I Think VF Did it First Right?

I'm thinking as far as 3D fighting arcade style games go VF was the first to have:

Character Customization (VF 4)
Create An A.I (VF 4)
Player Improvement Advice (VF 4)
Quest Mode (VF 4 Evo)
Underground Tournaments (VF 4 Evo)
Deep Tutorial Mode (VF 4 Evo)
Deep Dojo Mode (VF 4 Evo)
Dynamic in game Announcer ( VF 5)
Skin Pigmentation control (VF 5)
License Mode (VF5FS)

There are probably others but these are the first that come to mind. VF added these on top of the most balanced 3D fighting game engine ever made and some of the most beautiful animation in the arcade fighting game world. Clean stage design, no nonsense game play.

I'm revisiting some of this stuff because a family member gave me Tekken 7 for Christmas. So I've played it. VF is going in one direction and Tekken goes in the opposite. I'm not going to bash Tekken here., its an awesome game in the space that its trying to occupy. I also recently go SC6 another amazing game in the world it occupies. I think I've said this before VF occupies a unique space. Its lighter than UFC but heavier than Tekken, DOA and SC. But all of these games in some way have taken ideas from VF.

I think VF either did most of this stuff first, or did it the best first

 

Fun Fact: It seems AM2 was experimenting with the ''Dynamic in game Announcer'' ever since VF1, Last Year someone found a bunch of unused voice lines from the announcer in the code of the arcade version of VF1, These voice lines describe moves and actions executed by the players and their chosen fighters most likely for a "Dynamic in game Announcer" mode. you can find the unused voice clips in the cutting room floor: https://tcrf.net/Virtua_Fighter_(Arcade)
It's cool how the announcers in VF5 Actually narrate the match unlike the announcer from Street Fighter IV that simply says a bunch of random nonsense like "I'm smelling a comeback!'' while a guy is getting destroyed by an infinite in the corner.

 

Well VF's dynamic announcer could use some improvement. But its pretty damn good for what it is and the fact that it was the first version of a commercial release. I don't do SFIV so I don't know what theirs sound like. But Sega/VF has so many good ideas they could go back to and improve on and just put in VF6. They literally don't have to do anything new.

 

I would love to see old ideas expanded upon in a new game, especially the training and A.I stuff for the console releases but i wonder what kind of changes or improvements would justify the existence of a new game specially at arcades.

 

I dunno. Maybe the Arcade business model needs to be swapped. I understand that Japan has business models tied up with the arcade model. But maybe in 2019 an beyond the script needs to flip. Maybe produce for consoles/PC first and put produce the arcade version. With all the new machine learning algorithms available now, SEGA could make an awesome AI, Training and Advice mode that really track how you play and allow you to design the ultimate sparring partner. There's really no place for this kind of feature in an Arcade. But if Sega starts with the Home version first, it would be easier to release a scaled down version for the Arcades

 

The customization mode was so f*cking amazing thing in VF4 evo, i literally played the quest mode just to unlock costumes for some characters.

As a Tekken fan i was glad Tekken 5 implemented it and so well also, Tekken 6 did it even better, but unfortunately TTT2 went all wrong direction with this concept. Tekken 7 still took that wrong side of customization but things got better after some backlash.(by Namco starting adding some new fully unique costumes per character).

In VF5FS the customization was amazing too.

In Soul Calibur CaS is great with a lot of freedom, i was able to make some cool costumesi was happy with for my Ivy.

 

Some fighting games still don't get it. i.e. DOA 5 Last Round, sure each character has different looks, but that's not the same as customization. Maybe they'll fix it in DOA 6.
But customization allows you to put your individual mark on a character and create your own custom personas. VF 4 started a revolution with that and we are all still benefiting to this day.

I know its crazy, but I fight differently when I'm playing with my own customized character as opposed to the built in character look. I dunno why, I just do. I even have special customizations for when I'm in the dojo