 Jade
Cocoon 2 from developer Genki is an interesting attempt at a
monster raising RPG hybrid. Published
in the U.S. by Ubi Soft, the game takes the premise of the original Jade
Cocoon -- which appeared on the PSOne -- and expands the concept
in more ways than one.
The story is
relatively light. Basically, the monsters of the forest, known as
Kalma, have begun to invade the human lands and assume human forms.
Beasthunters use the forest beasts to hunt down and kill the
Kalma. The player assumes
the role of novice beasthunter, Kahu, who is on a mission to make a
name for himself. In the
process, he is cursed by a particularly nasty Kalma and must recover
the 4 elemental forest orbs or die.
A wisecracking fairy that offers many suggestions and acts as
the game's comic relief joins him on his quest.
The story is conveyed entirely with voice and progresses as
Kahu explores the 4 elemental forests.
Graphically, the game
is impressive until you realize that every environment is the same
except for different colors representing each different element.
Each forest is a basic maze with rooms having an item, a
battle, or a plot event. A
handy corner map shows where your character is and what is left to
explore. Each forest is so repetitive that eventually there is no need
to look at where you are going, but simply guiding the map icon on the
corner map suffices to get you through each stage.
The game characters are fairly detailed in the typical cartoony
way that harkens back to the anime style of the first game. The monsters are also detailed and move around in battle as
they grow and evolve through more and more complex forms.
 Jade
Cocoon 2's sound and music is also nothing special.
Most of it is very repetitive but not particularly intrusive.
Battles have their own share of sound effects during attacks
and magic spells. Ultimately,
the music doesn’t add anything to the game and simply serves its
purpose as background noise.
While Jade Cocoon
2 is very weak in the story and graphics departments, its strong
point is a very addictive game system.
The main character only uses items during battles and does not
fight. Instead, there is
a circular amulet surrounding him with spaces for the friendly
monsters. Each side of
the amulet corresponds to an element of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.
You start out with just two friendly monsters that get more
powerful with experience.
To get more powerful
monsters, the player must find Seed Eggs in the forest.
These eggs are taken to the Life room where they are hatched.
Then when a monster reaches level 15, they can be merged with a
Seed Beast of either the same or different element.
Each merge can give different or more powerful attacks and
evolves your monster to a higher state.
The friendly beasts can be placed anywhere on the amulet ring.
Preferably, a Fire beast is placed in front of the player on
the Fire side of the amulet. However,
you can also place a Fire beast at the edge of the Fire section.
Rotating the amulet will position the monster to another
elemental side where he can use an attack corresponding to that side.
In this way, by combining attacks ranging from heal, special
attacks, defenses, and active attacks, you can use an endless possible
strategy of battle. Not only do you fight forest beasts arranged in the same type
of fashion, but you also get to fight rival Beastmasters with their
own evolved set of monsters.
 There
is also an Arena feature where all you do is battle Beastmaster
opponents. At the
beginning of the game, you can only use two friendly monsters.
Then as the game progresses, you can take advancement tests
which is a series of 3 battles against Beastmasters where if you win
three times, you get another amulet which will allow use of more
monsters. Advancement
tests are taken based on reputation points.
With the tasks of
finding monster Seed eggs, taking jobs from the lounge, and battling
in the Arena gain reputation points, this game gives the player so
much to do that it never gets boring.
The repetitive dungeon crawling can get tedious.
However, this drawback is mitigated by the extremely good
battle system and the complex monster evolution system.
Jade Cocoon 2
may fail as a smash RPG but it makes up for it in the gameplay and
monster raising departments. Although not a "must buy"
game, if you're into monster raising and like RPGs, this is worth a
rental.
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