Jade Empire E3 Preview & Interview

The Arenaline Vault has put together a preview of Jade Empire that also contains an interview with assistant producer Sheldon Carter. An excerpt of the interview to follow:
Q: How are you blending the action and RPG aspects of Jade Empire? It's a new approach for you guys, right?

A: Absolutely. Most of our games have had turn-based combat, and that's what makes Jade Empire so exciting. We thought, if you're going to role-play as a martial arts master, the only way to do it is to have a real-time combat system. Turn-based combat wouldn't offer the same effect. It's also drawing on our experience. People responded well to Knights of the Old Republic, and we wanted to build on that. We wanted to take our combat engine to the next level.