You are the only one who can save the Jade Empire because you are special (the last of the spirit monks) and because of that you are hounded by the forces of (obvious) evil. Stop me if you've heard this before: You are an individual of humble origin thrust out of your home after violence occurs. Who doesn't love a villain that never really shows up and doesn't ever earn his menacing reputation on-screen? Doesn't help that I just played Mask of the Betrayer too, if we're just going to throw in everything. While that game wasn't the second-coming of RPGs for me the way it was for some people, it still stands that my opinion has been colored by the story-focused RPGs that have come since, be they from Bioware, Obsidian or CD Projekt RED. By the time the PC version of this game came out (two years later) I had moved on to being really obsessed with Oblivion and sort of regretting the purchase of my Wii. But I was a Nintendo kid, and thus did not have an 'Xbox The First', leaving me with nothing but KotOR II to sate my need for RPGs. Had I played this game in 2005 when it came out and KotOR was still my favorite game of all-time, I bet I would've liked it a lot more than I did now.

This can partially be blamed on simple perspective. Not every game has to be a winner, and I'm still glad I played it. Oh, I'm sure that Sonic RPG is still a piece of work (and now I feel the sudden urge to play that and mock it relentlessly), but as it stands now Jade Empire is my least favorite Bioware game*. However, in the grand pantheon of Bioware games it's nothing special. It's fine, and I might even go as far as to say that certain aspects of it are great: It has an unique setting as far as video games are concerned with some pretty great art direction and some well-done supporting characters. After the 12(!) hours it took me to beat this game, I can confirm that Jade Empire is indeed a RPG of questionable quality. Oh well, going home for the 4th will be good. This is the face of unemployment crossed with a lack of friends in town.

Jade empire viper style