Title: Super Valis IV (NA) Super Valis: Akaki Tsuki no Otome (trans. Virgin of the Red Moon)
Release Date: 03/27/1992
Developer: Laser Soft
Publisher: Laser Soft (JP) Atlus (NA)
This is a series that I have always heard rumblings about, but had no idea really what it was. I knew it involved a female anime style protagonist, and that is really it. I usually got this confused with Aleste for Sega. Anywho, what I am saying is that this is a completely new experience for me. Let's dig in.
Background
This game ended up being the last true entrant in the Valis series, a series that, surprisingly, is not based on any existing anime/manga, but was formed off a popular manga genre: the magical girl hero genre. The series takes place on the planet of Vecantis, and the main character is a late 80s schoolgirl who is whisked from Japan, given the mystical sword Valis, and is tasked with stopping dark forces from taking over the world. Generally, the series was stretched over the PC-Engine consoles (starting on the PC-88) and the Sega Master system, with this entrant being a retelling of the PC-Engine Valis IV.
This game was developed by Telenet Japan, a games developer who were quite prolific in games that released only in Japan. This game was specifically developed by the team that would end up becoming Wolf Team, the group who would join Namco Bandai and develop the ever popular Tales series of games. Eventually, Telenet folded, and sold off the Valis series to a low-tier developer named Eants, who made the final entrant in the series, Valis X. Valis X had the ignominy of being a new direction for the series as...a hentai game that focused on heavy tentacle and lesbian sex. Yeah...well when Telenet folded in 2007, the rights to the series were scooped up by Sunsoft, but who knows if anything will come of that.
The story of this game is relatively similar to the previous entries. The girl from the first game has disappeared, and it is up to a new red haired girl, Lena, to defeat the demon/dark emperor Gallagher with the mystical sword Valis before he can take over the planet of Vecantis. Before she can challenge the King Gallagher, she must defeat his three generals first.
Apparently in the PC-Engine version, there are fully animated cutscenes (one of the staples and claims to fame of this series overall), as well as two other playable characters, but in this revision or port, most of those cutscenes have been scrapped, and we are kept to the one playable character.
Gameplay
The game is an action platformer, akin to a mix of Ys III and Castlevania. The main goal is to navigate to the end of each stage, which can span multiple rooms, and defeat the boss at the end. Lena is equipped with the eponymous Valis sword, and has a short ranged attack and, by pressing up and attack, shoot a horizontal fireball from the sword. Along the path, the player can pick up some items, which either provide an invulnerability armor, health, or a different energy blast to shoot from Valis (i.e. a homing missile, a sweeper, or one geared to take out aerial creatures). The game also features some slight RPG mechanics; for every 10000 "points" from killing enemies, your health bar will increase a small amount.
The levels themselves are very pretty and aesthetically pleasing, especially when they utilize some effective parallax scrolling. As far as design and layout, though, the levels can be rather bland. Generally, they are travel to the right, perhaps across an upper or lower level, with a series of enemies dotted along the path. Some levels are more vertically inclined, with you having to travel up and across the level, but honestly the design is very amateurish. Most of the "platforming" challenges have you jumping across gaps, but the penalty for failing these jumps is a set back in progress, as you will usually just fall to a previous section of the map. Like Mario, Lena has two speeds of movement, and many of the platforming challenges rely on her building up momentum before she can complete the jump.
The game is quite challenging. There are no "lives" systems, and you are able to take a great deal of hits before dying, but if you do die, then you must restart at the beginning of the entire stage. This includes the boss fights, many of which can be quite challenging. If you die, your "level" resets back to zero and you lose all of your power-ups. It doesn't help that your sprite is very large, but the game balances this by giving you a decently ranged attack and a high jump. Power-ups become a necessary affair to seek out and stock.
Speaking of bosses, many of them are simple "memorize the pattern" affairs, but some play with this formula. One boss, the crystal core, asks you to attack a moving core with your distance attacks while a creature attacks you and blocks it; another boss "phase shifts" between three different forms (a statue, a harpy, and a mermaid) and it serves as more of an endurance trial. The general bosses are meant to be the big "set piece" bosses, and some of them can be quite cheap. The first general, a man riding a tiger, takes a ton of damage and can be quite hard to avoid. The second generals fight, in particular, must have triggered a ton of seizures, and was setting off my motion sickness with the fight (a spinning room coupled with blinking "phantom clones" that he sends at you).
After the crystal caverns (level 5), the game cranks up the levels of shenanigans and difficulty to the nth degree. The sixth level is a true maze where enemies attack you from all angles, and the boss is quite tedious. The final level cranks this up even more, with a boss rush of all three generals, and then a final boss fight that takes around ten minutes (a very long time in an action platformer) to defeat.
How is the music?
The music is surprisingly really good!
This game was developed by Telenet Japan, a games developer who were quite prolific in games that released only in Japan. This game was specifically developed by the team that would end up becoming Wolf Team, the group who would join Namco Bandai and develop the ever popular Tales series of games. Eventually, Telenet folded, and sold off the Valis series to a low-tier developer named Eants, who made the final entrant in the series, Valis X. Valis X had the ignominy of being a new direction for the series as...a hentai game that focused on heavy tentacle and lesbian sex. Yeah...well when Telenet folded in 2007, the rights to the series were scooped up by Sunsoft, but who knows if anything will come of that.
The story of this game is relatively similar to the previous entries. The girl from the first game has disappeared, and it is up to a new red haired girl, Lena, to defeat the demon/dark emperor Gallagher with the mystical sword Valis before he can take over the planet of Vecantis. Before she can challenge the King Gallagher, she must defeat his three generals first.
Apparently in the PC-Engine version, there are fully animated cutscenes (one of the staples and claims to fame of this series overall), as well as two other playable characters, but in this revision or port, most of those cutscenes have been scrapped, and we are kept to the one playable character.
Gameplay
The game is an action platformer, akin to a mix of Ys III and Castlevania. The main goal is to navigate to the end of each stage, which can span multiple rooms, and defeat the boss at the end. Lena is equipped with the eponymous Valis sword, and has a short ranged attack and, by pressing up and attack, shoot a horizontal fireball from the sword. Along the path, the player can pick up some items, which either provide an invulnerability armor, health, or a different energy blast to shoot from Valis (i.e. a homing missile, a sweeper, or one geared to take out aerial creatures). The game also features some slight RPG mechanics; for every 10000 "points" from killing enemies, your health bar will increase a small amount.
The levels themselves are very pretty and aesthetically pleasing, especially when they utilize some effective parallax scrolling. As far as design and layout, though, the levels can be rather bland. Generally, they are travel to the right, perhaps across an upper or lower level, with a series of enemies dotted along the path. Some levels are more vertically inclined, with you having to travel up and across the level, but honestly the design is very amateurish. Most of the "platforming" challenges have you jumping across gaps, but the penalty for failing these jumps is a set back in progress, as you will usually just fall to a previous section of the map. Like Mario, Lena has two speeds of movement, and many of the platforming challenges rely on her building up momentum before she can complete the jump.
The game is quite challenging. There are no "lives" systems, and you are able to take a great deal of hits before dying, but if you do die, then you must restart at the beginning of the entire stage. This includes the boss fights, many of which can be quite challenging. If you die, your "level" resets back to zero and you lose all of your power-ups. It doesn't help that your sprite is very large, but the game balances this by giving you a decently ranged attack and a high jump. Power-ups become a necessary affair to seek out and stock.
Speaking of bosses, many of them are simple "memorize the pattern" affairs, but some play with this formula. One boss, the crystal core, asks you to attack a moving core with your distance attacks while a creature attacks you and blocks it; another boss "phase shifts" between three different forms (a statue, a harpy, and a mermaid) and it serves as more of an endurance trial. The general bosses are meant to be the big "set piece" bosses, and some of them can be quite cheap. The first general, a man riding a tiger, takes a ton of damage and can be quite hard to avoid. The second generals fight, in particular, must have triggered a ton of seizures, and was setting off my motion sickness with the fight (a spinning room coupled with blinking "phantom clones" that he sends at you).
After the crystal caverns (level 5), the game cranks up the levels of shenanigans and difficulty to the nth degree. The sixth level is a true maze where enemies attack you from all angles, and the boss is quite tedious. The final level cranks this up even more, with a boss rush of all three generals, and then a final boss fight that takes around ten minutes (a very long time in an action platformer) to defeat.
How is the music?
The music is surprisingly really good!
Ads, Art, Commercials
Final Verdict
I will admit, the first several levels are very fun. I enjoyed the aesthetic, I really enjoyed the music, and the gameplay was serviceable. After level five, though, the game becomes too difficult to find enjoyable. I would recommend playing this with save scumming if you want to actually beat it, unless you want to memorize a lot of patterns and enemy locations.
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