Syd of Valis

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Syd of Valis
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Laser Soft (Japan), Renovation Products (US) Edia
Developer: I.S.C. D4 Enterprise
Sound driver: SMPS Z80
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1992-02-14 ¥6,8006,800 T-49103 US 1992-04 $49.9949.99 49126 JP ▼ 2003-11-11 ¥880880 TEL2003 JP ▼ 2022-12-22 US ▼ 2023-04-27 KR ▼ 2023-04-27

Syd of Valis, known in Japan as SD Valis (ＳＤヴァリス), is a Sega Mega Drive action game. A super-deformed remake of Telenet Japan's 1989 game Valis II, it was first released in Japan in February 1992. When localized for its American release two months later, its title was erroneously interpreted as Syd of Valis, presumably read verbally by a member of the localization staff unfamiliar with Japanese culture.

Story

Yuko

After defeating Rogles (in Valis), Yuko takes the train home and goes about her regular life, still carrying the Valis sword around. One afternoon while eating pudding, Yuko is contacted by the deceased Reiko, who insists that Yuko return to Queen Valia immediately.

In the opening cutscene, the evil Megas appears before Yuko while she is eating an ice cream cone and challenges her to come to Vecanti to defeat him. Yuko transforms her ice cream into the Valis sword, and the adventure begins.

Gameplay

Pause menu

The game is an action platformer similar to the other Valis titles. Yuko is moved with and and ducks with . She jumps with ; if not swinging the sword, she double-jumps with again while in the air. The physics are much floatier than in the other games. Yuko attacks by shooting projectiles with the Valis sword with , which can be aimed with the D-Pad while swinging the sword (including swinging straight up while standing or straight down while in the air). The button can be held for continuous fire. Yuko also has screen-clearing bombs that can be used with , which are limited but can be replenished by finding items.

The game has multiple selectable weapons and armor suits that can be switched by pausing the game with  START . Additional weapons and armor are acquired from certain boss fights. Each weapon has a base attack power (A. Power) which is modified by the armor being used; each armor has a defense level (D. Power) and a speed statistic. Yuko's normal speed is 10; it can be raised to 15 (Yellow Armor or Super Armor) or 20 (Speed Suit) at the expense of control, especially when jumping, which can be a detriment in platforming-intensive areas. Each weapon can be powered up to Level 3 over the course of the game, which increases the size and damage of each shot.

Yuko's health is indicated by a health bar at the bottom of the screen. She loses a life if she runs out of health. Falling down a bottomless pit typically costs health rather than losing a life. Yuko's health can be replenished by finding items; defeating bosses also fully restores her health bar. Yuko gains additional health points after defeating certain bosses. The player is awarded an extra life every 5,000 points earned. The game ends if the player runs out of lives; there are no continues.

Weapons

	Normal Beam
	A simple ball-shaped projectile is fired straight forward.
	Wide Beam
	Shoots an arrow-shaped blade that does slightly more damage than the Normal Beam.
	Homing Beam
	A star-shaped projectile seeks out near by enemies and damages them. It can sometimes become confused and circle enemies infinitely.
	3-Way Beam
	Fires a projectile like the Normal Beam but in three directions (forward, up at 45 degrees, and down at 45 degrees).

Suits

	Normal Suit
	D. Pow: 10 A. Pow: 10 Speed: 10
	A school uniform. It is the only armor Yuko has at the beginning of the game.
	China Dress
	D. Pow: 15 A. Pow: 8 Speed: 10
	A pink cheongsam. It provides slightly higher defense but very slightly lower attack power.
	Yellow Armor
	D. Pow: 20 A. Pow: 10 Speed: 15
	Yuko's signature yellow armor. It provides higher defense and speed.
	Guard Suit
	D. Pow: 10 A. Pow: 20 Speed: 10
	A white suit of armor that improves Yuko's defense substantially at the cost of attack power.
	Speed Suit
	D. Pow: 20 A. Pow: 10 Speed: 20
	Blue bikini armor that provides the highest movement speed in the game. Oddly, the Speed Suit shows a D. Power of 20, the second highest of all armor, but seems to provide less defense than the Yellow Armor's 15 D. Power.
	Super Armor
	D. Pow: 25 A. Pow: 20 Speed: 15
	Magical armor with the highest attack and defense in the game plus a speed boost.

Items

	Small Recovery
	Partially restores the health bar.
	Large Recovery
	Fully restores the health bar.
	Invincible Shield
	Temporarily makes Yuko invincible.
	Bomb
	Gives the player another bomb.
	Point
	Gives the player 300 bonus points.
	1 Up
	Gives the player an extra life.

Stages

	Reality
	Dream World
	Castle Vanity
	Megas' Territory
	Castle Megas

History

A European release was planned by Ubisoft but it did not materialise.

Legacy

Syd of Valis would be the last Valis title released on a Sega system; Telenet Japan ceased all Sega development in 1993, and later released Valis IV exclusively on the PC Engine and Super Famicom.

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. Once again, it was released for Nintendo Switch again on stand-alone format in December 2022 on Japan and April 2023 in Americas and South Korea. Both re-releases on the system keeps the Sega logo at the startup.

Versions

Renovation Products brought the game to the US as Syd of Valis. While the box and instruction manual call the lead character Yuko, the game changes her name to Syd. The title screen is changed from SD Valis to Valis Syd, presumably a localization error. The US cover is taken from Sugoroku '92 Nari Tore Nariagari Trendy, a board game for the CD-ROM² by Laser Soft. It features a number of characters who not only do not appear in the game but are not related to the Valis universe at all with the exception of Yuko front and center. The other characters are from various Telenet properties, including Guy Kazama from Last Alert, Yu and Rim from the Cosmic Fantasy series, and Tetsuya from Super Albatross. Additionally, the "Game Over" screen and the credits are untranslated. The re-releases of the game on Nintendo Switch features new in-fly English translations in the Japanese ROM.

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English (US)	Syd of Valis	Syd of Valis
Japanese	ＳＤヴァリス	SD Valis

Production credits

• Cast: あそう ゆうこ, きりしま れいこ, ヴァリア, ヴァルナ, ザルーガ, ギラン, ガイアス, ハイゼン, げんむこうてい メガス
• デザイン: かばやま だいきち
• プログラム: いまがわ とよひろ, わたなべ ぼのぼの
• グラフィック: あらい ともゆき, やいづ はんこ, かわさき かける, こうち こういち, しまだ ようこ
• ミュージック: ふじさわ みちお
• テストプレイ: わらこー, いなば あーん, YOU
• アート・ディレクター: かばやま だいきち
• ディレクター: SHIGEO TAKEI, ISC CO.,LTD
• プロデューサー: MASAMI HANARI, LASER SOFT
• エグゼクティブ・プロデューサー: YUUJI FUKUSHIMA

TELENET JAPAN

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Syd of Valis/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Syd of Valis/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (RU) 40 (JP) NTSC-J 50 (FR) 36 (UK) NTSC-J 65 (JP) NTSC-J 45 (US) NTSC-U 80 (UK) 40 (JP) NTSC-J 40 (FR) NTSC-J 63 (FR) NTSC-J 56 (JP) NTSC-J 65 (UK) NTSC-J 47 (UK) NTSC-J 65 (UK) NTSC-J 47 (JP) NTSC-J 40 (DE) 79

	54
Based on 16 reviews

Syd of Valis

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Syd of Valis/Technical information.

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Valis II