History YMMV / JadeEmpire

* TooGoodToLast: A sequel was in development, but was canceled before it could even be announced. Bioware has said that it would like to revisit the series in the future though...

*** Oddly, the Jade Golem is weakest to, well, groups of Mooks. Jade Golem's strength comes from being invulnerable to all status effects and most advanced attacks... which Mooks usually don't have. Groups of Mooks can simply surround you and wail on you, chipping away at your health while you slowly kill them one by one.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of pretty much every BackStory ever.

* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Gao the Lesser, although the one point he turns out to be right about ''in no way'' excuses harassing and then kidnapping Dawn Star, cheating during his sparring match with you, attempting to engineer your death by his bodyguards, successfully engineering the death of your entire village, etc. It turns out that when Gao the Lesser endlessly complained that you were Master Li's favorite student and that Master Li focused more attention on you than he did on Gao or any other students...guess what? That's ''true''! Since Master Li was counting on you someday killing Emperor Sun Hai, Master Li really ''did'' favor you over everyone else!]]

* CompleteMonster: The Closed Fist path is probably the most villainous path a protagonist can take in any Bioware RPG.
** As well, the Lotus Assassins specialize in kidnapping innocent people on the slightest pretext from villages too small to protest and then killing them to seal their souls in golems.
*** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the [[PlayerCharacter PC's]] conversation with Acolyte Trainer Guang in the Lotus Assassins' fortress. In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you must infiltrate a Sith academy and it's possible to appeal to the better natures of many students or would-be students, [[HeelFaceTurn turning them away from their dark path]]. When you start to ask her about why she joined the group, Guang tells you outright, "there are no Lotus Assassins with [[HiddenHeartOfGold hearts of gold]]."
** Captain Sen. At a young age, he left a boy to die, saying that [[HeKnowsTooMuch he will tell the others what he did]]. He goes on to commit atrocities as an Imperial Army Officer, and doesn't care whether Fading Moon kills the poor. He shows no remorse for any of those actions, unlike Aishi.

* Deconstruction: Of pretty much every BackStory ever.

** [[spoiler:Sun Li, however, actually is. He and [[TropeNamer Rommel]] share more in common then "just" tactical genius.]]

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: ''Jade Empire'' is not a straight rip-off of ''BridgeOfBirds'', but it is certainly heavily inspired by its concept and takes several important character names (Master Li, Henpecked Hou) straight from the novel, although the characters themselves are different.

* ThatOneBoss: When playing with Jade Master difficulty, [[spoiler:the Dirge clones]] become this. With normal difficulty, you can use the Jade Golem transformation style and/or focus mode to beat them easily. However, with Jade Master difficulty all the enemies can take much more damage than in the normal mode, which means your magic and focus bars have probably run out before you've defeated even one of the three [[spoiler:clones]]. The only way to defeat them without insane amounts of practice and very good reflexes is to exploit the weaknesses of the game's [=AI=], and even then it's hardly easy. Compared to the [[spoiler:clones]], the final boss of the game is much easier to defeat, even with Jade Master difficulty.

* TooGoodToLast: A sequel was in development, but was canceled before it could even be announced. Bioware has said that it would like to revisit the series in the future though...
* UnfortunateImplications: If you fight Sir Roderick and lose, he kills you. On the hand, if you win, you have no option to kill him.

* TooGoodToLast: A sequel was in development, but was canceled before it could even be announced. Bioware has said that it would like to revisit the series in the future though...

** As well, the Lotus Assassins specialize in kidnapping innocent people on the slightest pretext from villages too small to protest and then killing them eal their souls in golems.

* CompleteMonster: There's no sugar-coating it. Bar none, the Closed Fist path is probably the most villainous path a protagonist can take in any Bioware RPG. It's like the writers for the KOTOR series saved up the evil they weren't allowed to put in due to licensing issues and dumped it all in one game. It doesn't just KickTheDog, it [[MoralEventHorizon rapes its corpse.]]
** As well, the Lotus Assassins specialize in kidnapping innocent people on the slightest pretext from villages too small to protest and then killing them in as horrifically slow and painful a fashion as they can imagine in order to seal their souls in golems. That's just about as vicious as you can get in a game intended for general audiences.
*** [[BloodierAndGorier General Audiences?]]
** Also, ''literal'' KickTheDog moments- if you max your Closed Fist points, you can kill lapdogs for health powerups. This uses the standard "breaking-open-a-jar" animation- a kick...
** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the [[PlayerCharacter PC's]] conversation with Acolyte Trainer Guang in the Lotus Assassins' fortress. In ''{{Knights of the Old Republic}}'', you must infiltrate a Sith academy and it's possible to appeal to the better natures of many students or would-be students, [[HeelFaceTurn turning them away from their dark path]]. When you start to ask her about why she joined the group, Guang tells you outright, "there are no Lotus Assassins with [[HiddenHeartOfGold hearts of gold]]."
** That the Closed Fist path is this way is something of a writing fumble, in that the Low Path isn't ''evil'' in the way the Dark Side is - it is often used to motivate evil, but the philosophy as such actually has a 'good' interpretation (let people grow strong on their own but intercede when the odds are too unreasonable, basically), just as the Way of the Open Palm can be interpreted in an 'evil' manner (Sun Li's ideas for the Empire). The game just tends to only give evil Closed Fist and good Open Palm options.
** Captain Sen. At a young age, he left a boy to drown, saying that [[HeKnowsTooMuch he will tell the others what he did]]. He goes on to commit atrocities as an Imperial Army Officer, and doesn't care whether Fading Moon kills the poor. He shows no remorse for any of those actions, unlike Aishi.

* GoddamnBats: Lost Spirits attack in groups (that tend to be spread out), have ranged attacks that drain both your HP and Chi, and give ridiculously paltry EXP. They turn into DemonicSpiders when they're supporting an actual dangerous boss.

*** The time needed to load after each shot is significant even when fully upgraded, it can misfire, and it's arguably not powerful enough for its rate of fire. YourMileageMayVary on whether it is this, DifficultButAwesome, or AwesomeButImpractical.

** Mirabelle, a gun in a setting with swords and fists, though its somewhat balanced by the large amount of focus and the time needed to load after each shot.

** In-story, the Phoenix Unity style was banned from arena matches for this reason.
** Storm Dragon style is also insanely powerful. Upgrade the duration, hit anything three times, then switch to any martial style for at least seven free hits, then go back to Storm Dragon and do the same. If you knock your enemy against a wall, you can set up a combo attack that they will NEVER be able to get a free action up against. This makes even Jade Master battles against mortal enemies a matter of pressing style keys and hammering the attack button in sequence. Red Minister form is also self-sustaining (it drains Chi, but every hit regains Chi as well), and is immune to the attacks roughly 80% of all enemies throw at you.

** Henpecked Hou, in the epilogue, has seven daughters by his terrifying wife, like his namesake from the book.

** [[spoiler:Sun Li, however, actually is. He and [[TropeNamer Rommel]] share more in common then "just" tactical genius.]]

** Hell, at the default difficulty even the sword you get a few minutes in will make you an unstoppable whirlwind through most of the game as long as you upgrade the style and buy the upgrade later. The dual-swords style makes everything but spirit fights from that point on a total joke even at the hard setting.

** Hell, at the default difficulty even the sword you get a few minutes in will make you an unstoppable whirlwind through most of the game as long as you upgrade the style and buy the upgrade later. The dual-swords style makes everything but spirit fights from that point on a total joke even at the hard setting.