By now, you’ve probably heard of Bioware, the development house responsible for such blockbuster RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic. These games built on the expectations of gamers, and then exceeded them ten fold. Each of these games worked well in the specific universes they were set. Knights of the Old Republic was a leap forward in that it made the player feel as if he or she were having an effect, albeit a small one, on the world around them. Jade Empire takes a few lessons from these games and the end result is an RPG that feels a bit stripped-down, but is one of the best RPG experiences on the Xbox. Don’t read into that statement too much though. Jade Empire may help prop up the Xbox’s lagging RPG market, but is just as good compared to the RPG libraries on other consoles, due to the original context of the game.