Jade Cocoon 2 was the sillier and witty followup to the original, with a more strict definition of dungeon crawling. A couple of new features/changes were simply part of the usual bag of improvements sequels bring, the best of which is found in their overhauled battle system. The 'BeastAmulet' system basically applied the monster fusion/capture of Jade Cocoon to a largely teambuilding focused paradigm - making it more complex and build-dependent yet also more restrictive in a way, as monster roles and skills are now mostly reduced to their elemental type. Monsters now act more like augments to traditional RPG battle skills than separate party members, while changes to elements & capturing removed the last traces of Pokemon influence. The party customization is responsible for most of the intrigue. Alas, the monotonous, plodding pace of combat ruins its potential, especially considering the amount of dungeons and battles tackled here compared to their first effort.
I absolutely loved this game as a child, and as I still love the game because of nostalgia, playing it as an adult really made me realize how badly designed (but charming) the game is.
All in all I still loved playing it, so I'm gonna try to break down pros and cons (for me, at least) without writting a wall of text here.
PROS
+It's intriguing to see your divine beasts evolve as you go.
+Combat format is unique (not saying it's good). You don't see that in a lot of games and it's refreshing. You can like it. I for the most part do.
+Breeding system can get adicting and it's interesting to try and get all divine beasts, or at least try a wide variety.
+The game retains that feeling of old style gaming, where things aren't as explained and you don't know all the info of how it all works. You try and make the best of what you have based on how you think things work.
CONS
-Dungeons can get repetitive real quick, as you do the same most of the time with little variations.
-Battle system feels limited by how it's designed. One skill per monster per side, no targeting, and no normal attack until out of MP is not for everyone. It can be enjoyed tho.
-Dialogue in this game. IS. ATROCIOUS. I couldn't do it worse even if I tried. It feels forced and tells nothing of interest most of the time. Nico is a savage with no feelings.
-Even normal battles can last very long if battling vs the wrong enemy (battling 3 divine monsters whose only attack is to sleep your party until they run out of MP, everytime, everyfight, is not my definition of fun).
-As I stated earlier, the game is pretty obscure about a lot of mechanics or how it works half the time. It could be as charming as much as a freaking nightmare.
All in all I still loved playing it, so I'm gonna try to break down pros and cons (for me, at least) without writting a wall of text here.
PROS
+It's intriguing to see your divine beasts evolve as you go.
+Combat format is unique (not saying it's good). You don't see that in a lot of games and it's refreshing. You can like it. I for the most part do.
+Breeding system can get adicting and it's interesting to try and get all divine beasts, or at least try a wide variety.
+The game retains that feeling of old style gaming, where things aren't as explained and you don't know all the info of how it all works. You try and make the best of what you have based on how you think things work.
CONS
-Dungeons can get repetitive real quick, as you do the same most of the time with little variations.
-Battle system feels limited by how it's designed. One skill per monster per side, no targeting, and no normal attack until out of MP is not for everyone. It can be enjoyed tho.
-Dialogue in this game. IS. ATROCIOUS. I couldn't do it worse even if I tried. It feels forced and tells nothing of interest most of the time. Nico is a savage with no feelings.
-Even normal battles can last very long if battling vs the wrong enemy (battling 3 divine monsters whose only attack is to sleep your party until they run out of MP, everytime, everyfight, is not my definition of fun).
-As I stated earlier, the game is pretty obscure about a lot of mechanics or how it works half the time. It could be as charming as much as a freaking nightmare.
jade cocoon 2 is an amazing game that builds in more features than 1 and even is connected with the 1 part in several ways the player starts to realize throughout the playthrough. the several storylines are touching and cute.
only thing that bothered me here were that the dungeons werent as beautifully and differently designed as in 1. the charme 1 had is not easy to recreate and they failed here, but its still a pretty cool game!
only thing that bothered me here were that the dungeons werent as beautifully and differently designed as in 1. the charme 1 had is not easy to recreate and they failed here, but its still a pretty cool game!
A monster collector with art design by Studio Ghibli talent is a crazy sell, although I can see why it doesn’t get talked about too much looking back on it now. I still really like the battle wheel system where you’re essentially building a JRPG party out of monsters, each one bringing one ability to the table to round out some kind of class within the elements: fire is damage, water is healing, earth is buffing, wind is debuffing (but this isn’t a hard rule and there’s a lot of different abilities in each element). I do wish someone else would have given the idea a shot, there’s a lot to play around with there.
The only thing getting in the way of it is the merging system, it felt more limiting than I wanted it to be. Experimenting with abilities feels inefficient when taking evolution points into account, and it’s best to just stick with merging the same monsters together with maybe a slightly weirder monster of a second element for the sake of stats or one of the side slots.
Once the novelty wears off and you’ve levelled up all your guys and seen all the cool creature designs, Jade Cocoon boils down to a lot of just. Waiting. Waiting for the battle animations to finish playing, waiting to cut through the laborious repeating dialogue and wade through the menus to do what I want, waiting to go from the same dungeon to the next and so on until you get to the end, with the final stretch being painfully laborious.
The game feels a little front-loaded once you get through the story setups for each dungeon type and you’re just saddled with grinding for ages, and yet you need to get a decent way through the game to get enough monster slots to field an interesting party, so the whole thing can feel a little mediocre throughout. I loved it when I was a kid, but I can’t really recommend it to any adult that respects their time now. Yeah, really really.
The only thing getting in the way of it is the merging system, it felt more limiting than I wanted it to be. Experimenting with abilities feels inefficient when taking evolution points into account, and it’s best to just stick with merging the same monsters together with maybe a slightly weirder monster of a second element for the sake of stats or one of the side slots.
Once the novelty wears off and you’ve levelled up all your guys and seen all the cool creature designs, Jade Cocoon boils down to a lot of just. Waiting. Waiting for the battle animations to finish playing, waiting to cut through the laborious repeating dialogue and wade through the menus to do what I want, waiting to go from the same dungeon to the next and so on until you get to the end, with the final stretch being painfully laborious.
The game feels a little front-loaded once you get through the story setups for each dungeon type and you’re just saddled with grinding for ages, and yet you need to get a decent way through the game to get enough monster slots to field an interesting party, so the whole thing can feel a little mediocre throughout. I loved it when I was a kid, but I can’t really recommend it to any adult that respects their time now. Yeah, really really.