ade Empire developer BioWare has been associated with some pretty storied licensed material – D&D and Star Wars. However, this game proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the company is more than capable of standing on its own two feet. If anything, this game is the best it has ever done precisely because they are free to let their imaginations run wild. This pays off handsomely in a rich adventure that puts destiny at your feet and power in your palm.

Gone is the point-and-click scaffolding that had the computer executing attacks for players in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, keeping you at arm’s length from the action. In its place is a battle system giving you a multitude of choices. Jade Empire doesn’t focus on strings of button-heavy combos, instead putting its variety and skill in the combat powers you use. By game’s end I had dabbled in or mastered over a dozen different fighting styles, with a bunch more in the game that I never learned. I not only like how you can customize the evolution of these powers in terms of their damage, speed, and the physical drain on you, but I love how your character’s base attributes shape your fighting styles. So if you want to build up your Chi meter at the expense of your Focus, it doesn’t cut you off at the knees, it only means that you’ll be better at the fighting styles that transform you into beasts rather than the weapon-based ones. My Chi and Focus were evenly balanced, so I was able to freely morph into a Jade Golem as well as rock foes back with my blunderbuss gun. If I ever ran out of Chi in battle, I always had another style I could call upon.

The gamut of powers at your fingertips works flawlessly during combat. You can call up and map any of your fighting styles to the d-pad in the middle of a battle, and you must choose wisely. Some enemies are impervious to weapons, while others aren’t phased by status-changing attacks like Paralyzing Palm. Combat is fast-paced (gone are the chugging frames of KOTOR) and exhilarating as you flip through your arsenal of skills, blocking, counter-attacking, and calling upon your considerable prowess to exploit your enemy to their death. My only gripes with Jade’s combat are that the targeting system could select foes better, movement is a bit slow when locked on to an enemy, and the camera can get weird.

BioWare has not only made a sweet combat system, but the game’s universe itself is a joy. From the trademark dialogue to memorable characters at every turn, the story is replete with humor, surprises, and sidequests. As for the latter, I don’t know which was my favorite: dressing up in drag as a thespian or putting Sir Reginald the Bastard in his place. Of course, Jade Empire also lets you influence the plot through your "good" or "bad" character development, but it’s not as black or white as that. In fact, once you understand the philosophies present and their true significance in the plot, you’ll see that it’s about more than choosing to kick peasants or not. Much like the choices put before you in Jade Empire, BioWare has made its own to further enrich and diversify the RPG genre. Embrace this power put before you and wield it as you might.