'Lightning Warrior Raidy III' Unofficial-ish Discussion Thread

JAST Games Game Discussions
#1

I noticed no one has posted anything about this game yet, which is really kind of surprising in its own right. If I understand it right, the fact that Raidy III exists at all is something of a minor miracle. If you look here (or here, after the old forums go down), for a long time this game was regarded as "vaporware" that had been announced but would never actually get made. So, to see it officially heading to an international release is pretty neat!

The admins never started an official post on this one, so please feel free to use this space to discuss the newest adventure of that electric yuri wondergirl, Raidy. As they said on Scary Movie 3, great trilogies always come in threes... ;)

Physical Limited Edition: http://www.jlist.com/product/GC037

Download Edition: ??? (... where is this, anyway?)

#2

So, two questions to start things off:

First, does anyone know where any Lightning Warrior Raidy III gameplay video might be found? I know it’s not a full-blown RPG on the level of Yumina, Aselia, or Littlewitch Romanesque, but the interactivity / gameplay element looks pretty strong for an H-game. With that said, it would be cool to be able to watch a little gameplay before deciding if it’s something I’d be interested in. There are some videos of Raidy I and II on YouTube, and I’m wondering if the third game presented any leaps-and-bounds increase in visuals of any sort, or if it’s pretty similar.

Second, I have to admit that I haven’t played either of the previous two Raidy games, and I’ve heard (honest) mixed reviews. Could anyone give me a recommend of for/against the series based on individual factors? Something to the effect of: “You’ll love it if you like _____________. You’ll hate it if you can’t stand _________________.” Thanks!

#3

Something to keep in mind is that JAST's releases of Raidy 1 and Raidy 2 are remasters of PC-98 games from 1995. So yeah, the gameplay and story are exactly what you'd expect from nukige of that era. The sole reason to play these two games is the H-scenes. The gameplay is filler at best and outright obnoxious at worst. Worth mentioning is that Raidy 1 is incredibly short: there's only one dungeon which has like 5 floors, with one boss per floor. Raidy 2 is much longer with like 3x the content, and it's a bit less grindy than Raidy 1. The main advantage of Raidy 1 is that Raidy is more loli-looking. :P In general, I wouldn't recommend Raidy 1 to anyone except the most hardcore masochists, especially at $25. At least Raidy 2 gives you your money's worth in content. You'll miss out on some background and character introductions from Raidy 1, but it's a nukige so that's no big loss. Raidy 2 I'd recommend to people who like the art, like the concept of "sex if you win, sex if you lose", don't mind a threadbare plot, and consider the addition of mediocre dungeon crawling a bonus rather than a handicap.


Raidy 3 on the other hand is a completely new game, which means it leaves the trappings of the PC-98 era behind. It has higher VNDB scores than Raidy 1 and Raidy 2, though there's no telling if that's merely a language barrier artifact. I looked up the EGS scores of the three titles, but there's aberrancies in the scores that make me think they're not trustworthy.

#4

Dark Shiki, the reason why I didnt yet pre-order Raidy 3 was because it meant U had to pick these very old titles that are Raidy 1 and 2. So I was wondering, is the story so filmsy that you can you pick up Raidy 3 whitout playing Raidy 1 and 2? Also does Raidy 3 have more of a story (at the level of Kamidori perhaps?) than what you described the story as being like in Raidy 1? Or is it just you average nukiege?

#5

@DarkShiki: Thanks for the informative response! Wow, I had no idea the first two were of such old vintage… Well, somewhat, anyway. Like you said, they did constitute a remaster on the artistic side. And I do remember hearing about Raidy II being an all-around improvement to the first one, which I think had some simple gameplay mechanics problems that made it incredibly frustrating at points (the biggest one being an absence of a map, even of the “explore-as-you-go” variety, which is crazy for a dungeon crawler). All right… good to know. I might pick up the first two if I catch them on a really good sale at some point, and maybe the second one regardless. I do really like the art.

@Nier: DarkShiki’d obviously be a better source of info for this, but my impression is that the only major carry-over from the first game to the second was Raidy’s companions, who were bosses you defeated as you traveled up the tower in the first game. My bet is that the same will be true for this next sequel. Since Raidy III has that artbook and the collector cards that come with it, one or the other should probably tell you enough about the series that you could pick up the “story thus far” without much trouble.

#6

I dug up my review of Raidy 1.


I haven't played Raidy 3, since I decided I might as well wait for the English release this time. So I can't comment on the story. Someone on VNDB that played the demo commented that the prologue before you entered the first dungeon is fairly substantial, perhaps indicating that they put a little more effort into the story this time around. Raidy 3 is still a nukige, so if you go into it expecting a satisfying story, you're probably going to be disappointed.


Jacksprat is correct; the carryovers from the previous games are the characters Raidy met originally in Raidy 1, then encountered once more in Raidy 2. The missed content could be summed up in a paragraph (and indeed J-List has taken the liberty of doing so on its store page). My guess is the Raidy 3 prologue contains more non-sex-related story content than the entirety of Raidy 1, which should be more than enough to fill you in on the brief interactions you'll miss by not having played the first two games.


#7

@Dark_Shiki


I didn't see anything in the rules about it, but to be on the safe side I'll delete the original comment and will do a re-write. Would be very nice to have an edit function for our comments though.


Anyway, as I said previously the games stand on your stereotypical RPG grinding along with some retro first-person dungeon crawling. If those sort of things, along with mostly erotic yuri interactions, then give the games a shot.

#8

@Dark_Shiki


Actually, the re-write worked in my favor. I got my point across without being too wordy like last time. I have a bad habit of over explaining or going into too much detail, so it worked out in the end.

#9

@Father_Zed: Gotcha… So if you don’t mind the grind, the gameplay stands up pretty okay, huh? Good to know. Again, these differing opinions of the game itself (pretty much everyone seems cool with the art) are par for the course of what I’ve read about Raidy before. It has its fans and non-fans, and the difference seems to hinge mainly on how cool (or exasperated) people are with old-timey dungeon crawler elements.

***

Opening up another facet of conversation, I was interested by this part of the J-List description:

"The new game features a ‘fusion’ game system in which you can play the game multiple times, merging Raidy’s powers magically with her sidekicks, the wolf girl Fonfon, demon girl Tiss and the Dark Elf Folles."

Anyone want to speculate what that’s about? It could be a simple aspect of battle that lets you use more than just Raidy’s special attack, but the way they talk about “playing it multiple times” might also indicate that “choosing” a companion leads you toward a route with that character. That would be neat and add some replay value. What I’m hoping it doesn’t mean is that you’re only allowed to do the fusion thing with one character per playthrough but without any significant change beyond that. That’d be a hassle, just to see a few extra moves.

#10

I'm not sure what that means, but theoretically a different fusion would yield different H-scenes? From the system page on the official JP site, the description suggests that certain fusions are ideal or even necessary to win certain boss fights. That implies that you're not limited to one fusion per playthrough. My guess is that JAST wanted to imply replayability for marketing purposes, and didn't put much effort into making sure their description was clear and accurate. Kind of a recurring theme. :P



#11

Or they might have just said “times” when they meant to say “ways” and didn’t proofread well enough.

#12

This is meant to be out today. I wonder what time they’ll release it.

#13

Nope. Haven't received a download code yet and status hasn't changed to shipped.

#14

I pre-ordered the download edition and I've still not heard anything either. :(

#15

I really hope the codes are sent out today. I’m hoping they’ll go out tomorrow at the very latest. I can’t wait to start playing.

#16

I wrote a short info post on this game for those who are interested.


Erotic dungeon-crawler Lightning Warrior Raidy 3 strikes English shores


It includes a link to the Japanese OP trailer.

#17

Well it doesn't look like I'll get a chance to play it tonight. :( I'm kind of annoyed that there's been no update at all on this. I get it that delays happen but it would have been nice to have been given a heads up. They have been updating their twitter feed after all. Oh well...

#18

The game was sold at Anime Expo. I can't imagine why there'd be a delay. I suspect the download will be live in the next 24hrs.

#19

Well, the words "preorder" disappeared from the JAST USA shop page, but I still can't redeem my download card.

#20

I got an e-mail saying that my copy shipped. Still no download code or anything though :( Oh well. Hopefully, it will be there when I wake up tomorrow.