Cosmic Fantasy 4 Chapter 2

Telenet scans
Click here to see the cover of the manual.
Click here to see the back insert.

Ever played Cosmic Fantasy 2? Well, this game may look familiar to you...it also takes place on Idea. But don't expect everything to look the same. That would be too easy...

The game starts with a nicely animated opening in which Van has a nightmare about Galam. Van looks around and hears Laura cry out his name. Van looks around for her (I'm pretty sure he says "Laura! Where are you?" Guess who doesn't know much Japanese) and Galam appears. He laughs at Van. "Galam!" Van says. Apparently Galam says something Van doesn't like because he tells Galam to shut up. Galam keeps talking and Van angrily leaps at Galam. Galam chuckles, points at him, and blasts him.

And now, we're at the title, where the cast says the title in chorus "Cosmic Fantasy 4," (which you can enjoy as a 71.5KB mono RealAudio recording) followed by the official theme song, "Cosmic Fantasy" (reproduced here as a 458KB mono RealAudio recording) and then the opening, which is covered on the CF4 Menu Page.  Then, the title again. Hit run and you're dropped into the load/start/copy menu.

Start and Van wakes up from his nightmare. He's on board the Little Fox. During the little "digital comic" type part (as shown to the left), he has a flashback of when Laura was kidnapped in CF2 (which is, strangely, done mostly in shades of grey. Telenet Japan seemed to favour shades of brown previously, such as CF2 and Valis III) and takes his pendant. Then, it's off to the shower...

The art and animation is on par with Chapter 1, much better than CF3. I noticed that now, they've managed to have multiple animations at a time. For example, hair waving while a mouth moves and a hand raises. I don't think they did this previously.
Anyway, Rim, Van, and Pikku soon rush off to answer an emergency distress call. They go and pick up a little fish-like spaceship. Inside, it's Annie. Yep, it's Annie from CF2, who now plays a larger role. (Unfortunately, Annie still isn't a major character. She isn't even pictured on this page, merely linked to.) They help her and everyone rushes off to Idea, due to a pyramid? (Hey, even Van was confused.) I'm sure I'm missing a large chunk of the storyline. (Ex: Why?)

I'm sure knowing Japanese would help, but I personally haven't had a whole lot of trouble other than knowing when people give me keys. This is mainly because having played CF2, I knew generally where all the caves and towns were and basically, the game follows the same path. (But not exactly.)

Are you stuck? Well, now there's help!  Instead of directly e-mailing me, check out the walkthrough.
Some of the enemies reappear from CF2, as well. 

As you struggle bravely onward, you encounter Gash, (his katakana goes: Ga tsu shi yu) who curiously looks like Galam?!, and Jirubel (Ji ru be- ru), who's mighty keen on that pendant of Laura's...She even captures and tortures Annie in order to get Van to give her the pendant!

The gameplay looks quite different from 1-3. So, here's a page about the gameplay.

My only gripes are: 

 
• 1) The ending is too short. (Isn't it always? Well, CF3 had a nice one.)
• 2) They reuse some of the animation throughout the game, more than CF3. (Boo! Hiss!)
• 3) Oddly, in the visual test (accessed by code, of course), the first six cinemas in the game are not selectable.
• 4) In CF3, the characters would occasionally talk straight off the disc, but were accompanied by little pictures of themselves. In CF4, they don't have those pictures. So all you get is the characters moving around the screen with a voice-over. Phooey.

Ni-ya-N-No-Fu-Ro-Shi-Ki (hiragana, except for the Ni-ya-N, which is katakana). Note: "ya" is the small version of "ya." - Sound/Visual Test

Sa-Ya-No-Pu-Ru-Ze-N-To (katakana except No, which is hiragana) - ADTEST MODE
In this mode, you get all sorts of PSG voices, including "telephone messages" from Yuu, Saya, Van, Rim, and Nyan.  Ever wonder what they have as their answering machine messages? :)

Bi-De-O-O-Ka-tsu-Ta-Yo (Bi-De-O katakana, the rest hiragana, tsu small version) - I don't think I got this to work.

Ree-Zaa-So-Fu-To (katakana)- Sudden RPG Mode.  (Skip the Digital Comic!)

Note: When I have the vowels doubled like that, that means you need to use the character followed by a hyphen. (Whatever those are called.) For example, in "Ree," you enter Re and then a hyphen.

Daa-Da-Da-Da-Da-Daa - (hiragana) Cosmic Fantasy Yakyuuken. (Rock Paper Scissors.) By the way, this game is rather strange. You fight Van and when you beat him once, you are treated to a nude picture of him. If anyone beats you four times, you have to start over. Then, you must beat Rim 4 times. Every time you win, you see Van. Every time you lose, you have to listen to squeaky music. It's pretty annoying. Then, you fight Tokida! I think you have to beat him twice in a row. Next is Saya, who you also have to beat 4 times. Then, a few messages pop up, which I entirely failed to read correctly. Oops. Oh, and did I mention the silly art style and gyrating hips? Hmm...

Also, the CF3 codes can be used, but Nyan just talks to you. (He probably tells you they don't work anymore.)

Oh, by the way, if you try to run the game with a regular System Card, it displays this picture of Rim. She also talks to you in a friendly manner. :)

Back to the Cosmic Fantasy 4 Menu Page.

(Last manipulated 6/10/99)