Get yer VF4 movie here !

A video of the official VF4 preview at AOU. No more talk necessary:

http://www.segaweb.com/media/vf4aou/VF4.mpg

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by PJV on 2/23/01 09:55 AM.</FONT></P>

 

whoa thanks for the heads up!!


<font color=red>PICCOLO</font color=red>

 

Transcript of Video

This is what I could tell from the trailer video. I had a hard time making things out at times (video camera recording a rear-projected series of screens).

Video Quality: Not the best, works decently though.

Music: Consistent with the VF style. I think it sounds more like VF2 than the others.

Akira: All white gi. I can barely makeout the video on him, except he's doing a reverse body check on Jeffry's (I assume) stage.

Shun: Same old outfit. P G throw. He looks good, not wrinkly as heck (phew). Almost too shiny and smooth? Background is nice, indoor setting as far as I can tell with some traditionally decorated Chinese wall (probably a golden dragon or something on there) with a chinese lantern (non-festive) in the background, I think.

Jeffry: Same old outfit. Has a bigger gut. Has a new taunt (points finger at you and gestures), the view of it is from the fallen opponent (perhaps) and then falls sideways flat, simulating the opponent's view. Island sand is nice and not flat.

Lion (changed to Jacky earlier): Attire is different, confident pose. "The First Battle of the 21st Century." Background reminds me of Sarah's VF2 stage. Before this edit, I put this as Lion under mistake. I could only see the face afterall and the video was dark on my screen. Final correction, it's Lion. I could barely see what happened in the next part as it was a flash, but it was Lion doing one of his poses. Check for my response after this to see my note on it, but it's Lion.

Wolf: Sort of howling on the same stage (it pretty much is the VF2 Sarah stage, lightning and all). Bunch of poses. You've seen the pics.

Aoi: Snowing in the background (I can't comment on much outside of what's on the pics).

Kage: Standing in sunken snow, poses.

Scene: I can barely make this out. Wolf vs. someone else. Wolf's got his red pants on and ponytail waving. And well, he's beating up on the opponent in a PPP style manner in a way that I haven't seen Wolf done it. Just wailing on them. Looks nice, he also has a nice facial expression after he knocks down the opponent. A grim look.

Sort of Profile pic of Lion in his traditional stance, with a gay looking outfit imo. Shorts and life jacket, but nothing like you've seen him wear before. Much more gay than the shrink wrap outfit.

Sort of Profile pic of Wolf with his red shorts (not pants as I said above) and really heavy boots on.

Aoi vs. Kage, looks good. Aoi does PPP and it looks good. Kage doing a roll into dive and it looks good. And I think P,P, b P, K also.

Aoi profile. Kage profile.

Pai: Doing stances, looks good (attract mode style). Lau does the same.

Jacky: My mistake... what I thought was a mature Lion (in original post) was actually Jacky, but I could barely see for awhile and now realize it. Jacky's got some weird red uniform on. Reminds me of a comic-book character (OH NO!!! ). Nice abs.

Sarah: Damn, she looks good! Anyways, she's fuller and more voluptuous now and in all the right places. She looks really good imo. Looking like her old VF2 self but much better (and again, more voluptuous). I have no clue what that Toshinden comment (on PS2 IGN, they probably don't remember that VF2 Sarah looked much like this) has to do with anything except that Sarah's sex appeal has gone way up.

Pai vs. Lau. You pretty much just see Pai do PPPK and Lau do K G.

Pai and Lau profile pics.

Sarah vs. Jacky. Punches and kickflips. However, what looks cool is the background. high-rise buildings, night time, helicopter landing pad (that's where they are fighting), helicoptors shining lights, building planted lights as well. Looks damn good. Fenced in, looks like it might not be a squared arena either.

Jacky and Sarah profile.

Overview of Coliseum stage (ITS HUGE, but the actual fighting platform is a small part of it. it's zoomed out at night time over the bleachers and all. My guess is this is the Sarah VF2 stage remake.)

Overview of roof stage with helicopters and all. Wish I could see past the video quality as it's really tough to tell all the detail.

Overview of huge stage which takes place indoors, but you see a lot of what's also outdoors. Traditional temple style and I personally think it's absolutely gorgeous. I can only hope you have a level far beyond that of Doa2's extended levels as these levels are perfect for it. What I'm referring to is that I hope you can actually fight outside of the indoor fighting grounds, like going through a door or something, the entire area looks really good. So I'm hoping you can fight outside of the initial fighting area.

Fenced in fighting area, square, I think the ground is snow. Guessing this is Aoi's stage? The fighting area lacks the character of VF3 stage, or the complexity, but all the detail outside of it looks good, really good.

Profile pics going by fast. Can't tell who's who, but we've seen most of them already.

Virtua Fighter 4 logo, look good, then all of a sudden turns to chrome (looks better).

And that's the video.

-Chanchai<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Chanchai on 2/23/01 12:18 PM.</FONT></P>

 

Re: Transcript of Video

Thanks alot Chanchai.

Under the surface of the most jaded cynic lies a dissappointed idealist- George Carlin

 

Re: Transcript of Video

Something I forgot to mention. During the Kage vs. Aoi fight sequence, you really see the snow plow over and eventually, you see them fighting on a trail that's practically 6 inches below the rest of the area. Oh yeah, this effect looks extremely good. The impressions made on the snow are overall extremely good, realistic as far as I can tell. From the effects of Kage's roll in the snow to a bunch of little steps. It just looks wonderful.

Additional Comments (I'm rewatching this video quite a bit to catch things here and there):

Lighting is damn good. However, if my eyes are seeing things correctly, the shadows aren't all that great. I guess it's the limitation of the Naomi 2? Given that the Model 3 was able to do pretty good on Shadows (Rich did mention the weakness long ago hehehe), I guess the Naomi 2 hardware might be limited on the shadows.... who knows.... I just wasn't impressed with the Shadows. But that's about all so far.

Another Note: Looking at it again, I can see why I thought it was Lion, and now I really don't know (damn video, I can't tell too well). The costume is similar to Jacky's but it's not the same one as shown later. The hair is down. Standing up straight though.... I guess it is Lion/images/icons/smile.gif. The profile pic costume of Lion is still gay looking though. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Chanchai on 2/23/01 12:20 PM.</FONT></P>

 

Re: Transcript of Video

The damn video is taking forever to download. ARGH!!!

ice-9

 

Re: Transcript of Video

More Gay?? Is that possible?

Chanchai, did you ever see the VF "hentai"(sex) comic on sale at ebay that revolves around the gay relationship between lion and jacky? the cover has a bust shot of lion with jacky's arm around his shoulder, but you can't see jacky's head (representing that jacky has a kind of teacher/older role i guess). it's a man-boy love.

this is not a joke.

thanks for the transcript ( i can't connect to segaweb for some reason).

BTW did you see the shaolin monk? IGN said he's in the demo...

spotlight

 

Re: Transcript of Video

The monk didn't appear to be in the mpg that is up at the moment. Although, it's really hard to make out what's going on in the video in the first place. I'm hoping a vid-cap of the actual video will be posted eventually instead of a vid-cap of handycam footage of the video.


cheers,
kbcat

 

Re: Transcript of Video

Yo someone want to put it up on VFDC? Sega Web keeps dying on me here.

ice-9

 

Never mind

GA put up a mirror already. http://www.gaming-age.com/download/misc/gamersweb_vf4.mpg for those still trying to get it.

ice-9

 

Re: Transcript of Video

Hey Spotlite, it's funny that you brought it up.

I think they were talking about the possibility of taking out the E button and I wrote a response to that saying that "this" is what I thought of it. "This" being a link I had put down and in fact, was a link to the hentai comic you were referring to. Essentially, I thought the lack of a dodge button was "gay" /images/icons/smile.gif

Anyways, I might have actually made that post about something else, was a month ago I think.

So, yeah, I know you ain't jokin' /images/icons/smile.gif

But seriously, Lion's now more-scantily clad than before (I love mashing two words that shouldn't be together, together). He's got short-shorts and a queery vest. A perfect match for Zack in DoA2.

As much as he's my main character in 3, and probably my favorite... I gotta admit to what looks gay in addition to the sounds that he makes.

Anyways, enough of this offensive, politically incorrect crap. Don't know how many viewers I've offended by all this

-Chanchai

P.S. Next to the Tekken anime, the VF anime is pure torture.

Further Note: Yes, I'm still watching the video for who knows how many times already. Lion costume does not look that gay, but... it's really hard to tell with this video. I just don't think it looks all that great at all... I miss his 2p costume on VF2...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Chanchai on 2/23/01 01:53 PM.</FONT></P>

 

Re: Never mind

HOLY SHIT!!!! The video is AWESOME!! This completely erases my doubts about the graphic quality of the game. To see it in motion is completely different from still pictures.

Too bad the quality of the video is so terrible--it's really difficult to make anything out.

My overall impression is that VF4 so far seems more similar to VF2 than VF3, even on an aesthetic level. The stages seem more of an adaptation of VF2 stages than VF3. I'm a little bit disappointed in the lack of slope/terrain so far, although the snow stage is absolutely INCREDIBLE (yeah it even deserves the caps).

Note on the characters:

Jacky vs Kage - Jacky's outfit is a lot slimmer in 4 but Kage's is a lot clunkier. Given the way the two characters fight I almost wish it was the opposite. Kage's outfit should be tight fitting and sneaky whereas it's almost alright for Jacky to have more clothing. Personally I find Jacky's red outfit to be a little too futuristic (I like his leather stuff better).

Lion - Didn't see much but not too impressed.

Shun - I concur with Chanchai on this one--way too shiny for such an old man.

Akira - He's fat looking? I couldn't tell.

Sarah - Ehhh, not my type, not sure why people say she looks good. Looks exactly like she did in VF2 but of course more realistic.

Jeffry - EXCELLENT! With Wolf my two initial picks for most improved looking.

Aoi - Better.

ice-9

 

Re: Monk

He's actually the one getting his ass handed to him by Shun. Whatta way to make your tournament debut.

 

Re: Monk

You're right, it is indeed the monk. After repeatedly trying to pause properly in such a small area where I could get a clear look, it certainly is a new face. However, this new character looks too much like what I got the impression of from hearing about him. Wish I could see something of his style though...

Ice, regarding KB's comments on Akira. I didn't think about it at first, and in motion it doesn't look so bad, but it's there (you'll notice it at the start though when it scrolls upward on him). He's got a typical "Martial Arts Gut" or some call it that. It's mostly just the way his gi is, but he does have a gut as far as I can tell (also look at the Akira vs. Wolf pics). I think this build is common in Japanese Karate practitioners, at least from what I've seen.

I'm almost certain that VF4 will follow the DoA2 path in terms of expanded arenas. The initial fighting areas seem to be flat, however, it looks like you will either alter them or move along. It would be sweet if you could move around the coliseum with all that detail on it (fights on the bleachers!!!). Not to mention the Chinese indoor stage. Can you imagine going through the hallways (which seems evident that they are more than a possibility to allow you to run through them and what not). And given the look of the China stage, I really wanna see the Ring Out. Looking at fenced in stages, I'm kinda curious on whether or not you can break through them after awhile or something. I mean, the castle/snow stage seems like the fighting area is way too limited and on the VF2 level if it was just the area, but with the surrounding landscape, it might be possible to fight out there. And then the roof-stage.... Oh that would be sweet if you could get someone rung out from there/images/icons/smile.gif

-Chanchai

P.S. I bet you that some Tekken fanatic (nothing against Tekken here, personally though) is gonna tell you that Jeffry is a ripoff of Kazuya Mishima/images/icons/smile.gif. The pants and the gloves. Though the gloves are the only thing new on him. I like the details on the costumes in this demo a lot.

Just watch, the next Shinobi game is probably going to star Kage/images/icons/smile.gif<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Chanchai on 2/23/01 01:39 PM.</FONT></P>

 

My impressions

As I re-state Ice's comment: HOLY SHIT!

This is by far the most beautiful thing I've ever seen - hehe, don't you just love VF bias!

OK - my thoughts. Love the motion, very fluid, very VFesque. The graphics in the pisc dfinitely don't do it justice. The video is awesome and breathtking for graphics.

Character designs?

Yeah, Akira does look like he's got a paunch (!) in the pics but it's not that noticeable in hte video. I have to agree with Kbcat here and reaffirm the "Get rid of the Gi already!". Akira in civilian clothes would be cool.
I love Kage's outfit - I think it looks powerful and chunky and tough...awesome.
Jacky's tight shirt I also love. He's always been the stylish one with the shades and leather jacket - now he's got a clubbing shirt on...excellent.
Sarah looks sexy. Period. She's lost the crack-whore outfit of VF3 and has gone back to the tight catsuit of VF2. A good thing.
Pai looks terrible in the pics but pretty damn good in the video. I've got to see more of her to make a solid assessment.
Love the reversion to Shun's VF2 outfit....he looks great with lots of detail in his costume...
Is it just me or does Lau look like he the hugest bad ass in the game?! He has that Tekken 3 Heihachi "I'm gonna fuck you up" look - wicked. Just wicked.
Jeff looks beefy as always. I really liked the "you want some?!" smack of the camera. Same with Wolf - they've always been huge and this hasn't changed. It's appropriate.
Lion looks like that kid in Square's game the Bouncer. Don't ya think? He looks good though. To be honest, I've never had much liking to any of his costumes in VF2 or VF3...there was always something not right.
Where's Taka?

In terms of gameplay - the animation looks phenomenal. I love the way the uppercut of Jeff's PPP floats Akira pretty high. Maybe - just maybe - he'll actually get PP-elbow-upper like he was supposed to before.
Not a lot of 3D movement in the video....even the snow with Aoi and Kage looks as though they've been moving linearly the whole time.

Like others - I get a real VF2 feeling from the game. The colliseum is back for one thing. IMO, this could be really good...I love VF2.

Lastly - the music of the video. Kick ass. The promo video for VF3 had that slowed down tangy boring shit that seemed to carry through to the entire VF3 score. The music in VF3 isn't bad - it's just not invigorating. The track for the VF4 video on the other hand is. I hope the game gets a refelection of this.

cheers - and man I'm impressed!

<font color=white> Llanfair the prized <font color=green>cabbage</font color=green></font color=white>

 

Re: My impressions

Yep, yep!

I didn't emphasize this enough, but I'll emphasize it now. I'm dead certain that VF2 is the theme for VF4.

The fighting areas are all pretty much square and flat with little exceptions. I'm still hoping for that DoA2ish aspect I talked about earlier.

You know how Yu talked about having an old costume and then a new costume? It seems like that more than half of the "old costumes" are gonna be VF2 costumes. Some are not (for instance, Lion does not look like Marty Mcfly anymore). But Sarah's VF2 outfit was hot imo, and her VF4 outfit is the same, but she looks hotter.

Jeffry's stage reminds me of his VF2 stage for sure.

The music, it's great. And it seems like it's gonna be heavy. VF2-like. However, I personally hope that at least one of the tracks will be like Aoi's music... Don't know why, but everytime I play on Aoi's stage on 3, I just end up automatically following the rhythm. Of course it's a bad telegraphing habit, but sometimes I just can't help it!

Three button system...

I don't know... I can't pick at everything, but what I can tell you is just that "VF2" was screaming in my head the whole time I was watching the videos. A good and bad thing.... I love VF2 a lot. But I'm still 3 biased.

Llany's right, fights look SOOOOO linear. Which is gonna be weird for me (unless I play VF2 for a week straight at least). Everyone that went to NYG2 knows that I'm a dodge-aholic. However, back then I was like a dodging idiot (to put it lightly). I'm much more careful with them now than before, but I still love dodging. But we do know that 3d movement is still gonna be in the game. I'm actually curious whether they've settled on a decision yet.

Anyways, VF2 still seems to be the most popular of the series (for certain in North America, don't know about Japan, but I think Hiro claimed it's still more popular than 3 in Japan).

-Chanchai

 

Re: Never mind

Akira looks good in motion. The thing that really upsets me about Akira is his outfit. In one of the stills his gi makes it look like he's fat. I'm just really really tried of only having a gi as the costume choice for Akira. Sure, I have two colours to choose from--but, it's still just a gi.


cheers,
kbcat -- the more I watch the video the more I like it. I think everything looks just awesome.

 

VF2's popularity

I can believe VF2 is still very popular. I can also believe that VF2 was the most popular version of VF. VF3 stumbled when they took away the ability to instantly 'm' things like Akira's palm's, Lau's upknife, Sarah's TA double kick thingy that you could cancel into a TT sweep, etc. All that added a level of complexity and skill to the game that VF3 lost because they slowed things down.

I really want to see some dodging in VF4 though. I hope this back to our roots thing doesn't remove dodging from the game! (highly unlikely I'm sure)

All that's left is to see Taka battle it out with the new girl.


cheers,
kbcat

 

Keep the stages finite.

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

I'm still hoping for that DoA2ish aspect I talked about earlier.

<hr></blockquote>

If you're referring to rings like DOA2, a la fight ad infinitum, I sincerely hope not. It's a cool feature for DOA2. But, imo, it's just so wrong for VF. VF's about ring outs and limited ring areas. You just can't ring someone out if the only way to do it is by pushing them over the edge at the top of the colliseum. Where's the fear in a TFT combo? Or a Twirl-n'Hurl? Those great aspects of the game would be gone.

Besides, if you go way back and look at the size of the stages for VF2, VF3, you'll notice they're all pretty big. But they have a distinct stage. Watching the video for VF4, it can't say it seems any different. From what I saw, the stages are well defined areas within a beautifully rendered background.

cheers,

<font color=white> Llanfair the prized <font color=green>cabbage</font color=green></font color=white>

 

Re: Keep the stages finite.

Ah, I see your point, but yeah I didn't clarify that. I was still hoping for some ringout risks as well. But I am seeing quite a few fences (I'm assuming you can TFT a person over the fence in the castle/snow stage). Well, I was hoping for a lot of RO opportunities in fact, but also some openness for more dramatic fights. The hallways in the China stage I referred to felt like you could RO out of those. However, the threat of the Twirl and Hurl and TFT combos of doom would be eliminated and that would be a shame (even though I was seeing it who knows how many times at NYG2). Yeah, bad idea for coliseum. It would kill a strong aspect of VF (heck, it's the one aspect in fighting games that really does have considerations against chickens--look at Tekken).

Was kind of interested in the concept after seeing the Chinese stage though. That's what really got me thinking about it.

-Chanchai