22-May-2002 The closest thing to playing with Pikachu on your PS2
In the world of Jade Cocoon 2, eggs aren't just good for eating with chips and beans. Eggs are also good for hatching, especially if you find them in a space-time wormhole where you are battling evil monsters in your efforts to become the ultimate Beast Hunter. It's a brilliantly mental Japanese monster-battling role-player – and if you loved Pokemon, you'll love Jade Cocoon 2.
WE LOVE VIOLENCE While there is a neat little story holding the action in Jade Cocoon 2 together, the game is really all about brutal monster battles. By fighting creatures in the Wormhole Forest you gain cocoon eggs that you can then hatch into your ever expanding squad of beasts. As you gain experience, you can increase the number of beasts in your team as well as creating new critters to serve you.
Collecting and training monsters is a time-consuming process and can be horribly complex at times. Provided you're into turn-based battles and monster collecting though, you'll find it totally compelling. There's always so much to do in Jade Cocoon 2 that stopping playing simply isn't an option. After all, you've got monsters to raise, battles to win and a slowly unfolding story to enjoy. It takes time to get going and is undoubtedly a niche game, but for the monster-minded at least, JC2 is unmissable.
You need to pay attention to your monster squad in the world of Jade Cocoon 2. When your uglies reach certain experience levels, they're ripe for merging with seeds you collect on your travels. It's confusing at first and you need to play for the long haul (over 20 hours) before you start reaping any real benefit from it. We love it though.
Merging costs money so use your seeds wisely
A fire-element (on the right) is merged with an earth-aligned beast
Hatch the egg to get your new merged beast with new powers
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