Virtual On 5.66

[G.Silver]

So who is all upon this? I am crossposting from my LJ:

I am loving VOOT on 360, guys. I wish I had a twinstick for it, but the 360 controller is.. hrmm.. tolerable. It seems that Q-Stepping is a lot trickier than before, and I have better luck when I do it with the Right Analog stick, but I'm "trained" to use the left, so it really throws me. In general I've just avoided using it, which is unfortunate, but I think I'll get the hang of it eventually.

I've been playing in the ranked matches and having a great time, though I have to admit it's because I'm winning a lot. xD I have a score that's like 22W 7L or something like that. This is probably because I'm picking my targets, trying to get matches with people who I assume to be around my level but in actuality really aren't. As you win more fights, your rank goes up, so I've been challenging people who are higher and higher, and on the occasions that I went against players who were obviously much higher ranked I got whupped pretty well. The but the best way to gauge skill is clearly from the W/L ratio, not the rank. I didn't see very many players with more wins than losses, and I expect my ratio to drop dramatically as I work my way up the ladder (though I haven't seen anyone with such a high rate yet, so I'm rather proud of that).

Almost everyone online is Japanese, and I think that's why I have difficulty connecting to them, the majority of my connection attempts end up failing. But once in a game, it runs extremely smoothly. I've noticed a little hiccup only once.

My connection itself is not great: I used a crossover cable to bridge the 360 and my wireless connection (I'll need to feel a lot more invested before I fork over $100 for the official adapter), and it works, but while I have it set up like that, periodically the wireless connection eventually drops, and the only way I can get it to work again is to delete the bridge and build it again. It doesn't take too long to get back on but it's annoying, especially if I get booted in the middle of a match. (No one has dropped carrier on me so far, so I'm a bit embarrassed to have this happening.)

I haven't met up with any of my old VO crew from Japan, but I am told they are all on there. I haven't used my headset yet, I'm saving it for when I meet up with people I know online instead of random strangers.

My gamertag is Gsilverfish.

[Protodude]

So, it's out for the American Live Arcade? I just assumed it was only released in Japan with a U.S. release unnanounced. Either way, my 360 got the Red Ring of Death not long ago and I've yet to do anything to rectify it. It's kind of a shame too, I've only played the original VO at an arcade but I was looking forward to playing this.

[P.P.A.]

I'll download it right after dinner. I never played a Virtual On game before but seeing as my favourite 360 game Senko no Ronde was apparently heavily inspired by it in terms of gameplay I'll definitely give it a try. And add you.

[Shadow Hog]

So, it's out for the American Live Arcade? I just assumed it was only released in Japan with a U.S. release unnanounced.

Came out yesterday with Banjo-Tooie and, er... SORRY!.

[Baba O'Riley]

I miss the twinsticks, but I enjoy the game enough to where it doesn't impair the fun I'm having.

Somewhere along the line, I forgot how skull-numbingly fast the gameplay was.

[P.P.A.]

This is great fun. I do not use the twinstick option however but rather mapped the controls to mostly resemble those of Senko no Ronde. Stick for moving, A for dashing, B, X, and Y for attacks, RB for Special... (And LT for jump and RT for jump cancel without equivalents.)
Still, should that make me feel bad somehow?


Also since in every game giving you the choice I usually decide on one character/robot/vehicle pretty early in my playtime and then play him/her/it forever without bothering to try out anything else I shall henceforth main Fei Yen for all of time.

[G.Silver]

Still, should that make me feel bad somehow?

Honestly anything you can do with a pad layout that you're comfortable with is probably good enough. I'm too "programmed" to use a twinstick that my mind can't really wrap around a different control configuration, otherwise I'd probably try some of the others (I used to be really good with a Saturn pad!)

God, I can't wait to play online more. But nooo, I make a webcomic in my freetime... :P

[Popcorn]

Speaking of LJ, I have this now, if er, anyone's interested: http://james.the-situation-room.com/

So long, suckers!!

[Isuka]

Nice, Pop managed to break out of Flappy Bob's Learnatorium.

And there's only one thing you can do about swine flu.

[Blank]

Sorry to necro bump this, but I know G.Silv is the resident V.On player and I can't seem to find much info on it anywhere. So I figured I'd give this a try.

You think theres anything you can link me to with all the random tech and fun little tricksies for this game? I always played it casually but I'm actually going on quite the cabinet buying spree at the moment. Besides AH3 and all the other random fighter cabinets I'll be getting, I do want to fish for this classic as I really don't fall into this Gundam NEXT hype that Japan seems to be having. (Apparently 2nd on the charts behind Tekken 6)

So it would be neat to fully learn the game, maybe even teach the locals and get some matches going. Any info is much appreciated.

[G.Silver]

Well first tell me where you're buying a cab from because maybe I want in on that too NO NO NO I DON'T (but seriously tell me).

First thing I'd refer you to is the forums at oratan.com, which is as far as I know the only remaining English source for people who hang out and talk about VO. They've compiled a few guides, both for beginners and for more advanced use of different characters, and if you want some gamertags to play against online then it's the place to be. GameFaqs also has plenty of resources on the matter.

Really what you ought to do (if you are talking about Oratorio Tangram) is get online with the 360 version and play against real people. Unless you have a club of people coming around frequently, you will get much more use out of the online version than you will the arcade cabinet (obviously this isn't a factor in anyone's decision to own any arcade cabinet, though). Playing against real people is far better than anything you'll get out of those FAQs.

[Blank]

I haven't looked very far yet. Sorry I can't help you there. Like I said I've got some fishing to do for some obscure cabinets, and so far only the mainstream titles have shown me luck. >: If I find a reliable supplier at all I'll be sure to inform you though.

And thanks a lot for that site. I was wondering if there was a place players congregate. I'll most likely end up getting the 360 version regardless, but it would still be really nice to have the cabinet in my collection. There are quite a few people around here interested in playing the game. Some of them have been playing the 360 version for a while and would appreciate the arcade experience.

Thanks again good sir!

[Samface]

So, it appears that a coin-op co-op game in the series from 2001 is getting a 360 port? Or something?

I'm a little confused, I'll let someone who knows the series better (I only ever played the first one, but I'm intending to pick up OT at some point) explain. Basically I just like typing "coin-op co-op".

[G.Silver]

Uh, so yeah, Virtual On Force is the one that came out in 2001 and ruined everything by not being very good. If you've played VO Marz on PS2, then you've basically played VO4, just without the 4 player support. It's much slower than the previous games, and the number of attack options has diminished with fewer turbo and crouch shot variations, to the extent that nearly every character only has one good weapon, the forward dash Right Weapon. Close Combat was simplified back to the level of the original game, dropping the awesome Q-Step in favor of unpredictable circle attacks. The character movement is slowed down, and so has the weapon speed, to the extent that it's actually very hard to hit anything. That, at least, was my general impression of Marz, and Force uses the same gameplay rules and settings.

It does have a shitfuck ton of playable characters, though these are almost all variations on characters from the previous games, the way VOOT has variations on Apharmd (Battler, Striker, and Commander), Grys-Vok (Stein-Vok), and Temjin (10-80), though some of the variations can be quite dramatic, and it does support 4-player battles, which is pretty cool. I played it a little bit in Japan, but it just wasn't as fun to play. The slower pace of the game probably makes the game much more enjoyable when you have so much more going on strategically, but obviously I have a strong preference for the previous game.

Maybe this will get us a mass-produced twinstick instead of the $400+ one they made for VOOT? That'd be nice.