Valis IV

Valis IV
256px North American SNES cover art
Developer(s)	Laser Soft
Publisher(s)	Telenet Japan
Series	Valis
Platforms	PC Engine Super CD-ROM², SNES, Windows
Release date(s)	PC Engine SNES
Genre(s)	Platform game, hack and slash
Mode(s)	Single-player

Valis IV (ヴァリスⅣ, Varisu Fō) is a platform game developed and published by Telenet Japan in 1991. In 1992, it was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Super Valis IV (SUPERヴァリス赤き月の乙女, Sūpā Varisu Akaki Tsuki no Otome, or Red Moon Rising Maiden) which was the final release of the Valis series in North America.

Gameplay

Valis IV is a side-scrolling action platformer. Picking one of three characters (Asfar, Amu, and Rena; only Rena is available in Super Valis IV), the player fights through a 2D level, jumping from platform to platform and battling enemies, before confronting a boss character at each stage's end. Animated sequences and in-game dialogue help move the story along periodically throughout the game.

Similar to the adaptation of the PC Engine game Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo into Castlevania: Dracula X, extensive edits were made to Valis IV when it was ported to the Super Nintendo. The playable characters from the original were left to just one and the animated sequences from the original version also were removed. Though several levels were removed, a new level (Castle Vanity is actually based on the second half of the original Valis IV's first stage) was designed for this version.

Plot

Following on the events of Valis III, Yuko has become the goddess of the world of Vecanti and has watched over the world in peace since the death of Glames (Ramses). Trouble brews, however, when a prince of Vecanti named Galgear begins to search for a magical ring. This ring increases his powers, but to the loss of control he could have maintained under its effects, and the gods of Vecanti recognize this and enslave the reckless prince inside a crystal, its mass sinking into the ocean.

Fifteen years pass, and Galgear manages to break out of his prison, kidnapping the former heroine Valna and being pursued by troops led by Cham as a result. A member of her band, named Rena Brant, requests permission to infiltrate Galgear's stronghold and free Valna on her own; Cham initially disagrees, but a disembodied voice convinces her to allow this, and Rena brings her twin sister Amu with her. They both succeed in reaching Galgear's inner sanctum, but are stopped by the prince and his ring, who is about to obliterate them when they are teleported away by a magic force—that of Asfer, the prince's father, who tells them that only the Valis sword, no longer in this world, can stop him. Both girls journey day and night to reach the heavens of Vecanti and claim the sword, which is bequeathed onto them by Yuko herself, sent with her blessings in stopping the power-hungry prince. They return to Vecanti and use the mystic blade to defeat Galgear.

Release

Project EGG released an emulated version of the PC Engine game for Windows in 2007, along with the 2011 compilation Complete Plus that came with a sountrack CD and a figure. A 1993 CD Valis Visual Collection contains all the cutscenes from Valis IV.

Reception

According to Sam Derboo from Hardcore Gaming 101, "as a whole, Valis IV is not quite as good as its immediate predecessor, but still one of the better games in the series." About Super Valis IV, he wrote "it's just kind of bland and boring, and very disappointing in comparison to the CD-ROM powered version." In a retrospective review in 1998, German magazine TOTAL! rated Super Valis IV a 3 out of 5.

External links

• Valis IV and Super Valis IV at MobyGames