SF6 Hit Effect Animations and the Future of VF Animations

Wow, just finished watching Justin Wong's early reaction to hands on of Street Fighter 6

And; I dunno, it seems like at times the Hit Effect Animations in SF6 take up more of the screen than the character animations

The character models look interesting, and from what I can see of the character animations they look like they might be sweet.. But TBH its hard to see the character animations

I"m not a SF6 player, I don't really know how their community feels about the effects. Is this how the SF6 community prefer their graphics

I know the Hit Effects are supposed to create excitement during the match but when you can't see the match because the Flash Animations obscure the character animations what's the point

Or are the HIt Effect Animations actually the main attraction in SF6 and the character animations just come along for the ride

Since Street Fighter sets the pace for so many FGs, Will Tekken 8 follow SF6 and make their Hit Sparks, and Effects bigger and take up even more of the screen than they do already

Now that VF5US has Red, Purple Blue and Yellow Hit Sparks that Hide and Cover Up some of the beautiful VF character animations is the next version of Virtua Fighter going to copy off of Street Fighter 6

Does SF6 represent the new trend where the HIt Effects are bigger and more important on screen than the actual character animations

IMO the size of the Hit-Effect-Animation to Character-Animation ratio is F#cked Up in SF6 I hope the next version of Virtua Fighter does not go in this direction

 

They are trying to put more "Street" in Street Fighter. It's so on the nose and try hard, it makes me want to throw up in my mouth. If Street fighter was actually street, Weed would be a power up, everybody would have a gun and the cops would be on you 15 seconds into round one. There seems to be a Street Theme for SFV, so the hit-sparks resemble splashes of Graffiti spray paint. Im not liking it because all these layers might increase the likelihood of 7-frame input lag again, just like SFV. people who have played SF6 like Justin Wong are concerned that too many game mechanics are dependent on the "Drive Meter". People are saying without the Drive moves, the pace of the fights feels like "Mortal Kombat" : slow and clunky. At least 5 game mechanics depend on the "Drive Meter" and if your Drive meter is depleted, you are at an extreme disadvantage and are nearly helpess. A martial artist should not feel helpless. There is no impetus to bring back meterless tech, like the SF3 parry. If they aren't designing SF6 to bring us gameplay exchanges like EVO Moment 37, then what is the point?

I know you hate the hit sparks. If you don't want to see hit sparks, go watch a Kung Fu movie. I was watching a Unity dev video, and the indie dev was trying to improve his Boxing game. What did he add so the player could clearly tell whether his punches landed or was blocked ? Hit sparks. You have got to understand that developers don't make their games to be niche, sleeper hits. They want their game to reach the widest audience possible. If the action can't be clearly conveyed to the average person, the game is doomed to have just a cult following, or none at all.

If you are so in love with the animations in VF purely for the animations sake, you can watch your toon beat up the air in practice mode. By your logic that Hit-sparks are an aberration merely because the obscure the"beautiful animations" Then Roll back Netcode would also be an aberration. Roll-back netcode truncates the startup animation of moves to make up for the milliseconds of lag between players.

 

@Ichiban This is not quite true. I hate hit sparks in Virtua Fighter. One of my favorite fighting games is Soul Calibur. And Soul Calibur 6 has boo qoo Hit Sparks And the Hit Sparks in SC add to the game, the drama and excitement. They actually compliment the overall presentation. I play Tekken 6 all the time, it has hit sparks and they work in that game because the Hit sparks in Tekken are part of Tekken's Arcade Fighting Fantasy DNA. I have and do play Tekken 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and sometimes 7. I accept the hit sparks in Tekken. But they F#ck up the Virtua Fighter presentation.

I understand Hit Sparks are supposed to communicate excitement, and hit impact. I get that. and sometimes they work. (e.g. in Soul Calibur or Tekken)

But I know, you can't possibly believe that hit sparks are the only way to communicate excitement or accent hit impact in a fighting game.

For example the fatalities in Mortal Kombat are FN Amazing, over the top, create excitement and communicate the damage impact Another example is the Blazin moves that are in Def Jam Fight For New York. Wow those create excitement, drama, communicate impact and are very very fun. That game is played and praised to this day.

The fact of the matter is that hit sparks are the cheapest, easiest, laziest way to communicate hit impact. Hit sparks require the least effort on the part of the developers, and requires the least game design, and has the least impact on existing character models Its the ultimate hit impact short-cut..

As you know I play other categories of fighting games and they are able to create excitement, and communicate hit impact information without the use of Hit Sparks, but it does require addition hit animations, it requires additional environmental interaction animations. And these additional animations cost time, money and skills. And clearly RGG either did not have the budget or the talent to pull off more Virtua Fighter appropriate approaches.

Virtua Fighter should have been an innovator here. Hit Sparks are the easy way out. The Next Version OF VF should have new

• Block Animations
• Hit Impact Animations
• Knock Down Animations
• Evade Animations
• Finishing Blow Animations

All of these animations should be done without the involvement of Hit Sparks

 

I'm not a clinical psychologist, I can't diagnose your inconsistent obsession with hit sparks. You know , not every gamer is a 20 year old weabo. Some people may just crack open a beer and Play a game on their Playstation or PC after work. Hence the game may not hold 100% of their attention. It's called professional game design for target demographics. Adding Hit Sparks or whatever visual aid necessary to convey a hit was actually scored and not blocked and whiffed adds to the playability for normal people. Weabos who roleplay as King fu Monks are another story.

 

Fair enough..,., But visual aid was not really the goal of the Hit Sparks. If so it would have been part of the in-game help. Note there is no formal description for the Hit Sparks and their colors in the in-game tutorial. I have not been able to find an in-game explanation of them in the Dojo or Training Modes. ( Let me know if I missed something) On the other hand Seiji Aoki did say this:

"Along with the new modes, match types and UI, we also added new features to enhance the viewing experience. Upgraded hit markers make battles more satisfying and dramatic,"

He made that statement in this blog:

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/05/31/virtua-fighter-5-ultimate-showdown-remaking-a-legend/

For the players that don't need (or want) the visual aids Seiji could have just given us an option under settings to turn the Hit Effect Tutorial off like we had in previous versions of Virtua Fighter I would have been happy with an off switch

C'mon @ICHIBANin10000 if you can't tell whether you've landed a hit, counter hit, side hit, or have been blocked after all the matches you've played, might I suggest you
pick another fighting game

All you Jedi Frame Masters that can spout frame advantage, disadvantage chapter and verse but don't know what kind of hit you or your opponent just landed is down right hilarious

And to say that the hit sparks are for the noobs and casuals when there is no explanation of them in the in-game tutorials, help, or dojo is somewhat spurious don't you think. Sure there is an explanation on VFDC. But for any potential new VF player that doesn't know about VFDC how are they going to find out what Red, Yellow, Blue, and Purple even mean

@ICHIBANin10000 FYI among my other skillsets and talents I am in fact a Kung Fu Monk