Ray'z Arcade Chronology Review (justice fist)
A top notch port of 3 AMAZING looking, influential shmups that left their mark on all sorts of games, including the Panzer Dragoon series.
The Ray games have very simple, straightforward but addictive gameplay - you have a shot, a lock on reticle and a bomb in the later games. You can tag enemies with your lock on, and this works even if they're far below your ship. The goal of the game is to tag a bunch of enemies & shoot them all down with homing lasers for huge score bonuses. It's a very elegant, easy to get into system. You'll probably find yourself getting chains even if you don't care about score.
The level design is what truly brings the mechanics together, though. Enemy waves come in really tight well choreographed sequences that leave you very little breathing room. It's hard to put into words, but there's something very satisfying about the kinds of stylish, clean, sweeping dance-like movements the game encourages you to do once you get into its rhythm.
The game's bullet patterns & hitboxes are in that sweet spot between old school & bullet hell. The patterns get pretty dense when the game wants it, but for the most part there's a focus on unique projectiles & sparse but very dangerous patterns. The games are all quite difficult, with RayStorm being the hardest, and RayCrisis being the most beginner-friendly.
Port's great - low input lag, nice save states system, convenient replays/leaderboards, a good amount of options, everything's clean & snappy. It doesn't have any extra arrange or novice modes though, so if you want to make it easier you have to rely on the in-game settings. Also if you want to play this on the Steam Deck, don't navigate menus too quickly since the game has a tendency to crash. It's annoying, but it doesn't affect the actual games outside the menus, so I'm having a blast despite the issue.