Is Virtua Fighter dying in Japan?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
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What kept me playing initially was that I had nothing else for the 360. As it went on, things started to click a bit. It only got frustrating when I starting having to deal with mad option selects (which is VF’s flaw in my eyes, though it’s a tolerable one as the option selects if recognized can be beaten with standard moves)

I do think the game looks better then Tekken 6, and has somewhat better customization on the graphical side.

The real issue is since we know the series is dead, you’re not going to revive a corpse. If Sega releases R I’m all on it, for whatever console it’s on.

One thing I’ve noticed- those who bitch the most about Tekken 6’s netcode/port sucking- are the VF players that know Tekken half-assed it. When you’re outdone in effort by Sega- ouch.

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Domino Logic has a good point. Why continue to play this? It is like beating a dead horse especially if you live outside of Japan. There aren’t many VF5 tourneys. VFDC is kinda on the slow in as most of people there haven’t played VF5R.

VF5R could be a great counter to Tekken if the promote it more. At least KOFXII an T6:BR released actually.

I play it sometimes to keep myself in shape of the game but T6 took it over at least for me.

T6 netcode isn’t the best but it at least is the one of the latest version of T6.

They could release it next year when the hype for T6 and COD4 dies down.

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oh im sorry…I thought that abysmal sales were a BAD thing…my mistake

Non hardcore gamers can easily name characters from any other fighting game, whether it be SF, MK, KI, or Tekken. There are people who have PLAYED virtua fighter games that couldn’t name 1 character.

Argue all you want, neg rep me all you want. Virtua Fighter is likely on it’s knees about to croak. It can barely handle selling well in fucking Japan.

As I stated earlier, it was a great franchise early on, now it’s just crap.

I’m loving how an opinion can lead towards 4 neg reps for “kill yourself”. Every one of those neg reps with no REAL reason is just the same as agreeing with me. Not my fault some people wanna be in love with filthy garbage

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I used to spend hours at LANs playing UT1999 and Starcraft: Brood War. I was good enough at both games to be allowed to be practice fodder against the best U.S. players in both games. Players, of high level, who would regularly qualify for events like WCG. I couldn’t qualify for WCG because of school, or sports, or maybe I just wasn’t good enough. But nevertheless I still practiced those games and played hundreds of hours each year in both of them because I recognized how intensely competitive they both were. I love competitive gaming, but never was turned on much to fighting games.

I had always casually played SF2/KI at arcades and on the SNES, but consoles and arcades were not my thing. I was always a PC gamer. When the PS2 came out I needed a DVD player so I figured “hey, 2-in-1, a DVD player and I can screw around with some console games”. And once VF4 came out the reviews were crazy. People were saying it was the best fighting game in the history of fighting games. And someone at WCG said to me “Virtua Fighter is the fighting game equivalent to Starcraft”. A little exaggeration on his part but it was enough to get me to buy the game. So I bought VF4 (import) and the Hori VF4 stick (a stick that at the time I thought was of amazing quality lol).

I casually played VF4 Vanilla, I found a few people to play offline, and I spent dozens of hours in Kumite mode. I registered VFDC a couple of months before VF4:EVO was about to come out on consoles in North America just to see if anyone had any information on the game. During those months there were events like Kakutou Shinseiki II (national VF tournament hosted by Sega) and the first Super Battle Opera. Watching the streams of those events in #vfhome brought me the same rush that participating at the WCG as a spectator brought me.

Particularly when an unheard of player with a brand new data card, Minami Akira, destroyed everyone and everything in his path at KSII, I knew I would be hooked on VF4 for a long time. He was playing VF on a level that no one in #vfhome could even comment on. The way he was moving around the ring, now known as the Minami Step, was getting everyone worked up like crazy. I had read a few guides of VF4 and some posts on VFDC but my understanding of VF was shallow compared to what I know now. I could tell based on the footage of the events, that in my hours offline against people or in Kumite Mode, I hadn’t even experienced an inch of VF4’s depth.

Of course once VF4:EVO came out on consoles it was all over. SBO’03 had been amazing (the VF and ST matches are classics) enough to get me to start playing VF and ST competitively. VF4:EVO had Quest Mode, the insane training mode, balance, depth, a beautiful system, and tons of style. Timeless. I’ve played thousands and thousands of matches of VF4:EVO. I have at least 500 matches with each character in Quest Mode alone and I’ve completed all of the training modes with each character individually. I can casually pick up and play almost any character in VF4 and I’m solid with Wolf, Kage, Akira, Goh, and Jacky.

Though the training mode helped immensely at showing me how deep VF4 was, it wouldn’t have mattered, at least for me. UT1999, Starcraft, and even Super Turbo didn’t have training modes like 4EVO did, and I’ve spent hours playing, reading, or watching match footage of those games to improve myself and having to learn almost everything on my own. I remember Toutanki playing N.Hawk at SBO03 and ending a round with a walk up command throw…I had no idea that was even possible. So I asked someone in #capcom and they taught me the command.

4EVO’s training mode is great for showing people the basics of VF but the real depth of the game can only be experienced by playing a lot of matches and reading about high level techniques on VFDC. I don’t think things like ECD, ARE, VIP, Minami Step, were ever covered in 4EVO’s training mode. To really get into VF4 you needed to scour VFDC pretty actively back in the day.

Of course I was around VFDC/#vfhome during the era of “4FT will not be coming out on consoles” which was awful. That was annoying enough for me that I quit playing VF for a while. This (though a few years down the road) was of course after EVO2K3 when Sega stopped the sale of the EVO DVD that year. And now they’ve gone after Beat Tribe and Poppy Arcade.

When companies like Epic (Unreal Tournament) were releasing expansion packs and patches for free, and when Blizzard was patching games for free and listening to the community as well, I decided to go back to PC gaming. Of course…I did import a VF4FT set up which cost me quite a bit of money, but that was before Sega canceled both the PS2 AND PSP ports of VF4FT. So I went into that purchase assuming that VF4FT would come out eventually, but whatever fuck Sega. Now I do have a Naomi 2GDROM and 4FT though which I’ll always keep though.

Down the road WCG would take VF5 Online as game. I hadn’t played VF in a few years but seeing the game in action was enough to make me curious about it. I’ve got probably three thousand matches of VF5 on the 360 now. I don’t like VF5 as much as VF4 (who does?) so if I want to play VF I’ll go back to 4EVO’s Quest Mode.

The reason I’m at SRK now is mostly for HDR, but if VF5R comes out, then obviously my main game will switch. Until then it’s ST on GGPO and HDR on PSN/XBL.

And lastly, I think this needs repeating, fuck Sega.

If you’re going to play VF5 you should get the 360 version. It’s version C, which means balance changes, new costumes, glitch and bug fixes, online mode, and significantly better Quest Mode A.I. to play against.

Suing EVO, Beat Tribe, Amusement Poppy, canceling the 4FT port twice, endlessly releasing broken VSHG models, not having VF5 online functioning on the PS3, not having VF5 Online on the 360 able to be upgraded to version D, forcing arcade operators to rent the machines, stopping foreigners from viewing KS/OH events over the internet streams by IP blocking, not having VF5R come out on consoles. Did I miss anything? Sega has been effectively raping the VF brand for years now.

You mean Microsoft’s VF5 netcode? You think Sega wanted VF5 Online? MS paid them to develop that netcode and test it out over and over again.

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Because whenever I lose in other games, sometimes, not all the time, I feel I’m losing because of either my character’s deficiencies or because my opponent’s character has natural advantages over mine. i.e. When I play Honda against Sagat. Sometimes the Sagat player is just better than me, and that’s cool. Sometimes I feel that the only reason a Sagat player is winning is because of Sagat, and not necessarily because he’s good. I’d honestly say that even if I lose in VF, I never feel that I lost because of the character, but because the person playing is simply just better. My win rate in SF4 and Blazblue is actually pretty decent (SF4 is like 70% online, 65% in arcade, both Honda, Blazblue is 60% online with Tager), but I feel those games, and other fighters that I have played have some dumb bullshit in them that will leave you with the impression that you lost due to the character. My win rate in VF5R is like 40%, much lower than the other two fighters I play, yet I never feel I get cheated out of a win because of the characters. That’s really what it is.

Actually, VF4 sold about a million copies, probably a little bit over that if you include Evo. VF5 sold maybe 500K - 600K. Your idea of abysmal is abysmal.

That’s nice hyperbole, too bad you can’t back it up.

A kid from Hamilton talking about OTHER people associating with filthy garbage. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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I’m on the west coast now, in California, getting my Photography on.

You shouldn’t bother with picking up VF5, I suggest against it, shit is done. Just get Tekken 6.

It’s sad, such a good game done.

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I found the game intriguing. I was never exposed to a game that people take seriously, or rather, a community that took a game seriously. So I wanted to know what was behind that first layer of scrubbyness.

Also, I’m very different than most people and I prefer generic character design. My character is defined by his movelist, that’s it. And if I want to give my character personality, the customization allowed me to do that according to my own tastes.

I pretty much hate original tekken character design, detest it. But the customization helps.

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thanks for the responses, good read

i did play the game for about a month when i got my 360 because that was the only FG available. i forgot why i stopped maybe because i had no one to train with or something

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I want VF5R!!

I love VF5, it felt fast and responsive, unlike past installments (IMO), and to me VF5R is the 3D fighter to beat, due to graphics and presentation.

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VF5 feels good. I played it for a few months. But theres no pizazz. Like in any other game when you pull off your favorite characters hard hitting moves and you feel like you just knocked the shit out of the guy, VF doesn’t have that.

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The in depth combos, the learning curve, and the overall design of it. I’d not really played 3-d fighters except for SCII, and I really liked the pace of VF4 at the time. IMO, it’s still one of, if not the most deepest fighters out there.

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I can’t really agree with this.

Giant Swinging or F5ing people out of the ring never gets old to me.

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X2. IMO Virtua Fighter always has some great KO moments. Especially those nice deep sounding thuds and “bone cracks”. :smiley: Makes the KO all the more painful to watch and hear, but oh so satisfying at the same time.

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I felt like people got knocked the shit out with moves here. (Especially when I made a mistake and oioron fucking kneed me in the face for it) You really feel the intensity when you play the game. What Reno said about the game is bang on. You NEVER feel cheated in Virtua Fighter.

At every encounter, there’s always something to think about and when you lose, you know you got outplayed. Find the right people to play with, and get your game to a certain level and you’ll be like the few who wonder why no one else plays the game. (Other than the fact that Sega sucks at marketing and business)

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I can’t really remember all the details but I do remember really getting into the series around VF4 EVO. I played Akira off the bat because he reminded me of another certain fighter with a gi. After figuring out mashing P and K would get me nowhere I finally gave in and went to training mode. As a FG scrub I was both horrified and impressed by Evo’s training mode, I can remember saying “Dear god there is no way I’m going to remember all this crap” but I continued to play. What I would do is learn one or two new moves and combos at a time then play using those until they would stopped working and then go back to training mode to learn more new things. I didn’t try learning everything at once which allowed me to experiment and try new combos when I felt like it.

I eventually wound up switching characters alot trying to find the character that was right for me, it was during these switchings I really started to fall in love with the game. Every character felt so different from one another and they had their own move sets to learn. I’d play Lion for a while in Quest mode and customized him to my liking. After that I’ve been a dedicated VF fan since. And while it does upset me R probably won’t be coming out, I still continue to play Vanilla 5 because I still feel there is so much I haven’t learned yet in that game.

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This. Granted, in VF there’s a lot of complicated ways to move. But the basic stuff is all fairly intuitive. IMO SC has the most intuitive movement system, but VF is definitely the deepest. I think most people coming from 2D fighters would still prefer Tekken because they have to get used to a block button.

Haha. I love Aoi. Reverse everything all day. The variety of playstyles in VF is unrivaled IMO. No one plays even remotely similar.

Unfortunately, the VF scene here is almost dead just like all over the world outside Japan. Not that it was ever particularly strong though.

Overall, I would say that one of the bigger reasons Tekken is more popular is it just has more visual impact. Every hit you land feels big and powerful. This is something Tekken does really well even if I’m not a big fan of it. (It feels a bit overdone to me.) It’s more visually interesting to most people.

One of the things that made me cringe when we got our first VF5 machine here was hearing a Tekken player comment that the combos in VF look easy. I wanted to kill something.

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SC’s is more intuitive, but imho it’s less consistent in general (If that makes sense). Step in VF works were it’s supposed too, and opens you for punishment if you mess it up (Unlike, say, the ridiculous G2 stuff from SC2). You’re completely right though, especially concerning the visuals.

@DominoLogic: I play it because I’ve gotten over the fact that it’s dead/dying and just enjoy it, since it’s such a fucking fun game for me.

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Except Tekken was always flashy and explosive. Was it always popular in JP arcades, before Tekken 5? Not really. But whatever.

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I really wonder how VF5R would have done if it had gotten a 2k9 release, and VF5 wasn’t releeased, with netplay on both consoles.

that may be a great what might have been.

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I’ll be honest; if I didn’t have Mike and Ka to play VF with me in GA, I seriously wouldn’t be playing VF right now.

I’ll continue to do it as long as there are people to play; but like you said, I doubt VF5 will be a good investment; think I’ll stick to VF4 and EVO. My other friend who owned the 360 plays Goh so I’m thinking I’ll convince him to switch to EVO with us as well.