A galactic disappointment: Cosmic Fantasy.

It took me playing Cosmic Fantasy to realize how appreciative I am that Breath of Fire was my first RPG. If Cosmic Fantasy (or something like it) was my first RPG, then I would have been turned off by the genre. Released as part of a collection on the Nintendo Switch, Cosmic Fantasy is the first of a semi-long running series of sci-fi inspired RPGs that originated on the PC-Engine. The first game was released in 1990. And it shows. This game has aged poorly. Even the most hardcore RPG fans will struggle getting through this.

But, I’ll get to that in a minute. There is some good stuff here. Impressive, even. The most obvious being that the game was one of the first to feature animated cutscenes and voice acting. Character portraits are vibrant. Monster designs have motion, variety and style. Sadly, that’s the only praise I can give the presentation. The music is repetitive. The in-game graphics are basic as basic can get. Normally, I wouldn’t mind but it feels like the developers were doing everything to emulate Dragon Quest. Which, was a prettier game than this. There are no spell animations. No attack animations. Combat sequences are a carbon copy of Phantasy Star. Most of the towns and dungeons are, for lack of a better word, ugly. I’ll never drop a game for poor graphics, but they could have helped.

Similarly, a better narrative could have helped. You play as a space traveler named Yu. He and his motorcycle-cat-alien-whatever Monmon have crash landed their ship, the Algernon, on an underdeveloped planet called Norg. His ship’s AI tells him that it will take a while to get the ship repaired. As repairs are underway, Yu and Monmon get wrapped up in a battle against four fiends and their leader, a resurrected with named Morgan. He’s not alone. Yu is later joined by a girl from Norg named Saya. That’s really about all I have to say about the story. There’s not much there. It’s nice that the major events play out in animated sequences, at least.

Cosmic Fantasy being a product of its time means that the gameplay loop is what will ultimately make or break your enjoyment. Basically, Yu and Saya always seem to be at a disadvantage. A lot of it has to do with poor balance. Another part of it has to do with busted programming. I think it’d be easier just to rattle off everything in no particular order. Here we go. Yu’s magic is only accessible during random story moments. After those moments pass, his magic just goes away. Yu and Saya can only hold nine items each. Yu and Saya cannot swap around items with each other. Saya’s “escape from a dungeon spell” doesn’t work. Yu and Saya have very conservative growth. Money is never a problem, but there is never anything to buy that would make the journeys from the town to a dungeon easier. And even if there were, the item limit would prevent you from stocking up. The enemy encounter rate is high. It’s game over if Yu dies, even if Saya has full HP. Running from combat never works. Some of Saya’s spells never work. Some items never work. You will CONSTANTLY be running to and from dungeons/towns to sleep at an inn to restore health and save. It doesn’t take long for Saya to run out of MP since it’s the only reliable way for her to deal damage against the groups of enemies. There’s more, too.

But, I won’t get into it. You see where I’m going with this? There are too many factors working against what would otherwise be an innocuous RPG of an era. By my calculation, the game has about four hours of content but 15 hours of required grinding. Did people in 1990 enjoy this? Expect this? I can’t say. I do know that when I first started playing RPGs, I didn’t have to do so much grinding. I also know that when I used an item or spell that was supposed to do something, nine out of ten times that something occurred. That one time out of ten is the Smoke item in Breath of Fire II, but I digress. With Cosmic Fantasy, I can be somewhat understanding since the game is older, but keep in mind that this is a re-release for the Nintendo Switch. Add save states. Add some QoL features. Add descriptions to spells named things like Bagdom or Io. Add SOMETHING. (Note that there is an in-game manual, but it just means more button clicks.)

Like I said, Cosmic Fantasy would be a short, brisk RPG if not for the required grinding. Without it, the game would be average. With it, the game is a disaster. It was during about the midway point where I had my aha moment and realized just how tedious the game was. Fortunately, all of the movies are included in this collection so I’m able to view those to get the full narrative from start to finish. I’m also able to rewatch the funny scene where Yu first meets Saya, in which Saya is bathing in a lake. As these things normally go in any anime ever, Yu gets into some serious trouble. That little perk aside, I’m going into the next game with low expectations and lower optimism. On the one hand, there is literally nowhere to go but up. On the other hand, I’ve heard whispers that Cosmic Fantasy 2 isn’t much better. We shall see.

Overall, 3/10: Kudos for anime cut scenes and voice acting. Otherwise, no. This is not a good RPG. Age is no excuse for poor translations, poor gameplay, and poor programming.