Feed starts in about 30 mins!

I really hope the Quest mode is still in there, I always loved that. I hope the Q&A can confirm that.

Thank you to Haunts!

Thank you guys, everybody who made this happen, Im so proud of being part of this community.

Thanks to Haunts and IPW for the stream and to Syzygy for answering our questions. That was fun.

Also, what was Chanchai's final win streak? Anyone made the avatar yet?

Thanks so much Haunts and Patrick for the info session.

Myke, can we start up an official "ASK SEGA" thread to be the lightning rod for questions for the upcoming console release?

guys, I just wrote something on neogaf, I hope we can make people take notice:



Last night at PAX Sega was there with 2 FS cabs,

We got to ask question to the Sega representative, and he said that FS is happening thanks to the effort and demand of the community.

We need to make sure they bring out a fantastic training mode! and a replay system! (and a AI parter like in VF4! that s my dream lol)

So if you are even remotely interested in FS, please PLEASE send them a message on FB or something to make sure they get it right! I promise the next time you guys ask me to sign a petiton for your favorite game (PANZER DRAGOON SAGA 2 PLEASE ) I will be there for you.

I believe one of the few questions syzygy was able to asnwer at least partially, he said that 1 player mode would be reworked. Ie. the quest will be different somehow.

He also said that the amount of customization options would be "unprecedented", but he didn't say that all arcade customization options would be involved.

Anyone else remember what else he managed to answer?

Most other answers were like "no promises" and "I cant talk about that".

Thank you Haunts, iplaywinner, Sega and everyone involved for this event. Its so rare that such a stream happens outside Japan, with Sega rep asnwering our online questions. Thanks a lot for your efforts!

I do want to write a Day One Report but I need to sleep so I'll just put up some quick responses for now ^_^

* I had a blast! (I even gave up my PAX Day One just for VF5 FS! Many times I intended to go back to the convention hall and many times I just ended up staying at Gameworks and chatting/playing VF!)

* Manjimaru's questions were hand delivered (via my phone) the Sega team that was there a couple of hours before the livestream ^_^ (also, the staff was great!) For all the questions that came after, I was unable to see them because as PAX population peaked, AT&T Internet completely crumbled for most of the day. I had very nice conversations with the Sega team there and I look forward to sharing what I can remember in the next post! But I think Syzygy repeated much of it on the stream.

* Ash, at 20 wins I decided it was time to open up the livestream cabinet and encourage more matchups so I passed the torch at that point (well, you can see me abandon the cabinet in the background of the interview). Looking back at it, I guess I totally forgot that the livestream is, after all, "iplaywinner" But I really want as many people to enjoy VF as much as they can and a part of me was wondering if people were sick of watching me play Lion.

* Myke, thanks ^_^! Wish you were there too!

* I'm looking forward to sharing the experience in more detail ^_^

Cheers guys this was awesome it got me right back into VF

yes thanks iplaywinner and especially haunts, that was a great stream, keep it up and hold your promise to stream more of VF in the future

Cheers

Looks like I'm unable to manage my time for fully loaded reports, but here goes my attempt at writing what I can on the Day One Experience:

ADAPTING TO FS
It's not easy, but I admit I probably get to play with one of the few characters who is quick to adjust from game to game. Going from VF5 to VF5 FS is more challenging than the usual adjusting to a new expansion imo. It's almost similar to going from VF4 to VF5, but it really isn't too drastic.

I think once a VF veteran has the game to him or herself, it should take a little less than a week to really break into it. I felt I adjusted a lot in one day, but the mechanical changes take a lot of willpower to manage if you are a player with more habits than you care to admit (which would be a whole lot of me).

Here are the things that hung me up, though they make very pleasant challenges:

* The throw system itself is something that should be quick to adjust to with regards to high throws and high throw escapes. However, my old multiple throw escape habits (sloppy inconsistent ones at that to be honest) got furthermore in my way as the order I did them in the past just doesn't play out well with the new system--it ensures I do one particular throw escape and not the one I'm really guessing for. That said, I think it's an easier adjustment than most imagine.

* Low Throws is what gets everyone! If you use a character with low throws, you will probably get frustrated for half a week when you keep accidentally doing low throws. It was clear all the Goh, Wolf, Jeffry players had it rough with this and their brains were harder than they thought to rewire. On top of that, TONS OF ACCIDENTAL LOW THROW SPAMMING because throw heavy characters traditionally had a lot of throws with a diagonal+P+G input. But this isn't just for characters with low throws! It's very awkward telling yourself not to do low throw escapes without pressing K! Sometimes I would just overuse bad low attacks in my matches just to practice inputting the new low throw escapes and still I cought myself pressing K! I think the Low Throws were the hardest thing to deal with in adjusting to the new game.

* The window for entering a pounce is really small now it seems. So many times I get a hopping straight up punch. You can see it in the stream clearly when I'm trying for a pounce and I get that straight up hop punch. But I have to admit, it mostly happens in non-guaranteed pounce situations.

* Adjusting to the altered movelist is just like adjusting between iterations of games--your mileage varies based on you and your character. Lion is easy because well, his core game uses similar commands and I think everyone will admit that the change to his uppercut and elbow are drastic improvements in his game so they're taken willingly. However, I was surprised that I wasn't 100% consistent with QCF+button moves. Lion has QCF+P and QCF+P+K and I just wasn't consistent much with them despite being very consistent with Shun's Chouwan and what not. But the challenge of adjusting to an altered movelist is the usual--the new commands and also the change in move properties. Notice how I just cannot properly followup combos that use b+K, P with Lion because it slams opponents into the ground.

* It would be great to be able to watch Videos between every 3 or 4 matches! Did not have that luxury, internet is dead during peak time.

PLAYING ON THE STREAM
It was really fun playing on the stream. I had a streak on the other machine just before the stream started and abandoned that machine to play on the streamed machine and it was fun. The thing is, this is still a debut of a game and a way for a lot of people to satisfy their VF curiosity and what not--so a streak wasn't really anything I was aiming for--I wanted to let people have fun matches. But I still felt I had to play a good amount of serious VF also since this is a livestream aimed at the fighting community. Tricky balance.

We did have some good VF vets that were available during the stream and we also had experienced players from other fighting games who do play some VF (ie. Afro-Cole)... but here's the kicker... We also had a handful of very experienced VF players who were playing on Saturday that all had to leave at 6pm because of prior commitments and work! It was really a pity too because it was so fun to have a Chicago representative, a couple of Seattle natives who lurk on VFDC but play a good game and have even had great experience playing VF4:FT in Japan, and even a couple of more players on top of that. There was also a very nice couple who have played VF in Japan as well and do play VF with each other and were a blast to play with! And there were some more Seattle VF fans too.

It was unfortunate that they all couldn't stay but I had to let you guys know that while VF5 wasn't insanely packed or anything, there was a decent serious VF showing on Friday on top of what you saw.

BTW, Hans is it from iplaywinner? I really enjoyed playing against him too and he really seems to like his VF and does enjoy playing in Japan as well!

ABRUPT WRAPUP
Unfortunately I have to go now (back to PAX and of course to more VF), and I have a lot more to say just about Friday including sincere thanks to players, more about the Sega staff, and probably some small pieces of information to the VF in America puzzle. I hope I can post those and the shoutouts soon, but it's convention time!

Thanks for reading and wishing ALL OF YOU GUYS were here too--I really do!

Chanchai

P.S. The Aoi in the last two or so matches of the stream are me ^_^

I watched the later part of this live last night. Shoutouts to Haunts!

Kudos to IPW for streaming, Haunts for having VF'ers backs and doing such a big service for the community, Syzygy, and Sega for actually listening and putting an effort to be more community orientated.

Feels great to finally have the community headed somewhere after it's been so slow before the FS announcement. Feels more busy now which is great. Thanks again!

great write up chanchai. Please use Taka

I'm really hoping they'll make a new version of the VSHG. Those were really solid and awesome to use.

Thanks go out to Haunts, Chanchai, Heidi and Cole for keeping the stream entertaining for the viewers and i'm looking forward to seeing everyone again sooner or later.