Valis: The Fantasm Soldier
From Sega Retro
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| Valis: The Fantasm Soldier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Renovation Products (US), Riot (JP)
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| Developer: Nihon Telenet
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| Original system(s): JP Home Computers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Valis: The Fantasm Soldier, called Mugen Senshi Valis (夢幻戦士ヴァリス) in Japan, is a 1991 action game for the Sega Mega Drive. It was originally released for the MSX, PC-8801, and X1 home computers in 1986.
Despite being the first game in the Valis series, the Mega Drive version is a remake that was released after Valis III was ported to the console.
Contents
Story
Yuko is walking when the weather repeatedly changes from raining to dry. Yuko notes that she dreamed about it the night before, and in that dream, she heard a voice call her. Suddenly, her friend Reiko appears, speaking in a very unusual fashion before leaving "for a while." While Yuko wonders why Reiko was acting weird, a monster appears out of nowhere and attacks. The voice from Yuko's dream calls out again — this time coming from someone in real life — and that person throws Yuko the Valis sword, allowing Yuko to attack not only this monster but all the monsters coming in.
That person turns out to be Valia, a being from a fantasy world that exists in another dimension, but is bound to the dimension Earth is in ("the real world") by the internal "Yin"/"Yang" balance of people's souls — which has come out of balance because of Yin's power "Vecanta," which has caused "people" to "entertain" themselves with war. Rogles, a king of another dimension, is behind this manipulation. To ensure his victory, Rogles took the power of "Yang," put it in the Phantasm Jewel, and broke it into pieces, scattering them across dimensions and guarding them with his best guards. Yuko most now collect the pieces and use the power of "Yang" to defeat Rogles.
Gameplay
The game is a platformer played as the Japanese schoolgirl Yuko Asou. Yuko moves with 
and 
and crouches with 
. She jumps with 
, jumps higher with 
+, and jumps off ledges with +. She can slide along the ground with 
, which can be used to evade enemies or to move over gaps in the terrain. Yuko attacks using the sword Valis with 
. She can swing the sword while crouching. Yuko can acquire attack powers that cause the sword to shoot projectiles whenever it is swung, and these attack powers can be upgraded up to three levels by acquiring the same attack power multiple times.
Whenever Yuko defeats a boss, she obtains a new magic power from the collected pieces of the Phantasm Jewel. The magic power can be selected from the pause menu with START . She can cast the magic with +. Magic abilities cost magic points, which can be restored by finding items.
Yuko has a hit point gauge that indicates her health. She loses hit points when she takes damage from enemies, but she can restore her health by finding items. She loses a life when she loses all of her hit points and must restart the stage. The game ends if the player runs out of lives.
Magic
| Earthquake | |
|---|---|
| Causes an earthquake that attacks enemies on the ceiling and the ground. Costs 6 MP. Acquired by defeating Gyeda, the Lord of the Earth. | |
| Ice Feather | |
| Shoots two ice balls in each direction, which break into ice feathers for area damage. Costs 8 MP. Acquired by defeating Geeva, the Lord of Water. | |
| Flame Ring | |
| Balls of fire orbit Yuko, which damage nearby enemies and guard her against projectiles. Costs 10 MP. Acquired by defeating Venon, the Lord of Fire. | |
| Tornado | |
| Conjures two tornados, one on each side of Yuko, which damage enemies in their path. Costs 12 MP. Acquired by defeating Izard, the Lord of Wind. | |
| Giga Thunder | |
| Shoots four lightning bolts from the sky, damaging all enemies on the screen and destroying all enemy projectiles. Costs 14 MP. Acquired by defeating Voldes, the Lord of Thunder and Lightning. | |
| Death Flash | |
| Flashes the screen and destroys all enemies (except bosses). Costs 18 MP. Acquired by defeating Reiko. |
Items
| Item Box | |
|---|---|
| Attack to reveal an item. | |
| S Magic | |
| Restores the MP gauge by 6 points. | |
| B Magic | |
| Restores the MP gauge by 12 points. | |
| Healing | |
| Restores the HP gauge by 6 points. | |
| Recover | |
| Restores the HP gauge by 12 points. | |
| 1 Up | |
| Gives the player an extra life. | |
| Bullets | |
| Equips the Bullets attack or upgrades it if already equipped, up to three levels. Bullets shoot rapidly but are not as powerful as other attacks. When fully upgraded, bullets shoot into a conical spread. | |
| Lasers | |
| Equips the Lasers attack or upgrades it if already equipped, up to three levels. Lasers are strong and pierce through targets but cannot be fired continuously. When fully upgraded, lasers are also fired from behind. | |
| Arrows | |
| Equips the Arrows attack or upgrades it if already equipped, up to three levels. Arrows seek out targets automatically but do not pierce. When fully upgraded, arrows are fired in five directions at a time. | |
| Cutters | |
| Equips the Cutters attack or upgrades it if already equipped, up to three levels. Cutters are strong and can travel the full length of the screen but do not pierce. When fully upgraded, they are also fired directly upwards. | |
| Grenades | |
| Equips the Grenades attack or upgrades it if already equipped, up to three levels. Grenades are powerful and fast-firing. They fire part of the length of the screen and then explode. When fully upgraded, they fire faster. |
Stages
| Act 1 | |
|---|---|
| Act 2 | |
| Act 3 | |
| Act 4 | |
| Act 5 | |
| Act 6 | |
| Act 7 | |
History
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 II for the Nintendo Switch by Edia on the same year. It was released for the Nintendo Switch once again in stand-alone format on December 2022 in Japan and April 2023 internationally. Both re-releases on the system keeps the Sega logo at the startup.
Versions
Localised names
| Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| English (US) | Valis: The Fantasm Soldier | Valis: The Fantasm Soldier |
| Japanese | 夢幻戦士ヴァリス | Mugen Senshi Valis |
Production credits
- Director: Eiji Kikuchi
- Scenario Writer: Tomoko Miura
- Character Design: Osamu Nabeshima
- Programmer: Atsushi Komiya, Yasuhisa Tanaka
- Designer: Hiroaki Kai, Kazuya Tsukazaki, Hiroshi Sawamura, Toshiya Sasaki
- Music: Minoru Yuasa, Hiroaki Kai
- Promotion: Takao Yoshioka, Masahisa Ohno, Yuma Miura
- Producer: Minoru Yuasa
- Executive Producer: Jiro Fukushima, Kazuyuki Fukushima, Yuji Fukushima
- Special Thanks to: Takashi Fukushima, Masayasu Yamamoto, Shinobu Ogawa, Kenji Goshima, Takaaki Matsumoto, Hajime Komatsu, Soukichi Matsuzawa, Akira Igarashi, Yuichi Ohishi, Yoshiko Kageyu, AD FACTOR Co.,Ltd., SOTSU AGENCY Co.,Ltd., BUSINESS SUPPORT Co.,Ltd., HORON INDUSTRY Co.,Ltd.
- US Staff: Takami Kinoshita, Hideki Hiraga, Linda Lavin, David Izat
- Presented by Telenet Japan
Magazine articles
- Main article: Valis: The Fantasm Soldier/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Valis: The Fantasm Soldier/Promotional material.
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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61 |
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| Based on 15 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, JP |
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 Cover
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  Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual |
Technical information
- Main article: Valis: The Fantasm Soldier/Technical information.
References
 NEC Retro has more information related to Mugen Senshi Valis
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- ↑ File:Valis 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, "January 1992" (JP; 1991-12-07), page 33
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 GamePro, "June 1992" (US; 1992-xx-xx), page 58
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/game/?product_id=262 (Wayback Machine: 2024-02-03 05:55)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000056747.html (Wayback Machine: 2023-12-11 18:49)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/valis-the-fantasm-soldier-mega-drive-switch/ (archive.today)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/VALIS-The-Fantasm-Soldier-MEGA-DRIVE--2382109.html (Ghostarchive)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 https://www.nintendo.com/de-de/Spiele/Nintendo-Switch-Download-Software/VALIS-The-Fantasm-Soldier-MEGA-DRIVE--2382109.html (Ghostarchive)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000057761 (archive.today)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 https://store.nintendo.co.kr/70010000057758 (Wayback Machine: 2023-06-06 13:41)
- ↑ File:Valis MD credits.pdf
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 255
- ↑ Aktueller Software Markt, "Juni 1992" (DE; 1992-05-08), page 122
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "January 1992" (JP; 1991-12-07), page 81
- ↑ Consoles +, "Février 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 74
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 10, "" (RU; 2003-10-08), page 216
- ↑ Famitsu, "1991-12-27" (JP; 1991-12-13), page 42
- ↑ Hippon Super, "January 1992" (JP; 1991-12-04), page 91
- ↑ Joystick, "Février 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 126
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-08), page 83
- ↑ Mega Play, "June 1992" (US; 1992-0x-xx), page 63
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 68
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 215
- ↑ Video Games, "2/92" (DE; 1992-04-06), page 33
| Valis: The Fantasm Soldier | |
|---|---|
|
Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs | |
| Valis games for Sega systems | |
|---|---|
| Valis III (1991) | Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (1991) | Syd of Valis (1992) |
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