Vay (rhymes with "eye") was released on the Sega CD by Working Designs, which certainly gave it some clout with '90s gamers - having an RPG with animated cutscenes, quality voicework, some touches of graphic violence and Working Designs's erm, colorful dialog embellishments gave those who owned a Sega CD some bragging rights. Beyond the publisher's name recognition, though, it's a pretty bog-standard RPG in most every respect. Simple turn-based combat, rather flat graphics and generic music, and quite a bit of slow-paced grinding for equipment. The titular story element is the Vay Armor, a giant powered armor suit, but sadly all it translates to in terms of gameplay is a powerful piece of armor and weaponry for your main character. The world design is pretty linear overall - there's pretty much no optional areas, puzzles or deciphering clues to find your next objective, and dungeons are mostly just linear corridors full of monsters to fight. Vay is competently made in most respects, but not a lot about it stands out even in its time. Vay also had a very unenviable release window, coming out in North America about two months after Final Fantasy VI and in a release year sandwiched between the release of the two Lunar games on the same platform - all top-of-the-line titles in their genre. It may have value for a few Sega CD adopters as a nostalgic favorite, but even to them Vay is probably best left as a good memory while other, more worthy RPGs should get the revisit treatment instead.
