Inspired by this throwaway thought from @Rudie, I started playing through Vay last night, streaming over Discord. And boy howdy, Vay sure exists.
What is Vay?
A question for the ages that no one has asked in just as many ages. Vay is a Sega CD game from 1993 developed by Hertz, a game development focused subsidiary of Hertz Engineering, which the few references to on the internet say was an "accoustic engineering company". Vay was released in 1993 in Japan, and made it to america thanks to the "wonderous" efforts of one Vic Ireland and his "legendary" company Working Designs.And itās not pronounced āvaiā goddamit.
Background Info
Who the heck was Hertz?
So glad you asked. The best source for info on Hertz is this interview here with Tsunetomo_Sugawara who sure did work at Hertz, and not much else. Hertz only made a few original games:
- Psycho World for MSX2 (later ported to the master system as Psychic World)
- Sword Legend of Lenam also for the MSX2
- Outrun 2019 for the Mega Drive
- Vay for the Sega CD
In addition, they also ended up doing some proting work. The MD version of Outrun is them, and they got to add their little logo to it on a passing road sign:
They would use code from this port to develop Outrun 2019, so thatās fun to know, sure.
Working Designs is what?
Oh you sweet innocent child, asking questions like this. Working Designs was a company run by Vic Ireland, a man dedicated to localising all the sorta B tier Japanese RPGs of the 16 and 32 bit eras that he could pay for the licenses to, often releasing them in ridiculous Collectorās Editions and almso always with some kind of embossing on the covers. He also seemed to think he knew better than the devlopers of these games that he proclaimed loudly his love for, and so almost all of them had just the worst balance changes done to them.
Ask any American Treasure fan about WD, and you will hear all about how WD upped the cost of all the weapons in that game (which the developers clearly intended you to be able to get all of) to the point where you could maybe buy one of the 8 by the end of the game. This meant that you had to beat the game basically with the starter weapon, which was the opposite of how it was designed. It was miserable.
Of course, Vic and the WD Squad did this to Vay as well, because that helps.
Play the Game Already
So Vay is a pretty basic af JRPG with a few cool things about it. It's like 15 hours long, so big ups for that. The story is something about an ancient mech that "destroyed the world" long ago[1] and we need to journey as the Prince **Sandor** to go get that mech. Why? Because the evil Danek empire used their mechs dropped out of bombers to screw up our wedding day and kidnap our bride-to-be **Elin**[2] and killed our dear poppop and muhmah. This is of course all presented in the two big animation sequences at the beginning of the game, because this is a CD game after all. Vic Ireland decided to make the one before the title screen not skippable, so sure hope you like hearing the story of the ancient mech every time you start the game.Along the way, our hero forms a party with some other RPG characters, including:
-
Pottle, an elfish lad who was originally a sageās attendant until he was unceremoneously passed off to the Prince because of his excellent magic abilities, which mostly so far are the same spells Sandor has, but more powerful and he has more MP too. @AutomaticTiger decided that Pottle had the voice of an annoying British orphan, and it tracks.
-
Rachel, a mercenary woman who uses claws to fight, only gets one spell so far, and the localization informs us likes to wear leather, because this mostly non horny game needed more of that, Vic. Pottle also has an opinion:
(ābabetteā being the well known feminized version of the term ābabeā, which in the ABSOLUTELY CORRECT opinon of the Working Designs localization squad can only be used to refer to men now) -
Thereās probably at least one more character, just going by the available slots on the screen.
So off we go into the world of some actually kinda good looking sprite work, some questionable localization decisions, and a pretty basic ass plot.
How did Working Designs screw this up?
Aside from the ridiculous localisation (which I will always have more to post about), Vic et al. decided that the numbers just didn't work the way they wanted, so they made them way harder, and then in one specific way a lot easier.Harder:
- Inns cost way more. In the original version, inns cost all of 4 GP, which early on is a godsend, because there is significant cash money grind early, so that price is a lifeline. A lifeline that Vic decided need to be 5 times more expensive, because you should just have to grind for more cash. Love that grind.
- Spells take way too much MP. The first spell you get (Balm) is a basic healing spell. When you get this spell for Sandor at level 2, you have 10 MP. In the original version, this spell costs 2 MP to cast. In the WD version, it costs 10 MP. Yes, all your MP. And you only get 5 MP per level early on, so you donāt get to cast it twice until you are level 4 withou staying at an overly expensive inn in between.
- Spell names are puns that make no sense. I donāt know what the names of the spells are in the Japanese original, but your first healing spell is called Balm, and at level 6 or 7, Pottle gets a spell called Neuman (this is totally supposed to be a Sienfeld reference for some reason) thatā¦is just the second higher level of Balm. The game gives you like no indication of this. You just use it at some point and figure it out.
- Probably some other ways I donāt know about.
Easier:
- Every time you gain a level in the WD version, your health and HP get refilled, which is nice, except that it sorta undermines the grinding that Vic so clearly wanted us all to enjoy, so it seems like a bad idea.
So, as with any WD game, you should probably go find the Un-Working Designs-ed version. Itās our there. The one I am playing didnāt touch the localization though, which thank goodness, because it is dumb as heck.
The Journey So Far
So after his wedding and family gets wrecked by the evil empire, Sandor journeys south in the land of LORATH through a town called JEFFLE to a cave called PAUTH to find the sage who might know some stuff about the ancient mech. The sage tells Sandor that the mech destroyed the world, but then was sealed up by five Mages who used five Orbs to seal it, so you gotta get those, but donāt worry about the mech blowing shit up too bad, because the Sage can totally control it, OK? The Sage also pawns off his assitant Pottle on Sandor, telling him that the kid is totally a magic prodigy or whatever. I think he also mentions that there is a tunnel in SMYTHE that will get you into the Danek fort. Also that the first Orb is off the west coast, so go get it, once you get past the fort.
So off Sandor and Pottle go to SMYTHE where thet eventually find a Smith who tells them the tunnel to FORT GALIN is in the graveyard. Sandor finds a tombstone he can shove aside, and our duo heads into a tunnel full of undead[3]. They get into Galin, and the guy who runs the whole Danek army is there, but he peaces out, leavingthem to fight SUPERMANTIS (get it? itās a āpunā on Superman but about a giant mantis, because Vic Ireland). Once the SUPERMANTIS is dropped, our lads get the proper eugenicist reception they so richly deserve.
Er, well, Sandor does. Nobody says shit about Pottle because why would you when the actual noble bloodline is like right here? Duuuuuuuh.
Continuing on through LORATH, our duo comes to the town of CORYAN, which totally has a dock next to it, but the Daneks have taken all the boats, those bastards, and we are informed that our only hope for getting to the island of the Orb is by getting the Wind Fairy in WINDSPUR to blow us over there, but people seem not too happy to do that. Also a dude in the bar mentions how hot the mercenary running around in all the leather is, so thatās (not) nice. WINDSPUR is through the DROUST cave to the north.
Of course, this is where we meet Rachel, who is dressed far more conservatively than the hornt bar bro led us to believe, thankfully, and is trying to solo a Night Gaunt, āa most foul creatureā, who on the map looks like Robocop:
but in battle is just another undead creature.
Note: this is where people watching me stream reminded me I have a button set up for screencaps, so hey, thereās more screenshots here.
DROUST is also home to this awesome bear sprite:
Look at him. Heās ready to fight a dude. Heās got his pose ready, gonna block with that left and hit you with that right at a momentās notice. This is the most positive depictions of bears I have seen recently since MtGās Bearscape. Also that is what combat looks like, and itās great. Itās snappy as hell, too, aside from the lag of the CD audio starting (which doesnāt slow the fight down at all, so sometimes you are done with a battle like 2 seconds into a song).
Eventually, our troublesome trio make it to WINDSPUR and after like 5 floors of tower climbing with no enemies at all, they finally meet the Wind Fairy and I hope you are ready for shit to somehow get even more Working Designs than before, because here we go:
Thatās right, the Wind Fairy FARTS! WHOA! VIC, YOU CRAZY SONUVAā¦! SO RANDOM! LOLOLOLOLOLOL. And how are we gonna get to the Orb island?
OH WORD? Youāre gonna fart us across the sea? That is totally a thing that was in the original version of this game and it completely real, right? Right? RIGHT?! Which is why there is no animation or sound effect indicating that any fart ever happened. OK.
Post-flatulence, the trio of fartees lands on MAGMAL, a fire island where they venture through a lava cave, eventually coming to what looks like a tarp over a giant on the ground, where a downtuned announcer voice claiming to be the voice of one of the mages says nobody should revive the mech, but if you want the Orb that bad, you gotta fight his EARTH ELEMENTAL, who for some reason uses fire but is earth, so donāe ask questions. His sprite is also rad as hell:
Two arms, two maybe tentacles, and a lot of earthly rage. So they kill him. And get the first Orb in their Quest.
The trio gets the heck outta there, taking the boat that they noticed immediately post the Magical Fart back to CARYDON We get an FMV of MAGMAL sinking behind them, and SANDOR* glances over his shoulder, watching the island sink and probably thinking something like āthat is totally sweetā in an Eric Cartman voice if Vic could have found a way to sneak that in.
And that is where I stopped because I needed sleep.
Should I Play Vay?
The obvious answer is "good lord no, you are going to die someday", but if you have some weird affection for absolutely bog standard JRPGS, bad 90s anime dubbing, or Working Designs malarkey, sure, go for it. It's supposedly like 15 hours long. It's mostly innoffensive once you get rid of Vic's numbers-based "improvements" and some of the music is nice (shout outs to the cave music, dubbed **CAVE.WAV** by Rudie, which is some nice stuff, and the 90s as fuck battle music).While I was playing, Rudie did find one Japanese review of this game that said there was nothing positive or negative that they could say about the game. Itās that kind of game. I will stream more of it tonight on the HP or SNEXploration Discord, probably at like 10 EST. Be there, because SANDOR is watching.
1: Yet somehow, we are still on this bitch of a world at the time of Vay so who even knows what that means.
2: Which has at least two different pronunciations in the VA work. The VA work in general is very "Early 90s anime dub" quality, so this shouldn't be a surprise.
3: Because it is a tunnel through a graveyard. In a rare thing for this game, this actually makes some kinda sense.
