Jade Cocoon 2

"A mature Pokemon(Bleh) -- But it rules!"

Gameplay(9/10)- The gameplay for Jade Cocoon 2 is quite good, because it implements the idea ''Why use the typical party of RPG characters to fight the battles when the monsters can do the dirty work for us?''. Basically this game takes a lot of strategy if you want to be the master. You can’t rely on all strong monsters to win, you need a mixture of healing and defensive monsters. This is a good thing because people wont spend all their time leveling up one creature so it can handle the dirty work. Another good thing that actually makes a gamer think is the ability to merge two monsters together. This is the way to earn the best party because monsters can only get up to level 20(which happens quite fast).The only negative for me is the inability to capture monsters like in its predecessor. The gameplay would’ve gotten a perfect 10 if you could capture monster but alas this game still kicks ass.

Story(8/10)- The story is good. It’s nothing really unpredictable or mind-numbing but it presents the player with a bunch of characters with very…er…creative personalities. Its hard to review the story’s single flaw without spoiling the game, but I’ll try. Basically you start your mission as Kahu, a kid who wants to become a legendary beast hunter, and according to him “get a deep voice”. After you become a beast hunter you start your mission, trying to destroy the Kalma, or “Dark Beasts”, but soon after, your mission becomes a race between you and others to find certain orbs. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it goes from a serious story to a somewhat of a joke. Still, despite this flaw, the story is close to perfection. Blending comedy with some seriousness but not being overly confusing. I was disputing whether to give the story a 9 or 8 but I decided the flaw is big enough to deduct 2 points.

Graphics(8/10)- The in-game graphics kind of disappointed me. They were almost exactly the same as its Playstation predecessor which came out almost 3 years ago. I know that Ubi Soft could’ve pushed the game to use the full power of the Ps2. Then again they weren’t anything too horrible so don’t worry too much. Now the anime style cut scenes were quite cool. I thought it was clever how they showed them in Nico’s point of view especially with her sarcasm. They were quite nice and are considered “eye candies” to me. But then again what can I say, I love my anime cut-scenes. ^_^

Music/Sound(7/10)- Whoo-hoo!!! Finally more games are implementing voices to their characters. I’m very happy about this. If this was just the Sound category then it’d get a 10 but that stupid Music part crept in there. The music is fine, though it does get a LITTLE repetitive. Not much variations in the tunes either.

Replay Value(10/10)- This game will defiantly give the player much, and I mean, much replay value. There are endless possibilities for merging, not to mention the fact that you can play the game each time using a totally different party of monsters, implementing WAY new strategies. Kind of reminds you of Final Fantasy 1, eh?

*Overall(8/10)- Overall the game is great. Funny story that’ll make you laugh, good characters, decent graphics, plus it actually makes you plan a strategy! Good fun all in all and I highly recommend it to old and new fans alike!

Rent or Buy?- Buy. If you have the cash for a Ps2 game that is. If not, then settle with renting it a million times until you master it!

*Overall score is not on an average*

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/02, Updated 01/14/02