The Virtua Fighter series holds a certain distinction in the fighting game genre. It is the game that is the antithesis of a button mashing fighting games like Tekken or even Street Fighter. With those games a novice or semi-skilled player can take even the best veterans out every once in a while. With this series the same type of people will not have a chance against skilled veterans unless the veteran allows you to win a round. Much like previous VF games, Virtua Fighter 5 Online brings the same kind of experience to the table, but unlike the earlier PlayStation 3 version you can now get your unskilled self beaten online.
This game, much like the rest in the series, is all about counting frames of animation. You can go to any VF hardcore forum and learn quite a bit about the various games and how obsessive the counting of frames is. Sega has been very hesitant about putting this game online because of the latency and the reliance upon veterans that count frames of animation to deliver their blows. Any small tick of lag is going to screw up even the best of players. The online play is a pretty good experience, but is marred by the chance that you or your opponent may have a weak connection and latency comes to rear its ugly head. When the connection is good, which is most of the time, there is a realistic feeling that you are playing with someone in the same room with no slowdown at all.
There are a couple issues. One has to do with the lobby system while the other has to do with your prior experience with the series and playing a ranked or unranked game. The lobby system is a bit troubling, especially if you’re playing with people on your friend’s list. You can start a game with a friend, but after that match is done you are dropped back into the lobby and have to reinitialize contact with your friend for another round.
The other minor misstep has more to do with your experience in this series of games. The big question is whether you want to play in ranked or unranked game. With a ranked game you take the chance that you will be hooked up with a veteran and they will beat you up, down and all around which makes your win/loss record look bad, plus it creates a bad experience when all the competition is so tough. The VF games have always been a pretty elite type of fighting game and this one is no different. If you’re new to the series you will want to spend a lot of time playing through the other modes or playing against a friend locally or online via an unranked match before ever thinking about dipping your toe in ranked matches. Many veterans will only play ranked matches since they get to increase or decrease their win/loss record and show their mastery of the frame counting.
On the single-player side of things, the game is a lot like Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, but with better graphics. The same types of modes are available here: Quest mode, Dojo, Arcade, and Versus mode (with online). Most of your time will probably be spent in Quest mode which, for anyone familiar with the last game, is not very different. The Quest mode from Evolution replaced the Kumite mode from the original VF4 and it’s nice to see that Sega decided to keep the Quest mode in this game as well. You are given a map where you can choose from various arcades and venues where you can challenge opponents and receive money and items that you can then use to outfit your character.
The nice thing is that you can bring the look of your character as you add different items online, but you do not bring along your Nickname or Saying that you can enter in at the beginning of Quest mode. As you go through the mode you can choose to battle different levels of opponents and you will also get in on tournaments. The computer AI seems more into the fights depending on the level of difficulty. In fact, it gives the illusion that you are playing a real-life opponent in that each character has different items they are decked out in and even have a nickname and saying. It makes it more personable than the straight Arcade mode and the only sad thing is that you are not able to play Quest mode online.
The graphics are top notch both from a level and character perspective, but a tad bit on the glossy side. The 360 version is based upon the Version C arcade board whereas the PS3 version was based upon Version B. The graphics are slightly tighter here, but there really isn’t much difference between the two versions outside of more items being available on the 360 and the obvious inclusion of the online mode.
