The History of Cosmic Fantasy 2
Cosmic Fantasy 2, in Japan Cosmic Fantasy 2: Bōken Shōnen Ban (PC Engine CD-ROM², Japan April 5, 1991; TurboGrafx-CD, North America June 1992), was developed and published in Japan by Nippon Telenet and localized by Working Designs. Van of Clan Island loses his sweetheart Laura, a princess whose marriage would grant immortality, to the wizard Galam, and the rescue crosses intergalactic travel and twenty years of time. It was the only game in its series released outside Japan until 2024.
THE MAKING
A first for CD publishingCosmic Fantasy 2 holds a format record: it was the first video game published by a third party publisher on a CD based console. Its Western edition made it a Working Designs title a year before Lunar: The Silver Star, part of the small catalogue that established the company's name with American CD RPG players, a catalogue whose localization record this Library documents on the Lunar pages.
Its afterlife in rights is equally documented: Telenet's bankruptcy made re release difficult, as Gaijinworks president Victor Ireland stated; Sunsoft's acquisition of the Telenet catalogue reopened the door, and the Cosmic Fantasy Collection reached English in January 2024 from Limited Run Games, with new English translations of the first two games, bringing the original Cosmic Fantasy west at last.
THE DESIGN
Battles with the randomness taken outThe battles are this game's design signature, and its critics' target. Enemies cannot use spells, items, or special moves, and can only make a normal attack each turn. Neither side can miss. There are no critical hits except from certain weapons that fire spells at random. The only uncertainty in any fight is which character each enemy chooses to attack. What remains is resource arithmetic wrapped around the era's most cutscene driven storytelling on its console: players came for the cinemas, and the reference record's reviewers said so at the time.
THE EDITIONS
One of the series, for thirty two yearsTHE RECEPTION
Best RPG of the year, load times and allWriter Christian Nutt, in Gamasutra's TurboGrafx history, called it the most promising choice for the next great RPG and described being compelled to push forward to see the next cutscene, which is the fairest one line account of where this game's strength actually sat.
THE LEGACY
The Working Designs shelf, before LunarCosmic Fantasy 2 matters to this Library twice: as an early proof that American players would buy CD RPGs at near total attach rates when the storytelling led, and as the Working Designs bridge between the TurboGrafx era and the Lunar work that defined the company. The rest of its series waited three decades for an English door, a smaller, quieter version of the Tengai Makyou gap documented beside it.
THE GAME ON THE SHELF
Cosmic Fantasy 2 · TurboGrafx-CD