Bring Taka and varied landscapes back in VF5

Taka was so much fun to play as in VF3. His bitch slaps were so satisfying to pull off. (D, f+p) or (P+K) And if you didn't like playing as Taka, it was fun to change up your style to play against Taka and punish his fatness.
I'd also like to see varied landscapes come back to VF5... why did they have to do away with them in the first place? I remember how much each stage changed my game plan and always having to keep constant track of my footing in real 3D rather than 8-way flat 3D.....

 

I think Taka was a bit boring. I'm sure they figured not enough people used him, so ditched him. Wasnt' AM2 out of the picture on VF3?

 

In an interview with Yu Suzuki I read somewhere, he talked about the difficulty in properly rendering Taka's fat to fit in with the overall smoothness of the game and part of the reason he didn't make it to VF4 has at least something to do with that as well. AM2 did do VF3 by the way.

AM2 VF History
http://www.sega.com/games/ps2/post_ps2article.jhtml?article=art_historyofvf

 

VF4 plays more like VF2, I think three was just too realistic, and while fun, compares in no way to the fun I have playing vf4, cause in the end its a game. VF3 was so close to real fighting it was kinda frustrating at points. SO while a great game, Suzuki probably wanted to go with something more appealing, so they went back to vf2 style. Maybe not a move the most loyal would agree with, but a very smart one. cause VF is doing much better in the us than Tekken.

 

>>cause VF is doing much better in the us than Tekken.

In what parallel universe? Don't get me wrong, vf deserves to do better than Tekken but I never see vf4 machines in arcades and there are always t4 machines and they are usually being played.

 

>>cause VF is doing much better in the us than Tekken.

i was wondering this myself. all ive seen is tekken machines, and 1 vf machine. i think i can count on 1 hand how many vf machines there are in central fl alone.....

 

Who cares? I would be SHOCKED If Tekken 4's success in the US made up for how bad VF4 is SLAUGHTERING it in Japan. Every game centers got one, and almost never anyone on it.

 

I would rather they make interesting game play changes. Not cosmetic ones. Interesting that Tekken came up in this thread. It sound something like a Tekken fan request.
"Yay! Bring back every character ever in Tekken, and then it will roxxors so much!"

 

well, Taka could come or go, I did not care one way or the other...though I think the direction of the stages in 4 is horrible when compared to the brillance of 3's varried stages.

 

I'm sure it was a programming trade-off. I doubt anyone will disagree with me that VF4 is like the most 'techie' fighting game out there. Loads of improvements over 3. I'd assume that the varied backgrounds and terrains would have added more complexity to already complex coding.

 

IGN.com Inteview with Yu Suzuki

<a target="_blank" href=http://ps2.ign.com/articles/355/355407p1.html>Click this link to see the whole interview Yu Suzuki had with IGN.</a>

A small excerpt taken from the above interview:

<font color=orange>IGN: In VF3 you introduced two new characters, Aoi and Taka Arashi. Why is Taka not in Virtua Fighter 4? Also, Taka was huge, and as I understand it, you had to reduce the size of Taka to fit him into the screen adequately with the other characters in VF3.</font color=orange>

<font color=white>Yu: As far as Taka's size is conerned, it was hard to process the skin. When he got punched, his skin would bounce back like rubber or fat. So when you think about it, there should be a difference between whether you hit him in an area with muscle or with fat. Because if you hit him in the muscle area it wouldn't bounce back as much as if you hit him in a fat area. The skin took up a heavy amount of processing. So, if we were going to bring back Taka Arashi, then we would have wanted to find a way to make his fat bounce more realistically, and in order to do that, we would have had to take more time than we were given. So Taka is taking a break this time. He's taking a pass. </font color=white>

<font color=orange>IGN: Will we see him again in the future?</font color=orange>

<font color=white>Yu: Ah, I have to say that he's taken his last pass. You know how you say sometimes that someone might have three passes (strikes), and then they're out of there? Well, here, he only had one pass, and he's taken it.

But there are people who liked him. Some European people really like the sumo wrestler. French people like the sumo wrestler. You know, they liked the fat naked man...always hanging. (Much laughter.)</font color=white>

By the looks of this take by Suzuki-san, he just wants to do the virtual rendering of Taka justice yo. I think he's waiting to make his next pitch on Xbox. I bet Taka can get his batting average up in that stadium... (Much laughter)...

 

I dunno that the new stuff in VF4 (8 way walk and crumples and inashis) really took so much programming wizardry that it meant there was no way to fit in varied stages, etc. Making attacks track up and downhill, and making movement along a slope work... that IS a lot of work. But sega claims they chose flat as a result of people's claims that out of all the games in the series, 2 was the best.
It sounds naive but I'm willing to buy that. Sega's never been scared of work before, and they sure don't seem worried about time constraints.

 

I disagree. Taka was not put in primarily due to time and resource constraints. Further, Suzuki also said in an interview that while VF2 was more popular overall, their research found that hardcore players preferred VF3.

Since putting slopes in takes time and thus higher cost, since VF2 was more widely played, and since even VF3 players used flat stages most of the time, the decision to go flat was a no brainer.

 

I am mildly disturbed that Yu Suzuki wished to move VF4 in a direction away from "hardcore"... and that he did it knowing what he was doing. Sure make it more accessible or whatever the exscuse, but come on Yu... that just doesn't seem right in a series like VF4.

 

But then again Suzuki-san says he doesn't play the game... so how much of the play mechanics does he actually control... the game doesn't seem to be designed by someone who doesn't play it... I also wonder how accurate the selection of moves for each style is in terms of use and form... because it seems pretty damn amazing considering 13 different fighting styles were thrown into one mix and the game play actually turned out balanced like a triple beam.

 

I am mildly disturbed that Yu Suzuki wished to move VF4 in a direction away from "hardcore"... and that he did it knowing what he was doing. Sure make it more accessible or whatever the exscuse, but come on Yu... that just doesn't seem right in a series like VF4.

I'm not, and I don't like most mainstream games. If you had Sega's debt on your shoulders, you would've too. I'm sure Yu got a huge raise. Not saying it's TOTALLY b/c of VF4, but they're stock price in Japan doubled since last September.

http://quote.yahoo.co.jp/q?s=7964.t&d=1y

 

I never even thought outside the VF box on that one but I guess with those circumstances it's OK. The game did turn out great but sometimes I just wonder how much better a stage like Aoi's or Lion's could have been in progression from 3 to 4..... I do miss Taka but I'd rather have Sega stay afloat.

 

I kinda miss Taka .

 

I disagree. Taka was not put in primarily due to time and resource constraints. Further, Suzuki also said in an interview that while VF2 was more popular overall, their research found that hardcore players preferred VF3.

But... it's years between games. I'd hate to think Sega cuts characters because they think 'hardcore fans' or anyone else can't stand to wait a couple of months.

 

I can't think of any other fighting game that rewards players so much at all skill levels. The progression from beginner to int & advanced is wonderful. People talk about balance in fighting games...this is the ultimate in game balance.

I haven't played VF since the first, one, and I've had a grand time learning this game. Evade is so easy and powerful (with many expert oriented subtleties). Learning evade was tons of fun.

Yu's designs decisions were spot on.