Virtua Fighter 4

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section uses first-person or second-person inappropriately or excessively.
Please edit this article to use the more formal tone expected of an encyclopedia, per Wikipedia's style guidelines. (help, talk)
Virtua Fighter 4
Arcade flyer for European markets
Developer(s) Sega-AM2
Publisher(s) Sega
Designer(s) Yu Suzuki
Release date(s) Arcade Playstation 2
Genre(s) Versus fighting
Mode(s) Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s) Arcade, PlayStation 2
Input 8-way joystick & 3 buttons, gamepad
Arcade cabinet Upright
Arcade system(s) Sega NAOMI 2
Arcade display Horizontally oriented

Virtua Fighter 4 is a fighting game in the Virtua Fighter video game series by Sega.

It was first developed on the NAOMI 2 board. A port of the game, as well as that of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution under the budget-priced "Greatest Hits" label, appeared on the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Contents

[edit] Changes from previous series releases

[edit] Gameplay changes

Virtua Fighter 4 became much more streamlined and user friendly than its predecessors, while expanding on old ideas and adding new techniques. The evasion system was revamped from Virtua Fighter 3, the evade button was removed, and evades were split into two types, successful and unsuccessful. If you do not evade a move with the proper timing, your character performs an unsuccessful evade, leaving them vulnerable. The evade + throw escape option select, which was an advanced technique discovered in Virtua Fighter 3, was expanded upon. Virtua Fighter 4 allowed the player to escape as many throws as they could, and lengthened the window for performing a successful throw escape during an [unsuccessful] evade. A new move type called a Sabaki was added, which is an attack that also doubles as a reversal versus one or more move types.

The two new characters, Vanessa Lewis and Lei-Fei, had moves that employed these properties significantly more than the returning cast, and were quite experimental for Virtua Fighter characters. Vanessa Lewis is an American Vale Tudo/Muay Thai kickboxer with two completely separate moves sets that can be switched between on the fly, and Lei-Fei, an evil monk, employs many stances that flow into one another.

[edit] Roster changes

Taka-Arashi, one of the new characters added to Virtua Fighter 3 was scrapped, apparently due to the developers not being able to make him work properly with the Virtua Fighter 4 system mechanics.

[edit] Fighting arena changes

The fighting arenas reverted back to the old Virtua Fighter style of flat and square, as opposed to Virtua Fighter 3's wild and undulating stage designs. The reason behind this was to make the game less random, and more balanced and competitive in nature. Walls, however, were kept and expanded upon with a wall stagger/juggle system and several wall types including high + unbreakable, low + breakable, and low + unbreakable + open corners.

[edit] Game features

[edit] Customization

Screenshot of Virtua Fighter 4.
Screenshot of Virtua Fighter 4.

A unique feature in Evolution was the ability to play in a tournament quest mode, where the concept was that, you, the player, were competing by travelling to various arcades, as opposed to roleplaying as the player's fighter chosen. This mode was very popular due to the ability to buy cosmetic items to customize a character, as well as the ability to name a character. Many players of fighting games have unique styles, and now their version of the character can be truly unique, with the combination of various items allowing for vastly differing appearances. In addition, Sega took the top tournament players from the arcade version, and captured their style of play for the AI of a player's opponents for this mode. For example, playing against one Wolf character would be very different from playing another, because the actual player that characters AI was programmed to mimic had a unique play style.

[edit] Training mode

An important part of this game, or any fighting game for that matter, is its Training Mode. Virtua Fighter 4 introduced the most comprehensive training mode ever developed for a fighting game. Adding an encyclopedia of fighting game terms, complete character command list walkthroughs, tips on all of the games mechanics, recommended character combos, why those combos are recommended character combos, options incase the combo fails during combat, detailed command input timings, slow motion for frame counting and timing, listed combos that are most effective against certain character types, and other useful training tips. VF4's training mode consists of three sections;

  • Command Training- A complete run through each move, one-by-one. The command for the move is displayed and the player executes the command--moving to the next one. VF4 allows the option to skip the current command, view the move (computer controlled), enable advice-- hints as to what the player is doing wrong if they can't do the move, and even the ability to LOCK the move, so that the player can continuously practice the command.
  • Free Training
  • Trial Mode

[edit] Updates

[edit] Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

Evolution was an updated version of Virtua Fighter 4; some may even go as far as to say it was a whole new game. The game introduced two new characters and adjusted every other character as well. The two new characters were the Judoka-assassin. Goh Hinogami and the Muay Thai boxer Brad Burns. With the addition of Brad Burns, Vanessa Lewis's alternate Muay Thai Stance was removed and appropriately changed. She became solely a Vale Tudo brawler nixing the possibility of having duplicate characters (something Virtua Fighter is commended for avoiding). All of the Backgrounds were adjusted. For example one stage in Virtua Fighter 4 previously took place during midday, in Evolution takes place midnight. A brand new mode Quest Mode was added, expanding on Virtua Fighter 4's Kumite mode.

  • Improved Graphics: better anti-aliasing.
  • An item store.
  • Increased number of items.
  • Improved ranking system.
  • Special gameplay modes (i.e. Hyper Fighter).
  • An opponent tracking log: kept track of which opponents were fought in Quest Mode.
  • Emblem collecting: placed special incentive to defeat certain opponents or to avoid being defeated by certain opponents.
  • Currency system was established.

In the US, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution for PlayStation 2 also included as a bonus Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary.

[edit] Final Tuned

Final Tuned is the final update of Virtua Fighter 4. This version of the game was released only into Japanese arcades, and it made some gameplay fixes and added new stages. Also, new customization items were added.

[edit] Bundling

With the PlayStation 2 console release, a port of the original Virtua Fighter was included in initial North American print runs, titled Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary. In Japan, Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary shipped as part of a box set, including an art book and DVD with Virtua Fighter history, under the title of "Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary ~Memory of Decade~". In Europe, Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary was only available as a promotional item, and was never sold at retail.

[edit] Influence of Virtua Fighter 4 on Tekken 5

With the addition of Quest mode in VF4 Evolution, Namco decided to add a similar feature to its newest installment in the Tekken series, Tekken 5. Namco integrated currency and item collecting into Tekken's Arcade mode. The Ranking System used in Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution was used as the basis for the new Ranking System in Tekken 5, including the 10th to 1st KYU count-down order and the 1st DAN to 10th DAN count-up order scheme, followed by text based rankings.[citation needed]

[edit] Characters

[edit] Returning Characters

[edit] New Characters

[edit] External links


Virtua Fighter • Virtua Fighter 2 • Virtua Fighter 3 • Virtua Fighter 4 • Virtua Fighter 5
Virtua Fighter Animation • Virtua Fighter Kids •Virtua Quest
Characters
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../v/i/r/Virtua_Fighter_4_0148.html"
In other languages