It's been fifteen long years since BioWare classic Jade Empire was first released for the original Xbox in North America, launching back on April 12, 2005. At the time, it was an Xbox exclusive (later ported to PC and Android), and is still one of the most beloved Xbox titles of its generation.
If you've never played it, Jade Empire is a martial arts focused RPG, inspired by Chinese mythology. It was the first game to be developed by BioWare since the highly-successful Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic two years earlier, and adopted many successful design choices from that game, while introducing plenty of its own.
Here's a peek at some classic screenshots:
If all of this has put you in the mood to play Jade Empire this weekend, you don't need to fetch your old Xbox out the attic! The game can be played on Xbox One via backwards compatibility (and even on Xbox 360 if you have a hard drive), and is also Xbox One X Enhanced.
Have you ever played Jade Empire? Let us know your favourite memories of the game in the comments.
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[source mobygames.com]
Comments 5
I loved Jade Empire. It’s a shame Microsoft never bought BioWare when they had the chance many years ago. We may have got a sequel for this game by now.
Of course, with the way Mattrick almost destroyed Xbox, he probably would have had them making Kinect games & then shut down the studio.
@MedaXbot
I disagree. Phil didn’t fully take over Xbox until a few years ago. Before that, he always had someone between him & Satya and had little support $-wise to create/buy studios to actually make exclusive games/franchises.
Instead, they used to make lots of 2nd & 3rd party deals to get exclusives. That can sometimes work out, but it doesn’t create the longevity like Sony has with their 1st party studios.
In my opinion.....Scalebound never looked good & clearly had production issues. Fable Legends was a game nobody asked for & very few wanted. And Crackdown 3 was a mess from the start & was an overrated franchise to begin with.
While it does suck that we never got sequels for Ryse, Quantum Break, & Sunset Overdrive, those were 2nd & 3rd party deals that are always more complicated (like I stated earlier).
Mattrick was a plague on the Xbox brand & Phil has spent most of this generation undoing what he did, while trying to establish a stable of 1st party studios that can (hopefully) kick out consistently great games.
In remains to be seen what the quality of these new studios’ games will be. But Phil’s plan is WAY better than Mattrick’s Kinect focused vision.
One of my favorite games of all time, a shame we never got a sequel. It's been said this game is the reason that Bioware handed of KotoR II to another studio.
Great game needs a second serving...?
@Grot
Very good point. By the time Kinect & PlayStation Move came out, the motion control fad was starting to die. Nintendo beat them both to the punch & the other two just wanted some of that Wii $.
I hated motion controls. But you have to hand it to Nintendo.
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