Question about VF5R success in Japan

http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=29749&view=findpost&p=301713

IS this true? I could have sworn Japan overall prefers VF over Tekken.

 

Could you be more elaborate on what is true? Also, it would help to be more precise in the thread title as well ...

 

Guilty Gear games are animated pretty well, imo.

 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Oh, really? What source are you basing that conclusion on? Virtua Fighter hasn't been more popular than Tekken since the disaster that was Tekken 4. Virtua Fighter 4 and Evolution proved to be more popular than Tekken 4 because players largely hated how hard it was to launch and the uneven stages. The fact that Sega introduced the customization feature in Evolution also gave their game even more replay value too.

Tekken 5.0 and the subsequent Tekken games simply crushed Virtua Fighter because it went back to what made it so popular in Tekken 3 and it introduced its own customization features too. Virtua Fighter's extremely demanding learning curve is what limits its popularity even among the Japanese population. This is why even Banpresto's Gundam vs. Gundam is listed as being more popular than VF5R in December.</div></div>

That.

 

He has ZERO sources to back up his claim.

If he can produce back issues of Arcadia or trade magazines or raw arcade data or similarly reliable sources of information then yes I will believe him.

He sounds like a Tekken fanboy. Tekken crushed VF? Really?

Tekken 6 was what? Third behind BlazBlue and Gundam vs Gundam in the last Arcadia issue? And wasn't VF5R fourth? and SFIV fifth?

I would hardly say that Tekken 6 is crushing VF5R or SFIV in the arcades in Japan.

 

its rare...but the guy is actually right.

although this bit I dont think its correct "Virtua Fighter's extremely demanding learning curve is what limits its popularity even among the Japanese population"

imo...i think its the other way around (its been "noobified" too much)

InstantOverhead, im afraid its all true, tekken has indeed been crushing VF lately just like he said. but rejoice in the fact that it took tekken 5 to take VF spot as japan's #1 3d fighting game .

 

I'm pretty sure vf2 vf3 days VF was more popular than tekken.. Stories of team tournaments were so big that you actually had to queue outside of venues...

1 one of the reasons why VF4 was really popular in japan is because T4 was considering shit by everyone really.
T5 was brand new and came out around Final Tuned time. So it was a given that it would steal some of the light

 

If this is true then why is Tekken so popular all of a sudden? Tekken's gameplay has always been "noobified", lol.

I think it's funny that some of the vets think that VF5 has lost popularity bc it's been dumbed down and so now... Japanese players prefer Tekken? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif
How does that even make sense? As "noobified" as VF is, it's still deeper than Tekken.

Tekken has many saving graces but being deeper than VF is not one of them. What people love about Tekken is the hard hits, the visuals and the sounds. It's better than DOA at eye candy bc there's more substance behind it, instead of just bouncing boobs and 3-second-windows for their (hard-hitting) reversals.

Let's face it, Tekken is just a hard hitting fighter. Even if it's a slap to the face (Anna) the opponent goes flying and spinning like they got the life slapped out of them.
I gotta admit, I never thought that Japan would favor Tekken over VF. I thought they cared more about gameplay /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

I do understand why most people here in the U.S. just want to play a fighter that makes you feel like you're kicking ass and not putting in so much work with variables, frames, which side do they evade to the most, a more complicated throw-escape system, etc.
It's sad though, I thought it was only here in America where players got a kick out of picking up a fighter and start kicking ass in just a few minutes. I guess Japan is adapting our fast-food-nation mentality /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

This sort of crap reminds me of the movie "Idiocracy" /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif

 

"Go away! Baten'!"

 

That was the month that BR was coming in, so it's likely the audience was split. Indeed, BR was 2nd, Tekken 6 8th. T6 ranked top income for 2008. And pretty much top rank from release to BR.

I kept a copy of Famitsu survey from about a year ago "Which do you prefer, VF or Tekken. Tekken won.


http://sdtekken.com/2009/02/01/march-2009-arcadia-news/
http://sdtekken.com/2009/01/03/2008-arcadia-award-winners/
Unscanned Famitsu.

 

Who ever did say this is extremely right. Tekken 4 was a disater because it tried to follow VF with the uneven terrains.5 went back to the Launch-> Juggle roots that made it a gimmicky but easy game.

With all due respect most Japanese gamers are finicky. Many cried that Ninja Gaiden was too Hard and did'nt give it a chance so i guess this holds true for VF5 and R. If you ever play NG2 you know how easy the game is on its Casual level because it became a straight beat em up.

Its Tekken a Better Game than VF no. Is it more popular hell yeah because of its accessibility to noobs. Sad part is i like both and i play whateva is in season.

 

^^^

I get your point, but many NG fans feel NG2 is more difficult because of it's cheesy cheapness. Warrior was easy, but once you put it on Mentor it gets damn near impossible to get through without taking damage.

 

Tell me about it. thats why i quit it lol!!! I mean its not like its detrimental to unlocking something huge to ensure replay value. It was a fun try but it because annoying quickly because of the Cheapness.

 

Part of the problem is that gamer's tastes have changed quite a lot from 10 or 15 years ago. The current trend for popular fighting games are combo-friendly games, aside from SF4, and even that game is pretty combo friendly compared to SF2/3. Take a look at the top fighting games, and you'll see titles like Blazblue, Guilty Gear, Tekken, etc. are all games that heavily rely on combos rather than flowcharts.

Another problem is that the game doesn't have anything very abusable anymore. I think if you looked back at the series during VF2/3, there was always something that you could rely on heavily during matches, but in VF4/5 they kind of moved away from that. It seems everyone has a counter to anything, and I think that puts off a lot of people.

Namco also makes more appealing characters AND backgrounds, so yeah... lots of reasons why Tekken is more popular right now...

 

sounds like the character design for VF needs a reboot to get to the main stream again. Hopefully SFIV will bring fighting games into the mainstream again leading to people trying VF and Tekken out of wanting more. that's how it happened to me back when SF2 was around. . . that and 3D graphics were the IT thing then.

 

It's all simple, ppl like Tekken and Soulcalibur cause their easier to handle, and at the end (like all type of games really) they have some "depth".
There is actually exactly the same case than Tekken/VF in the FPS PC scene:

Counter Strike= more appealing at first, easy to handle, easy movement, simple gameplay, slow paced, fast learning curve, enormous player community, fun to watch in gaming events even for non-players

Quake III= rough to apprehend, very slow learning curve, a lot of different movement technics (and all of em are pretty hard to master), different aiming skills needed on each weapon, very fast paced, small hardcore community, non-players don't understand the game when they watch it.

guess who won the war /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

 

Unreal Tournament.....

 

Wasn't VF5R in 18th position in the previous Arcadia? If it's gone to 4th now with only Blazblue and T6BR ahead of it that's a big improvement. It's still ahead of SF4 and everything else.

 

This

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Namco also makes more appealing characters AND backgrounds, so yeah... lots of reasons why Tekken is more popular right now... </div></div>And this are the reasons I believe that make Tekken more popular than VF. The combo part is specially true. I have friends who don't even play Tekken or other fighting games seriously, but find themselves excited everytime they decide to watch "combo videos" on youtube. I have several friends who stopped playing SF in favor of GG as well, just because GG is a fast-paced combo-fest.

Even though most people don't care about fighting games storyline, characters and backgrounds do play a role no matter how cheesy they are. Let's take KoF for example. KoF 98 is held by many as the best of the series so far, gameplay-wise, even though it has no storyline whatsoever. However, what made the series popular and the characters get stuck in the heads of the fans to guarantee the success of a game like '98? The infamous Orochi Saga, from KoF 95 to 97. When Iori goes apeshit and rapes everyone during 97 he went from metrossexual to ultimate baddass just because of the background they gave him in-game. You just WANT to play as him for being so bad. Power Glove-like bad.

Hell, I got excited when watching one of the T6BR trailers, where Jin and Kazuya are fighting each other and there are lots of explosions and shit. I would love to master one of them just because they give me a brutal fighting vibe.

VF doesn't need to change its gameplay, but having some more background and breathing some life into its characters could go a long way. Hell, give them some specific intros for certain matches (ie: Lau vs Lei Fei) and you already have SOMETHING.

 

That's a really good idea! That's a way of bring in a plot with out really changing the game in any way. It would make the matches more compelling though.