Jade Empire casts the player as a mysterious student who has been raised from infancy by Master Li, the head teacher at a martial arts school in the town of Two Rivers. Two Rivers is a tiny outpost of a fantastically conceived universe that draws from a hodgepodge of Asian influences including Chinese history and mythology, Japanese architecture, Buddhist, Shinto and animist philosophy and legends as well as a host of kung-fu and action films. The story involves the search for the main character's mysterious past, as well as the cause of a plague of angry ghosts that threaten to destroy the Empire.
If the story sounds a bit clichéd, that's because it is. But that hardly matters when compared with the skill of Jade Empire's presentation. The world that BioWare has created alternately beautiful and terrifying, filled with angelic nature spirits and vile demons that vie for the soul of humanity, along with a very real evil at the heart of the story that springs from nothing more than basic human nature. The game's dialogue is superb, voiced by an exceptionally talented cast that bring a cast of absolutely fascinating characters to life and make what might otherwise have been a collection of stock RPG elements feel fresh and new.
