Virtua Fighter 5 on Avoiding the Puddle

I can get annoyed but whenever I do I stop playing. When I lose out to something due to lag I'll stop playing properly and just start flowcharting and spamming a move. I'm not annoyed when I get like that, just dissapointed.

I know I'm not the only person that gets like that.

I know people who blow the fuck up whenever shit goes amiss though. I'm glad I'm not like that.

 

That could make the onslaught even worst.

I know people who blow up im one of them but only in FPS though. In Fact Gears of War 1 and 2 gave me high blood pressure honest to god.

 

*Raises hand*

But I come from an old school background of games when games were hard (I know there's mad hard games out now but yall get the gist of it). Super Mario 1, continue? lol nope, back to the beggining if you lose all your lives. Battle Toads, game was a bitch to beat. What yall know bout 3D World Runner? lol

Even got to play with/against some pretty good players back in the day at the arcade in SF, Samurai Showdown n Mortal Kombat for a year or 2, even a lil VF2 here n there. I stopped playing fighting games after that (cept KO Kings n had SSF2 for SNES) and moved onto stuff like GTA, Tony Hawk, NBA 2K, Live n Track Mania (racing game). I don't mess with the FPS games, for single player maybe but not no MP.

Even though I played with good players and got to watch em n even learn vocaly from em, that alone didn't make me good at gaming, it's not like they were springing for me and reacting for me. I had to do that myself or it was another 50cents down the drain.

So shoot, you kinda had to have a pretty strong desire to wanna get better at reacting and doing moves right because you're paying money for each retry. So with that in mind, every single hit mattered, getting trapped in the corner mattered, trying to spring or not mattered, attemping to friggin jump at someone mattered and so on.

If I had to pay money to play VF each time I lost, i'd be a completely different player, I wouldn't be running into people trying to evade, counter or gaurd at the last second, or tryin to counter for a whole round cause getting hit don't really matter too much to me. Yea I don't purposly try to get popped but if I do, whatever, onto the next round or just hit rematch and play again.

Imo now days cats just wanna hit some buttons a bunch n go through levels without even really thinking bout what attacks they're doing n what not (for all games, not just fighters). And get pissed when they lose talkin bout "I was hitting attack, why did I get hit?" Why isn't this working for me?" This game sucks.

Shit look at them Ninja Gaiden games for Xbox, cats was trippin cause it was too hard because you couldn't pass the first level just by hitting attack yellin "this is wack". And that was on easy! Tell em there's 3 more difficulty levels and they're done. That's kinda what I feel cats think bout VF sometimes, you tell em you can do this n that and they're like "ohh that's too much. No desire to want to LEARN how to play a game.
That's what cats lack now I believe.

No matter how flashy they make a VF or appealing, you'd still have to learn/want to learn how to play or it would seem kinda wack, i'm talkin bout simple things like evading or escaping a throw, just doing those two things every once in a while makes this game pretty damn tight imo (escaping throws look so dam cool), that's what hooked on me VF5. It was more than just block, P K, block, throw. So throw in ETEG, TEG, some counters, learn some moves for your character and it's like "Oh shit, this is kinda tight!" And those things aren't even over complicated, it's just cats don't wanna learn to do that. But I know if some took a lil time and tried, they'd be hooked. All it takes is to be succesfull here n there with some things and it starts to make more sense. I remember the exact moment when it hit me.

 

I've always played fighting games.

 

Along with marketing, I think some of it is social acceptance.

I mean it looks "cool" to play Street Fighter these days now, and it also looks "cool" to reminisce about SF2 from the early 90s. The characters themselves(original 8) are icons. It also looks cool to play Mortal Kombat, and everyone knows what it is. And that's probably because of marketing. Marketing makes things acceptable because people know what it is, and can recognize it because it's being marketed constantly. And it's being marketed in a way that's acceptable and cool to everyone including those that have no real idea as to what it is. Marvel vs Capcom always sells because it targets more than one audience automatically.

WHAT!? Just Blaze did the song on the SSF4 commercial?

You ever notice how awkward things can be, to have someone watch you doing something, and not know what it is and you having to explain it to them? Things can tend to look nerdy in a negative way if someone doesn't know or understand what it is you're doing, and why you enjoy it. People want to do things and enjoy things they can relate to. Everyone relates to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, even if it's just nostalgia factor. Then more people are playing it, and then it looks acceptable to play it because others are.

Sega markets VF to people that already know what it is. Unfortunately that's not the audience that makes them the most money in sales, because majority doesn't know what VF is anymore. And to top this off, people that already know what VF really is, find out about it, so it's not even really the much of marketing on Sega's part, and moreso everyone seeking it themselves.

All Sega really needs to do, is market the game down everyone's throats to where it's recognizable, and hype the shit out of it accordingly based on the target audiences. Ever seen a World of Warcraft commercial? It's all testimonial marketing, you got Ozzy Osbourne and Mr. T and whatnot, advertising the game! I also remember that for Modern Warfare 2, they premiered footage during the NBA Playoffs.

I mean, as a starter, Sega could have a commercial that shows footage of VF1-VF4, emphasizing VF2 because that's probably the most fondly recognizable VF. This would work well for those that already know what VF is, or have fond memories and nostalgia. Also, they could do a commercial that introduces characters, like they could introduce Jacky and show quick cutouts of Jacky doing moves on an opponent where he yells "YEAH."

Finally, that one VF:FS trailer that had the characters acting like SF was a huge step in the right direction, marketing wise. It worked for the audience that's already playing fighters though.

 

All im Gonna Say is this.. Go read my Gamer Bio on Xbox live.
I played all video games. I can name so games that will fuck your head up.

 

One thing that really helped me when I started playing SF and VF was to use a character that was better suited for beginners. As late as VF4, the characters were labeled "beginner, medium, expert" on the select screen, and I think it's important.

When I started SF, I wanted to use Ryu, but couldn't do all the commands, so I used Chun Li, and slowly learned Ryu on the side. After I used them and got really comfortable, I finally started using Zangief

With VF2, I always wanted to use Akira, but couldn't see the difference between the moves, or understand what they were for, so I used Lion until I was comfortable (and found Joji's FAQ). Even though it was challenging, learning VF2 with Lion was the most fun & magical fighting game learning I ever had. I remember I was so happy to learn 3+k, and flipped out when I finally started doing 66P+G and HCBP+G in fights

I once saw a guy beat the VF4 arcade mode, including dural, by just picking Lei and doing PPPPPPPP...

I see a lot of people getting frustrated when they wanna try a character like Goh right off the bat, cause he looks cool, but can't understand what's going on. Last person I got to play this game wanted to use Lei, then Eileen (both too many commands), but finally clicked with Jacky

 

I'm pretty nuts. Never played R but I can say VF5 Ver. C is MUCH easier than BR for a variety or reasons

 

VF is no harder than any other 3D fighting game, such as Tekken or Soul Calibur. In fact, other games usually have a bigger movelist per character, with different hit levels that are harder to block.

As for input difficulty, Tekken also has artificially hard inputs such as precise chain throws inputs.

VF has only 3 buttons which makes button combinations easy for console pad users (with the extra buttons for button combinations).

VF has a high skill ceiling, but the initial learning slope is comparable to other fighting games. Only difference is mashing doesn't get you much. But mashing is really just even below scrub level.

 

Game difficulty =/= game depth

But difficulty can get in the way.

From what I've seen, the best players themselves, don't even use everything BR has to offer. Tekken has alot of fluff in it, and it also has so much stuff in it that it gets in the way imo. I still liked the game, when I played it though.

 

I was a huge Tekken fan until I bought Tekken6, awful game. VF is the best fighter going, I use to like DOA a bit too.

 

I was just like you. You are not the only one who thought that Tekken 6 was an awful game.

 

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That just might push people away though.. I mean think of all the players you know that mashes out in any game. They just want to hit buttons and win by any means possible, all in the name of fun. It would probably be best to advertise the game in a way that anyone can feel like they can pick-up and play.

I do remember VF4's game manual showed the learning difficulty in each character and VF4evo had that info on the character select screen (correct me if I'm wrong). Something like that could help bring some people into the game, especially with the newer characters. A transition guide (i.e.- TK to VF, SF to VF, SC to VF, etc.) would be something that could help as well.

I personally don't think the game is that hard. It might take some people longer than others to learn the game. I think its more open than most games in terms of options and style of play. I don't even see how Tekken is a hard game. EWGF is probably the hardest thing imo. The combos are easier to do (with the exception of a few characters and some advanced combos). There's so many shortcuts and buffers that can be done as well (especially with King and Nina). But just like with any game, learn the fundamentals and the game will become easier to understand and eventually easier to play.

 

If VF had some celebrity support/endorsement or a completely redone ad/marketing campaign it would be much more successful. Just get Lebron James to say that's his favorite game, bam instant sales. Sad but I bet it would work.

 

Now he's doing classic VF damage, so who's to say why the consumer will buy it. We can all agree that some massive form of advertising should be done to promote the game worldwide.

The game itself should be advertised an "everybody" game, where there are layers to it. The further you go in from 'casual' to 'hardcore/competitive' the more you'll learn about the game. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to win matches as a casual player. If that's the level at which you want to stay in, then that's fine. There are accomplishments there as well like learning your character's moves, do a combo, break a throw (which should be easier now), etc... The further you go it becomes advanced/reverse nitaku, Akira's knee (some people see this as advanced [?]), situations/combos from a successful TE, etc...

I'm glad the game is getting changes, both major and minor, that will appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers. Newcomers shouldn't have an excuse as to why they shouldn't play the game. I know frame counting was one excuse thrown in my face, as if you have to do math while fighting. That shouldn't be the case at all with FS. They've made moves more distinctive in which you should know you can punish this blocked sweep by the animation. You can combo off of moves from a jump now (Jeffry has a headbutt from a jump and was able to combo). Sega was kinda going in that direction with VF4Evo. Let's hope that history will repeat itself in a more positive way.

 

chances if it gets a console port and market it well it will sell good. especially since tekken 6 bombed imo

 

I'm glad VF5 has been getting big revamps in terms of flash/style since 5R and 5FS. A lot of the stiff/boring animations are gone, and game looks like it's caught up with all the other 3D fighters in terms of looks.

With all this work/investment Sega put into it, I can't imagine that they would not port it to console. I can only think that they held off 5R because they planned 5FS all along. No major game stays pure arcade these days.

 

So the new bounce animation which changes the way people combo isn't a big change?