Holy crap, they made Dural tough as nails this time!! Best Dural since VF3TB!!! VF5 FS DURAL FTW!
She can Do Eileen's shoulder ram! She has A Hit throw! She Has a special throw that can only be done on a head crumpled opponent ( this is unique, because the throwing crumpled opponents feature was removed in FS for the regular cast. She has some BRUTAL wall throws! She has One of PAis two handed Sabaki moves!
This time around , DURAL has two stances, Rapid Fire stance, where she fights quick and powerful, and MAssive Stance, where she has a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SET OF ATTACKS and THROWS. In Massive stance she mocks Taka's stance and can do his Double palm, 2, 46+P. Awesome.
I definitely got my $30 worth on final showdown, because Dural in VF5 Vanilla was buttcheeks and all she did was Fpp, bbK moves and she was simplified trash. SEGA really redeemed themselves here, and, you KNOW who my main Character in Player rooms will be!!
Overall I hate that catch throws can be blocked. I hate how move lists of some characters have been shortened only to be accessible to n00bs. I hate how throws have been changed to simple commands. Jean doesn't look like that interesting of a character to me simply because his throw command list is so simple.
Other than that I love the game for obvious reasons: the new moves, and the New characters. I like how when you throw Taka, the move animates a little differently.The new low wall throws are hot, and I love the Fighting Vipers -esque breakable walls.
The only other thing I hate about this game is how they cut out Offensive move attacks, Defensive move attacks. really, Offensive move attacks are one of the FEW NEW things that VF5 brought to the table, Sega can't afford to cut them out.
What makes me irate is that Defensive move attacks and Offensive move attacks where cut from the game simply because n00bs don't use them. Since N00bs don't use them, it seems like n00b-abuse if you use offensive move attacks or Defensive move attacks on them. It's a vain effort to draw in new players. This is crap. Screw n00bs, stop destroying the game your devoted fans love for the sake of jerks who will only play for two months. All we got in exchange was side-blocking. Big freaking whoop.
I love the new customizable items. It's a fun activity just choosing your items. Saving your different set ups and using them online is one of the little nuances that give VF it's character, in lieu of a story mode. The Item win poses are a big plus, and I was pleasantly surprised to see you CAN see Item win poses online, contrary to what Sega's Patrick Riley stated at the pre -launch party.
For a game that focuses on gameplay above all else, even over cinematics and a story mode, VF5 FS can't afford to be cutting features from the game. This game could have easily been a perfect score , but SEGA is their own worst enemy. If not for a few features that were needlessly cut this would be a perfect score. I give it a 9.5