Off topic but I played Virtua Fighter for the first time Friday and lovvveeed it.
dunno if you’ve ever played it, but you should try fighter’s destiny. Pretty fun game with a really in depth training mode, they even show the amount of frames each move has and how many frames it takes to break throws (normal throws have a long break window, special throws are short)
Somebody gave an idea on the virtuafighter.com forums, saying that the next Tekken tag should be Tekken vs Virtua Fighter.
I’d buy it, so I can get my lady Vanessa up against Craig, and ground and pound that fool.
lmao.
Sadly, it’s the other way around. The story people make up about 80-90%.
Go to gamefaqs, look at the T6 forum. 2-4 threads on gameplay and lag, 9000 threads on stories, characters, and customs.
Well that kinda sucks. The game is close to dead here especially with all these fighters out. Tekken 6 is here and that might put a tombstone on VF5R here. Even if they release it, we it even sell that well over here. Maybe if they multi-platform it and actually promote it.
VF needs more of an attractive factor to the game than just the graphics. This game is commonly known among other fighting games as a dull and boring game. That image pops up in alot of fighting gamers mind when they think VF in the US.
Ain’t nothing dull about Jean to me. I could watch match vids of him non-stop. If, a big IF, VF5r gets a port, the Brad show will be post-poned while I get my Karate on!
Virtua Fighter is a fun game. I enjoy it’s system. The issue is that there is not enough interest for people to pick up and learn the game. Around 2 years ago my friend and I were competitive with each other in the game and it was fun, but then I had to move away. Since then I’ve never found anyone else who wants to learn it.
I honestly don’t think it’s as technical as everyone makes it out to be. It’s a good fighter.
Fixed?
Really, it’s Sega’s own fault that VF is not the prime time game it used to be, because they got it in their heads that their game is SO awesome that they can do whatever the hell they want with it and people will lap it up. Now their game is being run over by its former imitator (Tekken), and they’re left with only their core audience and no new players.
This is what they did right with VF5:
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Made console ports that are pretty much arcade perfect, and in the case of the 360 version, have decent online code. For a game that’s as frame dependent as VF is, online play is surprisingly not frustrating.
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Loooots of good options for arcade players. Ability to create 60fps vids for download so you can analyze your matches, complete with frame data. Always lots of tournies and special events going on every week.
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Made a game that, even if it’s a lesser version of VF4 Evo/Final Tuned, still beats the pants off of any other fighting game out right now.
This is what they did wrong with VF5:
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Made the game lease-only instead of allowing arcade ops to outright purchase the game. This also made it so that any international arcade ops cannot buy the game. Fucking stupid. Good job in pretty much screwing your clients who wanted the game. Who wants to lease a bloody arcade game?
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During initial loketests, charged 200 yen ($2) just to play the game. Most loketests just charge you the normal 100 yen. Shit, with Tekken 6, Namco charged half the normal price for an IC Card if you wanted to buy one! This is basically the attitude Sega has had with VF5 ever since release, that they can do whatever the hell they want because they’re Sega and it’s Virtua Fighter. Guess what? Tekken is the new shit and now Sega has to live with the fact that their arrogance fucked them over BIG TIME.
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Threaten to sue anyone who tries to publish video footage of VF. Happened with Evo, happened with beat-tribe, most recently happened with POPY Niigata. People who are trying to promote their games with DVDs of high-level play are getting sued by Sega! This is like if Capcom decided to sue Kuroda for his 3s DVDs!
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Didn’t bother to re-think the ranking system to be more welcoming to newer players. This is just a personal annoyance of mine, but try to hear me out. If you don’t know, to go up or down in ranks you have to win 3 - 5 games straight against a same-ranked opponent. So right now I’m 9th Dan, and I have to win 5 straight off other 9th Dan players to get promoted. This would be more feasible for me if I was going up against REAL 9th Dan players, but I’m not. More often than not I’m going up against players who already have cards that are double my rank, but just want their quick win off of me so they can rank up their sub-card. A lot of times I’ve had some dude with a high level card challenge me to a match, completely sandbag it to download my tactics, then put in their 9th Dan card and straight up own me. As someone on the cusp of the Shogo ranks (after 10th Dan you go into Warrior/Conqueror/Avenger, etc.) I get a lot of this because once you’ve been promoted to Shogo, you can’t be demoted to 10th Dan again. I’m actually thinking of asking a friend just to take my card and get it up to Shogo so I don’t have to worry about this stupid BS anymore lol.
I’m going to say that as a player, VF5R is probably the best thing to happen to the series in a long time, and probably the best iteration since Evo, but this is a game I would never ever recommend anyone to get into right now. As far as I’m concerned I’ll continue to play VF until I leave Japan, and once I move back to Canada, I’ll quit playing the game. It’s really only worth playing if you live in Japan and you already have some experience in VF. Otherwise it’s really not worth it.
Wow these points right here lead me to believe Sega wanted their own product to fail. Not to derail the thread but you can see that Sega in general makes bad decisions when selling or promoting a game. It’s apparent in many of their products. :bluu:
I do believe if VF vs Tekken goes down it can repair some of the damage that caused the lack of interest in VF. Sadly it will never be mainstream here in the west, the 90’s are gone.
Reno, what I don’t get is why Sega got it in their heads to be so uppity about distribution and marketing of the series.
Do you have any ideas what made them think this way?
They believed that Namco was only talking tough so they basically did whatever they want because they thought they were gangsta and nobody would ever dare put em up against them. But Namco decided to sucka punch and confront them. After T6 they were breathing hard but Sega isn’t out just yet. If they can the bullshit for VF6 then they will rise back for Round 2.
they just got too arrogant after VF4… not surprising though, since VF4 is the reason why all arcades these days have internet connections installed (Sega basically forced every arcade op to get them if they wanted VF4) and games like SF4 and Tekken now use the player card system.
So essentially their arrogance only sowed the seeds of their downfall, as internet connections only made T6 and SF4 that much more popular in Game Centers.
Ah, down falls the icy tower of hubris.
Why did Japan arcades jump ship from VF to Tekken so quickly? Fine, Sega was arrogant with VF5, but Tekken 5 took over not long after VF4FT was released. Tekken has been the main fighter in arcades since… which is odd since Tekken 4 was basically stillborn. VF5 had nothing to do with that shift in preference.
i’d respond to some of the points you made here, but that strays from the actual topic that i put forth:
you always see tons of people praising how fun and rewarding vf is at high level. i don’t think i’m being a cynic when i say 9 out of 10 of the people that claim that, cannot play vf at a high level
so again, how did vf’s propaganda machine get so strong? it’s information that could potentially be useful
here’s my take on it:
- american media gets the word that vf is dominating the japanese arcade scene
- american media is automatically intrigued, also hears that vf is extremely technically demanding
- there most likely isn’t a single high-level fighting game player in american media, so they take what they hear at face value
- vf4 evo comes out on ps2 with those sweet tutorials, and lays out in plain english to american reviewer all these technical aspects of the game. american reviewer is never going to implement 90% of the techniques, but is very aware such techniques exist and is suitably impressed
- american reviewer spreads the word about vf being deep and technical, everybody eats it up. japan nut-riders (which are always prevalent in our scene) help this cause immensely
the result? people that have probably never successfully performed something as fundamental to vf as an ETEG, or even know what its application is, praising the greatness of “vf at high level”
that sucks i bought virtua fighter 5 online and tekken 6 the same day. i like virtua fighter alot more than tekken 6. too bad i don’t know how to play the damn game.
When VF4 Vanilla came out reviewers were praising it as the deepest fighter around…and there was no tutorial pointing out any of the competitive techniques such as ETEG or Fuzzy or Minami Step or whatever at that point.
And ETEG has been around since VF3TB. Anyways…here are some snippets from random reviews:
Gamespot:You can’t tell right off the bat, but Virtua Fighter 4 is the best fighting game in years. Even if you’ve never liked the Virtua Fighter series before–and there’s a reasonable chance that’s the case, considering the series has never taken off in the US like it has in Japan–you should still give Virtua Fighter 4 a try. The quicker pacing, the perfected controls, and the great-looking character designs, along with the outstanding AI and the unparalleled gameplay depth, make this a fighting game that just about everyone will agree on.
Unparalleled gameplay depth…they aren’t citing any high level techniques but they are knowledgeable enough about fighting games to recognize that VF4 was as deep as an ocean.
Armchair Empire:Though DOA3 may have it beat graphically, no game can touch VF4?s fighting engine. This is the deepest, most dynamic fighter ever created.
Just sift through some of the excerpts from VF4 Vanilla’s Metacritic Page and you’ll see lots of comments on depth as well. Did they know about ECD or how to crush rising attacks? Probably not. But it’s not like reviewers of Warcraft III could really comment in depth about the balance or strategy of that game…but they at least recognized it and commented about it.
I’m not sure what your point is. Are you saying that Western video game media outlets don’t know anything about fighting games? For the overwhelmingly most part that is true. Are you saying that most people who talk about high level Virtua Fighter aren’t at that level? That is also true, but it’s also true of every other fighting game, and certainly not exclusive to the VF community. Are you saying that VF isn’t as deep as the media claims it is? I would certainly disagree on that if that’s what your point is.
You are isolating VF when this happens for every other game. 3S forums and YouTube videos are filled with people who debate why it’s better or worse than ST/SFIV when they don’t have a deep fundamental understanding of either game. Did you see the SFIV section after EVO2009? When new members were talking about how they would have beaten Daigo and that Justin played poorly…
People love theory fighter, or second guessing top players, or praising mechanics and fighting systems that they know little about. You think the people who talk about how deep Starcraft is can compete with Nada, Yellow, or Boxer? Of course not. Does that mean they can’t praise high level Starcraft?
I’ll tell you this. I’m mediocre at 3S. I know a few bread and butter combos, I know the basics of the system, and I’ve played a few hundred matches. But I love high level Q players, and watching the matches of Kuroda on this year’s SBO DVD was incredibly exciting for me. Maybe I don’t know what is going on in Kuroda’s head when he parries an EX Hayate like it’s nothing or baits his opponent into throwing out an unsafe move and punishes with a SUPER…but I can at least recognize how insanely high level he is and praise it. Am I completely missing your points?
If you really want to learn VF, get a copy of VF4:EVO for the PS2, and run through training mode. Though VirtuaFighter.com and YouTube have a lot of the basics covered if you lack a Playstation 2 system and arcade stick.
This.
And it’s not just the reviewer either. Back when VF4 came out I wasn’t particularly good at any FGs, so I was taken aback just going through the tutorial mode. “Oh my god” I thought, “I have to do this shit in a match?” So I went around the internet talking shit about how deep VF was, without realizing that shit like option selects exist in other games that I already played, there was just never any fancy computer program that told me about it.
Basically a lot of people aren’t aware of the shit that is possible in a lot of games. And this isn’t even taking in to account the idea of “good” depth. Some people watch a ST fireball fight and go “nice zoning” or “his charge partitioning is amazing”, while other people just can’t get into it and just have to say “they just keep throwing fireballs.” VF fans on the other hand can look at something and say “wow nice frame traps” or “he’s playing so safe, the other guy can’t land a hit,” while somebody who’s not into that can say “way to memorize a bunch of frame data and spam safe shit.” Basically the whole idea of games being objectively deeper than one another is inherently flawed. Hell, I even like playing DoA sometimes because the large emphasis on positioning is interesting to me, and we all know that game has problems.
EDIT: Also, NEVER EVER quote gamespot as a resource for FGs, they don’t know jack shit.