Much like the previous adventure, pressing the run button will switch between the playable characters. Lena, besides having main character status, inherited Yuko's slide. It's a necessity for getting underneath narrow passages, crossing gaps with a low ceiling, and... get used to seeing it a ton. Lena is also invulnerable while sliding, but it doesn't actually matter until the final boss, and even then... it's not enough. Heroic sister Amu is also along for the ride. Her specialties are a double jump and a long-range attack. Valis IV's level-design is explicitly built for swapping, with frequent sequences that require slides and double jumps to progress. The duo is joined by Asfal after the first act is cleared. He ignores everything from spikes to conveyor belts to ice physics. His attack power is also the highest of the three heroes, much to chagrin of Lena and I. Actually, now that I think about it, Amu's attack power is also higher than Lena's. Wow. Talk about bollocks! What's the use of main character responsibility when it means being forced to defeat the final boss with the weakest weapon?
I hate to throw the review off of the rails so early, but the final boss hangs over this game like an omnipotent specter. When the time comes, whatever enjoyment I manage to wrangle out of the first eight acts that preceded him will feel so far away. Until then, I have to distract myself with a different topic, like the absurdist platforming that dominates the adventure. Wait! That's no good either, ahh! Before we tumble into abysses both proverbial and literal, know that I once dreamed of a world where I didn't have to spend game discussion "in the weeds". Picking apart interactive software because of a few obscure hitboxes or unnecessarily precise jumps hasn't gotten me anywhere near the gaming nirvana I yearn for. However, I am the small-minded fool who digs in the desert, complaining every time he's stung by a scorpion.
Witness above you, the mundane sight of Amu running towards an enemy after jumping over a pit. This is the first pit in the game, and Laser Soft placed an enemy directly after it. You might not realize it yet, but this is the call-out. Valis IV is letting everyone know that it's not above putting enemies in spots where they're most likely to push Vecanti's last hope over the edge. The gloves are off, the claws are out, and there is fire brimming from the palms. The player is a scourge that must be driven to madness, and the easiest way to accomplish that is with a ledge and a gentle push. Let's look ahead to act 1-5, wherein Amu jumps across moving platforms.
Now, what the screenshot doesn't show you is that this flying lobster actually stops right here, begging and pleading for Amu to land on it, all but guaranteeing her humiliating demise. This is the game operating as intended. If you haven't already developed a sixth sense for avoiding these life-stealing moments, then you're going to have an extremely bad time. I have more screenshots that show basically the same thing occurring in other parts of the game, but let's just skip ahead to something a little different.
Okay, so now we're in act 9-4. Lena has to slide underneath the pillar and over the chasm, a common problem that was drilled into our heads back in Valis III. Note the heroine's current position in the first image. This is actually the wrong place to initiate the slide from. If she slides here, then her next slide has to be back to the previous location, so she can reposition herself and try again. If she insists on sliding forward, then she'll fall into the far-right hole. Instead, Lena should be standing as shown in the second image. Then she can slide safely past both chasms. There's probably one person out there saying "pshaw! That's nothing! I've been walking to the very end of every ledge to make a jump for almost 50 years!" Sure, that's a fair statement to make, but is it really something to be proud of? Let me rephrase that. Have we gained anything from having to play video games in such a meticulous manner? Weaving through gobs of bullets in an STG requires pixel-perfect movement, but it's still fun. This is just arbitrary suffering.
You want to know the worst part? This review isn't over yet. Seriously, a handful of annoying but workable situations aren't what's sinking Valis IV. The worst is yet to come. For now, though, let's try winding our way back and hopefully discover something pleasant to talk about. MP is handled a little differently than before. Collecting blue orbs will increase its maximum, allowing the player-character access to different charge-attacks. Unless they take a hit, Lena and her crew are always charging. If the MP meter is full when the player presses Up + attack, then they'll unleash a full-screen spell, devastating everything onscreen. It's invaluable when applied at the right time, with the only caveat being that another blue orb must be acquired, before the spell can be used again. The spell that's cast when the meter is at 2/3rds full is also pretty useful, allowing players to hit enemies from different ranges or angles without putting a life on the line.
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| Without any indication whatsoever, a rock pushes Lena towards a collapsing bridge. |
In all the posted screenshots, you might've noticed the "LEVEL" in the top-left corner. That... that's... oh dammit. Here we go again. Way back when I covered Mamono Hunter Youko, I appreciated the fact that there weren't any power-ups. The heroine's power remains the same at the beginning and end of the stage. I wish more action-platformers were that consistent, especially Valis IV. In this game, level affects both maximum health and attack strength, the two reasons why most of us are defeating the bosses at the end of each act. A high degree of skill and infinite patience might get you further than most, but unless you're level 5, then your best might never be enough. Every playable character has a hurtbox that's too large to be practical. Lena's invincible slide doesn't have enough distance to avoid most attacks. It's still useful, but only in scenarios that were discovered by masochists after they've been spanked for the past hour or so.
What makes the level system the most consistently bad idea in Valis history is that dying drops the protag's level back down to 1. I can understand de-leveling after a Game Over, but why a mere death? Valis IV is quick to hand out 1ups, because it knows they're completely useless the instant someone is defeated by a boss. If you can't beat Galgear's henchmen at level 5, then what are the chances you'll do it at level 1? The large health meter and stronger attack were such a burden. Now free from it, we can- It's not going to happen. The patterns can be learned, the proper strategy can be formulated, but the disadvantages are too numerous. Once that first life is lost, the only recourse is to exhaust the remaining stock and restart the act. Even though these acts get to be laboriously long, it's still faster to try again from the start than rack up a long string of valiant failures.
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| The 4th boss is where any illusion of fairness disappears. |
It should come as no surprise that the final act is relentlessly cruel. The entire rest of the adventure, with all its death traps and obnoxious enemy placement, was designed to prepare players for the worst. Well, the worst has arrived in the form of a very long act that contains multiple mid-bosses, gratuitous pits, and a finale that's just plain fuck. As is series tradition, Galgear has two forms. The first throws around a lot of hard-to-avoid projectiles but dies fairly quickly. Try to avoid losing too much health. Although the second form's hands can sometimes house herbs, it's not a factor one can depend on.
Really, the second form is where everything goes to shit. Galgear's floating head is a demanding piece of trash that bounces around the screen at varying speeds, spitting out a glut of tracking projectiles that prey on Lena's huge hurtbox. It's here I learned about more issues that could've improved the game a tenfold if they had been addressed. The heroine can't turn while ducking. In fact, whatever direction she's facing is the direction that she'll slide in. If she wants to slide or attack in the opposite direction, then she has to stand up and turn around. These are actions that take mere frames to pull off, but anyone well-versed in fighters knows that even a couple of frames can become an eternity. Also, the slide doesn't travel far enough. I get that adjusting the distance of the slide would break half the game's "jumping" puzzles, but damn. So much of Valis IV is dependent on a move that just kind-of sucks, and it's shattering my mind harder than a Final Fantasy X battle transition. The motherfucker has way too much HP and spends half the fight invincible. He also flickers during this time but can still do damage on contact. This isn't epic. This is just... nonsense. The culmination of an entire series that blames the player every time it trips over its own foot.
I sincerely believe that there's a great game in Valis IV. It just needed a few tweaks; a couple design-decisions reversed. Increasing Lena's attack power and ditching the de-leveling mechanic would be enough to make this the best game in the series. I'd go so far to suggest that adjusting the hurtbox, slide, and pit frequency, would make this one of the best action-platformers on the PC Engine. There's so much good here and I... I didn't really talk about any of it did I? My review time was spent in the weeds. Maybe the problem with Valis IV is that it's all weeds.
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| There is no shocked Yuko, just disappointed Lena. |
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