Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection II Scores A Surprise eShop Release

Not for that price. The games are middling at best.

Yeah.... Maybe the entire collection for $40.00 USD. But, seriously, these collections should be $19.99 USD at most.

What is up with these retro compilations and being priced absurdly high? First it was Etrian Odyssey Trilogy at $80, now these 3 middling action platformers for $45.

According to Nintendo, this should be priced at $69.99! This is Zelda level tier stuff we are talking about!!

I played the SNES version of one these games in the series. I didn’t really like it to be honest. Are these games in this collection better? I won’t get at this price though, lol.

I would've thought about it at 10.

40?!?

Not a big fan of these games.

I will say, though, I adore the character designs in a lot of late 80s/early 90s Japanese media. I'd love to see a decent modern game with characters done up in that sort of art-style.

@shonenjump86 The SNES version of Valis 4 sucks and the PC Engine version included is much better, as it includes extra playable characters. But the Genesis versions of Valis 1 and 2 included aren't as good as the PC Engine ones in the other collection.

Also the original MSX Valis is considered to be one of the worst games of all time - imagine stiff Castlevania 1 style jumps, constantly respawning monsters, and large but boring maze like levels.

To be honest these two collections should had been just one entire collection only and should just cost $15. You could basically beat all seven main games in under 6 hours. Not really worth anything of value that is unless you just like the story which isn't anything special.

I'm definitely interested in these collections, although I agree that they've been managed horribly.

The thing is I have entries 1 and 3 on the Evercade, Mega Drive versions. Now Retro-Bit releases those and Syd of Valis on physical for the Mega Drive, yet the Switch collection has the PC Engine versions, the fourth entry and, aside from Valis 1 and Syd for the MD, also the MSX game, which is a surprise. Novelties are my soft spot.

But! In Japan they have the two collections (sadly separated also) on Switch cards, which would be my choice if those releases came translated, and it is not the case.

I guess the way to go is buying these collections on a Western eShop, plus they get on sale every now and then. And you can pick individual titles too, which is a welcome possibility.

I’ll wait for a sale of 20 bucks. I get remaking older games or remastered ( my preference ) but stop charging full price for something that you know isn’t worth it.

@DdG1408 These aren't even remasters, they are just a collection of roms with emulation features tacked with upscale resolution and filter options. They are decent games if you had never play em before but considering there's only 10 actual games in this series, they could had easily include all of em into a single cartridge with QOL emulation features.

A while ago I googled for lists of the best Sega Genesis games. I looked for long lists each at least 50 games long, that were ranked. I assigned points based on rank and added them all up. I was left with 16 lists, 396 unique games and 1,465 total entries.

Syd of Valis didn't make the top 300 Sega Genesis games.
Valis: The Fantasm Soldier wasn't mentioned at all.

I've googled around for top PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 games and the Valis series doesn't seem very popular there either.

The Valis games are awful, I don't understand how they made so many and who wants a collection full of them.

The only Valis game I tried is the one that we all get as part of the NSO SNES app. I actually beat it all the way too. It was decently okay, but I could immediately tell the level design was not great. It had a distinct feel of a "B-tier" SNES game. Maybe even C-tier. It wasn't actively awful (for the most part), but it wasn't anything special by any means.
I would definitely not pay so much for such an expensive collection of these games, especially when they're being extra greedy by splitting it up into two separate collections for no reason. ...And I normally LOVE retro collections on Switch!

Now I don't mind buying collections of easily emulated games, but they can't be trying to rip me off if they expect me to buy them.

I'd've given it a go for all the games packaged in one collection for a lesser price. Pretty much with what some are saying on here.

Not even close, these were all quite generic action platformers

First collection is definitely the better one, as the PC Engine versions of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier and Valis III are actually quite good! Solid 8/10 action platformers in my book.

Valis IV on PCE (and in this collection) is vastly better than Super Valis IV on SNES and NSO.

Valis for MSX plays like absolute garbage, but I'm glad it's here nonetheless.

I paid 20 quid for the Evercade cart with Valis games on, and they're not great at all.

@PKDuckman I appreciate the info.

valis 3 was the only one i played on genesis only one worth playing.

Yeah like many people have already mentioned Valis should have been one single collection not split into two. The only one worth getting in this collection is Valis 4, I'm hoping they release it as a standalone game like the previous collection did.

Also the price is way too high, the Canadian price for this is 60 dollars.

There is not a single company aside from Capcom nowadays that knows what they’re doing with these retro game back catalogues of theirs

@Funneefox
I did enjoy Konami's recent efforts with the Castlevania Advance and the Ninja Turtles retro collections. Konami isn't doing anything else these days, but their retro rereleases have been pretty good.
I also really like Sega's recent efforts with the Mega Drive Mini 2. It may not be on Switch, but it's a quality assortment of more Sega retro goodness.

@EarthboundBenjy both of those were done by digital eclipse m2, tho. Digital eclipse and M2 always puts out bangers cough*asidefromthedariuscozmiccollectionconsole*cough for whatever they’re tasked with releasing, though the fact thes companies commissioned them to be this quality to begin with is a good sign

If it drops in price, I'll get it then. Right now, I wanna save $5 on a $20 eShop Card at GameStop tomorrow, then again on March 1st, so I can get Metroid Prime Remaster DIGITALLY, like a REAL Man fighting the scalpers! If it means getting making the Switch's successor into an All-Digital system, then so be it!

I have some nostalgia for these games, having played them on TG-16 back in the day. I bought the 1st collection because it was cool to have 1-3 all in English (3 I think for the first time). I definitely missed 4 not being there, but THERE IS NO WAY I’M BUYING THIS COLLECTION JUST TO GET 4!

@Funneefox Have you already forgotten how Capcom split up the Mega Man X Legacy Collection for no reason?

On the Switch only the first collection was on the cartridge, while the second one was download only. Unless you live in Japan, of course, but there they were two separate releases.

@EarthboundBenjy The Cowabunga Collection is pretty bad, actually. Sure, it has plenty of games, but the emulation is *****. 6 frames of input lag (5 for the Game Boy games) is inexcusable.

@YoshiAngemon A real man waits patiently for the physical release to be restocked.

I played some of the one that's on the SNES Switch Online(super valis 4 i think?) and didn't care for it. Maybe some of these other ones are better, but no way I'm shelling out 40 bucks for this.

This is beyond Taito-tier levels of overpricing.

@Funneefox
Really?! Their decision to keep the Disney Afternoon Collection off of switch is still baffling. In fact the way Capcom handles their collections is questionable.

@BenoitRen
I’ve not noticed any lag at all and I own the original carts for most of them so to me they play just like they did.

@GameOtaku You're probably someone not sensitive to input lag, then, because it was measured as being there using lag detection tools.

@BenoitRen yknow what? Good point. At this point there’s really no reason not to emulate instead of waiting for these companies to rerelease their games in an unpolished or unworthy state if they even do it at all.

@John_Deacon ININ is the only other publisher that love to overprice their retro collections: Darius, Space Invaders, Turrican, Wonder Boy etc. They also have a ridiculous habit of releasing a cheaper but incomplete collection digitally, and another more complete collection for Limited Run, and release the latter digitally a few years later, screwing those who bought the cheaper collection. IIRC the last Wonder Boy collection they release cost $50 US, more than double the price of the TMNT collection where I live.

@EarthboundBenjy "Super" Valis 4 on SNES NSO is actually heavily cut from the original PCE version, which had three playable characters, better designed levels, and whole sets of animated intros. Part of the appeal of the original is to utilise all three characters to see which fits the situation, whereas the SNES port combined them into one character and made their standard attacks into subweapons. It's pretty much comparing Castlevania Dracula X to Rondo of Blood.

@whitespy12 The X68000 version of Valis 2 is generally considered the best, right? Pity it's not included here.

Also there is a Famicom version of Valis 1 that included some RPG elements. Knowing the publishers they'd probably release a third collection with the two aforementioned games plus the Genesis version of 3 and SNES version of 4.

@PKDuckman
I see. That's good to know. I may be interested in picking up the Valis collections later if they become cheaper, or combined into a single package or expanded to include more games or something. Even if the one on NSO isn't fully representative of the other games' quality, I still don't feel like the current offer is worth it.