What was a basic, yet still enjoyable start to a series with the original Valis, or more specifically the remake of that game, then led to repetition and blandness with the release of Valis II. That’s not to say that that game was necessarily bad, but it was clearly just “another Valis game”, with no real extra bells or whistles being added onto the formula, and it was definitely the weaker of the original two Valis games. Nevertheless, as I venture further onto what else this series has to offer me, I still hold hope that the series will manage to pick itself back up and maybe try something new with its gameplay, but since I had already played other games from Telenet like Psycho Dream, which was essentially the same as Valis in many different ways, it wasn’t looking too good. Thankfully though, my wishes were somewhat fulfilled, while simultaneously crushed, by Valis III.
I’m assuming one day, while at the offices of Laser Soft, one of the game’s directors suddenly had an epiphany, and spoke aloud saying “What if we actually made changes to our series?”, and thus, what we got here is a game that is very similar to the previous two Valis games, but also incorporates several noticeable changes to make it somewhat stand out. However, unfortunately, some of these changes, combined with some choices made in the game itself, ultimately dragged this down to being what I would consider the weakest entry in the series so far. Granted, I would still say it is a good game, and if you were a big fan what the previous Valis installments gave you, you won’t be disappointed here, but for everyone else, you may or may not have a similar outcome to the one I had when I finally sat down to check it out.
The story is fairly similar to previous titles, where the evil overlord known as Glames, while in possession of the sword Leethus, plots to destroy both the human world and Dreamland with his army, and it is up to Yuko, accompanied by new allies Cham and Valna, to stop him once and for all, which is a typical set up for one of these games, but there is a lot more detail given to the backstory of it, so it is an enjoyable one, the graphics are pretty much the same as with the Valis I remake, so there really is nothing too worthy to mention about it, but I will say it still looks good, and the enemies and cutscenes are pretty nice to look at, the music is pretty good, with there being plenty of sweet tracks to listen to, but nothing really stuck with me after my playthrough, the control is pretty much the same as every other Valis game so far, so there is nothing more to say about that, and the gameplay is familiar for those who have played the previous Valis titles, but there are actual new features this time around to make it somewhat more interesting.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of either Yuko, Cham, or Valna, go through plenty of different stages through several plain-looking environments, defeat many different enemies that will block your path using either your regular attacks or various special attacks with plenty of different uses, gather plenty of health items, magic items, and powerups to help you along on your quest, and take on plenty of menacing, yet manageable boss fights that will provide a bit of a challenge, but nothing that you won’t be able to handle. At its core, the gameplay is almost identical to that of previous Valis games, so I wouldn’t blame you if you are initially turned away thinking it is just another rehash, but there is at least a little more added onto that rehash to make it less rehashy… yeah, that’s a word now.
As previously mentioned, you can play as three different characters in this game rather than just sticking with Yuko the whole time, and each one does feature their own different weapons and upgrades that you can swap between most of the time, which is a pretty cool addition. The weapons themselves that each of them use aren’t necessarily too radically different from each other, but there were plenty of times where one weapon was much more effective then another, making experimenting with them satisfying when you get it right. Also new to the game is the addition of a sliding mechanic, where you can not only use it to deal damage onto enemies and get through tight spaces, but also slide over large gaps that would otherwise be impossible to get by otherwise. It is cool to see a mechanic like this get introduced, and I really appreciate how it is used as a means to help you progress forward rather than just simply being a different attack. Adding alongside that are also several new sections of the game where you simply don’t just “run to the end and win” like in most scenarios, but instead, you have to use specific special attacks or different means to proceed forward, which is, again, something that I really appreciate being added here.
However, that doesn’t make these sections any fun to play through. The sections that I am referring to primarily reside in the ice stage of the game, where you have to freeze certain enemies in order to get over these gaps, as well as another section where you have to constantly ring a bell to get past this door to continue on with the game. Both of these sections are a pain in the ass, specifically because of the amount of enemies that swarm you, and you aren’t given enough time in either circumstance to where you can easily avoid taking damage, which made things way more frustrating than they needed to be. In addition to those issues, one other big one I had was that the different ways of attacking are completely gone, and now the powerups in the game are only meant to increase the strength of your main weapons. That’s fine and all, but not only can you max out on this very quickly, but the main weapon itself isn’t nearly as satisfying to use in comparison to what you could manage in the previous game. Sure, they do kinda make up for this with, again, the fact that the different characters use different weapons, but none of the weapons reach the same level of satisfaction as the strongest weapons from the previous game, which does really suck.
And for my final complaint towards Valis III, it would have to go specifically towards its cutscenes. Now, don’t get me wrong, the cutscenes in this game are still pretty great for the time, the visuals are pretty neat to look at, and the voice acting, at least with the English version, is actually not that bad, all things considered. But the problem with them is that there are so little of these cutscenes to enjoy. In Valis II, you got a cutscene after every level, which could be seen as annoying, but they were entertaining to watch, and they helped give some kind of depth to that game’s extremely simplistic story. In this game though, while there are still quite a few cutscenes, they aren’t nearly as enjoyable or plentiful as the previous game, which is kind of a big letdown. They didn’t really add much, but sometimes the little things can go a long way, you know?
Overall, despite the additions of new characters and new moves you could pull off, none of it was able to save what I would consider the weakest entry in the series so far, one that did manage to innovate where Valis II wasn’t able to, but managed to get rid of enough to where it lowers the quality of the product as a result. I would recommend the game for those who are big fans of the previous Valis games, as well as those who love action platformers, but for everyone else, this isn’t a title that you need to seek out anytime soon. But hey, who knows, maybe the next game will end up fixing all of these issues and turn out to be the best in the series. It is the last main game, so maybe they managed to end it off with a bang, right?........................ please?
Game #424
I’m assuming one day, while at the offices of Laser Soft, one of the game’s directors suddenly had an epiphany, and spoke aloud saying “What if we actually made changes to our series?”, and thus, what we got here is a game that is very similar to the previous two Valis games, but also incorporates several noticeable changes to make it somewhat stand out. However, unfortunately, some of these changes, combined with some choices made in the game itself, ultimately dragged this down to being what I would consider the weakest entry in the series so far. Granted, I would still say it is a good game, and if you were a big fan what the previous Valis installments gave you, you won’t be disappointed here, but for everyone else, you may or may not have a similar outcome to the one I had when I finally sat down to check it out.
The story is fairly similar to previous titles, where the evil overlord known as Glames, while in possession of the sword Leethus, plots to destroy both the human world and Dreamland with his army, and it is up to Yuko, accompanied by new allies Cham and Valna, to stop him once and for all, which is a typical set up for one of these games, but there is a lot more detail given to the backstory of it, so it is an enjoyable one, the graphics are pretty much the same as with the Valis I remake, so there really is nothing too worthy to mention about it, but I will say it still looks good, and the enemies and cutscenes are pretty nice to look at, the music is pretty good, with there being plenty of sweet tracks to listen to, but nothing really stuck with me after my playthrough, the control is pretty much the same as every other Valis game so far, so there is nothing more to say about that, and the gameplay is familiar for those who have played the previous Valis titles, but there are actual new features this time around to make it somewhat more interesting.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of either Yuko, Cham, or Valna, go through plenty of different stages through several plain-looking environments, defeat many different enemies that will block your path using either your regular attacks or various special attacks with plenty of different uses, gather plenty of health items, magic items, and powerups to help you along on your quest, and take on plenty of menacing, yet manageable boss fights that will provide a bit of a challenge, but nothing that you won’t be able to handle. At its core, the gameplay is almost identical to that of previous Valis games, so I wouldn’t blame you if you are initially turned away thinking it is just another rehash, but there is at least a little more added onto that rehash to make it less rehashy… yeah, that’s a word now.
As previously mentioned, you can play as three different characters in this game rather than just sticking with Yuko the whole time, and each one does feature their own different weapons and upgrades that you can swap between most of the time, which is a pretty cool addition. The weapons themselves that each of them use aren’t necessarily too radically different from each other, but there were plenty of times where one weapon was much more effective then another, making experimenting with them satisfying when you get it right. Also new to the game is the addition of a sliding mechanic, where you can not only use it to deal damage onto enemies and get through tight spaces, but also slide over large gaps that would otherwise be impossible to get by otherwise. It is cool to see a mechanic like this get introduced, and I really appreciate how it is used as a means to help you progress forward rather than just simply being a different attack. Adding alongside that are also several new sections of the game where you simply don’t just “run to the end and win” like in most scenarios, but instead, you have to use specific special attacks or different means to proceed forward, which is, again, something that I really appreciate being added here.
However, that doesn’t make these sections any fun to play through. The sections that I am referring to primarily reside in the ice stage of the game, where you have to freeze certain enemies in order to get over these gaps, as well as another section where you have to constantly ring a bell to get past this door to continue on with the game. Both of these sections are a pain in the ass, specifically because of the amount of enemies that swarm you, and you aren’t given enough time in either circumstance to where you can easily avoid taking damage, which made things way more frustrating than they needed to be. In addition to those issues, one other big one I had was that the different ways of attacking are completely gone, and now the powerups in the game are only meant to increase the strength of your main weapons. That’s fine and all, but not only can you max out on this very quickly, but the main weapon itself isn’t nearly as satisfying to use in comparison to what you could manage in the previous game. Sure, they do kinda make up for this with, again, the fact that the different characters use different weapons, but none of the weapons reach the same level of satisfaction as the strongest weapons from the previous game, which does really suck.
And for my final complaint towards Valis III, it would have to go specifically towards its cutscenes. Now, don’t get me wrong, the cutscenes in this game are still pretty great for the time, the visuals are pretty neat to look at, and the voice acting, at least with the English version, is actually not that bad, all things considered. But the problem with them is that there are so little of these cutscenes to enjoy. In Valis II, you got a cutscene after every level, which could be seen as annoying, but they were entertaining to watch, and they helped give some kind of depth to that game’s extremely simplistic story. In this game though, while there are still quite a few cutscenes, they aren’t nearly as enjoyable or plentiful as the previous game, which is kind of a big letdown. They didn’t really add much, but sometimes the little things can go a long way, you know?
Overall, despite the additions of new characters and new moves you could pull off, none of it was able to save what I would consider the weakest entry in the series so far, one that did manage to innovate where Valis II wasn’t able to, but managed to get rid of enough to where it lowers the quality of the product as a result. I would recommend the game for those who are big fans of the previous Valis games, as well as those who love action platformers, but for everyone else, this isn’t a title that you need to seek out anytime soon. But hey, who knows, maybe the next game will end up fixing all of these issues and turn out to be the best in the series. It is the last main game, so maybe they managed to end it off with a bang, right?........................ please?
Game #424