Valis III
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 1991
Developer: Renovation Game
Publisher: Renovation Products
Genre: Action
The Human World is under threat once again and only you can save it in Valis III! Yuko is back in action after having the Valis sword swiped from her while she sleeps. Glames, king of the Dark World is looking to take over and needs that sword to pair with his own Leethus sword. The mischievous Cham wants to use it to avenge the loss of her father and kill Glames herself. But Yuko won’t let that happen on her watch. Transforming into the powerful battle maiden, there are three Acts you must battle through to save everyone! Can you keep the Dark World at bay?
The first thing that jumps out at me is that Yuko moves like molasses. This is a huge change from the previous title and not really for the better. She can jump really high if you press up while you leap. A new move she has is the slide, which the manual doesn’t tell you how to do. It’s pressing up and the A Button, and sometimes down and the A Button, so you know. You need to get adept at the slide to get through some of the later levels.
Yuko is not alone in this adventure. After the first boss, she catches up to Cham. The second act allows you to choose which of the heroines to play as. Yuko uses the Valis sword and shoots energy waves. The greater the red power level, the farther the wave travels. Cham uses a flail that doesn’t seem to change based on the power level. Later still, you find Yuko’s sister Valna. She shoots a projectile from her wand that goes farther and increases in damage the higher the power. Sword icons increase the overall power level, while crossed swords increase the rate of recharge. You can change between them freely in some levels by holding the A Button.
Each of the girls can also cast magic spells by holding the B Button while holding up. There are three special magic wands you can find giving you flame, ice, and thunder magic. Yuko’s magic is the weakest, but also costs the least amount of MP to use. Cham’s attacks are middle of the road, while Valna’s are the strongest and most costly to use. MP replenishing items are the most prevalent of them all, so if you want to use magic, do it.
Bosses come at the end of each level and aren’t challenging for awhile. In fact, I found the first two acts pretty easy before a huge difficulty spike with the boss of level 6. It took me multiple tries before I got the hang of his timing. Then moving into the Ice World was incredibly frustrating with the combination of slippery ground and moving platforms sending me into pits constantly. Your timing and anticipation must be perfect to get through unscathed. The Dark World is quite annoying, but once you make it to the end, it’s a battle against Glames. You have to be Yuko at this point. I played through as the other characters when I could and didn’t find them any more interesting than Yuko, so only do that if you have fun with this game.
Graphics: 3.0
Sprites and animations look good. Backgrounds are hit or miss. Cutscenes look nice and are even lightly animated.
Sound: 2.5
Some of the music is pretty good, but the sound effects can be incredibly grating to the ears.
Gameplay: 3.0
The girls all move really slowly and that’s a bummer. There’s also a loss of powerups and options from the previous title in the series.
Difficulty: 2.5
The first half is fair, the last half is not.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I liked it enough to play three times in a row. Each playthrough doesn’t take very long, especially when you skip the cutscenes.
Overall Rating: 2.8
Valis III earns a B. You could do a lot worse, but I do feel like this game, being the third title in the series, should be better than it is. Maybe it’ll be better on Turbo CD.