Role playing games were hitting it big in the early 90s and several different companies tried their hand at the genre. Telenet Japan was one such company, and in Japan they were fairly successful. Unfortunately I never knew much about them until I began researching the Turbografx-16 several years ago. I had just begun collecting retro game consoles, and I was looking into the CD attachment released for the platform. One of the games for it that caught my eye was Cosmic Fantasy 2. This was developed by Telenet, and published by Working Designs who is best known for their quirky translations.
Cosmic Fantasy 2 sounded amazing on paper; it’s a classic traditional RPG but features voice overs as well as anime style full motion videos. For a game made in the early 90s this was unprecedented, and I simply couldn’t resist picking it up as well as the CD attachment for the console. Cosmic Fantasy 2 is okay and was ahead of its time. It does however suffers some pretty serious issues that prevent it from attaining ‘classic’ status. Today we’re going to take a look at it.
Cosmic Fantasy 2 takes place in a medieval world, but deals with such unorthodox story elements such as time travel, space pirates, and aliens. You play as a young man named Van who lives in a small burg on the planet of Idea. One day our soon to be hero’s life is turned upside down when an evil sorcerer named Galam has kidnapped Van’s childhood sweetheart Laura. It turns out that this girl is not all she seems to be, and is actually a magical princess with the ability to grant immortality. Van is just a simple country boy which makes him your typical unlikely hero as he soon sets out to rescue her against all odds.
The story starts off in a typical fashion but takes some truly unexpected twists. The second half of the game switches protagonists and introduces a space travel element as you take control of an interplanetary mercenary named Babbette as she intercepts a distress signal from Idea as she intercepts it and eventually meets up with Van and crew. The thematic change is weird, but it works surprisingly well and is quite memorable.
Gameplay is painfully traditional. This is coming from someone who is, and always will be, a longtime fan of Dragon Quest. The world map is typical with caves, castles and towns, and random encounters with enemies occur here as well as within dungeons. When a battle starts the background dims and enemies appear head on and your stats appear at the bottom of the screen. Combat is strictly turn based as you input commands which include fight (a basic attack with your weapon), magic, tools (items such as healing potions and the like), and run.
Cosmic Fantasy 2’s biggest sin is that it just doesn’t try anything different. The developers didn’t care to bring new ideas to the table with this one. The lack of creativity in the battle sequences doesn’t hurt as much as the absence of anything unique in the overworld. It’s a static world map that never really changes, and there is a big lack of graphic sprites. You’ll see the same scenery over and over again. The dungeons lack puzzles, and are pretty straightforward.
You can have up to four characters in your party at any time, and they all differ in stats, equipment, and spells. You never are given the option to choose who you want to use as characters simply come and leave as per what is happening in the story. The protagonists are very different from one another for the most part, and none are totally useless. Unfortunately many of them join for only a short while which makes many of the personalities ultimately forgettable for the most part.
The biggest problem however is that the encounter rate is simply too high. Many gamers complain about this aspect in titles like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but it simply doesn’t compare. Traversing the world map isn’t too bad, but while exploring dungeons you will find battles occurring every few steps you take. There are no items here to alleviate the problem, and it’s extremely frustrating to the point that I find myself frequently cursing and wanting to turn the system off. To make matters worse many of the dungeons are long.
This means you will be forced to fight non-stop in some areas. One of the most annoying dungeons here involves a purple cave you must navigate only to be told you have to go to the entrance, and then make your way through once more. It’s not a smart design, and although this only occurs once the rest of these areas are poorly designed. I’m surprised this game made it through the testing process without this being fixed. It’s a clear attempt at nothing more than padding the run time.
Thankfully battles move at a brisk pace which alleviates the issue slightly. Fans of the genre will be happy to learn that no level grinding of any kind is required here, and even using the most simple of tactics ensures victory. At the end of particular dungeons you will face bosses, but even these are very easy. Normally I don’t mind a game that’s slightly more simple, but Cosmic Fantasy 2 is a pushover all the way through.
I rarely had to switch up my battle tactics, and the only times I came close to death at all was simply from fighting battle after battle thanks to the outlandish encounter rate. In addition this title is pretty short and I usually clock in less than twenty hours. Most RPGs of its time offered lengthier quests, and it’s unfortunate that even with the CD format Telenet couldn’t stretch the scenario any longer. I’m guessing the encounter rate is so high to make it last longer.
Graphically Cosmic Fantasy 2 is a little rough. The colors are dull, and the game suffers that typical grainy pixelation that plagues so many releases on the system. Simple animations such as glowing pixels simulate fire, and it seems a little lazy to me. Character models are quite ugly and barely animate. This almost looks like a high end Sega Master System title to me, but with a more limited color palette.
In-battle there are no backgrounds, and the enemies don’t animate at all. The static depictions are decent looking, but this is a CD game after all, and I’ve come to expect more. What saves Cosmic Fantasy 2 is the full motion video strewn throughout the story. These are hand drawn, and animate incredibly well considering the year it was released. The anime art style is pretty decent, and I enjoy the depictions of all of the characters. These are quite incredible.
Games on CDs generally featured elaborate and well done soundtracks. That’s not the case here. The game’s music is definitely a step above what the system is normally capable of, but it all sounds like simple midi compositions as far as I’m concerned. The soundtrack is mostly boring. The battle theme uses primarily drums and sounds really out of place. The world map, with it’s happy go lucky bleeps and blips, simply doesn’t invoke a sense of adventure.
The boss battle theme is actually pretty decent, but the real standout track is the ending music which is a pop song that features vocals. The lyrics might be nonsensical, but it’s still really impressive given the time period in which this game was released. The sound effects are boring and forgettable, and some verge on being unpleasant because they use the native Turbografx hardware. The audio has some high points, but it’s mostly forgettable in my opinion. I’ve come to expect more.
Cosmic Fantasy 2 had a lot of promise. On paper it sounds like the perfect RPG; a story involving time travel and space pirates, a traditional battle system with no curve balls or gimmicks, and it’s on a CD which allows for orchestrated soundtracks. Unfortunately very little of its potential was met, but it’s not all bad. Cosmic Fantasy 2 is mildly enjoyable, and I did enjoy the story especially near the end of the adventure. If you already own a Turbografx-CD it might be worth checking out by all means, but it’s not worth picking up the hardware for regardless of its positive points.
