Video games - Jade Empire

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	Video games - Jade Empire

Jade Empire is an epic action RPG developed by Canadian developer BioWare. It was published by Microsoft and released on April 12, 2005 in North America.

Overview

Jade Empire is based in a mythical setting inspired by ancient China, and allows the player to progress through an adventure based on traditional martial arts. Unlike previous BioWare games, Jade Empire does not use a turn-based combat system. As the character progresses through the game they are able to discover new fighting styles (either martial arts, weapon styles, magic styles or transformation styles) and upon levelling up, these styles may be enhanced. During combat the player can switch between styles by hitting a pre-assigned direction on the D-Pad. Instead of selecting an opponent to attack and watching the character, the player controls how the character dodges and selects attacks, via either a Power Attack or a Normal Attack from whichever style they had selected.

The traditional RPG stats are also done away with. They are replaced with just 3: Body, Mind, and Spirit. These primary stats control the secondary stats of Health, Focus, and Chi, respectively. By entering focus mode the player slows down time for everybody but their character, allowing them to attack at high speeds. Focus is used up whilst in focus mode but replenishes slowly over time. Chi is a character's spirit energy. They can use it to heal themselves, charge up a powerful chi strike that deals large damage, as well as using it as "mana" when casting spells in magic styles or morphing into demons when in transformation mode.

Jade Empire's dialogue and quest systems are handled in a way that is very similar to Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
games for the Xbox and PC. Players can speak to NPC's in the game's towns (and other areas), asking questions for information to learn more about the world, the storyline, and other characters. Many of these NPC's will offer the player quests that can be completed for experience points and items. These quests often have more than one method of completion; depending on whether the player chooses to follow a "light path" or a "dark path" (referred to in the game as The Way of the Open Palm and The Way of the Closed Fist, respectively), they can choose to either respond to questions or take courses of action that are consistent with the philosophy they follow. For example, an NPC might seek the help of the player because he owes a gambling debt and fears for his safety. A player following The Way of the Open Palm would assist the NPC by giving him the money to pay off his debt, or perhaps reasoning with his assailants to get them to leave him alone. A player following The Way of the Closed Fist would simply betray this NPC by either informing his enemies of his whereabouts so they can collect from him, or even kill the NPC and take whatever money he happens to have on his person. The path that the player takes will affect certain dialogue trees, whether or not the player receives certain quests, and ultimately the overall ending to the game.

There is also a little vertical scrolling shooter included in Jade Empire as a mini-game. Once again you have your Health and Chi gauges. Chi is replenished by shooting enemies, and is used for whichever of the 3 special attacks you selected for the game. The yellow "Focus Spheres" will upgrade your primary cannon up to 3 times.

Jade Empire also features the constructed language Tho Fan developed by Wolf Wikeley, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics at the University of Alberta.

Philosophies

Much of the game places a certain amount of emphasis on the two major philosophies in the world of the Jade Empire, the Way of the Open Palm and the Way of the Closed Fist. While these can easily be equated to a "Light Path" and "Dark Path", one who follows the Way of the Open Palm is not necessarily good, and one who follows the Way of the Closed Fist is not necessarily evil.

The "Way of the Open Palm" basically states that the key to maintaining the universe is by being in harmony with nature, one's surroundings, and one's station in life. As an effect of being in nature with one's surroundings, one is expected to actively assist in lessening the chaos in the area, through the assistance of lessening burdens. While this seems "Peaceful", the Way of the Open Palm is strict in another form: one should not act outside their station and purpose in life. This in turn, can lead to the dark side of the Way of the Open Palm.

Looking at the aforementioned example, in the case of a person with a gambling debt, an evil follower the Way of the Open Palm, judging that the debtor attempted to act outside of his station and thus violated the harmony of the universe, may give the debtor the money - in the form of a gamble the Open Palm follower rigged so the debtor would win. While this seems to have helped out the debtor, it has in fact perpetuated the debtor's gambling problem, only dooming the person to wind up in the same situation again - perhaps even worse next time (similar to Knights of the Old Republic 2, where you can give a homeless man money, resulting in him being mugged). The debtor is thus unable to act above his situation, whilst the short-term effects around him contribute to harmony.

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Video games - Jade Empire

Overview

Philosophies

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