Date Released: September 2021 (PS4 Port)
Date Played: 11 November 2021
I'm not going to beat around the bush. Cotton 2 is a really fun and unique cute 'em up that is worth your time. It's beautiful, colorful, and not quite like anything else out there. However, this PS4 port is abysmal and has 10 frames of delay and input lag. It essentially makes the game unplayable in any serious manner. If you are interested in playing the game and learning its ins and outs, try a better version.
Cotton 2 is the fourth game in the Cotton series. It is a horizontal shmup and you and your fairy companion have to travel through 7 stages and defeat a ton of bad guys and bosses so you can retrieve some candy or some other foolishness. The story is all in Japanese, but that's what I was able to glean from it. You're greeted by a cute anime cut scene that shows our witch protagonist becoming frustrated before setting out on her journey. These cut scenes are also present between the stages as well as the ending credits. They are well done and suit the whimsical and childish nature of the game very well. It's difficult to know what's happening because I don't speak Japanese, but it looks like your typical frustrated anime girl sort of fare. I don't really know what else you would expect from this game.
You'll find yourself traveling through a haunted forested area, an old castle, underwater, through a cave, through a spooky swamp, and finally through a chapel before facing off against the main character's arch nemesis. All of these stages feel very unique, have really good enemy placement and some tense sections, beautiful artwork, and magnificent music. In terms of presentation, there is nothing bad to say about Cotton 2. It's one of the most interesting and memorable shmups I've ever seen in terms of it's aesthetic and I have to give the art designers of this game kudos. It's bright and colorful while maintaining that spooky Halloween vibe. The graphics have that retro feel from the Sega Saturn era that was so delightfully charming. The excellent soundtrack goes along perfectly with it and is full of memorable and fun themes that will keep you humming along long after you put down your controller (or joystick in my case).
As for the gameplay, Cotton 2 is a bit complicated (as are most of the Cotton games) when you delve into its mechanics. This is a real surprise because the game looks so childish (for lack of a better word) and many people are caught off guard by it's depth. You have only one life, but that's supplemented by a life bar. Usually, that's a sign of poor game design, but that isn't the case here. Enemy patterns are well thought out and routing is as fun as ever. You fly around on your broom while destroying enemies and trying not to get shot yourself. All the while, you gather crystals that fall from enemies. These crystals are differently colored and picking them up determines what type of shot you have. These range from fire, wind, water, etc. attacks that can really help you on your way. By pressing the magic button, you are able to discharge your shot into a powerful magical attack. This can wreak havoc on your enemies, but sadly exhausts your collected crystal and lower your standard shot attack power. Up to 3 of these crystals can be stored at a time and you'll want to hang onto them until you really need them. I often find myself saving them for the boss fights and using a few of these in a row can shred the boss' life bar in no time. As the crystals float around on the screen, you can shoot them to make them change colors until you find the one you desire. If you shoot them several times, they will turn yellow and these crystals can be gathered to increase your level. Each level will increase your attack power (up to a maximum of 5 levels) and getting hit will cause you to loose some of this shot power. In addition to this you can also grab enemies when they are close enough and throw them back at their comrads. This is especially useful in tight quarters or if some enemies take too many shots. Finally, there are several special attacks you can perform a la Street Fighter controller commands. These are the standard movements like charge back forward, or quarter rotations, etc. These can be a little difficult to pull of when things get hectic and you're trying to dodge, but are a nice addition that give the game some flair and help it stand out apart from its graphics and music. At the end of each stage is Tea Time (like all of the other Cotton games) where you collect tea cups the fall from the top of the screen and these increase your score and restore some health. All of these elements combined together make a really fun and challenging experience that has some great replay value.
As for scoring, it's one of the best parts of the game. If you do one of the special attacks mentioned above on an enemy and then grab it, you can toss it at enemies and re-catch it to build up a chain. Each time this counter increases, so does your score multiplier. It's a ton of fun and it's really cool to see the counter get bigger and bigger. Before long you'll be chaining for large portion of stages and trying to figure out how to keep it going as long as you can.
Cotton 2 is a really fun and addictive game and I would recommend it to any fan of the genre as well as any newcomer.
As for the PS4 port of the game, it is absolutely terrible. It has English translations in the menus and some save state and rewind features that are nice additions. But, apparently this port is nothing more than an emulator running the Sega Saturn version of the game (which already has like 6 frames of lag). This bumps up the total input delay on the game to 10 frames of lag which is totally unacceptable and practically unplayable for anything other than the most casual player. There is a noticeable delay on your movement, dodging, firing, and everything else that makes the game feel like it's just not accepting your commands. You'll get hit and die from an enemy bullet before you even see it appear on screen. You'll try to do a quick dodge only to see your character sit there for half a second before finally moving. It's an absolute shame what City Connection did when porting this game. They were extremely lazy in their port job and I would advise anyone who wants to try this game to find a different way to play it.
I was able to beat the game using the continues provided on the easiest mode... just barely. I was also able to unlock all of the trophies for the PS4. However, I really wanted to work on a 1 credit clear, but I just don't think it's possible on this version of the game.
Final Status: Beaten
Final Score: 3/10 (because of the botched port job. Cotton 2 is actually an 8/10 game)
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