Valis is a strange little series. All the games seem to be very slow and very barebones, and not particularly in a way that makes them seem good for beginners. Sorely lacking in distinct mechanics and always seeming to move at a glacial pace, they ultimately just blend into an amalgamation of glum and blah experiences for me. Somehow though, there's four games.

This fourth one is mostly more of the same, but this time featuring a different character who actually knows how to run. This alone is leaps and bounds over the gameplay of the first three, but unfortunately the enemies and bosses are at their most annoying thus far and the settings and locations are not any more interesting than before. The sliding ability and character switching from Valis III are gone, though I'm led to believe this is due to a shoddy port job. I liked III less anyway so I'm not really too worried about giving the more fleshed out Turbografx-CD version of this a go.

It's hard to give this series much credit when it burns its previous goodwill with Valis X, a hentai visual novel retelling the events of the tetralogy. But even with that external factor blocked out, I just can't bring myself any enjoyment here. I'm just glad to have done all four games so I don't have any reason to return to them anymore. I'll give IV this much, it's probably the least tedious of the bunch.