Mid-High level VF play looks fucking cool to me >_>
The "not being flashy" does make it stand apart from other fighting games, I think.
EDIT : And it's the epitome of low-barrier of entry, sky-high skill ceiling.
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Virtua Fighter needs a goddamn comeback
- Thread starter XaviConcept
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The "not being flashy" does make it stand apart from other fighting games, I think.
EDIT : And it's the epitome of low-barrier of entry, sky-high skill ceiling.
Not sure I agree tbh. They could repurpose a ton of animations from Final Showdown and still be ahead of the fighting game curve in most cases. The engine used for Yakuza may be flexible enough to use for a Virtua Fighter game, and graphically would be at least up to par with most current fighter standards. And Virtua Fighter has historically only added two fighters per iteration, so there wouldn't be many to design from scratch.
As MikeProtagonist suggested, I think an early gen release would make sense, as it would give the IP breathing room from others that have been released recently, whilst also allowing it to maintain its tradition of being graphically more advanced than its competition at launch. They've been systematically addressing IP that placed high in their survey of brands customers would like to see more of, with only Jet Set Radio, Virtua Fighter and Skies of Arcadia yet to have something announce out of their top 10 results.
100% real answer is it is requires too much intelligence to play, and it basks in the glory of its superiority. Fighting community cowers, casuals cower.
The three I am most desperate to see make a return, go figure! lol
no legit effort to push it once the genre picked up more people
This is possible, but it would mean releasing a game that's "just" on par with the competition, and then you fall back into the other problem: the game looks boring as fuck. If you are miles ahead of the competition it matters little if your characters are a bunch of nobodies, but if you're not... where's your advantage? I'm talking about graphics because I can't think of another angle to sell VF today.
I don't think it has anything to do with quality, as almost all VF games have had either good or exceptional reception. When VF4 released it was like the biggest comeback of a gaming series ever and casuals and hardcore players alike enjoyed it.
But over time the series has become more niche and the overall gaming landscape has changed. It's just how it goes sometimes.
That's kinda the point in regards to releasing early in the generation. Street Fighter and Tekken are unlikely to have a new game release within the next year or so due to their current ongoing support, meanwhile Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur have just had new entries released and so also won't be looking at a new release for a few years at best. This would leave VF as pretty much the sole fighter that would have the natural advantages of more powerful hardware to work with. This is something that has been mostly consistent with VF releases (though previously afforded via arcade hardware). The series actually hasn't generally had the best graphics when compared with competition on equivalent hardware, but it usually has had that level of hardware first.
Here's some 4K screenshots of VF5 that I captured via emulation on PC.
It's the closest thing to a remaster and I goddamn love it.
Definitely needs a comeback.
This game came out in 2006... Still blows my mind.
Its problem might be that it has absolutely no story outside of the booklet. No single VF had any kind of story except for the small Dural clip in VF2 Saturn. The lack of personality is what keeps a lot of gamers away too probably. Tekken always had these cutscenes, feuds, hidden characters and everything making it interesting. VF has nothing. And in potential it does have a decent fighting game story, there is Ninjas being transformed into metallic fighters, J6 corp, rivalries, Sarah being brainwashed etc.
VIrtua Fighter is a hell of a lot of fun to play, I have been playing it religiously since 95 or so. But it does intimidate people, and you don't get a lot of flashy moments. But when it clicks, nothing else comes close.
I have conflicting thoughts about a new version of the game in this climate, I don't want to see guest characters, stage and costume stores and seasons, the game always struck me as more 'pure' than that. However rationally, Virtua Fighter probably did these things before they became so commonplace. VF4 Evolution could be seen as a second season of VF4, and the same thing happened with VF5. VF5 FS also let you buy outfits(granted all of them, not really piecemeal like street fighter 5). So I guess I could live with those.
I still don't want guest characters though. 2 new characters! That's all!
El Blaze and Aoi are my mains! Seriously though, I keep asking, is anyone interested in playing on xbox live sometime?
I have conflicting thoughts about a new version of the game in this climate, I don't want to see guest characters, stage and costume stores and seasons, the game always struck me as more 'pure' than that. However rationally, Virtua Fighter probably did these things before they became so commonplace. VF4 Evolution could be seen as a second season of VF4, and the same thing happened with VF5. VF5 FS also let you buy outfits(granted all of them, not really piecemeal like street fighter 5). So I guess I could live with those.
I still don't want guest characters though. 2 new characters! That's all!
El Blaze and Aoi are my mains! Seriously though, I keep asking, is anyone interested in playing on xbox live sometime?
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VF has good mechanics in the moment to moment gameplay, but everything else about it is boring as stale bread. I feel bad saying that because i'm a long time fan, but its no wonder its dead in the modern era.
Virtua Fighter 5:FS, what a game - feels great to play, still looks amazing mostly due particularly great animations. Loved the character customization options in 4 and 5, they really enabled the player to build on the "bland/stale" character designs and express themselves without breaking mechanical interactions (looks at SC6). Gameplay seems basic at first but as you play it you start to realize the nuance and depth to the neutral and how to build some pretty nasty combos. Feel like this series really nailed the simple to learn difficult to master mentality, without concessions to "hype" and leveling the playing field with things like comeback mechanics.
Hoping they're able to make a clean PC port of 5 with netplay, hopefully when they look to do a PC port of Yakuza 6? Seems like a logical juncture.
For a reboot, I could see it being too costly to make a full fledged new entry with cutting edge graphics, so maybe a stylized low-poly look would fit. Think the 10th anniversary bonus version of 1 with the new characters, but with all the mechanics/moves of 5 and maybe a little more detail. Would nourish my soul
Hoping they're able to make a clean PC port of 5 with netplay, hopefully when they look to do a PC port of Yakuza 6? Seems like a logical juncture.
For a reboot, I could see it being too costly to make a full fledged new entry with cutting edge graphics, so maybe a stylized low-poly look would fit. Think the 10th anniversary bonus version of 1 with the new characters, but with all the mechanics/moves of 5 and maybe a little more detail. Would nourish my soul
Yeah, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I played VF5 on Xbox One a while back. I didn't expect it to hold up so well. Frankly, while we're on the subject of guest characters, I think I might just say that I'd prefer another Fighters Megamix, as I think it'd have more widespread appeal.
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Wow thats reductive
If Casablanca was such a good movie, why didnt they make more?
A friend of mine was spitballing about how a modern VF6 could stand out visually and one of the weirder ideas that came to my mind was high IQ, raytracing, and geometry kinda in the style of VF1.
Make it look like the VF Figmas fighting in realtime.
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But Pai and Lau are a thing? Besides, theres so much room for interpretation in stuff like boxing and other martial arts.
Just make an expansion to VF5: FS, put Kiryu and Majima from Yakuza in as guests and the game will garner a lot of attention.
That's all I'd really ask for, and I don't even want the two Yakuza dudes--I just know non VF players will eat that shit up. VF5: FS is already a magical fighting game, all you'd need to do is expand upon it.
That's all I'd really ask for, and I don't even want the two Yakuza dudes--I just know non VF players will eat that shit up. VF5: FS is already a magical fighting game, all you'd need to do is expand upon it.
What fighting styles would be in the running to add?
Capoeira is an obvious missing one.
Thinking of old kung fu movies, maybe snake style or tai chi.
I thought they did a good job of diverging Pai and Lau over the years. Back in VF2 they were pretty similar. Now they seem pretty different.
Capoeira is an obvious missing one.
Thinking of old kung fu movies, maybe snake style or tai chi.
I thought they did a good job of diverging Pai and Lau over the years. Back in VF2 they were pretty similar. Now they seem pretty different.
Holy shit at the "VF looks bland" posts.
Personally, I think that Final Showdown is, BY FAR, the most aesthetically pleasing fighting game of last gen. I find most PS360-era fighting games visually busy, filled with awful animu influence, ridiculously over-designed characters and don't even get me started on the female designs... I'll take the timeless "SEGA look" of VF over this crap any day.
Personally, I think that Final Showdown is, BY FAR, the most aesthetically pleasing fighting game of last gen. I find most PS360-era fighting games visually busy, filled with awful animu influence, ridiculously over-designed characters and don't even get me started on the female designs... I'll take the timeless "SEGA look" of VF over this crap any day.
A friend of mine was spitballing about how a modern VF6 could stand out visually and one of the weirder ideas that came to my mind was high IQ, raytracing, and geometry kinda in the style of VF1.
Make it look like the VF Figmas fighting in realtime.
There is such a game, it's called Virtua Fighter and it's 26 years old.
This would be the perfect way to drive away 100% of possible newcomers. The game is already hurting from "classic" bullshit (the horrible voices), it doesn't need to dive deeper into obscurity.
All of the competition uses prettied up versions of last gen models, partly because of huge character selections. Make the small cast of Virtua Fighter be a benefit by making each character look three times as good as any other. Make insane cloth and hair physics. We haven't seen a truly spectacular looking fighter for a generation - make that the selling point. It doesn't have to get super expensive with a cast of around 20 fighters.
When it comes to the bolded? If only that were the case! I don't even think what I described is terribly "classic": it'd be a drastic stylistic change for the series to go from cutting-edge realistic humans to... small-scale toys with cutting-edge lighting. A shift like I'm picturing would even necessitate ditching the corny voice acting and anemic UI.
I'd like to see what you're describing, too, of course. This all hinges on a hypothetical greenlit budget, and I'm not confident that continuing in the VF tradition of raising the bar when it comes to realistic fighters (even with a cast of 20) would be inexpensive compared to a stylized approach, but it's not something I can bring myself to passionately argue about.
They are the only exception though and they got more and more different as the time went on. They even took Vanessa's Muay Thai stance to create Brad!
TBH it's just that when I got into VF4 on PS2 I found the "one character = one fighting style" pretty elegant compared to other fighters that regularly have clones. But if the game comes back and does away with it, it's not going to kill my enjoyment.
I can imagine Ryo rolling through the whole tournament simply to ask Dural where he can find Lan Di.
Speaking of Ryo, I remember hearing somewhere that Shenmue was initially conceived to be Virtua Fighter as a role-playing game. Kinda explains where he got some of Akira's sick elbows.
Ryo and Kiryu would make excellent characters. They are a bit generic in terms of fighting styles, but I think they could make it work. For a bit of payback they could have someone like Kasumi as a guest and really turn her into a VF character. Finally one brand new one. Boom, the most new characters in VF ever. Get hype.
I too think that VF characters should retain their uniqueness and any new VF character or guest character should follow the "one fighter= one fighting style=one unique gameplay style" guideline. If you could come-up with a new gameplay mechanic (ie. canned attack animations like Jacky with evade options perhaps) for a capoeira-using Majima in there that would be great but putting him or Kiryu without differentiating their gameplay from the rest of the VF cast is a bad idea, IMO.
I wouldn't say they're the only exception tbh, as Jacky and Sarah are an almost Ryu/Ken situation in the earlier games also (right down to rivalry and brainwash subplot). The characters that shared similar fighting styles became a lot more differentiated when VF4 hit and gave them unique stance transitions.
Akira was the original VF RPG protagonist. Some of the bosses you fight in the game share move sets with VF characters as well.
Ryo should just be an Akira outfit. Kazuma a Goh outfit. Land Di is Lau, and maybe Lau can be majima as well.
Virtua Fighter has been absent for 7 years, 12 years if you're counting time since a numbered entry. If Sega was smart they cross the series over with Streets of Rage. Then I'd add Kazuya from Tekken to the series. The series badly needs a story mode too.
I hope the series comes back. If you want the series to be niche keep that same formula from 12 years ago and I'm sure the series will only be making cameos in more entertaining games like Yakuza. It's amazing how so many people in this thread want a future but are such slaves to the past.
I hope the series comes back. If you want the series to be niche keep that same formula from 12 years ago and I'm sure the series will only be making cameos in more entertaining games like Yakuza. It's amazing how so many people in this thread want a future but are such slaves to the past.
Majima is too "over the top" for Virtua Fighter, Ryo Hazuki would be a better fit together with Kazuma as guest additions.
I just think Virtua Fighter needs to embrace what makes it special. I don't want a story mode about J6 and Jeffery looking for a shark, I want an expanded Quest mode about arcades. Training for tournaments, arcade friends and rivals, teams and betrayals. That would be so unique and so Virtua Fighter.
Congratulations, you earned the worst post award, but also the best troll award.
I'm going to say something very controversial just to prove a point.
If NetherRealm Studios made a 2D version of Virtua Fighter the way the studio is currently producing content it would sell no less that 6 million units. I say this Hilbert to get you to think outside the box. There is more to fighting games than just pure cold mechanics and competitive play.
A fighting that lacks story related content is cutting off its nose to spite its face.
I'm glad Virtua Fighter languishes in the state that it currently exist to prove a point.
Let us never forget Capcom's most famous words in reference to MvCI. "If you were to actually think about it, these characters are just functions. They're just doing things. "
This is why Tekken will remain superior to Virtua Fighter.
Isn't the post you quoted of mine talking about a mode I would love to see that isn't about pure gameplay mechanics?
Diva Arcade and Mirai yes. A good chunk also worked on the Border Break and Soul Reverse games.
I believe the 360 Virtual On conversions were also done by the VF team at AM2, which always made that franchise moving to CS side after AM3's closure seem weird imo. Especially since AM3's other active franchises seemed to go to AM1 (Initial D, WCC Football) or AM2 (Virtua Tennis).