With so many dungeon crawler JRPGs coming out for the Vita, it’s starting to get a bit difficult telling who developed what and if there’s any difference to all the games. Most have similar HUD layouts for gameplay and menu selections, similar battle systems in first person, the player as a character and avatars that are just for decorative purposes. While I do tend to gravitate to these games, it would be nice add some variety to the dungeon crawler. And that’s where Ray Gigant stands out. Here are a few things that make Ray Gigant different from the rest of the JRPG dungeon crawlers.
- An actual cast of characters- In most JRPG dungeon crawlers they have you as the main character and you the surround yourself with a party of three other random characters that you hire as support. The character portraits may look cool, but they’re just used for decoration. Their looks have no effect on their stats and also do have a background story to them. The characters in Ray Gigaint have, Surprise, character to them. Especially the three main protagonists.
- Story has visual novel elements- There is minimal story in most JRPG dungeon crawlers. If there is any story, you usually get it after entering new dungeons, clearing them and coming back to base to turn in the mission assigned. The dev for Ray Gigant however added in visual novel elements into game to give it more substance and to give players something else to enjoy besides the gameplay.
- Hand drawn images are animated during battle- During battle sequences in most JRPG dungeon crawlers, the view is in first person and you only see the enemy. In Ray Gigant however not only are the enemies visible, but as well as you and your party members when it’s their turn.
These three things may be small in context, but when most of the dungeon crawlers you’ve been playing start to look the same, any change is welcome. And this is just the tip for Ray Gigant, Tune in sometime next week for the full review of the game.
