A role-playing game for the TurboGrafx CD and one of Working Designs's earliest localization projects. It is the only Cosmic Fantasy game to be released in the US.
Cosmic Fantasy is yet another Telenet Japan (one of the bigger companies pushing out games for the TurboGrafx-CD, and developers of the Valis games) franchise that the West only saw bits and pieces of. Specifically, this one game. Cosmic Fantasy 2 is also a Working Designs joint, who were US publishers/translators who were very selective with the games they chose to localize. They're best known for some early Sega CD games as well as Lunar, Alundra, Vanguard Bandits and a bunch of other fifth-generation JRPGs after FFVII sent demand through the roof. Telenet Japan and Working Designs also collaborated on Exile, a game we've previously covered. There are at least four other Cosmic Fantasy games for the PC Engine CD-ROM2 that never saw a localization, including a weird non-interactive spin-off that splices together all the cutscenes from the first two games and plays them without any gameplay parts in-between getting in the way (does Kojima know about this format?). Though I believe each entry is detached in the way most JRPG franchises are, they all seem to focus on that Star Ocean/Wizardry concept of a "primitive" fantasy setting that is juxtaposed with more overt science fiction elements. For instance, the spear-wielding rural hero of this game, Van, is depicted in something like a Starfleet uniform (or maybe something from Outlaw Star) on the US box art. (That's not the US boxart up there, by the way, I just think the Japan one is better. It has a sentient cat!)
Besides the curious theme combo, Cosmic Fantasy 2 seems like your run of the mill JRPG. Battles are turn-based and happen randomly whenever you're in a dangerous area, and the player is limited in what they can do until they level up a bit and learn new skills and magic. What's strange, and the Wikipedia entry for this game corroborates this, is that every enemy in the game just hits you with regular attacks. They have no spells, no status effects, no criticals and no area of effect attacks that hit the whole group. Each enemy just targets one member of the party and hits them, for an amount of damage generally defined by the strength of the monster and the defense of the party member. So it's perhaps not the most tactically challenging RPG out there. Still, though, you didn't see too many RPGs from 1992 with fully voiced anime cutscenes, so perhaps the care and craft that went into this game was put towards its presentation rather than its gameplay. But hey, let's not throw shade before we've had a chance to see the thing.
Please, If It's Sci-Fi Fantasy, It Should Be Spelled With a "Ph". That's More Science-y.
"Yep, that's a great idea for a planet. We'll go with that."Yowza. Not what I would name an island.This is Van, our hero. Currently he's running around and jumping while holding a spear like an idiot. He's got kind of a Reid Herschel from Tales of Eternia vibe, always going out hunting so he can eat steaks every night.The womenfolk are out picking "berries". Look like coconuts to me, but then this is some fantasy world so fuck it, they're berries.This exasperated young lady is Laura, Van's best friend and obvious love interest.Laura chastizes Van for running around being an idiot when there's harvesting work to be done.But guess what? Van's a loud, brash anime protagonist. He doesn't have time to picking Not-Coconuts. Welcome to Cosmic Fantasy 2!Yep, standard JRPG starting town. Rural setting, check. Chickens, check. What the f-Alright, so maybe it's not that standard a starting town. I think there might be gas fumes seeping up through the ground.There's your usual stores too. The game doesn't surface any information about how much better or worse the equipment is compared to what you have currently. All "description" does is tell you what it is.Stranger? Don't I live here? I think from the passive aggression that there's some history here. (No, it's just the game being dumb, but I like to inject a little drama where apropos.)After Van leaves town, he automatically marches to this giant tree for reasons that'll become clear. It weirds me out when you can walk over forest spaces on the world map. Feels like I should be blocked by all these trees.Wait, is this Yggdrasil?Nah, just some tree Van carved his and Laura's names into as a kid. How sweet. I'm sure this isn't leading up to anything tragic.Van's shaken from his sepia-toned flashback by a loud noise. Gadzooks and such.Noooo! Laura! Creepy uncle! Passive-aggressive Innkeeper girl! The weapon shop guy with the tiny head! All those well-established and beloved characters, up in smoke!I'll save yo- Ah, my mistake. I guess it was another village. It's not like I could easily tell which direction the smoke was coming from with that cutscene, you know.The torched town is actually this one. This also explains why I wasn't allowed to move around the world map until after that tree cutscene: it's because this town never had a "not burned" state.That's a great name for a wizard. A+ for effort.This is horrible. All these burned-out husks of buildings. (Is there anything here I can steal?)The Mayor, who is miraculously still alive, tells Van that the army led by Galam and Wizda that destroyed this town were after a princess that has been hiding out on Clan Island incognito.To Van's credit, he figures out that they mean Laura, even before the mayor adds the fact that the princess is supposed to be wearing a gigantic priceless locket that might as well be a big sign saying "yo, this girl's probably royalty with bling like this". And as soon a we get to our home village, we're accosted by the game's first random encounter.The hobgoblin in particular is a tough bastard. As stated during the pre-amble, all monsters will do in this game is hit you. All you can do is hit them, for right now. All these early battles are breathlessly exciting, in other words.I did go up a level. After my very first battle, even. I have no problems with expediting this early grinding process.Wow, there's even random encounters in town now. The Plasma Slime is the weakest enemy, as per Wizardry/Dragon Quest tradition, though it's made out of plasma because that's science-fiction-y. The goblins aren't particularly science-fiction-y, unless you count their remarkable similarity to Saibamen. Good thing I'm not Yamcha! [/anime].I don't even know what these things are. Jello shots?Why, thank you, obvious boss. Your little goons didn't really leave me any recourse.Oh hell. So because this guy and your guy can only ever exchange hits (though I can use healing herbs too), getting massacred like this isn't the way to win this fight.Instead, I'm going to have to grind some more. Fortunately, you level up pretty quickly. I'm talking like every three or four battles. Plus, I can spend the money I make on more herbs.Ah, that's way more manageable. The guy eventually goes down after a thrilling fight of "Captain took 8 points of damage, Van received 7 points of damage, Captain took 8 points of damage, Van received 7 points of damage, Capt-""Laura's gone. I guess we forgot to tell her not to always wear that big locket that basically tells the world who she is."Fortunately, we get to Galam's Galleon in time to see Laura off. Send me a postcard!Oh no, it's Wizda! Wizda looks very cold. I don't necessarily mean, like, dispassionate and cruel, just how Wizda's huddled up for warmth and is bright blue. Maybe could've worn something warmer than a big cloak?I... I can't tell if Wizda's a man or a lady. Even the voiceovers don't make it clear. I guess he/she's like Flea, then?Aw heck, did I need to grind more?Nope, I was just supposed to get my ass kicked.Look, excuse me Princess, but that blue wizard person knocked me on my ass in one hit. Give me a few hours to grind some levels and I'll get back to you.I liked this shot of an unconscious Van being left by the harbor as lightning strikes. Reminds me of the cinematic for Link's Awakening.Oh what is this Bush League "lying over the covers and there's a shadow even" malarkey? This Octurbo is ov-errr.
You know, it probably doesn't do a JRPG any favors to only play through the first half hour like this. I mean, most of them start pretty much the same way anyway. All the same, I think there are flashes here of the sort of game Cosmic Fantasy 2 might blossom into (though absolutely nothing regarding the game's sci-fi elements). It's fair to say that I have a soft spot for JRPGs like this, even when they get grindy and repetitive. Working Designs is a fantastic translation team too when they aren't making dumb pop culture jokes that become instantly dated, so I'm always curious to try out more games they worked on.
So as I end another edition of Octurbo, I'll leave you all with this to ponder: What's your Cosmic Fantasy? Wait, no, don't answer that. Abort, abort! We're done!
Cosmic Fantasy 2 full soundtrack (it seems the guy who uploaded this just burned the whole CD. That's totally something you can do, since most CD players recognize TGCD games as audio CDs with the exception of the first track, which is where the game's data is stored and should always be skipped over. Playing the first track leads to an error message that essentially says "yo, don't play this part, it'll probably ruin the disc and/or player". Sounds like they got a few audio-only cutscenes in there too.).
I'm playing through this now and I just can't believe how broken and unfinished the combat feels. They aren't kidding, every enemy and boss in the game just has single target physical attacks. Even enemies called "magician" and "sorcerer" can only hit you with their staves for a pathetic amount of damage. There's accessories you can buy and equip that reduce magical damage!!! There is no magical damage! There's also spells and items that can be used to cure status effects. There are no status effects! This doesn't feel like a design choice. It feels like they ran out of time to balance the combat in the game, so they just removed all enemy spells and status effects at the last minute.
I'm going to finish it because I've already put several hours into it, and it isn't very long. But man, I'm reading some of the 80-90 review scores this game got when it came out and I just don't get it. I guess the novelty of animated and voiced cutscenes made up for the ridiculously bland gameplay.
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![Wow, there's even random encounters in town now. The Plasma Slime is the weakest enemy, as per Wizardry/Dragon Quest tradition, though it's made out of plasma because that's science-fiction-y. The goblins aren't particularly science-fiction-y, unless you count their remarkable similarity to Saibamen. Good thing I'm not Yamcha! [/anime].](https://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/2/23093/2693197-cosmicfantasyii%20%2828%29.png)
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