Jade Empire Previews

A couple more hands-on previews of Jade Empire have hit the web, both based upon a visit to BioWare's headquarters. The first is over at GameSpot:
Before we actually got hands-on with Jade Empire, we were treated to a live demonstration that showed off three previously unseen areas from the game, as well as a number of different enemies. The first area was an ancient neighborhood known as The Necropolis, which was inhabited by lost spirits. These lost spirits were translucent enemies that, because of their immunity to all weapon-based attacks, were defeated by employing a combination of ice attacks (temporarily freezing them) and "thousand cuts" punches. The second locale was a forest that, although it had evidently once been an area of great beauty, was inhabited by ghosts and basically didn't look like the kind of place you'd want to go to for a picnic. While in the forest, the BioWare representative's character, Lu the Prodigy (more about player characters later), was accompanied by a previously unseen and particularly intriguing follower named Wildflower, who looked as harmless as her name suggested because she was a young girl with pigtails. However, Wildflower's body played host to two demons, one good and one evil. We got to see Wildflower transform into one of these two demons once combat got under way, and we were also shown one of the ways in which you'll be able to use the environment to your advantage. In this case, ghost enemies, who dislike light and heat, were lured toward a flaming altar where they spontaneously combusted.

And the second is at TeamXbox:
You can definitely see some KotOR influence in certain areas of the game, such as the menu system, party system, character interaction, and influence. (We tried to take the things from KotOR that were successful, and that fit, and then implement them into Jade Empire.), claims Muzyka. The early descriptions and footage of the game originally had us assuming that Jade would be KotOR set in ancient China, but as we come closer and closer to the project's completion it is apparent that we were way off. There are so many ways to play the game that we believe Jade Empire will appeal to players that wouldn't dare touch a game like Neverwinter Knights or KotOR. Yet there is so much depth to the story and role-playing aspects that fans of BioWare's previous titles will also be thrilled.