Cleared on May 19th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 73/160)
For some odd reason, there's no Valis II on the Sega Genesis unless you count Syd of Valis, but I ain't touching that. However, I liked Valis I enough that I was willing to play through the game, and it was... good. It does some things better than its predecessor, but there are others that it does... really bad.
First of all, the big thing it does better is that it has much better dialogue. Some things from the plot still had to be cut, but never did I suspect something was off at the least although there were some funny grammatical errors like "take this swords" or "survivers". There were also text boxes within levels that make it hard to tell who's talking although you may be able to get an idea as to who is talking. Lastly, it's no longer called Fantasy World, it's now Dreamland... as it should be... which would now confuse players that played the original, but hey, I'm sure they'll like the new name just fine. Since there isn't really a Valis II on the system, the game gives you a recap on the story that happens for both Valis and Valis II which I suppose is nice to answer a few questions that I would've had otherwise. I also give it points for having the anime cutscenes feel more animated and while it doesn't compare to other versions of the game, it is a step-up from Valis I on the Genesis.
As far as gameplay goes, I like the addition of Cham and Valna as playable characters although this does come at some caveats. For one thing, you don't have a selection of spells like in the first game, and the spell you use depends on the wand that you picked up. One with the red orb, blue orb, or cyan orb. The good news is that each character has a spell that they can use, giving them three to work with. Also, I don't remember if this also applies to Valis I, but the camera when you're going up or left is atrocious. When you move left, it becomes difficult to see your foes coming because the camera is treated as though you are about to move right or rather that the level design was exclusively for you to go right.
Other than that, the usual gameplay applies. It's a 2D action game where you swing your weapon at foes, jump, high jump, and powerslide. The powerslide appears more responsive and works more the way I thought it should've in the original, but... there's an odd catch. It appears to be tied to the attack meter which determines how far your projectile will fire. Now in the original, if you collect the proper power-up, you can just press the button and fire projectiles which made the game one of the easier games on the system, but here, you have to wait a moment before you fire out a projectile and if you don't let it charge enough, it'll become too short. Perhaps this change was necessary for balancing purposes, but it kinda made combat feel odd as it would lead to some range scuff because you thought you waited enough and then it turned out you were just a second short. This is why I gravitate towards Cham and Valna because they don't have this issue at the least as Cham has a whip akin to Castlevania while Valna has projectiles that fire forward and another upward. Now you can remedy this issue with buffs that increase the range of your attack and the charge up speed which can make Yuka ok enough.
Strangely, this is another game that, despite being no shorter than a typical Genesis game, made me wish there was more to it. I know the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD version has more stages and whatnot, but another major factor in why I felt disappointed... the final boss was so bad.
Rogles was a hard boss fight when I faced him, but with a great song and some build-up, it was a serviceable enough and in hindsight is probably one of the better bosses that I've fought on a Sega Genesis game so far.
Glames... more like, Gay and lame! AAAAAAA!!!! Dumb name aside, it was so disappointing that you have a solid build-up with the classic "good weapon vs bad weapon" where Yuka fights with Valis while Glames fights with Leethus... only for Glames to barely use Leethus and in the second phase proceeds to spam these insanely difficult to avoid flaming knives. You can hit them, but you might not have enough attack frames to hit them without taking a hit yourself. If his body is too close to you and fires the flame knives... good luck. Also, in phase 2, he will float around and sometimes he won't be off the ground enough to be able to powerslide underneath him. Oh, and in the room where you actually have to fight him, there are no wand power-ups and only two attack range boosts and one attack speed boost which means that if you want to take him on with full health, first of all, you need to avoid the bats that try to wear you down. Lastly, you need to deal with the sluggish attack range build-up, and you have to play as Valis for this boss fight. And because your attack range build-up is connected to your powerslide, deciding which one to do in a heated moment can be difficult and because its so slow, assuming you lost a life due to being too low on health before getting here, you won't get to do it all that often. To top it all off, the boss fight doesn't even have its own theme, something that Rogles has... but Glames doesn't.
Anyway, so the game ends with Yuka sealing off Valis and Leethus to never be used again, putting an end to the series so it seems... see y'all in Valis IV.
For some odd reason, there's no Valis II on the Sega Genesis unless you count Syd of Valis, but I ain't touching that. However, I liked Valis I enough that I was willing to play through the game, and it was... good. It does some things better than its predecessor, but there are others that it does... really bad.
First of all, the big thing it does better is that it has much better dialogue. Some things from the plot still had to be cut, but never did I suspect something was off at the least although there were some funny grammatical errors like "take this swords" or "survivers". There were also text boxes within levels that make it hard to tell who's talking although you may be able to get an idea as to who is talking. Lastly, it's no longer called Fantasy World, it's now Dreamland... as it should be... which would now confuse players that played the original, but hey, I'm sure they'll like the new name just fine. Since there isn't really a Valis II on the system, the game gives you a recap on the story that happens for both Valis and Valis II which I suppose is nice to answer a few questions that I would've had otherwise. I also give it points for having the anime cutscenes feel more animated and while it doesn't compare to other versions of the game, it is a step-up from Valis I on the Genesis.
As far as gameplay goes, I like the addition of Cham and Valna as playable characters although this does come at some caveats. For one thing, you don't have a selection of spells like in the first game, and the spell you use depends on the wand that you picked up. One with the red orb, blue orb, or cyan orb. The good news is that each character has a spell that they can use, giving them three to work with. Also, I don't remember if this also applies to Valis I, but the camera when you're going up or left is atrocious. When you move left, it becomes difficult to see your foes coming because the camera is treated as though you are about to move right or rather that the level design was exclusively for you to go right.
Other than that, the usual gameplay applies. It's a 2D action game where you swing your weapon at foes, jump, high jump, and powerslide. The powerslide appears more responsive and works more the way I thought it should've in the original, but... there's an odd catch. It appears to be tied to the attack meter which determines how far your projectile will fire. Now in the original, if you collect the proper power-up, you can just press the button and fire projectiles which made the game one of the easier games on the system, but here, you have to wait a moment before you fire out a projectile and if you don't let it charge enough, it'll become too short. Perhaps this change was necessary for balancing purposes, but it kinda made combat feel odd as it would lead to some range scuff because you thought you waited enough and then it turned out you were just a second short. This is why I gravitate towards Cham and Valna because they don't have this issue at the least as Cham has a whip akin to Castlevania while Valna has projectiles that fire forward and another upward. Now you can remedy this issue with buffs that increase the range of your attack and the charge up speed which can make Yuka ok enough.
Strangely, this is another game that, despite being no shorter than a typical Genesis game, made me wish there was more to it. I know the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD version has more stages and whatnot, but another major factor in why I felt disappointed... the final boss was so bad.
Rogles was a hard boss fight when I faced him, but with a great song and some build-up, it was a serviceable enough and in hindsight is probably one of the better bosses that I've fought on a Sega Genesis game so far.
Glames... more like, Gay and lame! AAAAAAA!!!! Dumb name aside, it was so disappointing that you have a solid build-up with the classic "good weapon vs bad weapon" where Yuka fights with Valis while Glames fights with Leethus... only for Glames to barely use Leethus and in the second phase proceeds to spam these insanely difficult to avoid flaming knives. You can hit them, but you might not have enough attack frames to hit them without taking a hit yourself. If his body is too close to you and fires the flame knives... good luck. Also, in phase 2, he will float around and sometimes he won't be off the ground enough to be able to powerslide underneath him. Oh, and in the room where you actually have to fight him, there are no wand power-ups and only two attack range boosts and one attack speed boost which means that if you want to take him on with full health, first of all, you need to avoid the bats that try to wear you down. Lastly, you need to deal with the sluggish attack range build-up, and you have to play as Valis for this boss fight. And because your attack range build-up is connected to your powerslide, deciding which one to do in a heated moment can be difficult and because its so slow, assuming you lost a life due to being too low on health before getting here, you won't get to do it all that often. To top it all off, the boss fight doesn't even have its own theme, something that Rogles has... but Glames doesn't.
Anyway, so the game ends with Yuka sealing off Valis and Leethus to never be used again, putting an end to the series so it seems... see y'all in Valis IV.