I really strongly suggest and recommend a PS2 RPG by the name of “Jade Cocoon 2”
The game’s story begins some centuries after the first game ended as the player takes control of a very young and bright-eyed boy named “Kahu” who has dreams of becoming a “cocoon master”. Early on in his adventure while trying to obtain his Beast Hunter License, Kahu finds himself possessed by a parasitic entity that he learns will eventually kill him unless he finds the four forest orbs.
So, with the goal of finding the four orbs, he must venture with his newfound fairy friend, Nico, and search the four forest lairs, which are based on wind, earth, fire, and water, for the orbs to save his life. The story is actually told quite well through the numerous in-game and pre-rendered cut scenes that all feature full voiceovers for all the characters.
That said, Jade Cocoon 2 isn’t a game that’s meant to be played for its story. This game is all about collecting monsters, breeding them and leveling them up. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, it is a very simple concept on the surface, but what you get here in Jade Cocoon 2 is an amazing amount of depth in both the breeding aspect of the game as well as it’s battle system.
There are more than 200 different species of monsters that can be breed to create more than a billion combinations. Each of the different species has a particular elemental base of fire, wind, water, or earth and each elemental base offers a distinct characteristic. For instance, Water Elementals primarily heal, Earth protects, Fire attacks, and Wind causes status attacks.
What’s more, the different Divine Beasts that you have can be breed to create new creatures that have characteristics of other elementals that it’s not normally accustomed to. The battle system is based around all of these species, elemental types and breeding possibilities, as Kahu is put in the center of a circular grid that has him surrounded by up to eight different monsters (with the total he can control based on his level).
The grid has the four elemental sides and each can hold up to three Divine Beasts, with the one in the center needing to have a skill at the particular side’s elemental type and with the one’s adjacent to the one in the middle allowed to have elemental attributes of the adjacent sides. When attacking, you can switch back and forth between the different elemental sides with the L1 and R1 buttons and when you choose to attack, the subsequent attack will be made depending on the skills of your three monsters in the front row.
When you factor in the huge variety of monster types and skills that you can have with the numerous placement options with the eight spots and four elemental types, what you get is one of the most insanely deep combat systems around. The strategic limits are pretty endless and while you might not need to make use of the full potential in the game’s single player quest, the two-player battle mode provides for an engaging challenge.
The game is addicting as hell, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. It has ENDLESS replay value and is just all around a fun game. I’ve put in around 5,000+ hours in the game, no lie.
