I definitely think this "Digimon/Megaman BN/Beyblade" aesthetic of the early/mid 00s is very charming. It's a bit naive... you know, that "simpler times" vibes
Its ugly as shit. FF9 did a youthful, cartoony style on the PS1 that runs circles around this. Its not that this looks like a childrens cartoon- it looks like a childrens cartoon no one gave a shit about, down to the people making it
“Hm… art style actually kinda reminds me of Billy Hatcher maybe it’s the same guy?” >Looks up credits on MobyGames, and sees that I’m wrong. Scrolls down to cast… “CHARLES MARTINET WAS IN THIS!?”
Yeah, Martinet can actually do more roles than "vaguely racist clown". He's just only KNOWN for 3D Mario. A little like Frank Welker, only less so. Welker's filmography is VERY long, but... nope, none of that matters. He's just "the guy who played Megatron, I guess"
@@CptJistuce It's more him appearing in this obscure game than a raw association with Mario. I also know he played a dragon in one of the Elder Scrolls games. I also mainly associate Frank Welker with Fred Jones, especially since he played the role long after the others left or died.
@@BinaryHedgehog1 Voice actors are in far more random pieces of nonsense than big respected things. (And occasionally something that looks like random nonsense and then becomes a big deal.)
This feels like the create-a-fighter mode in something like Street Fighter EX 3 or Tekken Tag Tournament 2, except the devs spent so much time making it that they forgot the main VS mode.
Fun fact: The developers of Shenmue had implemented Ryu's Shin Shoryuken in the game but it was removed at Suzuki's request. You can still mod the game for it to show up.
The plot reeks of "proto-SAO for Kids" with such a corny dub I just can't help but laugh. Though the original JP audio does help in taking the game a bit more seriously. Speaking of SAO, Akira (with the help of Pai) *does* get to a chance to kick Kirito's ass 10 years down the line, funnily enough.
Never thought to see or hear a PSO reference. Especially when they mention "Hunter's Licence", a subscription licence as a way of being able to play online in PSO.
Virtua Quest is one of the strangest fighting game spin-offs I've ever seen. I know "Virtua" would probably mean that there would be some VR elements in the game, but the game doesn't even feel like Virtua Fighter. It feels as close to Virtua Fighter as Virtua Cop is. However, I do applaud the developers for making such a unique idea. The execution feels super generic though, and the gameplay really does feel lackluster.
@@yngwie01 It was a gimmick, but what I meant was this series would probably eventually dip into the Virtual Reality theme. But I never thought it would be like this.
@@amosdeguzman9980 I mean, the Virtua name was dipping into the VR theme from the start. Virtua Racing actually has "VR" buttons to change the camera angle. This is advertized in big letters in the demo loop. (Also, Virtua Racing abbreviates to VR.) Virtua Quest is just moreso.
@@amosdeguzman9980 Honestly, I expect this game had a troubled development cycle, began as "Virtua Fighter RPG", and gradually mutated to... this thing. It woulda been cool if it had actually loosely referenced all the Virtua games instead of just being "Barely Virtua Fighter RPG"
This simultaneously reminds me of Kingdom Hearts and Custom Robo. Especially the "hunter's license" thing, there's something super similar in Custom Robo for Gamecube where you gotta get a bounty hunter's license (just like in real life).
Weirdly, this is the first game I played that was a part of Virtua Fighter (possibly only, I’m not into fighting games usually), so it’s funny looking back and realizing all the mentor figures teaching you moves were like… actual well known characters.
I loved the CG Character portraits, High Score Girl features the Jeffrey one heavily in a scene near the end of the show and it got me listening to it over and over
Thank you for your hard work. I never knew Toka was Dural! This game's art is so interesting - the character designs seem fine when you look at their 2D illustrations but they look so so awkward in 3d. Meanwhile, the slightly deformed VF4 characters look great in their slightly cuter proportions and lower level of detail. You can really see the character modeling team struggling to capture the kids anime art style when their comfort zone is clearly in the more realistic side lol Anyway, I wish this game had a VS mode upon completing it. I would've loved to fight with these different proportioned VF characters 🤔
I’m a huge VF fan, it’s one of my favorite series of all time, but man I had no desire to play this game at all back in the day lol. Also there is quite a bit of lore to the series actually, but it’s only in the booklets for some odd reason. Each manual updates you on what happened to each character in the last game.
And the devs' refusal to develop those elements in the own game really costed them a lot, especially with the release of TK3. They just were too out of touch with the gaming culture of the time and how literally all fgs were starting to develop lore and storytelling after their early releases. The SNK games and MK had a fair advantage in that aspect since their first releases in the early 90s, and they were the main responsibles for pushing that idea in fgs. So near the mid 90s we could say that was already a common fg thing. And luckily when TK came it didn't waste time trying to go on that direction. Also DOA and SE/SC decided to take that direction, with SC ending up ahead than TK itself. Even lower class 3d fg series took that direction like Rival Schools and Bloody Roar. So only VF among the big seeiest stayed almost the same.
when i hear virtua quest i expect dragon quest with Legend of Legaia's battle system... but no it's a weird-ass action RPG with some vague refferences to virtua fighter.
Seeing VQ makes me long for a Shenmue-esque adventure game based on the VF universe. Like what Yu Suzuki initially planned, focusing on Akira Yuki and his journeys. Maybe having some of his traits from the anime. Mainly his iron stomach lol
Oh. So the stream's title that claimed it's a Virtua Fighter game wasn't actually a joke. I must say, it's pretty bold of Sega to choose Revolver Ocelot as the final boss of their lighthearted adventure game.
Even if the gameplay seems to drag, at least the story and dialogue has that surreal Kingdom Hearts feeling to keep it interesting lmao… Your sacrifice is appreciated 🫡 and your retelling of the events had me dead. Real Quoters were here to witness the fire alarm incident.
To be fair that "transportation to the virtual world" idea wasn't special anymore for that time. It was trendy, not an unique thing or something like that. So the game doesn't have even that in its favor.
Y'know I want to believe that there are weird B-games out there today that we just don't know about, but will sometime in the future like 15 years from now. Kind of like some time capsule. We'll wonder how we can't have weird games from 2023. Another great vid GWQ! Can't wait to catch another stream provided your place doesn't burn down.
I said it during your stream and I'll say it again; losing to this anime kid is a _bad look_ for every villain in the game, lol. I just can't cheer for some punk who's having _"his first day on the internet"_ 😄 When you said, "Hayami tells us there's no way anything nefarious is going on, even though a hundred people have tried to beat Sei's ass since he logged on," I'm like, "Well.... _look at him._ He's asking for it. What a dork" lol. This was such a fun stream to watch. Even when you were lost and wandering in circles, the community were fun to chat with, so it was no big deal. Even when your fire alarm went off 4 times - _ESPECIALLY when your fire alarm went off 4 times._ And when you finished up and forgot to actually shut off the stream for a few minutes before coming back in and noticing? The whole experience was a blast! I'm glad I noticed the TH-cam Recommended on my side with that thumbnail - "I swear this is a Virtua Fighter game!" - since you didn't advertise it at all. Hopefully you decide to look at *more* fighting games that took big, experimental swings at proper Quest Modes in the future (MK Deception's Konquest Mode, Shaolin: Lord of Fist, anything by Dream Factory, Abalaburn, Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance, Tekken 6's Scenario Mode, upcoming stuff like Beatdown Dungeon... there's definitely some interesting fighting Quest Modes out there) so you can have a good excuse to stream again sometime! Oh and the VF anime is great. Talk about nostalgic; that thing is the perfect '90s fighting anime series. Akira is a total Goku-style goofball who's obsessed with eating and training and could not give a sh*t about the ladies, Pai is the chick stuck with that dummy who's constantly put off by his goofball-ery, Jacky and Sarah play the straight men to those two and their antics, Sarah's got a pet flying squirrel for comic relief/marketability, and they all just go on this big ol' cross-country adventure in an RV bouncing from adventure to adventure where VF characters come in and go. It's completely un-Virtua Fighter like (going by the serious and joyless tone of 4 and 5), but it is such a fun anime to watch. All the ingredients for a classic hit Toonami show are there, if only it aired on Toonami when we were kids; humor, fighting, likeable characters, a plot that is paced well but with episodes that give you a solid lil' adventure every 22 minutes so you don't HAVE to worry about important things happening in some later episode - it's great. I'm glad TMS uploaded it to their TH-cam channel and licensed it to every streamer out there; like, it's on Tubi and RetroCrush and all of 'em. I hope more people check it out.
Fun fact, Vanessa Lewis from Virtua Fighter 4 was originally planned to be in Virtua Cop 3. Her model can even be found in the files. So kinda sort of.
To this day this game is so nostalgic for me, as goofy as it is. I went back and finally beat it more recently and it just reminded me of a simpler time. Bit had like 20 or so different versions you can unlock that all had different functions and changed the look which was changed by statting it differently with food you collected throughout the servers. Oh and the Sonic statue has an easter egg where you can press buttons in a specific order to make it spit out a collectable.
the 1, technically 2, VF games that have the lore *in the gaem,* are the game gear and master system port, virtua fighter animation, which was a game version of the anime series.
You think this is the first time a fighting game series had an RPG? Believe it or not, this isn't actually the first time that has happened. Samurai Shodown got one back in 1997 but its exclusive to Japan (it does have an unofficial English translation iirc) being released for the Neo Geo CD, PS1, and Sega Saturn. Its called Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushidō Retsuden (真説サムライスピリッツ武士道列伝 --> True Story of Samurai Spirits: Bushido Biographies [i'd say this translation of the title is semi accurate]). You should check that one out if there's actually an English translation of it since Samurai Shodown is a fighting game series that has, well... y'know. Actual story and lore.
It's one of those .hack inspired games but darn if that period wasn't cool as all hell for VR cyberspace adventures, continuing from the 80s trend of "laserspaces". Ah, anyways. Surprised you managed to bring up the Shenmue reference of it initially being a Virtua Fighter RPG with Akira as its protagonist, yet the construction, warehouse and port levels flew under your radar as the Shenmue references given what Sei ends up doing. All in all, it was about as ambitious as other projects at the time; unlike Gotcha Force and /hack though, this never got to be more than what it was and I doubt anyone wants to revisit it, just like nobody wants to make a Virtua Fighter 6. Maybe it's for the best, some things are relevant to the zeitgeist of their own time period, be they good or bad. And as for the anime, it's not like you'll learn much, it's on the level of "watch the MK movie to learn about MK 1 and 2" kind of lore, with a lot of things being radically different from the games. At some points the VF anime has more in common with Shenmue than VF after 2.
I highly recommend the VF Anime, it has differences from the game but it all for the better and they have a deep respect for the original material, is a neat 90s classic shonen style show
I remember reading the manual for VF4 and 5 which had some lore like Kage being the winner of the 3rd and 4th Tournaments and Dural being his mom who was kidnapped by the evil group J6.
I wish more people played Virtua Fighter. 3 and 4 are on Fightcade now with rollback but no matter what people will find a way to bring up Virtua Quest some how. More people will know about Virtua Quest than Virtua Fighter
(Essay comment... I do apologize lol) TLDR: I liked this game. it's not perfect by any means or the most amazing game, but I thought it was pretty decent. TLSR: I already stated my whole feelings about this game on another video on Virtua Quest. I basically said I liked the game, tho it definitely suffers it's issues, like how you try to move on to the next enemy but then you accidentally lock on to another and it makes you open to attacks, the timer in certain missions (like beat all enemies in 1 minute) continues to count down even after beating the last enemy instead of stopping right away, some platforming issues, the visual aesthetic of the character designs and the setting not fitting for Virtua Fighter by itself, voice acting, only one playable character, and the stages lack life in them, etc. Other than that it just felt like a hand to hand Kingdom Hearts, but the way it felt to me was it was more fast paced. I found the music memorable as I can think of several of the game's music when it pops in my head. I was genuinely engaged in the story and wanted to see how it plays out even tho it may not be a deep and complex story, and theres that one obvious story element (Sei's father) at least to me it was only one. Finding out Toka was a mini Dural was actually something i didn't see coming and it saddened. Mainly for Sei rather than how close I felt to Toka as she's just... There. The fights actually felt pressuring without feeling tedious to me, i liked fighting the Virtua Souls (or just simply the VF characters) and obtaining there abilities cuz it reminded me of Rockman/Mega Man. It felt like to me they were part of the story cuz they did help Sei see the power within him, gave him insight of who they were, what J6 is. Yeah it's no fireballs or hurricane kicks or special transformations, but it at least showed us why they were sought after. Even if a simple drop kick is a powerful technique in that universe, that was the point, it was powerful to them. These short lived interactions just felt so impactful to me. And the characters. Nothing I seen before, Sei to felt like a friendly, determined, courageous, adventurous, caring boy, who knew how to learn to adapt to situations fairly well for someone his age. Hayami at first seemed like that "bad friend" but turned out to be helpful, informative, cunning,, and has a sense of humor (tho it doesn't always hit). And my favorite character, Fan. She's a very happy, upbeat, temperamental girl, and while she hasn't been much use in battle, she is useful in raising Sei's spirits high. She also gives off a slight tomboy vibe so if anyone should have been a second playable character, it should have been her. She literally looks like a fighter, and should have gone into servers with Sei and Hayami.
This game Virtua Quest was one of my most favorite spinoffs of a game I've ever played. It still is one of them to this day. This game was pure enjoyment especially as a Virtua Fighter and RPG fan this was a game I never knew I needed. I enjoy spinoffs of quite afew games honestly like Death By Degrees which was the Tekken spinoff starring Nina Williams in her assassin role. The other games like anime games that have different genres from a fighting game like Naruto Ultimate Ninja, then the Uzamaki Chronicles, and such. Some are better than others of course when it comes to spinoffs but Virtua Quest was a great game for me. I still have my PS2 copy right on my shelf in perfect condition with my other games in my library. I miss the Virtua Fighter games, hopefully someday we'll get a VF6.
I scanned through the comments and didn't see this tidbit, but iirc the winner of the previous game's tournament for each VF would be deterimined by the last big Sega sponsored tourney's winner for that game. Also some of the plot for the characters were definitely missed potential plots, lei fei alone is so sick lore wise
There's an alternate reality where instead of moving on to make Tekken and Tobal Seiichi Ishii stayed with AM2 and made a VF ARPG, and I'm sad to not live in that timeline. Not that Tobal isn't awesome, but still just imagine a DreamFactory ARPG based on VF...
Imagine all big fg makers pushed for the making of actual well made RPGs based on those brands since the 90s, because of the rise of RPGs in that time. So all fgs, just outside the own fgs, would have good lore and decent stories. Compared to our timeline where fg stories are getting worse and just more flashy or because of the cutscenes.
@@carlosaugusto9821 I would say MK and KoF still at least know how to do narrative, but they're the only real fighting games I can think of that emphasize narrative, and they've done so since the beginning. That said, the SF comics are awesome at least.
Thank you for playing through the game, I wanted to give it a chance but just got extremely bored in the second level. Great job and as always looking forward to the next video!
Virtua Fighter does the irritating thing of sequels confirming all but one character ending from the previous game is canon. You fight your way through arcade mode with your main, wait potentially years for the next game, only to realize none of that mattered since another character was secretly the protagonist all along.
Isn’t that every fighting game, especially for ones with tournaments? The only fighting game that I know where every character specific ending is canon is “Blazblue”, because of a whole bunch of reasons, like time resets or the character specific story happening in different universes; and even then, there is always a true ending route.
Though I don't respect this game in any aspect but I greatly respect the intention of trying to do something different with the VF brand. I've always been fascinated by that idea and a heavy supporter of it even to this day. Mainly because I see an importance in exploring a brand from a niche genre (no matter how famous like SF or TK) in a more popular genre. If these non fgs are good that will only help the brand. And that might have an even strong effect in the case of smaller fg brands, or fg brands that died and would struggle to be noticed and survive if revived in the current stacked fg market, or just fg brands that used to be big but now are less recognized even inside the fgc. But another reason is that most of these fgs since the 90s proven to have an interesting potential in story and lore, but just happened to be stuck in a genre that wasn't supposed to give a lot of room to develop that aspect. Some already did better than others but most have the latent potential anyway. And despite the clear attempts to evolve fg storytelling since the 00s thanks to the modern console technology (PS3 gen) it's hard to argue against the fact that the fg genre at the core has significant limitations to handle that aspect compared to an action game or especially a rpg. So my wish is that all these fg brands with nice story potential had a side non fg genre with games that are actually well made and give the lore the attention it needs, in a scale that it's impossible for a fg to deal with. Also i believe that could take some pressure off the actual fg devs to keep expanding story content in their new releases. So there must be even a positive side effect for the own fg devs.
Actually, depending on how you develop your stats(and "chao"), Sei can evolve into one of two alternate forms/movesets, the ninja like speed form, and the powerhouse form, so the game technically have 3 fighting styles, on top of the customizable Vitrua Souls
Can you imagine in an alternate world we would have Virtua Fighter RPG on the Saturn instead of Virtua Quest instead. It’s amazing that how Shenmue was supposed to be the Virtua Fighter spin-off game.
I really wish Sega could revisit this idea again and do something new with it cause it's a really cool idea for a fighting game RPG and while the execution wasn't the greatest, there are a lot of things that I feel would be amazing if brought up to modern standards. Also fun fact: There's a Megaman Battle Network-esq style change system in this game where if you use certain types of virtua soul moves enough times in a level, your battle style will change to a fast, normal or heavy one. For the most part this just changed your ground strings but it's interesting that they put that in and the game never even tells you about it unless it's one of those "only explained in the instruction manual" type deals.
@@GuileWinQuote Oh I wasn't blaming you for not bringing it up or anything. It's a pretty inconsequential mechanic so I don't blame you for skimming over it.
I think Sega should make there's own Kingdom Hearts style game lol add in Sonic, Fighting vipers. Golden axe, Streets of Rage, Altered Beast, Shinobi, and many more
Sometimes you can never understand Sega. They made a fighting game bereft of any effort, but then they'll sell the CG pics as a supplementary CD single to make more money. Then let their competitors (Tekken) get their top spot as they offer more for the players in terms of lore and gameplay.
VF4 Evo is one of my fav fighting games and I never heard of this till you streamed it, great over view on the game dude. It seems somehow boring in parts, but I can't help but think they could have used this engine for Virtua fighter kids 2 lol. Yeah you're right we wont ever see anything like this again, which I guess makes the game more interesting to check out.
I've got a copy of this I've been meaning to play through and now I really want to play through it lmao I knew it got goofy but I didn't know it got this goofy.
Btw there's totally a fully fledged Virtua Fighter anime that isn't half bad and ran for 2 seasons. Better than most Street Fighter efforts of the 90's! And Akira has an actual heart and personality there, although Jacky and Sarah and many others carry the plot through! It's on Prime Video where I live, and I found it by chance trying to see what anime they had besides Inuyasha. I had faint memories of it but since it was translated in Spanish as "El Luchador Virtuoso" (meaning the Virtuos Fighter not the Virtua Fighter) as a kid I never associated the anime with the game even though I played tons of VF4. I think they changed the characters names in the dub so that got me confused😂
I remember Nintendo Official Magazine spending a lot of time hyping this up for some reason even though it was pretty obvious this wasn't going to get a European launch. Supposedly TOSE worked on it. I'd want to joke this would be one of their better games, but they'd already started shaping up well before this.
I feel like I remember seeing spreads for it in EGM and Nintendo Power all the time as well. I wonder how many kids got introduced to VF through this game 😅
Oh you want MORE VIRTUA FIGHTER LORE?!?!?! Then we have the product for you: Virtua Fighter....... PACHINKO!!!!! Story cutscenes spliced through thrilling gameplay...wait dont run! Pachinko is life !!!! Ull play it in Yakuza 5!!!!
It seems like you've missed the idea as to why other hunters aren't able to utilize or sell the virtua souls. Virtua Souls are "meaningless data" as specified by Hayami and aren't worth a whole lot. The special arm brace Sei has is able to decode that corrupted data into very valuable techniques, for his fights against Judgement Six. It's like an evangelion/sao mash of concepts, dad forces you into a battle you never wanted to be in and you find the darker side of the internet. But for a 2003 game I think it holds up pretty well. I also think the dad probably not gonna wake up again due to having his consciousness getting caught in the server shutdown. (Pretty sure everyone else was logged out forcefully for safety reasons.)
I LOVE your videos, they are so great wonderful job man, this one's not exception but the main difference here is that I felt your pain dude... this one hits a critical spot for me, remembering why I must qui a game if I don't have an experience interesting enough with it, feeling my life vanishing from my bones in real time quite intensely. Pretty sure you did even worse but that was enough for me to remind you : we're many here, you're not alone, posting the video was a good first step in seeking help. Take care Guilewinquote ;0
Thanks for playing this game to inform everyone of it’s existence but the game looks mediocre to play seeing the footage for myself. I think I’d rather play The Bouncer over this any day.
An Anime script that acknowledges ridiculous anime writing and scenarios? I'm sure the writer was savagely beaten and shipped off to an undocumented prison island.
I definitely think this "Digimon/Megaman BN/Beyblade" aesthetic of the early/mid 00s is very charming. It's a bit naive... you know, that "simpler times" vibes
You got the Analog Youth profile pic so you already know I agree
agree 1000%, love that aesthetic.
I'd like to add Custom Robo to that list
Its ugly as shit. FF9 did a youthful, cartoony style on the PS1 that runs circles around this. Its not that this looks like a childrens cartoon- it looks like a childrens cartoon no one gave a shit about, down to the people making it
@@animatrix1490 fkn love that game, wish it would get a sequel or remake! Either way I need to play thru it again!
“Hm… art style actually kinda reminds me of Billy Hatcher maybe it’s the same guy?”
>Looks up credits on MobyGames, and sees that I’m wrong. Scrolls down to cast…
“CHARLES MARTINET WAS IN THIS!?”
Super Mario jumpscare
Yes the art looks like that
Yeah, Martinet can actually do more roles than "vaguely racist clown". He's just only KNOWN for 3D Mario.
A little like Frank Welker, only less so. Welker's filmography is VERY long, but... nope, none of that matters. He's just "the guy who played Megatron, I guess"
@@CptJistuce It's more him appearing in this obscure game than a raw association with Mario. I also know he played a dragon in one of the Elder Scrolls games.
I also mainly associate Frank Welker with Fred Jones, especially since he played the role long after the others left or died.
@@BinaryHedgehog1 Voice actors are in far more random pieces of nonsense than big respected things. (And occasionally something that looks like random nonsense and then becomes a big deal.)
This feels like the create-a-fighter mode in something like Street Fighter EX 3 or Tekken Tag Tournament 2, except the devs spent so much time making it that they forgot the main VS mode.
Honestly, that's a great way to put it haha
Fun fact: The developers of Shenmue had implemented Ryu's Shin Shoryuken in the game but it was removed at Suzuki's request. You can still mod the game for it to show up.
Oh god, VQ is made up entirely of my greatest gaming pet peeve- mocap animation applied to stylized cartoony models
Oh my god yes, this is so horrific and off-putting. I think they did this in one or two Sonic games and it was hideous, total theme park mascot look
@@CorporalDanLives which games were those? I'm guessing one of them was Sonic 06? I think that game had weird animation
@@no64256sonic unleashed has some of it too
@@no64256 I'm pretty sure Sonic Adventure 2 is one of them, though I don't know what's the other one.
Virtua Fighter characters actually have some really cool lore
I especially like the story behind Lau's martial arts abilities
The plot reeks of "proto-SAO for Kids" with such a corny dub I just can't help but laugh. Though the original JP audio does help in taking the game a bit more seriously.
Speaking of SAO, Akira (with the help of Pai) *does* get to a chance to kick Kirito's ass 10 years down the line, funnily enough.
...i'm so sad I forgot that Kirito was in DBFC.....I would've brought that up for a joke!!!!
Never thought to see or hear a PSO reference.
Especially when they mention "Hunter's Licence", a subscription licence as a way of being able to play online in PSO.
21:04 "this stage is literally just walking in a straight line so it has one of the better stage designs in the game"
Wow
Bruh the dad "reveal" was hilarious. Like they didn't even try!! LOL
Virtua Quest is one of the strangest fighting game spin-offs I've ever seen. I know "Virtua" would probably mean that there would be some VR elements in the game, but the game doesn't even feel like Virtua Fighter. It feels as close to Virtua Fighter as Virtua Cop is.
However, I do applaud the developers for making such a unique idea. The execution feels super generic though, and the gameplay really does feel lackluster.
But I think the virtua thing was just like the Super or the 64 for Nintendo games, it was just a gimmicky name that sega used for their 3d games.
@@yngwie01 It was a gimmick, but what I meant was this series would probably eventually dip into the Virtual Reality theme. But I never thought it would be like this.
@@amosdeguzman9980 I mean, the Virtua name was dipping into the VR theme from the start. Virtua Racing actually has "VR" buttons to change the camera angle. This is advertized in big letters in the demo loop. (Also, Virtua Racing abbreviates to VR.)
Virtua Quest is just moreso.
@@CptJistuce Yeah but why did they need to tie it into the Virtua Fighter games?
@@amosdeguzman9980 Honestly, I expect this game had a troubled development cycle, began as "Virtua Fighter RPG", and gradually mutated to... this thing.
It woulda been cool if it had actually loosely referenced all the Virtua games instead of just being "Barely Virtua Fighter RPG"
This simultaneously reminds me of Kingdom Hearts and Custom Robo. Especially the "hunter's license" thing, there's something super similar in Custom Robo for Gamecube where you gotta get a bounty hunter's license (just like in real life).
Weirdly, this is the first game I played that was a part of Virtua Fighter (possibly only, I’m not into fighting games usually), so it’s funny looking back and realizing all the mentor figures teaching you moves were like… actual well known characters.
"Last online : 11 years ago" :'(
Thank you for playing this insane piece of virtua history. Bummed that I missed the stream.
Next time I stream my house might actually catch on fire so I hope you're there 🫡
I loved the CG Character portraits, High Score Girl features the Jeffrey one heavily in a scene near the end of the show and it got me listening to it over and over
man you’re so cool and underrated, definitely one of the best fgc content creators
Thank you!!!! Thanks for checking out my stuff 🙇🏼
Second I heard Hunter, I knew it was gonna be similar to PSO. Hunter License was the sub for the game when the official servers were still up
Thank you for your hard work. I never knew Toka was Dural!
This game's art is so interesting - the character designs seem fine when you look at their 2D illustrations but they look so so awkward in 3d. Meanwhile, the slightly deformed VF4 characters look great in their slightly cuter proportions and lower level of detail. You can really see the character modeling team struggling to capture the kids anime art style when their comfort zone is clearly in the more realistic side lol
Anyway, I wish this game had a VS mode upon completing it. I would've loved to fight with these different proportioned VF characters 🤔
Maaaaan a VF 4 Kids version with the Virtua Quest character models would've been fun as hell ! especially with the original characters/villains.
Oh god Virtua Quest. I remember renting this back in the day and turning it off after 30 minutes
I swear most fighting game spin-offs are something else, lmao
I’m a huge VF fan, it’s one of my favorite series of all time, but man I had no desire to play this game at all back in the day lol. Also there is quite a bit of lore to the series actually, but it’s only in the booklets for some odd reason. Each manual updates you on what happened to each character in the last game.
And the devs' refusal to develop those elements in the own game really costed them a lot, especially with the release of TK3. They just were too out of touch with the gaming culture of the time and how literally all fgs were starting to develop lore and storytelling after their early releases. The SNK games and MK had a fair advantage in that aspect since their first releases in the early 90s, and they were the main responsibles for pushing that idea in fgs. So near the mid 90s we could say that was already a common fg thing. And luckily when TK came it didn't waste time trying to go on that direction. Also DOA and SE/SC decided to take that direction, with SC ending up ahead than TK itself. Even lower class 3d fg series took that direction like Rival Schools and Bloody Roar. So only VF among the big seeiest stayed almost the same.
when i hear virtua quest i expect dragon quest with Legend of Legaia's battle system... but no it's a weird-ass action RPG with some vague refferences to virtua fighter.
Seeing VQ makes me long for a Shenmue-esque adventure game based on the VF universe. Like what Yu Suzuki initially planned, focusing on Akira Yuki and his journeys. Maybe having some of his traits from the anime. Mainly his iron stomach lol
And for a jokey observation, Jean's the real VF karate boy. Akira is a Bajiquan boy lol
Oh. So the stream's title that claimed it's a Virtua Fighter game wasn't actually a joke.
I must say, it's pretty bold of Sega to choose Revolver Ocelot as the final boss of their lighthearted adventure game.
Even if the gameplay seems to drag, at least the story and dialogue has that surreal Kingdom Hearts feeling to keep it interesting lmao…
Your sacrifice is appreciated 🫡 and your retelling of the events had me dead.
Real Quoters were here to witness the fire alarm incident.
To be fair that "transportation to the virtual world" idea wasn't special anymore for that time. It was trendy, not an unique thing or something like that. So the game doesn't have even that in its favor.
@@carlosaugusto9821 ahhh I see. At least it gives it a certain charm in retrospect.
Y'know I want to believe that there are weird B-games out there today that we just don't know about, but will sometime in the future like 15 years from now. Kind of like some time capsule. We'll wonder how we can't have weird games from 2023. Another great vid GWQ! Can't wait to catch another stream provided your place doesn't burn down.
This was actually my first virtua fighter game as a kid. I loved it
I meant to ask how many people actually got into the series by this game! I'm sure it introduced tons of unsuspecting kids
17:10 is this some Shenmue reference with ol' Warehouse No. 8?
20:52 Okay this is definitely a Shenmue thing now.
And to think we could've gotten Shenmue 3 years earlier instead of, this.
It's got that phantasy star online dreamcast look to it that I love. I miss games designed like this.
I said it during your stream and I'll say it again; losing to this anime kid is a _bad look_ for every villain in the game, lol. I just can't cheer for some punk who's having _"his first day on the internet"_ 😄 When you said, "Hayami tells us there's no way anything nefarious is going on, even though a hundred people have tried to beat Sei's ass since he logged on," I'm like, "Well.... _look at him._ He's asking for it. What a dork" lol.
This was such a fun stream to watch. Even when you were lost and wandering in circles, the community were fun to chat with, so it was no big deal. Even when your fire alarm went off 4 times - _ESPECIALLY when your fire alarm went off 4 times._ And when you finished up and forgot to actually shut off the stream for a few minutes before coming back in and noticing? The whole experience was a blast! I'm glad I noticed the TH-cam Recommended on my side with that thumbnail - "I swear this is a Virtua Fighter game!" - since you didn't advertise it at all.
Hopefully you decide to look at *more* fighting games that took big, experimental swings at proper Quest Modes in the future (MK Deception's Konquest Mode, Shaolin: Lord of Fist, anything by Dream Factory, Abalaburn, Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance, Tekken 6's Scenario Mode, upcoming stuff like Beatdown Dungeon... there's definitely some interesting fighting Quest Modes out there) so you can have a good excuse to stream again sometime!
Oh and the VF anime is great. Talk about nostalgic; that thing is the perfect '90s fighting anime series. Akira is a total Goku-style goofball who's obsessed with eating and training and could not give a sh*t about the ladies, Pai is the chick stuck with that dummy who's constantly put off by his goofball-ery, Jacky and Sarah play the straight men to those two and their antics, Sarah's got a pet flying squirrel for comic relief/marketability, and they all just go on this big ol' cross-country adventure in an RV bouncing from adventure to adventure where VF characters come in and go. It's completely un-Virtua Fighter like (going by the serious and joyless tone of 4 and 5), but it is such a fun anime to watch. All the ingredients for a classic hit Toonami show are there, if only it aired on Toonami when we were kids; humor, fighting, likeable characters, a plot that is paced well but with episodes that give you a solid lil' adventure every 22 minutes so you don't HAVE to worry about important things happening in some later episode - it's great. I'm glad TMS uploaded it to their TH-cam channel and licensed it to every streamer out there; like, it's on Tubi and RetroCrush and all of 'em. I hope more people check it out.
Imagining what it would be like if every time I had to log out, I had to fight the sysadmin in 1 on 1 combat. Pretty sure that dude's a vet.
hope you do more video about action game series somehow have a weird fighting game spin-off, I thinks Onimusha Blade Warriors would be a fun candidate
It's also the only fighter with Mega Man.exe characters so I gotta talk about it some day...!
I always know it's gonna be a treat when I see long GWQ video
If all you need to connect to VF is have "Virtua" in your title, does that mean Virtua Cop is another lost part of the franchise?
If Virtua Cop had a bunch of VF characters and the main VF antagonists as the driving force of the story, then yes VC would be a VF spinoff 😅
Fun fact, Vanessa Lewis from Virtua Fighter 4 was originally planned to be in Virtua Cop 3. Her model can even be found in the files. So kinda sort of.
To this day this game is so nostalgic for me, as goofy as it is. I went back and finally beat it more recently and it just reminded me of a simpler time. Bit had like 20 or so different versions you can unlock that all had different functions and changed the look which was changed by statting it differently with food you collected throughout the servers. Oh and the Sonic statue has an easter egg where you can press buttons in a specific order to make it spit out a collectable.
This game definitely lost money and also seems like it was originally designed to be something else and they just injected Virtua Fighter into it
the 1, technically 2, VF games that have the lore *in the gaem,* are the game gear and master system port, virtua fighter animation, which was a game version of the anime series.
You think this is the first time a fighting game series had an RPG? Believe it or not, this isn't actually the first time that has happened. Samurai Shodown got one back in 1997 but its exclusive to Japan (it does have an unofficial English translation iirc) being released for the Neo Geo CD, PS1, and Sega Saturn. Its called Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushidō Retsuden (真説サムライスピリッツ武士道列伝 --> True Story of Samurai Spirits: Bushido Biographies [i'd say this translation of the title is semi accurate]). You should check that one out if there's actually an English translation of it since Samurai Shodown is a fighting game series that has, well... y'know. Actual story and lore.
I'm waiting on the English patch that looks like it actually might finish this year to finally play it! Been on my radar for years, very excited 🫡
It's one of those .hack inspired games but darn if that period wasn't cool as all hell for VR cyberspace adventures, continuing from the 80s trend of "laserspaces". Ah, anyways. Surprised you managed to bring up the Shenmue reference of it initially being a Virtua Fighter RPG with Akira as its protagonist, yet the construction, warehouse and port levels flew under your radar as the Shenmue references given what Sei ends up doing.
All in all, it was about as ambitious as other projects at the time; unlike Gotcha Force and /hack though, this never got to be more than what it was and I doubt anyone wants to revisit it, just like nobody wants to make a Virtua Fighter 6. Maybe it's for the best, some things are relevant to the zeitgeist of their own time period, be they good or bad.
And as for the anime, it's not like you'll learn much, it's on the level of "watch the MK movie to learn about MK 1 and 2" kind of lore, with a lot of things being radically different from the games. At some points the VF anime has more in common with Shenmue than VF after 2.
Kinda sucks that Virtua fighter never has any of its story in game…think the only one that does is the Virtua fighter kids
I highly recommend the VF Anime, it has differences from the game but it all for the better and they have a deep respect for the original material, is a neat 90s classic shonen style show
I remember reading the manual for VF4 and 5 which had some lore like Kage being the winner of the 3rd and 4th Tournaments and Dural being his mom who was kidnapped by the evil group J6.
I wish more people played Virtua Fighter. 3 and 4 are on Fightcade now with rollback but no matter what people will find a way to bring up Virtua Quest some how.
More people will know about Virtua Quest than Virtua Fighter
(Essay comment... I do apologize lol) TLDR: I liked this game. it's not perfect by any means or the most amazing game, but I thought it was pretty decent.
TLSR: I already stated my whole feelings about this game on another video on Virtua Quest. I basically said I liked the game, tho it definitely suffers it's issues, like how you try to move on to the next enemy but then you accidentally lock on to another and it makes you open to attacks, the timer in certain missions (like beat all enemies in 1 minute) continues to count down even after beating the last enemy instead of stopping right away, some platforming issues, the visual aesthetic of the character designs and the setting not fitting for Virtua Fighter by itself, voice acting, only one playable character, and the stages lack life in them, etc. Other than that it just felt like a hand to hand Kingdom Hearts, but the way it felt to me was it was more fast paced. I found the music memorable as I can think of several of the game's music when it pops in my head.
I was genuinely engaged in the story and wanted to see how it plays out even tho it may not be a deep and complex story, and theres that one obvious story element (Sei's father) at least to me it was only one. Finding out Toka was a mini Dural was actually something i didn't see coming and it saddened. Mainly for Sei rather than how close I felt to Toka as she's just... There. The fights actually felt pressuring without feeling tedious to me, i liked fighting the Virtua Souls (or just simply the VF characters) and obtaining there abilities cuz it reminded me of Rockman/Mega Man. It felt like to me they were part of the story cuz they did help Sei see the power within him, gave him insight of who they were, what J6 is. Yeah it's no fireballs or hurricane kicks or special transformations, but it at least showed us why they were sought after. Even if a simple drop kick is a powerful technique in that universe, that was the point, it was powerful to them. These short lived interactions just felt so impactful to me. And the characters. Nothing I seen before, Sei to felt like a friendly, determined, courageous, adventurous, caring boy, who knew how to learn to adapt to situations fairly well for someone his age. Hayami at first seemed like that "bad friend" but turned out to be helpful, informative, cunning,, and has a sense of humor (tho it doesn't always hit). And my favorite character, Fan. She's a very happy, upbeat, temperamental girl, and while she hasn't been much use in battle, she is useful in raising Sei's spirits high. She also gives off a slight tomboy vibe so if anyone should have been a second playable character, it should have been her. She literally looks like a fighter, and should have gone into servers with Sei and Hayami.
Interestingly similar to Megaman Batrle Network.
This game Virtua Quest was one of my most favorite spinoffs of a game I've ever played. It still is one of them to this day. This game was pure enjoyment especially as a Virtua Fighter and RPG fan this was a game I never knew I needed. I enjoy spinoffs of quite afew games honestly like Death By Degrees which was the Tekken spinoff starring Nina Williams in her assassin role. The other games like anime games that have different genres from a fighting game like Naruto Ultimate Ninja, then the Uzamaki Chronicles, and such. Some are better than others of course when it comes to spinoffs but Virtua Quest was a great game for me. I still have my PS2 copy right on my shelf in perfect condition with my other games in my library. I miss the Virtua Fighter games, hopefully someday we'll get a VF6.
I like how calm he is about his fire alarm going off
I scanned through the comments and didn't see this tidbit, but iirc the winner of the previous game's tournament for each VF would be deterimined by the last big Sega sponsored tourney's winner for that game.
Also some of the plot for the characters were definitely missed potential plots, lei fei alone is so sick lore wise
There's an alternate reality where instead of moving on to make Tekken and Tobal Seiichi Ishii stayed with AM2 and made a VF ARPG, and I'm sad to not live in that timeline. Not that Tobal isn't awesome, but still just imagine a DreamFactory ARPG based on VF...
Imagine all big fg makers pushed for the making of actual well made RPGs based on those brands since the 90s, because of the rise of RPGs in that time. So all fgs, just outside the own fgs, would have good lore and decent stories. Compared to our timeline where fg stories are getting worse and just more flashy or because of the cutscenes.
@@carlosaugusto9821 I would say MK and KoF still at least know how to do narrative, but they're the only real fighting games I can think of that emphasize narrative, and they've done so since the beginning.
That said, the SF comics are awesome at least.
Ishii and Tobias sadly had duds later, Kakuto Chojin and Tao Feng. However, Suzuki should've just made Shenmue 3 a decade and a half earlier.
1:28 Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well
Thank you for playing through the game, I wanted to give it a chance but just got extremely bored in the second level. Great job and as always looking forward to the next video!
It felt like a struggle at time....but it has its charm! Thanks!
I tried to start playing this game at least two or three times and I could never get past the first hour. Thank you for saving me so much time.
Virtua Fighter does the irritating thing of sequels confirming all but one character ending from the previous game is canon. You fight your way through arcade mode with your main, wait potentially years for the next game, only to realize none of that mattered since another character was secretly the protagonist all along.
Isn’t that every fighting game, especially for ones with tournaments? The only fighting game that I know where every character specific ending is canon is “Blazblue”, because of a whole bunch of reasons, like time resets or the character specific story happening in different universes; and even then, there is always a true ending route.
Jeffry may as well be the main character cuz his story is the only one I know
I am pretty sure the port is an reference to Shenmue. If I knew this game was a constant Sega homage I would have picked this up ages ago...
5:08 So you're saying that Shenmue, Fantasy Star Online, and Virtua Fighter take place in the same canon. Got it!
Though I don't respect this game in any aspect but I greatly respect the intention of trying to do something different with the VF brand. I've always been fascinated by that idea and a heavy supporter of it even to this day. Mainly because I see an importance in exploring a brand from a niche genre (no matter how famous like SF or TK) in a more popular genre. If these non fgs are good that will only help the brand. And that might have an even strong effect in the case of smaller fg brands, or fg brands that died and would struggle to be noticed and survive if revived in the current stacked fg market, or just fg brands that used to be big but now are less recognized even inside the fgc.
But another reason is that most of these fgs since the 90s proven to have an interesting potential in story and lore, but just happened to be stuck in a genre that wasn't supposed to give a lot of room to develop that aspect. Some already did better than others but most have the latent potential anyway. And despite the clear attempts to evolve fg storytelling since the 00s thanks to the modern console technology (PS3 gen) it's hard to argue against the fact that the fg genre at the core has significant limitations to handle that aspect compared to an action game or especially a rpg.
So my wish is that all these fg brands with nice story potential had a side non fg genre with games that are actually well made and give the lore the attention it needs, in a scale that it's impossible for a fg to deal with. Also i believe that could take some pressure off the actual fg devs to keep expanding story content in their new releases. So there must be even a positive side effect for the own fg devs.
Imagine they make a new Virtua Fighter, and the game Story Mode is a Virtua Quest sequel. complete with 2000s kodomo anime protagonist aesthetic. 😄😄
It’s somehow the opposite of sword art online. People in that world would love to log out alive
There was supposed to be a sequel to answer most of those questions, but this game wasn't to most fans' expectations
New fan. Loving your videos! The algorithm works sometimes!
Actually, depending on how you develop your stats(and "chao"), Sei can evolve into one of two alternate forms/movesets, the ninja like speed form, and the powerhouse form, so the game technically have 3 fighting styles, on top of the customizable Vitrua Souls
Oh wow, I knew about it affecting how Bit acts in combat but had no idea that it changed your moveset! Completely missed over that my playthrough
All the virtual fighter lore you need is in the virtual fighter anime
I thought I was the only one that still remembered this game. I liked it alot
Great video and I love that You kept that "alarm" part :D
only the real ones sat through 10 minutes of that
23:30 Thought Sei was gon say “ I should have filled your dark soul with LIGHHHHTTTTTTTT!”
Or....
"Nooo!! This isn't happening!! There's no reason for me to go on! What… What am I fighting for?!????!!!??!"
Brilliant video! You're one of the best channels on the platform.
Thank you! This means a lot, thanks for watching 🙇🏼
Can you imagine in an alternate world we would have Virtua Fighter RPG on the Saturn instead of Virtua Quest instead. It’s amazing that how Shenmue was supposed to be the Virtua Fighter spin-off game.
Kingdom Hearts looking a little weird.
I really wish Sega could revisit this idea again and do something new with it cause it's a really cool idea for a fighting game RPG and while the execution wasn't the greatest, there are a lot of things that I feel would be amazing if brought up to modern standards.
Also fun fact: There's a Megaman Battle Network-esq style change system in this game where if you use certain types of virtua soul moves enough times in a level, your battle style will change to a fast, normal or heavy one. For the most part this just changed your ground strings but it's interesting that they put that in and the game never even tells you about it unless it's one of those "only explained in the instruction manual" type deals.
Haha, while streaming that's exactly how I described it too. It's a cool system, I just didn't think it was needed to be explained for the video!
@@GuileWinQuote Oh I wasn't blaming you for not bringing it up or anything. It's a pretty inconsequential mechanic so I don't blame you for skimming over it.
I think Sega should make there's own Kingdom Hearts style game lol
add in Sonic, Fighting vipers. Golden axe, Streets of Rage, Altered Beast, Shinobi, and many more
Sometimes you can never understand Sega. They made a fighting game bereft of any effort, but then they'll sell the CG pics as a supplementary CD single to make more money.
Then let their competitors (Tekken) get their top spot as they offer more for the players in terms of lore and gameplay.
I think it would be cool if Sega gave this game another try. Let RGG Studios make it
That would be amazing!
I think it would be better if they revive Rent a hero
@@alejandrosantana8657 considering RAH on Dreamcast played like a more arcade-y and dumb precursor to Yakuza, that works
A new RPG ok, but not using this same idea
VF4 Evo is one of my fav fighting games and I never heard of this till you streamed it, great over view on the game dude. It seems somehow boring in parts, but I can't help but think they could have used this engine for Virtua fighter kids 2 lol. Yeah you're right we wont ever see anything like this again, which I guess makes the game more interesting to check out.
Thank you for the in depth review / summary
Thank you for watching 🙇🏼
I've got a copy of this I've been meaning to play through and now I really want to play through it lmao I knew it got goofy but I didn't know it got this goofy.
Btw there's totally a fully fledged Virtua Fighter anime that isn't half bad and ran for 2 seasons. Better than most Street Fighter efforts of the 90's!
And Akira has an actual heart and personality there, although Jacky and Sarah and many others carry the plot through!
It's on Prime Video where I live, and I found it by chance trying to see what anime they had besides Inuyasha. I had faint memories of it but since it was translated in Spanish as "El Luchador Virtuoso" (meaning the Virtuos Fighter not the Virtua Fighter) as a kid I never associated the anime with the game even though I played tons of VF4. I think they changed the characters names in the dub so that got me confused😂
3:14 the search for that godaemn hedgehog
Subscribed, haven't played through this ARPG yet thanks added to backlog.
Thank you for checking my stuff out 🫡
I remember Nintendo Official Magazine spending a lot of time hyping this up for some reason even though it was pretty obvious this wasn't going to get a European launch. Supposedly TOSE worked on it. I'd want to joke this would be one of their better games, but they'd already started shaping up well before this.
I feel like I remember seeing spreads for it in EGM and Nintendo Power all the time as well. I wonder how many kids got introduced to VF through this game 😅
Oh you want MORE VIRTUA FIGHTER LORE?!?!?!
Then we have the product for you:
Virtua Fighter.......
PACHINKO!!!!!
Story cutscenes spliced through thrilling gameplay...wait dont run! Pachinko is life !!!! Ull play it in Yakuza 5!!!!
25:33 have you ever seen terminally online discord/twitter kids? I'm pretty sure that sentiment is shared
It seems like you've missed the idea as to why other hunters aren't able to utilize or sell the virtua souls. Virtua Souls are "meaningless data" as specified by Hayami and aren't worth a whole lot. The special arm brace Sei has is able to decode that corrupted data into very valuable techniques, for his fights against Judgement Six. It's like an evangelion/sao mash of concepts, dad forces you into a battle you never wanted to be in and you find the darker side of the internet. But for a 2003 game I think it holds up pretty well. I also think the dad probably not gonna wake up again due to having his consciousness getting caught in the server shutdown. (Pretty sure everyone else was logged out forcefully for safety reasons.)
Anybody notice that Charles Martinet voices Lao Chan.
So apparently, I found someone else who played this game. If I'd actually bought it, I would have been extremely angry.
I LOVE your videos, they are so great wonderful job man, this one's not exception but the main difference here is that I felt your pain dude... this one hits a critical spot for me, remembering why I must qui a game if I don't have an experience interesting enough with it, feeling my life vanishing from my bones in real time quite intensely.
Pretty sure you did even worse but that was enough for me to remind you : we're many here, you're not alone, posting the video was a good first step in seeking help. Take care Guilewinquote ;0
From the concept, setting and character designs.... Yep, this feels like something out of early/mid 2000s Japan through and through.
thanks for giving us the experience of knowing this game without the experience of having to play this game
At this point you will have to cover Dead by Degress lol
Closer to Tekken 8's release 😅
I love this game
Thanks for playing this game to inform everyone of it’s existence but the game looks mediocre to play seeing the footage for myself. I think I’d rather play The Bouncer over this any day.
I just want to say I hardly watch TH-cam videos full screen and these are in the vertical orientation is nice to see
My favorite part about VQuest is when you learn a Grab Move, the Character will perform it on you. And you take the hit like a champ
Virtua Man Battle Network
Crazy title
This looks like a God of War and Mega Man crossover with some Virtua Fighter sprinkled in.
An Anime script that acknowledges ridiculous anime writing and scenarios? I'm sure the writer was savagely beaten and shipped off to an undocumented prison island.
You should definitely do a video on Ultra Fight Da ! Kyanta 2 if you haven't. Would love to hear your thoughts on it