Cosmic Fantasy 2 mystery guest question

[offsidewing]

Who the heck is this guy and why is he taunting me??  Can I get over to him and invite him to barbeque, or execute his command with extreme prejudice?

I asked Victor Ireland this very question in a polite letter 14 years ago.  I still wait by the mailbox every day. . .

Anyways, I've always wanted to know what's up with this fella.  He's on an island east of the Rebel Camp after you defeat Lud and get Jiela for a second time (or I shall taunt you for a second time!).



Anyone know anything about this f-ing guy?!

[Keranu]

WHOA, I've never seen that before in this game! That's really interesting!

[OldRover]

I'm also not sure what that's about...my guess is something left over from the Japanese original. I could use my CF2 BRAM editor to position the party on that island though...might yield some information. I've known about that for years but never did find out anything about it.

By the way...that part of the game, you don't have to go through with the Lud battle right away. As soon as you get there, you can leave and go as far as the haunted castle, which means you can also pick up Crystal Staves on the way, which are the best weapon you can have up to that point.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

He kinda looks like the half man / half chipmunk dude from Burai.  I don't remember seeing him - damn it, now I must play through CF2 again. 

[ParanoiaDragon]

Wow, all the times I played thru this, & I've never seen him

[esteban]

Anyone know anything about this f-ing guy?!

I'll give you a hint:

[offsidewing]

I could use my CF2 BRAM editor to position the party on that island though...might yield some information.

Is there really an editor, or are you guys pulling my leg?  If there is an editor, it does beg the question if you can max out Van and defeat Wizda in one turn at the begining of the game (or your first meeting with Galam).

But first, find out who that creature is!!

Oh, and Lud was a breeze.  A little debuff from Babs and viola, dead Lud.  I'm a leveling beast.  This is an area of the game where leveling is easy and I took full advantage.

[OldRover]

Is there really an editor, or are you guys pulling my leg?  If there is an editor, it does beg the question if you can max out Van and defeat Wizda in one turn at the begining of the game (or your first meeting with Galam).

No, I'm not pulling your leg. A couple of years ago, I developed a CF2 savegame editor. I used it to make some really wacked out parties...such as turning the lead character into a chicken. It still has some work to be done to it, as some of the save file isn't currently understood. The released version is a ROM image so unless you have one of those memory card things, you wouldn't be able to use it on a real console. I have a CDROM version here locally but I've never released it because it's part of a larger package...a multi-editor that supports dozens of games.

As for the Wizda and Galam scenes...you're not supposed to win, and no matter how beefed up your stats are, you won't ever win. Trust me...I've set Van to like level 50 and went into the Wizda battle...all you'll do is sit there bored for like an hour while Wizda whittles away at your hitpoints.

Almost forgot...you can find the initial release of the CF2 BRAM editor here:
wayback.frozenutopia.com/downloads.html

[CrackTiger]

I'm pretty sure that it was Working Designs that I contacted about that, but I may have just called the Turbo Tip line.

Anyways, I was told that it is definitely nothing, at least in the Turbo version. I'm guessing that its just a decoration for fun and wasn't part of anything special in the PCE version.

I thought that it looked like an owl-man back in the day.

[offsidewing]

As for the Wizda and Galam scenes...you're not supposed to win, and no matter how beefed up your stats are, you won't ever win. Trust me...I've set Van to like level 50 and went into the Wizda battle...all you'll do is sit there bored for like an hour while Wizda whittles away at your hitpoints.

I had always thought that to be the case...

I'm pretty sure that it was Working Designs that I contacted about that, but I may have just called the Turbo Tip line.

Anyways, I was told that it is definitely nothing, at least in the Turbo version. I'm guessing that its just a decoration for fun and wasn't part of anything special in the PCE version.

I thought that it looked like an owl-man back in the day.

[offsidewing]

BTW, Annie is freaking hot when she get's older.  And she's very lonely...

[OldRover]

BTW, Annie is freaking hot when she get's older.  And she's very lonely...

I wish there were girls that looked that good living next door...I'd take care of their loneliness problem really quickly...

[offsidewing]

Galamzilla is defeated!

Clea is probably pretty hot under that insane armour.

[offsidewing]

Just watched the ending to CF2 after beating it.  Last played over 10 years ago.

Damn, now I'm an emotional trainwreck.

...then Victor Ireland's lyrics make me feel all fuzzy.  I'm going to watch some porn.

[RuninRuder]

That's definitely one of my favorite video game endings. 

For anyone else who digs the CF2 story, I highly recommend Cosmic Fantasy 4 Chapter 2, as it reveals the fates of Van, Rimu (Babs), and Annie.  It really is like a direct sequel to CF2. 

[offsidewing]

I've always wondered how the subsequent sequels related to the one US offering.

Are Van/Babs/Annie playable in CF3 or CF4 pt 1??

[RuninRuder]

CF3 focuses on new characters while CF4-1 focuses on Yuu (Cobra) and Saya.  Van and Rimu make appearances but they don't play central roles.  CF4-2 is where they really shine. 

CF3 is great, CF4-2 is great, CF4-1 stinks.

[kenomac78]

i had always hoped for a rmake box set of the complete cosmic fantasy, much like that or lunar. so long as its made in the next 50 years i can stll play it and be happy!

[CrackTiger]

i had always hoped for a rmake box set of the complete cosmic fantasy, much like that or lunar. so long as its made in the next 50 years i can stll play it and be happy!

Cosmic Fantasy Stories Mega-CD is a remix/remake of the first two games. I'm guessing that CF2 doesn't get changed as much as CF1 though.

[kenomac78]

i knew about CF stories. and the design of CF1 is painfully weak compared to the later ones. I used to wonder why  working designs chose 2 and not 1 , then i played 1.

what i dream of is a playstation boxset with all 4 games in english, remade and redesigned. but from what i hear telnet japan is no more. and WD proved even getting a relatively  new  game put out , like growlanser, was a big ordeal for them.  so now lets just hope that someday the mythical "100% complete" version of CF3 shows up.  if atari 2600 game protos from companies that existed for only a year or so can be unearthed after 20 years, theres hope for anything

[ParanoiaDragon]

There is no english version of CF 3, & there never was.  If sometime, one does show up, I'll deny we ever had this conversation

As for Telenet, if I understand correctly, they are a part of Bandai Namco now, or atleast Wolf Team is.

WD was considering brining CF1 out here, at a cheaper price, like $30.

[kenomac78]

thats why i said MYTHICAL. though there has to be a somewhat translated CF3 somewhere. working designs admitted it was nearly ready when cancelled.  but to how much, i dont know.

[turbofan1]

I think thats always just been an urban legend that Cosmic Fantasy 3 was finished but never released.People have claimed that is guy here is Vic Davis on ebay-http://myworld.ebay.com/gamegenie/.About year or so ago,just for the hell of it I asked him about Cosmic Fantasy 3,World Heroes and king Of Monsters 2.And he responded rather rudely.
So I questioned wether that was actually him or not.

[OldRover]

The mystery of the fat taunting thing on the island has been solved!

nodtveidt .net/cf2mystery.png

And here's the kicker! It's the most amazing thing in the series! This pudgy little guy does...

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ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

He's merely a solid block! You can't talk to him, walk over him, or anything. He's just one of those useless things that create threads like these years after the game has come and gone, with people scouring for information about what it is or how to get it...and mysteriously, said information never showing up.

Confirmed in both US and JP versions to do absolutely NOTHING.

Mystery solved.

EDIT: Oh I almost forgot...if you want to confirm this for yourself, here's what you do...

For best results, have a savegame close to this area, so the party will be correct.
Next, pick up the cf2editor from the Frozen Utopia site (it's a ROM so you'll have to be using an emulator, and if using Magic Engine, use the OLD STYLE bram, NOT the horribly nonstandard new one!).
Now, open 'er up and load your savegame.
Go to PARTY/LOCATION DATA
Enter the following data AFTER MAKING NOTE OF THE INFORMATION THAT IS ALREADY THERE:
---MAP X: A0
---MAP Y: 1D
---MAP ID: 07
Go back to the main menu (press II twice) and save the buffer.
Load CF2.
Load your saved game.
You will appear on the little island with the pudgy bastard.

EDIT2: Oh yeah, about Magic Engine's silly BRAM stuff...

If you're using the new style BRAM, load up your game with the new style BRAM enabled, then do an emulator save state. Quit Magic Engine, switch to the old style BRAM, boot CF2, and load your save state. Then, save in-game at an inn as usual. cf2editor doesn't have access to CF2's save files using the new style BRAM in Magic Engine.

[Keranu]

THANKS USELESS FAT ASS ON THE ISLAND!

[OldRover]

Oh, I've also been documenting the various map IDs in the game. Takes awhile to do, but well worth the trouble.

Maps 00-0A are the world maps. These are duplicated in 10-1A, 20-2A, and 30-3A for some reason...no idea why. Maps 0B through 0E produced a black screen, but 0F caused an interesting crash.
The towns start at 40. I don't remember some of the names, since it's late and I don't care. Here's a listing:

40 - Van's hometown on Clan Isle
41 - Burned town near Van's hometown
42 - Van's hometown with enemy encounters
43 - Town where you find Annie
44 - Setoa
45 - Remlai Castle
46 - Fog, Village Of Oblivion
47 - Tista
48 - Darva's place
49 - Toruano
4A - Justa
4B - Viora's house
4D - Harp's Hamlet
4E - Joshua's town
4F - Tyrun
50 - Marla's house
51 - Town south of Tyrun
52 - Town before Nova's place
53 - Toto Village
54 - Bara
55 - Ein
56 - Rebel base camp
57 - Reza
58 - Borla
59 - Elba
5A - Resistance headquarters
5B - Setore Town
5C - Algernon in-game cutscene
5D - Laura's house
5E - The Algernon

4C produces the same kind of thing as 0B-0E. I figured it was simply removed from the US version, but it's also missing in the JP version. 5F is Annie's House in the future, but the events seem to be broken.

The dungeons seem to start at 60. 60 I know is the small cave between the first area and the second area on the world map (both part of map 00). I'll get to documenting the rest of the maps now.

This all makes a good break from coding MSR.

[OldRover]

Okay, here's the rest of the areas:

60 - Cave south of the starting village
61 - Cave under the sea
62 - Amon-ta's cave
63 - Dullard Town
64 - Cerum's cave
65 - Dungeon leading to Harp's Hamlet
66 - Cavern north of Darva's place
67 - Digin's Fortress
68 - Galam's Tower
69 - Tyrun Dungeon
6A - Selena's cave
6B - Nova's mansion
6C - Major Payne's Castle
6D - Ice Cave
6E - Ein's Test
6F - Goddess Cave
70 - Mountain path
71 - Haunted Castle
73 - Same as 66 but 20 years later
74 - Remlai Castle 20 years later
75 - Vega's underground fortress
76 - Galam's Castle

64 and 6E are the same map, so for 6E, you have to set X much higher to actually get to Ein's Test (try X 70, Y 0A). If you set these coordinates on map 64, you will enter the Ein's Test part of the map, but the events won't work, and random encounters from Cerum's cave will pop up.

This stuff is really fun to mess with.

EDIT: An interesting tidbit...when the savefile is first created, it sets a map ID of FF, and an X and Y of 00. When you save, it sets map ID to 40, and X and Y to 1A and 0B respectively. Also, modifying X or Y while the map ID is FF has no effect.

[esteban]

The mystery of the fat taunting thing on the island has been solved!

Don't you love the fact that they threw this fellow into the game? I love stuff like this. Whether or not he was intended to play some role in the game (only to be abandoned), I love that he's in there.

Are you sure there isn't a special code that unlocks the true answer to the mystery man?