Cotton (Arcade/SEGA Systems)

[Notshane]

Um I never read anything about someone discussing a retro game before, but this was a thread to talk about anime-related games (though from the looks of it, it is more of a "Current Game Discussion" topic now) and I figured: in a forum with so many people, why not bring this old gem up? Maybe you will appreciate it as much as I do, or maybe it will be removed due to it being too old to be here.

No, this is actually not some cheesy textbox game. It is Cotton! Not just released as a one-time deal, though. Just like Sonic, this was a SEGA-exclusive first-party game and no other systems had it! Well, excluding the first entry that is. All of the games first released on Arcade systems, and then were ported to a SEGA system. At least, the ones on the Saturn anyway began on an arcade first. Oh, and the aforesaid first entry.

It is a game surrounding a young female witch whom is trying to gain a candy substance called "Willows" from an evil witch named Wool. Cotton vs Wool, okay it sounds cheesy now though I have to admit! This evil witch is trying to take over the world! But, Cotton herself does not care about this, she only wants the candy. So, yeah the story itself was another reason why I got so interested in this game series recently! It's such a departure from others.

Well, I purchased an entry for it recently, on my old SEGA Saturn. This one, to be specific:



And it is a blast! Probably the funnest game I have ever played on my Saturn in a very long time! It features resplendent visuals, a memorable soundtrack and very exotic gameplay for the genre it's in. It pushed the system to its limits to do what couldn't be done before, and that is pretty unique.

And since it is heavily anime-themed, I figured why not bring it up here? And it released several games for about a decade and a half, so there's plenty more to discuss besides this one.

Perhaps a lot of you don't know the series though, given its low relevance nowadays, which does make it quite rare to even find such games as well so they are a really good novelty to own. One of my favorites is the console-exclusive release that contains real anime cutscenes.

So, does anyone here know of this series at all?

[AnimeFangirl]

I've heard of it, but only because Cotton appears as a life-saving, overpowered guest character in Rondo of Swords (NDS tactical rpg). I tracked down the games featuring the other guest characters (Izuna and Shiho) but shooters aren't my thing so I haven't tried any of the Cotton games yet.

[Notshane]

Originally Posted by AnimeFangirl

I've heard of it, but only because Cotton appears as a life-saving, overpowered guest character in Rondo of Swords (NDS tactical rpg). I tracked down the games featuring the other guest characters (Izuna and Shiho) but shooters aren't my thing so I haven't tried any of the Cotton games yet.

Cotton differs itself from other shooters, in that you don't simply tap buttons. However, it is also different from the infamous Radiant Silvergun of pressing two buttons at the same time, or three, to do a new bullet pattern.

In Cotton, true you can still shoot as any normal shooter, but you can also do commands. What I mean is, just as the well-known Street Fighter franchise, it is those types of commands. So let's say you're just shooting regular, then you do a command. And now, you just sent a wave of bullets starting from the front, going down; à la quarter circle pattern. Now you do another command, and you have shot bullets that aim behind you, going up; another command. By mastering these commands, more of which exist; you are able to do several different bullet patterns. Thus, it eliminates the difficulty curve most shooters have where if an enemy is behind you, you're guaranteed to take some damage. But now, they are the ones in for a surprise

Overtime, it makes Cotton feel fresher than other shooting games of the time; much more fresh. I would explain to you its significance on the SEGA Saturn, but you probably don't know much of this system so it would be arbitrary information to you. The game is very fun though, and there's still much more you can do, gameplay-wise; but I'd rather not spoil it too much unless you're curious.

[AnimeFangirl]

What's there to spoil about a shoot-em-up? You get out there and you shoot stuff and that's it. Feel free to spoil - the chances of me playing this are next to null, seeing as I've never even seen a Sega Saturn in real life.

[Notshane]

Originally Posted by AnimeFangirl

What's there to spoil about a shoot-em-up? You get out there and you shoot stuff and that's it. Feel free to spoil - the chances of me playing this are next to null, seeing as I've never even seen a Sega Saturn in real life.

Well, alright! Thought you'd be a bit more optimistic and want to play it after I said that tbh that's why I didn't spoil.

Well, besides the command patterns, there are special patterns outside the simple ones that use different kinds of bullet sizes that can wipe away waves of enemies. Also, you can actually fly up to an enemy and punch them until they're dead. And you can either leave their body floating in the air or you can pick it up and use it as a weapon to throw against other enemies; creating huge chain combos if you throw it against the right group. Or, you can just hold the button and use it as a shield instead. Oh, and if you use a special pattern that also encases the enemy in a ball that you can then grab and pick up. Or, you can just shoot the ball and get a huge combo until it explodes! Pretty simple.

You can also level up overtime, and your spells become stronger and older patterns now have an additional amount of bullets added to them. Basically, the game will show you the pattern of how a character shoots before you play as them, and overtime leveling that certain character up unlocks more bullets to fire and the last level has the full pattern you saw in the menu, which if you have enough dodging skill makes you feel pretty beastly. Certain characters have homing bullets, some have all-range ones and a few just have really strong ones, but come at a penalty of encasing the enemy in the ball shortly after which takes long to destroy unless you simply pick it up and throw it off the screen, but that's hard as the enemies become more increscent and the ball keeps bouncing back at you to pick up and throw again.

It is a bullet hell game, so you are expected to do a LOT of dodging. But the consolation is that if you aren't using the grab button to grab an enemy up close, your character instead summons a tiny, circular sphere that destroys any bullet it goes into (rarely is there a bullet where this method doesn't work) but sometimes the bullets cover huge portions of the screen and you will find yourself destroying and dodging the bullets towards the end levels. In some cases, the bullet is big enough to be grabbed and thrown back too! Pretty fun and I do this a lot to kill huge bosses, which get more intense with each passing level.

Also, you can use your own bullets to destroy enemy fire if the case is right; which is pretty awesome since I have never seen a shooter where bullets collided before. But if that don't work, and neither does your reflection, you have one final trump card of charging up a shot that summons a fearsome, deadly dragon that engulfs ALL bullets of any kind and does a hefty amount of damage to boot. If you leave the button held, your character will fly noticeably quicker and give off a cool effect that follows your character, making you feel more powerful. The charge takes roughly two seconds to charge up, four if you just used it. And given the chaos of this game, it is best to only use it when you need to. However, a certain special command can make your character shoot homing, all-range bullets AND summon the dragon all at once; and it can be executed as many times as you want. But, the price to pay is the complex command sequence that engages it.

So, that's about a little more since you asked for the full package. It is my favorite shooter on the Saturn due to its many gameplay methods that feel unorthodox from other shooters and it feels really fresh. However, the great thing is that if you feel this game gets too hard, you can play the version that came out before (this one is merely an upgrade to it), simply called Cotton 2, which is much calmer in its delivery and feels like a simple shooter, but with most gameplay elements intact from its upgrade; with the exception of the charge shot and rapid firing shots. It is still fun though, but is more open to those new to the series. In fact, people thought this one was so calm from the first game that they went ahead and made that aforesaid upgraded version which has all that craziness I just brought up. And also, this game features the most advanced graphics of any other 2D Saturn game. I would bring up the differences, but as you said, you have never seen a Saturn before so I guess there's no reason to bring up why its graphics are so drastically different from what the Saturn usually does. People loved Cotton Boomerang more because of these many reasons, but unfortunately it came out towards the end of the Saturn's life and as the result, fewer copies exist and thus it's more expensive. But for what you pay for, you get the real deal and it is definitely a shooter that proves it's not just a cutesy kid's game from the cover once you actually play it; mostly thanks to its melancholy undertones and really dark story.