Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab The Valis games have been around since 1986, ever since Wolf Team made the original on Japanese PC, and then the series was handed off from developer to developer for sequels on systems ranging from the obscure Turbo CD to the not-so-obscure Super NES. Generally, the series got better and better, evolving from an insanely difficult, limited action game, to a tri-character, multi-tiered platformer. So in 1992, Telenet of Japan (the guys who own the rights to the Valis series to this very day) announced they were doing two remakes of the original game — one remake for the Turbo CD, and the other for the Genesis. With Valis 3’s cult fan following, and the critical success of the awesome Valis 4 SuperCD, everyone expected the new development team — RIOT — to hit a grand slam with the remake, bringing in a fourth score for the series. ROMSLAB.COM BEST SWITCH GAMES

Valis The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

What everyone forgot (or never even knew) is that RIOT was one of the least dependable developers in gaming history, putting out a truly great game one week and a stank piece of trash the next. This complete unreliability extended to the Valis remake, which somehow turned out to be really good on the Turbo, but AWFUL on the Genesis! How could this happen? Well, the two versions are really two completely different games, even though they share the same “girl is given magical sword to fight evil” story. Truth be told, such a simple synopsis is unfair to the plot, a tale of friendships, jealousies, and even a pinch of honor. Unless you read the instruction manual! The storyline from the rulebook doesn’t follow the in-game cinematics.

This Is My Weapon and This Is My Gun

But since that’s not the REAL story to the game, I can let that slide… but what won’t get to second base with me is the slow-ass gameplay. Okay, so Valis 3 wasn’t fast either. Your girl Yuko ran from left to right at a pace that made fat man Mario look like a sprinter, but at least they tossed in some pits, platforms, traps, tons of cool opponents, and even a bit of exploration (free the prisoners and hear what they’ve got to say)! Put all of that stuff together, and you’ve got an interesting team of game mechanics. Not every character needs to be as nimble as Joe Musashi as long as the rest of the gameplay can hold up. But the only player that made it to Valis on Genesis was Mr. Platform. So yeah, you can jump around from ledge to ledge…Re:Turn 2 – Runaway Switch NSP

Valis The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

but there’s not a single pit to fall into in the game (not one!), nor will you find any Valis 3-style environmental traps. Part 3 on Turbo had this awesome scene where you had to use ice magic to freeze these flying piranhas — then you could hop on them and cross the gaping chasm. Nothing in Valis ever reaches that level of ingenuity. Even the frost level (an oft-used theme) has taken a step back — ice that caused Yuko to slip and slide in Valis 3 now has no effect. I guess little Yuko’s high-heeled boots have really good traction this time around. And the enemies? Oh, let me tell you about the enemies. Tentacled beasts straight from Clive Barker’s dreams, a demon that sends AWESOME earthquake ripples streaking across the ground, mad bull minibosses, and sabre-wielding skeletons that shatter with a slash from your sword.

Levels

In the Genesis remake, the imaginative foes from the first level are replaced with ugly grey flying blobs and ugly grey grim reaper ripoffs, swinging their spears in canned two-frame animation lack of style. The earthquake demon in the Genesis game makes the screen shake, but the fantastic earth undulation effect has been removed. The mad bull miniboss is just outright GONE, and the skeletons have been replaced with sword-wielding knights that just blink and disappear when you kill them — forget the awesome bone-bursting animation! RIOT ripped off the graphics engine from Valis 3, so Yuko looks decent when she runs. It’s as nothing compared to the overhauled graphics you get on the Turbo version, but her movement is still smooth. Rhythm Fighter Switch NSP

Valis The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

As for the enemies? They’ve actually made this game look worse than the earlier entries, by cutting the animation frames in half! Seriously, one of the amazon women is standing up, then the next thing you know, she’s squatting, with no segue between the two positions! This is bad, bad quality. But somehow, RIOT managed to make the most of the music chip, providing a soundtrack that surpasses even its CD cousin. The first level track, FRASH OF SWORD (what a name), has become legendary among Telenet/Renovation fans, and deservedly so — it’s a great composition, and the Genesis has the best version. They’ve even pulled one over on the original PC and Turbo CD incarnations, adding additional segments to other musical tracks! You have to listen to the game in stereo (mono is missing notes) but it’s worth it.

Main characters

But music alone cannot save this game! With the slow slow main character movement, complete absence of pits, lack of environmental obstacles, and the stupidly easy enemies (except for one boss that has a “remove half your life instantly” spell), the game just can’t get my blood pumping unless it’s in anger. Even the cinematics (a Valis staple) are disappointing, with nice graphics but snails-pace dialogue. One letter appears at a time, kind of like this: You’d struggle to find a set of games better suited to a convenient retro compilation than Valis: The Phantasm Soldier. The late ’80s/early ’90s platform-shooter Castlevania-ish hybrid series spans at least half a dozen formats from esoteric Japanese computers to the Mega Drive, each release even when they’re supposed to be representing the same game often remarkably different from the last.

Valis The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Sadly that’s not what Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection is. Instead we get a trio of PC Engine Valis’ with Japanese text and speech only in the import version we reviewed — the upcoming localisation for the West will feature English subtitles on eShop and the Limited Run physical release. There’s nothing wrong with just the PC Engine versions in theory (it is certainly the format that tends to spring to mind when most people think of the series), but this isn’t described as ‘Valis: The PC Engine Collection’ and ‘rewriting’ an entire series’ history purely for commercial convenience isn’t something any of us should be encouraging. And even if PC Engine Valis is all you’ve ever known, wanted, or cared about, there’s still a problem: this collection is incomplete. Rhythm Fitness HOME FiT Switch

Add-ons (DLC): Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Switch NSP