The Jade Cocoon 2 Playthrough Experience (Japanese Dub) Part 1 (Buckle up, cause this is a long one, mostly about basic gameplay and the areas of the game. Since the game has ALOT of names and definitions, I might mess something up, please correct me if I do so):
Hello Everyone! I've been sitting on this blog for awhile now with not much to show on it besides occasional drawings and reposts. In the past, I've slightly documented gameplay of a few games I've played, though none to completion. This is because I'm lazy and procrastinate alot. However, I feel like I should start doing more with this place and dive into more hobbies, mainly sparked by the fact that I have a new phone that can actually run a PS2 or Gamecube game without bursting into flames. So, I would like to start documenting playthroughs of games I've made significant progress so I have something to show for it. And the first game on the list is none other then the obscure monster raising, so-called Pokémon clone, Jade Cocoon! In this case, it's sequel, Jade Cocoon 2! This game has been on my to-play list for awhile, and the games aren't exactly difficult to get your hands on (expect of course the big issue of them being stuck on their original consoles). I love monster-raising RPG's, so this is right up my alley. Though I'm starting with the second game in the series rather than the first, and this one has more mixed reception, with fans either liking it or hating it due to it's divergence from the first one. So I suppose I'm going through this from a non-fan perspective (which has happened quite a number of times in my gaming career. Anyways let's begin!
The story starts out pretty interestingly, for starters, cutscenes are in 3D rather than the 2D animation style it was know for. Also, designs are DRASTICALLY different then the first game's, which were done by Katsuya Kondo, a character designer for Ghibli. For me personally, it's not that big of a deal, I like the first and second games artstyles, so this is fine, though the 2D animation will be missed. We get introduced to this world by Nico the fairy, who serves a important role in the story a little later. She also introduces use to Kahu, our protagonist, who we waste no time taking control of as soon as the game starts! I immediately found myself in a mysterious room surrounding by people who kept telling me about divine beasts and to meet the leader of the temple since Kahu wants to be a Beasthunter. Upon entering the throne room we see...*gasps* Levant, the previous protagonist from the first game! He now runs this temple, acting as a sort of guide for those who wish to become Beasthunters. He tells me to familiarize myself with the place, hands me a beastamulet, and then gives me some missions to do in the a training area, which itself acts as an introduction to the main areas we'll be exploring throughout the game. I guess the best way to describe them would be like...dungeons? Anyways, the place that houses these areas is called The Wormhole Forest. You navigate through them like a maze, and the way out is by unlocking the 'Princessvine' using a 'key spore' you can find in an 'Ogrevine'.
"Devimon, what the hell are are those?" I'm glad you asked, dear reader. So in the maze, there are these dark little cavern-plant things, called ogrevines. You'll be entering in and out of these constantly, finding loot, eggs, battles with allies and enemies, finding cocoons via defeated divine beasts and it's where a majority of the story with your rivals seems to take place. Inside the back of the room in one of these ogrevines will be a keyspore, usually in one that has an important story event. Kahu will swallow said keyspore, and it will open up the princessvine, another type of plant-cavern thing that looks like a small, blue ogrevine. This is the way out of your current floor. So, the tutorial teaches you basic stuff like that, you get and egg, hatch your first divine beast (a fire type) in the room of life, see the arena, fight in it, get a second divine beast (amongst a selection of wind, earth, and water types)...I should probably explain the typing systems.
So this game has an interesting monster typing system:
-There are four elements for your beasts (Fire, Water, Wind and Earth)
- Fire specializes in Attack, Water in Healing, Wind in Status and Earth in Defense
-Each type of beast in classified into it's own category, known as Genu
- There are 11 total Genu: Alco, Bug, Drac, Gara, Ku, Leif, Mau, Na, Og, Slimy and then another one specifically for strong, story important ones, called Kalma (These types then spread into different divine beasts per Genu, each catering to a different element)
Also related are how the battles will go:
-Battles are played with your beasts in a circular grid. There are 4 sections, and 3 spots per section, per element, with the outside spots in each section overlapping the next section. 3 beasts will be put into these 3 spots, totalling potentially 8 beasts on the grid altogether. You switch between each element section throughout the battle. From there, attacking with the selected section will send out all three beasts in that section to attack at once.
Here is a shitty grid I made on my phone using my finger since I don't a have a stylus for it:
Also, guess I should go over the functions of the areas of the temple real quick:
-Throne Room, the main hub for travelling in and out of the The Wormhole Forest.
-Room of Life, the place you'll head to to hatch eggs, and manage your divine beast party. The cocoons you get after defeating a beast can be given here to give your own divine beasts different abilities via merging.
-Arena, houses...well, the arena. You'll come back here when you have enough reputation points to level up your beastamulet. This is vital in order to have more beast on your team
-Kikinak and Co, the shopping area! You can store and take out items on one side, and buy and sell items on the other
-Lounge, you'll primarily use this spot to take on requests. Complete these to earn rewards like money, monster eggs and new items in the shop! They also net you reputation points, which are vital in leveling up your beastamulet
With that out of the way, everything seems to be going well for Kahu, until right at the end of the tutorial. He mistakes a sleeping fairy for a divine beast egg. He goes into a pure white void where he meets...himself?! An evil Kahu that tells him that one day, he'll turn into him! Kahu denies this, and fights him, but unfortunately we are no match for him. Evil Kahu tells him ti collect the orbs before Kahu wakes up. It's here where we'll meet our travel companion, Nico the fairy. Introductions are off to a rocky start however, as her snarky attitude doesn't help the fact that
1. He has a tail now
2. There is now another Kahu inside him, a parasitic Kalma as Levant says. If they don't find a cure for it, Kahu will turn into a Kalma!
So Levant tells him to seeks out all four elemental orbs, found in the four elemental areas within The Wormhole Forest, to open the Door to Spacetime (?!). Then, Levant will play his Dark Lute and hopefully drag the Kalma out! With them all, Kahu can free himself from the Kalma!
.....
I forgot I was trying to write this through a walk-through prespective for quite awhile there, let's get back to that.
To catch up, I chose the water-elemantal monster in the tutorial. I wanted to pair a healer with my attacker first and foremost. So with a fire and a water beast, I figured I would go into the Wind area first, mainly cause I wanted to add a Wind beast to my team. Here, we meet a reasearcher named Gil, He mainly gets interested in Kahu for his tail and wishes to pursue the Wind Orb for his own interest. It doesn't take that long till I encounter my first boss.
They were...REALLY easy. Kinda expected though since wind divine beasts only really focus on status ailments. Taking them down, I decide to take a moment and go to the room of life to hatch a wind beast egg. Heading back into the frey, I got to the fire area next, I wanted another attacker for my team. You see, even though I didn't have the amulet level yet to put it on your team, you can still hatch beasts. They can then casually level up on standby, so grinding doesn't take too long (not that it does anyway on the field either as I noticed). Here, I meet two people, Wu, an older beasthunter and Nam, a boy around Kahu's age I belive, though it seems you'll encounter Nam more than the other. Initially, Nam doesn't care about Kahu, only about beating Wu through pure strength. But Wu encourages him to learn a little more, saying to prove his worth against Kahu, thus their rivalry starts. I got to the boss here...but...It's REALLY tough right now, so I held off for a bit. I then decided to for the earth area next, since I also wanted a earth beast for defense. Around this time, my divine beasts went into their first evolution stage, and gained a bit of stat boosts from it. It's also around this time I meet the Sweet Knights, the rivals for this area. They are a group of girls whose names are based on dessert palletes, being called Cocona (Red), Choco (Green), Cinnamon (Blue) and Vanilla (Yellow). However when you first met them, the are bickering and missing a member, Vanilla, who you track down a little later.
The boss of this area was REALLY ANNOYING BTW! Since it's a defense-based beasts, naturally it focused in defense. And it's not like a 'oh, this boss is too strong' type of way, like the fire one. This one can boost it's defense, making your attacks weaker, and with only one attacker able to deal a decent amount of damage...this means this boss took awhile to defeat. Around this time, my team is able to merge at level 15. I mentioned this before, but allow me to go into detail about it. Merging is the process of essentially rebirthing your divine beast. This means hatching them from an egg once again at level one, stage one. Though this sounds bad, this is actually a good thing as it improves stats and gives them abilities and skills that they'll inherit from the beast cocoons you'll bring back here. Merging with beasts of the same type fills the evolution meter (I forgot the name). Filling this to certain points unlocks further evolution stages for the beasts. You can't inherit abilities that clash with the type however (no water abilities on fire beasts). You also can change the beast with the one in the cocoon, you'll have to hatch that beast yourself. I'll also mention something VERY important. If you merge a beast with an abilty not from it's type (like, fire with both a fire and wind attack) you'll have to place it on the overlapping wind-fire side of your circle grid in order to use both skills. Now, with that done, I go into the water area!
Here, first we fucking faint after walking into a trap. We are saved by a mysterious red-haired girl, who gives use a bitter plant to chew on to cure our sleepiness. Later, we met the hunter responsible for the trap, a Drac that's after the incarnation of Kemuel, a dragon god of darkness. He says she takes the form of a young, red-haired girl with wings (sound familar?). We eventually run into her again, and befriend her despite her fears of being captured. She takes a liking to Kahu since he looks just as strange as her (his tail lmao). Notice how I talked more about this part? That's because so far, this is my favorite rival story, mainly cause her and Kahu's interactions are cute. The boss of this area is kind of a joke if you have a decent party, it can't heal enough to save itself. Finally, with a team of four divine beasts, I head back and conquer the fire boss, pretty much sweeping him no sweat.
So, finishing up for the first areas, my impression of the game is really nice so far. I know the mechanics are different then the first one, but there not THAT bad. I kinda like how you have to strategize placements and skills to your advantages. The areas seem to level up with you as you go, which is helpful for catching up your divine beasts levels. There are a few things I'd like to note that aren't THAT important however, but I feel like I should mention. The quest pictured above...you don't need 5 luch eggs, only 3, a mistype I assume. And in a specific encounter in the Lounge, if you are playing the English dub, you will hear Kahu's VA (Lani Minella) do a retake of her recording session, you can look it up on Youtube. Supposedly, this happens twice in the game.
All in all, the game so far isn't that bad, and I look forward to playing through the rest of it
(Also this took me over an hour to write, my eyes hurt)
