Jade Cocoon

by Sega

Product Features

• Great game! International and Fast fast shipping. DVD File

Product Details

• ASIN: B00001IVCC
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,346 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

Let's face facts here. Pokémon games will never appear on the PlayStation since Nintendo has those rights locked up for the next millennium. Still, if you are looking for a game that lets you catch monsters, train them, and guide them through numerous battles, you can still find that challenge on the PlayStation in Jade Cocoon. That is, if you can live without those pesky Pokémon creatures.

Jade Cocoon allows you to seek and collect millions of different monster combinations. You catch the beasts in the course of your quest to save your hometown. Once caught, the monsters help you build strength and power through combat as you prepare for the final showdown.

Jade Cocoon is a graphical tour de force from beginning to end. The animation of the characters and monsters are smooth, and the special effects for spells and other attacks are stunning. The audio is equally impressive.

While the multimedia effects may have held our attention, it was the gameplay that kept us coming back for another round of play. Success in combat relies on the strategic development of monsters, coupled with immediate tactical decisions during each battle. We spent hours testing possible monster combinations, thanks to a well-implemented preview window that lets players preview a monster merger before committing to the change. There's little guidance in the manual on effective combinations, but with a little common sense and a lot of mad-scientist experimentation, you will ultimately prevail. And although this isn't Pokémon, possibly "catch 'em all." --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Terrific graphics
• Detailed storyline
• Millions of potential monsters

Cons:

• Cut-scenes are too long

GameSpot Review

One of the most surprising developments of the year has to be Crave Entertainment's acquisition of Tamamayu Monogatari or, in the US version's case, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu. The result of the combined efforts of both Katsuya Kondoh (who, with Studio Ghilbi, produced the animation classics My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke) and developer Genki, Jade Cocoon is one of the most visually stunning RPGs ever made. Famous for his art direction on anime like Kiki's Delivery Service, Katsuya Kondoh also participated in projects like the anime Like the Clouds, Like the Winds, which was staged in an ancient Chinese-looking universe.

Assuming the role of Levant, a young man burdened with the responsibility of saving the world (and you thought high school was tough!), you must battle multitudes of monsters in your travels and eventually capture them as well. Captive monsters can be combined and recombined with others to create almost limitless amounts of new creatures. More than 150 monsters, with different elemental attributes, are waiting to be found. Once they are caught, combined, and maximized, you can summon your monsters in battle for use against whatever foes you encounter. Gameplay revolves around navigating through your hometown in search of advice on exploring the rest of the world, while actual exploration sets you out on gorgeous prerendered backdrops. Still, the focal point of this game is to battle and acquire as many monsters as you can find and to bring them home and combine them. The control interface is menu-based and very self-explanatory. A little trial and error will familiarize you with even the most complex operations, which aren't that difficult.

Monster-breeding aside, the most obvious feature of the game has got to be the graphics. Think Resident Evil set in a fantastically lush fantasy/forest setting, minus the zombies, and you'll be close. With more than 600 prerendered backgrounds and highly detailed polygonal characters, Jade Cocoon is probably the only RPG that can go toe-to-visual-toe with something like Final Fantasy VIII. With a gorgeous animated intro and in-game cutscenes that use the game engine, Jade Cocoon is easily one of the best-looking games of the year. Adding to the wonderful visual approach is the added replay value of the game. Even after the 40-plus hour adventure is completed, gamers will be able to continue enjoying Jade Cocoon via the arena mode and the hunting mode. Arena mode lets friends battle against one another using the monsters they've saved to memory card, while hunting mode lets players continue to search for monsters that weren't available during the regular quest. Lastly, the sound effects are quite effective in their spell-casting, monster-grunting ways and are complemented by a rich soundtrack.

For gamers disappointed by recent Monster Rancher wannabes like Dragon Seed, Jade Cocoon will most likely prove to be a success while dazzling others not familiar with the genre. Now that the game has finally arrived on our fertile shores, anyone looking for a substantial, if mildly repetitive, dose of monster-breeding, would do well to try Genki's effort. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jade Cocoon Great RPG, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jade Cocoon (Video Game)

This is one great RPG, I recomend it to anyone who likes the old style RPG's with the elemental powers. There is something new in this one though, not only is there text but speach as well. The graphics are really good, and all over is a great game. Its even more fun if you have a friend that owns the game as well. It took me 18 hours to beat, though you might think that is a little short there is a forest with more powerful monsters. If you liked Pokemon you will probably like this as well. You can catch, train and even merge monsters. The merging is really neat, you can make a wealth of new monsters. If a friend has the game than you can fight your friend with which adds many hours of time. The plot is great, and the magic powers are really cool. One of the other great things about this game is that not only can your monsters fight, but so can you! Overall a great game buy it, now!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ADDICTING, June 29, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jade Cocoon (Video Game)

Never. That's what I thought about the catch and train monster games. With Pokemon nearly smothering the genreral public with merchindise and Monster Rancher chasing it's tail I thought that I would be the last person to fall into the insane craze of monster games. I do however enjoy stunning visuals and wonderful storylines, which is why RPG's intrance me so much. What lacks in graphics usually compenstates in plot and game play, with Jade Cocoon, I found myself emersed for hours.

I put the game in and literally watched slack jawed at the amazing opening sequence. It was beautiful animation, and that was followed by a captivating narrative. There was text, and spoken dialouge, which I don't mind reading, but I was impressed. Most conversations had spoken dialouge, not just in key moments of the game, but everwhere. The other element of the game that caught my eye was the stunning visuals. I was so happy to see that the characters weren't sprite-like people walking on maps with heads bigger than their bodies.

Now to every gamer, you will find faults, and I found a few, but compaired to the pros, the cons couldn't make me stop playing. As lush and beautiful the backgrounds were, they were also dark. Objects sliped by many times, and sometimes there were parts of the background that looked like paths that weren't. Minor complaints to a great game, despite the fact that it's based on capturing and combining monsters dubed minions.

Additiced is all I can say now. After I had captured my first monster, and began merging and fighting I became emersed in the game. The story had me, the graphics and animation had me, and I hate to admit it, but I kind of liked the whole Cocoon Master concept.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thinking Man's Pokemon, April 8, 2003

By 

M. Karapcik "Mike" (Temple Terrace, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jade Cocoon (Video Game)

This is one of the very few RPG's I've played more than three times. (The other notable mention is Final Fantasy VI.) If you take Pokemon, strip out 90% of the childish nonsense, give it beautiful music, dreamlike landscapes, a plot, character development, and interresting monsters that can take on a multitude of forms, you get Jade Coccoon.

Jade Coccoon has a dreamlike fairy-tale quality that I enjoy. There is character development and an actual plot. The sound track is beautiful; I wish I could find it. The character Po tells some good stories (the first about Alcana is the best), which is a nice diversion. My favorite element of the game is that there is no clear "good guy" and "bad guy", there is conflict on both sides. It also touches on some theological questions in an interresting way. The graphics are also quite good for a PlayStation game, and actually add to the mood and setting rather than just act as flashy eye-candy.

My only problem with this game is that it seems slightly rushed in development. There are elements in the story that seem as if they will be developed, and they just "go away". There is also a slight bug: If you save a game while carrying firefly coccoons and turn off the PlayStation, when you re-start, the special abilities and spells of the creatures in the firefly coccoons will be erased. (However, sometimes this works to your advantage for breeding.) Purified coccoons left with Mahbu are safe. The game has also crashed three times on my PS2 (twice when Levant is summoning the first Minion of a fight), but for 50+ hours of play, that isn't bad.