A look back at: Jade Cocoon

This game honestly didn't make a whole lot of sense. At least it was short, I'll give it that.

So really, Jade Cocoon was a game with Pokemon-like mechanics that basically got eclipsed by Pokemon itself, yet somehow applying more to the "minions" than Pokemon ever did. What can you do here? Well, the whole deal with capturing and purifying them for use in multiple applications is one. Go ahead, make 'em fight. Or spin them into silk and make some cash out of it, because the main character Levant also technically fights in the field too and could use the equipment. Or combine two minions to make a nice-looking conversion that is supposedly better. Yet somehow, all these minions look very nightmarish. As for the amount I caught, I managed to get all the main ones. Didn't bother with the Eternal Corridor all that much though, but even that doesn't have every single one and a few of them seem to have been dummied out of the game entirely.

Oh man, if you are gonna do voice acting, do NOT include a silent protagonist or a nameable protagonist. This game unfortunately does this and you're main character's name is never said by any of the characters. Oh and speaking of? Many of these characters are honestly very ugly-looking, at least in their artwork. I'll give the game credit, whenever you are done with a forest, the "talk to everyone" aspect is pretty nicely done for including new information on what you want to do next. Levant gets to be a cocoon master and marries the one girl he's close to (other than his mother). The whole deal with the Onibubu attacking the village at the beginning doesn't seem to happen again afterwards. Garai at least is a good character. Mahbu's Nagi Brandings changing her appearance as the game goes on is quite interesting too. The game sure goes south really quick for its plot once they reveal who Garai was, and then Levant is basically all alone except for these new characters who show up eventually. And the game's version of trainer battles is pretty bleak, as they don't provide nearly enough; although fighting the character's father seemed cliche, it's honestly the most interesting battle in the game overall. So again, I looked at this game expecting at least some good things and found them, but was disinterested in everything else.