Raycrisis sucks

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:55 am

A few years ago I bought this game, before I was a big fan of shmups, and I really hated it...for some reason, it was too confusing and it wasn't fun at all. It was also really short, something like 10 minutes? Maybe I was doing something wrong?

I'd like to hear what you guys think about Raycrisis, since I'm actually interested in re-buying the game and see if I did everything there was to do.

I'd also like to check out Raystorm, which looks pretty badass despite its PS1 polygonal looks...I think most of you guys like that game.

Too bad the sequels didn't keep the sprite-based look of Rayforce.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:04 am

I think both Raystorm and Raycrisis are pretty fun. Raycrisis is pretty short, unless you play the custom PS only mode. (Raycrisis has ... 7, is it? A number of levels, but if you play it in arcade mode you just pick four of them, play through them, and that's it. In the PS mode, you play through all of them in a set order - more like a normal shmup.) Both of the games have excellent boss battles, look really good for PS1 games (and somewhat early PS1 games at that), and have really good level design.

I don't know how much the US releases go for now, but you can get both on a single disc with the Japanese "Double Shooting 1500" set for 1500 yen.

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:12 am

Yeah, I don't care much for Raycrisis either. The game is WAY too short, too. Seriously, like 15 minutes long. I can't put my finger on what i dont like about it, but I know I really don't care for it at all.

TGK · Post by **TGK** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:22 am

Raycrisis is reasonably long, 7 stages.

I actually recommend playing 4 stages at a time like in the arcade, the same stage would change depending on the order that you choose the stages. Boss use different attacks, more enemies, different enemies, different patterns, etc.

It has one of the best music in a shmup, or video game, imo.

It suffers from iffy collision detection. I think it's actually not a coding problem but a perspective problem, making you misjudge distances. The bullets seemed to be all done with billboarding textures, while your ship is fully polygonal. I got hit too many times by bullets that are supposed to graze, or misjudge straight lines because the perspective changes right when I start to dodge...

And the final boss will trample you a lot with the big grey ball attack because it is drawn inconsistently with how it moves, fooling you every time.

But still, it is very impressive, and well done

Metal Gear Okt · Post by **Metal Gear Okt** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 4:28 am

It's the worst of the three Ray games, but decent nonetheless.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 7:02 am

A festering pile of shit and an abomination. Just a slap in the face to the Ray series, that went from unassailable brilliance to mediocrity to pure feces. If you get this one do humanity a favor and destroy the CD so that it won't pollute future gaming generations. Now if I could only locate and destroy the Taito mastercopy...

U K Narayan · Post by **U K Narayan** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 8:16 am

I don't like RayStorm, OR RayCrisis. I just like RayForce.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:15 pm

Don't like it much either, but it is a lot better than RayStorm, so I guess I would say the series went from great, to complete rubbish, to mediocrity.

Just get Layer Section, or the upcoming Taito collection (I think RayForce will be on Vol 2).

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:20 pm

Seven Force wrote:Just get Layer Section, or the upcoming Taito collection (I think RayForce will be on Vol 2).

I actually think it was Raystorm that was going to be on it, but I might be wrong.

umi · Post by **umi** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:30 pm

Not as fun as Raystorm, but still a good play. The TRUE last boss is really sweet, too. Play on PS mode. But, NO TWO PLAYER MODE! By far the worst thing about the game... :(

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:36 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:
Seven Force wrote:Just get Layer Section, or the upcoming Taito collection (I think RayForce will be on Vol 2).
I actually think it was Raystorm that was going to be on it, but I might be wrong.

IIRC, Rayforce will be on the Taito Legends collection (the western release) only.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:36 pm

umi wrote:But, NO TWO PLAYER MODE! By far the worst thing about the game...

Really? Disgraceful.

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 5:54 pm

I remember playing the PS1 version, and the control is so stupid. You can't shoot your main cannon and your lock-on thing at the same time or it'll shoot off your special weapon. And on layer section i'm used to mashing them both at the same time but noooo not on this one or you'll waste your special attack.

It took me forever to figure out why my special kept going off all the damn time.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:15 pm

Rycrisis doesn't suck, it just takes some getting used to. And the perspective thing (as mentioned) wihch wasn't much of an issue in Raystorm becomes an issue in Raycrisis. It's not great, and it certainly doesn't hold a candle to either of its predecessors, but it's a decent shmup worth your time to give it another shot.

dai jou bu · Post by **dai jou bu** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 11:19 pm

BUHA wrote:I remember playing the PS1 version, and the control is so stupid. You can't shoot your main cannon and your lock-on thing at the same time or it'll shoot off your special weapon. And on layer section i'm used to mashing them both at the same time but noooo not on this one or you'll waste your special attack.

It took me forever to figure out why my special kept going off all the damn time.

That never really happened for me. As long as you're holding the fire button down first before you release your lock-ons, the special attack won't trigger.

I just can't stand the loading times in that game though, since it's pretty horrendous. Everything else about the game seems fine, since it is pretty fun once you do click with it. I just feel cheated sometimes because there's almost no way for me to get a really low encroachment rate because I can't blow up all the enemies on the screen unless I use the ship with the auto homing missles.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 11:35 pm

Wow, things are either great or they suck.

I would like to call this a mediocre game, but it isn't quite that. Some of the graphics and design seem pretty cool. Still, the gameplay is definitely subpar--mostly because of the tilted perspective. The last boss truly is cool and having a bomb meter is also rather novel.

Unfortunately, mediocre game play rarely earns many fans, but it hardly seems to deserve the title 'suck'.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 12:11 am

I like the game. G-net version, without the boss loadings, is great. I think it's a really unique game and I get worked into a frenzy trying to keep the encroachment down.

TGK · Post by **TGK** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:14 am

Ah yes, BUHA mentioned a good point, the bomb goes off inexplicably at time (dai jou bu just explained it)... causing so many a desperate situation.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:10 am

Too blocky for me, and something about the controls.. I think I did the bomb attack by mistake too many times because I wanted to auto fire, or something!

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:08 am

Yeah, I had a lot of trouble with the bomb going off on accident. And I would always hit the fire button before the bomb button but it'd still go off whenever it wanted.

ANd yeah, the tilted perspective is kinda dumb. Boss battles were too much of a guessing game. "I THINK that laser won't hit me...aw man"

dai jou bu · Post by **dai jou bu** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:17 am

TGK wrote:
And the final boss will trample you a lot with the big grey ball attack because it is drawn inconsistently with how it moves, fooling you every time.

Don't use your Round Divider attack. That specific attack was meant to punish you for doing it, although you can dodge it if you know what you're doing and no random projectiles get in your way.

I guess another reason why those bombs don't go off on accident is because I use my fingers instead of my thumb for the face buttons of the control pad. That came from me using arcade sticks because my parents bought me one for the NES and Genesis and thought it was much more efficient than using your thumb.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:52 am

When I first got the game I kept doing my special attack by accident, but when I picked the game up again for the first time in several years, I never fired it on accident... not even once. I have no idea why... since I seem to be considerably worse at the game overall.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:37 pm

RayCrisis for the PS-1 has awesome graphics & cool Boss battles (known for the series), the music is some what weird & not as instrumental or epic like the in RayStorm & RayForce. The overall length is just fine.
(about the same as RayStorm...)

The only problem with RayCrisis, is that TAITO decided to remove the 2-Player option of the PS-1 version, so its not as fun as the previous 2.

That was a strange decision too, seeing as Night Raid (also from the Taito G-NET PCB) has a 2-Player mode on the PS-1.

jp · Post by jp » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:05 pm

*looks at LoneSage's avatar*

DUDE!!! I LOVE THAT GAME!!! Or at least, I did when I was a kid, but I could never figure out how to play as the dude in your avatar. And I don't remember what the game was. But I remember it was cool.

SuperNoodle · Post by **SuperNoodle** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 6:34 pm

Regarding accidental bombs, couldn't you just reset the control scheme so as to avoid that? I'm not sure, seeing as I've been without my copy of RayCrisis for quite some time.

Still, RayCrisis could've been a contender, but just doesn't quite click for me. Encroachment was silly, wherein one either had a perfect low-encroachment run or just couldn't get it down enough since there weren't enough enemies on the screen to kill to knock the meter down.

The reusing of the spider-boss on two out of FIVE available stages was an abomination, in my sight, especially since those two particular stages were pretty good. If I wanted to play both the city levels, then I had to suffer through the spider-boss twice, who, while amusing, is tedious and JUST WON'T DIE on later stages. If I wanted to avoid that spider nonsense, then I couldn't play the cool city stages. Bah.

Never could pin down the mechanics of what caused what SPECIFICALLY to appear when: encroachment iffiness combined with changing stage difficulty based on order similar to a Psikyo game did make for a different play almost each time, which is cool until you realize that about 3/4 of the configurations suck because they're empty-ish.

The 1/4 that do work, though, are kinda cool.

The music's iffy, though -- the tracks played in a stage depend on when the stage is in the order, so to have a good, sensual soundtrack, you'd have to stick to a certain stage order, lest ye reap the African bongo-mania that pervades SO MANY of the tracks.

I found the ending lacking, myself. Mostly because the text of it was contained in 3-pixel high font and thus unintelligible, and I had just killed a giant brown potato to save the day. In theory. In a computer. Which apparently didn't work. Guh?

Meh. It's an "amusing on a whim" out of 5.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:52 pm

jp wrote:DUDE!!! I LOVE THAT GAME!!! Or at least, I did when I was a kid, but I could never figure out how to play as the dude in your avatar. And I don't remember what the game was. But I remember it was cool.

I believe that he was one of the bosses in "Fighter's History," the SFII clone so similar (supposedly, anyways, as I've never played it at length) that it sparked a lawsuit by Capcom (which, obviously, lost).

gs68 · Post by **gs68** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 11:17 pm

I don't like RayForce. It's proof that graphics don't make a good game. The excessive challenge and crappy hitbox ruined it all.

Moogs · Post by **Moogs** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:58 am

BulletMagnet wrote:
jp wrote:DUDE!!! I LOVE THAT GAME!!! Or at least, I did when I was a kid, but I could never figure out how to play as the dude in your avatar. And I don't remember what the game was. But I remember it was cool.
I believe that he was one of the bosses in "Fighter's History," the SFII clone so similar (supposedly, anyways, as I've never played it at length) that it sparked a lawsuit by Capcom (which, obviously, lost).

Yeah, and his name was - get this - Clown.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:39 am

That's, like, way deep, man.

Those guys at Data East musta been, like, philosophers or something.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:35 am

Um, JP's avatar is Reala, Nights evil counterpart.