VF3tb magic

What is it about VF3tb that makes it so good? I gave my neglected Soul Caliber CD a spin the other day and it just doesn't measure up to VF. I think the graphics are totally amazing, the techniques are kung-fu true (and animated perfectly), I also love the forms cinema, but despite these excellent features, it just doesn't keep me coming back like VF3 does. Is it me or does Soul Caliber still have that button-mashing quality to it? Like a 5 year old could beat me at it out of nowhere.
I got into fighting games a long time ago with that "Karateka" game or whatever it's called; where you have two joysticks to control your fighter. I was never really hooked on a fighting game though until Street Fighter 2; those were the good old days where you would kick ass at the machine with Dhalsim until you saw out of the corner of your eye that damn kid who was so awesome at Blanka. Remember the feeling? We would hop from arcade to arcade taking on the locals. Then came the numerous Turbo-Champ-Special Edition-Alpha-Plus-EX-3 editions and I was just too concentrated on VF2 to give a shit.
There never was much of a VF arcade scene to get into, which really sucks, so I missed out on alot of that community feeling I had back then with SF2. So even though I'm mostly in permanent training mode (fighting the computer only); I still love this game. I cringe when I see people playing Tekken at the arcades and VF3tb stands empty. I don't get it! Gameplay has got to be the ultimate standard for any game. Extras are just that,...Extras! Graphics are always good, but do you really care about that Venice-like background when you're trying to pull off an intricate move? I'm not ripping on Soul Caliber; those guys did a damn good job with it; but VF has some kind of intangible that keeps me going back.

-fifthvenom
"that bastard, he stole my rice paddies!"
Give me Shun over Hwang any day of the week and twice on Sundays!

 

Hmmm..interesting....very few games have really grabbed me like VF, though I admit SC is one of those games. While it does not grab me the way vf does...I still pour hours into the game, learning it's ins and outs. Bushido blade was another of these games. Unlike ANY other game - you had to carefully plot every attack, every step. I can only pray we see a return to Bushido blade on PSX2 or D,C {I refuse to even acknoweldge Bushido blade 2).
-Josh

 

Post deleted by imashroom

 

Ishmaroom:
On that point, I defiatly agree with you.
-Shadowdean

 

Well put, Imash.