! I’ve gotten the privilege of introducing our latest feature, Sequels That Should Have Been. For many differing reasons, be it lack of funding, evil publishers or just a plain failure to see the potential of a game, many games never receive the sequel they deserved. Every Friday for the next many, many weeks, you’ll be able to follow Nightmare Mode’s picks for the sequels they dream about. Kicking the feature off, we start out with Bioware’s flawed gem, Jade Empire.

Jade Empire (2005) is perhaps one of Bioware’s least acclaimed titles, overshadowed by games like Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. That is not to say that the game wasn’t good, but there were just several nagging features that didn’t live up to the standard expected from such a fabled developer. But then, up until Dragon Age II, Bioware has never truly failed with any of their games. And honestly, even DA II wasn’t all bad. It was just severely flawed. Firstly, though, an introduction for uninitiated.

Jade Empire is both the name of the game and where the game is set. It was heavily inspired by ancient China, taking cues from both history and mythology. In an unconventional move from Bioware, you could only choose a pre-made character with their own unique set of skills, rather than getting to play around in a character creation menu, picking items and skills to your liking. Regardless of whom you chose, you started out as a student at a martial arts academy which, unexpectedly, would soon be burned to the ground by mysterious perpetrators with unknown goals. In the process, your mentor, Master Li, is kidnapped by the very same attackers. And so the player sets out across the Jade Empire to locate your master, punish the perps, and solve the grand mystery, filled with plot twists and humorous characters.

I'd kill for a beard like that.

Already in the prologue, though, you will encounter the feature that most definitely kept Jade Empire from ascending to greatness. If you are to enjoy Jade Empire, you’ll have to cope with an agonizing, hand-wrenching combat system. It may be because I played the game on the PC, but the combat system felt so stiff and unresponsive that it seemed more like you were moving across invisible hexes on the ground, rather than having a free-flowing combat experience. The combat was based on various martial arts styles, so it would seem natural that it would have at least be somewhat dynamic. Instead, it felt only marginally better than the embarrassing and completely misplaced combat of Dreamfall (from 08:45). Mostly, the combat was something I looked forward to being over with so I could progress in the game, but as usual the game threw dozens of enemies at you at the same time. In addition, the difference on the various difficulty levels was striking. On the easier settings, the combat was a cakewalk that never managed to elicit any excitement, only boredom, while on the higher difficulty levels it led to immediate frustration rather than challenge.

In addition, the game was strikingly similar to Knights of the Old Republic in several aspects. With its binary moral system that pitted The Way of the Open Palm against the Way of the Closed Fist against each other, it became a link between the Dark Path and the Light path of KOTOR and the Renegade/Paragon division in Mass Effect. It began moving towards a moral system that is not strictly black and white in terms of end goals, but rather describes different methods with which the goal can be achieved. They also made the unfortunate decision to include aggravating, sometimes Galaga-like, mini-games, similar to the encounters in KOTOR where the player tediously would have to shoot down some fighters. Thankfully, Jade Empire never forces these mini-games upon you like KOTOR did in one of the main quests, which caused agony. Lastly, in terms of level design Jade Empire and KOTOR also overlapped in some ways. They both featured very narrow pathways to the right destination, leaving little room for detours, but on the other hand often managed to cram a lot of intriguing content together in a very small space. Ultimately, I think Jade Empire just didn’t manage to stand out from the other Bioware titles enough. It didn’t manage to get independence from KOTOR in the same as Mass Effect did. Mass Effect coincidentally also resembles KOTOR in some regards, but had enough unique features to stand out. Jade Empire didn’t just learn from its mentor, but rather emulated it.

Another point of criticism for Jade Empire stems from its linearity. From the beginning to the end, the player had no choice in how to explore the world, but rather travelled from city to city (well, there’s two in all) which served as quest hubs where the player could pick up new side quests and stock up on new equipment and items. Now, linearity vs. non-linearity is something that never fails to divide the waters, and personally I tend to favor whatever benefits the game. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for example, benefits from having a linear structure in its approach to the main quest, although this is also helped by the player having multiple approaches to completing them, but most importantly the world in Deus Ex’s 2027 is not explored and understood solely by traveling. Jade Empire, on the other hand, was a massive, sprawling, diverse world that begged to explored, and there was even a fairly large world map that hinted that one might be able to travel in the world. Sadly, one could not.

At this point you may be wondering why Jade Empire deserves to be have a sequel. After all, so far I’ve mostly complained about the game. But the beauty of sequels is that you can do away with all the mediocre things, and replace them with improved mechanics. And Jade Empire had a lot of potential. As I’ve already delved into, the setting was where Jade Empire really shone. Far from generic fantasy realms and space epics, Jade Empire took the, for many, unknown Chinese mythology and history and made it into an odd blend of Western game structure and Eastern-inspired setting. There was just something awe-inspiring about walking through the Imperial Palace Gardens that I have never felt in the same way when playing a regular gritty and brooding fantasy RPG. But it felt too small. Imagine, if you will, the scope of Dragon Age: Origins coupled with Jade Empire. A huge world from icy mountains to scorching deserts, taking the player on an epic journey to…well…spectacular things! Similarly, the story was also affected by the change of setting. While it may not go into the annals of history as being the most original or evocative story, it was just plain entertaining. There was mystery! Romance! Terror! And it guided the player through a world of infinite wonder filled with Rhino Demons and Fox Spirits and other zany creatures. Forget discussion-worthy themes and nuanced storytelling. I want me an adventure!

Is there any hope at all for a sequel? Well, Bioware has hinted that they wanted to make a sequel eventually, but so far nothing substantial has surfaced. However, a LinkedIn profile of a designer currently employed at Id Software discovered in April earlier this year lists “Jade Empire 2” as one his unreleased projects. Seeing as he was employed at Bioware from 2006 to 2007, it is uncertain what happened to the project after he left them. Did it get canned? Is the project still resting on some hard drive at Bioware, yearning to be finished? We might never know.

In essence, Jade Empire 2 would need to be bigger and grander and make its combat less clunky to achieve greatness, and now, six years later with improved technology, those things should be possible. Imagine the combat of Jade Empire 2 being inspired by, say, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s combat. It would be glorious. Bioware has become experienced with creating faster paced action with their Mass Effect series, so who could be more competent at creating a fresher combat system. So Bioware, how long must I beg?

 

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7 Comments

  1. shipz

    I would of really loved to see BioWare continue the Jade Empire saga than make this flawed game known as Dragon Age.

    Jade Empire just worked. Everything about it was amazing, and it was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition for its time.

    I loved it. The story was amazing. It was long. It was deep. And it was a thrilling. I wanted a Jade Empire sequel so bad, then I came to realization there was not going to be a Jade Empire 2. Then they released Dragon Age, and I bought it. I played it. I Got about 2/3rds of the way through it and I said to myself… “Really BioWare? You made THIS instead of Jade Empire 2?”

    The game it flawed. It’s horrible. It sucks. And it’s overrated. They fixed the majority of the flaws, but doing so they created more flaws than the original ever had.

    Maybe with Mass Effect coming to an end in 2012 they will start making another Jade Empire. Then again, they’ll probably just make another overrated horrible new franchise like Dragon Age.

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  4. StarlotHarlot

    I loved Jade Empire. The combat was fairly smooth to me (then again I was playing it on the xbox so I’m not sure how it was for you PC gamers out there).
    The game was very linear (especially compared to Mass Effect) but it made up for it by giving the player a world full of new things to learn about. As for the character choices? I DO wish we would have been allowed to create our own character, but in a way I was glad they gave us what they did.
    The story was amazing. So full of plot twists you never see coming, full of hilarious commentary and just an overall feel that you are in the game.The end (unlike the new “artsy” end of their latest release) was perfect.
    I really hope to see a Jade Empire 2.

  5. Drew

    There must be a petition for this sequel…

  6. Dilan

    I was tired playing same old rpgs. Jade Empire was a great change, I always loved Chinese shaolin atmosphere.I loved this game so much that I did not notice any flaws and dramatic value of characters is awesome

  7. Xavier

    Maybe is because I played it on the xbox but I actually really liked the combat and found it really responsive, either way I loved it and is my favorite game of the original xbox and it does deserve a sequel.