With its recent PS2 conversion and graphics and gameplay overalls, this seems to be the installment with the best chance of finally winning over American players; the VF series has had phenomenol success in Japan but been barely noticed stateside.
So, remembering the discussion of GTA3 a while back, I thought I’d ask gaming Dopers: Is this game catching on at all?
I’ve got VF4 and I’m enjoying it. The graphics are neat, the fighters are neat, and the game play itself is pretty good. I do have two complaints. First I wish the stages were a little more interesting then squares. And second I wish the moves were easier to execute. I don’t think I’m ever going to be good at this game because I cannot reverse and I cannot perform most moves in the game.
Marc
The more complicated moves (primarily reversals and combos) are quite difficult to master, especially since they’re so dependent on proper timing. The training modes help some, but the real practice comes against another human opponent.
In VF3, though, there was quite a variety of stage selections, some with large inclines and uneven terrain that actually affected gameplay. Unfortunately, there were occasional glitches with hit detection, and most gamers found the innovation to be more of a distraction than anything else. (At the local arcades, everyone would always choose Akira’s dojo - a plain square - for versus matches.) So the creators probably felt that was a feature players would be willing to do without.
VF4 was all about streamlining the whole formula, I believe.
Obviously, I’m partial to the game. To me, it does what every great game should do: Be easy to pick up and damn near impossible to fully master.
I’ve been playing this game off and on for about a week now, and I must admit I’m not very enamored with it. Although it is no fault of the game, I cant stand games where you need to press a button to block, ala Mortal Kombat. The character design is generic, the controls and the game play are very unintuitive, and the moves are difficult to execute and are not very impressive. I like DOA2 much better.
I prefer the Street Fighter school of blocking, when you press back (left or right depending on the side of the screen). I don’t think blocking should be automatic though.
My favorite fighting game series is Tekken, I never really like the Virtua Fighter games, though I admit I haven’t played VF4 yet.
Dead or Alive 3 to me is much better. Great scenes, which actually come into play; great and unique combos that can be executed without reading a guide book, and how do they fall, mmm, mmm.