Trivia / RAY Series

• Bad Export for You: The North American PlayStation port of RayStorm prohibits you from ever seeing easier versions of stages 5 through 8, due to those stages being cut out if any stage's difficulty is lower than the default. Just to rub salt in the wound, this version's default difficulty was also raised two levels above its Japanese counterpart, meaning you cannot play on Japanese defaults without being locked out of the second half of the game. You can blame Working Designs for this; they did this intentionally in an attempt to curb "oh, I credited to the end, that's it, I'm never playing this again" mentality, as stated in their localization notes in the instruction manual. Perhaps to make up for it, this version of the game defaults to 5 lives instead of 3. All subsequent localized versions do not have this feature.
• Cancellation: R-GEAR was scrapped for RayStorm's place.
• Cut Song: The song "Med-Ray" from RayCrisis that consists of somber medleys of past music from the RAY series was not used in the arcade release nor its PlayStation and PC ports thereof at the time, and the only way it can be heard was through its original soundtrack. In 2017, this track previously unused track was brought back as the main menu music for the iOS and Android ports.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Although these games have gotten ports on iOS devices and an Updated Compilation Re-release through the Ray'z Arcade Chronology in 2023 for PlayStation 4 and Switch, their original PC ports of all three games however were left in limbo, up until the announcement of a Steam port of Ray'z Arcade Chronology which released in Fall 2023. RayStorm HD, however, remains stuck on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Android ports of these games on Google Play Store and Amazon App Store were delisted within days following the announcement of the Ray'z Arcade Chronology in 2023.
• Late Export for You: The console editions of Ray'z Arcade Chronlogy were released in Japan in March 2023. The digital edition was released in the West three months later in June. The physical editions were supposed to be shipped in Summer 2023, but that period has passed and there is no definitive ship date at this time.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: In Japan and overseas through Strictly Limited Games, the Ray'z Arcade Chronology has a Collector's Edition that includes a physical copy of the game for PlayStation 4/Switch with a full-color manual, a recreation of RayForce's European arcade flyer, a reversible poster, a RayStorm arcade sticker set, the Live Concert Album: Ray'z Music Live - STRAHL - soundtrack on 2 CDs with bonustracks and a Blu-ray of the live concert, a Ray’z Mission Maneuver Manual strategy guide, Ray’z Orbital Operation Overview series material book, and a pixel frame showcasing the battle against Odin from RayForce, all packaged in a special collector's edition box.
• No Export for You:
  • The PC ports of RayStorm and RayCrisis were released in Japan and Europe, but never to North America. Thankfully they can run on Windows computers without having to change the regional Unicode settings of your PC, thus making them import-friendly... if you can find copies of these games in these times (especially RayCrisis).
  • The Simple 1500 Series Vol. 75: The Double Shooting: RayStorm × RayCrisis compilation was only released in Japan. The PlayStation Network re-release of these games also stayed there.
  • The PlayStation 3 version of RayStorm HD was released only in Japan.
• Pre-Order Bonus: Those who pre-order the Ray'z Arcade Chronology through Strictly Limited Games will receive a playable 1-stage prototype of R-GEAR.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Due to PS1 limitations, RayCrisis lacks the seamless transitions between stages, and has to summon a black background and a droning noise until the next stage loads. However, this is written as loading the "function data" for the next part of Con-Human...as in, loading the next level off of the game disc, fitting neatly with the game's theme of hacking into the rogue supercomputer. A similar thing happens with boss fights — as the game stops to load the boss's data, it's explained as Con-Human generating a "huge antibody" to protect itself from the Player Character's hacking efforts.
• What Could Have Been: R-GEAR, a true sequel to RayForce was originally planned until the development of RayStorm took its place.

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