Valis II (TurboGrafx-CD) Playthrough

A playthrough of NEC's 1990 action-platformer for the TurboGrafx-CD, Valis II.

When it showed up in the spring of 1990 (on the same day as Ys Books 1 & 2, coincidentally enough!), Valis II was part of the first wave of games to be published for the TurboGrafx-16's CD-ROM add-on. It was also the first game by LaserSoft, a subsidiary of Telenet Japan (the guys behind the Cosmic Fantasy, Annette Futatabi, and Arcus series) that had been specifically established to create CD-based games.

Valis II for the Turbo is not the same game as the Valis II that was created for Japanese PCs, but they do share most of their plot points. The game stars Yuuko, a Japanese high schooler who wielded the legendary sword of Valis and became the "Fantasm Soldier" that saved the land of Vecanti from the villain Rogures in the first game.

This adventure, which was the first in the series to be released in English, sees Yuuko step once again into her fated role when an evil guy, Magus, is summoned from another dimension to launch a brand new assault on Vecanti.

The game is a traditional 2D side-scrolling platformer that plays more like a shooter than a hop-and-bop. Your sword fires magical bolts, and you can pick up items to change its firing pattern, similar to the way Contra does things. You also can pick up limited use special items that can do things like freeze enemies or give Yuuko a rotating shield.

The stage design is firmly planted in the mid 80s - the levels are straightforward and it's virtually impossible to get lost at any point - and though a lot of critics seem to find fault with that, I don't. It's one of the things I loved about the Valis games - they married the simplicity of the 80s arcade platformer with one of the fanciest presentations imaginable on a console by early 1990 standards. Valis II wasn't trying to be Mario 3 or one of those insufferable collectathon platformers, and I really appreciated that.

There are a few issues - it's stupidly easy and the controls have that familiar feeling of Telenet jank. The scrolling and the enemies' speed make Yuuko feel uncomfortably close to the forward edge of the screen, too, so you end up having to constantly fire leading shots to avoid being whacked by something that you wouldn't have otherwise reacted to in time.

But those issues don't bury the game. It has its quirks, but it also gets a lot of things right. The enemies and bosses designs are inventive and look great, the synthy mash-up of new wave and rock that makes up the soundtrack is absolutely superb, and the game's focus on its story always made it easy for me to get into. The presentation might not impress so much these days, but this came out in 1990. Most of us were still on the NES at that point, and games like this felt like the future. Despite the rough quality of the art and the ugly green borders, those hideously dubbed cutscenes were the stuff of dreams back then. They looked and sounded amazing, and as a kid, they gave the Valis series a magical sort of quality in my mind. The series stood out to me in a way that few others did, and in retrospect, they still do.

Even if Yuuko's running animation does make it look like she's practicing for the Icecapades. That armored bikini doesn't look very warm.

That Darius-inspired "boss approaching" screen with the klaxon is still as damned cool now as it was thirty years ago. (Ouch.)

And I know I already said this, but that soundtrack is *primo*. If nothing else, it's the music that gives it away as a Turbo game. It's that good. (That first stage theme! /drools)

I thought I'd be fun to revisit the series when I saw that a Valis collection was coming to the Switch, and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying this one for the umpteenth time.

(Random cautionary note: there was a "reimagining" of this game released for the Genesis under the name Syd of Valis, and it was absolute garbage. You'd do well to avoid that one.)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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