Cotton Fantasy review

Known as Cotton Rock ‘n Roll: Superlative Night Dreams in Japan, the Success’ shooter makes it way stateside. It’s got seven different playable characters and unlockable homage stages. While the game establishes a new watermark for substance, gameplay deteriorates a bit.

As revitalizations go, 2021’s Cotton Reboot was a thoroughly resounding success. Based on the Sharp X68000 version of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (widely considered the definitive iteration by franchise fans), the title introduced a rather revolutionary mechanic. In keeping with series tradition, players could collect gems dropped by eliminated enemies to change the type and strength of their firepower. But in a new twist, shooting at jewels would split your shots, effectively multiplying the strength of your output. As such, the reboot was a score chaser’s delight, providing skilled players with a number of ways to climb the online leaderboards. It was also thoroughly balanced, with death routinely occurring when you panicked by an inbound cluster of tightknit projectiles.

As the latest entry in the longstanding shooter series, Cotton Fantasy doesn’t fare as well. Like the somewhat middling R-Type Final 2, Fantasy hopes that a collection of different playables adds variability. And to some extend it does. Choose to play as series star Cotton and you’ll discover that the main character offers a capricious play style.

“Witch” Element to Choose?  

Sure, Cotton Reboot’s shot-splitting mechanic is absent, but when controlling the crimson-haired witch, shooting jewels still cycles through different colors. Depending on the color of last gem you touched, you’ll switch between different elemental-based shot types. Ranging from a piercing torrent of blue bullets to a storm of jade-colored homing missiles, Cotton forces you to constantly adapt to the weapon on hand.

But like most of Cotton Fantasy’s other playable characters, she has supplemental abilities, such as access to a quartet of charged shot types and option-life fairies who fly and fight alongside the series star.

Yes, a Certain Backpacking, Sushi Chef is Here

But play through the game’s nine stage Story Mode with Luffee, a broomstick-rising shrine maiden and you’ll face a different experience. Instead of collecting different colors of jewels, there are only yellow gems. These increase the power of your basic shot. Additionally, her charged shot allows for three tiers of intensification with the highest intensity charring rows of subordinates. Meanwhile, mecha-pilot Fine doesn’t have to worry about lives. Instead, she works against the clock, with additional time granted for collecting jewels.

Cotton Fantasy has a robust roster and after beating the game twice, I have seven different characters to tackle the main campaign or the single stage-based training. (reportedly, Silk is unlockable via an Amazon pre-order) There’s an unlockable who controls a bit like the R-9 “Arrowhead” from the original R-Type, with the ability to toss around a Force-like orb. There are references to two different STGs from developer Success, and even an appearance from Umihara Kawase’s lead. But what you won’t find is a sense of balance, resulting in leaderboards that are separated by character and dissimilar difficulties.

Options? yes! Balance? Not Quite.

Ria, another mecha pilot becomes powered up by grazing (referred to as ‘buzzing’ here), a term used when coming perilously close to enemies and their projectiles. At her peak, she dispenses an array of eighteen streams of firepower which covers almost the entire right side of the screen. On normal mode, Ria’s so overpowered that you can cruise through everything except mid- and final boss confrontations by merely holding down the rapid-fire button.

But that’s mostly forgivable, given she’s only a single character. Mastering the distinct capabilities of each character adds longevity to Cotton Fantasy. There are also additional rewards, such as unlockable stages designed for each of the game’s personality.

If Variety is the Spice of Life, Fantasy is Over-seasoned

But repeatedly venturing into Fantasy’s stages show the developer stumbling when attempting to inject environmental variety. Some of the problem stems from enemies not always indicating their behaviors. No matter how good you are at shooters, the game requires some level memorization. You’ll occasionally find yourself on a collision course with enemies that unexpectedly appear from different sides of the horizontally-scrolling playfield. Sure, Cotton has habitually done this, with the laser-wielding cyclops in Fantastic Night Dreams catching new players off-guard. But here, its more common. As such, you won’t always feel death was brought on by a sense of panic. At least one-third of the time, the loss of a life felt like the game ambushing me.

Cotton Fantasy isn’t a true bullet-hell. But the speed that intersecting projectiles are thrown at you definitely requires some nimble reflexes. Sure, you’re afforded unlimited continues, but when the bosses lay down curving fields of laser fire and then fling bullets on top of that, you’re dodging abilities will be tested.

Another issue is rooted in game’s approach to stage design. While some levels are straightforward scrolls, other move in multiple directions. Although looking at what your bullets are hitting is an indicator, occasionally it can be difficult to discern harmless background elements from foreground threats in the outer space stage. I get into a groove when I play shooters and Fantasy’s hodge-podge of stage styles might break your rhythm. Maybe you’ll like that, but I didn’t. I stink we can all agree that bombs are a bit overpowered and the second configuration for most bosses arrives too late.

Conclusion

While reviewing Fantasy, I occasionally dipped back into Cotton Reboot for comparison. While Reboot lacks the assortment of different playable characters, it boasts better stage design, a top-tier play mechanic and a more consistent framerate. As such, if you haven’t played Reboot, that gets the recommendation over this title. Fantasy is enjoyable, but it’s a bit like store-brand Willow.

Cotton Fantasy was played on Switch with
review code provided by the publisher