Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
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| Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu 玉繭物語 |
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| Developer(s) | Genki |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft, Crave Entertainment, Genki |
| Distributor(s) | Genki |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release date |  1998-12-03 1999-07-29 April 27, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB Teen (13+) |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Memory card |
Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (玉繭物語 Tamamayu Monogatari?) is a video game for the Sony PlayStation, released by Crave in 1998. The game combines elements of role playing games and virtual pet management. It was developed by Genki in collaboration with Katsuya Kondō, character designer for the Studio Ghibli movies Kiki's Delivery Service and I Can Hear the Sea.
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[edit] Overview
In "Jade Cocoon" The world is covered in dense forest populated by bizarre, mostly bug-like monsters called Minions. The only safe havens are small villages, one of which is the home of the protagonist, Levant. Levant is a young Cocoon Master, whose job is to capture and purify the Minions. The Minions can then be used to fight and defend Levant, spun into silk for money, or fused with other Minions to form more powerful combinations. Fused minions take on physical characteristics of both its parent creatures, allowing the player to customize the appearance of each one, as well as its abilities. Each minion has a collection of elemental attacks which can be passed from generation to generation. Strategy generally follows a rock/paper/scissors pattern (Wind beats Earth beats Water beats Fire beats Wind), as each wild Minion has an element (although fused Minions may have more than one).
[edit] Story
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The story revolves around one young man's quest to save his village. The game's opening sees the main character Levant in a "dream world" where he meets a mysterious man and is defeated by him. Soon after a swarm of divine locusts known as the "Onibubu" attack the village from the forest. The forest is a place where the Divine Spirits are free and "Minions" roam free. The swarm fly over the village and leave many of the villagers under a spell of sleep which none of the villagers can undo. Levant is induced with his coming of age ceremony to become a "Cocoon Master", whos job it is to protect the village. Levant's father Riketz once held this position years ago but he fled the village leaving Levant and his mother alone.
Once Levant is given the title "Cocoon Master" he is wed to his betrothed, Mahbu, who lives with the village sage Garai. Levant leaves into the Beetle Forest (The first of the 4 surrounding forests) to which the village elders gave him the key, so that he may gather information on how to remove the Onibubu's spell. He seeks in the forest a man called Koris, the Blue Cocoon Master. Levant meets Koris just inside the forest where he teaches Levant how to fight and use cocoons to capture minions. After the tutorial Koris leaves for his home deep in the forest where he promises to give Levant information after proving himself in the forest. Levant finds his way to Koris's home where he is told of the Calabas Herb, which can remove the Onibubu's spell. Koris tells Levant he knows little about the herb and he should seek out The Bird Man, who lives in the Dragonfly Forest. He gives Levant the key to the Dragonfly Forest.
Levant goes back to the village and tells the Elders what he has learned, then heads into the Dragonfly Forest. He heads to the end of the forest where he meets a being who is half man, half bird. He introduces himself as Kikinak and the two have a battle. When defeated Kikinak gives Levant a sample of the Calabas Herb and tells him that there is more to be found in the Spider Forest. Levant takes the Calabas sample back to his elders.
The elders are pleased with what Levant had brought back and give him permission to enter the Spider Forest. Levant does and meets therein a family of small porcupine-like people, who are the guardians of the forest. Levant finds the head of the family, Totoyamu, whom he asks about the Calabas. Levant is told that he must give to receive. Totoyamu spots the ring which Mahbu gave to Levant called the "Tears of Reese". Levant reluctantly agrees to trade it for information on the Calabas. Totoyamu explains where large amounts of the Calabas can be found, and that Levant will need to imprison the Divine Tree to obtain it. Totoyamu tells Levant that he will need more treasure to convince him to disobey his god, Elrhim, and open the gateway to it. Levant returns to his elders again and explains what had transpired. He is given more treasure to take to Totoyamu as well as what he will need to imprison the divine tree. Mahbu is upset that Levant gave away the ring, but she understands the situation.
Levant goes back into the forest again and meets Totoyamu. The ring he received no longer shines, the Tears of Reese only shines when Levant wears it. Totoyamu gives it back and takes the new treasure, then opens the gateway to the Divine Tree where the Calabas grows. Levant goes through the forest to the tree where he seals its power. Angered by this Totoyamu tells Levant to leave the forest. Upon his return to the village Levant find out that Garai has been taken away by the elders and is going to be sacrificed to stop the Onibubu's spell, because Garai's real identity is that of Azura, the goddess of death. Before she is sacrificed a flash of light fills the village and all of the people living there except Levant are turned to stone. Levant goes back to where Mahbu was and finds her in a cocoon. Garai appears and tells Levant he must go to the Moth Forest and meet with the Nagi Chief. The Nagi are an ancient divine race, of which Garai and Mahbu are members. Garai gives Levant the Moth Forest Key. Levant takes the key and Mahbu and leaves for the Moth Forest.
Levant travels through the Moth Forest until he reaches a building made by the Nagi a long time ago. Inside he meets the Nagi Chief and two Nagi maidens, Mu and Ra. Levant is told that he must collect four elemental gems- water, fire, air and earth- and then fight with the Chosen One of Darkness. Levant is the Chosen One of Light. He also already has the Water Gem and needs to enter the forests of the netherworld do obtain the others. He starts with the Beetle Forest of the Netherworld. At the end he meets Koris, who is possessed by one of the keepers of the gems. Levant fights and defeats the keeper and his Minion and frees Koris, thus obtaining the Fire gem.
Next is the Dragonfly Forest of the Netherworld. At the end of the forest he meets Kikinak, who is possessed by the keeper of the Air Gem. Levant fights and defeats this one and his Minion also. He obtains the Air Gem, goes back to the others, then heads in the third and final netherworld forest, the Spider Forest of the Netherworld. He searches inside and finds each member of Totoyamu's family possessed by the keeper of the Earth Gem. Levant, after multiple encounters, defeats this one, too, and again goes back. He then is ready fo fight the Chosen One of Darkness. Levant goes to the base of the divine tree he himself imprisoned and meets the Chosen One of Darkness. It is the man from his dream who turns out to be his father, Riketz. They do battle. Levant victors and the two cocoon masters together restore the divine tree, returning the world to normal.
[edit] The Eternal Corridor
After completing the main story of Jade Cocoon a new feature becomes available called The Eternal Corridor. The object of this section is to explore as deep inside as possible and test the name "Eternal".
The corridor consists of randomly generated "rooms" which are made of straight paths occasionally dividing into two paths. Only one route leads to the end of the room. Once the player finds the "end" of the room they proceed to the next in the corridor. These randomly generated "rooms" supposedly go on indefinitely.
There are wild minions residing in the Eternal Corridor. Their experience level increases as the player progresses through the corridor. Their level increases as such:
Corridor 1-4: minion Lv. 20
Corridor 5-8: minion Lv. 21
Corridor 9-12: minion Lv. 22
Corridor 13-16: minion Lv. 23
This continues on and on thus making it harder to progress through the corridors.
At the end of each "room" is a "boss" minion. There are eight different bosses. Once a player has defeated each one once (and therefore completed eight rooms of the corridor) the cycle begins again, only the player encounters two of the boss minion at once at the end of corridors 9-16. Following the pattern, the boss battles at the end of rooms 17-24 have three of the minions. Because the maximum number of enemies in one battle is three, after room 24 the battles for rooms 17-24 are repeated with the only difference being that the enemies are stronger each time round.
Each of the boss minions has a probability of dropping an item called a "skin" when defeated. These can be used in conjunction with minion merging to alter a merged minion's appearance.
Once the player has the ability to venture into the Eternal Corridor the shop gets some powerful new items in stock. The most expensive of which is the "icicle" sword, costing 999990 Yan.
[edit] Market performance
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Jade Cocoon was released at around the same time when many Pokémon clones were in the market. Most gamers considered it to be just another generic imitation, and passed on it. Other flaws included the length of the game (about 10 hours, short for a role-playing game) and awkward Resident Evil-style controls. This issue with the controls could be remedied by utilizing the right analogue stick on a DualShock controller.
[edit] Sequel
A sequel, Jade Cocoon 2, was later released for the PlayStation 2, with a complete overhaul of graphics, play style, and plot.
