Virtua Fighter 5: Huge Hands-On & Media!

Kikizo gets hours of quality time with AM2's stunning sequel - detailed impressions, fresh details, artwork, screenshots and gameplay footage inside.

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What this service provides is an ongoing service that will be in every arcade in Japan. Each arcade will have at least one VF.tv monitor, which will show battle replays of matches (complete with full audio commentary!), advertisements, and player rankings. This is huge improvement over VF.net's system, which was quite good to begin with.

In addition to VF.tv, customisation has been greatly improved. Where players used to have four or five layers to work with, you can now have up to ten different areas to customize with your characters. For example, with Kage, you can customize his hair, face, neck, upper body, inside upper body (think undershirts or necklaces), lower body, hip, feet, hands and pants. In addition, there are dozens upon dozens of items to choose from. Even with the location test, players were earning money and items, allowing them to customize their characters. We spotted a Goh player with a white leather jacket, brown leather pants and a Phantom of the Opera mask strutting his stuff against Tokyo's best!

However, unlike some other fighting games -- that we won't name -- Virtua Fighter has always been a series known for its gameplay as well as its graphical prowess. On the surface, VF5 seems to have stayed relatively the same as Virtua Fighter 4, but that's not exactly the case. Several minute changes have been made, and the game actually feels like a cross between VF3 and VF4, if you can imagine that.

One change that has been made to the environments is the addition of low walls. In Virtua Fighter 4, there were Unbreakable walls and Breakable walls, but with the inclusion of Low Unbreakable Walls, it's possible to still ring out an opponent by getting them into a juggle combo, and then literally juggling them out of the ring. We witnessed this several times, most notably with Pai players, who would launch their opponent from the middle of the ring, and then literally carry them the width of the ring before depositing them outside the arena for the win. Every stage featured different variations, so here's a breakdown of what's what:

• Arena (Wolf's stage): A fighting arena with the fight taking place on a glass floor. Spectators can be seen surrounding the arena and below the floor. This stage features high unbreakable walls.
• City (El Blaze's stage): Puddles of water on the pavement reflect the fighters. Spectators are visible from certain angles and cars zoom by in the background. This stage features high unbreakable walls.
• Palace (Lion's stage): A bright chandelier glows in the background of this indoor stage. Players may recognize this as Lion's stage from Virtua Fighter 3. This stage features low unbreakable walls
• Terrace (Sarah's stage): A ring set outside what appears to be a high class party. The ground seems to be wet. Party guests are visible in a building in the distance. This stage features low unbreakable walls

• Great Wall (Lau's stage): The Great Wall of China with a sun setting in the background, construction workers watch the fight. This stage features no walls.
• Deep Mountain (Kage's stage): This stage consists of a covered bridge snaking through a snowy mountain top covered in mist. This stage features low unbreakable walls
• Temple - Aoi's stage: This is similar in nature to her temple stage in Virtua Fighter 4, with the fight taking place in a garden with Sakura trees. Sakuras fall to the ground and are kicked up each time one of the characters falls. This stage features low unbreakable walls.
• Broken House (Unknown stage): The fight takes place in the middle of an abandoned house. If you hit the walls, pieces of wood break off. This stage features high unbreakable walls
• Statues (Lei Fei's stage): The inside of a temple, filled with Buddha statues. This stage features no walls.

Both of the new characters can be seen in the two videos below, although only one, El Blaze, was playable this weekend.

Aside from the new environments, the most visible change has to do with the movement system. Players can now sway from side to side by pressing down-foward or up-forward while pressing P, K and G (that's the three action buttons, Punch, Kick and Guard, for the uninitiated) together at the same time. This is different from the standard sidestep that's still in the game; while the sidestep allows you to evade attacks, swaying lets you position yourself better, as well as positioning you to one side of your opponent. Swaying also moves you forward a touch, and you can avoid many attacks using it.

VF5's first Character Access card, sold over the weekend

The inclusion of sway perfectly complements the inclusion of the new hit system that's been incorporated into the game. Before, connecting with a hit when one wasn't perfectly aligned with their opponent produced the same kind of stun that would occur if you were hitting them head-on, but that is no longer the case in VF5. Now, hitting them from the side will result in different, and sometimes far more dangerous stuns that can set up incredibly damaging combos.

Take Aoi, for example. Using her back, back+Punch+Kick attack would normally produce a stun that could lead to a quick combo. However, if this attack hits an opponent from the side, they will literally take seconds to crumple to the ground.

How does this help the player? By using the new sway movement, you can connect with this move from the side, sway all the way behind an opponent and land a combo that can potentially be double the damage. The way that both new features intertwine together is just another testament to AM2's careful planning and testing to ensure that the game actually produces something that's new, enjoyable and well balanced.

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