RayForce Arcade from Ray’z Arcade Chronology Intro & Playthrough on PlayStation 4 [UHD 4K60]
9Whether you know it as RayForce, Gunlock, Layer Section or Galactic Attack, TAITO 1993 arcade shooter is a real classic! Full longplay, playthrough, walkthrough, guide & gameplay from the Ray’z Arcade Chronology collection release on PS4. RayForce might just be the best shoot'em up,shmups or STG, TAITO ever released, yes better than Darius Gaiden, which is an excellent game itself.
Making use of multiple 2D sprite layers and numerous 2D scaling effects, visually this is a standout game in 2D genre from the era. While it was ported to both the SEGA Saturn and PC in the 90s, it would then next appear on one of the Taito Memories collection. In 2023 we finally got a collection of the entire series in one package.
Featuring seven stages each with a different visual styles and unique enemies to blast your way through. Make it both a challenge and joy to look at as you descend from outer space into the planet's core. The game itself on the face of it is quite simple with only a standard shot attack and a secondary laser beam to hit enemies below you. However, the lasers play a key part in the scoring system as when fully upgraded you can lock on eight target at once. Each laser that destroys an enemy gives you a bonus score and this can be multiplied up to eight times. Each lock only last for around five seconds so there is a huge amount of timing involved to get the most out of each stage. On top of a few bonus score moments from damaging bosses, each boss also has a hidden timer so you can't endless farm them for score either.
On top of the difficulty setting options to make the game hard, it also has a ranking difficulty which changes from 1-15. The longer you go without dying the more it increases, making the game even harder. Lose a life and the rank is decreased by three. Only downside is only one revision of the arcade is included, so the Gunlock release is missing, on the plus side it includes the SEGA Saturn arranged soundtrack alongside the original arcade one. The Saturn track was selected for this video.
Now for a word from our editor on the the game, so I first played this on the SEGA Saturn, it is a great shmup and one that isn't too hard once you start learning how it plays. If you want to aim for a top score you need to get really good with the laser placement. This is a run I did after about two weeks of practice. It's not a one credit clear, but I did get to stage five without losing a credit and defeated the final boss without taking a hit. Couple of lives lost were bad mistakes, but stage six is rather tricky with all the ships flying at you. It's been over a decade since I last played it fully, so really pleased with this run.
Time Stamp & Chapter Details:
00:00 Game Details And Arcade Start Up
00:47 Area 1 Red Power To Pierce Through
03:17 Area 2 The Gravity Of Blue Side
07:04 Area 3 The Phantasm Of Silver
10:24 Area 4 The Fissure Of Consciousness
13:32 Area 5 Toward The Darkness
16:36 Area 6 The End Of Deep Layer
21:33 Area 7 Releasing Infinitely
24:02 Final Boss
25:26 Ending & Credits
28:13 Attract, Intro & How to play
Also know as: レイフォース (Arcade Japan) & レイヤーセクション
Release: 2023 (Arcade 1993/1994)
Developer: TAITO (Port by M2)
Publisher: United Games Entertainment
Genre: Shoot’em Up (STG)
Players: 1 - 2
Version Shown: PAL
Format: PlayStation 4 / プレイステーション4 (PS4)
Ray’z Arcade Chronology is available on PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. This collection includes RayForce, RayStorm & RayCrisis
Randomised Gaming blog: / randomisedgaming
YouTube Channel: / randomisedgamingyoutube
Twitter: / rdmdgaming
Twitch Channel: / randomised_gaming
Buy us a Coffee or Tea at Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/randomisedgaming
Footage is captured directly from a PlayStation 4 via HDMI for all games, using an Elgato Pro HD60 capture card. Upscaled to UHD 4K to improve the video bit rate, watch in HD or UHD for best video playback on YouTube.
#RayForce #LayerSection #TAITO