What's so special about VF3tb?

There was that side tournament at EVO Japan, SEGA released VF3tb Online in arcades late last year, it has a dedicated arranged soundtrack in VF5US...

I'm not complaining about the special attention VF3tb seems to get from SEGA and the community, I really like the game. I'm just curious as a VF newcomer what makes it worthy of all this special treatment and not, say, VF2 or VF4FT. I remember reading that the game was kinda divisive because of the uneven terrain (which was one of the criticisms of Tekken 4, the black sheep of that series).

If I had to guess, maybe the game is considered the last "classic" VF game and that's why it's popular?

 

You see, millennials are cucks. From a tournament nerd cuck perspective, uneven grounds are terrible because it ruins their nerd equation and flowchart brain-off combos. For a real gamer and normal person who lives in the moment, uneven platforms were a blast to play, were stunning *visually* (remember this is a "video" game). And brought a fresh take to VF ,which had been going strong, but repetitive by year 3.

Virtua Fighter 3 *revolutionized* the gaming industry just like VF1 did. Previously, every other game in PS1 and Saturn could only rendeder a few tens of thousands of polygons per second. Sega's Model 3 arcade board could render ONE MILLION POLYGONS PER SECOND. All the industry could talk about was VF3 and how could Sega ever bring it home. VF3 was on the cover of EVERY major video game magazine. (If you ask me "what's a video game magazine" , I swear I will break something).

Because of this, it was a phenomenon. It was the first time 3D could render facial expression based on their face models alone and not cheat with textures. It was the foundation of all 3d games you see today and take for granted. The 3d facial rendering technology evolved to it what you see today in movies, with And Serkis' Golem, it Marc Ruffalo's Hulk. Or Thanos. You asking what's so special about VF3TB is like asking what's so special about Oppenhiemers Manhattan project, or Apollo 13. I hope that puts it in perspective.

 

What's a video game magazine?

 

1"There was that side tournament at EVO Japan"
there was one last year(2023) also! this was on the back of VF5UM/ES being a main evo tourney last year but its from the reason below...

2"SEGA released VF3tb Online in arcades late last year"
ironically released 1day after vf3tb was released on dreamcast 25years ago...
and co-insided with vf's 30th anniversary (albeit 2months late...)
in reality sega finally acted on the ten year renaissance vf3tb has had since 2014(17th anniversary/vf-world-cup)

 

Virtua Fighter games are based on actual fighting styles. When have you seen a boxing ring, mma cage, or wrestling floormat that wasn't flat? It made far more sense to go back to all of the stages being flat than being uneven. I doubt that any Virtua Fighter game will ever have the uneven stages again. It was an experimental design change that didn't really catch on that well and was reverted.

 

There is also the insider point of view on this. At that time 3D graphics programming on uneven surfaces without edge detection and other problems was a really big deal. AM2 was showing off some of their graphic programming prowess by being able to pull
off uneven surfaces in a convincing fashion. Keep in mind that back then, there was a definite competition to see who was the most badass in graphics programming between:

AM2 --- with Sega
Project Soul --- with Namco
Team Ninja --- with Tecmo

Graphical tricks like knocking off hats, and uneven stages was also a way to show off

Insiders were aware of this competition, but many in the public only understood how it affected their game play, and didn't realize what a difficult feat it was to pull off the uneven stages were.

Even the concept of Team battle in a 3D context was somewhat novel

 

Bingo!
But that is only part, of why it is considered special.

 

It's special because it is a ball-bustingly hard video game, incredibly unfriendly to newbies, has a ton of player expression through the movement system, and is the last classic Virtua Fighter. VF3tb is like proto-Tekken except better because throws are worth a damn. The game has a lot of weird quirks like how throws you have to dash up and then do because there's a built in window where any throw inputs will just miss once you block something and the throw range is similar to a sneeze. Crouch dashing looks like it sucks because it looks slow and it is easy to mess up except it doesn't because you can not only use it to cancel most movement options, but you can also fuzzy guard and play up close like how VF typically plays. This game was also when this thing called evading was introduced and it was actually pretty strong but not to actually evade moves 70% of the time, but rather to position yourself on the stage because backdashing put you a car's length away from your opponent and sidestepping had no real fail state thanks to cd cancels and was pretty fast.

This game is busted too. Who thought it was a good idea to give Lion an 11f full launch punish for 60+ damage? Who thought it was a good idea to make you burn your hand off to mash out of Jacky's pounce when he 33P+G's you? Who thought it was a good idea to have that much pushback on people in the air so Kage can ring you out from damn near half way across the stage? Don't even get me started on how you can knock down your opponent and run down the clock because there's only a 30 second timer and jumping + running away is shockingly effective. This should be a terrible game, especially considering your turn is basically over unless you knockdown your opponent because set ups on counter hit seem to be not very common in this game at all, so really on paper you're "just playing for knockdowns" off of cheap moves that are crazy fast and have good range.

But it feels amazing when you knock someone down and evade around their wake up kick to then knock them down again, and then jump over them and kick them in the back for a round win. There's no 3D game really like VF3tb. It is truly one of a kind with its quirks and how it actually nails uneven terrain so the stages still feel like real places. Basically every other game that tried uneven terrain had hilariously broken results from Bass getting ToD's off of a single throw to whatever the hell ceiling tech was in Tekken 4. VF3tb still did it better than everyone else 5 years before the competition did it. Not to mention its attack systems are basically identical to how they work in Final Showdown save for side turned because that didn't really exist other than side throws, so the tried and true RPS gameplay of Virtua Fighter is intact and works very well. There's a lot of ways to set your opponent up to be in a bad situation outside of what the numbers tell you, and it creates a very deep system that is much more than what meets the eye upon a first play.

In short, the game is good.

 

So the game requires real skill

Virtua Fighter has really always been about skill. Some versions of it require more skill than other versions. But every version of VF is about skill in contrast to Tekken, especially Tekken 7 and even more so Tekken 8. Tekken has become about mechanic management. Managing the meters, managing rage art, managing the heat system. Whereas Virtua Fighter has a beautiful presentation , backed by a balanced roster, that requires true skill to achieve mastery. The last couple of versions of Tekken is all about when, where, how, and why to use rage art, meters, the heat system, and the unusual gimmicks and quirks for each character in the roster

ATM I'm stuck in Virtua Fighter 4 and Virtua Fighter 4 EVO, and having major fun, but I am going to eventually have a go at VF3TB I've watched a lot of VF3TB on the tube and the matches do look reeeeally skill intense

 

Personally, I always liked the evade button. I know there are some fans who don't like it.