| Mugen Senshi Valis III | |
|---|---|
 Valis 3 Full box art | |
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Developer(s): |
Shin-Nihon Laser Soft |
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Publisher(s): |
Telenet Japan (JP) NEC (US) |
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Platform(s)-Release date(s): |
Sega Mega Drive/ Genesis- 1990 PC-Engine CD/ Turbografx-CD - 1991 PC (Valis Complete)- 2006, 2011 |
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Genre(s): |
Action-Platform |
Mugen senshi Valis III (夢幻戦士ヴァリス''Ⅲ, Mugen Senshi Varisu suri), also known as Valis III, is the third game installment of the Valis series. The game shows Yuuko's new adventure along her new companions: Valna and Cham.
Story[]
Long time passed since Yuuko's last battle. Yuuko's life seems peaceful but, meanwhile, the Dark world starts to get menaced to become disappeared in the void. So Its king, Glames, decides to take other worlds by force in order to keep the inhabitants from his world alive. But some of the dark world people oppose to the idea of using the force to take the worlds, so Glames starts to dispose them. As a consequence, a girl from the resistance of such world, Cham, decides to go to the human world and search for the Valis sword to use It against Glames who, in turn, posseses the counterpart of the Valis sword, the Leethus sword. After taking the sword, Cham tries to go back to the dark world but Yuuko stops her to find out why she wants her sword only to see the girl kidnapped by one of Glames's generals. After Yuuko beats him, Cham is freed an tells the Valis warrior about the situation and that Vanity is being invaded by Glames's army. Without wasting time, Yuuko and Cham make their ways to the dream world to see It in chaos due to the dark king's intromission as they find out that Valna has been also kidnapped by other of the generals. The heroines make their way to Valna and freed her. She then fights and beats her captor, then she says Yuuko to go to the temple where the widsom man, Nizetti, can give her the Valis armor's ultimate form unleashing all of Valis sword's power. Meanwhile, a strange figure allies with Glames. The three girls go there passing terrible tests and obstacles finally meeting with Nizetti who warns them that although having the sword's full power, Yuuko maybe won't win against Glames, but aside of all negative pronostics, she still decides to use the power. After doing so, they make their way to the dark world to confront Glames, not before getting onto the death world to find an awful surprise, the figure that allied with Glames reveals itself as Rogles, the antagonist from the first game who was supposed to be dead. He fights Yuuko and gets deffeated once again by her. The way continues as the protagonist fight Zalude and Asura. After his defeat, Asura reports them that Glames isn't on the dark world anymore and that he made his way into the human world showing that his generals were only making time for him to approach there. Yuuko and her allies part to the human world to find Glames's tower, they manage to get inside and Yuuko finally fights him. In the end, Glames expresses his last will to his opponents to maintain alive the dark world's inhabitants and to guard the Leethus sword, he dies minutes later. Yuuko then says to Cham and Valna to protect the survivors and goes to the sky with the two swords. She stays there guarding the two swords...apparently forever.
Gameplay[]
Valis III makes many improvements for the series in material of gameplay. It has the classic scheme of the HP and MP bar typical from the Valis series.
Apart of this, It has an attack bar with the shape of a sword. The more is filled up this bar, the higher will be the range of the attacks performed by the characters.
Other things on gameplay includes the high jump option and the sliding a
ability to pass through small places adamagg eh enemiat the cost of said attack barhem.
Characters[]
This game also introduces the capacity to play with 3 characters, selecting one at time. Every character has her own abilities and status that makes them have good and bad points.
- Yuuko: the main protagonist. She uses the Valis sword wave attack and is a balanced character in respect of attack, highest defense and speed.
- Cham: the new character introduced in this game. She uses a whip to attack. Altough her range isn't affected by the attack bar, she has half of range from the other characters but has twice of their attack power and a great speed but lacks some defense.
- Valna: Yuuko's sister from Vecanti. She uses a magic staff to attack with sparks. She has the greatest range but has less attack power and lowest speed/durability.
Spells[]
The spells in this game are from 3 elements: fire, ice and thunder. They can be obtained from items
Yuuko's magic spells
scattered throughout the levels. Spells consume MP when cast and remain equipped until the player gets
Cham's magic spells
another type of magic or loses a life. Depending on the character, the spells' effects will vary.
Valna's magic spells
| Spell Type | Yuuko | Cham | Valna |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Homing arrows | Flame dragon | Flame shield |
| Ice | Freezing slash wave | Freezing spears | Homing ice flakes |
| Thunder | Thunder flash | Thunder arrows | Sparking spheres |
Items[]
The items are almost the same as in the past games, but some are new:
- Small magic crystal: helps recovering a little amount of MP.
- Big magic crystal: helps recovering a large amount of MP.
- Sword: increases attack bar's capacity of charge.
- Double sword: increases attack bar's speed of charge.
- Small heart: recovers a little amount of HP.
- Big heart: recovers a big amount of HP.
- Red wand: gives the player the ability to use fire element magic.
- Blue wand: gives the player the ability to use ice element magic.
- White wand: gives the player the ability to use thunder element magic.
- 1up: gives the player one extra life.
Versions[]
The game has a Sega Mega drive/ Genesis version released on 1990 and a PC-Engine CD/Turbografx-CD version released in 1991. This last one was included in the compilation of Valis Complete in 2006 and once again in Valis Complete Plus in 2011.
Differences[]
- the PCE-CD/TGCD version has more levels, cutscenes and characters than the MD/Genesis version.
- the PCE-CD/TGCD version has slightly better graphics than the MD/Genesis version and CD-quality music.
- the MD/Genesis version has a hidden level select screen.
- the PCE-CD/TGCD version has a hidden debug menu as do all the Valis games for that console.
- the PCE-CD/TGCD version has voice acting.
Reception[]
The game was very well recived by both the public and critics, who focused on its gameplay and the inclusion of new playable characters as its strongest points. The PCE-CD/TGCD version is widely considered better than the MD/Genesis version, although the latter was more successful in America and Europe due to the popularity of the console. The magazine Electronic gaming monthly awarded the game a score of 8/10 stating that it was the best of the first three games. It is still often considered to be the best in the series.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The PCE-CD/TGCD version of this game is the longest one in all the Valis series, having 10 stages.
- This is the first game of the series to introduce the concept of using 3 different characters.
- This is the only game of the series where Valna and Cham are playable.
- This is the only game with the attack bar system.
- The TGCD (American) version of this game has many mistakes on the traslation of characters names.
- The PCE-CD version has a hidden version of the story review in the introduction scene with an SD style.
- This is the last game of the main series that was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
- There is a special VHS video of this game released with It that was nothing but a filmation of the game itself narrated with dialogues of the original seiyuus of Yuuko, Valna and Cham.