Scummy publisher Edia makes kickstarter for an incomplete collection of emulated games. Aside from physical paraphernalia, the only incentive for supporting the Kickstarter over just emulating the games on widely available ROMs is the English translation, hostage to an arbitrary stretch goal.

The stretch goal is reached and as expected it's a very bare-bones package with an emulation below the level of what the free alternative offers... but the game just doesn't have that promised English translation. How curious. 🤔

Turns out paying for that stretch goal wasn't enough, as now if you want the English translation you have to buy a separate English release from... drum roll ¡Limited Run Games! ¡And they made sure to milk the shit out it!

As this is going on tho, Edia announces a second kickstarter... for a second installment of this incomplete collection of emulated games. Not only that, but they are now keeping games hostage under certain stretch goals. May I remember the readers that we're talking about EMULATED GAMES?????

But let's go back to the English side of things. As I'm writting this, sales of the English version have long ended but they haven't delivered the game yet, so buying the game from the already overpriced JP edition would be cheaper and quicker than actually buying the game in its official English publisher. Good old Limited Run!

Also... because hiring talent to modify the roms was too complicated, the subs are superimposed by the emulator. Which would be OK if they hired an UI artist or, IDK, cared a little to use a font that would fit the game's aesthetic, but alas it was too much for poor old Limited Run, therefore you're presented with subs that have lazier presentation than a third-grade fansub.

The dust has settled (for now, there are still games left to release so a third volume is not completely out of the question), Edia keeps making kickstarters for EMULATED GAMES of other franchises and to top it all of starts its own NFT brand which of course includes Valis tokens.

Valis X was more respectful to the franchise than whatever the fuck this is.

This is just my other three reviews repeated here, this is a great collection but only suffers due to missing Valis 4 for whatever reason and some of the in-game manuals are not helpful with controls or explaining anything at points.
Reviews are below

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Valis: The Fantasm Soldier

I've never actually heard of this series before now, I believe what caught my attention to it was seeing a few screenshots and it reminded me of old SNES side scrollers.

Since this isn't a long or deep game I can only say so much.
I really do like the look of the cutscenes, it has that 80's anime style and the voice acting while in Japanese with English subs really is pretty decent it adds to the charm.
The levels actually look like something out of Castlevania or Super Ghouls and Ghosts at times, very other worldly, but not quite dark and demonic.

The music is probably the best part, it has a sort of synth rock to it, that you'd think would feel off, but no it sounds great.

The gameplay isn't anything special, it's side scrolling with some platforming and hack-n-slash, you find power ups that give you different attack options and magic as well to take down enemies with a boss at the end of each level, see nothing crazy new.

The only issue I have is with the story, to my knowledge this is the first of the Valis series, but some of the dialogue makes it feels like there's a manga or book the prequels some of this stuff and explains it, but that's the only issue I had.

I honestly enjoyed the game despite how short it was and I look forward to the rest.
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Valis II

There's not really too much I can say about the game. It's still a side scrolling like the prior game, I don't know why this one feels like a huge step back from the first one gameplay wise, or I guess it's more like simplified.

While everything looks a bit under what the first game did, the one thing that excelled was the music, that soundtrack is amazing.
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Valis III

Short like the other three games, although this one seems much closer to Castlevania 3 with the ability to switch characters and each having their own abilities as well as weakness and strengths regarding their attacks.

Again, the story is okay, nothing really to get invested in with old 80s anime-like cutscenes.

The best part of the game honestly is the music which is amazing and kinda blows the other two games out the water in that spot.

This is such a frustratingly flawed Valis collection, which frankly feels true to the spirit of the series.

Let’s start with what it does well. Each game comes complete with cutscene viewer, music player, and scanned/partially translated original manuals and box art. This is all really neat to browse through. Also, this is the first time the PCE remake of Valis has been translated into English - it’s one of the series’ best so it’s very exciting to have it here, especially since cutscenes/story are one of Valis’ big claims to fame.

At the same time, the collection lacks visual options, which is a bummer since a CRT filter would really make the gorgeous cutscenes pop, and the rewind feature is bizarrely implemented and frustrating to use.

To top it off, the collection is absolutely just missing the PCE Valis IV, a major omission that is disappointing in light of the fact that it’s never been translated. It would have also been nice to also get some of the older versions of the first Valis and the X68000 version of Valis II, which is probably a lot better than the PCE version included here.

Saying that though, it’s fun to dive into these games and their storytelling in 2022. In terms of the games themselves:

Valis: The Fantasm Soldier - A B-tier Castlevania-style action game but a pretty great one, with nice graphics and fun cutscenes that makes it feel like a playable 80s OVA

Valis II - Janky, repetitive and just not very fun to play. It has aged poorly but…wasn’t great when it came out either

Valis III - Probably the best and most ambitious of the bunch, with 3 playable characters, more cutscenes, more varied + interesting level design and, with the presence of NPCs and a few other touches, a greater sense of a world around you. IMO it’s only really dragged down by a couple of frustrating boss fights