Valis III

Valis III (ヴァリスⅢ, Varisu Surī) is a platform game developed by Telenet Japan and originally released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1990 in Japan and the TurboGrafx-CD in 1992 in North America. It was also later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis. Valis III is the third game in the Valis series and once again features the series' main protagonist Yuko as the lead character as she is also joined by her sister, Valna, and a young warrior named Cham who are new playable characters.

Valis III
Packaging for the PC Engine version
Developer(s)Laser Soft
Reno (MD/SG)
Publisher(s)
  • NA: Renovation (SG)
SeriesValis
Platform(s)PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, Mega Drive/Genesis, Windows
ReleasePC Engine CD-ROM²/TurboGrafx-CD
Mega Drive/Genesis
  • JP: March 22, 1991
  • NA: April, 1991
Genre(s)Platform game, hack and slash
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

The main difference of Valis III to the previous games in the Valis series is that the player is now in control of multiple characters that can be switched at any time - which is highly reminiscent of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, each of them using different upgradable weapons (Yuko has a chargeable energy wave, Cham has a whip, and Valna shoots magical blasts from her wand) and spells (of lightning, fire, and ice variety). The characters cannot be switched during the boss fights, where the choice of the character also results in a different cutscene, and in some stages (mostly demanding the main heroine Yuko). Another feature new to the series is a ground slide move which can double as an attack.[2]

The game's port for the Mega Drive/Genesis has most of the cinematic cutscenes cut. Several levels were removed and a new one was added to this version, while the remaining levels are more similar to each other. However, boss fights were improved.[2]

Plot

King Glames (ぐらめす, Guramesu) (voiced by Daisuke Gori) leads denizens of the Dark World to conquer both Earth and Vecanti. He seeks a home for his people before the destruction of his planet. Against this common foe, Yuko Asou finds help in her new girlfriends, a Dark World warrior-maiden named Cham (ちゃむ, Chamu) (voiced by Yūko Mita), who was a demon born in the Dark World and uses a deadly whip, and her own sister Valna Asou (あそう' ばるな, Asou Baruna) (voiced by Aya Hisakawa), who grew up within Vecanti and became strong in the ways of magic. Furthermore, the Valis sword is shown to be capable of more than what Yuko has accomplished with it thus far.

During the course of the game, Yuko rescues the kidnapped Cham and Valna from captivity. A visit to the ruler of Vecanti, Nizetti (にぜち, Nizeti), unleashes the blade's full potential, which culminates in a climactic battle between the three girls and Glames as well the returning antagonist from the first game, Rogmes (voiced by Koji Totani). The Valis warrior defeats them both, and for her dutiful and unwavering service, Yuko is permitted to step down from being a guardian and become a goddess in Vecanti, leaving Earth behind forever. The Valis sword retires to the heavens as well, as the dream world prepares itself for prosperity, while Cham and Valna wave good-bye to Yuko as she departs to take on her new role.

Release

Originally developed and published by Telenet Japan for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1990 in Japan, Valis III was later released for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991 in Japan by Sega and North America by Renovation Products, and for the TurboGrafx-CD by Turbo Technologies (NEC) in North America in 1992.[2] Ubisoft contemplated publishing the game in Europe,[3] but nothing came of it.

Project EGG released the PC Engine version for Windows in 2007,[4] along with the Complete Plus compilation that came with a soundtrack CD and a figure.[5] A 1993 CD Valis Visual Collection contains all the cutscenes from the PC Engine version.[6]

Reception

Valis III was very well received by video game critics. Its original version for the PC Engine CD (TurboGrafx-CD) was rated an 8/10 by Turboplay,[7] and was also scored 87%, 94%, and 90% by French magazines Génération 4, Joystick, and Player One, respectively.[8][9][10] According to Sam Derboo from Hardcore Gaming 101, "at the time of its release, Valis III was by far the most versatile, fun and best-looking game in the series."[2]

Damian Butt from Sega Pro gave the Mega Drive/Genesis port, previously described by the magazine as "amazing",[3] a review score of 79%, opining it "lacks the edge-of-the-seat gameplay that made El Viento the winner."[11] French magazines Génération 4, Joystick, and Tilt rated it 85%,[12] 80%,[13] and 70%,[14] while RAZE scored the game (misnamed as "Phantasy Soldier 3") an 85%.[15] Retrospectively, Robert Menes from Sega-16 awarded it 8 stars out of 10, stating that "although a bit of an obscure game, Valis III deserves at least one playthrough from any respectable Genesis owner,"[16] while IGN's Levi Buchanan reviewed it for a "Good" score of 7.5/10, writing this "strange Genesis side-scroller deserves revisiting," as "it looks great, has some nice music, and will give you plenty of challenge for your cash."[17]

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gollark: Wondrous.
gollark: <:snub_dodecadodecahedron:800390497431715901> <:snub_dodecadodecahedron:800390497431715901> <:BEES:825515690613145610> <:bees:800387765665398814>
gollark: Perhaps you should make more apioform.
gollark: It's able to tell me when I can remove brackets for increased incomprehensibility, *and* detects when I do various nonidiomatic Haskell things and can fix them.

References
  1. "PC Engine: All Titles -1990-" (in Japanese). Telenet Japan. Archived from the original on November 18, 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  2. "Valis". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  3. Sega Pro 2 (December 1991), page 24.
  4. "夢幻戦士ヴァリスIII / レトロゲーム総合配信サイト、プロジェクトEGG". Amusement-center.com. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  5. "夢幻戦士ヴァリスCOMPLETE PLUS / レトロゲーム総合配信サイト、プロジェクトEGG". Amusement-center.com. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  6. "Valis Visual Collection - The PC Engine Software Bible". Pcengine.co.uk. 1993-02-19. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  7. "TurboPlay Magazine #10 (December 1991/January 1992) :: TurboPlay Magazine Archives". Archives.tg-16.com. 1991-10-25. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  8. "Valis III Review image" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  9. "Valis III review" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  10. "Core G. CD-ROM" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  11. "Out-of-Print Archive • Mega Drive/Genesis reviews • Valis III". Outofprintarchive.com. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  12. "Valis III Review image" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  13. "Valis III review" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  14. "Rolling Softs" (JPG). Download.abandonware.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  15. RAZE issue 9 (July 1991) p. 59.
  16. Robert Menes (2006-04-10). "Sega-16 – Valis III". Sega-16.com. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  17. "Valis 3 Review - IGN". Uk.ign.com. 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
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