uk-guy in Japan?

sorry, sorry been really busy.

Got back from Japan on the 5th April (13hr flight was a killer) and have had to go through all the footage we filmed, prepare stuff for the current weeks show AND prepare for E3, so life is kinda hectic at the mo!!

I basically had no free time in JP. We filmed all 3 days at the TGS and then the following day we had to film at the Pokemon center (90min queue to get in but we had press pass' HA!) and then I had an interview with YU SUZUKI in the AM2 building!!!

Didn't know of the Yu Suzuki confirmation until literally before we flew out so I couldn't tell the world

Anyhoo, we had about 90min with Yu, his secretary and a translator in his very cool office. The interview was mainly about Shenmue and Yu himself and I forgot about asking questions on VF4 (doh!!!). Anyway he is a top bloke if a little shy. I fill ya'll in with the details in a later post.

As for VFing, I couldn't get down to Shinjuku and Kani-Spo but on our last day we went down to Akihabara and I went into the Hi-Tech Sega arcade there. Downstairs was packed with beat'em ups and the most popular seemed to be Marvel vs Capcom 2. But there was still plenty of competition on Tekken 3, and KOF.

I spotted about a dozen VF3tb's single machines down the back and sat down for some battling. The resulting defeats were quick, vicious and demoralising. The Kages, Akiras, Wolfs and Jackys were out in force but not saying much in new gameplay worth noting, but I was more impressed by the Lion and Shun players. This one Lion guy I played was ruthless in his knockdown and Oki gameplay. But the Shun guy was even better. The machine was set on non-TB five rounds (5 Jackys etc) and this Guy could take off DAMAGE. getting to 4 round all and knowing he was proper drunk was scary!! Sure Wolf, Akira and Kage can take of 50% lifebar but that's nothing compared to a drunk Shun who can rip chunks of energy off you with 3 or 4 moves.

I did get some wins (about 1 win every 5 defeats), but I learnt that Lion and Shun can be savage in the right hands. Sadly I was only in there for about 2 hours and I didn't witness anything staggering with the other characters.

Oh and was I impressed? Well it wasn't Kani-Spo on a Friday night so I'm not going to judge JP vfers on a brief visit to Akihabara Hi-Tech. But If I were to comment then I'd say the two things that stood out were movement (not KS) and defense.

Movement:
Okay you're always moving in a VF bout but everthing was so precise. Shifting backwards while fuzzy guarding, lots of back and foward dashes into crouch dashes. It's hard top explain properly they just moved nice ;(

Defense:
Very, very good blocking and safety play. Boring yes, but hard to breakdown. Highlights included instinctivley blocking Kages b,b+K+G into immediate backthrows, ALWAYS doing double throw escapes and guard escapes and just dishing out maximum damage counters.

So better than western VFers? I'd say not as 'lazy'. They play with all the 'tricks' and techniques and I think people know what I'm talking about when I say say us lot sometimes don't bother with guard and throw escapes etc until we realise we're dangerously low on energy

Okay gotta get back to work but I'll post the Yu stuff soon

Sayanara

UK Guy

 

It's nice to hear from you. Thanks for a good detailed report on the playing style in Akihabara, I can tell you that you'd more or less find the same at Kanispo but just on a larger scale and a few faces you might recognise too.

Reading your report brings back some nice memories of when I was down there and you painted a good picture.

However, and I think I speak on behalf of all the VFers on this board......

How could you have forgotten to ask about VF4???? I don't think I will EVER be able to understand that!

Anyway, speak to you soon.

The Prince.

 

First off...Can't wait to hear a more detailed report. This
all sounds exciting. Really a shame you didn't get to wander
more though.

now...

:efense:
Very, very good blocking and safety play. Boring yes, but hard to breakdown. Highlights included instinctivley blocking Kages b,b+K+G into immediate backthrows, ALWAYS doing double throw escapes and guard escapes and just dishing out maximum damage counters.::

I do not wish to nitpick here but I *need* to say this. I don't
think you can mention fuzzy blocking and then dole out kudos on
their defending skills. Once someone masters fuzzy blocking if
their defense doesn't immdediately become "fantastic" then they
are a) doing something wrong, or b) choosing not to use fuzzy
block.

I used to think that fuzzy guarding was amazing (at least to watch)
but the more I see of it the more I hate it. I don't think it is
a legitimate inclusion into the game system, I believe it to be an
artifact of oversight. It reduces a game of skill and choices to
a single technique. Yomi dissapears and is replaced by a "omniscient"
opponent that nothing can touch...throws, mid, high, low....nothing.

I would say from this post that the players you met in Akihabara were
excellent players in terms of movement and capitalization of mistakes
but that their defense was *average* at best based on the fact that
they were using fuzzy guarding at all. If you defend well you don't
need it.

GE

 

Hi

I haven't played VF3tb for a long time and it's quite upsetting. Please forgive me everybody but I am playing Tekken tag at the moment. Simply because there isn't anywhere to play VF3tb anymore.

We've begged our local arcade to get it, but that's all we can do!

Anyway about FUZZY GUARD.

I have an idea about what it is. Is it when you hold guard and stay between standing and crouching in order to block high, mid and low attacks?

Because I haven't really played any body who uses this but I am sure it is easy enough to throw someone whule they are doing this, because you can throw your opponent at any point while they are trying to crouch up until they reach the final frame of crouching. Don't you ever remember saying "I was crouching how did you throw me?" when you watch the replay you can see that your character stands up again to be thrown because that's how the throw animation starts.

Anyway I hope I'm not talking a load of rubbish so maybe someone can shed some more light on the topic.

The Prince.

PS VF3tb is so much better than Tekken Tag I have seen both sides and there is only light at the VF side of the tunnel.

 

Quick comment (I have to run off) -- the Akihabara players are very "boring" in comparison to the Kani-spo players (even Lion/Shun players). I'm not sure why, but I feel that much is certain...I just enjoy playing the Kani-spo players more.

ice-9

 

::Because I haven't really played any body who uses this but I am sure it is easy enough to throw someone whule they are doing this,::

nope. it is option select in its purest form. done correctly it blocks
all levels and evades throws. The only skill involved comes from learning
the trick itself, controlling the joysitck.

GE

 

Re: fuzzy blocking

I don't know which side I'll be siding, but here is my take on fuzzy-blocking. And please note that followings are all my personal opinions, not drawing from my usual "authorized" info. source *gin*

Fuzzy blocking starts from slowly standing up (or crouching). Since it takes certain frames (10?) to go from fully crouching to fully standing, you cannot throw this person, and he would block your mid attacks too. I started this simple form of fuzzy blocking without understanind how it works, and I became aware of my "fuzzy habit" only after SuperDoug of Detroit pointed out.

This technique is indeed very powerful, and unlike the fuzzy-blocking in VF2, it takes less skill to do it (due to the game speed, I suppose). However, this also has some shortcomings too. High-throw won't work, but low-throw would catch me while standing up (and the converse also happens a lot, often with the quote "WTF!? I ducked!"). Akira's guard-break is a good option, as I will be "blocking" his Guard-Break. Other counter measures include: K-cancel, CD (and wait), and fast low-attacks (such as Aoi's sweep).

BUT...good reflexes would cover up a lot of these short comings. For example, when you're slowly standing up, see the middle attack, continue standing up and block; low-attack (or Akira's GB), switch back to crouch-G. Only diffuclt one to defend against is the low-throw, as it comes out instantaneously.

Quite frankly, reflexes are what separate excellent fuzzy-blocker from an average one. And I belong to the latter. I can do stand up slowly and block mid attacks. That's an easy part. Reacting to low-attacks/GB, I cannot do, or at least not on a consistent basis. One Kage player in Japan was doing CD-into G every time I had a chance to force the guessing game (after blocked P, for example). Traditional elbow/throw guessing game had no use against him.

Thus, in theory, you can switch between high & low-G to reduce the risk of being thrown by 50% (low-throw or high-throw). And with good enough reflexes, fuzzy-blocking would make you very difficult to hit with.

At the end, fuzzy blocking is not that hard to do (a simple switching between standing & crouching). But I give big credits to a select few who can combine their reflexes with the fuzzy-blocking. My reflexes are not good enough, to say the least. As far as I know, there are many Japanese players who are capable, but in NA, only Joe Shun comes to mind (from what Adam, Nelson, Llan tell me). I just get frustrated every time I go back to Japan, and I can very well understand the same frustration from people in Toronto.