Syd of Valis
From Sega Retro
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| Syd of Valis | |||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive | |||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Laser Soft (Japan), Renovation Products (US) | |||||||||||||||
| Developer: I.S.C.[1] | |||||||||||||||
| Sound driver: SMPS Z80 | |||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action[2][3] | |||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | |||||||||||||||
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Syd of Valis, known as SD Valis (ＳＤヴァリス) in Japan, is a Sega Mega Drive action game released in 1992. It is a remake of Telenet Japan's 1989 game Valis II, originally released for the MSX and CD-ROM², with new "super deformed" graphics.
A European release was planned by Ubisoft[6] but it did not materialise.
Contents
Story
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
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
Legacy
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 and SNES exclusive.
The game was re-released as part of Valis Collection by Retro-Bit in 2022.
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.
Localised names
| Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| English (US) | Syd of Valis | Syd of Valis |
| Japanese | ＳＤヴァリス | SD Valis |
Production credits
| This article needs a list of production credits, either from the game itself, a manual, or other reliable source. Source: Syd of Valis MD credits.pdf |
Magazine articles
- Main article: Syd of Valis/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Syd of Valis/Promotional material.
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
 |
54 |
|---|---|
| Based on 16 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, JP |
|---|
 Cover
|
  Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
Technical information
ROM dump status
| System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
512kB | 1991-10 | Cartridge (US) | ||||||||||
|
|
512kB | 1991-10 | Cartridge (JP) |
References
 NEC Retro has more information related to Valis II
|
- ↑ http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/I.S.C.
- ↑ File:SDValis MD JP Box.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ Sega Visions, "May/June 1992" (US; 1992-xx-xx), page 58
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 GamePro, "August 1992" (US; 1992-xx-xx), page 42
- ↑ Sega Force, "January 1992" (UK; 1991-12-12), page 10
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 233
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-08), page 37
- ↑ Consoles +, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 80
- ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 133
- ↑ Famitsu, "1992-03-06" (JP; 1992-02-21), page 37
- ↑ Games-X, "27th February-4th March 1992" (UK; 1992-02-27), page 26
- ↑ Hippon Super, "March 1992" (JP; 1992-02-04), page 83
- ↑ Joypad, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-03-1x), page 78
- ↑ Joystick, "Avril 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 120
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "May 1992" (JP; 1992-04-xx), page 115
- ↑ MegaTech, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-20), page 24
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-19), page 38
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 67
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Video Games, "6/92" (DE; 1992-05-29), page 46
| Syd of Valis | |
|---|---|
|
Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Region coding | Technical information | |
| Valis games for Sega systems | |
|---|---|
| Valis III (1991) | Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (1991) | Syd of Valis (1992) |
