BioWare are truly the masters of role-playing games.
They’ve allowed us to change the fate of the Old Republic in Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. They have taken us into outer space in Mass Effect, and made us save the entire Milky Way.
And they have taken to the Far East with Jade Empire.
While the game is seemingly not as celebrated as other titles developed by the now legendary studio, Jade Empire has a strong following that continues to enjoy the game to this day.
And if you’re booting it up for the billionth time, maybe some mods could help keep you invested.
Having played through Jade Empire countless times, I surely do not need to be schooled about its mechanics. And you probably don’t need it either.
This simple mod lets you completely skip all the basic tutorials at the beginning of the game, which honestly doesn’t sound like a big change for those who played through the game only once.
But if you’ve already played it times to test out different builds, you will definitely appreciate skipping what has to be the slowest part of the game.
Like any self-respecting RPG, Jade Empire features multiple romance options.
The vanilla game, sadly, makes some of them less useful than others. But modders are here to save the day.
This Romance fix mod improves romances for characters of the same sex, so that the culmination of the relationship plays in full, exactly like it does for the other romances.
This is a game all about fighting styles, and getting more of them can only be a good thing.
The Rainbow Style Pack adds four new styles, which are incredibly consistent with the game’s settings and mechanics. Not to mention a new weapon, the Moon Light weapon, and a few more changes to existing styles to create a more balanced experience.
The perfect mod for that 100th playthrough… or is this the 1,000th?
But what if I want to use them to their full potential without having to spend hours practicing? You install the Papagamer Mod Pack, obviously!
This mod pack adds five new styles: Rhino Demon, Monkey Paw, Saber, Two Hammers, and Death’s Hand.
It also includes a few quality of life improvements, like the removal of the fog of war on maps, and the reduction of experience points needed to level up. This allows you to max out your character much faster and reach your full potential as a martial artist, all with way less trouble.
And the ability to kick your enemy’s behinds hard.
Here’s a mod that replaces all starting martial styles with weapon styles, which is useful for those who want to build a focus-based character.
The subquests that unlock these styles will be available as well, so you can still complete a 100% playthrough. Nothing is truly precluded, to the real martial artists out there.
If magic is more of your thing, downloading the Magic Starting Styles mod is an absolute must.
This mod works in the same way the Weapon Starting Styles mod does, exchanging all starting martial arts styles with magic styles.
While this opens up some new options in the first few hours of the game, it also makes them much more challenging. So be prepared in case you’re aiming to create the most powerful magic-based character build.
What’s that you say? Jade Master difficulty doesn’t present much of a challenge anymore?
No worries: let me present you with the ultimate Jade Empire challenge!
This introduces a truly hardcore difficulty setting that that not only changes all enemy stats, but it also tweaks their AI.
Now they can attack more often. Fierce!
And the level up system gets some changes too, making it so you get only half style points upon level up. If this isn’t hardcore then I’m not sure what you need.
I love getting challenged as much as everyone, but there are times when I just want to turn off my brain.
When this happens, I install the Cheats and God Items mod. Then I can dominate everything with ease.
This mod is a compilation that introduces different changes to the game, and adds some very overpowered gems that make every battle almost trivial. Overpowered gameplay can still be fun, I swear.
Probably not a good mod for a first playthrough, but an excellent one to see how far you can go to break the game. Or just for having a good laugh.
Old games and widescreen resolutions don’t mix well.
Developers never seem to bother to update their old classics for a new generation of displays, so mods are often needed for an optimal experience. And hey, I’m not complaining.
UI Overhaul improves the vanilla game’s interface with a new look and feel, and with more consistent aesthetics and wide-screen optimization.
With this mod installed, Jade Empire will almost feel like a modern classic. If you can look past the outdated character models and low-resolution graphics, of course.
Some people like those sepia filters that give games a peculiar atmosphere. Some don’t.
I’m in the latter group, but I’m still going to present what might be your next favorite ENB. Because a martial artist knows how to respect all opinions.
This gives Jade Empire a sepia tint while adding a few more effects that go well with this look, like bloom and a few others.
The changes aren’t massive, to be honest. But I have to admit they suit the game’s aesthetics quite well, given its setting and themes.
Pry this game open like a can of beans with the Save Game Editor.
With it, everything is truly possible.
Like pretty much ever save file editor under the sun, this allows you to change pretty much every value in the game. From obtained items to levels, companions, techniques, and so on.
Did you want to break the game? Well this is the way to do it, safely.
