Cosmic Fantasy 3 [コズミックファンタジー３] Game Sample -- PC Engine CD

Mmmm... poor old Cosmic Fantasy, the JRPG series that kept producing titles from the late 80s to mid 90s desperately trying to find its stride, but never quite took off despite being popular among fans and hardcore gamers. Released during an awkward grandiose period where producing 8/16-Bit games on a CD was all the rage and developers didn't always know what to do with all the extra resources, Cosmic Fantasy was born. Primarily developed and managed by Laser Soft, aka Telenet Japan (with character designs and animations provided by the talented Kazuhiro Ochi), about a half dozen titles would emerge under the CF banner, an OVA, two manga, a drama CD, and limited memorabilia. Only the second game would ever be released outside Japan (by Working Designs) and one would have to think why the series is "obscure". While the game had likeable characters, decent voice acting, and pretty nice cutscenes for its time, the gameplay and balancing is what never made the series stand out as a bonafide classic, which is more a pity when you look at things like "The Official Cosmic Fantasy Guide Book" (which I own) where you can see the developers, cast members, and seiyuu had more fun breathing life into the characters and CF Universe than most developers probably should. It was the victim of archaic mechanics and, as some put it, uninteresting design, even for its time, and the series started running into problems soon after the second game. Wanna know which game is the black sheep in the series? Goes through YT checklist ... CF1... check. CF2... check. CF3... uh, CF3... no check. CF4... check. Yes, you guessed it, CF3 is the black sheep! Okay, while one could say the "CF Visual Collection" is the black sheep, it's not a real game. Cosmic Fantasy 3: Bouken Shounen Rei (or "Adventure Boy Rei") was a departure from the previous games. The game has enemies fought on black backgrounds like the early Dragon Quest games (where as the others had enemies on some kind of background) and the game's encounter rate is so high that you have to be absolutely enamored with the franchise to see this relatively short RPG to its conclusion. The game also featured a new main protagonist, Rei, on his own side adventure (who apparently wasn't well-liked, as he's hardly seen again) and the game has a painstakingly classic approach towards story-telling and dungeon design (where you travel from place to place with little direction and dungeons/fields have devious layouts). The battle system is also considered basic, although this is not quite true; there are a number of mechanics, you just won't find yourself using them (and the battles are a HUGE improvement over CF2, where enemies/bosses just did normal attacks). However, there are some highlights. Kazuhiro Ochi's drawing skills evolved around the development of CF3, so characters look more detailed. CF3 is also the first game in the series to utilize the Super CD-Rom format (which is commemorated with nice pack-in extras like a map and guide) and this extra muscle is put to use in some not-so-obvious ways (more seamless transitions between cutscenes, higher quality audio, basic spoken bits, boss enemies have basic attack animations unlike regular enemies, etc.). Enemies are also more goofy in their appearance (a plus given the theme of the game), and combat/navigation has evolved. Aside from typical commands and magic abilities, characters can run on the field, blaze through constant encounters due to a high-speed menu interface, search the environment for goodies, and issue various melee attacks and defensive skills which is the game's one stand-out feature in that regard (six different melee actions including a two-person combination attack, three parrying skills). The devs partially knew the game couldn't sell with new characters alone, so there is a (VERY SHORT) segment where you play with the original Cosmic Hunters from CF1/2, who are out to stop the Cosmic Pirate, Galdo. It's also necessary to complete this small bit to learn more about the introduction of CF4 (which is a two-part game). This game's story is relatively simple and mostly comprised of fetch-quests: Rei is a gifted and respected magician from Toto Village on the "Backwater Planet of Aila" (as it is not technologically advanced like much of the galaxy and is steeped in ancient culture) who is called by friends and the King of Tristan to do various good deeds that occasionally tie into the events pre-empted by the original cast. I won't spoil how these events tie into CF1/2/4. CF3 is pretty good, but kinda sealed the fate of the series. You know a franchise is on its last legs when it smuggles "hidden bare chest scenes" or "hentai" of girls for no apparent reason. Many people moved on to more evolved RPGs after CF3 and it was too late for the series as it started recycling enemies, graphics, music, etc. This is videos of the game in action (Int w/ whole song). Enjoy. Basic Format: Super CD-Rom² (Super CD-Rom2)