Fray, PC Engine SCD game

[MrFulci]

Anyone play this game all the way through, or at all?

I purchased ti on a whim, as it appeared to be a Neutopia type game.

So far, I've played through what I'm guessing was the intro. It took a moment for me to figure out the timing of the jumps and how to avoid being crushed by the boulders (Had to power up the weapon).

I found myself laughing toward the character interaction as I was lost as to what was going on, this character finds a statue, and the head falls off, and a dragon pokes out of the water, then the rest of the statue falls into the water! The dragon attacks, and I fight it. Soon after that, I'm in a town.

I recognize "Inn", I figure out that it costs money to save.

It was an interesting 20 minutes or so.


I'm posting this topic because I'm curious:

- How long is this game? 12 hours?
- Is the path fixed, or is there some open exploration?

[CrackTiger]

Anyone play this game all the way through, or at all?

I purchased ti on a whim, as it appeared to be a Neutopia type game.

So far, I've played through what I'm guessing was the intro. It took a moment for me to figure out the timing of the jumps and how to avoid being crushed by the boulders (Had to power up the weapon).

I found myself laughing toward the character interaction as I was lost as to what was going on, this character finds a statue, and the head falls off, and a dragon pokes out of the water, then the rest of the statue falls into the water! The dragon attacks, and I fight it. Soon after that, I'm in a town.

I recognize "Inn", I figure out that it costs money to save.

It was an interesting 20 minutes or so.


I'm posting this topic because I'm curious:

- How long is this game? 12 hours?
- Is the path fixed, or is there some open exploration?

Check Runin's 'Valuable musings on PC Engine games' thread.

[MrFulci]

I did a quick search for that information you gave me, nothing turned up. Searching for 5 minutes or so for "fray" and answers to my 2 questions turned up nothing.

If you have a link to that thread you mention, please post it.

I'm more curious to have answers to those 2 questions, though. Especially if any of the exploration here is open.

[Joe Redifer]

I have this game.  I think I am at level 2 or 3 or something like that.  It is kind of like the PC Engine's version of Twinkle Tale (Mega Drive).  You scroll up.  The end.  But Twinkle Tale breaks all the rules and even scrolls left, right and diagonally.  It wasn't released over here since we don't like games that break any rules, much less ALL of them.  I'm not sure what the town stuff is about in Fray.  Is there a FAQ on GameFAQs?

[RuninRuder]

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.

[MrFulci]

I had a feeling it may end up being up-down only, as I tried going to the side a few times when bushes and trees weren't in the way, and nothing happened. Still, I'll play through it sometime. So far it's interesting.

Is there a list out there of Action RPG's for the PCE?

[grahf]

I read a review of Fray where the guy made it sound like the best game of all time. Because of that I picked up a copy. I paid a little over $30, and for that price i'm happy with it. Runinruder pretty much described it.

My main beef with the game is this:  for the most part its very easy. You'll be rolling along without feeling a hint of difficulty (but still having a good time). Then out of the blue you'll get to a spot that requires fraction-of-a-second timing to pass.

[TR0N]

Anyone play this game all the way through, or at all?

I purchased ti on a whim, as it appeared to be a Neutopia type game.

So far, I've played through what I'm guessing was the intro. It took a moment for me to figure out the timing of the jumps and how to avoid being crushed by the boulders (Had to power up the weapon).

I found myself laughing toward the character interaction as I was lost as to what was going on, this character finds a statue, and the head falls off, and a dragon pokes out of the water, then the rest of the statue falls into the water! The dragon attacks, and I fight it. Soon after that, I'm in a town.

I recognize "Inn", I figure out that it costs money to save.

It was an interesting 20 minutes or so.


I'm posting this topic because I'm curious:

- How long is this game? 12 hours?
- Is the path fixed, or is there some open exploration?

http://www.pcengine.com.br/fray/fray.htm

[Joe Redifer]

Why do people call it Fray Xak Gaiden when the title screen CLEARLY says Fray in Magical Adventure CD?

Also, I still have no clue as what to do in the towns.

[GUTS]

Universo PCEngine is the most worthless review site of all time, their rating scale doesn't even go below 80%.  Brazil must really SUCK because those guys are completely blown away by everything.

[Seldane]

The cover says Fray CD Xak Gaiden. The name is pretty self-explanatory: it's Fray...for CD-ROM (it was originally an MSX diskette game) and it's a "gaiden" to Xak.

Universo PCEngine is the most worthless review site of all time, their rating scale doesn't even go below 80%.  Brazil must really SUCK because those guys are completely blown away by everything.

Hahaha, so true. Even this game gets 98%, and that's just ridiculous. I hate overly generous reviews.

[Keranu]

Every review site gives overly generous scores. It really blows my mind when people think a game getting 6/10 is the worst score possible when that counts as ABOVE AVERAGE.

[termis]

I think a lot of people have the concept of 75=C=Average in their head from schooling years.

[Seldane]

In my mind, a 6 is "decent". I'd give that score to Fray CD.

[TR0N]

Universo PCEngine is the most worthless review site of all time, their rating scale doesn't even go below 80%.  Brazil must really SUCK because those guys are completely blown away by everything.

Guess.. i should have given my thoughts on it instead of linking that, site review on it.

Still i was being a lazy bum 

[offsidewing]

I think a lot of people have the concept of 75=C=Average in their head from schooling years.

Where I went to school, 75 was one point away from a D+.  It's not a grade they like to give out.