Part 43: The Great Wheel

Episode 41: The Great Wheel

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Welcome to the final chapter of Jade Empire and the final update of this LP. Last time, we dueled Death's Hand in the temple of Dirge and defeated him, freeing the spirit of Sun Kin and ending the Imperial assault on Dirge. Now, all that's left to do is face Sun Li and put things right once and for all.





The cutscene for our arrival at the palace hasn't changed since Chapter 4, and we're able to land the Dragonfly in the exact same spot as well.



I doubt this visit will be any less violent than the last.

You'd think someone might seal this particular entrance and make things a bit harder for us, but apparently no one bothered.





Well, the last visit was quite easy, at least until we got killed by Sun Li.



A startling revelation from Kang.

Hey, someone's got to get us out of here in case things go... poorly.



The road will be divided. There is a powerful presence stirring, and her will must be obeyed.





Trust her voice. We need a path through Master Li's corruption.

Trust what you see. Voices can come from anywhere.

Whatever we are doing, we have to do it now!



I'm sure Sun Li still has some surprises up his sleeve, especially now that he's got the power of the Water Dragon. The Water Dragon said we need to destroy her physical body, which is supposed to both weaken Li and allow the Water Dragon's spirit to be reborn.



It probably is, to be honest, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.



All right. Just one last round of conversations with everyone, and we're off.



This time, our party members just have a quick line or two so this won't take long.



Of course, we are taking Dawn Star with us for the showdown with Sun Li. After what Li said at Dirge, it's doubtful that Dawn Star can appeal to him as his daughter, but it probably won't hurt to give that a shot.





The Black Whirlwind still has his priorities sorted out.





The option to go to Lord Lao's furnace is still there, so if for some reason you haven't completed Kang's personal quest it seems you still have the opportunity to do so. I don't know why you wouldn't have finished the quest by now, but there it is.



You know, being here with you, I almost wish I was home with my wife instead. Almost.



Now then, let's get going. We're just going to proceed as we did the last time we were here, cutting down any Lotus Assassins and other jerks Li might send our way.



Looks like the Emperor's already arranged a nice welcoming committee for us. Hi there, fellas.



Yes, we cut off the heads of two Assassins with a single swing of the Demon Sword. Death's Hand (or Prince Kin, I guess) would be proud we're using his sword so effectively.





One more harmonic combo for the road, and we've got an open path to the elevator.



You have come. Destiny set this moment in motion, but from here, your choices are your own to make. Your Master awaits you, but he is not yet aware. You have time to alter things to your favor. You have time to set us all on the path to rebirth.

Our Master is not yet aware of what? That we just kicked down the door to his place and are on our way to him? Or that we're going to destroy the Water Dragon's body?



Apparently, they're keeping the body somewhere down below, so it seems we'll be taking the elevator down instead of up this time around.



If he's suggesting we should all get extremely drunk and take off our clothes, that can wait until we're done here.



Oh, right. That makes some sense, I suppose.



I always wander aimlessly, and I always find my way. Besides, we've been here before.



Yeah, that should work nicely.



It is not a task I wanted, but we have no choice.



And so, we head down. We don't know what it is the Water Dragon wants us to see, exactly (her body, presumably, since we need to destroy it and all), but we're about to find out.





It was gutted to allow the flow, to guide the water that pours from a crime against the heavens and the order of all things.

Such disrespect. This was done after Master Li ran from the Emperor, but he must have known it would be needed.

What hope is there for the future when the past is cast so roughly aside?





He and the Glorious Strategist focused on me, the Water Dragon. I symbolized the fading they wanted to avoid, and the regrowth they desperately needed. I became the answer to everything. Press further, and you will see the source of the lush new Empire under the Brothers Sun. You must see it with your own eyes to comprehend what they have done.



We can probably assume we're not going to see anything pleasant in there.

VIDEO: The Source









The very first thing the Water Dragon said to us in this game was that she was "cut open". Turns out that wasn't simply a figure of speech from a spirit that has a tendency to talk in riddles.







Fight them! Show them that such things will not go unpunished!



"Them" in this case means a couple of Lotus Elites who were guarding the Water Dragon's body.



Tempest spam





That'll do it for those idiots.



It is an agony that you cannot fathom. To have fallen so far into the hands of men. Rebirth is impossible while this continues.





The rest of the party have arrived, and they can't believe what they're seeing.



Forgive us, Great Dragon. Our mortal kin are ignorant, foolish, unkind. These crimes will not go unanswered.

I have never seen such a crime against the proper order of things.

Every freedom I cherish is violated by this.

It is... the saddest violation of a gentle creature. When the makers fall... what then?



Your Master Li must be stopped. The Empire must find balance without the flow of heart-water he has unleashed.





It was never meant to flow free. It is not infinite. The Jade Empire is green, but somewhere another iand goes thirsty. All things are linked.

Their concerns were for the Empire alone. Nothing else mattered.





I cannot be healed. My body has been cut open, my heart removed. I should rejoin the Great Wheel, but I am defiled and cannot rest. Rebirth can only come when my essence is free. To defeat your Master, you must stop the power he draws from me. Soon he will be too strong, even for you.





Your Master does not have to be so cautious. The amulet is not a source of power, but it *is* a focus. He partakes of energy that mortals were never meant to hold. He laps at it greedily, expecting your return. You must destroy the source of that power. You must destroy my body. When he falls, all that is mine will then rejoin my spirit. Rebirth.



Here we have the big choice that determines which ending we're going to get. Obviously, for us, doing as the Water Dragon says and ending her suffering is the right thing, but if we were an evil fucker we could assume control of the Water Dragon's power ourselves. You would do this by tainting the source with human blood, as was done at Dirge, and you'd end up as the new God-Emperor of the Jade Empire.

Now, one interesting detail I kind of enjoy about the game's ending is that even a Closed Fist character doesn't need to pick the monstrously evil option. If you choose to kill the Water Dragon as she asks you to, doing so will not cause an alignment shift to Open Palm, and this is reflected in the ending where you kind of end up as more of a Renegade Shepard figure than the super evil dick you'd be in the "proper" Closed Fist ending.

Speaking of Closed Fist, there isn't really that much justification for a character following that philosophy (at least as it was nominally supposed to be, as opposed to STUPID EVIL) to taint the Water Dragon. We all know that if these crimes against the natural order keep on going, the Jade Empire will eventually die because the underworld remains shut. Sure, you can take the Water Dragon's power and rule the Empire, and that's all cool in the short term, but what's the point when that Empire is doomed? Congratulations, now you're a petty tyrant ruling over a dying land. Wouldn't a Closed Fist protagonist want the Empire to get stronger instead?



A good step toward rectifying this desecration.

There is no other reasonable response to such an abomination.

As you probably guessed, this would be where you start killing your Open Palm-aligned party members if you choose to taint the Water Dragon. Obviously, that is not what we are doing, so let's see how things turn out for us.



The Great Wheel must turn.



VIDEO: Death of the Water Dragon







That contraption up there on the right is where the blood would go if we had decided to taint the Water Dragon.



But we're not doing that. Instead, Wu picks up a staff that was presumably left behind by one of the Lotus Elites...





...and uses it to jam the machinery controlling this whole setup.











Finally, the Water Dragon can be reborn.







Meanwhile, Emperor Sun Li realizes something is wrong.



No longer able to tap into the Water Dragon's power and mortal once more, the Emperor screams at the heavens.



That's right. We're going to finish this.





The reward for freeing the Water Dragon is The Open Palm, a very high-quality gem. Obviously, the other choice would give you The Closed Fist, which adds +10 to Body and +5 to Spirit.

There is actually another great essence gem down here, called the Scintillating Gem of Power (+5 to Body, Spirit and Mind), but somehow I completely missed it on this playthrough. The gem is supposed to be found in a headstone somewhere in this tomb, but for some reason I overlooked that. It's not really a big deal since it'd just be a +1 bonus over the Brilliant Gem of Balance we've got equipped, but would've been nice to have nonetheless. Oh well.



Here's our character record for one last time. We're most likely going to finish at level 23, it's doubtful we'll be getting enough experience to level up again before the game ends.



I will treasure this moment for as long as I live. To have a hand in such a creature's destiny... it is an honor.

This was nearly overwhelming. My eyes were not meant to see such things.

It was the only choice that would restore balance and order. If nothing ends, there are no more beginnings.





We have to try. I can't leave here knowing I didn't try.

We will try. There is nothing else we can do.

I will be here for this final confrontation, but I do not know how much help I will be.

Yes, we get it. When we finally fight Li, we can't count on any of these guys to help us out.



Some more Lotus Assassins decide to enter the tomb. I'm assuming we are now on the other side of the door that officially leads to the tombs of Sun Li and Sun Kin, it's never explicitly stated that this is the case but I can't see what else could have been behind that door.









We don't get to crack any more Lotus Assassin heads, but I'm sure our guys will do a good job while we face Sun Li with Dawn Star.



Here we are, back in the throne room. Let's do this.

VIDEO: The Throne Room (again) (video runs to the end of the update)



This time, the Emperor isn't sending soldiers and Lotus Assassins at us, so we can simply run up to him. The last time we were here seems so long ago.



I apologize for that indignity, but it was necessary. It was also meant to be the end of you, but you surprised me again. I should have studied your people before wiping them out.





Sure. It couldn't hurt.





Ah, once more you try to restore me. My lost family was just one more tool. If they had ever meant more than that, I would have been present when they fell. That it was *you*, Dawn Star, only reinforces this. I would have recognized you, if I had cared to. What use are heirs to a god?

I'm not sure what I expected my father to be, but I remember a time when I hoped he was someone like you. Not any more.





I will undo the damage of his ignorance, force the dead to their rest, and keep the waters flowing. My Empire will be ordered, *obedient,* and neither ghosts nor gods will plague it.

Oh, great, now he's monologuing. The game has done a pretty good job not turning Li into a cartoon villain after he revealed his true colors, but now it seems he's going off the deep end.



So that's why we didn't have anyone to greet us when we entered the throne room, he just wants to show off.







An elephant demon. That's nice, what else has he got?



A bull demon, apparently. Li then summons one more of each from the other side of the room.



Two elephant demons and two bull demons, then. This should be interesting.



The constructs fight just like the actual demons, which in the bulls' case means they're basically the Minion of Suffering.



We could fight these guys normally, but it would take a long time and we don't want to waste too many resources on them.



So, let's even the odds just a bit.





The Jade Golem kills these constructs in two hits if you use the strong attack. We knew that this style is powerful, but here we really see what it's capable of.



No, there really isn't. Just one old man with delusions of grandeur.





Looks like the old man isn't finished just yet, though.











Well, this might be a problem.







Physical barriers are no match for those we place in our own minds. My power has encased you in doubt, held you with the weight of your burden.







At least it looks like we're not on our own here.



Uh, what the hell is going on?

Yes... well said.



Allies have no greater strength than in your own heart. I will be the conduit. I will show them the way.





The power of friendship saves the day once again. Well, we still need to get out of here somehow, I suppose.



In order to escape Li's mental prison, we must fight and defeat our doubt.





It's not quite over yet, though.







I am with you. We haven't come this far to fail now.

We cannot let this stand. Not when so much is at stake.

I stand with you. We will not fall just yet.





Wu the Lotus Blossom vs. Doubt, round two.



Now can we please get out of here?





Maybe nothing in the mortal realm can help us here, but how about something -- or someone -- outside the mortal realm? Zu has been with us all this time, and now he's going to try to help us as best he can.





There goes the pillar, which should hopefully mean we're free now.







That's better.





So, what next?



The loyalty you inspire is also tiresome, but I respect it. You have truly become a Spirit Monk. In another time, I would be proud of your ability.





I see now that the Water Dragon's power is the prize, not the means to victory. No matter what I expend, while you live you will resist. That is your role. It is the Celestial Bureaucracy attempting to restore balance. We must bring the fight back down to earth. Unless... you are made to see reason.



Not going to happen. You can in fact take Sun Li up on his offer, and he'll tell you he's going to make sure everyone remembers you. Then he kills you again, this time for real. This is an actual ending, in which we see exactly what kind of "order" Sun Li had in mind for his Empire. (not my upload)



I expect you have corrected the flaw in your style? No matter. Beyond the basics, I also taught you... focus. Match me if you can.



Here we go. This is the final battle, in which the fate of the Jade Empire will be decided. Sun Li has some very nasty tricks in this fight, one of the worst being the fact he can control your focus and use it against you, slowing you down to a crawl. Or possibly just using focus himself with the same result, I'm not entirely sure (he does have a focus bar of his own and I've been told you can get him to deplete all of it with no penalty to your focus if you hide behind the pillars, so the latter is more likely to be the case). In any event, you lose a chunk of our focus bar every time he does this, and oh boy does he ever like doing this. We can press the focus button to get out of it quicker, but this still eats up a lot of our focus. As such, weapon styles aren't going to help much in this fight (well, I suppose you can blast him with a fully upgraded Mirabelle before he can eat all your focus).



What's worse than getting slowed down? Getting slowed down and paralyzed, so you can't do anything but watch as you get your shit kicked in and your focus meter depleted.



Li can also drain our health and chi...



...and spam Tempest because of course he can...





...and worst of all, when you get his health down, he starts doing this. When you attack him, you lose a chunk of health every time you hit him, and that's a big chunk for each hit. If he activates his fire aura at the wrong time and/or you're not paying attention, you're getting hurt bad. This was the only fight in the game I actually lost a couple of times, once because I forgot he had the fire aura and once because he activated it at the worst moment.



Li's fireballs actually home in on you, although of course they're blockable.



After a couple of fights where I tried to do this legitimately and didn't have much success, I ended up going back to the old standby of Storm Dragon & Leaping Tiger because fuck this guy. Some players cheese this fight with Jade Golem, but I didn't want to do that because that would've been even more anticlimactic.



Even if you are cheesing the fight by spamming support styles, you'll still want to be careful of his fire aura kicking in at the wrong time. He'll also try to heal if he gets a chance, so watch out for that too.



Eventually, we manage to wear him down. Li has a ton of health, as you'd expect from the final boss.



And with that, it's over.









Emperor Sun Li the Glorious Strategist -- Master Li -- is dead.







With Sun Li's death, the spirit of the Water Dragon is now free as well, and the natural order will be restored.







I'll be honest, I thought the palace was supposed to be higher up in the sky than that. Maybe the blob of pixels I thought was the palace in the Imperial City landing cutscene actually was the palace.





I'm pretty sure none of these people have any idea what's going on in the palace right now, but at least it looks spectacular.









The Water Dragon's spirit appears once more, to thank us for our service before she rejoins the Great Wheel.







I'm not sure why Wu looks so angry in this prerendered cutscene.









This is it, then. We've defeated the brothers Sun, the Jade Empire is safe and should prosper again now that the natural order has been restored. That's definitely worth a round of applause, if you ask me.



After the ending cutscene, we get these slides describing what happened to our party members. It's a shame they're just generic text slides without any cool art or narration or anything, but that's still more than we got in certain other BioWare games. If this is your first playthrough, you also unlock the Jade Master mode which is basically New Game+.

In any event, things turned out nicely for Wu and Silk Fox as they ruled the Jade Empire together and lived happily ever after.



Dawn Star returned to Two Rivers to rebuild the town, and eventually set out to parts unknown. However, this isn't really the ending slide that should be appearing here, because as you can see there is absolutely no mention of Sun Li being Dawn Star's father. This is the "didn't complete Zu's side plot" version of Dawn Star's ending, and due to a bug it's the only one you can actually get in-game if she wasn't romanced. Here's the more appropriate version:




Sky became the leader of the Guild, who we saw were already becoming a bit more legit after we killed Gao the Greater and Kai Lan the Serpent, and turned it into a benevolent organization that helped people in need.

In the game's data files, you can still find an ending meant for the original version of the character, in which Sky also becomes the leader of the Guild but is far more ruthless and eventually dies alone when someone poisons his wine.



Hou is still Hou.



Wild Flower got a second chance at life, as a thank you for her service to the heavens.



Kang kept building things that flew and things that exploded, apparently mostly the latter, and found a somewhat novel way to keep up his inspiration.



I'd play a game about the Black Whirlwind hunting demons for the Celestial Bureaucracy.



Sir Roderick isn't a party member, of course (I wish he were), but he gets an ending slide anyway because we all love him.



And that's it, we're done here! Make sure to watch the credits to the end for some amusing VA outtakes.

I want to thank everybody for reading the LP and posting in the thread, it's been a great time and it's been fun to read everyone's thoughts on the game. I really enjoyed playing through Jade Empire again despite its flaws, and I hope you enjoyed following the playthrough as well. I'll see you in the next LP thread, which... well, I'm not going to give anything away just yet, certainly not before I've got all the tech stuff sorted out. Anyway, I'll see you later, and thanks again for reading!

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