VF4 PS2 Translation and information request

Hi there guys. I'm a long time Tekken player & VF dabbler now deciding to get down and actually learn the ins and outs of one of Suzuki's masterpieces. I bought VF4 and am currently finding myself playing against a friend more often than not mainly because I am feeling slightly daunted by the array of single-player options available to me and my mastery of the beautiful Japanese language is unfortunately limited to martial art terms (not entirely wasted in this case then). I am therefore in need of some help from some of you guys.

Specifically I would greatly appreciate assistance in 2 areas. Firstly, as detailed a description as possible of the various game modes (Arcade, Kumite, Training, AI System) regarding what can be unlocked from each, what ones can be played with a custom character etc.

Secondly, how this whole custom character system works. Where do I create one, what can be done with them, where can I use them, how do I customise them etc?

I think I know the answers to some of these questions already but verification would be excellent and I am in the dark for others. From reading other posts I believe some of this information has been given piecemeal or at least is assumed knowledge but I am concerned about starting things, not quite realising what I am doing because of the language barrier and ending up wasting time saving over things or not properly doing what is required

I am also aware of some of the treatment of certain so called "newbies" as I have browsed these forums for a while now and was somewhat reluctant to post in the first place, but I hope somebody out there is able to provide a commited player with some helpful and useful information to help me get the most out of my imported game.

Thanks in advance.

 

Laff, sorry if it looks like newbies get trashed on here.

The menus are currently being translated by a few people with the knowledge and time to do it, but since this is tedious, I wouldn't expect full translations anytime soon. You can wing it pretty easily though.

The modes:

Arcade - beat up every character until you reach dural, then (even if you lose)you get an ending after fighting dural. It's a 1P mode but a second player can jump in at any time.
Vs: duh
Kumite: meant to simulate being challenged by people in japan (which uses the nifty vf.net system to keep track of wins and losses). It's sort of like a survival mode - you face a completely random string of challengers, and these challengers have different win percentages and items and rankings. If you win many matches or win several in a row, you unlock items. No exact list of the items is available, so just play all day and then see what you've got.
Training: learn the essentials of VF - here's where having japanese would help a lot.
You can learn how to block correctly, attack an opponent who is blocking incorrectly, escape throws, counter your opponent's attacks, reverse moves, and a ton more. I figure you can also check out damage levels and practice combos.
AI system: here you make a computer-controlled character and try to teach it various tricks, tactics, combos, etc. You then watch it fight and press a button to either reward it when it does something right or let it know when it does something stupid. The idea is that it keeps the good stuff and gets rid of the bad stuff.
Custom characters are created under the Character Edit menu. You need a memory card in place.
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Thanks for the reply Creed.

Following up on some of those points then. I have played Kumite mode for only a short time. Can you use one of the "standard" characters or do you need to use a custom character in order to unlock items etc? When you do unlock an item, will it display this onscreen during the Kumite or afterwards once you have died and chosen not to use a continue? Where can you use these items to customise your character (only in the Character Edit menu etc?)

Also there seems to be a lot of manual saving required, is there some autosave function or is this not available incase of issues with the AI system ("wrongly" training your character then saving it and not being able to easily "undo" it?). Can you use your customised character in all game modes and if so does it need to be loaded each time you play or is it loaded by default when you start VF4 after switching on the machine?

Again, thanks for any help in advance.

 

You need to create a custom character to start logging your wins and items that you've unlocked. If you've ever played DOA2 or 3 it's kind of like their UBB (?) system. Unlike DOA3 you can actually unlock shit in VF4. You'll know when you've unlocked something when you see a small treasure chest appear at the bottom of the screen after a match is over. Then you have to go to edit files---> then go to edit character---> then select your custom character by scroling down. You can have as many CC's as your memory card can hold. THe game basically prompts you to save every time you've been using a CC and want to quit out of a mode. Of course to be on the safe side you can always manually save at the general save-function, but you really don't need to. Yes, you can use your custom character in every mode, by pressing select at the character select then choosing your CC. Yes, you do have to do it each time. If your memory card is in the slot it will auto-load, but you have to manually select your character each time you enter a new mode. The PS2 does not assume which character you will want to use as you may have multiple CC's.

 

Excellent, most informative. I am going to now have a good session creating a character and playing through Arcade and Kumite modes.

More than likely I'll be back with some questions soon. Thanks in the meantime though.