VF2 "Copy Victory Poses" Trick v0.3 (18/09/95) by Don Chan Abstract -------- To be brief, what happens in the CVP trick is when a round ends with a time over, the loser stumbles out of the ring and copies the winner's animation. The "Copy victory poses" trick ------------------------------ "It's really quite simple, in a complicated sort of way." - Micky Marriott, _Piece of Cake_ by Derek Robinson Know, O Readers, that at the end of a round, unless it's a draw, the winning character does one of four victory animations: Excellent, Guard (G), Punch (P), or Kick (K). (See the "VF2 Taunts FAQ" for details.) Normally, when the winning character does his/her victory animation, the losing character's either prone on the ground or doing his/her time over animation. The "Copy victory poses" trick makes the losing character copy the winning character's pose. (Duh.) To perform this trick, we need two player characters. CPU characters are notoriously uncooperative. The winning character, or winner, is the one with more energy. The losing character, or loser, is the one with less energy. (Duh.) The loser must be standing with his/her leading foot on the edge of the ring, such that when the announcer declares "Time over," the loser stumbles out of the ring as he/she starts his/her time over animation. Outside the ring, as the loser recovers his/her balance, the loser copies the winner's animation, instead of the loser's normal time over animation. (I think Kage, Lion, and Sarah aren't appropriate as the loser, but they can be the winner.) (NOTE: "Kage" is pronounced as "kah-geh", not "cage" or "kah-gay".) Start with the loser standing near and facing the edge of the ring. The loser's back is towards the winner's front. To achieve this attitude, the loser can (if able) do a turn-around move; or the loser can jump over the winner, and the winner turns around. Make sure both characters' feet are in the parallel stance (// or \\), instead of the "eight" or divergent stance (/ \). The winner then _carefully and slowly_ pushes the loser towards the edge until the front half of the loser's leading foot is outside the edge. It takes some practice and a shipload of patience to know whether the loser's leading foot is far enough outside the ring. For instance, the pink Pai-chan's foot has a black band across its top. Imagine extending this black band to the bottom of her foot and it should intersect the edge. It helps if the characters are perpendicular to the edge, instead of at an acute angle. If the loser is Shun, Shun should hold Guard to stabilise Shun's feet, or Shun will tilt from side to side. Also, a stiff stick (ahem) makes life easier. For instance, the sticks on the VF2 at Funland (334 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) are too soft, thanks to the hundreds (yeah right) of Akira players who play there. A strong tap forward (F) can cause the characters to dash forward (F,F). If the loser is correctly placed, simply _wait for the timer to reach zero._ When the announcer declares "Time over," the loser stumbles out of the ring as he/she starts his/her time over animation. Outside the ring, as the loser recovers his/her balance, the loser copies the winner's animation, instead of the loser's normal time over animation. If the winner stands too far behind the loser, the loser still copies the winner's animation, but the loser will be off-screen. The digitised voices will be screwed up too. The loser will speak his/her winning quote, while the winner will speak his/her losing quote. (See the "VF2 Taunts FAQ" for details.) The characters speak at the same time, and their quotes overlap. If the winner has 100% energy, the winner will do his/her "Excellent" pose. Else, the winner may do a random (G, P, or K) pose. To make the winner do his/her P or K pose, the winner should press P or K without hitting the loser, when the loser is waiting near the edge. Hold the button while the winner pushes the loser. Press P or K too close to the loser or too late, and the winner will hit the loser, or punch/kick the loser out of the ring. The winner can hold G anytime. Don't release the G/P/K button until the victory animation starts. "I admire a man who's not afraid to show his emotional side, even if it makes him look like a weenie." - Harriet Parker to her husband, _The Better Half_ It's fun to make the male characters copy the female characters' feminine poses, and vice versa. (This will likely excite Sociology students.) For instance, it's sickeningly amusing to watch the ugly Jeffry or Wolf copy Pai-chan's "Kyahaha!" giggle- and-dance pose. If the winner is Shun, when he drinks from his wine flask, an identical wine flask will materialise in the loser's hand! IMO it was (ahem) charming to watch Pai-chan copy Shun's poses. Knowing the hostile relations between these characters, when the winner/loser combination is Jacky/Sarah or Lau/Pai-chan, it's also fun to see them behave so harmoniously. Uncertainty ----------- Currently, my mates and I have trouble with Shun's victory animations where he relaxes on the ground. So far, we can satisfactorily copy his standing pose. It seems when Shun does his prone poses, the camera shows only Shun when his enemy is nearby, but the camera unzooms and includes Shun's enemy in the screen when his enemy is faraway. Our theory is, to keep Shun's enemy on-screen after the time over, he must be some distance from, and maybe with his back towards, his enemy. (To all: Help?) "Kyoui na phenomena" -------------------- "I'm bored with my job. I'm ready for something new and exciting. How much do ninjas make?" - Stanley Parker to his wife, _The Better Half_ The "Copy victory poses" trick is one of several, to quote Gamest, "Kyoui na phenomena" ("Frightfully strange phenomena"). These are tricks that VF2 masters can do when they are bored because they can do Akira's HouGekiUnShinSouKoShou (known in r.g.v.a as "SPOD") to Dural before breakfast. Other known VF2 weird phenomena include: - By somehow controlling Akira's attacks, he and his enemy can levitate up and down the screen as if they are standing on invisible floors in the air. (I haven't witnessed this, but my friends have.) - During a Replay, the player can do a K,G-cancel to pause the Replay. The on-screen characters will become mangled during the pause. (I haven't witnessed this.) - In a Jeffry vs Shun fight, Shun sits with his back towards Jeffry. When Jeffry throws Shun, Jeffry teleports to in front of Shun. This is similar to the old bug with Akira's TetsuZanKou. (I haven't witnessed these, but my friends have.) - In Jacky's stage, after the CPU Jacky knocks out (K.O.) the player character inside the ring, hold UP the player character's stick while the "Continue" countdown is counting down. When the countdown reaches 0, the player character stands, holds his hands to his head, shakes his head, speaks his losing quote, and tumbles down like an idiot. This is all seen from high above the ring. All player characters do this same pop-up motion. If the player character is rung out and has more energy than the CPU Jacky, hold UP the player character's stick while the "Continue" countdown is counting down. The bird from the background will appear over the player character. Then the player character struggles with the bird before it carries him away. If the bird's flight path intersects the edge of the ring, the player character's legs hit the edge of the ring, and he falls down again. (BTW, the bird has no shadow.) If the player character is rung out and has less energy than the CPU Jacky, the bird does _not_ come out, but the player character still struggles and then falls down. If the player character loses by time over, the bird does _not_ come out, but we get a chance to see exactly what the player character is doing when he's struggling. (Yupa suspects that the animation is from Jeffry's face grab (D+P against a croucher). It looks like the player character is struggling with an invisible bird because he's actually lifted off the ground at the time.) Everything seems to work as normal if the bird is present during the fight. (But Yupa hasn't lost by time over yet to verify that situation and see where the bird actually is while the character is struggling. If the player character has less energy than CPU Jacky, the bird flies away without the player character after he's finished struggling and fallen down.) This trick doesn't work in ranking mode, in the other CPU characters' stages, or when the player character is Sarah. On some VF2 machines, after a two-players fight, a "Continue" countdown will appear on the losing player's side of the screen. This trick doesn't work with this extra countdown. (I've witnessed this trick.) - In Kage's stage, when Wolf stands at one corner of the ring, he can use his Giant Swing (HCF+P) to throw his enemy into the torch in the background. The lighting in the stage then dims. (I haven't witnessed this, but my friends have.) (To all: If you've witnessed the above tricks, can you describe the conditions and details?) History ------- v0.1 31 August 1995. First draft. v0.2 9 September 1995. 17% bigger. Rearranged layout. v0.3 18 September 1995. 10% bigger. More about the weird phenomenon in Jacky's stage. Don "I have a life, I just don't have a job" Chan (Pai/Kage/Sarah/Wolf/Akira/Shun)