is a 1996 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Taito. It has been ported to several consoles, including the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Xbox 360. Players control a starship, the R-Gray, in its mission to destroy the Secilia Federation before it destroys Earth.
RayStorm is one of three "Ray" games, all featuring similar gameplay, released by Taito. RayForce was released before RayStorm, and the RayForce prequel RayCrisis was released after the others. RayStorm is most distinguished from its predecessor by its usage of polygon-based ships instead of sprites. The plot of RayStorm, which is minimally revealed in the game itself but further described by the game's instruction manual and "Extra Mode" in home releases, is not connected to the "Con-Human" storyline of the other two games. The PlayStation version was generally well received by American reviewers due to its graphical style and cutting edge visual effects, but criticized for the simplistic and dated gameplay. The Sega Saturn version, only released in Japan, was renamed Layer Section II to follow up the same naming convention of its predecessor in this platform.
Gameplay
RayStorm is a shoot 'em up. The player views their ship from a distanced perspective while gunning down enemies in the game's vertically scrolling stages. At the beginning of the game, the player must choose one of two ships; a third secret ship is available in ported versions.
The player uses a vulcan-like laser weapon as their primary offense, and a missile weapon which can lock onto multiple targets and gain a combo multiplier, accumulating into a point total. 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-ons. When full the player can unleash a massive screen wide attack with a brief period of invincibility afterwards. The second, the Hyper Laser Assault, executes a special attack unique to each ship, and is performed by setting all available lock-on attacks on a single target and firing.
Home versions contain two gameplay modes: the "Arcade Mode", which preserves the look and feel of the original arcade version, and the "Extra Mode", which has enhanced graphics, additional enemies, modified bosses, and tougher difficulty, as well as a different ending. Also in Extra Mode, when the player gets a "continue", the score accumulated from the first stage will be retained (i.e. score will not reset to zero). Completing either mode unlocks a "stage select" option to play individual stages in the completed mode (except for the final stage) for a high score, while succeeding in both modes unlocks a "13 Players" option.
The "13 Players" option requires the player to complete the game using a total of 13 ships from 5 groups: three R-Gray 1 ships using "manual" control, in which primary and lock-on weapons are controlled separately; three R-Gray 2 ships, with manual control; three R-Gray 1 ships using "auto" control, in which primary and lock-on weapons are controlled with the same button; three "auto" R-Gray 2 ships; and one R-Gray 0 "prototype" ship. Either mode can be played with this option; completing the game under Extra Mode with this option reveals an additional epilogue. A high-definition version of the game, titled RayStorm HD, includes all three R-Grays and the R-Gear, a fourth ship that fires homing missiles.
Development
Staff involved in the development of RayStorm include producer and director Yukio Abe, director Tatsuo Nakamura, music composer Tamayo Kawamoto, and sound effect composer Munehiro Nakanishi, who all had the same roles developing RayForce. Kawamoto and Nakanishi composed as members of Taito "house band" Zuntata, who trace their first work under that name to June 1987. A soundtrack to the game, including both its original music and some arrangements, was released on October 11, 1996. RayStorm was programmed for the Taito FX-1 arcade system board.
The demonstration of the PlayStation version at the August 1996 Tokyo Game Show was reportedly on a massive screen that dwarfed all of Taito's other demos at the show.