Same here. That is my favorite period for animation design. I can go back to the likes of Dirty Pair, Gall Force, Gundam 0083, and many others and they'll never fail to blow me away in how great they look and how appealing the designs are.
I wonder if that's even possible today considering that Telenet has closed doors long ago and all of Its licences were acquired by Sunsoft with nothing yet done with them to this very date.
It's easy to see why Valis was a success from the beginning: a girl in a school uniform fighting monsters in a contemporary urban setting, that's pretty much a prototype for Sailor Moon and of course it clicked with computer gamers that were most likely also into anime. Never released in Europe, not even on the MSX, I was completely unaware of it until a few years ago. I prefer the MD version despite it feeling slow at times, the PCE could have done with less fanservice in my opinion.
The Mega Drive version was planned to be released in Europe, along with most of the Telenet games that were released in North America (including Valis II/Syd of Valis and Valis III), thanks to an agreement between Renovation Products and UbiSoft, but in the end no game was ever released in Europe that way due to Sega Europe stepping in and breaking the deal. Regarding the MSX version, it could indeed have been released in Europe, especially in the lucrative MSX European markets like Spain and the Netherlands, but it seems no European publisher ever caught interest on it in order to bring them in official release. Telenet didn't have any European office to do it themselves either.
Oh no, 90's era PC gamers were NOT into anime at all and many to this day hold a big grudge against that "art style" warping their favorite modern western games into looking "too anime" to this day. The general consensus then wasn't that they hated anime specifically, as most western nerds had no idea what that even was. They just hated "kiddy" art styles and preferred "brutal realism" just like their favorite D&D artists and comic books. Anime truly was INCREDIBLY niche in the US, and heck for a long time there was a concerted effort to "hide" anime art styles from US ports of games and just "western wash" whole games like Dragon Quest to look more like that era's D&D art. Megaman, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and heck even Zelda all had their boxart substantially altered under the assumption that the Japanese art style would alienate a western audience, and frankly, they were right at the time to do so. "Why's this robot look so cute?! I don't want "CUTE"!" Sailor Moon of course had it's audience, but that was more or less the very start and you didn't even admit to other nerds that you watched it. You certainly never saw anyone dressed as Japanese characters at conventions that were still full of Klingons and Boba Fetts and Masquerading Vampires. But- there was always at least ONE hidden back room somewhere out of sight with badly dubbed anime playing on a projector.
@@Dark_Jaguar Yeah man, I should have specified Japanese computer gamers. Plenty of anime style there. I did not intend to refer to 90's DOS PCs and the likes at all.
@@amerigocosta7452 Sorry I misunderstood! The Japanese computer gaming scene was a complex one I was entirely missing out on back then, and it's amazing to me just how much longer "micro computers" lasted there than in the U.S. Here they kinda had their heyday in the 80's while there those sorts of machines lasted right through the 90's. Some day I might actually get into collecting stuff like the MSX... but I still need to get ahold of the US microcomputers first.
Nostalgic video! I think I played the Mega Drive localization back when I was a child. A long time ago, there used to be a games rental store up the road, and every couple weeks my parents would let me rent out a game or two for the Genesis we had. All the games were lined up on shelves and I would pick them just based off the box art (no internet reviews to tell you which ones were actually good). I played some fantastic titles like the Dune RTS, Puggsy, Thunder Force III, and this one. I recall thinking that this game was much more cumbersome to play than other platformers I had tried at the time, such as the more popular Sonic and Mario games, but I felt myself being drawn in by the eerie setting and music. Oddly, the clunky controls kind of made me want to beat the game? Like... I didn't want to lose to the stiff controls? Maybe it's actually kind of like Castlevania in that regard. I have fond memories of it even though it's not the best gameplay-wise.
Got Valis I and III around 2000 from a mom and pop video store that was selling all its Genesis games. The music was just part of the charm. Excellent examples of FM synth.
Wasn't aware of these many versions of valis mark. Thanks for posting! My introduction to this gem was the PC engine and I made a friend to record it'd soundtrack to cassette since I couldn't afford at the time this game and a PC engine. Thanks again for posting this!
Yeah, a lot of the Telenet games or Wolfteam games come from old Japanese PC's. Even things like the Mega Drive Game, Granada X is actually a Sharp X68000 port.
Thank you. I totally agree with you. Valis on the PC Engine is a really good game, nice graphics, fast gameplay, fantastic music. In my opinion, it is not only the best Valis 1 version (by far) but the best game in the series (better than Valis III et IV). This game really deserve to be played.
Nice, Valis! Telenet was one of my favorite Japanese developers back in the 16-bit era. Yeah, their games were janky and kind of "meh", but as an anime fan back then I ate them up.
@@kellinwinslow1988 To be specific, Wolf Team broke off from Telenet and later split into Tri-Ace and Namco Tales Studio. Telenet proper just sort out sputtered out into irrelevance after the 16-bit era and ultimately shut down in 2007 after trying to reboot Valis as a porno visual novel series.
i think it's kinda interesting that this game has a pretty decent fanbase despite it being anywhere from bad to slightly above average gameplay-wise depending on the version you play. it's a really early example of what a strong story and presentation can do for a game. sorta like FF7 in that way (don't worry, i like both valis and ff7)
Japanese PC's really were lights ahead of their western counterparts. Pantyshots? Best version :) Shame so many PC Engine CD games were Japanese exclusives, Europe was already pretty familiar with anime, so maybe games like these would be successful?
@@RetroCore Played them all. Even the 4th. the best of them being the 3rd. This series really shine on the console, compared to the Mega Drive versions I played first...
excelente video y gran trabajo documentando todo, nunca había visto la versión de pc engine, solo jugué la de sega. Definitivamente voy a jugar la de pc engine
Pressing F5 will enter into a sound test menu in the fantasm soldier valis just like other game from the 90s where the sound test menu is on the options screen
I love playing this series when I was a kid on the Genesis/Mega Drive. Hopefully this series & Rocket Knight Adventure comes back like Alex Kidd............
So apparently, Edia owns the Valis IP nowadays, and they plan to revive it into the good ol' days next year. Source: www.siliconera.com/valis-the-fantasm-soldier-35th-anniversary-revival-project-announced/
The music in the Valis series (Along the cutscenes) are an important part of the success of the games despite their questionable level design in early versions. The Mega Drive remake isn't perfect but it's fun and much better than the original and the music is perhaps the best FM rendition of the tunes with some extended parts. Frash of Sword never sounded that good before. The PCE version is indeed the best gameplay-wise and the graphics are a big improvement (no parallax scrolling tho). Everything about its presentation is pretty good and while the arranged tunes are nice, I prefer the more rocking versions of the MD.
Great video! The original version is choppy and had atrocious gameplay but it was one of the first games with a female protagonist (it was released only 4 months after Metroid,and Samus was revealed as a female only in the end). I think the cinematics of this version sold the game and were kind of mindblowing for 1986. Ninja Gaiden was praised for the same thing two years later. And Telenet done that before Enix and Konami released big adventure games with amazing artwork ,full developed story and cinematics for japanese pcs like J.E.S.U.S and Snatcher. Despite the game being an unplayable mess the soundtrack of the original 1986 version was really amazing . The PC 8801 had that awesome Yamaha sound chip that the other ports lacked.
The original version(s) did not age well at all! No wonder it’s tough to go back to original versions of (certain) games. 8-bit versions of this game aren’t that good which is why the 16-bit versions are much better experiences. The PC Engine version has a fucking awesome soundtrack! Great cinemas too. PC Engine cinemas are known to have Japanese voices and I like that.
After seeing this, I want a new Retro Core title card that says "Created by A Retro Core" and "Producted by RetroCoreYakumo"(or whatever name you prefer). Good old classic video game Engrish. Love it. You could have just said, PC Engine - now with more panty shots, and that would have been all we needed to know. Just kidding about that(no, really). It looks like a massive upgrade overall. Telenet was an odd developer. Even when their games were bad, you could get the impression that they were at least trying, and they did figure things out and get better over time. Valis is a great example as it started off as a rough series and then evolved into what many consider, myself included, legitimately good, though still quirky, games. I think it was cool to see that kind of evolution and that the series had a chance to improve. I really liked Valis 3 and 4 and have been wanting to go back to them lately. Nice to see this battle and how they refined the game. It's an early example of an HD remake. Sega Genesis did have "High-Definition Graphics" after all.
An interesting,if janky, series. Of course it was made by Telnet and Wolf Team. You can see bits of it in Tri- Ace games. Reminds me of Devil Hunter Yoko for some reason. I have the second,third and fourth games but not the first. Pretty expensive games for the Turboduo in the West.
Nice, glad you are doing Valis. Seems like the PC Engine version is the main one to play with the Genesis/Mega Drive in 2nd. I hope you will do Valis 2 as well.
How does a certain blue haired lady become a 'Fantasm Soldier'? Find out! PS. Someone's gotta remake this series for next gen! There's a lot of animes and 'Japanese only' games still in need of preserving, restoring and other things. PPS. At least Valis's normal outfit is easy to do, you just need some Japanese schoolgirl clothes and socks and something like Mary Jane shoes or ballet flats to run in and one of those long skirts or a blue hakama.
One of my favorites of the time period. Was blown away when I 1st played Valis 2 on the TG-16 CD when I was much younger. Have 1-4 mixed up between Genesis, TG-16, Super Nintendo and PC-Engine. Still need to get Valis on the PC-Engine cd (and probably would have if covid didn't cancel my vacation) Releated/unrelated..... seems eants is no more (thankfully) and seems like something is planned for its 35th anniversary, but the company that picked it up primarily makes mobile games.... BUT Valis 4 ended up on the Switch(US) last week, so maybe more of the games will be available on modern consoles?
The scrolling is so bad on the original version it actually makes the MSX version look smooth in comparision. Re. the game and level design, it looks pretty par for the course for home computer games of that period. Rare in their Ultimate guise were using a similarly dreadful scheme of spawning in a constant stream of enemies around the player governed by some sort of basic algorithm rather than design and the British gaming press turned a blind eye to how flat it made the games feel. There are no peaks and troughs it's just a constant unending stream of enemies assailing through many of their games beginning to end.
The cinematics are obviously best on PC Engine CD but I honestly prefer the original character design for the faces in the cinematics on the NEC PC8801 since they're the most "pure" mid-1980s anime designs.
I had the MSX version back at the day... when I found out it had became a series with lots of games, I scratched my head, like "How the heck that awful game became a... series?" The MSX game is borderline unplayable, everything is flickering and moving so jerky, is very hard to understand what's going on, and gameplay is really.. urgh. I remember when I first beat the 1st stage, I was surprised because I thought the game was just about running around in a city. The 1st level is so big and spread out, I thought there was just no ending to that. Valis 2 was a little better ( it's an MSX 2 game after all) but it was riddled with slowdowns to the point of being very harmful to the game. I believe it was made with the "Turbo-enabled" MSXs on mind. RUnning it on a overclocked 7mhz Z80 makes it pretty good.
I liked this, Valis III and IV on the PC Engine. Quite fun, though I remember getting really quite frustrated with parts of Valis III. Valis II... not so good. Worse cutscenes than the computer versions and unimpressive visuals in general. I keep meaning to get hold of a copy of the MSX version of that.
I always believed that the MD version had been later than the Pce version, due to its sale date in the West, and that it was a bad conversion despite being the first version I played; I thought all the sprites, layouts and cinemas were downgraded from the PCE version. Something that catches my attention is the fluidity with which the lips of the Pc-98 version move so fluidly.
The only Valis game I remember seeing back in the day was the one for the SNES, couldn't tell you which number in the series it was without looking it up.
I just noticed that today. I wish Nintendo would put PC Engine games like they did with Wii, and for them to put the pce cd version of Valis IV. I’ve heard it’s better than the snes one. The snes is missing the cutscenes.
Wow, you were quite harsh on Valis 2. I'm a fan of the valis series, my favorites being 1 on the PC engine and 4 on the SNES. But I wouldn't say any of the games are exceptional. What I love about the valis games are the old school anime art style and the amazing music. Will you be doing a series on Valis 3 and 4? I really enjoy your videos. A suggestion would be to possibly but the release year and month in a corner of the screen while showing or introducing a game.
Valis 3 will be coming out this week 👍. Personally, I think this is the pinicale of the series. But which is the better of the two versions? PC Engine or Mega Drive. Hmm, tough call. I have thought about putting the release date however I would only be using Japanese dates. Can't be bothered with adding UK and US dates because then people would want their countries dates too. However I've decided against it because release dates are not always accurate and I really can't be dealing with checking everything. I just don't have the time I'm afraid.
@@RetroCore I played 3 on the PC engine over a decade ago, but I don't remember it much. Maybe I should invest in that FPGA duo coming out and dust those old PC engine titles off 😅 Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to your video on 3 (and hopefully 4).
I tried out the X68000 port of Valis on my RetroPie and I didn't care for it. The gameplay just felt weird and the anime cutscenes looked more like fan art than a professional effort.
Megadrive version has a pretty banging OST by the sounds of it! Long live FM Also is that the TR626 I hear there on the PC Engine music? Same drum machine used for Sonic 1 and 2 :)
Valis on PC Engine is pretty neat. I have all the Valis titles on PC Engine CD and they're all fun in their own way. The soundtrack on them is pretty killer to. It's almost too fanservicey on PC Engine for my taste, but it's overall pretty light compared to other games and consoles I've seen like the PC-FX so I don't mind it too much. I'm amazed to see how far the title has come from its original form, the Mega Drive version isn't terrible but the PC Engine CD is leaps and bounds better than all the others before it.
For Valis III is do prefer the music on the Mega Drive game, also the way it looks thanks to the Parallax scrolling. The first one is far superior on the PC Engine though.
Needless to say, the box art that was used for the US version of "Valis" on the Sega Genesis was pretty lousy despite the amount of detail that was put into it, especially because of how horrendously ugly the main character looked when compared to the Japanese version. :P
@@RetroCore Yeah, I totally agree with you, and the best example of this would have to be the Mega Man games released for the NES in North America and/or Europe, which are quite infamous for having some of the most awful box art ever created, most notably for the first couple of games in the series. :P
Well now I have a better idea why the Famicom port was so bad, it was based off of the PC-88 version. I always assumed it was the black sheep and the MD/PCE Valis was the norm, but nope, it's those ports that are the black sheep, and for the best. I always thought the Mega Drive Valis had potential to be an awesome game but fell kinda short, and assumed the PCE would have the same game but with cutscenes and an arranged soundtrack but nope, it looks like a MASSIVE improvement. I'm going to have to check it out sometime, I'll probably add it to my TG16 Mini whenever they finally release the hack for it. Kinda strange that they didn't add any of the Valis games on it, though, you'd think it would be in the Japanese lineup at least.
I was able to beat MD Valis without losing a single life in my first try. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't the same for MD Valis III, particularly on the Ice level.
Sure. Valis II got a release on the almighty Sharp X68000. So it will be interesting to see how that version is compared to the PC Engine and Mega Drive.
PCE Super CD is the best by far, followed by the Genesis, with the Famicom in the rear. Telenet was never the greatest dev, but they were really trying to make more than simple games back in the day. They clearly had artistic ambition. Shame they couldn't grow - it would have been interesting to see their style on the Saturn and PlayStation. You are right about the level design in the early versions. Going with a more linear path with the Genesis and Super CD benefitted this game greatly.
I’ve mostly only played the PC-Engine port. I always felt let down by it, especially after the way Valis IV turned out. I just wish they’d re-worked it a little more, given it was the last one to come out on the console (and the only one to use the expanded System 3 RAM). Oh well, at least it’s not Valis II.
@@RetroCore It's one of the blandest game you will ever play, period. The level 1 theme is still stuck in my head since I first played it some years ago, though
Cool video Mark. I remember that the Genesis version Valis III was one of the games in one of the early episodes of the very first Retro Core series, since I bought a copy based on that video. I was vaguely familiar with the series before that but had never played any of the games. I've still only ever played the Genesis versions of Valis III and Valis. I quite liked Valis III...Valis, not so much (except some of the music). It's okay, but not amazing on the Genesis, and I'm too lazy, busy, and just can't be arsed into trying any other game in the series lol. I also distinctly remember that, either in that same episode or another one of the first series, you called either Valis SD or Valis 2 a "sack of cack", a new phrase for me at the time, so I've specifically stayed away from those haha.
Lol, sack of cack. Classic phrase. Haven't said that in a while. I would imagine I said that about the Valis SD game or Valis SYD as it is known in the US for some very strange reason.
The earlier versions released on Japanese computers seem all very mediocre, if not unplayable. A X68000 port could have been something else but that didn't happen. The Famicom sound chip tends to sound "goofy" which really doesn't suit well with this game. The Mega Drive sound hardware on the other hand was the perfect fit and the music sounds fantastic on it! Also nice parallax scrollings but other than that the game kinda feels dated by Mega Drive standards. They could have done something better (you just have to compare with earlier games such as Mystic Defender or Revenge of Shinobi!). The PC Engine Super CD-Rom² version has enhanced cutscenes and more detailed graphics but it lacks the parallax scrollings of the Mega Drive version and despite being on CD, the music aren't as nice IMO (they sound less "Valis-esque", same happened with Valis III). Also, as someone else said, the girl does indeed sound like a monkey when she gets hit ^^
No Valis on the mini, European or not. Actually no Valis games were ever released in Europe on any format (I'm unaware if the emulated downloadable versions are on European stores tho, I don't think so).
I had this (and Valis III) for the Genesis/Mega Drive and while I thought the run cycle on the first one was slow, both games had a certain charm that I enjoyed. I'd dearly love to see whoever owns the IP release a compilation for the Switch (well, except for the H #5...no thanks). Doubt that would happen, at least for the American market. But since Super Vails IV for the SNES/Super Famicom just became available on the Switch's SNES Switch Online last week, perhaps....? Merry (yesterday) Christmas to you and your family.
Pretty sure the computer versions move in 8 pixel shifts, wonder if Japanese computers of the time can do what DOS did in terms of software scrolling engines of 4 and 2 pixel shifts? That's a pretty lazy PC98 port, virtually unchanged. Does seem to be more a console game at heart. Different hardware but same level design, guess they didn't notice how shit their levels were heh. New level design but kind of sluggish on MD, like she's running underwater, odd since all other actions seem snappy. Man talk about a slow evolution up to that proper PCE version.
This is why it’s impossible to have an informed opinion about the PC Engine. I suppose it’s quite different to the Turbo Grafix due to the different library. But this is clearly better than Legendary Axe which regularly tops Turbo Grafix lists of best game. It’s a shame it took Wolf Team 7 versions to come up with a game which is actually good.
this is a rather popular misconception because actually, many of the best pc engine games have been released in the US back then (pc genjin, galaga 88, splatterhouse, ys book 1 & 2, aero blasters, devil crash, etc.). some of them were hard to find though but still
@@ryzmaker11 I'm going to disagree with you -- it is not at all a misconception to say that most of the great PC Engine games did not make it west. I believe that Japan had around 650 games for the various versions of PC Engine, of which less than 150 made it to North America. I've been playing through the ROMs of every single PC Engine game systematically over the last several months and I'm about 200 games in. Of my favorite games that I plan to eventually track down and purchase, only about 20-30% of them made it west. Also, looking at the PC Engine as a shmup powerhouse, it's well-known that only a few shmups came out for Turbo in the west. Most of those gems stayed in Japan.
@@sonicmania9993 a LOT of what stayed in japan are visual novels, mahjong games, subpar JRPGs and such. this wouldn't have made a difference had they been released in the west and many of the best shmups *did* make their way to the west (R-type, galaga 88, gunhed, super star soldier, soldier blade, aero blasters, cotton, gate of thunder, winds of thunder, star parodier, etc.) in fact, there are even some ironical instances, like fantasy zone being released on turbografx-16 but super fantasy zone not being released on genesis despite being a sega IP??! o_O now sure, there are also a few big japanese exclusives that could have made their way to the west but same goes for the mega drive and SNES then
@@ryzmaker11 I will not deny that there are several dozen subpar visual novels and mahjong games that are JP-only PC-engine (and as I said, I've been playing at least a bit of all of them in my emu-survey). But there were crap games on American Turbo too, especially quite a few sports games that were vastly inferior to Genesis and SNES games. So the American Turbo game lineup had less than 100 games that were even worth playing, while my feeling at the moment is that Japanese PCE had at least 300 worth playing. and at least 200 worth owning ... maybe more. Also, you named more than half the shmups (in your list of 10) that came out on American Turbo... there are less than 10 more that came west (I can think of Dragon Spirit, Side Arms Hyper Dyne, Ordyne, Cyber Core - which is one of the best, Psychosis, Raiden, Forgotten Worlds, Magical Chase). I do like most of your 10 shmups listed, but what about equally good games that stayed in Japan -- off the top of my head: Sapphire, the two Spriggan games, Tatsujin, Sylphia, Kiaidan 00, Super Raiden, Image Fight 1 & 2, Override, Alzadick, Aldynes, Hellfire S, Nexzr Special? And for shmup fans, there are literally dozens more on PC Engine that are well worth playing, games that American Turbo owners sadly never got to play. I understand that you have some favorite games that came to Turbo in the US, and I like a lot of those games too! But to say that most of the good games came west is to ignore a vast number of very interesting games that, for the most part, the western gaming press *then* and western retro community *now* just kind of ignore. I am finding so many gems as I play through them all -- games that are every bit as good as the best 50 games in the US Turbo lineup. Of course the same goes for the Sega Saturn, my favorite console. I am finding a lot of similarities in those two gaming libraries (PC Engine & Saturn) -- fascinating games, endless fun.
PC88 is very jerky but the soundtrack easily counters that, its the same with the X1, the scrolling slightly improves on the MSX but the sound is lacking (and the system is known for great soundtracks), PC98 is similar to PC88 and X1, NES is more playable within the system's limits, Genesis is great offering that's not half assed, Turbo CD is vast improvement from the Genesis.
I do like the PC-Engine CD version the most. i never beat it though, cause if you lose your power ups,the game can get near impossible to beat. I've seen screenshots of the mobile 2006 game by the way. yeah it looked good but thanks to at least confirm that the mobile game was indeed good.
Wow those early games look rough. The only game I’ve ever played in the series is Valus 3, which is awesome. Has any series of games started so badly and end up so good?
Went to Wikipedia to see how the series ended. Uh... I’ll just post without comment “ Valis X is an erotic visual novel released for Windows in 2006 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series. Developed by Eants, it was the last game published by Telenet Japan. Valis X is divided into five episodes that retell the stories of the first four games, containing copious amounts of lesbian acts and tentacle erotica.”
I love Japanese anime visuals from mid-80's to somewhere in 90's. They had so much personality.
Yep, not like now.
Well now they just cut and paste in paint tool SAI
Absolutely, I find Anime designs from the 2000s onwards so soulless and boring, with only few exceptions.
Same here. That is my favorite period for animation design. I can go back to the likes of Dirty Pair, Gall Force, Gundam 0083, and many others and they'll never fail to blow me away in how great they look and how appealing the designs are.
Can we got an Amen up in here?!
I wish Valis could get the Streets of Rage 4 treatment. Great video as usual, I wish you and the fam a happy leaving-the-year-that-was-2020-behind :)
I wonder if that's even possible today considering that Telenet has closed doors long ago and all of Its licences were acquired by Sunsoft with nothing yet done with them to this very date.
@@xtremekirby07 Actually Valis is getting a reprisal; saw an article about a month ago
Even though I never played through entire series the first PC Engine game is superb and loved playing that. Stellar soundtrack as well.
The soundtrack is indeed a good one.
It's easy to see why Valis was a success from the beginning: a girl in a school uniform fighting monsters in a contemporary urban setting, that's pretty much a prototype for Sailor Moon and of course it clicked with computer gamers that were most likely also into anime. Never released in Europe, not even on the MSX, I was completely unaware of it until a few years ago. I prefer the MD version despite it feeling slow at times, the PCE could have done with less fanservice in my opinion.
The Mega Drive version was planned to be released in Europe, along with most of the Telenet games that were released in North America (including Valis II/Syd of Valis and Valis III), thanks to an agreement between Renovation Products and UbiSoft, but in the end no game was ever released in Europe that way due to Sega Europe stepping in and breaking the deal. Regarding the MSX version, it could indeed have been released in Europe, especially in the lucrative MSX European markets like Spain and the Netherlands, but it seems no European publisher ever caught interest on it in order to bring them in official release. Telenet didn't have any European office to do it themselves either.
Oh no, 90's era PC gamers were NOT into anime at all and many to this day hold a big grudge against that "art style" warping their favorite modern western games into looking "too anime" to this day. The general consensus then wasn't that they hated anime specifically, as most western nerds had no idea what that even was. They just hated "kiddy" art styles and preferred "brutal realism" just like their favorite D&D artists and comic books. Anime truly was INCREDIBLY niche in the US, and heck for a long time there was a concerted effort to "hide" anime art styles from US ports of games and just "western wash" whole games like Dragon Quest to look more like that era's D&D art. Megaman, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and heck even Zelda all had their boxart substantially altered under the assumption that the Japanese art style would alienate a western audience, and frankly, they were right at the time to do so. "Why's this robot look so cute?! I don't want "CUTE"!" Sailor Moon of course had it's audience, but that was more or less the very start and you didn't even admit to other nerds that you watched it. You certainly never saw anyone dressed as Japanese characters at conventions that were still full of Klingons and Boba Fetts and Masquerading Vampires. But- there was always at least ONE hidden back room somewhere out of sight with badly dubbed anime playing on a projector.
@@Dark_Jaguar Yeah man, I should have specified Japanese computer gamers. Plenty of anime style there. I did not intend to refer to 90's DOS PCs and the likes at all.
@@amerigocosta7452 Sorry I misunderstood! The Japanese computer gaming scene was a complex one I was entirely missing out on back then, and it's amazing to me just how much longer "micro computers" lasted there than in the U.S. Here they kinda had their heyday in the 80's while there those sorts of machines lasted right through the 90's. Some day I might actually get into collecting stuff like the MSX... but I still need to get ahold of the US microcomputers first.
Nostalgic video! I think I played the Mega Drive localization back when I was a child. A long time ago, there used to be a games rental store up the road, and every couple weeks my parents would let me rent out a game or two for the Genesis we had. All the games were lined up on shelves and I would pick them just based off the box art (no internet reviews to tell you which ones were actually good). I played some fantastic titles like the Dune RTS, Puggsy, Thunder Force III, and this one. I recall thinking that this game was much more cumbersome to play than other platformers I had tried at the time, such as the more popular Sonic and Mario games, but I felt myself being drawn in by the eerie setting and music. Oddly, the clunky controls kind of made me want to beat the game? Like... I didn't want to lose to the stiff controls? Maybe it's actually kind of like Castlevania in that regard. I have fond memories of it even though it's not the best gameplay-wise.
Famicom, Megadrive and PC Engine CD shows us again how much better where consoles than computers back in the late 80s and early 90s
Music rocks on the Genesis/Mega Drive version.
agreed. still have my genesis copy of valis 1 & 3
Got Valis I and III around 2000 from a mom and pop video store that was selling all its Genesis games. The music was just part of the charm. Excellent examples of FM synth.
Wasn't aware of these many versions of valis mark. Thanks for posting! My introduction to this gem was the PC engine and I made a friend to record it'd soundtrack to cassette since I couldn't afford at the time this game and a PC engine. Thanks again for posting this!
Yeah, a lot of the Telenet games or Wolfteam games come from old Japanese PC's. Even things like the Mega Drive Game, Granada X is actually a Sharp X68000 port.
How did I miss this in notifications! I'll forever have a soft spot for this series, even just for it's music, great BOTP episode Mark! :)
Make sure to check out next week's show as I'll be doing Valis II 👍
Dude the mega drive soundtrack goes hard
Thank you. I totally agree with you. Valis on the PC Engine is a really good game, nice graphics, fast gameplay, fantastic music. In my opinion, it is not only the best Valis 1 version (by far) but the best game in the series (better than Valis III et IV). This game really deserve to be played.
I like both Mega Drive version and the PCE Super CD one.
They both have good points for sure.
Great review. Must find out these two versions for my consoles.
I did not realize how badly I needed a Valis Battle of the Ports. I have a ton of nostalgia for this series.
I'll be doing part 2 and 3 as well.
Nice, Valis! Telenet was one of my favorite Japanese developers back in the 16-bit era. Yeah, their games were janky and kind of "meh", but as an anime fan back then I ate them up.
I have a soft spot for Telenet games too. Yeah, many were awful but they did have a few nice titles.
@@RetroCore Well they did become Tri-Ace which still carries on that tradition in some ways so there's that.
@@kellinwinslow1988 To be specific, Wolf Team broke off from Telenet and later split into Tri-Ace and Namco Tales Studio. Telenet proper just sort out sputtered out into irrelevance after the 16-bit era and ultimately shut down in 2007 after trying to reboot Valis as a porno visual novel series.
@@muffinboymcgee7411 Yep. I just left out the Tales team but I'm aware of that.
Totally agree, PCE-CD Valis is pretty much the only one worth playing. I'm not a fan of Valis 2 either, but I like parts 3 and 4 just fine.
i think it's kinda interesting that this game has a pretty decent fanbase despite it being anywhere from bad to slightly above average gameplay-wise depending on the version you play. it's a really early example of what a strong story and presentation can do for a game. sorta like FF7 in that way (don't worry, i like both valis and ff7)
Valis 3 on the Genesis is really good imo.
Japanese PC's really were lights ahead of their western counterparts. Pantyshots? Best version :) Shame so many PC Engine CD games were Japanese exclusives, Europe was already pretty familiar with anime, so maybe games like these would be successful?
In fact, the Japanese PC Engine family of systems was oficially imported/distributed in France in the nineties particulary for that reason.
Love these games! I got to play thr PCengineCD version later on, and it's totally worth it!
Nice. The PC Engine version of the first game is well worth your time. The 2nd game, definitely not.
@@RetroCore Played them all. Even the 4th. the best of them being the 3rd. This series really shine on the console, compared to the Mega Drive versions I played first...
Spent hours and hours playing this on the PC Engine and it was worth it. Pretty tough game IMO.
It it a really tough game. It's one of those games where you need to take your time and think through where to go.
excelente video y gran trabajo documentando todo, nunca había visto la versión de pc engine, solo jugué la de sega. Definitivamente voy a jugar la de pc engine
Pressing F5 will enter into a sound test menu in the fantasm soldier valis just like other game from the 90s where the sound test menu is on the options screen
I love playing this series when I was a kid on the Genesis/Mega Drive. Hopefully this series & Rocket Knight Adventure comes back like Alex Kidd............
Valis is coming back. Apparently there will be a game for its 35th anniversary in 2021.
The lovely anime series from 80s and 90s are very well translated to Megadrive and PC Engine CD. Valis is a good example.
So apparently, Edia owns the Valis IP nowadays, and they plan to revive it into the good ol' days next year.
Source: www.siliconera.com/valis-the-fantasm-soldier-35th-anniversary-revival-project-announced/
The music in the Valis series (Along the cutscenes) are an important part of the success of the games despite their questionable level design in early versions. The Mega Drive remake isn't perfect but it's fun and much better than the original and the music is perhaps the best FM rendition of the tunes with some extended parts. Frash of Sword never sounded that good before. The PCE version is indeed the best gameplay-wise and the graphics are a big improvement (no parallax scrolling tho). Everything about its presentation is pretty good and while the arranged tunes are nice, I prefer the more rocking versions of the MD.
The music on the MD is very nice, gets better in Valis 2 and 3 also. Telenet had some nice sound drivers for the Mega Drive.
@@RetroCore The curious thing is Valis 3 came before Valis 1 on the MD
I like the Mega Drive version. It is the most accessible port with a rocking soundtrack to match.
Great video! The original version is choppy and had atrocious gameplay but it was one of the first games with a female protagonist (it was released only 4 months after Metroid,and Samus was revealed as a female only in the end).
I think the cinematics of this version sold the game and were kind of mindblowing for 1986. Ninja Gaiden was praised for the same thing two years later.
And Telenet done that before Enix and Konami released big adventure games with amazing artwork ,full developed story and cinematics for japanese pcs like J.E.S.U.S and Snatcher.
Despite the game being an unplayable mess the soundtrack of the original 1986 version was really amazing .
The PC 8801 had that awesome Yamaha sound chip that the other ports lacked.
There loads of Arcade games with female protagonists. One of the earlier ones would be Ninja Princes by Sega. Think that was around 1985.
The original version(s) did not age well at all! No wonder it’s tough to go back to original versions of (certain) games. 8-bit versions of this game aren’t that good which is why the 16-bit versions are much better experiences. The PC Engine version has a fucking awesome soundtrack! Great cinemas too. PC Engine cinemas are known to have Japanese voices and I like that.
I think the 8bit PC versions were concidered to be awful when they were new 😂
After seeing this, I want a new Retro Core title card that says "Created by A Retro Core" and "Producted by RetroCoreYakumo"(or whatever name you prefer). Good old classic video game Engrish. Love it. You could have just said, PC Engine - now with more panty shots, and that would have been all we needed to know. Just kidding about that(no, really). It looks like a massive upgrade overall. Telenet was an odd developer. Even when their games were bad, you could get the impression that they were at least trying, and they did figure things out and get better over time. Valis is a great example as it started off as a rough series and then evolved into what many consider, myself included, legitimately good, though still quirky, games. I think it was cool to see that kind of evolution and that the series had a chance to improve. I really liked Valis 3 and 4 and have been wanting to go back to them lately. Nice to see this battle and how they refined the game. It's an early example of an HD remake. Sega Genesis did have "High-Definition Graphics" after all.
Game creative staff, Retro Core 😁
Jank Fest Incoming! I played through the Mega Drive version BTW.
Steer clear of the computer versions!
Agreed. The computer versions are not fun.
An interesting,if janky, series. Of course it was made by Telnet and Wolf Team. You can see bits of it in Tri- Ace games. Reminds me of Devil Hunter Yoko for some reason. I have the second,third and fourth games but not the first. Pretty expensive games for the Turboduo in the West.
It was pretty cool seeing it evolve from a piece of crap to a highly polished piece of crap.
I liked and played so much this piece of crap
This is true.
Nice, glad you are doing Valis. Seems like the PC Engine version is the main one to play with the Genesis/Mega Drive in 2nd. I hope you will do Valis 2 as well.
How does a certain blue haired lady become a 'Fantasm Soldier'? Find out!
PS. Someone's gotta remake this series for next gen! There's a lot of animes and 'Japanese only' games still in need of preserving, restoring and other things.
PPS. At least Valis's normal outfit is easy to do, you just need some Japanese schoolgirl clothes and socks and something like Mary Jane shoes or ballet flats to run in and one of those long skirts or a blue hakama.
Crazy we never got a release of the first PC Engine CD game, but 2 and 3 instead!
One of my favorites of the time period. Was blown away when I 1st played Valis 2 on the TG-16 CD when I was much younger. Have 1-4 mixed up between Genesis, TG-16, Super Nintendo and PC-Engine. Still need to get Valis on the PC-Engine cd (and probably would have if covid didn't cancel my vacation)
Releated/unrelated..... seems eants is no more (thankfully) and seems like something is planned for its 35th anniversary, but the company that picked it up primarily makes mobile games.... BUT Valis 4 ended up on the Switch(US) last week, so maybe more of the games will be available on modern consoles?
Aaaaargh! The Nec Pc8801 version made my eyes bleed!
The scrolling is so bad on the original version it actually makes the MSX version look smooth in comparision. Re. the game and level design, it looks pretty par for the course for home computer games of that period. Rare in their Ultimate guise were using a similarly dreadful scheme of spawning in a constant stream of enemies around the player governed by some sort of basic algorithm rather than design and the British gaming press turned a blind eye to how flat it made the games feel. There are no peaks and troughs it's just a constant unending stream of enemies assailing through many of their games beginning to end.
Rare made so much crap that people seem to perpously forget. Many of those crappy LJN games on the NES were developed by Rare.
The cinematics are obviously best on PC Engine CD but I honestly prefer the original character design for the faces in the cinematics on the NEC PC8801 since they're the most "pure" mid-1980s anime designs.
Touhou 1-6 were on the PC-98 so there was no excuse for Valis to look identical to the PC-88 release.
Telenet. That's all I need to say.
@@RetroCore The creators of Heavy *gag*, Heavy *gag*, Heavy Nova.
That was Micronet, not Telenet. Micronet are far worse. What's puzzling in Sega actually bought Micronet.
@@RetroCore How? Sanctuary Guardian starts playing.
I had the MSX version back at the day... when I found out it had became a series with lots of games, I scratched my head, like "How the heck that awful game became a... series?"
The MSX game is borderline unplayable, everything is flickering and moving so jerky, is very hard to understand what's going on, and gameplay is really.. urgh.
I remember when I first beat the 1st stage, I was surprised because I thought the game was just about running around in a city. The 1st level is so big and spread out, I thought there was just no ending to that.
Valis 2 was a little better ( it's an MSX 2 game after all) but it was riddled with slowdowns to the point of being very harmful to the game. I believe it was made with the "Turbo-enabled" MSXs on mind. RUnning it on a overclocked 7mhz Z80 makes it pretty good.
Yep, the MSX version is bad but believe me, its way better than the NEC and sharp versions.
I liked this, Valis III and IV on the PC Engine. Quite fun, though I remember getting really quite frustrated with parts of Valis III. Valis II... not so good. Worse cutscenes than the computer versions and unimpressive visuals in general. I keep meaning to get hold of a copy of the MSX version of that.
Ah, Valis 2 on the Mega Drive is also pretty poor.
I always believed that the MD version had been later than the Pce version, due to its sale date in the West, and that it was a bad conversion despite being the first version I played; I thought all the sprites, layouts and cinemas were downgraded from the PCE version.
Something that catches my attention is the fluidity with which the lips of the Pc-98 version move so fluidly.
Game series had good music
The PC engine port's are nice hard as hell playable tho.
The only Valis game I remember seeing back in the day was the one for the SNES, couldn't tell you which number in the series it was without looking it up.
It was Super Valis IV. Had a good soundtrack
Super Valis for the SNES is the equivalent of Valis IV for the PC Engine CD.
Yep, it's basically a remake.
Speaking of Valis, Super Valis IV is recently added to Switch Online.
I just noticed that today. I wish Nintendo would put PC Engine games like they did with Wii, and for them to put the pce cd version of Valis IV. I’ve heard it’s better than the snes one. The snes is missing the cutscenes.
Wow, you were quite harsh on Valis 2. I'm a fan of the valis series, my favorites being 1 on the PC engine and 4 on the SNES. But I wouldn't say any of the games are exceptional.
What I love about the valis games are the old school anime art style and the amazing music.
Will you be doing a series on Valis 3 and 4? I really enjoy your videos. A suggestion would be to possibly but the release year and month in a corner of the screen while showing or introducing a game.
Valis 3 will be coming out this week 👍. Personally, I think this is the pinicale of the series. But which is the better of the two versions? PC Engine or Mega Drive. Hmm, tough call.
I have thought about putting the release date however I would only be using Japanese dates. Can't be bothered with adding UK and US dates because then people would want their countries dates too.
However I've decided against it because release dates are not always accurate and I really can't be dealing with checking everything. I just don't have the time I'm afraid.
@@RetroCore I played 3 on the PC engine over a decade ago, but I don't remember it much. Maybe I should invest in that FPGA duo coming out and dust those old PC engine titles off 😅
Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to your video on 3 (and hopefully 4).
You have to admire how Tele Net never gave up on the early crappy versions of the game until they finally nailed it with the PC-Engine CDRom version.
I tried out the X68000 port of Valis on my RetroPie and I didn't care for it. The gameplay just felt weird and the anime cutscenes looked more like fan art than a professional effort.
Ah, you mean Valis 2?
PC Engine CD wins! Followed by the Megadrive
Megadrive version has a pretty banging OST by the sounds of it! Long live FM
Also is that the TR626 I hear there on the PC Engine music? Same drum machine used for Sonic 1 and 2 :)
It sure does. Telenet had a good sound driver for the Mega Drive.
The Best versión of these awesome game it's the Port of PC-ENGINE,yes sir 😃👍
I'm pondering, are the 2007 credits on the NES version fan translators?
Yes, this is a fan translation version.
Not the best game but I did love the music on the PC Engine.
Valis on PC Engine is pretty neat. I have all the Valis titles on PC Engine CD and they're all fun in their own way. The soundtrack on them is pretty killer to. It's almost too fanservicey on PC Engine for my taste, but it's overall pretty light compared to other games and consoles I've seen like the PC-FX so I don't mind it too much. I'm amazed to see how far the title has come from its original form, the Mega Drive version isn't terrible but the PC Engine CD is leaps and bounds better than all the others before it.
For Valis III is do prefer the music on the Mega Drive game, also the way it looks thanks to the Parallax scrolling. The first one is far superior on the PC Engine though.
Needless to say, the box art that was used for the US version of "Valis" on the Sega Genesis was pretty lousy despite the amount of detail that was put into it, especially because of how horrendously ugly the main character looked when compared to the Japanese version. :P
Most US box art for the 16 bit systems was awful IMO.
@@RetroCore Yeah, I totally agree with you, and the best example of this would have to be the Mega Man games released for the NES in North America and/or Europe, which are quite infamous for having some of the most awful box art ever created, most notably for the first couple of games in the series. :P
Well now I have a better idea why the Famicom port was so bad, it was based off of the PC-88 version. I always assumed it was the black sheep and the MD/PCE Valis was the norm, but nope, it's those ports that are the black sheep, and for the best. I always thought the Mega Drive Valis had potential to be an awesome game but fell kinda short, and assumed the PCE would have the same game but with cutscenes and an arranged soundtrack but nope, it looks like a MASSIVE improvement. I'm going to have to check it out sometime, I'll probably add it to my TG16 Mini whenever they finally release the hack for it. Kinda strange that they didn't add any of the Valis games on it, though, you'd think it would be in the Japanese lineup at least.
I guess Konami couldn't get the rights to add them to the PcE mini.
OMG! That's the christmas gift? THX for the port battles!
Will you be doing Valis II, Yakumo? If that's so, be sure to include Valis SD as that's essentially the Mega Drive version of Valis II.
Yes, I'll be doing Valis 2 next week 👍. I own Valis SD so for sure that will be added.
I was able to beat MD Valis without losing a single life in my first try. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't the same for MD Valis III, particularly on the Ice level.
Valis III is very tough. But probably the best in the series.
Easy win for the PCE. Megadrive comes second, and then everything else.
Are you going to have the other games of the series review as well? Valis 2 is the one I almost haven’t seen.
Sure. Valis II got a release on the almighty Sharp X68000. So it will be interesting to see how that version is compared to the PC Engine and Mega Drive.
The FM7 port is missing from your video
I Wish I Could play the old PC Engine version. Is it true that is coming out on Nintendo Switch ?
I have no idea. I don't follow the switch, sorry.
PCE Super CD is the best by far, followed by the Genesis, with the Famicom in the rear.
Telenet was never the greatest dev, but they were really trying to make more than simple games back in the day. They clearly had artistic ambition. Shame they couldn't grow - it would have been interesting to see their style on the Saturn and PlayStation.
You are right about the level design in the early versions. Going with a more linear path with the Genesis and Super CD benefitted this game greatly.
pc engine has fanservise
It sure does.
I’ve mostly only played the PC-Engine port. I always felt let down by it, especially after the way Valis IV turned out. I just wish they’d re-worked it a little more, given it was the last one to come out on the console (and the only one to use the expanded System 3 RAM). Oh well, at least it’s not Valis II.
IV never played Valis 2 on the PC Engine. Hope its not that bad.
@@RetroCore It's one of the blandest game you will ever play, period. The level 1 theme is still stuck in my head since I first played it some years ago, though
Nice one, Mark! Cheers!
Who ever can Reboot Valis, better not use Calarts.
Thank u for giving us underlings a BOTP on boxing day. We are not worthy to receive your goodness on this day.
Lol, no worries. Couldn't go two weeks without a new BOTP.
Cool video Mark. I remember that the Genesis version Valis III was one of the games in one of the early episodes of the very first Retro Core series, since I bought a copy based on that video. I was vaguely familiar with the series before that but had never played any of the games. I've still only ever played the Genesis versions of Valis III and Valis. I quite liked Valis III...Valis, not so much (except some of the music). It's okay, but not amazing on the Genesis, and I'm too lazy, busy, and just can't be arsed into trying any other game in the series lol. I also distinctly remember that, either in that same episode or another one of the first series, you called either Valis SD or Valis 2 a "sack of cack", a new phrase for me at the time, so I've specifically stayed away from those haha.
Lol, sack of cack. Classic phrase. Haven't said that in a while. I would imagine I said that about the Valis SD game or Valis SYD as it is known in the US for some very strange reason.
@@RetroCore Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking with that name over here.
I suggest NBA Jam for a future episode
MSX Valis is sooo bad, almost kusoge territory
I played through the PCE-CD version recently; didn't enjoy it (lol), but man the music and cutscenes are still great.
Ah, all Valis games are rather crappy but as far as Valis goes, the PC Engine version is good.
Happy Merry Xmas! XD
There's a video from the mobile version, if you want to have a look ua-cam.com/video/v-oSs8rhfbY/v-deo.html
Pc engine version is a killer.
The earlier versions released on Japanese computers seem all very mediocre, if not unplayable. A X68000 port could have been something else but that didn't happen.
The Famicom sound chip tends to sound "goofy" which really doesn't suit well with this game.
The Mega Drive sound hardware on the other hand was the perfect fit and the music sounds fantastic on it! Also nice parallax scrollings but other than that the game kinda feels dated by Mega Drive standards. They could have done something better (you just have to compare with earlier games such as Mystic Defender or Revenge of Shinobi!).
The PC Engine Super CD-Rom² version has enhanced cutscenes and more detailed graphics but it lacks the parallax scrollings of the Mega Drive version and despite being on CD, the music aren't as nice IMO (they sound less "Valis-esque", same happened with Valis III). Also, as someone else said, the girl does indeed sound like a monkey when she gets hit ^^
Is this gane on the European turbo grafx mini?
Thanks for your hard work Mark and merry Christmas btw 😊🎅🎄❄️☃️
No Valis on the mini, European or not. Actually no Valis games were ever released in Europe on any format (I'm unaware if the emulated downloadable versions are on European stores tho, I don't think so).
@@amerigocosta7452 aaww..... To bad 😓
The perfect Christmas gift, Valis!I love the first, third, and fourth games, but no matter the platform, Valis II just never felt quite right to me.
Only the Sega 16-bit version was released outside of Japan...
That's correct.
I had this (and Valis III) for the Genesis/Mega Drive and while I thought the run cycle on the first one was slow, both games had a certain charm that I enjoyed. I'd dearly love to see whoever owns the IP release a compilation for the Switch (well, except for the H #5...no thanks). Doubt that would happen, at least for the American market. But since Super Vails IV for the SNES/Super Famicom just became available on the Switch's SNES Switch Online last week, perhaps....? Merry (yesterday) Christmas to you and your family.
A proper collection with extras, cut ideas and graphics and maybe beta versions would be fantastic.
@@RetroCore Oh, absolutely. I'd import that if I had to!
Pretty sure the computer versions move in 8 pixel shifts, wonder if Japanese computers of the time can do what DOS did in terms of software scrolling engines of 4 and 2 pixel shifts? That's a pretty lazy PC98 port, virtually unchanged.
Does seem to be more a console game at heart. Different hardware but same level design, guess they didn't notice how shit their levels were heh. New level design but kind of sluggish on MD, like she's running underwater, odd since all other actions seem snappy. Man talk about a slow evolution up to that proper PCE version.
Even worse. This is *16 PIXELS*
So basically, this is just kinda bad on all platforms, huh?
Well ALMOST every platform. The Genesis & PC Engine ports are certainly playable. Though I will agree that every other port is trash.
Very rough beginning for a series
I'd say. The very first game is unplayable.
First four look like headache machines.
They sure are. They were horrible to play.
the turbo cd version has something of a cult following in the west.
Same here. Just a shame the cover art for the US versions of this game are so hideous.
just give 'em a bunch of anime cutscenes + some panty shots and some western folks would insta go "best game ever!" LOL ;D
was just talking to someone about checking this game out
This is why it’s impossible to have an informed opinion about the PC Engine. I suppose it’s quite different to the Turbo Grafix due to the different library. But this is clearly better than Legendary Axe which regularly tops Turbo Grafix lists of best game.
It’s a shame it took Wolf Team 7 versions to come up with a game which is actually good.
Sadly the US state of PC Engine games shouldn't even be considered as a basis for any top 10. It's lacking most of the great games.
this is a rather popular misconception because actually, many of the best pc engine games have been released in the US back then (pc genjin, galaga 88, splatterhouse, ys book 1 & 2, aero blasters, devil crash, etc.). some of them were hard to find though but still
@@ryzmaker11 I'm going to disagree with you -- it is not at all a misconception to say that most of the great PC Engine games did not make it west. I believe that Japan had around 650 games for the various versions of PC Engine, of which less than 150 made it to North America. I've been playing through the ROMs of every single PC Engine game systematically over the last several months and I'm about 200 games in. Of my favorite games that I plan to eventually track down and purchase, only about 20-30% of them made it west. Also, looking at the PC Engine as a shmup powerhouse, it's well-known that only a few shmups came out for Turbo in the west. Most of those gems stayed in Japan.
@@sonicmania9993 a LOT of what stayed in japan are visual novels, mahjong games, subpar JRPGs and such. this wouldn't have made a difference had they been released in the west
and many of the best shmups *did* make their way to the west (R-type, galaga 88, gunhed, super star soldier, soldier blade, aero blasters, cotton, gate of thunder, winds of thunder, star parodier, etc.)
in fact, there are even some ironical instances, like fantasy zone being released on turbografx-16 but super fantasy zone not being released on genesis despite being a sega IP??! o_O
now sure, there are also a few big japanese exclusives that could have made their way to the west but same goes for the mega drive and SNES then
@@ryzmaker11 I will not deny that there are several dozen subpar visual novels and mahjong games that are JP-only PC-engine (and as I said, I've been playing at least a bit of all of them in my emu-survey). But there were crap games on American Turbo too, especially quite a few sports games that were vastly inferior to Genesis and SNES games. So the American Turbo game lineup had less than 100 games that were even worth playing, while my feeling at the moment is that Japanese PCE had at least 300 worth playing. and at least 200 worth owning ... maybe more.
Also, you named more than half the shmups (in your list of 10) that came out on American Turbo... there are less than 10 more that came west (I can think of Dragon Spirit, Side Arms Hyper Dyne, Ordyne, Cyber Core - which is one of the best, Psychosis, Raiden, Forgotten Worlds, Magical Chase). I do like most of your 10 shmups listed, but what about equally good games that stayed in Japan -- off the top of my head: Sapphire, the two Spriggan games, Tatsujin, Sylphia, Kiaidan 00, Super Raiden, Image Fight 1 & 2, Override, Alzadick, Aldynes, Hellfire S, Nexzr Special? And for shmup fans, there are literally dozens more on PC Engine that are well worth playing, games that American Turbo owners sadly never got to play.
I understand that you have some favorite games that came to Turbo in the US, and I like a lot of those games too! But to say that most of the good games came west is to ignore a vast number of very interesting games that, for the most part, the western gaming press *then* and western retro community *now* just kind of ignore. I am finding so many gems as I play through them all -- games that are every bit as good as the best 50 games in the US Turbo lineup. Of course the same goes for the Sega Saturn, my favorite console. I am finding a lot of similarities in those two gaming libraries (PC Engine & Saturn) -- fascinating games, endless fun.
PC88 is very jerky but the soundtrack easily counters that, its the same with the X1, the scrolling slightly improves on the MSX but the sound is lacking (and the system is known for great soundtracks), PC98 is similar to PC88 and X1, NES is more playable within the system's limits, Genesis is great offering that's not half assed, Turbo CD is vast improvement from the Genesis.
I do like the PC-Engine CD version the most. i never beat it though, cause if you lose your power ups,the game can get near impossible to beat. I've seen screenshots of the mobile 2006 game by the way. yeah it looked good but thanks to at least confirm that the mobile game was indeed good.
The mobile version was excellent. It would zoom in and out too while playing.
Wow those early games look rough. The only game I’ve ever played in the series is Valus 3, which is awesome. Has any series of games started so badly and end up so good?
Ooh, good question. I think there must be some but maybe none as bad as the early Valis games.
I never really liked these game. I put it right up there with Yss.
It's sad that all the updates to this game are to make it more playable.
True but then again, a lot of old Japanese PC games were quite bad.
Hmmm. Not familiar with this one Mark. But it looks cool . 8^)
Anthony..
I heard the Windows CD compilation (from Sunsoft I think), is very hard to get a hold of.
Edit: There is one on Ebay, from Mexico, $700, yikes!
It's not worth it. May as well emulated the games on Windows since tat is all the Windows collection is.
Supposedly, the compilation is available on the Internet Archive.
Went to Wikipedia to see how the series ended. Uh... I’ll just post without comment “ Valis X is an erotic visual novel released for Windows in 2006 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series. Developed by Eants, it was the last game published by Telenet Japan. Valis X is divided into five episodes that retell the stories of the first four games, containing copious amounts of lesbian acts and tentacle erotica.”
Yep, it's very sad how the series ended 😔
unlock that phone!
Sadly with it being a Japanese phone there is no unlock for it :(
And the pc engine turns another poor game into a decent playable game
The music sounds like lousy farts. The animation I awful. Who would play such bad game
Things were different back in 1988 when this originally came out.
I'm Alone 😍😥