Virtua Fighter 3 Dreamcast Normal Mode Pai
14Virtua Fighter 3 Dreamcast Normal Mode Pai
Output via a VGA cable, line doubled with the OSSC. This is the PAL version.
I love this game. When it came out in arcades I was awestruck by the graphics. I really would have preferred a Saturn Port, regardless of how cut back it would have been. The DC release is welcome to, and I would likely have purchased both if released on both systems. In any case, this was, along with Sonic Adventure, my launch purchase with the Dreamcast. I initially loved it, then I found myself a bit disappointed when I started noticing the graphical cutbacks. Back in the day, I preferred Soul Calibur, and later Dead or Alive 2, as they felt more next gen. Looking back on this now, I appreciate its not so bad with the cutbacks.
Some of the cloths don't move the way they do in the arcade version. Its most obvious on Aoi, pinned sleeves don't flow at all, neither do the loose trousers. Muscle flexure also seems to be missing, and some backgrounds are lower res and missing geometry in the Arcade version. Various environmental effects like fog and bloom like lighting are also absent. Textures as a whole are lower res. However, what I maybe didn't appreciate as much back then is the higher resolution of the Dreamcast version. That actually helps this version a lot and its quite impressive on a technical level and helps it hold up with time. The overall aesthetic quality is still on a par, you'd barely notice if you hadn't played 100s of hours of VF3 in the arcade like I had back then. Framerate is a solid 60 as well. Comments back then about the shadows breaking up on uneven surfaces are practically irrelevant because its so infrequent. Another area that's a bit jarring is the apparent reduction in geometry. This is both true and untrue. Model 3 used quads, DC used triangles. The geometry is indeed reduced if you compare quads to tri pairs, but technically the DC has more vertices going on and in some areas this is an improvement as it provides some more organic stretching at certain joints, but the remodelling seems to have been done poorly at some joints in limbs, most notably the legs on Shun's yellow costume. Pai's shoulders also see some issues at certain positions.
Gameplay, in any case, is spot on. I spent 100s of hours playing this game. Its a bit limited on unlockable content, but the VF history and Project Berkley video are great additions. Overall, credit where its due to Tecmo and Namco for making more fleshed out console fighting games with tons of unlockables, DOA2 deserving particular praise for being a technical masterpiece as well, but as a launch title this is great and very impressive. Despite the fact that I recognise SC and DOA2 as overall better games, this one holds the top spot in my heart and I've played this way more than any other fighting game (with the possible exception of Fighters MegaMix)
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