Valis II（ヴァリスⅡ）

I thought Valis II on the PCE CD was also a remake of the MSX/PC88/Sharp X68k, etc. PC versions and that it was simply made before the remake of the first game. Fortunately, Wikipedia (.jp of course) set me straight and it was actually developed simultaneously by an entirely different team. The PCE CD version dropped the 「夢幻戦士」 part of the title and was named simply Valis II.

As a result, this is almost essentially an entirely different game and I guess there are pretty large differences in the plot was well (my in-depth 5 min wikipedia research). While I thought the cut scenes were awesome, the story in the PCE CD version made very little sense to me. Still, I have to give this one props for being WAY AHEAD of its time technically at least in the home console market (hail PC(88) master race). To have fully voiced cut scenes at the height of the FC days really makes those kids playing Goemon 2 or whatever seem like, well child's play.

Yeah, the window is small but try comparing it to FC games from 1989

Plus, Yuko is a strong female protagonist bad ass this time around so you can't go wrong with that... oh but bikini armor... never mind! Japan it seems was still stuck in the middle ages when it comes to women's rights. Thank god America had it all figured out by then.  #MeToo. #TooSoon?

NOT SJW approved

The music was pretty darn good as well and this game is worth a play-through perhaps just for the soundtrack alone. Given that this game came out in 1989, in the context of the time, this is a pretty damn awesome game. However, by today's standards, the biggest problem is that actual game itself isn't the best platformer out there.

Not gonna lie, I was jamming during this tune
I'm going to be straight up honest here. Since I discovered the save state feature in the PCE emulator on the Vita while playing Valis I, I couldn't help but use it heavily for the sequel. Yeah, I technically cheated but the game was not good enough in my mind to expend the same amount of energy replaying over and over, the "correct" way. Especially when you consider those god damn annoying tiny floating spikes on fucking moving platforms in Act 5.

No seriously, fuck this shit

Playing this after the first remake was quite a step back in terms of both the in-game graphics and gameplay. Not just the lack of skirt physics, there is no longer a slide kick but the biggest problem was that the sword powers were very unbalanced. The power that can grow to the height of your character was so much more superior to all the other powers, that you want to avoid getting anything else at all costs. The projectile is huge and it even swallows incoming projectiles unlike the rest of the dinky, weak powers. My favorite homing missile from the first game was especially disappointing as it barely even homed and only fires one missile at a time even at max strength.

Score: 2.5 I guess the world wasn't ready for skirt physics before the 90s out of 5

I scored this one above the 2 mediocre score mostly because of its superior cut scenes and CD capabilities before even the SFC came out. Like many fellow non-Jhipsters, my first full CD-ROM experience came many years later with Myst on a machine that cost several thousands of dollars. It must have been real nice to be a Jhipster back in the day. Yeah, this game was localized I guessed and released on the TurboGrafx-CD in 1990 but who had one of those? Also, who wants that awful English dub anyways?

Me back in the day when I didn't know Japanese

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely