A picture of the debug menu being emulated on PCSX2 v1.2.1. You can note the various options along to the left side of the screen.
Hidden within the code of Jade Cocoon 2, and only recently discovered on 02 October 2018 by a YouTube user named Meos. A lot of the options simply do not work, an explanation for which will be provided in another section. To navigate through, you simply need to use up or down on the D-pad, and hit the X button to select. At any point on any of the menus - those that don't crash the game, anyway - you simply re-activate the Debug Menu by holding down Select and pressing L3.
Jade Cocoon 2 - Debug Menu
The discovery of the Debug Menu, by YouTube user Meos.
A link to the video can be found and followed at right.
Within this option is a model viewer for most Divine Beasts and characters throughout the game. The vast majority of which can be viewed, with some controls for a camera and an animation player. Here are the controls for the model viewer and animation player.
A picture of CHARTEST. You can see the beast categories scattered throughout the screen. Each category holds 12 models.
L1/R1 - Zoom Out/In
L2/R2 - Rotate Camera Up/Down
Left/Right D-Pad - Rotate Camera Left/Right
Up/Down D-Pad - Animation Selector, default is always idle animation
X - Plays selected animation
Triangle - Simulates camera flash
L3 - Pause Animation
MAYU2[]
Upon selecting this option, the game crashes. From what can be assumed, it just re-launches the game executable.
OBJTEST[]
Again, this option simply crashes the game. It seems to be relating to objects that can be placed on the map.
MAPTEST[]
Crashes the game. It seems to be relating to drawing each floor, and maybe even constructing the maps themselves.
TEXTTEST[]
Crashes the game. It can be assumed that this handles all of the dialogue and text throughout the game.
OBJMTNTEST[]
A very creepy image of the very small model of Nico. Note how poorly her face is textured.
This option does not crash the game, and appears to be an object viewer. You can view every object that the game uses in the forest, from the Orbs and the Gate Keys, to eggs, and all the plants in the ogrevines.
SKNTEST[]
Crashes the game. From what can be assumed, this is presumably a texture viewer.
SNDTEST[]
Crashes the game. From what can be assumed, this seems to be a sound test option.
MIDITEST[]
This does not crash the game... immediately. The game gives you a host of options to select, but choosing any one of them crashes the game,
IPUMVTEST[]
This option immediately crashes the game upon selecting, but not before cutting to a different screen for one frame, and then crashing. It could be a decoder for some of the in-game textures, but it is not certain what exactly it does, or what it is assumed to be able to do.
MPEGTEST[]
This seems to be a movie viewer for the in-game movies shown in the DATA folder within the disc. However, it doesn't pull them directly from the disc. More on what this means in another section.
SPRTTEST[]
This option only works on the Japanese (NTSC-J) version of the game, but it is basically a viewer of the sprites of all the Divine Beasts in the game.
BTLEFTEST[]
This is a viewer for battle effects. However, it only seems to work on certain versions. In Flossome's testing, he has not been able to get it to work. However, with Meos' testing, he is able to show the effects viewer in full force. It shows what all goes into a battle effect when it is used in battle, including some hidden textures and beta objects. In Meos' video, the timecode for that section is 09:35.
SCEFTEST[]
This is another effects viewer, but limited to those used in the overworld and in the forests. This includes the effects used for during Kahu's License exam and he finds Nico's cocoon, as well as all others used. The timecode for this section in Meos' video is 20:11.
BTLCAMTEST[]
This is a short animation test used for the camera. It shows a few beta angles and shots that the development team were experimenting with, as well as some wacky shots and fast zooms every now and then. It works in all versions of the game.
VIBTEST[]
A picture of VIBTEST.
Just a controller vibration test. Unless you have your controller properly configured, this option will not work over an emulator. It does work on console. ACT0 controls the Big Motor, ACT1 controls the small motor, and FRAME tells how long to let the controller vibrate for, in frames.
HDDMENU[]
The HDD Menu on the NTSC-J version of Jade Cocoon 2. This is an error handling message. Photo credit: Lexichu
This option only works in the Japanese version. All it does is it points to the option on the main menu to install the game. This was obviously planned for the other two versions of the game, NTSC-U and PAL, but were scrapped. Selecting this option on either of those versions just brings you back to the Debug Menu. Evidence of the text still does exist in the code of the NTSC-U and PAL versions of the game.
If one does not have a HDD installed in their system, they will display this message shown at right, which is basically a message saying that the system needs a hard disk drive to continue with the installation.
Why Most of the Options Crash the Game[]
To put it simply, the game is trying to pull from something that doesn't exist. When developers are making games, they can't use any normal PS2. They have to use a special development unit, also known as a software development kit, or SDK. The PS2 TOOL allowed developers to connect the development unit to a computer via certain connections and pull developed files from the computer and onto the system. What does this have to do with these options? Simple. It's trying to pull from a "host" computer with a development environment that doesn't even exist.
TL;DR, without the source files, these options will always crash the game.
Trivia[]
There are Kalma versions for almost every obtainable monster in the game, except for the Deradrackich line, Deprolcoch line, and of course, the Kalma line and all end-game bosses and mid-bosses.
In this particular instance, it seems that CHARTEST is the only other place Lilith's model can be viewed in the game without crashing the game. The way to do this is to activate the Debug Menu during the Ubisoft or Genki logos. Only Lilith's Earth form can be viewed, as her form changes are scripted in the final battle.
A picture of Lilith as seen through the model viewer. The only other time she can be seen is in the final battle and in the special Japanese Advertisement, where she is seen idly being used on a BeastAmulet.
A few of the beasts are listed in places where they shouldn't be. It appears to be inconsistent throughout the whole list, seemingly as they went further and further through development.
There seems to be a model/animation error with Kalma-Kahu. When the camera is rotated to his left, his head contorts in a most inhuman manner to face the camera.
The animation error as seen through the model viewer.
There seems to be a model/animation error with Kalma-Kahu. When the camera is rotated to his left, his head contorts in a most inhuman manner to face the camera.
Aside from codes, there are two other monsters that can be viewed that normally can't be seen in the game. These are Teraluch and Calicocatluch. Not much is known about these two special beasts, other than the fact that they exist. They have been known to exist in special battles using game modification
