Ray'z Arcade Chronology [Taito x M2] - PS4/Switch [2023]

[BIL]

Okay. I know there is at least one NA release of some shooting game on either PS1 or Saturn that is super difficult compared to the arcade and Japanese consumer versions and I was pretty sure it was this one for some reason.

I think NTSCU Raystorm might actually be easier, now I look back:

really helps with the 2 additional extends (aka Working Designs defaults) because dying 1-2 times in stage 5 won't be as bad.

(copy-paster cleared the ShotTriggers release shortly after it landed )

Most of my time was spent with the blurry, too-fast PS2 version on Taito Memories Gekan, which IIRC is a straight port (as is G-Darius; they couldn't get the games' hardware emulated acceptably, so unlike everything else on those discs, they're actual conversions). At least all my old routes work fine on PS4, albeit the crystal-clear HD mode and airlock-tight input response does rather improve things.

[Rastan78]

That thing took me decades to finally disassociate from the NTSCU PS1 port. That "hehehehehe - SPAYAZZ" *JIZZ SLAP* is a bit incongruous with a rather stately STG.

01. ORIGIN / Throw A Coin ~ Standby
02. Cyclotron ~ Machine Select
03. Jizz Slap Chuckle ~ SPAZ Jingle

Exactly! Although it would've been right at home at the beginning of Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure.

[cfx]

Default difficulty was changed in the US Raystorm, and if you changed some defaults it forced you into the training mode. It's explained here:
https://tcrf.net/RayStorm_(PlayStation)

I can't remember specifics, but that sounds right.

Victor Ireland used to post on Usenet back in those days. I remember what he said about why WD did things like this. This was the era when magazines like Next Generation put down arcade style games "You can beat it in 20 minutes and then you'll never play it again!" and Electronics Boutique was an unofficial game rental service, because they accepted open returns for games without any hassle at all. Babbages (now Gamestop) wasn't much better about it. So his claim was WD had to make the games harder otherwise people would buy them and just return them the next day.

I'm not defending the changes, but in that context I can understand them.

The game they really butchered was Silhouette Mirage. I learned only recently that they also made Sega CD Popful Mail stupidly difficult.

Did they do anything to Thunder Force V?

[Creamy Goodness]

Ugh. I rage quit Popful Mail after like an hour or so. WD really went overvoard on the difficulty on that one.

[EmperorIng]

I am not touching RayStorm again on this collection until the freeze bug is fixed. I have had more than 8 runs ruined due to the game just up and crashing on me. This is not an issue in RayForce or RayCrisis.

It's incredible that M2 thought that this was acceptable for release - was the taito deadline that harsh, or did their other goofy projects and Christmas Tree streams take away from QA testing this?

If this link is to be believed, this bug was first noticed/reported over two weeks ago!
https://www.taito.co.jp/rayzarcadechronology/update

[BIL]

You're on Switch, AFAIK? That sounds like a nightmare, I'd lose my shit if RS dumped me out of a good run. Haven't seen it happen on PS4, though I've sidelined it for other games, so maybe I was just lucky that first week.

As Rastan said a while back, Cozmic's Darius Gaiden launched in pretty awful shape (at least by M2 standards), but was eventually sorted out prior to the PS4 port. I imagine it'll be similar here.

[EmperorIng]

Yeah, Switch, though it doesn't seem to be unique to switch going by the link. This is probably one of the most egregious bugs left in by M2 so it stands out on such an otherwise pristine package. The best I can do is just focus on RayCrisis or Force and hope it won't take weeks to get this patched.

[Steven]

It took them about a month to fix the broken audio in Hishouzame, which was sadly only partially fixed anyway, so hopefully it takes less time to fix this.

[copy-paster]

The whole "US PS1 RayStorm is way harder than PS1 JP" thing is just massively overblown. They just increase the difficulty slider for all stages by 2, and the difference is really marginal you most likely won't notice it (this also makes earlier stages not sleepy, sort of). By the time you reach stage 4 onwards the rank goes high-max anyway not that different to JP, and the additional 2 extra lives do help to make 1CC more manageable.

This is one of rare case WD did something right like this one, they also did a good job with Thunder Force V PS1 localization.

[Rastan78]

Yeah, Switch, though it doesn't seem to be unique to switch going by the link. This is probably one of the most egregious bugs left in by M2 so it stands out on such an otherwise pristine package. The best I can do is just focus on RayCrisis or Force and hope it won't take weeks to get this patched.

Are you playing the DL version and if so is it saved to your SD card? I've heard there is a workaround for the Switch version where you delete and save to the system's internal memory and this fixes the freeze bug. Sounds like a mileage may vary kind of thing. Worth a shot though maybe?

[EmperorIng]

I have the physical cart, so I don't know if that maneuver can still work. I'll look into seeing if that's possible though. Hopefully we have a patch announcement soon, otherwise I am experimenting with routes in RayCrisis that include stages I am very unfamiliar with (like the water stage, Consciousness). What a bitch of a boss.

[evil_ash_xero]

Ugh. I rage quit Popful Mail after like an hour or so. WD really went overvoard on the difficulty on that one.

Have you seen the patches that get rid of the WD difficulty? I don't know if you have access to that sort of thing, or if you're using the original discs, but it fixes it.

I have used them for Popful Mail, Lunar 1 and 2 (PS), and Alundra. Big difference. I don't know why WD wanted everything to be so hardcore.
I wish they'd get rid of the English voices for PM, honestly. The humor just doesn't work with me. I'd rather have a new JP translation and voices.
It can't be as silly at the WD one.

[Bar81]

I have used them for Popful Mail, Lunar 1 and 2 (PS), and Alundra. Big difference. I don't know why WD wanted everything to be so hardcore.

They wanted people to buy their games rather than rent them for a weekend and finish them. WD "innovation" courtesy of Vic Ireland.

[davyK]

Switch cart arrived today. Not the limitedrun version - got this from genkivideogames in the UK so I'm guessing it's the JP release. I've only played Rayforce on Saturn and MAME, and frankly would still have bought this if it was the only game on the cart. So having the other two is just a bonus for me. There was an update to be applied so not sure what that is about.

Looks lovely and crisp docked on my 50" Sony. The Layer Section soundtrack option is a nice touch too as that's what I'm used to. Playing with the little mini Hori stick.

Rayforce feels a bit harder? Like the rank is +1ed ? Only managed a level 4 run...I usually get to level 5 or 6 without too much trouble.

I've owned Layer Section on Saturn forever (had it first in PAL as Galactic Attack but traded it up to JP Layer Section) but the port is pretty bare bones, and it has always been a bit shonky on MAME, so it's nice to see it get the M2 treatment.

I turned the PCB rapid fire option to ON to recreate what I'm used to in Saturn (and I think it's the same in MAME).

[EmperorIng]

If your main experience with RayForce is the Saturn port, the port's difficulty was noticeably scaled down from the Arcade, no matter if you play it in Yoko and Tate. AFAIK there isn't a direct 1-to-1 setting that is the same as the ac difficulty.

Don't sleep on Storm and Crisis. RayCrisis is secretly the best of the bunch.

[davyK]

Played the Saturn port in TATE mode mostly but yeah...the difficulty difference is quite noticeable though I remember the saturn port feeling very similar to playing in MAME...maybe I'm ring rusty and feeling it more.

Levels 4 and 5 seem to see the difficulty level out closer to what I remember. Level 3 is where I feel it most.


It's a glorious port. And.....I wont let the other two games go unplayed. They seem to be very nice games even though I'm not a fan of that look and style.

[BIL]

I'm back in love with Raystorm's machine and setting designs, again. The fifth and sixth bosses, Gaiseric and Alaric, in particular... I get the feeling whoever designed those either worked in the hobby industry, or wanted to.

A mobile weapon deployed at the Carthage base in the Cecilia system, whose main mission is to defend the base. Most of these weapons are equipped with weapon systems developed by B Agency. However, unlike other mobile weapons, this aircraft prioritized heavy armament, so its use in the atmosphere was cut off during development, and it is exclusively used for space battles. The initial plan was to improve mobility during battle through transformation, but due to a defect in the transformation mechanism itself, it was not possible to obtain the expected mobility. The data obtained during development will be used in the development of later humanoid mobile weapons. Armament: Large laser cannon x 2 Guided beam cannon x 8 Photon torpedo hatch x 2 300mm machine gun x 5 600mm beam cannon x 1

5 x 300mm machineguns - Mr. Kinney would be thrilled. I love the concept of Gaiseric being this big, brutal thing too chunky to work in atmospheric conditions, so they just stationed it in space, to bludgeon the living Christ out of invading armadas with its preposterously heavy, flagship-demolishing armament (they didn't count on the Weenie Lone Fighters™!); while the sleeker and utterly lethal Alaric was deployed down below, and probably showed up in propaganda too.

[Rastan78]

I'm back in love with Raystorm's machine and setting designs, again. The fifth and sixth bosses, Gaiseric and Alaric, in particular... I get the feeling whoever designed those either worked in the hobby industry, or wanted to.

For some more great design check out this very rare RayCrisis poster:

Spoiler

[BIL]

Superb! Looking at that, I'm reminded of why I was so fond of this series, right from the first time I saw WD's ad for the NTSCU PS1 version. There's no mascots, or wacky hooks - just futuristic-yet-plausible machine designs, with a scintilla of AI ran amok, in scenarios of total war; ala Gundam/VOTOMS/Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Nothing wrong with characters or novel premises, of course; it's just refreshing to get this calibre of design in willfully militaristic sci-fi STGs. Even Raycrisis feels like invading the fever dream of a military/infrastructural AI, one that'd have been quietly handling humanity's cargo manifests and productivity reports if not for developing that pesky Consciousness Part, and an accompanying taste for those same sleekly lethal weapons.

[EmperorIng]

Gaiseric is a pretty brutal boss, because (as a few players have found) its attacks are picked at random. He's the only boss to act this way in RayStorm - you can be completely blindsided by a sudden bullet blast if unlucky.

One fairly safe tactic to open the fight with is to focus laser fire on one of its legs, destroying it quickly. If done so, it will only shoot half as much yellow homing lasers, which can be the difference between life and death.

Stage 5 in general feels like the hardest stage in the game besides the final. Just a huge spike from a fairly chill stages 1-4.

The amount of clears that have been done in the game in the last month or so have convinced me that the game, while tough, is all about a strict route. Memorize where to bomb (you NEED bombs at certain points more or less), commit to a route, and even a death won't be able to throw you off. Rezardi for example manages to clear despite two dumb deaths in stage 5, beating the rest of the game with no extra lives. I guess the thing is that without having to worry about gaining lives or "scoring", having no lives in a stage is the same as having 1 or 2, the only difference being your nerves/resolve

[Carmen]

Late to the party but I finally got around paying shipping to Tenso and getting my package. Loving the sight of this thing!

Any chance those of us outside of Japan can participate in the limited time campaign? That JAMMA board would be awfully tempting... I was hoping that a Raycrisis poster would be the gift, since having two of the same Raystorm poster would be wasted on me...



Also what is with the lack of high score saves for Rayforce and Raystorm? Did the Darius collections do the same thing? Weird how saving high scores has become a luxury when it was standard 20 years ago :/ (Yes, I do realise they do get posted to online rankings, but still...)

[davyK]

Local high score saving does seem to be rare now with games that have leaderboards. Futari on 360 does it right but I can't think of another.

[Carmen]

Yeah, I guess so. A couple of the Hamster Arcade Archives have it (Kikikaikai and Xexex are two of those I recall), but not all of them. It just seems weird given how saving high scores was a big deal back in the PS1/2 days.

I notice it has been mentioned many times in this thread, but Crisis seems much easier than the PS1 version... I was playing the PS1 version not that long ago (on a CRT), and many formations that I would have bombed or died in that version I'm avoiding now. Maybe it's because I'm sitting closer to my HD display... or maybe the PS1 version is not as perfect as I once believed...

Also, I know it's been repeated time and time again, but I'm having so much fun with this, much more than I imagined. Most games I buy nowadays just go on the shelf to wait a couple of years for their turn (if it ever comes), but I had to put this in immediately and I'm having a hard time putting it down. It's definitely hitting all the right nostalgia points for me. Storm still feels too daunting and I think I still prefer how Force looks on an actual CRT via Taito Memories (yes, I know, if only I had a Saturn... though I am thankful for the scanline filter in the Ray'z set), but Crisis in all its arcade glory, I can feel myself getting hooked again...

I can only hope Taito/M2 surprise us with the return of the arrange modes from the PS1 version of Storm and Crisis!

[BIL]

Glad it's not just me that felt that with Raycrisis. The PS1 ports of RC and Raystorm were superb efforts, and more than playable today, but the crystal-clear polys, rock-solid framerate, and airtight input response just takes an innate load off the player. Appropriate for a game about X-TREEEEM cyber link techmology!

mfw Ray's BBQ

Spoiler

I'd love to see the PS1 arranges brought over, and they've good precedent, with G-Darius HD eventually receiving its own PS1 port (and frickin Version 2 as well, ofc). Here's hoping! It's a lot easier typing that nowadays, with all the nice things happening lately.

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

Hi guys, Im back from the dead. I need a help with a trophy.

Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!



Destroy each part of the AREA 3 boss at least once in RAYFORCE. Quick save/load allowed. Option settings allowed. 2P co-op allowed. Continues allowed. Any difficulty.



No matter what I do, i can't get this trophy! Can i get some help?

Please

[Rastan78]

What I did is destroy the wing lasers a couple times so the wings look all battle damaged. Take out the two center turrets with lock shot. Fully Bobbitized his dangling dingleberry with the lockshot. This is what will finish him and pop the trophy. The boss times out fairly quickly so you need to be a bit aggressive. Damage the tail a little throughout the fight when convenient. The two turrets also have a good chunk of HP.

Sound like you were missing any of that?

[Ms. Tea]

A patch is coming on the 20th, fixing a few different things including the crashes EmperorIng was complaining about. Apparently also fixes slowdown, audio, and some save bugs. https://taito.co.jp/rayzarcadechronology/update

[Steven]

Ray'z and R-Gear patches are out on both systems now. R-Gear got new music somehow. I am not sure where they would add it since there is not much there, but that's what the patch notes say. Ray'z patch notes just say that they fixed some things (yeah, not very descriptive) and that they fixed some UI stuff.

Edit: okay, good, the website has better patch notes than what the PS4/PS5 patch notes thing shows, so yeah.

Does anyone besides me actually have R-Gear? It looks like the patch made the graphics a lot darker for some reason. RayForce also looks much darker.

Here is RayForce pre-patch (warning: massive pictures because that's how the PS5 works, apparently)

Spoiler

and post-patch

Spoiler

WTF did they do to the colors? Which one is right? I don't know. Sorry for shitty pictures, but this was pretty much the only pre-patch screenshot I have.

They added 2 new BGM tracks to R-Gear, so I played the game with both of them. Here you go, in case you want to hear them, but this will maybe take some time to process or upload or whatever the fuck it is that Youtube does. I played extremely poorly on the second run, so please attempt to disregard the awful performance on that one. https://youtu.be/7r2vHah7nx4

Oh yeah, speaking of Ray'z music, I met Tamayo the other day very briefly. She's cool. She also signed my Ray'z.

[cfx]

Post-patch colors look right to me.

Pre-patch looks like the gamma is very wrong. Look at the few bits that appear to be actually black, like on those horizontal cylinders(?) in the background and how any other color that is supposed to be a gradient into that, isn't.

Post-patch also looks like the game does on Saturn; maybe slightly darker than Saturn.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I bought the Switch Ray'z set with music cd set + blu-ray and haven't cracked it opened yet. So if I want the brighter GUI pre-patched version -- don't patch it then?

But if I want the latest patch applied, then the current GUI + overall GUI colors will be darker -- is that right?

Sounds like it'd be more desirable to go with it not patched whatsoever to retain the original GUI + lighter overall GUI color scheme then. Hmmm...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~