is a

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

series created by

Telenet Japan was a Japanese Video game developer, video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company had several video game divisions including: Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Renovation Game (Japanese publishing division), ...

. A

magical girl is a Genre#Subgenre, subgenre of primarily Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered on young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into wh ...

plot, the games tell the story of a Japanese schoolgirl who is fated to protect three realms by wielding a mystical sword known as Valis. The original game, '' Valis: The Fantasm Soldier'' (1986), was developed for the

PC-88 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the four major Japane ...

and ported to several other platforms. This was followed by a series of platform games released during the

16-bit era In the history of video games, the fourth generation of video game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in Nort ...

for various home consoles, most notably the

TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known in Japan as the , is a home video game console developed by Hudson Soft and manufactured by NEC. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. The first console of the fourth generation of video game con ...

and

Sega Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

. Outside the original series, an erotic visual novel was released in 2006, followed by compilations of the original games. After Telenet Japan shut down in 2007,

Sunsoft , is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, video game developer and publisher. They are known for their video games under the brand name Sunsoft. History In April 1971, Sun Electronics Corporation (alternatively called Sun Denshi) was founded i ...

acquired the rights to the series. These rights were passed on to Japanese media company Edia in December 2019.

Games

All ''Valis'' games are platform games except ''Valis X,'' an erotic

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

released for Windows in 2006 on 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. In June 2021, on the 35th anniversary of the ''Valis'' series, Edia announced a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign to bring ports of the ''Valis'' games to the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

. After the crowdfunding period, Edia ported several games from the Valis series to the Switch through collections. The first collection, ''Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection,'' was released in December 2021 in Japan and in March 2022 in Western territories. In March 2022, Edia also announced the launch of a second collection of Valis that will feature ''Valis IV'' (PC Engine), ''Syd of Valis'' (Genesis / Mega Drive) and ''Valis: The Fantasm Soldier'' (Genesis / Mega Drive and MSX). In December 2023, the third collection was launched in Japan.

Compilations

Manga

A four-volume ''Valis''

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series by the artist ZOL was published by Kill Time Communication and featured in the

seinen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word means "youth", but the term " manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like '' Weekly Manga Times'' and '' Weekly Man ...

magazine '' Comic Valkyrie'' in 2007-2012. The first game had been separately adapted into a manga in 1999.

Notes

References

External links

''Valis''
at Hardcore Gaming 101 ;''Valis X''

Official website (bb5)
{{Comic Valkyrie LGBTQ-related video games Video game franchises introduced in 1986 Video games featuring female protagonists Magical girl video games Seinen manga