A mythic China, a master, and fighting styles you collect like spells.

When the community picks on gut feeling, Jade Empire gets ahead of roughly two thirds of games. Solid. And the criterion breakdown confirms it, better still, it amplifies it. Attachment climbs ahead of 87% of titles, on few votes so treat it as provisional, but the signal is there. Controller feel reaches the same level, and the art direction does slightly better, ahead of 88% of games. The soundtrack follows in the upper half. Only desert island and rediscovery drop back toward the middle, as if people love the game without wanting to carry it everywhere.

For a 2005 BioWare, Xbox exclusive and squeezed between Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, that is a fine bit of payback. Where many RPGs of that era pay for their age on aesthetics, this one holds up thanks to its setting and its hands-on melee combat, more direct than the turn-based systems of its cousins.

So, who is it for? For you if you like an RPG where moral choices weigh on you, where you throw the punches yourself instead of rolling hidden dice, and where the world has a real identity. Much less so if you want a vast open world or dark, brutal western RPG.