Valis III
From Sega Retro
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Valis III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Renovation Game (Japan), Renovation Products (US) Edia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Nihon Telenet D4 Enterprise | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original system(s): PC Engine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Action[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Valis III (ヴァリスIII) is a 1991 action game for the Sega Mega Drive. It is a port of the 1990 action game of the same name for the CD-ROM² by Telenet Japan. It was the first Valis game released on a Sega system; the first two games would follow.
A European release was planned by Ubisoft[14] but it did not materialise.
Contents
Story
After the events of Valis II, the Dark World is being destroyed. The fortuneteller Leigh informs the Dark World's king, Glames, that they only have six months before it is destroyed. Hopeless, Glames decides to become king of both the Human World and Dreamland, but he knows that Nizetti, the ruler of Vecanti, is controlling the power level of the Valis sword and that any attempt to invade either world would result in Yuko coming with a full-powered Valis to destroy him. Nevertheless, he takes the risk, knowing his sword Leethus, is just as powerful as Valis and that both swords can be combined for terrible destructive power.
Gameplay
The game is a platformer. The game is initially played as Yuko, but Cham and Valna become available to play after rescuing them. The characters move with and and crouch with . They jump with , jump higher with +, and jump off ledges with +. They can slide along the ground with +, which can be used to evade enemies or to move over gaps in the terrain. The player can switch the active character by holding while standing still. The active character cannot be switched during boss fights.
The characters attack using their standard weapons with . Attacks neutralize enemy projectiles. Their attacks are stronger when the power gauge is fuller. Attacks expend the power gauge, but it quickly replenishes. Power-ups can be found to lengthen the power gauge to increase the maximum attack strength and to increase the speed at which the gauge replenishes. Characters also have special magical abilities, which are cast with + after finding a magic ability item. The magic ability item gives the characters the ability to cast spells with either the fire, ice, or thunder elements. Magic abilities cost magic points, which can be restored by finding items. In addition to having different standard weapons, Yuko, Cham, and Valna have different magic abilities.
Characters have a hit point gauge that indicates their health. They lose hit points when they take damage from enemies, but they can restore health by finding items. The characters share their hit points and magic points. They lose a life when they lose all of their hit points and must restart the stage. Additionally, each stage has a time limit, and the player also loses a life when time runs out. Characters lose their weapon upgrades and magic points when they lose a life. The game ends if the player runs out of lives. There are no continues.
Characters
Yuko | |
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Yuko is the Warrior of Valis and keeper of the Sword of Valis. She is the strongest fighter of the three. Valis shoots a wave-like projectile when it is swung; the distance that it travels is farther when the power gauge is fuller. She has the weakest magic but also the lowest cost magic abilities. | |
Cham | |
Cham is a warrior maiden who was born in the Dark World. She fights with a deadly, medium-ranged whip. She steals the Valis sword at the beginning of the game but later joins Yuko and fights alongside her. | |
Valna | |
Valna is Yuko's sister and the Queen of Dreamland. She carries a magical staff. She has a relatively weak projectile attack that attacks forwards as well as upwards. She has strong magical abilities, but her magic consumes more energy. |
Magic
Magic abilities are dependent on the currently held magic item and differ for each character.
Flame | |
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Yuko's flame ability is the Flame Dagger, which conjures two fiery daggers that fly out to seek enemies.
Cham's flame ability is the Fire Dragon, which summons a fire dragon that attacks enemies. Valna's flame ability is the Fire Star, which surrounds Valna in fireballs that protect her and harm enemies that they touch. | |
Ice | |
Yuko's ice ability is the Ice Cutter, which discharges an ice wave that temporarily freezes enemies that it hits.
Cham's ice ability is the Ice Throw, which shoots penetrating icy arrows in both directions horizontally. The arrows temporarily freeze enemies that they hit. Valna's ice ability is the Chill Cube, which shoots ice shards in the four diagonal directions that temporarily freeze enemies that they hit. | |
Thunder | |
Yuko's thunder ability is the Thunder Sword, a screen flash that damages all enemies on screen.
Cham's thunder ability is the Lightning Bolt, which fires lightning bullets in a semicircle above her. Valna's thunder ability is the Thunder Storm, which unleashes electric sparks that bounce around the screen and attack enemies. |
Items
Item Box | |
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Attack to reveal an item. | |
S Magic | |
Restores the MP gauge by 2 points. | |
B Magic | |
Restores the MP gauge by 8 points. | |
Healing | |
Restores the HP gauge by 4 points. | |
Recover | |
Restores the HP gauge by 16 points. | |
1 Up | |
Gives the player an extra life. | |
Power Up | |
Lengthens the power gauge, up to three levels. | |
Charging Speed | |
Makes the power gauge charge faster. | |
Flame | |
Equips the characters with flame magic. | |
Blizzard | |
Equips the characters with ice magic. | |
Thunder | |
Equips the characters with thunder magic. |
Stages
Act 1 | |
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Act 2 | |
Cham becomes playable in this act. | |
Act 3 | |
Valna becomes playable in the last part of this act. | |
Act 4 | |
Act 5 | |
Act 6 | |
Act 7 | |
The final boss can only be played as Yuko. |
History
Development
Valis III, alongside Ys III, features an intriguing interlaced mode cheat which, according to the latter's manual, "shakes the screen to display text clearly. Normally you don't need to use this mode."[15] The original version of the game was released for the PC-8801, a home computer system with the ability to separately render interlaced, high-resolution text atop its standard 8-bit graphics, with the game seeming to have used this option for monitor compatibility reasons. When activated in Valis III, the software engages interlaced mode 2, doubling the resolution by drawing odd and even 8x16 pixel tiles on even/odd frames[16]
Despite this, both manuals claiming it has circumstantial utility, with evidence indicating it was intended for Mega Drive users playing on RGB monitors - as the interlacing removes scanlines, which can improve readability issues with kanji.[17] It appears that Nihon Telenet were overzealous in the porting process and wanted to faithfully port the game's INT MODE somehow, regardless of whether the port was originally programmed to actually take advantage of it. As a result, these mostly-vestigial leftovers from the original PC-8801 versions have remained a curious and vestigial quirk of their Mega Drive ports.
Legacy
The game was re-released as part of Valis Collection by Retro-Bit in 2022. It was also re-released as part of Mugen Senshi Valis Collection III for the Nintendo Switch by Edia in December 2023 on Japan and January 2024 worldwide. It was released for the Nintendo Switch once again in stand-alone format on May 2024 in Americas and June 2024 internationally. Both re-releases on the system keeps the Sega logo at the startup.
Production credits
- Programmer: Masayasu Tamamoto, Yoshiki UAI Yamauchi
- Graphic designer: Kiku, David Iwata, Yoshihisa Shimizu, Seiichirou Nagatomo, Sophy Kinoshita
- Scenario writer: Ohta(Hachiohji)
- Music: Takaharu Umezu, Michiko Naruke, Minoru Yuasa
- Music director: Shinobu Ogawa
- Special thanks to: Business suport Co.,Ltd.
- Art work director: T. Neko Miura
- Art work staff: Takao Yoshioka, Masahisa Ohno, Yuma Miura, Mitsuho Abe
- Special thanks to: Kazuyuki Fukushima, Yuji Fukushima, Jiro Fukushima, Yoshinobu Abe, Takami Kinoshita, Tetsuji Matuzawa, Mie Nakahara
- Original game licensed by: Shin-nihon Laser Soft Co.,Ltd.
- Total producer: Takashi Fukusima
Digital manuals
Magazine articles
- Main article: Valis III/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- Mega Drive Fan (JP) #12: "January 1991" (1990-12-08)[19]
also published in:
- Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #27: "October 1991" (1991-xx-xx)[20]
also published in:
- Velikiy Drakon (RU) #61: "xxxx xxxx" (2003-02-07)[21]
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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72 | |
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Based on 26 reviews |
Mega Drive, JP |
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Technical information
- Main article: Valis III/Technical information.
References
NEC Retro has more information related to Valis III
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- ↑ File:Valis3 MD JP Box.jpg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-08), page 15
- ↑ GamePro, "June 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 42
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 GamePro, "July 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 80
- ↑ https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/game/?product_id=1010
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000075524.html (Wayback Machine: 2024-06-05 21:24)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/valis-iii-mega-drive-switch/ (archive.today)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/VALIS-III-MEGA-DRIVE--2586425.html (Ghostarchive)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 https://www.nintendo.com/de-de/Spiele/Nintendo-Switch-Download-Software/VALIS-III-MEGA-DRIVE--2586425.html (Ghostarchive)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000076459 (archive.today)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://store.nintendo.co.kr/70010000076460 (Wayback Machine: 2024-08-15 15:02)
- ↑ https://store.nintendo.co.kr/70010000057758 (Wayback Machine: 2023-06-06 13:41)
- ↑ Sega Force, "January 1992" (UK; 1991-12-12), page 10
- ↑ File:WanderersFromYs_MD_JP_PEGG_Manual.PDF, page 12
- ↑ https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads%2Fwhy-does-ys-iii-feature-an-interlaced-video-mode.43060%2F#post-1077318 (Wayback Machine: 2024-09-16 04:41)
- ↑ https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads%2Fwhy-does-ys-iii-feature-an-interlaced-video-mode.43060%2F#post-1077333 (Wayback Machine: 2024-09-16 04:41)
- ↑ File:Valis III MD credits.pdf
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "January 1991" (JP; 1990-12-08), page 36
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 73
- ↑ Velikiy Drakon, "xxxx xxxx" (RU; 2003-02-07), page 68
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 232
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 255
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-08), page 28
- ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 136
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 231
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "April 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 22
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 10, "" (RU; 2003-10-08), page 227
- ↑ Games-X, "31st May 1991" (UK; 1991-05-24), page 36
- ↑ Hippon Super, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-04), page 41
- ↑ Joystick, "Mai 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 157
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 93
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 95
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "June 1991" (JP; 1991-05-08), page 91
- ↑ Mega Play, "March/April 1991" (US; 1991-04-xx), page 44
- ↑ Power Play, "7/91" (DE; 1991-06-12), page 126
- ↑ Raze, "July 1991" (UK; 1991-05-30), page 59
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 54
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 55
- ↑ Sega Pro, "Christmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-12), page 62
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 66
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 68
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Tilt, "Juin 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 76
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 134
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 215
Valis III | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs |
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Valis III (1991) | Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (1991) | Syd of Valis (1992) |
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