Vay is not a game I expected to see revived in 2024. This Sega CD title was localized by Working Designs in 1994, but despite it having nifty animated cutscenes, it could not escape the looming shadow of console darling Lunar: The Silver Star (also localized by Working Designs). Vay had a mobile port introduced in 2008, but it had some issues and eventually fell off… until now! SoMoGa has completely overhauled their 2008 port of Vay and made it available for Steam. I have some history with Vay and this latest version might be my favorite.
Newly added quality-of-life features make this version of Vay accessible. Multiple difficulty levels (normal and hard) are most welcome, along with adjustable EXP and money multipliers, allowing you to scale Vay‘s challenge on the fly. The original game was notoriously grindy with some fiendishly sharp difficulty spikes, so I had no qualms about using the newly added features to alleviate the grind and stick it to the infamous Wind Elemental boss (who, while challenging, is not cheaply overpowered this time unless you choose to make it so).
Another nice feature is the ability to turn off the random encounters. I often did this when the party needed to hightail it back to a town to heal or restock. Yes, this is an old-school RPG with random encounters. The encounter rate is high at times but not unmanageable since battles play out quickly. I would not advise keeping random encounters off the whole game, or you’ll lack the EXP and money to do, well, anything. Vay is not an overly lengthy RPG. I finished it in about 12 hours thanks to these optional features and other baked-in upgrades like increased walking speed.
The aforementioned quality-of-life features are wonderful, but Vay is still an unabashedly old-school RPG with old-school inconveniences. For example, item shops don’t tell you how many of a particular item you have, so buying them involves hopping in and out of menus that, while functional, are clunky to navigate. The item menu, in particular, is cluttered, has only one reordering option, and limits how much the party can carry. The menu interface had these issues in the original game and I would have liked revamped menus in this update.
Other old-school elements include the absence of any quest log, so you need to pay attention to what NPCs tell you in order to determine future objectives. New characters join the party at fixed levels lower than the protagonist’s. This is where having the new EXP multiplier helps. EXP and money accumulate through traditional turn-based battles that are largely self-explanatory. Vay does not feature any complex character growth systems or gimmicky mechanics. Its bread-and-butter JRPG gameplay is as traditional as it gets.
Traditional mechanics befit Vay‘s classic RPG tale. Prince Heibelger (Sandor in the 1994 localization; this incarnation uses character and location names based on the original Japanese version) is about to marry his lady love, Elin, in a poignant ceremony. Unfortunately, the evil Danek empire has other plans. They raze Heibelger’s castle with weapons of mass destruction, kill his parents (the king and queen), and kidnap his bride. The king’s dying words send Heibelger on a quest to revive the legendary Vay armor and save the day. The story progresses linearly with no sidequests, minigames, or other distractions. Heibelger is laser-focused on his objectives and Vay‘s progression reflects that, though there are a few plot twists along the way.
During his journey, Heibelger meets several characters who join the quest. The characters aren’t the most developed, and dialogue is stilted at times, but there was a valiant effort to give the writing personality. NPCs bemoaning the economy in a small fishing village, for example, show the townspeople’s frustration at the evil empire squeezing out their livelihood by commandeering their waterways. On the other hand, some attempts at comic relief fell completely flat. Vay is an earnest game with an earnest protagonist, so the Working Designs-style attempts at lowbrow humor cheapen that vibe. Thankfully, this version omits that 1994 localization’s infamous farting fairy nonsense (which was never in the original Japanese version, by the way). Vay fans know what I’m talking about.
Vay was one of the first RPGs for the Sega CD and showcased the platform’s power via full-motion video anime cutscenes interspersed throughout. They look choppy, grainy, and dated by today’s standards but were a visual marvel thirty years ago. These are voiced cutscenes, and this remake offers a choice of English (from the 2008 port) or Japanese voice tracks. Optional subtitles are available as well, regardless of chosen language. I recommend selecting the Japanese voice track since it has the better voice acting. I would also turn on subtitles since both voice tracks sound slightly muffled.
Vay‘s in-game graphics, by contrast, do not showcase the Sega CD’s power. Despite environments having crisper outlines and more vivid colors than typical Genesis/MegaDrive RPGs, Vay‘s locations have limited colors and textures, making most places look and feel similar. For example, every castle I went through had the exact same tiles in the exact same shades of grey. A more diverse color palette and a greater assortment of tile textures would have added much-needed variety to Vay‘s environments. The sprites look alright but don’t fully resemble the lovely shoujo-style art from the cutscenes. The most jarring is Leifang (Rachel in 1994 localization), who has red hair in cutscenes, yet her sprite has blue hair. The upgraded battle backgrounds look terrific, though, especially those for late-game dungeons. You can swap to the original battle backgrounds if desired.
Vay‘s music is decent, but there is too little of it. The music selection is extremely limited, and repeatedly hearing the same town and dungeon themes gets tiring over the long haul. The final dungeon doesn’t even have its own theme. It recycles a piece of music from the beginning of the game! On a positive note, the music looping is far smoother now than in prior releases. There is no longer a pause between when a piece of music ends and starts playing again. Sound effects are preserved from the original but are not very good. For example, hitting foes with melee weapons sounds more like a fart than a slash or punch.
Vay‘s 2024 incarnation is far from perfect and still rather old-school in many regards, but has enough modern quality-of-life features to offer a rosy nostalgia trip. I’ve always had a soft spot for this often-overlooked title and am glad to see it nicely updated like this. Vay is not a game for everyone, even those nostalgic for Sega CD RPGs, but seeing a solid version of it readily available and easily accessible is a wonderful thing.
