Return to The Spooky Raymansion
| Return to The Spooky Raymansion | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Developed by | Ryemanni | |
| Soundtrack by | Nathalie Drouet, Rémi Gazel, Frédéric Louvre, Frédéric Prados and Olaf Zalcman (credits music from Rayman) Éric Chevalier (ambient music from Rayman 2 The Great Escape) Plume, Fred Leonard and Laurent Parisi (chase and ambient music from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc) Ryemanni (edited soundtrack) Kellin Quinn, MEG, Julian Comeau, Tyler Smith and Tomoya Ohtani (Undefeatable from Sonic Frontiers) | |
| Release date | Windows:
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| Genre | First-person horror maze | |
| Gameplay mode | Single player | |
| Platforms | PC | |
| Ratings | All ages (OGRS) | |
| Distribution media | Digital download | |
| Game engine | Godot | |
Return to The Spooky Raymansion, also referred to as "The Spooky Raymansion 4", is the fourth entry in the Spooky Raymansion series created by Ryemanni and released in 2023. This is Ryemanni's first game to be running under the Godot engine and which got a release on itch.io.
It is the direct sequel to The Spooky Raymansion 3, but features a gameplay and themes akin to The Spooky Raymansion and The Spooky Raymansion 2 due to the Tings and Ting Finder returning, and the game's events taking place in the real Glade of Dreams. Most of its locations are from the same setting as The Spooky Raymansion 2, sharing most of the same visual and audio identity, making the game into a partial remake or reboot of the second title.
It features most elements introduced in the past entries, such as Noseless Rayman as the sole antagonist, sprinting, a portable light source like the lantern, switches, or secrets required to witness the true ending. Return to The Spooky Raymansion also introduces new mechanics like limited endurance, power-ups, and some verticality in the level design for the first time. However, the player is unable to crawl in this fourth game.
Plot
Unlike its predecessor whose setting was within a nightmare, Return to The Spooky Raymansion takes place in Rayman's real world.
The game starts as Rayman reads a torn and ink-stained letter from a friend, who found a place full of Tings and went exploring it so they can be set for life. The friend tells Rayman to go look for him if he doesn't return by dawn. Rayman goes to the place at night, and after going through a small maze outside, finds the mansion where he once escaped from with the bootleg game Rayman IV.
Intro
The introductory level is a small maze outside the mansion, in a sinister marsh-like area similar to Level 1 from The Spooky Raymansion 2, with the sinister building ultimately reached at the end of it. Rayman breaks in through the wooden obstruction and enters the proper first level. It is not referred to as Level 1 unlike its counterpart in The Spooky Raymansion 2, and it does not feature any secret. If ignoring the original instance of Level 1 in the second game, it is the only level in the series where Noseless Rayman does not appear at all, making it absolutely safe.
Level 1
The first normal level in the game, which shares the same visual theme as the maze in The Spooky Raymansion and as Level 2 in The Spooky Raymansion 2. Its music is also the same except highly edited. Its first room is a large open space connected to two corridors and featuring many stairs leading to various doors, also introducing the player to the first elevator exit and the first hidden switch. The first secret is a Rayman 1 game box.
Level 2
Exiting the first elevator, Rayman finds a seemingly very old wooden place. It shares the same visual theme as Level 3 in The Spooky Raymansion 2, and its music is the same except highly edited. It is comprised of two floors and takes the shape of a big square with four smaller squares in the middle of each of its corners, featuring many doors leading to many cramped maze-like hallways inside of them and to the stairs separating the floors. The second secret is located inside the northwestern square and is a box of Rayman 2 The Great Escape.
Level 3
Coming out of the elevator, Rayman finds himself into a dark cave with a huge pit in the middle, bridges linking the various parts of this underground. It shares a very similar visual theme to Level 4 in The Spooky Raymansion 2, and it uses a similar heavily edited ambient music. Rayman must carefully descend through the various floors all the way to the elevator at the bottom, while grabbing the Tings and avoiding Noseless Rayman looking for him in the cavern. The third secret is a game box of Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc.
Level 4
Leaving the elevator, Rayman enters an underground asylum-like structure with a reception and many floors. It shares a very similar visual theme to the first section of Level 5 in The Spooky Raymansion 2, using a similar ambient music which is heavily edited. The fourth and final secret is a box of an unofficial Rayman 4, using a cover mockup by MarkProductions.
Level 5
The elevator crashes into a straight tunnel filled with many crates. It shares a similar visual theme with Level 4 in The Spooky Raymansion 2, and has a similar structure and chase to Level 4 in The Spooky Raymansion 3. Noseless Rayman reveals a giant new form of his during this level, chasing Rayman by crawling towards him after collapsing the elevator and breaking out of the wall behind. Rayman must run away from him while getting around the crates blocking the way and carefully managing his endurance until he reaches the ultimate exit.
If Rayman completes the level without all the secrets, the final elevator will go up instead, allowing him to safely escape with some Tings, but at the cost of being unable to find and rescue his friend. The level will also be marked as incompleted.
In the case the player has acquired all the secrets, the elevator will descend to Level 6. Level 5 will also be marked automatically as completed if experienced previously without the secrets, making Level 6 already accessible directly from the main menu.
Level 6
The final elevator leads Rayman to a court with stone brick walls and a sinister red sky. It is the real world version of Level X from The Spooky Raymansion 2, and shares a similar structure to Level 5 from The Spooky Raymansion 3, even featuring a throwback to the boss battle in the latter.
There, Rayman finds his friend Globox chained up in the air and holding a shotgun in his hand, thus suggesting Noseless Rayman may have intended to capture Rayman all along for intruding his mansion. In the first and only dialogue of the Spooky Raymansion series, Globox thanks Polokus that Rayman is here, but warns him that the noseless monster is still out there. Globox lets go of the shotgun and tell Rayman to take it. Rayman mentions how he already defeated Noseless Rayman once in a nightmare, referring to the third game entirely taking place within a dream. Noseless Rayman taunts them angrily and loudly before finally appearing from the elevator.
The ultimate fight against Noseless Rayman is very similar to the battle from the previous game, with the noseless creature running after Rayman but sprinting only in short bursts, and spinning to throw many tall flames all around the place. Noseless Rayman cannot charge any more but gets a new attack after the flame one involving jumping high in the air and pounding the ground to create a few flames. Once half of Noseless Rayman's health is depleted, he'll grow giant, albeit not as massive as he was during Level 5. This makes it harder for Rayman to dodge his attacks, but has the benefit of making it easier to hit Noseless Rayman. Once defeated, Noseless Rayman will disappear in a big explosion.
Rayman and Globox escape with the Tings in a bag, rich, and most likely freed from Noseless Rayman's terror once and for all. However, if looking very closely at the mansion's entrance, Noseless Rayman's facial features can be spotted in the dark, implying he did survive his battle with Rayman. He also remains on the title screen, although it's likely an unintended behavior.
Gameplay
Return to The Spooky Raymansion is a first-person horror maze game with a focus on collecting Tings, thus returning to a gameplay structure more similar to The Spooky Raymansion and The Spooky Raymansion 2. Rayman can still sprint, but cannot crawl anymore. He has also now has a limited endurance, making it possible to run for only a few seconds. Due to the game's new sense of verticality with separate floors, it is sometimes possible for Rayman to fall out of a ledge to get to a lower floor quicker.
The Ting Finder returns as the Ting Finder 9000, a device pointing towards the nearest Ting and providing even more features than before. It can indicate the distance separating Rayman from a Ting and tell him in which floor it is located. The Ting Finder now functions as a flashlight which can be turned off, and with a limited battery replenished by picking up Tings. If the battery runs out, Rayman will find himself in complete darkness, making it almost impossible to survive.
Every time Rayman finds 40 Tings, a random power-up will appear in a specific spot of a level. If Rayman collects it, he can activate it from the Ting Finder 9000. These power-ups grant Rayman different temporary effects:
- Unlimited stamina: Rayman's endurance will not deplete for a while allowing him to run endlessly.
- Flashlight upgrade: the flashlight will illuminate most of the area.
- Ting detector: displays the positions of every Ting through all obstructions.
- Noseless Rayman detector: displays the position of Noseless Rayman so Rayman can anticipate his moves. Available if the player failed too many times.
The most common goal is once again to collect all the Tings, which will open the elevator to the next level. However, Rayman must run away from Noseless Rayman or fight him in a few levels instead. Noseless Rayman appears after a while with the same warning as before once Rayman steps out of a level's entrance, having two different spawn points and manifesting himself at the one furthest from Rayman. In every level, Rayman must not get caught by Noseless Rayman who will eliminate him instantly with a jump scare, except in Level 6 where Rayman has a health bar and can survive a lot of damage. Getting caught will also result in a game over with random messages, some of them being clues and others being jokes or references.
In this game, Noseless Rayman can see Rayman in the dark and will rush towards him whenever he spots him. Rayman can outrun him by sprinting, but this is very dangerous due to the limited endurance, making it vital to escape Noseless Rayman's field of view as quickly as possible to slow him down. As before, he will move inevitably towards Rayman, making it important to constantly stay on the move. However, unlike Rayman, the noseless monster cannot jump off from a ledge, allowing Rayman to more easily distance himself from Noseless Rayman.
Yellow Lums do not return and are instead replaced by four new secrets taking the shape of games from the Rayman series. Once a secret is picked up, it isn't necessary to complete the current level to register them, exiting the zone through the pause menu is enough. They are available in hidden locations concealed behind a locked metal door which must be opened by finding and triggering three hidden switches. Those places are safe once passing through the entrance's threshold, thus causing Noseless Rayman to retreat to his spawn point. They also contain a shortcut to the regular areas.
In the final level, Rayman is equipped with a shotgun, turning the game into a first-person shooter for the final battle once more. The flashlight feature remains available, despite Rayman holding the shotgun instead of the Ting Finder, although it isn't vital in this this final area due to the ambient lighting.
Gallery
Trivia
- Return to The Spooky Raymansion is Ryemanni's personal favourite game about Noseless Rayman, followed by The Spooky Raymansion 2.
- While the previous entries were horror Pac-Man games, Return to The Spooky Raymansion is directly inspired by Dark Deception.
- The game's maps were originally designed in Minecraft, and then converted to Blender and finally Godot.
- Noseless Rayman will only appear on the title screen once the Intro is completed. Strangely, Noseless Rayman won't disappear after the final level, unlike what his nightmarish counterpart did in The Spooky Raymansion 3, although Ryemanni has suggested this isn't intentional. The actual implication of Noseless Rayman surviving the game's events is through his extremely subtle appearance in the ending screen, his facial features glowing extremely faintly in the darkness of the mansion's entrance.
- The music playing on the title screen is the theme of the Tomb of the Ancients from Rayman 2 The Great Escape.
- The ambient music playing during the intro level is the "(Ambient) The Bog of Murk" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, returning from The Spooky Raymansion 2 but heavily altered.
- The ambient music playing during the introduction scene and Level 1 is the "(Ambient) Air Currents" track from Rayman 2 The Great Escape, returning from The Spooky Raymansion 2 but heavily altered.
- The ambient music playing during Level 2 is the "(Ambient) Razoff's Mansion" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, returning from The Spooky Raymansion 2 but heavily altered.
- The ambient music playing during Level 3 is the "'(Ambient) The Tunnels of the Knaaren" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, but heavily altered.
- The ambient music playing during Level 4 is the "(Ambient) The Spirit Realm" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, but heavily edited.
- The ambient music playing during Level 5 is "The Great Escape" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc. The attack theme of the Zombie Chickens from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc which was used in the previous was considered for the chase, but Ryemanni ultimately decided the rising lava music was more fitting for its pace.
- The music playing during the bad ending at the end of Level 5 is a sample of the "Moonlit Swamps ~Echoes in the Dark~" track from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, specifically its final part.
- The shotgun is from Team Fortress 2.
- The song playing during the final battle in Level 6 is "Undefeatable" from Sonic Frontiers. Here, the lyrics intentionally fit Rayman and Noseless Rayman, with Rayman no longer running from Noseless Rayman as he did in the past and overcoming his noseless counterpart so many times to the point he no longer feels like a nightmarish threat to him, fitting his confidence after all these adventures.
- The music playing during the true ending screen after Level 6 is the "Party at Joe's" track from the original Rayman.