Cosmic Fantasy Visual Collection

~ COSMIC FANTASY VISUAL COLLECTION ~

Laser Soft / Telenet

CD-ROM

1993

This is basically a straightforward, no-frills compilation disc that allows you to watch cinemas from Cosmic Fantasy games. It would actually be a really nice collectible for CF fans except that...

...it contains intermissions from only the first two titles. If you want to watch the cinemas from episodes 3, 4-1, and 4-2 (though I have no idea why you'd want to put yourself through the horrors of 4-1) via PCE CD, your only recourse is to purchase the respective games. I'm sure Telenet planned to release another installment featuring scenes from subsequent chapters; but, of course, that never happened.

Nonetheless, there actually is one good reason to acquire this disc: It contains a redone Rim shower scene.

Yes, the mist that shrouded her glorious flesh in CF2 (both the US and JPN versions, for the record) has been done away with. Since you and I both know you're curious, here's a comparison, with the game version on the left and the brilliant Visual Collection masterportrait on the right:

Other than that, there is little fresh art to be found on the disc, and none of it is really worth getting excited about.

Not that there's anything wrong with the CF and CF2 cinemas as they are. Quite the contrary.

But while a full CF-cinema compilation would've been something spectacular for fans, especially if it had included a decent amount of original art, this project as it was completed and released is pretty much purposeless. It's something that CF fans will want to own just for the hell of it, of course--I for one know I couldn't consider my Cosmic Fantasy adventures complete until I'd witnessed the true glory of shower-time Rim. And at least it's a lot easier to find (not to mention cheaper) than the Valis Visual Collection (which, again for the record, is also incomplete, featuring cinemas from the second, third, and fourth Valis episodes, but not the first).