The first time you ever played VF - initial impressions

A friend of mine was really excited when VF4 came to PS2. Not knowing much about the series, I was apathetic, saying if you have Tekken 4 to look forward to, who needs VF?
Ironically, I accompanied him to purchase the game, and ended up buying a copy myself, simply because nothing else apealed to me that day.

I got home, put Lei Fei through his paces in training mode, and confidently set forth to conquer the world in Kumite mode.
"Mmm..nice, fast gameplay, great visuals, smooth animation..." I thought as I made made my way through the Kyu ranks.
"Bit easy though." Aaaah...famous last words.

Along came a 8th Dan (or was he 9th dan?) Akira called T-Rex who proceeded to wipe the floor with my poor character, and nearly every Dan did the same after that.
After a few hours of getting smashed to pieces, I was ready to give the game back. The usual cries of "cheater", "cheesy", and "Oh bullshit - that didn't hit" of a thoroughly demoralised and frustrated gamer rang through the air.
I had become used to finishing fighting games like Tekken or DOA in a weekend, and the concept of losing consistently to a blasted AI character was both new and humbling.
"Maybe Lei Fei is rubbish" I thought as I substituted him for, of all people, Akira.
Needless to say, I didn't even get through the training mode with Akira! /versus/images/graemlins/blush.gif
As I said, I was ready to give this bloody game right back to the lying swine shop owner who said this game rocks and by something else, but an inner stubborness in me told me to persevere, which is what I did.
After 4 months of playing this game exclusively every
day, I finally got many of my characters to 10th Dan or beyond. Hell, my Wolf was a Dragonlord, which entitled me to a lot of bragging rights!! /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Along the way, I realised that VF is not your typical masher type game, it's so much more. Yes, the sheer depth can be almost overwhelming at times, but no other game has entralled me this much, or left me in awe as VF4 (and now Evo) has.

Any other NooB stories?

 

You can read all about a bunch of other people's here -->

http://virtuafighter.com/versuscity/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=versus&Number=79600&page=&view=&sb=5&o=