Development
Valis: The Fantasm Soldier was developed over the course of half a year by Wolf Team, an internal gaming subsidiary of Telenet Japan founded in 1986.[1][2] It was co-produced by conceptual designer Hiroki Hayashi and Yukio Mitsuhashi, both of whom acted as co-designers and co-scenario writers as well.[1][3][4][5] Masahiro Akishino provided additional scenario support and served as programmer of the PC-8801 version.[1][4][6] Former Compile staffer Tomoki Anazawa and Masayasu Yamamoto served as main programmers for the MSX and X1 versions respectively.[1][2][3][5] Hayashi also acted as art director, with Daisuke Kiyasu, Hiroshi Toriumi, Makoto Takahashi, Mitsuru Takahashi, Shinichi Shiino, and Tsuyoshi Tanaka being responsible for the graphics.[1][2][3][4] The music was composed by Shinobu Ogawa.[3][4][6]
Akishino and programmer Osamu Ikegame started planning on a project tentatively titled Shoujo Furyou Densetsu, a side-scrolling action game featuring a customed delinquent heroine, who would have served as a vehicle to showcase the action.[2][7] The idea originated from Sukeban Deka, particularly the live-action television adaptation, as both Akishino and Ikegame were fans of the series.[2][7] The project was made as an entry for "Program Olympics", a contest sponsored by Japanese computer magazine LOGiN where game developers created software to compete.[7][8] The game was kept secret within Telenet, but when the company learned of its existence, they approved development to continue.[7]
Yamamoto was set to work on the game Final Zone Wolf, before being switched to Shoujo Furyou Densetsu due to staff shortage.[2] Hayashi joined the staff after development of Final Zone Wolf had finished, helping with making various settings and drawing character artwork of the unnamed main protagonist.[7] One day, a Telenet superior came to the development room to inspect the situation and expressed disliking towards the project, particularly its visuals.[7] Hayashi, to his surprise, was ordered to take action and fix it, which led to the conception of Valis on the spot as Hayashi had an image of a girl fighting with a magical sword.[7]
Akishino and Hayashi used the project Ikegame was creating prior to quitting Telenet as a basis to introduce their own story and character ideas.[2] Hayashi was responsible for the designs of Yuko and Reiko.[2] The idea for Valis was based on an unfinished personal novel revolving around the light and darkness of the human heart Hayashi wrote prior to development, featuring Yuko and Reiko as main characters.[7][9] Hayashi used his novel as reference for the game's plot and worldview, which was written in parallel with Shoujo Furyou Densetsu.[7] Yamamoto calculated the number of needed tiles for each level early in development, reckoning that using 32x32 sprites would require 1024 tiles for stage maps and began making his own data under this assumption.[2] Knowing that the sales team used a program's size and character sprites as marketing ploys, Yamamoto told a Telenet sales staffer that they should be able to scroll large maps.[2]
Kouji Yokota served as graphic designer for the Family Computer version.[10] Yokota joined Telenet after being introduced to a senior staffer via an acquaintance and applying for a job interview.[10] Yokota particularly cited the story and visual design of Valis as his reasons to join Telenet.[10] Due to the Family Computer having limited memory compared to home computers and the available memory mapper chips (MMC) being a concern, Yokota implemented a mirroring technique to reuse sprites in order to create the graphics.[10] Because the original version featured multi-directional scrolling not possible on the Family Computer, and games on the platform at that time had either vertical or horizontal scrolling, Yokota and the staff were forced to take a different approach.[10] The team added changes and revisions to the game's design, introducing an exploration component and more complex maps to deepen its gameplay.[10] Yokota has since regarded the Family Computer version to be a remake rather than a port.
