Valis III

Gameplay screenshot (PC Engine version)

The game is a continuation of Valis II, set in the story of Yuko, guardian of Dreamland and wielder of the Valis sword.[1][2] Together with two allies, Valna and Cham, Yuko must prevent the Dark World's king, Glames (Ramses in TurboGrafx version), from destroying Dreamland and the human world, who, in turn, is wielding the sword Leethus.[3][4]

The main difference of Valis III to the previous games in the Valis series is that the player is now in control of multiple characters that can be switched at any time - which is highly reminiscent of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, each of them using different upgradable weapons (Yuko has a chargeable energy wave, Cham has a whip, and Valna shoots magical blasts from her wand) and spells (of lightning, fire, and ice variety). The characters cannot be switched during the boss fights, where the choice of the character also results in a different cutscene, and in some stages (mostly demanding the main heroine Yuko). Another feature new to the series is a ground slide move which can double as an attack.[5]

The game's port for the Sega Genesis has most of the cinematic cutscenes cut. Several levels were removed and a new one was added to this version, while the remaining levels are more similar to each other. However, boss fights and parallax were improved.[5]

King Glames (ぐらめす, Guramesu)[lower-alpha 2] (voiced by Daisuke Gori) leads denizens of the Dark World to conquer both Earth and Vecanti. He seeks a home for his people before the destruction of his planet.[4] Against this common foe, Yuko Asou will fight together with Cham (ちゃむ, Chamu) (voiced by Yūko Mita), a Dark World warrior-maiden who was a demon born in the Dark World and uses a deadly whip, and her own sister Valna Asou (あそう' ばるな, Asou Baruna) (voiced by Aya Hisakawa), who grew up within Vecanti and became strong in the ways of magic. Furthermore, the Valis sword is shown to be capable of more than what Yuko has accomplished with it thus far.[6]

During the course of the game, Yuko rescues the kidnapped Cham and Valna from captivity.[7] A visit to the ruler of Vecanti, Nizetti (にぜち, Nizeti), unleashes the blade's full potential, which culminates in a climactic battle between the three girls and Glames as well the returning antagonist from the first game, Rogmes (voiced by Koji Totani).[8] The Valis warrior defeats them both, and for her dutiful and unwavering service, Yuko is permitted to step down from being a guardian and become a goddess in Vecanti, leaving Earth behind forever. The Valis sword retires to the heavens as well, as the dream world prepares itself for prosperity, while Cham and Valna wave good-bye to Yuko as she departs to take on her new role.

Valis III was originally developed by the Shin-Nihon Laser Soft division of Telenet Japan, and published by Telenet Japan for the PC Engine CD-ROM² on September 7, 1990 in Japan.[9] It was localized two years later by Turbo Technologies (NEC) for the North American iteration of the console, the TurboGrafx-CD.[5] Ubisoft considered publishing the game in Europe, but ultimately did not.[10] Because the game was released on CD-ROM, the team was able to include animated cutscenes as they had done before with Valis II.[11] A special visual compendium CD-ROM released in 1993 for the PC Engine, Valis Visual Collection, features the cutscenes from the game along with those of Valis II and IV.[12]

The game was ported to the Sega Genesis, and published in 1991 in Japan by Sega and in North America by Renovation Products.[5] The cutscenes were removed for the port along with some levels due to the technical restrictions of the ROM cartridge format.[5]

The game is included in the Valis Complete Plus compilation released by Project EGG for Windows in 2007.[13] The compilation features the PC Engine version of the game, and includes a soundtrack CD and figure.[14]

In June 2021, Edia, a Japanese company that acquired the rights to Valis in December 2019, announced that Valis III will be released for the Nintendo Switch as a part of Valis: the Fanstasm Soldier Collection, along with Valis: The Fantasm Soldier and Valis II. Edia also announced it would reprint PC Engine copies of the games in commemoration of the series’ 35th anniversary.[15] The collection was released in Japan in December 2021 and in Western was released by Limited Run in March 2022.[16][17][18]

Valis III was very well received by video game critics. The original version for the PC Engine CD and TurboGrafx-CD was rated an 8/10 by Turboplay,[22] and was also scored 87%, 94%, and 90% by French magazines Génération 4, Joystick, and Player One, respectively.[19][1][21] According to Sam Derboo from Hardcore Gaming 101, "at the time of its release, Valis III was by far the most versatile, fun and best-looking game in the series".[5]

Damian Butt from Sega Pro gave the Genesis port, previously described by the magazine as "amazing",[10] a review score of 79%, opining it "lacks the edge-of-the-seat gameplay that made El Viento the winner".[23] French magazines Génération 4, Joystick, and Tilt rated it 85%,[24] 80%,[25] and 70%,[26] while RAZE scored the game (misnamed as "Phantasy Soldier 3") an 85%.[27] Retrospectively, Robert Menes from Sega-16 awarded it 8 stars out of 10, stating that "although a bit of an obscure game, Valis III deserves at least one playthrough from any respectable Genesis owner",[28] while IGN's Levi Buchanan reviewed it for a "Good" score of 7.5/10, writing this "strange Genesis side-scroller deserves revisiting, it looks great, has some nice music, and will give you plenty of challenge for your cash".[2]

Valis III was the last in the series to feature Yuko as the main character. In 1991, a year after the release of Valis III in Japan, Valis IV was released, featuring Lena as the main character of the game.[29]

On the Complex website, Valis III was selected as the 61st best game on the Sega Genesis console in a list originally published in 2016 with 100 games from that console.[30]

• Valis III at MobyGames