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Way to change the formula - In Depth Analysis

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Virtual-On Marz is the fourth game in the Virtual-On series, the first one that is exclusive to a home console. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Virtual-On is a Sega arcade fighter that lets you duke it out with giant mechanical robots. It's not in the same fashion as 2D fighters like Virtua Fighter, King of Fighters, DOA, etc, but instead you have an overhead view and full control in a 360 environment. To control your mech, or as the series calls them, "Virtuaroids" or "VR" for short, you would use two sticks with two buttons on each. A turbo button and an attack button. You would have a left attack, a right attack, and center attack if both attack buttons on both sticks are pressed. Pushing both sticks in one direction would move your VR in that direction, pulling them apart would make it jump, and pushing them together would crouch, but only when attacking. Pushing one stick up and the other down would allow you to rotate.

The VRs were heavily varied. Some were focused on armor, some on speed, and some for attacks. Some were long range, some were short range. You could find at least one to fit your needs in combat. The environment also played a strategic role, as you could hide behind a hill or huge crate for cover. Close range combat was also available.

The first of this series, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On (also referred to as "Operation Moongate" or VOOM) was released back in 1995. A PC port and a Sega Saturn port was released shortly after with Twin Stick peripherals available for the SS. The sequel, "Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram" (Oratan or VOOT for short) was released in 1998 and was considered to be near perfection. A Dreamcast port was released in 2000 (thanks to Activision in the US). The game not only had more VRs to choose from with enhanced graphics, but the game moved at a phenomenal speed. The moves that you could also perform with your twin sticks were massively increased, as several combinations such as doing a CC attack while running, a crouch attack while running, special moves and double jumping were introduced. Also, your attack would change depending on whether you press left or right turbo as you attacked. Each VR also had armor that made it stronger or weaker. It added serious depth to the game, and mixed with the intense speed of it, it delivered a gaming experience that couldn't be beat. Every reflex of yours would be put to the test. Almost everyone I've shown the game to was too afraid to even try it because it moved so fast.

However, much later on, a third game was introduced: Virtual-On Force. The main premise of this game was that instead of one-on-one battles, it would be two-on-two. One member of each team would be the leader, and if the leader was taken out, the match ended. If the partner was taken out, the leader could dash near the fallen comrade and share health. A radar was even implemented. However, the gameplay was radically changed. While I haven't seen or played Force, word was that it felt much different than Oratan. While you could customize your VR with weapons that would affect armor, speed, long, medium and close range weaponry, the speed of the game was greatly reduced. Word also was that graphics were worse; the lighting effects found in Oratan were near-absent, the explosions appeared worse, and stage design was rather bland thanks to 'realism'. It was said in the past that the speed was reduced because of the arcade hardware used and instead of two VRs on the screen, you had four.

Then we get to the review of this game, Marz.

Virtual-On Marz came out in 2003 for the PS2. The upside to this system is because of the way the analog sticks are aligned, the player can actually move them similar to the twin sticks in the arcade, while the L1/L2/R1/R2 buttons are used as turbo and attack. However, in case you've played too much Oratan, there's an available button configuration similar to the Dreamcast predecessor.

But unlike its previous games, Marz isn't all about fighting. Yes, there's several VRs to fight, but Dramatic Mode, the core of the game, is a single player adventure mode. In some stages, you have to find enemies hidden in camouflage, destroy bases, protect cargo trucks or destroy them, navigate through a maze and there's even some areas with platforming involved. However, every other time in the game you'll take on several other VRs in the combat you've grown to love, or not.

The fighting engine for Marz is taken directly from Force. Hearing the negative reaction from hardcore Oratan fans, I went in with lowered expectations, and I still wound up disappointed. So much was changed from Oratan for the worse, and you can point out the problems are and how to fix them very easily. My first problem was double-jumping. Oratan introduced double jumping and air-dashing, and one of the most important techniques to find your enemy was to jump, then crouch to land quickly, a jump cancel. Jumping would normally turn you towards your enemy. But in this game, attempting to double jump makes you perform a jump cancel instead, which takes time to get used to. Dashing, air or non, is also much more slow, and more than likely you'll get hit a lot. My main absolute problem is attacking while dashing. Before, if you dashed in one direction and fired, your VR would turn toward the enemy and fire, VOOM and VOOT. In Marz, however, your character takes their time with rotating, and fires WHILE rotating. This will result in horrible, horrible accuracy. Did I forget to mention that your VR is much less responsive than before? Often I'll land and attempt to dash immediately afterwards, only to stay still and get bombarded by attacks. Also, your left turbo attack is gone. You only have a right turbo attack, and the other button is used to switch targets, which won't always respond. While the left turbo attack was always weaker than the normal attack in VOOT, it did allow you to trap and paralyze your enemy more easily. In some cases it automatically knocked them down. But that's not here.

The enemy AI is much smarter than VOOT and will often challenge you, which is good if you thought VOOT's AI didn't challenge you enough. Even on the hardest difficulty setting in VOOT, the game was a breeze. Note that I didn't say your partner AI was that smart. You'll find that on missions your enemies will avoid several of your attacks just by jumping. Close combat on the other hand is much, much more difficult. Most of the time the enemy will block the attack at the last second, or counterattack. Some of your battles will be one-on-two or even one-on-three, and while one blocks your attack, another could come in and strike from behind. The challenge is nice, but sometimes when you're forced to protect a base or supply truck, you just want your enemy to fall and die just like in the old days. Instead, he avoids all of your attacks, while his buddy destroys what you're supposed to protect.

Unlike the previous games, you're not able to select a choice VR. Unless you're a huge fan of Temjin, you're stuck with him. While you unlock more VRs throughout the game, the majority of them will be Temjims, Apharmds, and Voxes (think Dordray and Grys-Vok from VOOT). I'm personally a Raiden person, and I wasn't too thrilled with how slow he moved and how short his dashes were when I unlocked him. However, like Force, you can see the specs of each VR and see which suit your needs. The game won't require you to use any other VR, and you'll wind up sticking up with a Temjin throughout the game, really.

Also unlike the previous games, the game is heavily story-based. While you won't have enemies yelling at you as they fight (except for specifics), there is a lot of voice acting. For the American release, english voice acting is used, and thankfully it's not too bad. It's not great, but it didn't make me cringe. The Virtual-On stories have all been the same, really. Corporations at war trying to find power. Like most arcade games at the time of VOOM's release, story didn't mean anything at all. VOOT paid a little more attention to the story when it came to unlocking the secret ending, but Marz is story all the way. It doesn't necessarily focus on a pro-or-anti war stance, rather humanity's greed and lust for power. It's not a strong story, but it does give you a slight sense of what's going on. You'll have enemies and comrades to fight and team up with. I have to say, I almost shed a tear when I had to defeat a specific character and he says his final words of the game.

Visually, there's not a lot of impressive moments. While the VRs are detailed, animate more smoothly than they did in the last game, and this game usually runs at a solid 60 frames-per-second, the lighting effects that made the VRs look so amazing in Oratan are absent. Furthermore, the stage designs don't have the life they did. In Oratan, the stages virtually breathed with small details and several animations going on, whether it be in the skies or floors. There was always something to admire. They're not bad in Marz, but they don't have the appeal as before. Some weapons and explosives don't look as interesting, and the menu interface is rather bland and boring.

Speaking of the menu, this is probalby the single most irritating thing of the game. In the menu screens, anything you do will force the game to constantly load. I'm not sure if they made it so that the game engine was loading during the menu screens, but it's a pain. The game's not very responsive at all in menus. For example, in versus mode, when you choose the VRs or a stage, pressing left five times won't take you down five choices. There's a lag between them, and constant loading at menu screen doesn't make for a user-friendly interface. It's not confusing, but it takes a while to respond and it takes about three to five seconds to move onto the next screen.

Like the previous games, this game has some nasty bosses, and the most out of the series. The mid-bosses and final bosses from all of the games are in this one, and there are even times when you're outnumbered. The final battle of this game is rather impressive, actually. While the stage is the same used as the last battle in Force (which is in here), the concept is interesting. In VOOM, you had all flat terrain. In VOOT, you fought entirely in free space. Marz, you have to experience it for yourself.

Speaking of elements taken from previous games, one worth mentioning is the music. The music in the Virtual-On (after VOOM) series has been deemed as the worst by some because of the instruments used. Other than a few overly happy tunes that have heavy use of synthetic instruments, the music is rather fitting. If you can get over the instruments used and pay attention to the actual composition of the music, it can grow on you. Just know it sounds "video gamey" is that's even a phrase. The music in Marz doesn't take a new direction. While there's a lot of new tunes for Marz, most of the in-game music is taken directly from Force, probably for those of us who still can't find a machine and probably never will. Anyone who has heard of the second soundtrack album of Force, Marsinal, will be pleased to know that almost every track has made it into this game. So really, there's a lot of music in the game, most taken from Force and some are even remade from VOOT and VOOM. Sound effects are just about the same, and in battles you'll hear nothing but booms and lasers and other mechanical noises.

However, there is one thing that must be mentioned because the game fails to explain it in detail. To access the final area, you're forced to acquire nine objects. However, there's a percentage in the corner. You have to acquire them before it reaches 100% or the game's over. You choose a planet and go on a series of consecutive missions before returning to the menu. You also can't restart. At the end you'll fight a boss. If you win, you get the piece and the percentage raises slightly. Lose and it goes up drastically, and with some bosses you lose previously gained pieces. So it's best to save only after you win and start over if you lose. If you're not careful, you'll have to start over entirely from scratch.

Virtual-On Marz isn't a terrible game. While it's interesting to see how a 'Virtual-On adventure' would play and feel, the combat just feels very broken compared to VOOT, making you think that all the changes were completely unnecessary except for the two-on-two deal, and the menus are a pain. Those who haven't played the Dreamcast sequel will probably find this more enjoyable than others. On the upside, since stages and music and enemies from Force are in the game, you almost have a port. Unfortunately, you don't have the arcade treatment with the menus and interface. Still, the versus and challenge mode play just like Force does with leaders and partners. They should have just added a "Force" mode where it lets you play the arcade version of Force, since everything, even the bosses, can be accessed in the regular Dramatic Mode. However, four players cannot play, which was what Force was known for.

I was one of those people who recently got a PS2 for Christmas and because I'm a Virtual-On junkie, I got the game. Oratan was my favorite game for the Dreamcast, even spending a lot of money to get the Twin Sticks for it. Other than recommending it to the Virtual-On crowd, I'd probably also recommend this to people who love giant mech combat or even hardcore Gundam junkies (one of the designers for the Gundams, Katoki Hajime, designs all the mechs in the series). You'll find yourself frustrated a lot, and while the combat system isn't as fluid as the two previous games, you'll probably find some fun in it. It's not horrible, but after playing the game, I can see why it wasn't successful. It's just sad that the thought of this game failing in reviews and fan reaction that we might not ever see a Virtual-On game again. After beating the game, I became aware of the problems and knew how to fix them, and they could have done that for this release. They could have fixed Force's problems. After all, there were three versions of VOOT: 5.2 (arcade), 5.45 (Dreamcast, which also had 5.2 as an unlockable), and 5.66 (arcade again).

As for buying or renting, I've never seen a raw copy other than the one in my room, so that might not be available. If you want another Sega game in your PS2 collection or love Virtual-On too much, then you might consider it. It's good to play at least once, but it might be hard to play it again.

VIRTUAL ON THE MONEY.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: October 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

it seems that another of sega's franchise has found a new home on sony's playstation 2. some die hard fans might be disapointed with sega putting aside the usual one-on-one fighting stages,,and instead opted for the armored core like missions, but netheless the action is still fast pace, plus you get to play 40 different mechs with strengths,weaknesses etc.

the graphics aren't nothing to really brag about especially compared to to sony's other mech masher armored core 2-3 silent wind. but VO wasn't intended to be some kinda simulation, but a
straight out action game. the supporting characters consist of an optimus prime reject (sgt. hatter) and a trio of spike shaped
virtualoids (the rose sisters..lmao) the control scheme is much better (sans the twin sticks for saturn) which can be customised to your tastes.

all in all VOM is a great game and worth the purchase

Not the virtual on we knew back in the day

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: October 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

For all of you fans that have played, and followed the virtual on series... This third installment will leave you going what happened? Remember that quick fighting style where you just pick your VR and go fight those other VRs? Well guess what that isnt here anymore, instead sega decided to replace it with a mission type base of action, granted it is fun pummeling more then one VR into the ground, and they also added an artificial AI to help you on your missions. It seems a tad bit boring after awhile repeating the same thing over and over. IE destroy enemy target(s) Destroy enemy CARGO(S) well you get the point. On a light note you do get graded on these missions based on your performance and other factors. Not to mention you DO get rewarded when you do very well on a mission new mechs new colors "OH JOY" aside from all this virtual on mars is an okay game on its own just dont think of it as old school virtual on or you will be disappointed such as i was. so the actual rating is 3 and a half stars not 3 okay? Reason being cause 2 player action is still there and they added some new 2 player VS options.( had more fun playing VS mode then the actual dramatic mode) For all you die hard virtual on fans pick this game up, and for all of you new to the game take a shot, it aignt armored core, but at LEAST it moves much better!

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