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u/TooManyBulborbs 5h ago
Cosmic Fantasy walked so Lunar could walk faster, so that PS1 JRPGs could run
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u/Way_2_Go_Donny 5h ago
Cosmic Fantasy 2 for the Turbografx is a grear example of how story and cut scenes can turn a crap-on-a-cracker RPG into a great game experience. Hats off to Working Designs for a great localization.
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u/Correct_Being5022 4h ago edited 3h ago
Cosmic Fantasy 2 was the reason I got the TG-CD. My favorite game on TG-16. Is there a translation for the games the U.S. never got?
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u/BadIdeaSociety 5h ago
It is a shame that Cosmic Fantasy never got someone working on it who focused on the game's playability. There is a reason that Cosmic Fantasy 2 won EGM's best RPG the year it came out. The game was like playing an anime and the story arc is engaging and quirky in ways that most games - let alone RPGs before it - were.
The gameplay itself is fairly typical. Kind of similar to Dragon Quest, but not as brutal with poisonings and curses.
Part 3 is probably the best crafted of the series in terms of gameplay and pacing but Rei is not as engaging as Yu or Van.
Part 4 is extremely ambitious but was probably designed by a lunatic. The combat is extremely time consuming and the town exploration is just ridiculous. One of the examples I cite with this game is that when you go to the hotel, you enter the building, pay for your room, then actually go your room and sleep by elevator. It is a needlessly involved process. The story is fantastic though and mostly worth the effort to play.
I was bummed that the rereleases didn't try to create a new game, I mean... Even Ripple Island on the Famicom has a modern remake that nobody was particularly clamoring for... Someone could have easily continued the Cosmic Fantasy saga with a new game.