Rainbow Cotton

n/a

Rainbow Cotton
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Success
Developer: Success
Peripherals supported: Dreamcast VGA Box, Visual Memory Unit
Genre: Shooting, Fighting Action/Kakutou Action (格闘アクション)
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 2000-01-20 ¥5,800 (6,090)5,800e T-9901M

Rainbow Cotton (レインボーコットン) is an entry in the Cotton series of shooters. It was released for the Sega Dreamcast.

Like the earlier Panorama Cotton, it is played from a third-person perspective. During development, the game was known as Panorama Cotton 2.

Story

Cotton and Silk

Towns

Willow (ウィロー) is a rare and expensive food that comes in seven different colors, and it is said to have various magical effects.

In the land of Filament (フィラメント), there is a castle called Lasha Castle (ラシャ城) where the Legendary Willow sleeps. Around the castle, there are four towns where artisans make willow from willow grass, which is rare even in the fairy world. These towns have been protected with magical barriers. However, the monster Tweed (ツィード) has learned of existence of the Legendary Willow and broken the magical barriers protecting the towns. It has taken over the towns and filled them with monsters.

Queen Velvet (ベルベット女王) has gathered the fairies in the hope that they can dispel the monsters. Silk (シルク), one of the fairies, remembers the witch called Cotton (コットン), famous for both her magical talents and her obsession with Willow. She finds Cotton and embarks on a new adventure with her to save the kingdom.

Gameplay

Tea Time

The game is a sequel to Panorama Cotton, and like that game, it is a 3D shooter reminiscent of Space Harrier. The player controls the young witch Cotton, who sets out on her flying broomstick with her fairy companion Silk on a quest to liberate four towns, then travel to Lasha Castle to defeat the demon Tweed. Cotton flies through a fixed path in each stage, destroying formations of enemies while avoiding their projectiles and stage hazards. Every stage has a branch point where the player can choose between two paths, each having a different mini-boss. At the end of every stage is a fight against a massive boss, and there are animated cutscenes between each stage. Bosses turn reddish as they take damage. When the boss is defeated, there is a "Tea Time" bonus round where Cotton can collect tea cups that fly at her for bonus points.

Cotton aims her shots by moving the analogue stick in any direction. Her movement follows the targeting reticle (similar to Panzer Dragoon). The vertical controls are inverted by default, but this can be toggled in the options. Cotton fires her magical weapon by pressing , which is unlimited. She can rescue imprisoned fairies (up to a maximum of five, not counting Silk), which follow her. Cotton can fire her main shot continuously and attack with her fairies by holding . She collects experience from destroying enemies or collecting yellow crystals, which can level up her weapon so it is more powerful (up to eight levels). The amount of experience is shown in a circular gauge in the top-left corner of the screen (with the weapon level as a numeral inside). Taking damage reduces the gauge (potentially losing weapon levels).

Cotton can collect crystals that give her the ability to use magic. She can have up to five colored crystals, shown in the top-right of the screen. The current magic crystal is shown in a large orb, and the other crystals in possession are shown in squares next to it (and used from right to left). Cotton can expend a crystal to perform a magical ability by pressing , or her fairy companions can perform a different magical ability by pressing +. She is invulnerable for a few seconds after using a spell. Fairy magic is more powerful when Cotton has more fairies following her.

Cotton has three special magical abilities, which are limited in use and gained by collecting colored crystals. The current magical abilities are shown as icons in the HUD, and the game starts the player with one of each ability. There are two ways to use the magical ability. Cotton can use it with , or Silk can use it by first deploying her by holding and then pressing while still holding . The effect of the ability differs depending on whether Cotton or Silk uses it. The most recently acquired ability is shown leftmost and used first.

Cotton has a health gauge, allowing her to sustain multiple enemy hits. She loses a life if her health runs out, which ends the game. If the player has an extra credit, the game can be continued from the beginning of the current stage (with the same weapon level but with an empty experience gauge). There are four selectable difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard).

Items

Items are found by attacking the Aitata item carrier when it appears or sometimes by destroying objects such as crates in the stages.

	Aitata (アイタタ)
	Carries an item or an imprisoned fairy. It relinquishes the item or frees the fairy if it is shot enough times.
	Bo (ボ)
	Appears during the stage and awards bonus points. There is a blue one and a red one, and the red one awards more points.
	Tea (お茶)
	Appears at the end of the stage after defeating the boss and awards bonus points. The light ones are worth 500 points, and the dark ones are worth 1,000 points.
	Crystal (クリスタル)
	The yellow crystals provide bonus experience; the other colors provide a use of a magical ability. Shooting it changes its color.
	Life Up (ライフアップア)
	Restores some health. There are light blue ones and flashing ones, and the flashing ones recover more health.

Stages

Each stage has a branch point that chooses one of two possible paths, then the paths converge to the same final segment.

	月の町ベルクール (Moon Town Bellcour)
	The branch point is the tree in the town square. Flying left chooses the train path, and flying right chooses the river path.
	雲の町サンムーム (Cloud Town Sunmuumu)
	There is a tower before the canyon where the player chooses the branching path, then the branch point is in the canyon. Flying through the top arch of the tower or high in the air causes Cotton to choose the cave path in the canyon, and flying through the bottom arch of the tower or close to the ground causes Cotton to choose the windmill farm path in the canyon.
	泡の町マイカレイカ (Bubble Town Micaleica)
	There is a sign on the ground reading "Magu Pub, Welcome!" near the start of the stage. Shooting the sign spins it around, then the path that Cotton takes in the submerged temple is determined based on whether the sign was flipped around. If it reads "Magu Pub, Welcome!", Cotton travels to the coliseum. If it reads "Oh no!", Cotton descends into the tunnels.
	花の町ベルガモン (Flower Town Pelgummon)
	The branch point is the first rock column in the cave. Flying past the left side of the column chooses the lava path, and flying past the right side of the column chooses the ice path.
	ラシャ城 (Lasha Castle)
	The fight with the skeleton mini-boss determines the path that Cotton takes. Destroying its right arm (from the perspective of the player) by the end of the fight causes Cotton to take the left path, and ending the fight without destroying its right arm causes Cotton to take the right path.
	ツイード (Tweed)
	もじゃー＆ツイード (Moja & Tweed)

Production credits

• 企画: 笹 瑞穂
• プログラマー: 笹 瑞穂, 吉澤 宏美, 本田 大樹
• デザイナー: 根本 裕介, 寺門 広修, 甲木 稔久, 佐久間 博道, 清水 謙
• ビジュアル: 大地 広昭, 剣持 学
• サウンド: ぐれーと 中村, 田子 関口）美佐子, 佐藤 哲郎, 剣持 学
• 原曲: 平田 健一

声の出演

• コットン: 由口 貴恵
• シルク / 妖精A: 藤目 真里子
• ニット: 松藤 里奈
• ベルベット女王: 田上 美香
• スラリ: 菊地 絢子
• プクリ: 齋藤 夕貴
• チビリ / チュルリラ: 木曽川 美和
• ツィード / 妖精B: 山田 ゆき恵
• ゲボゲボ: 青木 利一
• フラフープ / オサシミ / もじゃ～: 里見 康之

• 協力: アミューズメントメディア総合学院
• 広報: 松木 善史
• 営業: 齋藤 和義, 澤田 泰一
• パッケージデザイン・マニュアル作成: 福田 誠弘
• プロデューサー: 吉成 隆杜
• 製作・著作: 株式会社 サクセス

Source:

In-game credits

File:Rainbow Cotton DC credits.pdf

Magazine articles

Main article: Rainbow Cotton/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in (JP) #1999-33: "1999-33 (1999-10-22,29)" (1999-10-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (HU) 65 (FR) NTSC-J 75 (JP) NTSC-J 47 (UK) NTSC-J 69 (JP) NTSC-J 37 (FR) NTSC-J 78 (JP) NTSC-J 50 (US) NTSC-J 42 (FR) NTSC-J 75

	60
Based on 9 reviews

Rainbow Cotton

Dreamcast, JP
Cover
Disc Manual

Technical information

Main article: Rainbow Cotton/Technical information.

External links

• Sega of Japan catalogue pages (Japanese): Dreamcast

References

Cotton games for Sega systems
	Cotton (1991) | Cotton 2 (1997) | Cotton Boomerang (1998)
	Panorama Cotton (1994)
	Cotton 2 (1997) | Cotton Boomerang (1998)
	Rainbow Cotton (2000)