Review
(Originally written for GameShark.com, November 2000)
Game series should not end on a note like this. There should be excitement, fanfare, or at least something in the game itself to make people take note of it. As it stands, one of the coolest spaceship shooter series to come home will simply and quietly retire on the PlayStation on a crisp November morning. To make matters worse, not even the game itself has anything really important to say.

RayCrisis is the third and final game in Taito’s “Ray” Series, that began with RayForce (which had to be renamed Layer Section due to a legal reason), then passed the torch to the still cool RayStorm, and now finally comes to an end with this release.

Several problems that make this game seem insignificant is that it’s missing so many features that made its ancestor so wonderful. The game is now only one-player rather than two, is completely missing the ‘per-level’ difficulty option, and has only one soundtrack, as opposed to RayStorm’s two.   On the positive side, it does bring to it a real-time variable difficulty setting, and uses the PlayStation 2’s video options to a satisfying degree.

Since the story line really has no impact on the game, we’ll skip that and move right into the category reviews. Like its predecessors, Taito keeps the graphic onslaught alive on the PS1, with huge robot bosses, transforming robot guards, and of course, tons of small enemy fighters that will do anything to scrap you and your ship.  What makes this more interesting is the Encroachment factor. This is an on-screen meter that keeps tabs on how well you’re playing. If you’re doing well, the game will become longer and add more ships to the screen, while doing the opposite if you’re suffering horribly. If you want to see the whole game, you’re going to have to earn it. A very cool feature if I ever did see one. There are a total of seven stages in the game, with the Original mode allowing you to choose which ones you’ll play through and in what order. Those that have a PS2 should take advantage of its “Smooth” option with it’s PS1 driver. It really makes the game look cleaner, adding to the visual enjoyment of the game.

The music is a bit on the soft side, in both loudness and style, which is pretty standard for Japanese shooters. Unfortunately, this saps most of the game’s excitement with it, as you keep waiting for that one sensory overload moment to get you pumped to keep playing. It never comes.

The control is very good, and as usual the game retains its lock-on weapon, which allows you to lock an enemy’s position in the background and destroy it while taking care of the foreground enemies. Each of the three ships has their own unique style of weapons, which adds a small bit of variety to the game play. Other than that, there’s not much to report on.

RayCrisis, while being a great game, is missing too many elements that made the other games in the series really stand out. By no means is it a blemish on the series’ overall shine, but there’s not enough to it to make it feel like a proper good-bye.

• How to Understand the Encroachment Theory
  • Encroachment is a scale that determines how good you are at the game. As you play through the game, the meter will fluctuate between 00 and 99. The higher the number is, the easier and shorter the game will become. The lower it is, the harder and longer the game will become. This all depends on how quickly and how many of the enemy forces you can take out at a time. More enemies will appear on screen if you’re encroachment is low.
    
    
• There are two CD variants, see below.



• The back of the manual was also a downloadable wall paper from WD's web-site.



• Layer Section, oddly enough, was only available on the Sega Saturn. Still a great 2D Shooter in its own right, and is known locally as Galactic Attack.



• Released under the ill-named SPAZ label, which was eventually dropped in favor of returning to the older 'Ultra Series' moniker. 



• Supports the Japan only Pocket Station, which is a Memory Card with an LCD screen. RayCrisis features a mini-game called PocketCrisis that you can play on it.



• Though released last, this is actually a prequel, serving up the events that lead into Layer Section / Galactic Attack.

Greatest Hits
     This game was never released as a Greatest Hits.

Variations / Misprints
     Two CD variants released for the game:

• SLUS - 01217a / PSRM - 019620 = Various Ship Views
• SLUS - 01217b / PSRM - 020490 = Big Blue Mech