Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram for the Xbox Live Arcade

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Or some crafty folks could buy a second-hand Sega arcade Virtual On twin sticks control panel and have a genuine arcade-spec experience going that route. They are built very solidly and still keep on ticking like a fine Swiss made watch. Much cheaper than spending some serious $$$ for an Xbox 360 Twin Sticks setup.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Davey]

VOOT #1

http://kotaku.com/5435321/what-are-japa ... es-of-2009

[Davey]

As if this game wasn't totally worth 1200 points, VOOT has been lowered from 1200 to 800 points this week.

In case you're wondering about the online community at this point (single-player is pointless, except for basic training):
- Japan is going strong, at least whenever it's nighttime over there. I usually play on Saturday and Sunday mornings here, which is Saturday/Sunday night over there. Plenty of people in the lobby at that time. There are also people in the lobby during weekday nights in Japan, but I usually can't take advantage of that since I'm at work.
- Nobody really plays in the US, so the lobby is mostly dead when it's nighttime over here. The exceptions are Wednesday nights (10:00 Eastern is our "formal" weekly meeting time) or the occasional random party ("hey, four guys on my friends list are playing VOOT, I'll join")

[GaijinPunch]

I read that recently. Was thinking of picking it up, but I *TOTALLY* suck at this series and I just frustrate the balls off myself. I still may pick it up though.

[Zaarock]

Nobody really plays in the US ... or the occasional random party ("hey, four guys on my friends list are playing VOOT, I'll join")

I dont have a problem with finding games myself, half of the time there is always some friend online who I can set up a party lobby with. Just a matter of getting a bit more organized and adding people to your friends list (100 limit sucks though). There are a couple european players as well, though it seems only me and a finnish friend are playing actively atm.

I've been playing VOOT a lot in the past few days now that my exams are over, will be online a lot if someone wants to play.

[Davey]

Was thinking of picking it up, but I *TOTALLY* suck at this series and I just frustrate the balls off myself. I still may pick it up though.

The learning curve is pretty nasty... it's definitely not intuitive. It probably doesn't help that nothing else really plays quite like it. Then there's the issue of playing on a pad, which the game was never designed for. It's totally doable though, and some people are really good with it.

I forgot to mention, if anybody buys this and wonders how the hell you're supposed to play it (I see a lot of new players that don't even know about dashing or jump cancelling), Schooly D (one of the best US players) has made some tutorial videos. Check out his YouTube channel to watch them and/or watch US tournament matches. There's a LOT more to the game than what he shows, but it'll get you started.

[undamned]

Then there's the issue of playing on a pad, which the game was never designed for. It's totally doable though, and some people are really good with it.

Our very own Specineff destroys w/ a pad
-ud

[Zaarock]

Then there's the issue of playing on a pad, which the game was never designed for. It's totally doable though, and some people are really good with it.

Yeah, you can do just fine with the 360 pad, especially seeing as you can customize the controls a lot. For example, I have center weapon set to LS and left&right turbo+crouch set to LB and RB respectively to speed up my inputs.

[GaijinPunch]

Part of me wants to buy it on principle alone: it represents a time when Sega made kick ass shit.
Part of me wants to not buy it on princple alone: it's one of these gay ass download only games.

EDIT: Nice videos. I might give it a shot. This looks like it would take as much practice as the VF series, which I've already donated a large piece of my life (and money) to.

[mr_m0nks]

I DL'd this one a few weeks ago. It's pretty good and even a doofus like myself can see the amount of depth hidden in the combat system.

Unfortunately I just haven't had the time to play much of it. Just too many other games to play

[GaijinPunch]

Downloaded, I suck, but not as bad as before. Those tutorials are like a million times better than the in-game ones. Very fun stuff... just need about 3 years to hone my skills now.

[Davey]

I hung out in the Ranked Lobby tonight, and there were a few new players. They're probably just looking for the 10 ranked games achievement, but whatever. A couple of them sent me friend requests, though, so maybe they're actually interested in learning the game.

I feel kind of torn about how to fight the noobs... if I play my best they'll get slaughtered and probably quit out of frustration, but if I go easy on them they'll think the game is slow and boring. Zaarock brought up a good point: it'd be nice if new players watched a few videos of good players (or even just competent players, really) so they could see what the game is really like. It seems like a lot of them are just seeing it as a pseudo-FPS with robots, so they usually just walk around shooting RW. That's not going to hold their attention, and with good reason... if that's all there was to the game, it'd suck pretty bad.

[Zaarock]

I met like 2 new non-japanese players on player match lobby in the past two days, was in there for like 5 hours yesterday and today. Sort of disappointed at the player turnout there but eh, I guess not much was to be expected. Lots of fun playing with the japanese players though, had little lag with some.

PS. against the newbies I try to play as well as possible with cypher while trying to do fancy melee stuff whenever I get the chance, I think it gets the point through as I use LTCW at range instead of stronger variants and so on.

[Zaarock]

Thanks to a kind soul I could upload two of my favorite replays to youtube, both are from march 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGnN5iasUKk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzKffuwJm5o

[GaijinPunch]

I'm not playing online until I know the differences in all my attacks (and which big ass robot I want to use).

[Zaarock]

I'm not playing online until I know the differences in all my attacks (and which big ass robot I want to use).

That will take a while. Each VR has 3x6 moves while standing/walking, 3x3 moves while jumping and then ground dash attacks in each 4(diagonal attacks vary sometimes too) directions 3x2 and 3 attacks for each direction when air dashing too. Then there are melee attacks, 6 for normal attacks, 6 more for right turbo attacks, 2 for block melees, quick step melee and then 3 dash melee attacks. then each character has one or two special moves.

That makes like 74 moves to "test" for each character before you know what they do. Bal-bados has much more moves from combos as well. Lots of attack variations are useless most of the time though, eg. crouch dash attack variations are rarely used and lots of the melee attacks are impractical. Sorta hard to see which moves are actually useful just from testing them in training mode too.

[GaijinPunch]

Guess I need to get crackin'!

[mr_m0nks]

Yeah the amount of moves is overwhelming, I had a few matches online for the first time the other day. only won 2 out of 11 matches but I learnt a lot about dodging fire. Still cant get the hang of close combat though.

[Davey]

I'm not playing online until I know the differences in all my attacks (and which big ass robot I want to use).

Temjin is the usual recommendation for beginners. He doesn't specialize in anything, but by being generic he's probably the easiest to learn. However, most of the VRs are fairly unique, so try them all out... one of them might naturally click with you even though they're technically harder to learn.

For a beginner, the only ones to avoid are Bal Bados (by far the most complex VR), 10/80 Special (intentionally underpowered), and Ajim (overpowered boss character, but underpowered as a playable character).

Also, here's a tier list in case you're interested. I settled on Specineff before I saw the list. I was surprised to see him rated at the top since you don't see too many Specineff players in the lobby.

Lots of attack variations are useless most of the time though, eg. crouch dash attack variations are rarely used and lots of the melee attacks are impractical.

I actually use sliding attacks fairly often! But yes, most attack variations are largely unused. I think the best thing to do is:

1.) Try them all in training mode first against a stationary opponent. This will let you know what they all do.
2.) Them try them in Arcade Mode or Score Attack, this will help whittle it down to the most useful attacks.
3.) Play against other people. If possible, choose people that aren't too good at first. Even when playing against chumps you'll learn more than you can while playing against the AI.

Also, these charts might help if you're trying to figure out how effective all of the variants are. It's based on 5.45, not 5.66, so it might be a bit off, but it should be close enough. Unfortunately Stein-Vok, Apharmd C, and 10/80 aren't there since they were new in 5.66.

Still cant get the hang of close combat though.

Unless you're using Apharmd B, I think your time would be better spent learning mid and long-range combat at first, since that's usually where the meat of the game is. Although I might be biased, since I royally suck at CC. I generally just try to stay out of CC range.

EDIT, forgot this:

I had a few matches online for the first time the other day. only won 2 out of 11 matches but I learnt a lot about dodging fire.

My initial record was pretty bad. I think I was like 13-42 or something like that. And that was around launch, so the overall mix of players was more noobish at the time. I played the DC version a lot, but I was rusty, and I didn't have any experience against human players.

[GaijinPunch]

Cheers. I'll give that a look.
Right now I have a bitch of a hangover to get through though!

[Zaarock]

It's been one year since this ports release now. Seemed like a lot of people were online today for the occasion as well. Funny looking at the early posts I made in this thread when I was just starting.

[Davey]

n00b-only VOOT tournament January 3rd!

Cash prize (sorta... winner gets 4800 MS Points)

http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=214

EDIT: Link updated

We're having another one of these on June 19. But the prizes are a bit different this time.

http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=266

I guess us VOOT players have to resort to bribing people to get them to play. I'm not sure what the turnout will be this time, but I think we had about about 20 rookies last time.

There will also be a veteran tournament a week later, in which I will get slaughtered.

[Zaarock]

This is on sale for 400msp (normally 1200msp!) until December 27th on the japanese XBL marketplace because of the upcoming VO4 360 port. So if you have some japanese microsoft points and are thinking of trying this out, now is definitely the time

[Davey]

Also, life size Temjin:

[Thjodbjorn]

I can't wait for Force!

I need to get much less terrible at VO, though.

[Zeether]

Have they said if Force is coming out in the US? Isn't it a disc release?

[Otoko no Zenyou]

Love me some Virtual On, always have. Looking forwards to Force also! Though, I would rather have the whole arcade set up if I had the money for a Hikaru and such.

[Davey]

Have they said if Force is coming out in the US?

Nothing has been announced. Also no word yet regarding region locking, so we're assuming it's region locked.

Isn't it a disc release?

Yeah. There's a regular edition and a special edition box set with a bunch of extras.

[KAI]

Not sure if this is the best thread for this but, HOLY SHIT NEW VIRTUAL-ON ANNOUNCED for PSV/PS4!! and is a collab with the Toaru series...

Teaser

[qmish]

?! what the...

Now 'll wait for gameplay videos to see if it's actual virtual on or just franchise milking.