Jade Cocoon

"Our enemy we love and for the tormented we pray. Grant us, the Beasts of Knowledge, the power to touch the spirit."

The Jade Cocoon series currently consists of two games that revolve around capturing Mons and having them fight for you. Characters were designed by Studio Ghibli artist Katsuya Kondo, who was also the animation director.

The first game's premise has the protagonist Levant sent into the divine forest to find a cure for a deadly sleep-sickness brought to his village by locusts.

The second game, set a century after the end of the first, has Idiot Hero Kahu attempting to cure himself of a nasty curse which threatens to consume his mind.

Tropes used in Jade Cocoon include:

• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: You're Syrus' only chance to cure the sleep sickness and prevent the village from being swallowed up by the forest, eh? You're still paying for equipment and supplies.
• Arranged Marriage: Mahbu and Levant
• Bad Export for You: Vatolka can only be obtained with a Pocketstation.
• Bonus Dungeon: The Eternal Corridor. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Bonus Boss: After beating Birdman the first time, you can return and fight him as many times as you want.
• Check Point Starvation: You have to go through the 4th forest without being able to save the game nor fusing monsters due to story elements, namely that everyone in your village has been Taken for Granite. The king... sovereign... some-guy-who-seems-to-be-in-charge in the next hub comments on your endurance.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Death spell when anyboy but you uses it.
• Copy and Paste Environments: The Netherworld Forrests have the exact same layout of the normal Forrests, with only palette swaps and new monsters.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Elrihm, God of the Forest, is this. He's largely ignored in the sequel, though.
• Cute Monster Girl: Mahbu
• Cute Witch: Mahbu
• Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Riketz left so Levant's mother wouldn't have to suffer the cursed brandings. He also tries to find a cure, in the process becoming the catalyst for the entire plot of the story.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: If Levant loses all of his HP, his nifty magical earring kicks in and he's whisked away back to his village. There is no other penalty than having to trek all the way back to where you were.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Tamamayu means Jade Cocoon, so 'Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu' means...
• Disappeared Dad: Riketz, The Lion of Perrel
• Dummied Out: Many extra mons. Including alternate versions of hidden minions, Sherrick and Twengo
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Water > Fire > Wind > Earth > Water.
• Endless Corridor: The Eternal Corridor
• Enemy Summoner: The Poacher
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Poacher
• Evil Chancellor: Jibara
• Extended Gameplay: The Eternal Corridor
• Fallen Divine Spirit: Birdman
• Final Boss Preview The Dream Man
• Find the Cure
• Follow in My Footsteps: Kelmar does not want to be a blacksmith.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Gehenna Pale
• Game Breaking Bug: Save with any unpurified firefly cocoons and quit and when you reload the game their magical abilities are Lost Forever.
  • Can be turned into a Good Bad Bug with knowledge of how spells and elemental / non-elemental special attacks combine when merging. Unwanted elemental attacks can be removed by overwriting them with an attack of another element, and then remerging the resulting half-elemental with 'defanged' versions of the original until it's fully back to its old element. Unwanted non-elemental attacks can be removed in the same way, and unwanted spells don't matter because you have unlimited spell slots. Doing this allows you to create a minion with a full set of varied special attacks, and until the end of the Spider Forest you have full control of which minions you capture and manipulate.
• Give Me Your Inventory Item: Yami and his entire family demand something from you.
• Glass Cannon: Sherrick
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Levant is told to capture the Divine Tree. It was a bad idea.
• Gotta Catch Em All: There are 171 minions to capture.
• Guide Dang It: There are 171 minions, two can only be acquired by MERGING four different minions per. There is no in-game hint on which four to use and the only hint they exist (besides the Interface Spoiler) is a rare tablet.
  • Once you receive the Moth Key, you are directed to complete the Moth Forest. What the game doesn't tell you is that there's two new minions to find in the Spider forest (and ONLY in the Spider Forest), the only time you can get them during the course of the main game.
• Guns Are Worthless: You can use your weapon at any time and can upgrade to better ones but they are mostly useless after a while as your minions can deliver loads more damage than any weapon you'll get.
• Hello, Insert Name Here: Levant, adverted in the sequel when the character returns.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Riketz attempting to purify a cocoon by himself was essentially this - he did not wish for his wife to endure the stress and cursed brandings caused by purifying cocoons, though he risked creating a black cocoon and corrupting his mind.
• Heroic Mime: Levant again.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Both fights against Dream Man at the start of the game. Particularly cruel in the second battle in that you can easily defeat the Pataimel he throws out first, before he switches to his utterly unstoppable silver dragon Minion.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The King of Gehenna Pale boiled fairy cocoons alive to get their silk.
• Impossible Item Drop: Many minions will give you various potions and oils, others will drop clothes and weapons. Very rarely one will even drop an entire "Secret Minion" tablet.
• Infinity+1 Sword: Icicle, a ridiculously long sword that can reduce the HP of anything it hits to 1. This is made Awesome but Impractical by the fact that it can only be bought in the Bonus Dungeon.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Keys of Gehena Pale are only good once, but they'll open any locked chest in the game.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Dream Man is actually Riketz, Levant's father, who was corrupted when he attempted to purify a cocoon.
• Lost Forever: Several minions are only accessible in the first four forests. After you complete the fourth, you lose access to the first four and with it all the minions contained there. Half of them can be found in the Eternal Forest, but the other half can't. Guess which half were more likely to have extra abilities or spells?
• MacGuffin: The Calabas herb, at least at the start of the game - it isn't the MacGuffin for very long.
• Manipulative Bastard: Jibara
• Mouthy Kid: Lou
• Mysterious Waif: Mahbu
• Mons: The main thrust of the gameplay is capturing Minions and using them in combat.
• Nice Hat: The two Nagi Prophets, Gi and Wu, each have ridiculously ornate headgear. Mahbu, Mother Garai, Jibara, Ra and Dream Man also have fairly nice hats.
• Old Master: Mother Garai
• Point of No Return: Several, after triggering the cut scene where everyone in the city is turned to stone you can no longer buy supplies or get new minions. After completing the Moth Forrest' you can no longer access it or the forests before it. As well as after each Netherworld Forrest.
• Power At a Price: While Mahbu has the ability to purify cocoons and heal/merge minions for Levant doing so results in markings called "cursed brandings" that conventionally appear on her lower arms, then her body, then her lower face all of which she covers up.
• Screw Destiny Levant's father leaves to prevent his wife from getting further cursed brandings
• Skippable Boss: In the Beetle forest, if you choose the left path as opposed to the right you completely skip the battle with Lui. If you do not complete the level (and speak with the Blue Cocoon Master), you can return and fight him. Otherwise, he will be gone the next time you return.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Minions will continue to run to attack you until you are massively overpowerful, then they will run away and cower.
• Take Your Time : At several points of the game, everybody stresses how important it is to find the herb and save the day, however you can still get Mahbu to perform magic, buy armor/supplies, and speak to the Old man even if everbody senses something bad is about to happen.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Vatolka until pictures finally surfaced recently. Getting him became the new one until it seemed to be confirmed that a Pocketstation would unlock it.
• "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Tuturis, boss of the Ordeal of Fire, makes using Minions of the appropriate element necessary for the first time in the game - his powerful Fire attacks will wreck anything but a strong Water minion.

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The sequel contains examples of

• Absent-Minded Professor: Dr. Gil.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Some of the Wind forests contain your stereotypical cacti.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: The beast-amulet can hold up to a maximum of eight minions, once you've acquired the proper licences.
• Artificial Stupidity: It is quite common for an enemy with Tishous (an MP-restoring skill) to use the skill on itself during combat, even though it can do nothing that would reduce its MP anyway.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Or possibly Asskicking Equals Authority. In any case, Levant is both ridiculously powerful and implied to be pretty much in charge of the place.
• Awesome but Impractical: Fossa Magna and Ad Mumarnite. Fossa Magna will cut the target's HP to 1 regardless of how much HP they have but this move has very low accuracy and the kalma you need to merge with to get this attack also comes with Blind X, which makes Blind status even more effective. Ad Mumarnite is the game's instant death spell and can hit all three monsters on the field, but it has low accuracy, beasts can learn an ability to resist it, and the kalma that comes with this attack also has Larvalize, which eliminates your beast's ability to evolve.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Choco loses a fight with Kahu and accuses him of using a hack code. Nico gets worried that the censors won't let the game be released due to a bullying scene.
• Call Back: The battle system of Jade Cocoon 2 is different from the one present in the first game, but one of the final boss fights has, in reference to the first game's gameplay, Levant switching back and forth with a water dragon minion, which is another Call Back to the first minion Levant receives in the first game. Makes sense since the boss is the Player Character from the first game.
  • The challenges in the dark forests of both games, and the emotions they are themed around, mirror one another:
    • Water: Like Levant in the Moth Forest, Cure is burdened by solitude.
    • Fire: Wu and Koris both feel sorrow over the destruction of their villages.
    • Air: Gil and Kelmar are both jealous of the Chosen One, albeit for different reasons.
    • Earth: Cocona and Mahbu both dislike the responsibilities forced upon them.
• Cherry Tapping: Killing a boss with a larval minion probably counts as this, though there's nothing stopping you from raising a terrifyingly powerful larval.
• Collection Sidequest: Medals and Figures, though the medals are actually useful.
• Contractual Immortality: Levant from the first game, having merged with Kemuel, a divine spirit. It is implied that he is over a century old.
• Cool Old Guy: Wu. Wu also dabbles in a bit of Cherry Tapping; the hardest battle in the game, The Grand Slam, consists of Wu and his eight larval Mau minions. You're very likely to have your arse handed to you by a bunch of Ridiculously Cute Critters and a kind old man.
• Cute Monster Girl: Cure. Until her Super-Powered Evil Side kicks in, anyway.
• Cursed with Awesome: Kahu gets a Super-Powered Evil Side when he touches a fairy cocoon. He sports a cool-looking spiky tail for most of the game, and the Super-Powered Evil Side will occasionally take over in combat to administer a beatdown . Unfortunately, it's slowly taking over his mind.
• Dark World: The forests within the Kaya Gate, representing the dark half of the forest.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of Nico's dialogue is snark at Kahu's expense.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Lose all of your Shields in combat? No big deal. You're just kicked back to the village, minus your items. Losing your stuff is no big concern to anyone who uses the storehouse for important things like Eggs.
• Double Entendre: The game's script is absolutely littered with these, usually involving the Sweet Knights or the Na Beasthunter. Nico is normally the one that calls attention to them.
  • One notable example is when Dr. Gil, when describing a woman he used to work with, says that he visited her house one evening and did not leave until the morning. The music stops for a beat while Nico says what the player is already thinking.
• Dragons Up the Yin-Yang: Beast amulets have a yin-yang pattern decoration.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Even if you were to acquire 9999 Reputation, you're still just some kid with a tail.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: One of the Mau Beasthunters. The other one has a Verbal Tic and ends most of his sentences in squeak.
• Everything Fades: All minions do this when they're defeated in battle. Kahu and the other Beasthunters fall to the ground when they lose all of their Shields, but remain distinctly corporeal.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Levant's voice drops several octaves when his Super-Powered Evil Side kicks in.
• Expecting Someone Taller: When Kahu finally meets Mint she's surprised by how normal-looking he is, given that he's just saved the world from Levant and Lilith.
• Foreboding Architecture: Ogrevines containing Kalma are very small on the inside.
• Fungus Humongous: Shroomie. Evil helicopter fungus, even.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Mahbu gives Kahu a pair of angel wings, symbolizing his role as Elrihm's champion. Levant, as the Chosen One of Darkness gets a pair of Purple dragon/demon wings post-transformation.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: After touching the fairy cocoon, you're thrust into one of these. When you fight him again later, he's a pushover.
• Idiot Hero: Kahu. His signature is a scrawling of his own face and an illegible scribble, for example, and he doesn't realise that there haven't been any cocoon masters in over 100 years.
• Nice Hat: Continuing the tradition of nice hats from the first game, Kahu wears a nice hat, as do the Sweet Knights. Arguably, the Beast Hunters' masks are nice hats.
• Pinocchio Syndrome: Cure. She gets her wish after you defeat the final boss, but doesn't seem to remember he past life at all.
• The Resenter: Dr. Gil otherwise respects Kahu and is very friendly to him, but in the final dungeon you have to fight a physical manifestation of his jealousy over the fact that the Forest chose Kahu to be the Chosen One over him.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Most larval minions are this, especially the Mau class.
• Shout-Out: One of the sub-plots in the Fire Forest revolves around Nam being accused of stealing another beasthunter's cocoon. During one of the dialogues, the beasthunter will describe the stolen cocoon as his precious.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Kahu, Cure and Levant.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Highly averted. You have no idea (without looking it up) what any given Ogrevine might contain until you enter it, and if it happens to be a boss, you're thrust straight into the fight.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Overlaps somewhat with Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
  • Fire minions have the strongest attacks; they can overwelm water minions but struggle against well defended earth types.
  • Earth minions have abilities that boost the capability of their allies; their good defences can stop fire minion's strong attacks, but their special defence is weak and can be pierced by air-types.
  • Air minions have attacks that weaken the enemy; they are most useful against earth-types, but water types have an innate resistance to most of their abilities.
  • Water minions provide healing for their allies; they also have good special defence but poor defence, making them useful for withstanding the attacks of air types, but quickly overwhelmed by fire types.