[レイクライシス/RayCrisis] Map 04 WR-01R Arcade HD TLB CLEAR (Rapid Fire ON) [CC Commentary]

RayCrisis may not be the best (or the worst) of the Ray trilogy, but it is certainly the most unique of the bunch! I love it and surprisingly, not hate it? Well, a bit, but for its crypticness, that's it.
Control-wise it's RayStorm again. You know, move, shoot, laser, bomb, no extends and stuff. Your ship does get buffs. Some of them include bomb recharge gets faster! Well, strangely enough full locks don't give much recharge? But normal shot hits do recharge your bomb as well. Essentially you can even use bombs twice in a single boss fight. Handy! Also you get to aim below the reticle if you hug downwards. This is an important technique against the TLB later.
The main differentiator is the game's structure. RayCrisis is basically Taito's take on the Psikyo formula. Short 1-loops, random early stages, and the difficulty of each random stage differs depending on their order. But I love it that they still appreciate precision! The game records your playthroughs per password ID thingy? This is where which Map (stage combinations) you cleared, with continues or not, get recorded. This is also why Map Select exists at all! With the Map Select you can eliminate the randomness of the stage order! Handy! And speaking of money, assuming that the normal way to unlock the Map Select is by clearing all of the 42 Maps, then it costs at least 4200 Yen at the time to have it unlocked. Sneaky Taito! But I don't hate it.
Regarding the stage designs themselves, it follows RayStorm's jankiness and polished it a bit. There is the usual RNG, of course, but they buffed the bosses by a good bunch even the first one of the random stage! Not much room to disrespect here, you need to learn the quick kill methods while keep yourself safe. I like it! I'd argue RayCrisis has the best bosses in the series. Plus, it's not cryptic like RayStorm's final boss!
On non-TLB runs RayCrisis is no doubt the easiest. If you're new to the series, a non-TLB 1cc is much recommended! It's fun and fast! An amazing title nonetheless!
But you're here to access the TLB, aren't you?
The thing I would criticize the most about the game is not the RNG. With its short loops the RNGs are tolerable. The bad thing is how unclear how to access Infinity, the TLB, is! It's so cryptic it's like Five Nights at Freddy's! Most English wikis will say in the Arcade version you need to have the Encroachment level below 20% when you face Dis-Human. There is more than that! In full, there are several conditions:
WR-01R / WR-02R:
- The save file has cleared 5 new Maps (with continues or not) regardless of Encroachment level. You'll see darkened hexagons in the middle of the result screen. That shows the Maps you have cleared.
- On this save file, enter Dis-Human with Encroachment Rate under 20%. Continuing is okay
WR-03:
- You will access the TLB regardless. You can't evade it.
To make sure that your save file can access the TLB, try to fulfill the Encroachment rate condition each time on New Map with continues. Continuing won't affect the Encroachment rate, so it's a good way to practice how to keep it low, mainly with quick boss kills. If you can encounter the TLB with continues, that's when you can use Map Select and face the TLB without continues proper!
Oh yeah, the elephant in the room: Encroachment Rate. Contrary to popular belief, this, while I do belief affects Rank, is not the Rank itself. I don't notice any difficulty difference at low Encroachment. It's mainly the ending decider. If you can pass the 3 stages without it becomes 100%, you'll get the Normal ending while it's above 20%. Fulfill the TLB conditions, you get the True Ending. If it reaches 100%, you have to fight Dis-Human at MAX RANK right away and get the Bad Ending.
I recommend Map 04 mainly for the bosses. The stage order mainly affects their HP amount and how many patterns become available due to the amount of HP they have, not the pattern difficulty. Pro-Tor's first pattern is very annoying with its RNG, but better deal with it early and also this prevents the even more annoying later pattern. Sem-Loke is hard, but it's at least easy to quick kill, worth it for a great 20% Encroachment Rate decrease! Sem-Fray is the easiest boss around because its RNG is negligible. Not to mention not too hard to quick kill as well! I'm sure it's possible to fight the TLB with other Maps, but that would be harder, wouldn't it?
You can enter this cheat code after you insert the credit but before you press start to access Map Select:
↑→↓←AAABCCCC
A: Shot
B: Laser
C: Special Attack
Enter it correctly, there will be a chime.
Nintendo eShop:
store-jp.ninte...
#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[@kitestar]

The fact the wiki’s never mention the fact the game even had a save system that keeps track of progress in the first place, only the “keep encroachment below 20%” requirement, just boggles the mind! regardless, im looking forward to the western release of this collection

[@then1533]

That was just awesome.

[@julianseph842gamez5]

Infinity has different requirements on other ports.
Here`s the requirements on the determined ports and modes:
-Arcade ver. - Requirement: Encroachment must be at

[@celebrategout1008]

i cant get over the soundtrack. man it's so good

[@MinhLe19303]

I recently noticed this version of the ending too. I wonder if the human clone that linked with Con-Human showed in the intro really is F-04 in RayForce.

[@julianseph842gamez5]

I`ts really crazy that Infinity is the only TLB in a Taito shmup.