Line #20 YMMV/RaySeries


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/RaySeries Yes, indeed!]]
2	* DemonicSpiders: In Stage 4 of ''[=RayStorm=]'', there are battleships that fire a battery of lasers that meet your plane of movement and then fire down the screen, with almost ''no'' time to position yourself correctly to avoid them. If you haven't [[TrialAndErrorGameplay memorized]] where the lasers will travel, expect to burn several continues in this stage as a result. The boss of the stage has these lasers too.
3	* DifficultySpike: The last 1/3 of ''[=RayStorm=]'' Stage 5 is generally agreed to be the point where the game's difficulty curve turns into a ''cliff''. Enemies from here on out are much more vicious with more widely-covering attacks, often having semi-randomized patterns that render memorization-based practice useless, and the Stage 6 boss in particular is regarded as the hardest one in the entire game.
4	* FanNickname:
5	** While ''[=RayCrisis=]'' is the only game in the series that wasn't officially named "''Layer Section''" in Japan, fans sometimes refer it as ''Layer Section III''.
6	** ''R-GEAR'' has been dubbed by fans as "''[=RayForce=] 1.5''" as the only trailer for the game showcased some of the ideas that could have been implemented into this game was later used for ''[=RayStorm=]'' instead, while having the same 2D visuals of ''[=RayForce=]''.
7	* FirstInstallmentWins: ''[=RayForce=]'' is generally regarded as the best game in the series due to its impressive use of scaling and rotating sprites, making it one of the most 3D-looking sprite-based games in existence. ''[=RayStorm=]'' and ''[=RayCrisis=]'' are not as highly-regarded due to 3D graphics that haven't aged well, the isometric perspective [[EventObscuringCamera creating problems with dodging enemy fire]], and [[ScrappyMechanic same-altitude lock-on and the bonus-point opportunities that go with it discouraging players from using their main shot]].
8	* GeniusBonus: If you're good at history of the Roman Empire, you'll understand a lot more about ''[=RayStorm=]'', including the bosses and the storyline.
9	* GoddamnedBats: In Stage 4 of ''[=RayStorm=]'', there are battleships way in the background that your ship can lock onto. This causes problems for R-Gray 2 in particular; its lock-on attack is a single bolt of thunder that has to sequentially tag its targets, so getting a lock-on onto one of those background ships forces the bolt to take its time flying into the background, delaying your attack on enemies closer to the foreground but not on your plane of movement.
10	* MemeticPsychopath: The protagonists of ''[=RayStorm=]'' are [[FeaturelessProtagonist featureless pilots]] with no personality to speak of, and presumably are JustFollowingOrders to crush the Secilian rebellion by destroying the Juda Central System, with the consequences elabored upon in the Extra Mode ending where [[spoiler:their actions destroy the entire colony and all 7 billion people on it. Lore-minded fans like to joke that these Earth soldiers carried out their orders not to protect Earth but to commit intentional mass murder.]]
11	* {{Narm}}: The Japanese version of ''[=RayCrisis=]'' has one of the bosses named "Sem-Slut," renamed to "Sem-Strut" in the English localization. This wasn't the case with the European PC port.
12	* NarmCharm: This voiced line at the start of ''[=RayForce=]'': "This is the control tower. Make a left turn, over." It doesn't seem like it fits in with the game at all (your ship's auto-coursing doesn't turn left in any point of the stage), and seems like it was meant for a flight simulation game (such as the ''VideoGame/LandingSeries'', also by Taito). Nonetheless it's regarded as [[SignatureLine a key part of the game experience]].
13	* NintendoHard: It's an arcade ShootEmUp series, after all. The first game doesn't even grant you a SmartBomb to defend yourself with. In addition, many enemies have quick laser attacks and {{homing laser\|s}} attacks that are very difficult to outsmart.
14	* PlayerPunch: The ending of the original arcade version of ''[=RayStorm=]'' seems like an unambiguously good ending: The Juda Central System has been destroyed, and so has the Secilian fleet, and Earth has been saved. But completing Extra Mode in ''[=RayStorm=]'' has more dire results: [[spoiler:You're also shown the charred wreck of Secilia you just flew out of, and you also get a text crawl explaining that thanks to your actions, 70% of its 7 billion inhabitants have died, and the rest are going to go too as the moon is drawn into the gravity well of the nearby gas giant Seraphim. All while the text crawl declares [[EsotericHappyEnding "Mission Accomplished"]]. Congrats on committing genocide in the name of Earth! As if doesn't enough, the Extra Mode ending has the R-GRAY heavily damaged, moving into parts unknown with no Earth in sight...]] The 13 Ship Mode ending is even worse: [[spoiler:Earth is also destroyed, meaning that at best, the player achieved a MutualKill.]]
15	* PopCultureHoliday: August 4, the day that Operation [=RayStorm=] was launched, often leads to social media celebrations and fanart by series fans.
16	* PortingDisaster:
17	** ''[=RayForce=]''[='=]s (a.k.a. ''Layer Section'') original PC port has some glaring problems. One of them being the game screen itself, which has been {{screen crunch}}ed to fit in a 4:3 aspect-ratio that was never intended for the game originally designed with a vertical display, making the game harder than it should since you can't anticipate oncoming enemies or lock-on to them as efficiently as you could in the arcade, console, and mobile versions. Unlike the PC ports of its sequels, the fullscreen scaling does not work properly on newer Windows operating systems and 16:9 monitors, which often results a ''smaller'' screen size with color distortion despite being running in 640×480 that many modern displays still support. Another game-breaking issue is the game's speed, where it plays ridiculously fast on faster computers to the point of it being unplayable. While the latter can be addressed with a simple .dll fix if you have the game disc, but the fullscreen issue can only fixed by a third-party program [=DirectX=] wrapper such as [=dgVoodoo=] 2 to play the game with proper scaling. Other problems includes missing effects and backgrounds, some of the music tracks don't play at all (such as the Game Over music), and you don't have the disc into your CD drive, then enjoy playing the game with no music at all.
18	** The Sega Saturn port of ''[=RayStorm=]'' (''Layer Section II'') introduces some novelties it has over the [=PlayStation=] and PC versions, such as new CGI cinematics in between stages and a playable R-GRAY 0 outside of 13-Plane Mode, but due to the Saturn's notorious 3D handicap, the graphics were understandably downgraded but its biggest problem was its frame-rate, which bogs down substantially when the action intensifies and can cause input lag despite the cutbacks on the game's visuals.
19	** The PC (via Steam) version of ''Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute'' by City Connection instantly falls under this just for mandating a game controller and supposedly ''not having keyboard support'', which is absolutely inexcusable for a shoot 'em up that merely has 8-way digital controls and two gameplay buttons. We say supposedly here because, as it turns out, the devs did in fact have functional keyboard controls in this port, and even shows what they are in the in-game default controls reference. You just can't remap those controls to something that makes actual sense.
20	* PolishedPort:
21	** The [=PS1=] version of ''[=RayCrisis=]'' had to make a few sacrifices in the presentation department (between-level transitions are now black-background loading screens with the music stopped in the meanwhile, and even this still manages to be worked into the game's atmosphere by explaining it as, paraphrasing, "loading the next part of Con-Human"), changed the TrueFinalBoss requirements, and removed the co-op feature, but it allows players to freely choose whatever levels they want for the middle three from the onset instead of having to input a cheat code or play all through possible permutations to unlock the feature. It also unlocks WR-03 by default rather than requiring the player to unlock it on their account over time or use a cheat code, unlockable R-GRAY ships from ''[=RayStorm=]'', and features a new ArrangeMode.
22	** The PC ports of ''[=RayStorm=]'' and ''[=RayCrisis=]'' runs at a higher resolution than their [=PlayStation=] counterparts (at 640×480) with improved and more audible sound effects (e.g. you can hear sound of R-GRAY 2's laser beams and the ambient machine noise of Yggdrasil). Despite being released for Windows 95/98, both games runs quite well on modern systems (unless you're on Windows 8 or 8.1 where older [=DirectX=] support is botched, resulting in lower frame-rates with these games) and those with higher-end machines can enjoy the almost non-existent loading times. The only downside of the PC version of ''[=RayStorm=]'' that it lacks the optional TANZ soundtrack of the Extra Mode the console versions have and requires the disc to run the game, and ''[=RayCrisis=]''[='=] port is based on the [=PlayStation=] version which lacks co-op multiplayer and the continuous soundtrack.
23	** ''[=RayStorm=] HD'' for the Xbox 360 and [=PlayStation=] 3 overhauls the game's visuals to HD standards (albeit stretched from 4:3 to 16:9 to fake widescreen presentation) with the addition of an unlockable R-GRAY 0 that plays like the RVA-818-X-LAY fighter from ''[=RayForce=]'' instead of an inferior R-GRAY 1 and the DifficultButAwesome R-GEAR that offer their own playstyles. It also features online leaderboards with sharable replays. Also, for those who live in North America and had to deal with Creator/WorkingDesigns' [[EasyModeMockery Japanese-default-difficulty mockery]], this port lets you complete the game on any difficulty you want, though at the expense of individual difficulty sliders for each stage.
24	** The mobile ports of these games featured higher resolution visuals and UI, a new but optional remixed track for their first stage (while the Amazon versions of ''[=RayForce=]'' and ''[=RayStorm=]'' gets an exclusive remix for the second stage), touch controls that are very welcoming to newcomers to shoot 'em ups along with controller support (after updates were released) for those that want to play these games with traditional controls instead, and in the case of ''[=RayCrisis=]'', while retaining the seamless stage connections and most of the features from the original arcade version with the Special Mode from the home versions. A few small caveats with these ports however are ''[=RayStorm=]''[='=]s inability to chose between soundtracks for its Remix Mode (a.k.a. Extra Mode) and difficulty sliders of individual stages similarly to the HD remastered version, and their lack the various unlockables that their home conversions had (e.g. 13-Plane Mode in ''[=RayStorm=]'' plus the new ships from ''HD'', the unlockable R-GRAY ships and Gallery in ''[=RayCrisis=]'') due to being primarily based off their arcade versions as well as the lack of co-op support.
25	** ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'' for UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and PC once again has Creator/{{M2}} hitting it out of the park with their masterful ports. The arcade versions of all three games are included in the package, with ''[=RayStorm=]'' in particular getting a new HD version with the correct aspect-ratio and all the features of the arcade original (such as adjustable per-stage difficulty, but without the infamous "Training Mode" mechanic from the Creator/WorkingDesigns version) and ''[=RayCrisis=]'' finally seeing an ArcadePerfectPort for the first time.[[note]]The [=PS1=] and Windows versions allow the player to freely choose their three middle levels, has some changes in the way Encroachment works, and loosens the requirements for [[TrueFinalBoss Infinity]]. The mobile versions use alternate control schemes if only playing using the touchscreen, and even if one uses a compatible wireless controller, the requirement for Infinity is loosened from 20% to 25%, so that's not accurate to the arcade version either.[[/note]] All three games have optional gadgets that show real-time gameplay data, multiple rapid-fire options, manual and {{auto\|save}}matic save states, and the two 3D games [[SalvagedGameplayMechanic having an option to disable firing a Special Attack with simultaneous press of the shot and laser buttons]] to instead use a separate button for that purpose. It also features the ability to play these games with the original arcade soundtrack or the arranged soundtracks from their home ports as well, allowing players to enjoy these games with their favorite soundtrack. The collection also features online leaderboards for all three games with shareable replays similarly to ''[=RayStorm=] HD''.
26	* ScrappyMechanic:
27	** Only one word for ''[=RayCrisis=]'' -- "Encroachment". [[labelnote:''Explanation'']]The Encroachment mechanic of ''[=RayCrisis=]'' is supposed to encourage players to player to quickly dispatch as many enemies as possible to bring the Encroachment meter as low as possible in order to get higher score and earn the opportunity to face the true final boss. However this can lead to some recklessness which can result in losing lives, not only allowing enemies to escape off screen and building the Encroachment meter up as a result, said mechanic punishes you with lower score, and once it hits 100%, players are greeted with a premature confrontation with the final boss and the worst ending possible. On the home version's Special Mode, which is a gauntlet of every stage that the game has the offer, 100% encroachment drains the player score instead.[[/labelnote]]
28	** Working Designs did a bit of EasyModeMockery and DifficultyByRegion for ''[=RayStorm=]''[='=]s [=PS1=] port. First, the default difficulty has been bumped from 2 in the Japanese version to 4. Second, if you set any stage's difficulty below 4 or change your live count above the default of 3, the game puts you in "Training Mode", which ends the game after Stage 4. The game lets you set Stages 5-8 to below level 4 difficulty, but in a display of oversight on Working Design's part, you will still be denied entry to those stages. In other words, it's ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3'' all over again.
29	** ''[=RayStorm=]'' and ''[=RayCrisis=]'' have a SmartBomb special attack that is fired by pressing the shot and laser buttons at the same time (or a dedicated button if playing the former in Auto mode). However, given that the average player will be frantically pushing both buttons, it's all too easy to accidentally fire the bomb, bomb energy takes a while to recharge, and you can only have one bomb at a time. The ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'' version thankfully has a toggle to disable this behavior and instead use a separate button for the special attack.
30	** The unlock requirements for the TrueFinalBoss, Infinity, are a little ''too'' lenient:
31	*** In the arcade version, once you have cleared five different maps on the same account, from then on reaching [[FinalBoss Dis-Human with less than 25% Encroachment]] forces the player to fight Infinity after Dis-Human. A decent player can meet that requirement even without trying too hard, since if they are between 25-45% Encroachment going into the last boss before Dis-Human, they can potentially kill the boss fast enough to reduce the Encroachment below 25%. And if Infinity is encountered, but the player does not actually finish the fight (likely due to running out of coins, or just getting fed up with the fight), the map isn't considered completed, while defeating Dis-Human without triggering Infinity ''does''. This means if the player is trying to complete maps to unlock the stage select feature, they're forced either to fight a new final boss that is quite likely out of their league and will have them feeding lots of extra money just to mark the map done, or to DoWellButNotPerfect and intentionally let enemies live and prolong boss fights to keep Encroachment relatively high to avoid fighting that damned BulletHell egg.
32	*** The [=PS1=] port of ''[=RayCrisis=]'' loosens the requirement for the TrueFinalBoss from "clear at least five different maps on your account, then defeat [[FinalBoss Dis-Human]] with less than 20% Encroachment" to "just clear any three maps of your choice, then reach and defeat Dis-Human with less than 5 continues". On one hand, this makes it easier to get the true ending. On the other hand, it forces 1-credit clear attempts to include said true final boss; there's no toggle to force the "normal" ending after Dis-Human. Some players will consider the run 1CC if they just reach Infinity for this reason.
33	** Originally, the ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'' version of ''[=RayCrisis=]'' allows the player to switch to an alternate soundtrack that uses tracks from ''raycrisis rayons de l'Air'' arrange album, and uses ".BLUE - To Live Again on Earth -", the 24-minute piece used for the Special Mode of the [=PS1=] port in an ArcadePerfectPort of the game for the first time. Unfortunately, for some reason, there are separate player databases for the original soundtrack and the alternate soundtrack (implying that there are actually two separate builds of the game), meaning none of your data (local best scores, play counts, WR-03 unlock, etc.) carry over if you change soundtracks. This was later fixed with an update; now play data persists across soundtrack changes.
34	* SelfImposedChallenge: The version of Dis-Human in ''[=RayCrisis=]'' that the player meets if they top out the Encroachment meter has maximum [[DynamicDifficulty rank]], making it much harder than a low- or even 0%-Encroachment Dis-Human. As such, some players intentionally trigger 100% Encroachment to try to beat this max-rank Dis-Human.
35	* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''[=RayCrisis=]'' is easier than the previous two games for several reasons. First, the Hyper Attack has been buffed, dealing a lot more damage which makes it a great way to speed up boss fights. Second, enemies have been made more balanced, with fewer attacks that require extremely skilled maneuvers or involve jumpscare TrialAndErrorGameplay. Finally, the game is shorter; whereas its predecessor ''[=RayStorm=]'' takes about 30 minutes to complete and has eight stages (seven full-body stages and one BossOnlyLevel), ''[=RayCrisis=]'' only requires the player to complete five stages (one warm-up stage, three full-body stages, and the FinalBoss), and takes about 15-20 minutes. The TrueFinalBoss can throw a wrench in the player's attempts to clear the game, but in the arcade version, it can be avoided by entering the final stage with at least 20% Encroachment or starting a new file.[[note]]The mobile version's Arcade Mode loosens the requirement a bit, making 25% Encorachment the threshold to trigger the TLB. No such luck for [=PS1=] players and mobile version Special Mode players, since all of those will always trigger the TLB on a 1-credit clear attempt.[[/note]]
36	* SoOkayItsAverage: The overall consensus on ''Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute'', a port of the Saturn version of ''[=RayForce=]'' for Switch, [=PS4=], Xbox, and Windows PC. While it's far from a PortingDisaster, with somewhat reasonable input response by City Connection standards, and coming with some extras like save states and a stage practice mode, it doesn't do much to really justify its relatively high price tag or encourage people to choose this over emulating the arcade original or its Sega Saturn port. Not helping matters is that shortly after this was released, the CompilationRerelease ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'' by Creator/{{M2}} was announced, and M2 has a reputation of being a trusted brand amongst retro video game fans. Now that that compilation has been released, ''Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute'' is seen by series fans as obsolete, and is only worth getting if one only have an Xbox.
37	* SpecialEffectsFailure: In ''[=RayStorm=]'', Seraphim is supposed to be a gas giant in a star system different from the Solar System, but it's depicted in the Stage 5 background and loading screens of the console ports' Extra Mode as merely a green-tinted Jupiter, Great Red Spot and all.
38	* TaintedByThePreview:
39	** ''Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute'' wrong-footed much of the shoot 'em up community from the moment it was announced, due to the publisher being City Connection, a team infamous for {{Porting Disaster}}s that slap on additional, non-negligible amounts of input lag. Beyond that, it's a port of the Sega Saturn port of ''[=RayForce=]'', which isn't considered an awful port but doesn't have many extras compared to the arcade original, so many people scratched their heads as to why Taito would contract out ports of a port of an arcade game. The port was eventually released to [[SoOkayItsAverage lukewarm reception]], not being seen as an outright PortingDisaster (unless you want to play the PC version with a keyboard) but still not being regarded as worth the price.
40	** While the inclusion of ''R-GEAR'' as part of the ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'' caught some by surprise, the game being restricted as a limited pre-order item at Amazon Japan was met with criticism. Keep in mind, this isn't the first time Taito did something like this, as prior to the release of ''[[VideoGame/{{Darius}} Darius Cozmic Collection]]'' in Japan, ''Sagaia GB'' (a port of the first ''Darius'' for the Game Boy) was also offered as a limited pre-order bonus at Amazon Japan and two years later at Strictly Limited Games as part of ''Darius Cozmic Revelation''. But unlike ''Sagaia GB'', ''R-GEAR'' is a one level only prototype of an unreleased game, something that soured opinions regarding the compilation because of its limited availability.
41	** As soon as it was announced that Strictly Limited Games and their sister company ININ would be handling the localization of ''Ray'z Arcade Chronology'', many fans did a hard pass and chose to just import the Japanese version, as ININ has a reputation of [[LateExportForYou delaying localized releases of Japanese games by months]] in order to ensure that the digital and physical versions ship out at the same time. The Japanese version features English as a language option anyway, and both platforms it's on are region-free, so English-speaking players found little reason to wait another three months for the Western release in June 2023, three months after the Japanese release of March 2023. ININ additionally announcing a separate release with just ''[=RayStorm=]'' and ''[=RayCrisis=]'' (excluding ''[=RayForce=]'') further confused and generated distrust amongst fans. And that's for the digital versions. Those who ordered the physical edition have to wait until ''2024'' to receive their copies, which ends up affirming the concerns of those who are averse to Western physical edition releases.
42	* ThatOneAttack:
43	** The tricky-to-dodge "Taito HomingLasers", which have also appeared in the ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' series.
44	** In ''[=RayCrisis=]'', if Pro-Tor, the boss of the Intelligence and Consideration Parts, is fought as the third or fourth stage boss, then [[VictoryFakeout once it appears to be destroyed]], it will mount one final stand where it fires volleys of long pink lasers while harassing you with orange HomingLasers at the same time, forcing you to follow the rhythms of two different attacks. It doesn't help that the explosion animations of the boss continue during this phase, making it harder to see the lasers.
45	** Dis-Human, the FinalBoss of ''[=RayCrisis=]'', has two distinct ones:
46	*** In the intermission from its first form to second, it unleashes an orb that follows you, sucks you in slowly, is lethal if you touch its core and which absorbs your lock-on attacks, preventing you from damaging the boss. The boss also throws Taito's signature HomingLasers during this time, which require considerable understanding of their curving patterns to avoid ''while'' being careful not to be pulled into the orb.
47	*** In its second form proper, there's a part where it strafes from one side of the screen to the other, fires out tightly-packed needle lasers, and repeats this two more times, which is about as close to a proper BulletHell game as this game will get barring the TrueFinalBoss itself. It's similar to one of Sem-Fray's (the boss of Emotion Part) phase two attacks, but considerably more dangerous and likely to prompt using continues.
48	** The TrueFinalBoss of ''[=RayCrisis=]'', Infinity, is already a ridiculous step up from Dis-Human, but one notable attack in its second phase has it generate turrets that fire continuous lasers while spinning around. There are several other objects that Infinity also throws on the field that can block those lasers, but they can be destroyed by accident. If this happens, the only way to avoid the lasers is by moving up as the intersection of the two lasers creeps up behind you...potentially into one of the other attacks Infinity is also popping off. One wonders if [[VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld Ecliptic Meteor]] was inspired by this attack...
49	* ThatOneBoss: Alaric, the Stage 6 boss of ''[=RayStorm=]''. A huge {{transforming mecha}} that can turn into a fighter craft similar to yours, has two vicious [[AttackDrones drones]] that can snipe you with a laser beam and homing missiles while Alaric itself use a beam bazooka and machine gun in its mech form while its fighter form can rain down nasty arching lasers from the background that covers nearly the entire screen and a tricky-to-avoid spread shot in the foreground. If you think blowing up its bazooka would help (either shooting them directly or whittling Alaric's HP down), you'll be in for a rude warning when it starts using the shoulder-mounted laser cannons the can fire in a huge spread and covers more the screen with its machine gun.
50	* ToughActToFollow: None of the sequels have replicated the same critical acclaim that ''[=RayForce=]'' did, due to substituting the fantastic 2D scaling and rotating effects for more generic polygons, an annoying ThreeQuartersView, and implementing changes that throw the scoring meta out of balance.
51	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: ''[=RayForce=]'' in particular is well-known for its intensive use of sprite scaling and rotating that could put the Super NES to shame. The fact that its sequels go [[VideoGame3DLeap full-3D]], thus discarding the use of these effects, is part of what makes them so [[ContestedSequel contentuous]].
52	----
53	-> ''Report on the network situation...Connect to [[Trivia/RaySeries Trivia Part]].''

Context YMMV / RaySeries