#971 Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2) Boss: Dural playthrough.

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AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on September 2, 2018 6:27:17 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FORTZ7-Llq4

Game:

Virtua Fighter 4 (2001)

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Let's Play

Duration: 8:42

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A playthrough of the boss Dural in the PS2 port of Sega’s Virtua Fighter 4.

Virtua Fighter 4 was originally released into arcades in 2001, on Sega’s Naomi platform. Naomi emulation is still pretty duff, so I decided to cover the PS2 port instead. Yes, Sega’s flagship fighting series ended up being ported to the PS2, the very system which killed the Dreamcast and led to them exiting from the console race. The Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001, leading Sega to decide to port VF4 to the PS2 instead. It’s a bit bittersweet all things considered, and if you know the history behind Sega’s downfall there is something really quite jarring about it.

Furthermore, VF4’s graphics had to be changed considerably for the PS2 port. It’s difficult to really sum up the changes made but the Dreamcast and Naomi had really bright visuals for most of its games, and a generally quite bright aesthetic. The PS2 on the other hand, and the Xbox would do the same, favoured much darker visuals on the whole, and its success led to a trend of darker and more washed visuals becoming a staple for games in general throughout the 6th and 7th generations. It seems like a weird point to bring up, I’m sure, but there really is something about the bright, colourful visuals of retro games which make them a treat to come back to this day. I got into SNK titles years back partly as a disillusionment with modern gaming, and the Neo Geo’s incredible 2D visuals really did contribute towards me taking an interest in old fighting games, particularly those made by SNK.

Graphics aren’t everything though, of course. Regardless of the version you’re playing, Virtua Fighter 4 is absolutely brilliant. This is definitely when the Virtua Fighter series starts to get a bit more simplified, with many mechanics being toned down and the game being much more fluid and forgiving in general, but I honestly don’t think that was a bad thing. VF4 is so much smoother and consistent than previous titles that it’s just incredible, and there’s a real fluidity to the gameplay here which honestly just wasn’t seen in the rather stiff titles prior. Some people lament this, but I’d argue it was ultimately for the best on the whole; the VF series still retains its in-depth and competitive gameplay, while not having quite as much of a brutal learning curve as previous titles. It works pretty well on the whole.
VF4 also adds two new characters as with each previous entry; the incredibly annoying Vanessa, and the rather negligible Lei-Fei. Also, Taka-Arashi has actually been removed from the roster, which is a bit disappointing. Furthermore, undulation from stages has been removed, while some stages contain breakable walls as well as unbreakable walls, leading to a new wall-bounce system whereby combos can be extended by hitting opponents against walled arenas. It seems like a very natural and practical evolution, and while I did love the more “real” feeling stages in Virtua Fighter 3 I can certainly understand why they went with this.

As with each Virtua Fighter title, Dural returns as its boss. She gains a new, quite badass theme, as well as an impressive scrolling stage.
This isn’t your regular Dural, though. Before, Dural was the epitome of a balanced boss, using a collection of moves taken from other fighters in the game, and who destroyed your arse because she of technical prowess and skill rather than any moves or broken abilities. Basically, the antithesis to Parace L’Sia.

Now though? Well, that’s been entirely turned on its head. I wouldn’t call Dural broken here, but she doesn’t come across as balanced either. She now has a number of unique combos and moves, though still utilises many from other fighters as well. I wouldn’t call her broken to any extent, but her unique combos are quite powerful and easy to execute, and if blocked tend to push the opponent more than other moves towards the edge of the arena.

Also interesting is that Dural is locked to her stage in arcade mode. She never supposed to be played as here, instead only being available in versus and practice mode after unlocking her, which certainly explains it. That said, to lock her to her stage just feels extremely archaic, particularly as she’s not locked to her stage in the arcade version, as seen in Krizalid’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ZAQaVheao

Overall, Dural is a bit more interesting here than usual, though not overly so. She’s still the same, iconic boss; both incredibly underwhelming and yet somehow incredibly badass at the same time, and she fits her purpose pretty well in a game which is almost wholly devoted to competitive play anyhow.

Next up, more Dural.

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