Syd of Valis

From Sega Retro

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SDValis MDTitleScreen.png

Syd of Valis
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Laser Soft (JP), Renovation (US)
Developer:
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP 		¥6,8006,800 T-49103
Sega Mega Drive
US 		$49.9949.99[2] 49126

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SD Valis (ＳＤヴァリス) is a remake of Telenet Japan's 1989 MSX/TurboGrafx-16 game Valis II with new "super deformed" graphics released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive.

A European release was planned by Ubisoft[3] but it did not materialise.

Story

The manual features a brief comic (translated rather accurately in the US printing), where Yuko says after defeating Rogles (in Valis) she took the train home and went about her regular life, still carrying the Valis sword around. One afternoon while eating a pudding, Yuko is contacted by the deceased Reiko who insists that Yuko return to Queen Valia immediately.

The game itself has a very simple opening cutscene before the title screen where the evil Megas appears before Yuko while she's 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'. The game itself opens with no cutscene, jumping straight to Act 1 Level 1 with no fanfare.

Gameplay

Attacking is somewhat different from other Valis games, as this time Valis can be aimed with the D-pad while hitting B to swing (including swinging straight down in mid-air). You can hold B to repeatedly swing, shooting magic bullets in the process. C jumps; if not swinging the sword, hitting C again double-jumps. Down crouches. A uses screen-clearing bombs, which are limited in quantity but can be restocked by finding rare Sphere icons. There are also 1-UPs, small hearts which heal an imperceptibly tiny amount of health, large hearts which refill the entire life bar, and Score Diamonds worth a meager 300 points. Every 5000 points, the player is awarded a 1-UP, which become very useful as the player cannot continue. Defeating any boss with a life meter will refill Yuko's life meter.

Of note in this game is the weapon/armor system.  START  opens a menu where you can select weapons and armor acquired from some boss fights. Defeating particular boss-class enemies will give Yuko a sword and/or armor, which she keeps for the rest of the game and can switch at any time. 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. 10 speed is Yuko's normal speed; 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 serious detriment, especially in platforming-intensive areas.

Additionally (and not mentioned in the manual), after beating certain mid- or end-stage bosses, Yuko's health meter will increase by a small amount, until it reaches the maximum just before Act 5 starts.

There are four weapons:

  • Normal Beam: a simple ball-shaped projectile is fired straight forward
  • Wide Beam: shoots an arrow-shaped blade; 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)

Each weapon can be powered up to Level 3 over the course of the game. An upgrade increases the damage of each shot, and in some cases the size of the projectile as well. The sword itself seems to do no damage.

There are six suits of armor:

  • Normal Suit: a school uniform, and the only armor Yuko has at the beginning of the game
  • China Dress: a pink cheongsam; provides slightly higher defense but very slightly lower attack power
  • Yellow Armor: Yuko's signature yellow armor; provides higher defense and speed
  • Guard Suit: A white suit of armor that improves Yuko's defense substantially at the cost of attack power
  • Speed Suit: Blue bikini armor that provides the highest speed in the game
  • Super Armor: Magical armor with the highest attack and defense in the game plus a speed boost

(Oddly, the Speed Suit shows a D. Power of 20--second highest of all armor--but it seems to provide less defense than the Yellow Armor's 15 D. Power.)

As in Valis III, dialogue occurs throughout the game. C makes the text load faster and moves to the next line.

History

Renovation brought it to the US as Syd of Valis; while the box and manual call lead character Yuko, the game changes her name to Syd for whatever reason. The title screen is changed from SD Valis to the equally confusing Valis Syd, presumably a localization error.

As if that weren't enough, the cover 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 cover is lifted virtually wholesale from Sugoroku '92 Nari Tore Nariagari Trendy, a board game for the PC Engine CD-ROM by LaserSoft that featured a number of characters from various Telenet properties (Guy Kazama from Last Alert, Yu and Rim from the Cosmic Fantasy series, and Tetsuya from Super Albatross among others). Why this particular cover was chosen is anyone's guess. (As if to add one more scoop of localization shenanigans, the "Game Over" screen isn't translated at all!)

This would be the last Valis release on a Sega system; Telenet Japan ceased all Sega development in 1993 and released Valis IV as a PC Engine/SNES exclusive.

Versions

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

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
50 №1992-03, p35[4]
40 №, p85[5]
36 №8, p80/81
45 №168, [1]
80 №37, p40[2]
40 №44
40 №1992-03, p83
63 №7, p78/79
56 №26, p120
47 №4, p24/25
65 №6, p38[6]
35 №18, p67
58 №18, p68
Sega Mega Drive
 50
Based on
13 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
40
[7]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
50
[8]
Consoles + (FR)
36
[9]
Console XS (UK) NTSC-J
65
[10]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
45
[11]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
80
[2]
Games-X (UK)
40
[12]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
40
[13]
Joypad (FR) NTSC-J
63
[14]
Joystick (FR) NTSC-J
56
[15]
Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J
65
[16]
MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J
47
[17]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J
65
[6]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J
47
[18]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
40
[19]
Video Games (DE)
79
[20]
Sega Mega Drive
 54
Based on
16 reviews

Syd of Valis

Mega Drive, US
SDValis MD US Box.jpg
Cover
SDValis md us cart.jpg
Cart
Syd of Valis MD US Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, JP
SDValis MD JP Box.jpg
Cover
SydofValis MD JP CartTop.jpg
SDValis MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart
Sdvalis md jp manual.pdf
Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
Sega Mega Drive
✔
CRC32
MD5
SHA-1
512kB 1992 Cartridge (US)
Sega Mega Drive
✔
CRC32
MD5
SHA-1
512kB 1992 Cartridge (JP)

References

  1. ↑ File:SegaVisions US 08.pdf, page 58
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 File:GamePro US 037.pdf, page 42 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:GamePro US 037.pdf_p42" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ Sega Force, "January 1992" (UK; 1991-12-12), page 10
  4. ↑ File:BeepMD_JP_1992-03.pdf, page 37
  5. ↑ File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf, page 87
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 File:SegaPro UK 06.pdf, page 38 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SegaPro UK 06.pdf_p38" defined multiple times with different content
  7. ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 233
  8. ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-08), page 37
  9. ↑ Consoles +, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 80
  10. ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 133
  11. ↑ Famitsu, "1992-03-06" (JP; 1992-02-21), page 37
  12. ↑ Games-X, "27th February-4th March 1992" (UK; 1992-02-27), page 26
  13. ↑ Hippon Super, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-04), page 83
  14. ↑ Joypad, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-03-1x), page 78
  15. ↑ Joystick, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 120
  16. ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "May 1992" (JP; 1992-04-xx), page 115
  17. ↑ MegaTech, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-20), page 24
  18. ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 67
  19. ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
  20. ↑ Video Games, "6/92" (DE; 1992-05-29), page 46
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