Here's my Fray mini-review, copied over from my useless thoughts thread:
Fray~Xak Gaiden - When I first played through this game a few years ago, I was completely charmed by it. This was mainly because of Fray herself, who was the most adorable game character I'd ever come across. I was very entertained by her goofy facial expressions and funny antics. I've played through the brilliant Madou Monogatari since then, and Arle annihilates Fray on the adorability meter. But Fray is still a cool little character.
I've said it before on this board, and I'll reiterate it here: if you're thinking about purchasing this game, do NOT expect an action-RPG in the vein of Ys or Zelda. This is nothing at all like those games. In Fray, you walk forward and shoot things. Picture a wacky, cartoony Final Zone II with platforming thrown in and towns in between stages, and you've basically got Fray. You'll also come across a stage where Fray gets wings and takes to the sky to battle airships, not to mention a surfboard stage and a mining cart ride. But the names of the game are action and shooting, so don't expect much in the way of role playing here.
The graphics are quite nice and colorful, as is evident from screenshots. And if you like the Neutopia bosses, you might like the boss bunch here as well, as some of them are similar to Neutopia's goons but bigger, more colorful, and more charismatic.
What you might not like are the rather sloppy controls. Fray is kind of chubby and limited, and she doesn't play like a superstar when the screen gets crowded or there are tricky leaps to make. Still, the game is very easy and ridiculously short.
I'd feel better about recommending Fray if it were in the $20-30 price range rather than the $40-50 one. But if you're willing to live with the sloppiness and you're not expecting it to be a true adventure game, you'll likely find it endearing, colorful, and worthwhile.
(end of mini-review)
Mr Fulci, it's a very short game (it should require far fewer hours than twelve), and there is very little exploration to do. You have to do a little backtracking (you get an item that lets you warp between towns, IIRC), and later on there's a little bit of maze-ish stuff, but that's about it. It's mostly about vertical-scroll shooting.
Topic: Fray, PC Engine SCD game (Read 551 times)
