Introduction

There is a particular temper of nostalgia that arrives with compilations: the whiff of boot polish, the creak of cartridge labels, and the faint but persistent squeak of a belt-driven CD tray. Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection trades in precisely that atmosphere. What sits on the Nintendo Switch is not a modern reimagining but a careful lifting of late 1980s and early 1990s platformers into the present-TurboGrafx-CD ports of the first three Valis titles, presented as a single package. If you remember the era of glossy box art, dramatic anime-styled heroines, and CDs that promised orchestral backing tracks, this collection will feel like unwrapping the original brochure and finding the demo disc stuck to it. The series premise is simultaneously earnest and delightfully theatrical: a Japanese schoolgirl, endowed with the mystical Valis sword, is fated to protect three realms. It is, in short, a magical-girl platformer with a dramatic bent and a melodic soundtrack made to sound far grander than the sprite counts might suggest. The games were carved out by Telenet Japan and associated teams-Wolf Team among them-and have a history of ports, remakes and compilations that reads like a roll call of 16-bit era publishing. After Telenet's fall the IP passed through several hands before Edia undertook the Switch ports following a successful crowdfunding push. What you get in this collection is a time capsule: some rough edges, some charm, and, yes, a fair measure of old-school difficulty.

Gameplay

Playing Valis in 2024 is a lesson in vintage platform design. The three TurboGrafx-CD entries included here-Valis I, Valis II and Valis III-share a foundation of side-scrolling action: run, jump, slash and collect. The Valis sword is your primary tool and evolves in potency across the entries, while enemy patterns and setpiece bosses demand memorization rather than improvisation. Levels are linear with occasional branching rooms and simple puzzles, and combat is punctuated by boss encounters that are equal parts spectacle and endurance test. These titles favor pacing that modern platformers rarely indulge: you will be punished for careless hops and rewarded for learning enemy rhythms. That can feel refreshingly honest or maddening, depending on whether your patience is tuned to instant gratification. The control schemes are straightforward-no complex combos, no double jumps that break the physics-and that clarity is both a comfort and a constraint. The series' strengths are in its presentation and stage design: spiky platforms, environmental hazards, and enemy formations that escalate into patterns the player must learn to dismantle. Across the three games there is also a sense of incremental evolution. Valis II broadens the world structure and leans into more elaborate setpieces, while Valis III adds a handful of mechanical flourishes and tougher bosses. Progression occasionally dips into the melodramatic: story interludes and character close-ups sit awkwardly next to the merciless platforming, but they establish a tone. The collection preserves that uneasy but distinctive marriage of narrative and action: story sequences read like anime storyboards between bouts of precise platform challenge. The biggest caveat is that these are ports, not remasters. The mechanical DNA remains unaltered. For some players that is the point-the raw, original experience-but for others it exposes dated pacing and sometimes unforgiving collision detection. There are moments of real design craft here: an arena-style boss that reshapes how you use your sword, or a level that suddenly shifts gravity. Mostly, however, the pleasures are incremental: the joy of finally predicting a pattern, the satisfaction of a perfect jump through a gauntlet. If you approach it with a 1990s mindset-patience, attention, willingness to replay sections-Valis rewards in the manner of classic platformers.

Graphics

Visually, Valis is predictable in the best possible way for a compilation of 16-bit era titles. The TurboGrafx-CD versions bring CD-quality audio to the table, which was a headline feature at the time, and the sprites and backgrounds still retain a charm that pixel purists will appreciate. Character portraits and cutscenes lean heavily into anime tropes: expressive faces, dramatic poses, and compositions that read like promotional stills from an OVA. It is a look that dates the games but also gives them character: these are not minimalist indie sprites but illustrations trying to breathe life into a melodramatic narrative. The technical limitations show in places. Backgrounds can be flat at times; parallax scrolling exists but is used sparingly; animation cycles are economical. Yet the CD-era music does a lot of work to compensate. The soundtracks were designed to dramatize every jump and boss fight with an orchestral thrust, and they largely succeed-the music often outpaces the graphical ambition and sells the scenes more effectively than the pixels alone. If you judge graphics by contemporary standards, Valis will not impress. Viewed through a historical lens, though, these visuals are a clear document of an era when developers were learning how to make games look like anime and when a CD could transform the auditory experience. The collection presents those assets faithfully, giving players the original aesthetic rather than a modern re-skin.

Conclusion

Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection on Switch is not a museum piece for the faint-hearted; it is a set of intact relics from a specific moment in gaming history. It is ideal for players with sentimental leanings toward the TurboGrafx-CD library, collectors who want canonical ports, or anyone curious about the interplay between anime storytelling and platform design that was so prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The package will frustrate those who expect a modernized control scheme, generous difficulty tuning, or additional modern conveniences; the collection does not disguise the original design decisions. That said, where Valis shines is in its earnestness: dramatic story interludes, sincere heroine-ism, and music that still knows how to make a boss fight feel operatic. It earns a respectable score because it delivers what it promises, and it does so with historical fidelity. If you approach it as a historical artifact that also happens to be playable and occasionally sublime, you will find a rewarding experience. If you want a modern platformer with all the bells and whistles, you will probably be left looking for a rewind button. Score: 7.5/10 - A faithful and occasionally brilliant collection for retro enthusiasts; a demanding, old-school platforming experience for everyone else.

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