Set in a world inspired by Chinese mythology, players control the last surviving Spirit Monk on a quest to save their tutor Master Li and defeat the dark forces behind his kidnapping.

Development of Jade Empire began in 2001 as a dream project for company co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, who acted as the game's executive producers.

[2]: 2  Key locations include the isolated village of Two Rivers, where the story begins; Tien's Landing, a former major port now shunned due to its dark past; the Imperial City, seat of Sun Hai and center of the Jade Empire; and Dirge, a ruined temple haunted by the spirits of its inhabitants.

These include Dawn Star, a Two Rivers student who can communicate with the dead; Sagacious Zu, a hermit with a dark past; the Black Whirlwind, a dim yet quick-witted mercenary; Henpecked Hou, a former arena fighter-turned-bunmaker; Wild Flower, a girl who shares her body with the benevolent spirit Chai Ka and the wicked spirit Ya Zhen; Sky, a former thief seeking revenge against his daughter's killers; Kang the Mad, a genius inventor who is in fact the banished deity Lord Lao; Zin Bu the Magical Abacus, a celestial trader and representative of the Celestial Bureaucracy charged with cataloging the destruction caused by the protagonist; and Princess Sun Lian, the daughter of Sun Hai who goes on covert missions using the alias "Silk Fox".

He is represented across the Jade Empire by Death's Hand, a black-armoured figure who leads the Lotus Assassins, a formerly monastic group who have turned to terror tactics to maintain order.

[1][3] Shortly after completing their training at Two Rivers, the Spirit Monk helps fend off an attack by a Lotus Assassin, facing undead opponents in the process.

The Spirit Monk rescues Dawn Star and defeats Gao the Lesser with help from Sagacious Zu, but the Lotus Assassins—led by Death's Hand and his second-in-command Grand Inquisitor Jia—destroy Two Rivers and capture Master Li.

They are also joined by Wild Flower, who guarded one of the amulet fragments; Black Whirlwind, who was hired to eliminate the monsters in the Great Southern Forest; Henpecked Hou, on the run from his wife; Sky, who was freeing slaves taken by the Lotus Assassins; and Kang the Mad, who was held captive by Gao the Greater.

Led by Silk Fox, the group then infiltrate Sun Hai's palace, confronting the Emperor as he interrogates Master Li and finding him withered through using the Water Dragon's stolen power.

If the Water Dragon's body is further corrupted by the Spirit Monk, then they usurp Li's stolen power and emerge as the next Emperor following his death.

[12][13] The concept of Jade Empire had existed with company founders co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk since they started BioWare alongside the plan that would lead to Baldur's Gate; called a "dream project", their aim was to fulfill player fantasies of becoming a powerful martial arts master.

[17] Art director Matt Goldman took inspiration from multiple eras of China's history when designing various aspects of the world, focusing between the Han and Ming dynasties.

In addition to its Chinese inspiration, Goldman drew styling elements for both clothing and scenery from Japan, Thailand, Tibet, the Khmer Empire, and unspecified areas of South and West Asia.

[18] Speaking of his experience on the game years later, Goldman described "fond memories" of the Canada-based development team working to create an Asian epic.

[11] The team quickly decided not to set the game in historical China, wanting the freedom to include fantasy elements, leading to them creating a world based on Chinese mythology.

According to lead writers Luke Kristjanson and Mike Laidlaw, they used its inspiration to create a world that felt alive, with a variety of locals and social norms coexisting.

[21] Henpecked Hou followed a tradition in BioWare titles of including a character for comic relief, in addition to playing on Chinese narrative stereotypes.

A notable side character is Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, a musket-wielding explorer from a foreign land used for comic relief.

When Wikeley—a fan of Japanese anime and video games—was interviewed, he spoke several sentences in fluent fictional languages from various films and TV shows, impressing the BioWare staff and earning him the job.

[25] A key member of staff whom Wall hired early on was Zhiming Han, a Chinese music consultant who was instrumental in maintaining the authentic sound of the score.

[24] Wall estimated that he composed over 90 minutes of music, ranging from environmental to cutscene-specific tracks, not including additional arrangements for shorter cutscenes by BioWare staff.

[26] Every line of dialogue in the game, both English and Tho Fan, was fully voiced; Zeschuk and Martens estimated in different interviews that the recorded script came to over 320,000 words.

[c][34] A version for Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) began development at BioWare due to demand from their strong PC-based community.

[50] Rob Fahey of Eurogamer praised the aesthetics and replay value, but noted that the combat's lack of depth and limited customization options would be negatively viewed by some players.

[58] Luke van Leuveran of PALGN called Jade Empire "an amazing action RPG", praising its story and combat system.

[d] Suzy Wallace of Computer and Video Games felt that the Special Edition managed to reach beyond its roots on the Xbox to become a good-quality RPG for PCs, despite dated graphics and gameplay pacing issues.

David Jenkins of Gamasutra called this "an unremarkable opening", and suggested that its sales had been damaged by competition from the newly released Unreal Championship 2.

IGN's staff wrote of this decline, "The Bioware-developed game has been well reviewed over the past month, but that hasn't helped it from rapidly dropping down the charts.

[72] Conversely, on the firm's sales list for Xbox games, Jade Empire opened in first place and held the position for its debut 14 days.

"[15][16] The decision to focus on both Jade Empire and their fantasy-themed Dragon Age: Origins resulted in BioWare passing over developing a sequel to Knights of the Old Republic.