Jade Cocoon 2

"Pokemon just wishes it was this good a game."

First off, despite what most people think when they first see it, THIS IS NOT LIKE POKEMON!!!!!! This is not like Pokemon in any way save for the fact you raise monsters, on all levels this is better than Pokemon will probably ever be. Now that I got that out of my system, on to the review.

STORYLINE: 7/10
Taking place a long time after the end of Jade Cocoon 1, a young man seeking to prove himself to his family decides to become a Beasthunter, a warrior who hunts down and defeats Kalma, beasts infected by the powers of darkness, unfortunately he gets taken over by a Kalma himself, and is in a desperate race to save his life by finding 4 elemental jewels.
The stroyline is simple and straightforward, yet has one of the biggest plot twists I have ever seen, and serves to move the story along. While nothing special, the plot twists and the fun yet quirky characters will keep up your interest.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
Now HERE is where Jade Cocoon 2 shines, it has a deep immersive battle system heavy on strategy, Ill try to sum it up here, so here goes.
There are 8 spaces for monsters,
Fire + Earth - Fire - Fire + Wind - Wind - Wind + Water - Water - Water + Earth and Earth
They are connected in an 8 sided ring around you.
One side of the ring will face your front at any given time.
Each side of the ring consists of the same 3 elements
(For example) the earth side will have E, E+F and E+Wa spaces facing front, the wind side will have Wi, Wi+Wa, Wi+F spaces facing front and so on.
A monster can be given one attack from one element and one attack from another, when it is on a side that is facing forward it does the attack that corresponds to that element.(For example) A monster has the Earth ability Fossa Magna, and the Fire ability Soldote, you would place him on the Fire + Earth side, then when the 3 fire sides are in front that monster will cast Soldote, when the 3 earth sides are in front the monster will cast Fossa Magna.
Watch out though, monsters will always use their attacks if they are forward, even if unnecessary at the moment.
The monsters regain the MP they use up by being placed in the back where they cant attack or be attacked, if monsters run out of MP, they are forced to do weak attacks that do low damage.
It takes a while to get used to, but it is incredibly addicting. However there are quite a few low points, the merge system while a bit confusing at first, is horribly simple, and very predictable, it allows you to easily customize your monsters, but it could have used more thought. The running through stages is also very repetitive, and becomes just as predictable very fast, but the sheer length of this game and the amount of stuff to do really shines through, as you can every person I know has reached 100 hours+ to get all the secrets. A long and addicting game.

DIFFICULTY: 8/10 While not to hard at first, once you start getting deeper, the Beasthunters and bosses really start getting nasty, and the main boss is a headache and a half to beat, you have to find not only what skills are strong, but what skills will back those skills up, the strategy involved is heavy and requires a good deal of thought, but it makes for a refreshing challenge to see how skills work in tandem.

SOUND: 6/10
Nothing special in music or sound effects, its nice that everyone, even one time background characters, get their own distinctive voice actor, even better the voices don't horribly stink, but it is just not enough to make the sound score high.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
Childish, decently detailed, kind of bland backgrounds but workable, the animation is nice, the attacks have some cool effects, and its not blocky or jaggy, but nothing really makes you jump up and say wow.

REPLAYABILITY: 10/10
Getting all the Kalma, completing the Arena, winning in the Genus arena, taking jobs, winning in the Sweet Knights arena, completing the monster book, making a customized team of customized kick ass monsters, beating every level of the forests, there is more than enough bonuses to easily clock 100+ hours, a very high replay value here. Beating the game is only the beginning.

END RESULT: This is one of the best games I have ever played and am still playing, for monster raising enthusiasts this a must have, for any RPG player I fell this is a must have, as always, try and rent or borrow it first, but this is a game you must at least try. You won't regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/02, Updated 04/19/02