RayStorm

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RayStorm
Developer(s)	Taito Corporation
Publisher(s)	Taito Corporation (Japan) Working Designs (North America) SCEE (Europe)
Release date(s)	01/10/97 and 03/12/98 (Japan) 12/31/96 (North America) 09/1997 (Europe)
Genre(s)	Action, Shooter
Mode(s)	single player, Co-op; Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)
Input	8-way Joystick, 2 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Horizontal
Arcade display	Raster (Horizontal)

RayStorm is an action game developed by the Taito Corporation for arcades, and later ported to the Playstation gaming system, as well as a less-known release for the Sega Saturn. It is often thought of as the sequel to RayForce, which features similar gameplay. However, there is no story connection between the two, and are perhaps better thought of as companion games. The next game in the series is the prequel to RayForce, RayCrisis.

[edit] Plot

Lifted from the game manual:

2219 AD: Space Travel has been a reality for 100 years. The human race expanded into space until Earth eventually controlled a Star Federation of 20 space colonies, stretching all the way to Orion. To maintain control over the Earth's ever-expanding territories, the colonies were kept under strict martial law. However, the colonies mutinied against Earth's control: they took control of the planet Secilia, the most important of the colonies, where they established the Secilia Federation and began their fight for freedom. Following a succession of sweeping victories, the Federation finally defeated Earth's forces.

24 hours after Earth's surrender, directly after all the inhabitants had been transferred to the colonies, the Secilia Federation announced its intention to destroy the planet completely. It has forcibly suppressed all opposition from the colonies and has dispatched a special force to carry out the annihilation of the Earth.

However, Earth's Balca Division foresaw this eventuality and is now in the process of developing the 'R-GRAY', based on technology salvaged from the Secilia starsystem. The 'R-GRAY', a craft made up of parts from 13 different Secilia ships, is the only craft able to carry out 'OPERATION RAYSTORM' - the Balca Division's desperate mission to combat the Secilia Federation...

[edit] Gameplay

RayStorm is a Shoot 'em up. The player views their ship from a distanced perspective while gunning down enemies in large "rail-shooter" levels. Prior to the initiation of the game, the player is provided with the choice to choose between two ships (three in the ported versions) which govern statistics such as the length and width of the firing a weapon, as well as cosmetic preferences.

The player uses a vulcan type laser weapon as their primary offense, and a weapon which can lock onto multiple targets and gain a combo multiplier, accumulating into a point total. In this endeavor, the selection of ships have slightly differing methods of attaining a big point total:

• The R-Gray 1 uses a basic single laser cannon. By moving the reticule over various enemies, it can lock on and fire mulitple missiles. This ship is best suited for beginners.

• The R-Gray 2 - uses twin lasers, and its attack power is considered surperior to the R-Gray 1, but the width and range of its fire is decreased. Its lock on system is considered unweildy; it may lock onto some appropriate targets but not others. However, its lock on maximum is 16 targets, meaning its point accumulation is higher.

Additionally, each ship has two special maneuvers. The Special Attack is initiated when the player fills a bar to the maximum by engaging in multiple lock-on situations. When full the player can unleash a massive screen wide attack with a brief period of invincibility afterwards. The second is called Hyper Laser Assault which executes a special attack unique to each ship. This is performed by setting all available lock-on attacks on a single target and firing.

[edit] Trivia

The names of the stages and bosses draw to a heavy degree from the history of Rome. Secelia's own intent to annihilate Earth after conquering it is redolent of the habit of Roman-era conquerors of utterly desolating those foes who had dared to heavily resist conquest, as an example to others. Likewise, the forcible transfer of Earth's inhabitants to the other colonies is similar to the practice of selling the vanquished into slavery. The bosses, meanwhile, are mostly named for generals and leaders who warred against Rome.

St. 1: Albion, D.U.
St. 2: New Gaul City
St. 3: Palmyra Valley
St. 4: 3rd Fleet of Secelia, Earth orbit
St. 5: Carthage Base, Secelia orbit
St. 6: Etruria, Secelia
St. 7 and 8: Judah Central System of Secelia

Boss 1: Pendragon
Boss 2: Vercingetorix
Boss 3: Zenobia
Boss 4: Hannibal
Boss 5: Genseric
Boss 6: Alaric
Boss 7: Spartacus
Boss 8: Yggdrasil