Switch Limited Run #137: Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection

Three games, one package, and a legacy that most Western players barely got to experience the first time around. Switch Limited Run #137: Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection for Nintendo Switch bundles the original Valis, Valis II, and Valis III together with a reversible cover sheet featuring art from the North American release of Valis III.

The Valis series occupies a unique space in gaming history. These action-platformers built a devoted following on the TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis through anime-styled cutscenes, challenging gameplay, and a fantasy narrative that felt genuinely ambitious for its era. They were the kind of games you discovered through import catalogs or a friend's older sibling, never through mainstream marketing.

That reversible cover featuring the North American Valis III art is a small but meaningful touch. It connects this modern compilation back to the specific moment when Western players first encountered Yuko Ahso on store shelves, bridging decades of collector memory in a single flip of the cover sheet.

Having all three core entries on a single Switch cartridge makes this the most accessible way to experience the trilogy, but accessibility isn't really why we're here. This is about preservation and shelf presence. The Valis games have been notoriously difficult to collect in their original forms, with TurboGrafx CD prices climbing steadily for years. This collection doesn't replace those originals, but it does give the series a permanent, displayable home on a modern platform. For fans of '90s action-platformers and anime-adjacent gaming, this one fills a niche that very few other releases even attempt.