Valis III

version Like its predecessors, Valis III is an action-platform game starring Yuko Asou, wielder of the mystical Valis sword, and is set after the events of Valis II. The player controls Yuko through two-dimensional levels, battling enemies, jumping from ledge to ledge, and running until the player faces a boss at the end of each level. and ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse''). Each character uses different upgradable weapons (Yuko has a chargeable energy wave, Cham has a whip, and Valna shoots magical blasts from her wand) and spells (of lightning, fire, and ice variety). The characters cannot be switched during boss fights, where the choice of the character also results in a different cutscene. Some stages also force the player to play as a particular character, usually the main heroine Yuko. Another feature new to the series is a ground slide move which can double as an attack. The Sega Genesis port had most of the cinematic cutscenes removed. Several levels were removed as well, and a new one was added to this version, while the remaining levels are more similar to each other. However, boss fights and parallax scrolling were improved. == Plot ==

Story King Glames leads denizens of the Dark World to conquer both Vecanti and Earth, seeking a home for his people before the destruction of his planet. Against this common foe, Yuko Asou fights together with Cham and Valna. Furthermore, the mystical Valis sword wielded by Yuko Asou is shown to be capable of more than what Yuko has accomplished with it thus far. Characters Yuko Asou is the main character of the Valis series, a Japanese teenage schoolgirl chosen as the Valis warrior and keeper of the Valis sword. Of the three playable characters, she is the one with the most fighting strength, but is little weak in her magical abilities. Cham is the game's second character, a demon warrior-maiden born in the Dark World who wields a deadly whip. Her father, Lada, a baron of the Dark World, was killed by Glames for standing against the plan to invade Dreamland. Faced with this fact, she seeks revenge and initially tries to steal the Valis sword from Yuko. However, Cham and Yuko decide to fight together. Valna is Yuko's sister who grew up within Vecanti and the game's third character. She became strong in the ways of magic and carries with her a powerful magic staff. Valna has the most powerful magic of the three character, but it is the one with the least attack strength. == Development and release ==

Valis III was developed by Laser Soft, an internal gaming division of Telenet, previously responsible for Valis II (1989). It was created by most of the same staff members who worked on the previous entry, with both Masami Hanari and Fumiyuki Moriyama reprising their roles as director and producer respectively, while animator Osamu Nabeshima returned as one of the game's artists. Because of being released on CD-ROM, the team was able to include animated cutscenes into the game as they had done before with Valis II. Valis III was first released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² (the Japanese iteration of the TurboGrafx-CD) by Telenet on September 7, 1990. before being eventually published by NEC in March 1992 for the TurboGrafx-CD. The game was then ported to the Sega Genesis, published by Renovation Game (Reno) in Japan on March 22, 1991. Telenet also released the Genesis version through its subsidiary Renovation Products in North America in June 1991. A European release was planned by UbiSoft, as part of a multi-game licensing deal with Renovation, but it was never officially released in the region for unknown reasons. The Genesis conversion was co-programmed by Yoshiki "UAI" Yamauchi and Masayasu Yamamoto, who had prior involvement with the series since Valis: The Fantasm Soldier. Michiko Naruke, best known for her work on the Wild Arms series, was involved in the Genesis adaptation as one of three composers under late sound director Shinobu Ogawa. A new stage was introduced for the port, but most of the cutscenes and multiple stages were removed due to cartridge size limitations. Valis III was included as part of the Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Complete compilation for Microsoft Windows, published by Bothtec in 2004 under a limited run of 2000 copies, which came bundled with a bonus CD and a figure. In 2011, D4 Enterprise re-released the compilation again with SD Valis and Super Valis as Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Complete Plus, which came bundled with a CD soundtrack instead. The PC Engine version was included in the Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection compilation for the Nintendo Switch in Japan by Edia on December 9, 2021. The physical edition of the collection is also planned for a western release by Limited Run Games. It was re-released separately through the Nintendo eShop by Edia first in Japan on February 10, 2022, and later in Europe and North America in March 2022. The Genesis port was included as part of the Renovation Collection 1 compilation for Evercade, launched in 2022 by Blaze Entertainment. In 2023, the Genesis version was included as part of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection III for Switch. == Reception ==

Valis III on the TurboGrafx-CD garnered generally favorable reviews from critics, some of which reviewed it as an import title. According to programmer Masayasu Yamamoto in a 2007 interview, the PC Engine version sold better compared to the Sega Mega Drive release. The Sega Genesis version of Valis III carried similar reception as the original TurboGrafx-CD release, The four reviewers at EGM stated that it "has all of the qualities of a good game; cool graphics, control, music, and cinema displays." Raze compared the title with Strider but praised its attention to detail, depth and visuals. == Notes ==