I can't speak for anyone else but CF2 was in fact one of the reasons I bought a Duo. Of course, this was because of magazine coverage, not because of their garbage packaging.
I had already had my Duo for a while when I got it, but I definitely remember the glut of magazine ads. Between that, my interest in anime at the time, and having owned all the Working Designs turbochip releases on my TG16 previously, I probably would have bought anything they released.
It's funny you mention the packaging, the box is one of the only boxes I managed to hang onto in Turbo Collection and it's easily some of the worst art out there. Never understood why they couldn't just request some Japanese promotional art. Same drawing was used in the magazine ads.
Now I am blurry on the time line, but I remember the magazine ads for Cotton sticking out to me. There's another case where it was a pretty weeaboo-centric game artwork-wise and they just went with what was probably the official Japanese artwork in the ads. I picked up Cotton because of the ad for sure. Didn't really like it that much though. I traded it away over usenet for another game at some point. I think CF2 is a lousy RPG but it has some charm mainly in the cinematics and music. Still have it though! I made some poor fiscal decisions related to my Turbo collection over the years.
