Well got this a couple of days ago, since the last 360 conversion I bought wasn't that bad, I figured it would be worth trying another, and this looked interesting.
Jade Empire is not set in China, just somewhere that is very 'Chinese'
It follows the life of a young Apprentice who's master has been adbucted by the Emperor for reasons that become clear later in the story. Now, normally that would be a pretty cliched storyline, but I will say that, in fact, the story is a very engrossing and interesting one that develops in unusual ways, but I'm not going to give too much away.
From a gameplay point of view, this is a fun fighting game, there's lots of different styles and weapons, though a lot of the magic, such as the transformation magic, seems to me to be of very limited use, basically using paralysing palm, and then just whacking the guy with something like Iron Fist seems to be a lot more effective.
You pick up several partners on the way, each with their own skills and abilities, there are areas where which partner you choose will effect how you do, but not, in my experience, as much as the game implies. Many of these partners have sub-plots that you can also choose to follow, but many of those sub-plots are wrapped up in the main plot.
The graphics are very nice and effective, I'm pretty sure it's based on the Titan Quest engine, but from an above/behind perspective, the voice acting is well done and the music is, I must say, gorgeous.
That said, I found the game a bit short, which, I think, is always going to be a problem with conversions from consoles, and there are periods of running around in the city cemetary doing chores where it gets very boring and repetitive feeling for a while.
All in all, it's a good game and an interesting story, but I did find myself being more motivated to find out 'what happens next' in the story than for any real enjoyment of the combat, whilst theres lots of variation, and it's gorgeous animation-wise, it's button mashing at the end of the day, there's very little 'skill' involved.
