The Next Generation of Fighting has Arrived!
The biggest addition to the game is the inclusion of two new characters. You’ve got Eileen, a Monkey Kung-Fu user who can quickly dwarf her opponent’s attacks with her blistering speed. And then you’ve got El Blaze, a Rey Mysterio-esque luchador who, like Eileen, is quick, but is a deadly technical fighter. As well as these two new characters, there are 15 returning characters, ranging from the original eight from the first game, to the four (two in the original, two more in the re-release) from Virtua Fighter 4. Each character has been excellently balanced to the point where there is no one, ultimate, character. Instead, you define who that ultimate character is. And thanks to the large variety of fighting styles present in each character, you’ll have fun experimenting who is the character that suits you. Much like in previous Virtua Fighter games, there is barely any reason for why these characters are present in the tournament or why the tournament is even taking place, but this is a fighting game, where story isn’t important at all.
Nothing too major has changed, gameplay wise. This is a good thing, because Virtua Fighter has one of the deepest fighting systems ever seen in any video-game. The three button setup (punch, kick, guard) is still present, and free to customize (you can also customize individual buttons to do combinations of buttons – very useful). As well as this, the triangle of strike beating throw, throw beating guard, and guard beating strike is still retained. The only major gameplay additions, which will only really be noticed by those who are really into the game, including decreased throw speeds, a ‘clash system’ (which allows you to cancel an attack with a throw, leaving both players at a neutral state) and a new Offensive move attack, which allows you to quickly attack when evading. While most players won’t notice these additions, they provide more to an already excellent game.
Single-player wise, aside from the standard arcade mode, is the Quest mode. Following on from Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, players play in a variety of virtual arcades, where they engage in fights against CPU opponents, whom take on the personalities of real-life, professional players. The biggest change to the mode is that all of the arcades are initially available, so if you wanted to, you could take a 10th Kyu character (the lowest ranking in the game), and have your first fight against the best players in the game. As well as this, you can now tell how far you are off from increasing rank (which seemed to be more of a random event in VF4: Evo). Again, all welcome additions to a decent mode.
Finally, the customization aspects introduced in Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution has returned, and been completely revamped. While now you can add a personal comment to yourself, the biggest change is customizing characters. The way the customization feature works here is that you’re given a base costume (with four per character), and then you’re to earn a large variety of parts to customize it. Different parts only work for certain costumes, so choose carefully. You can earn parts by winning tournaments or special fights in the Quest mode, or purchase them with your winnings. There’s a limit as to what you can put on, but you’ll never completely overdo it to the point where you can’t distinguish the character anymore. Still, the results are extremely amusing (it’s possible to make a cowboy who knows Jeet Kune Do), and it’s still a great feature.
Despite everything the game has going for it, there are still some problems with the game. The most noticeable problem is the same problem that has plagued Virtua Fighter since its inception. The game is really inaccessible to most players. Because of the games slow paced nature and extremely strategic battles, most players won’t see the value in it and ignore the game. As well as this, the tutorial mode in Virtua Fighter 5 has really been screwed with, especially in comparison to VF4: Evo’s, which went beyond the call of duty in terms of not only teaching players how to play a character, but how to play the game. There isn’t such a thing in Virtua Fighter 5. While the game does teach you to play a character, that’s all it does. There isn’t anything else to teach you how to play the game, so the only way to learn how to play Virtua Fighter is to just have experience with the game.
The other big problem with the game is with the Quest mode. The main issue here is that because all of the arcades are available right from the get-go, you can’t really make any progress in quest mode. In comparison to Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, you had to start at the arcade with the least skilled players, then work your way up to the harder tournaments. By just giving players access to the higher –skilled arcades, it really kills off any incentive to progress throughout the mode. Another annoying issue is that tournaments happen far too randomly, and there aren’t any specialized ones (that feature special conditions, such additional wall damage or fight with an insane amount of health) that were a lot of fun in Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution.
In terms of graphics, Virtua Fighter 5 delivers in spades. The character models look incredible, with the utmost detail present. Textures now look far better, and the addition of sweat to each character also makes the fighters look more realistic. The backgrounds you fight in also feature the same level of visual beauty. While some look excellent, others aren’t so great. There isn’t any interaction with the stage other than the brief moment that you get stunned when you hit a wall, which, given the fifth iteration of the series, is still a disappointment. While stage interaction on the level of the Dead or Alive games would completely ruin the game, some sort of visual indication that you’re interacting with the stage, more than just showing brief damage to a wall, would’ve been nice. There are also some interesting localization differences for the English version of the game (take Shun-Di, for example. He’s supposed to be drinking, given his style of drunken kung-fu, but you never actually see him drinking anything – his hands are clasping something invisible), but nothing that completely ruins the game. Otherwise, for an early PS3 game, it looks incredible.
The aural element of the game doesn’t have the same level of improvement as the graphics. Traditionally, Virtua Fighter has never had the best sound in a fighting game, but VF5 improves, slightly. The music is listenable, and enjoyable, but it’s not entirely bad. The sound effects have been reused from previous games, but most players won’t take too much notice of this. The big issue sound-wise is the voice acting. Granted, it’s not great, but the problem is that for the non-English characters, you can’t understand a word they’re saying unless you know the language. Tekken 5 included subtitles for the characters who couldn’t speak English, and why Sega haven’t followed suit is incredible. But otherwise, the game sounds fine and tolerable.
Virtua Fighter 5 is worth the investment. That is, if you’re a hardcore fighting gamer. If you have the time and the patience to play Virtua Fighter, then you’re in for a treat. Combine a great gameplay system with some of the deepest move lists in any videogame, and you’ve got yourself a great game right there. Just make sure you’ve got friends around, because the single player modes won’t last too long. If you’ve got the means to play the game in Hi-Def, then you’ve got one of the best looking Playstation 3 titles yet. Just don’t expect the sound to complement the game as much. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a great Playstation 3 fighting game, then Virtua Fighter 5 is exactly what you’ve been looking for.