Cocoron

Story

The story starts with the introduction of Tapir, a magical tapir capable of creating dreams. The goal of the game is to rescue Princess Mua, who has been captured by the evil wizard Baku. He has also captured the fairy Cocoron, something you find out after rescuing his brother, Cocorin, from the Fairy Queen. Eventually, after helping various people across the world, you find Princess Mua trapped in an egg just outside the Fairy Forest. It is at this point that it is revealed that Tapir is actually the evil wizard Baku, and he intends to eat all the dreams. However, the player beats him twice and stops him from fulfilling his ambitions, saving the world in the process.

Levels

Instead of progressing through levels in a linear fashion, you choose a path leading from one level to another via a map screen. Levels are determined by which two areas are linked, meaning there are 15 possible levels to play through. This does not include the levels near the end of the game, which the player progresses through in a linear fashion. You start at the House, and can return at any time to switch characters. The only exception is during the final levels, wherein the last character you played as is the only one remaining, and all others need to be rescued in Baku's Castle.
 

Level Name and Location	Boss
	Fairy Queen
	Joker
	Harvest Moon
	Flint the Pirate
	Silver Dragon
	None

General Gameplay

Like other platformers, the player progresses through levels, shooting enemies and jumping from platform to platform. When killed, enemies drop eggs. These eggs contain either hearts (used to restore HP), extra lives, invincibility orbs, or icons of whatever weapon the player has equipped, used to level up said weapon at least four times. These upgrades not only make the weapon more powerful, but also change how the weapon behaves. For example, shurikens eventually shoot out from multiple directions, umbrellas shoot multiple projectiles upward, pencils cover a wider area and fire more projectiles, etc. Large eggs occasionally appear within levels, housing either the previously mentioned power-ups, or a few enemies. At the end of each level waits a boss, although it only needs to be fought once, meaning subsequent playthroughs of the level will not end with a boss fight; in fact, several bosses actually help you after beating them. When fighting, the HUD is changed to reflect both the player's health and the boss's.

Character Customization

One of the main features of Cocoron is the ability to create up to six completely unique characters. There are 8 classes of head, body, and weapon, each with three, two, and one choice, respectively. Therefore, there are over 3000 possible characters to create. Although each body contains an exclusive ability (tanks don't slide down slopes, boats float on water, wings/jets can float temporarily, etc.), this only holds true for each class of body; the choice of a specific body is mostly an aesthetic one, something that also applies to the heads. Each body/head type also comes with a certain weight and HP count. Weight determines how high a character can jump and how fast they move: HP affects the amount of damage a character can endure before death. Weapons also have weights, but instead of HP, they have attack power. The specific stats for each body type, head type, and weapon are listed below.

Bodies

Body Name	Weight	HP
Armor	433	24
Wing	101	8
Jet	499	16
Cyborg	301	20
Boat	234	12
Buggy	167	16
Tank	367	20
?*	34	4

Heads

Head Name	Weight	HP
Hero	156	12
Ninja	112	8
Robot	289	16
Alien	260	4
Fighter	333	16
Monster	245	12
Ghost	67	8
?*	23	4

Weapons

Weapon Name	Weight	Attack
Parasol	71	3
Boomerang	93	4
Shuriken	141	6
Ball	47	4
Pencil	25	3
Crystal	167	3
Flower	116	3
Melody	11	3

*These are the actual names listed in the English fan translation of Cocoron

Sequel

At some point, a sequel was planned for the Turbo CD. It was called PC Cocoron (named after the Japanese of the Turbografx-16: the PC Engine), and screenshots of it appeared in magazines at the time. While it was never released, there are rumors that some people own the ROM of the game, although any form of the game (physical or virtual) has yet to surface officially.