It's likely a fact that any serious gamer out there can remember their very first RPG experience. And given the grand scope and epic story line that these games encompass, it's no surprise that a gamer's first RPG is likely to be a fond experience. Most of my friends are going to undoubtedly cite one of the Final Fantasy titles or Chrono Trigger as the game that opened their eyes to the fantastic world of role playing. I, however, am a glaring exception from my friends, as my first venture into the world of RPGs was quite unlike the majority of the gamers I have met. The year was 1997, and the game was the Blizzard classic, Diablo. The game featured real time combat (a staple in any Blizzard title), and old school RPG flavor. I cannot count how many hours my online pals and I wasted or how much sleep we lost playing Diablo and the sequel on Battle.net. It's because of this bizarre role playing parenting, I've always found the combat in turn based RPGs despicable. While I have enjoyed the story, I've simply hated playing them.

So when I heard BioWare was creating an RPG that featured a combat engine that would be fully real time, but also be set in an entirely original universe, I did a happy dance of joy (as I'm sure a fair majority of the Xbox populace did as well). Well, the day that Xbox RPG fans have been waiting for is here. Jade Empire has landed. How does it fare? Read on, and find out.

The legend of the Jade Empire

The exposition in Jade Empire is actually a little similar to the one found in another Xbox RPG, Fable, although there are differences. Mostly that in Fable you watch your home burn to the ground then get taken to a school for child prodigies. In Jade Empire you'll simply skip all that "burning of the only home you've ever known and the brutal murder of all your loved ones" nonsense, and begin the quest right in the school.

It's in the school you'll get the game's story to start turning it's wheels. You'll discover that your character was orphaned, and adopted by the martial arts school in the village of Two Rivers. For the past twenty years, you have trained hard under the watchful eye of Master Li, the leader of the Two Rivers dojo. You are his most prized pupil, and have the love and admiration of your fellow students.... except one. Your nemesis, a student by the name of Gao the Lesser, has a fairly nasty disdain for you, and is always attempting to take credit away from your achievements and place himself upon a high pedestal. It is because of this miserable little snot that triggers the first major conflict in the game, and will force you to truly get your quest on the road.

Throughout your quest, you'll travel across the extensive Jade Empire, and behold the many different locales found. From wooded forests, a sprawling city, snow topped mountain ridges, and various other regions, all of which are simply gorgeous to look at, you'll get down and dirty in all of them in your pursuit to fulfill your destiny.


And as you progress on through the Empire to succeed in your mission, you'll undoubtedly meet a group of colorful and quite odd cast of characters; a BioWare staple, and of RPGs in general. Some of these characters will join your party and follow you for the duration of your quest, others will simply remain exclusive to one of the areas you call home. Such examples include Kang the Mad, an old fellow who believes the answer to most of life's problems are to simply blow them up, and The Black Whirlwind, the axe wielding mercenary who loves to accidentally kill people more than he loves the drink. While the characters who decide to join forces with you are far more memorable then the ones you'll only meet once, these one-hitter quitters can still leave some good memories fazed into your mind. Such as the man who asks you to find Fen, his beautiful flower. While you do find his wife in the swamp, it becomes apparent that he was not looking for her, but rather his ox. As you they thank you for the rescuing and begin walking away, the man gets throughly chewed out by his wife. Such is the result when you place livestock over your loved one. There are a quite a few of these laugh out loud moments to be found in Jade Empire.