Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) was Xbox game of the year for many publications in 2003. Obsidian did a respectable job with the follow-up, but Bioware, the developers behind KOTOR, went on to create a brand new Xbox RPG outside of the Star Wars universe. That RPG is Jade Empire, and it may just take KOTOR's title as top Xbox RPG.

While Jade may be set in an ancient Chinese era, if you've played through either of the KOTOR titles you should already have a pretty good idea of how things work. You choose what you want your character to say, including the ability to persuade or threaten the person you're talking to. However, what you say and do will weigh heavily on how your character's personality develops. Be the kind and gentle warrior and you'll sway to the way of the open palm. Kick some ass and take some names without looking back and you'll sway to the way of the closed fist. Think of these as the Jade Empire version of the light and dark sides of the force.

A big problem with many RPGs out there is that they start extremely slow. Once you get maybe 10 or 20 hours into them, and gain some cool powers, the story starts to pick up and you start having fun. Luckily, this is not the case with Jade Empire. Almost immediately, your character is graced with some cool attacks, and the story takes off at a decent pace. As you progress through the game you'll earn a ton of even cooler attacks, and the story picks up even further, but it's nice to not have to wait for all of the hotness.

Like KOTOR and Fable before it, Jade Empire is not your typical turn-based RPG. Instead, all of the battles take place in real-time. As you play through the game, your character will learn various fighting styles. You can assign any four fighting styles to the four directions on the d-pad. This allows you to change between fighting styles on the fly during combat. You have the option to pause combat and think about what your next move will be, but the emphasis is more on action than anything else.

You'll need to choose your fighting styles wisely as certain enemies are immune to certain fighting styles. In addition, some fighting styles may drain your focus meter, which is needed to enter focus mode, Jade Empire's version of bullet-time. Other fighting styles will drain your Chi, which is needed to replenish your health, or perform magic techniques. For example, when you wish to transform into a demon, you'll need to conserve your Chi for this transformation. The combat system in Jade Empire is deep, but still remains easy to pick up for beginners.

The combat system relies heavily on a rock, paper, scissors format. Your character can perform a standard quick attack or combo, a more powerful attack, or simply guard incoming attacks. Quick attacks interrupt power attacks, power attacks break through an opponent's guard, and guarding prevents getting hit by a quick attack. You can also dodge by pressing guard and the L or R trigger. This is the basic combat system for just about every fighting style you'll come across in Jade. If it sounds simplistic, trust us when we say it has a good amount of depth to it. Certain fighting styles offer projectile or long range attacks, but may drain your focus or chi meters. You'll have to find the right combination of fighting styles and varied attack patterns to get through many of the battles in the game.