Mugen Senshi Valis: The Fantasm Soldier

About

Mugen Senshi Valis is a side-scrolling platformer where Yuko Asou battles monsters with a magic sword that doubles as a ranged weapon. The game follows Yuko’s journey across three realms as she chops through waves of enemies, collects power-ups to enhance Valis’s abilities, and faces off against bosses at the end of each level. Players can unleash screen-clearing attacks or gain temporary invincibility by finding hidden items. The stages mix vertical and horizontal scrolling, requiring precise platforming to avoid hazards and reach the next challenge. What sets Valis apart is its fast-paced combat and the sword’s evolving mechanics. Upgrades let players switch between close and ranged attacks, adding flexibility to each fight. While the MSX-era graphics and challenging difficulty might not appeal to everyone, the game has gained a cult following for its tight gameplay loop and early examples of weapon progression. Originally released in 1986 on now-rare Japanese hardware, its influence on later fantasy platformers is more notable than its modern player numbers, though those numbers remain modest.

Storyline

Yuko Asou is a schoolgirl in late 1980s Japan who is fated to protect three different realms – our own Earth, the land of spirits, and Vecanti, the Dream World – by wielding a mystical sword known as Valis. Demon lord Rogles extinguishes a light in Vecanti which functions as a source of power for those who live there, and in a desperate plea for salvation, its queen Valia reaches out for a brave soul who can help them in their time of despair. Yuko on Earth is the one who answers the call, being summoned by magical forces into Vecanti to liberate them from the evil of Rogles.