Syd of Valis (Genesis) review "Syddy"

First there was Valis III, then Valis, and finally came the last game in the Sega trilogy: Valis II!

R... right.

No, this wasn't some kind of Star Wars-esque storytelling done by the developers, these Sega Genesis ports were literally released out of order for whatever reason. But that's not the weirdest part about this particular "port." Valis III tried to replicate the original TurboGrafx-CD game within Sega's 16-bit constraints and the Valis I remake copied its style, but this Valis II conversion went in a completely different direction. Renamed Syd of Valis, you once again take control of Yuko, a Japanese teenage schoolgirl in possession of the Valis sword, who must reenter the world of Vecanti to free it from a villainous uprising!

As you begin Yuko's journey through a neighborhood park, the visual style immediately catches your attention. Whereas Valis I and Valis III, not to mention the original Valis II, went for a "realistic" look in terms of body proportions, Syd opted for a super-deformed style; everyone and thing now has a cutesy small anime look. As you charge through this colorful first stage, Yuko slashes her enemies with the Valis sword, enemies that range from goofy wide-eyed lizards and rhinos in armor to, of all things, floating mini UFOs. Her sword also discharges projectile beams that can hit foes from across the screen, which is helpful when eliminating airborne threats.

The flow for each stage is interesting in the sense that there are just as many boss fights as there are scrolling segments; destroy five to six enemies and you'll stumble right into a boss encounter. With their size taking up a considerable portion of the screen in most cases, the battles have more to do with finding safe spots whenever these bosses attack. One example is the final boss of the first stage, a ginormous maroon monster that is the height of the entire screen. One of its patterns involve walking you into a corner, where you then need to avoid its hand sweep attack. Don't rest easy, because as it backs away to its corner, you need to run beside it and then crouch to avoid a screen-wide projectile attack.

As you travel through the many locations of Vecanti, from caves and mountainous landscapes, to castles crawling with monstrous scum, Yuko gains health, obtains powers, and builds strength with most boss defeats. Eventually, you'll be able to switch between projectile patterns, such as a three-way spread and a homing projectile, the latter undoubtedly being the most devastating attack in the game. Yuko is also given a range of outfits with varying stats that boost either her defense, attack rate, or movement speed; most are visually just "armored" suits, but there is also a cute Chinese dress for some reason. While the assorted outfits are meant to encourage changing depending on the boss fight, the game eventually just gives you a very strong suit, effectively removing the point of switching.

Even with all these elements, Syd is very much on the easy side, perhaps to coincide with the silly chibi approach. Not an issue in itself, however Syd somehow succeeds at being both easy and frustrating due to several factors. It's almost like the developers didn't know how to make a proper side-scrolling action game. The first red flag is the way the game scrolls: it won't start moving until you've walked 80% to the corner of the screen. This annoyance gives little time to react when an enemy suddenly pops out, often causing a cheap hit. This is especially irritating in stages with pits; in stage two you'll be jumping on moving platforms over spike pits, and then bam, you're being attacked by a monster with nowhere to go without risk. Worse, your invincibility frames are basically nonexistent.

But then all of that is offset by the fact that you have a graciously long health meter...



Another indicator of shaky design, as "hinted" at earlier, is that once you receive the homing attack in the second stage, challenge has all but vanquished outside of some boss battles; some, because you can laughably exploit the homing attack in certain fights by standing in a corner and firing away. What's offensive about this attack is how the game is already easy to begin with, so what's even the point of putting it in? To make the game very easy and boring? But say you bar yourself from using the homing: would there be a difference? Barely for normal enemies, since the other projectile patterns do the same damage. However, some of the latter boss fights actually become insufferable, as if the devs are encouraging you to use the homing to crack their aggressive patterns.

What you get is a game that is purposely designed to be easy, but has the blueprint of one that makes it more easier than it should be and unintentionally "impedes" your progress with shoddy structuring and programming. And that's without having yet mentioned the tacky hit-detection and slippery movement! However these hindrances, despite them being annoying to no end, only does so much since it's still possible to play this to completion on the first session with all the lives it keeps throwing at you. The game is just not put together very well.



But then you play the English version of the game and it's like this unholy marriage of the Japanese developers and the English localization crew seemingly not putting much care into the game. The box cover, for instance, was taken from a completely unrelated board game where Yuko makes an appearance, so every other character on the cover never shows up in Syd. Other examples involve the manual making an error by using an image of Yuko for another character, not to mention the game over screen and the ending credits still using Japanese text. Then there's the game's title: Syd of Valis. The original Japanese title is SD Valis... so what is Syd? According to the in-game life meter, Syd is Yuko... but almost everyone still calls her Yuko in game and in the manual.

So what is Syd suppose to be?

Exactly.

Community review by dementedhut (November 28, 2025) See you in two years for the next Double Dragon reboot.