Virtual-On Force guide (WIP) / techniques discussion
Posted: 30 Dec 2010, 11:56
a basic mechanics and techniques guide, mostly showing differences to Virtual-On OT along with new features and advanced techniques.
I'll edit the post when I have something to add or fix, feel free to post new findings or corrections.
Virtual-On Force guide (by zaarock)
Table of Contents:
Gameplay Mechanics
Advanced Techniques
Unlockables
Gameplay Mechanics
Winning/losing
A team wins if the opposite teams leader is destroyed or the time runs out while the team has the most total health. You get a "Perfect" if both enemy VRs were destroyed.
Locking on:
Jumping lock-on happens either at the top height of a jump or once you land from a canceled jump. This means that if you air dash in the middle of a jump you won't rotate automatically. You can still air dash from the top height. You always end up facing the opponent after a jump cancel, unlike in VOOT where if you make a short one you might not have time to turn enough because the lock-on/rotation happens during the jump.
You will also lock-on automatically when you get back up from a knockdown. Pay attention while you're down so you can switch targets if necessary.
Most VRs have an attack that if hits will disable lockon by jumping, if this happens the target VR gets visual noise and a noticable sound. This also happens to both players of a team if an enemy VR that is not the leader is destroyed.
If you finish off the secondary enemy VR with a dash attack you will start rotating towards the leader afterwards.
Switching targets:
You can switch the enemy you want to target by pushing both turbos, this will not cancel a dash. This can be done at any time as long as you're not attacking or in the middle of jump lock-on. You can also set a separate button for this in the port.
On the HUD double attack means that both players in your team are targeting the same enemy. Lock-on alert blinks when you are being targeted by both enemies. ENE1 and ENE2 signify which enemies are targeting you. Your target is shown as an outlined red arrow on the minimap.
Rescue dash:
Pushing the "special" button will make you dash at your teammate and make a distinguishable sound. You can do it from the ground and the air. This depletes all your weapon gauges but you can always do it as long as you have health left. Once you reach your teammate the teams health will be balanced out with the same total amount as before. If you push the button while you are very close to your teammate your weapon gauges will not be depleted. Angelan SH can also redistribute health with her TCW.
If your teammate is corrupted/destroyed you will also revive him. However, you can also revive a teammate and balance the health just by moving inside the circle he is in, making you keep your weapon gauges. So if you can get into the circle fairly safely it's a better idea not to use the rescue dash.
You and your teammate get momentary invulnerability if one is revived.
VR states, weapon disables
blue glow: stunned
grey particles/static: jump lock-on disabled
white circle: invulnerability (angelan MH TCW, specineff TLW)
transparency (blinking): invulnerability
transparency (pixellated): VR with stealth ability isn't attacking/dashing
large white circle, knocked down: corrupted, revivable
A red X and skull over a weapon means that its projectile attacks are disabled, yellow means that melee is disabled.
Various projectiles can also get stuck on a VR, slowing down movement and/or causing damage.
Angelan WH's TCW removes all status ailments from her teammate.
Air dashing:
The length of an air dash depends on how high you jump. If you air dash before you reach the apex of your jump you won't automatically rotate towards your target.
Turbo attacks:
Both turbos make the same attack variant if combined with an attack, unlike in oratan where you had left turbo (LT) and right turbo (RT) variants.
Crouch attacks:
You can do crouching attacks if you keep holding the crouch input, unlike in VOOT where you need to give the crouch input and attack at the same time. Looks like you cant do any crouch attacks quickly after landing from a jump?
There are no crouch dashing or crouching melee attacks, but some melee attack variants make VRs crouch while attacking. There are no crouching turbo attacks apart from some VR-specific special attacks.
Sliding attacks(moving crouch attacks) can only be performed moving to the left or right and can't be performed within range 120 from an enemy because you will start blocking(see guard/block).
Quick Step attacks:
Quickstepping around your opponent in melee range is now much easier to do, but you cant do it without attacking. Just move left or right while doing a melee attack without turbo and you will rotate around the enemy (no quicksteps that go forwards/backwards this time) You can cancel the attack and quickstep by blocking.
You can also combo into quickstep turbo attacks by inputting them after a normal quickstep attack. Quickstep turbo attacks can also be performed from a guard (see advanced techniques) Quickstep turbo attacks have more time to be cancelled (with guard, dash, etc.) compared to stationary ones.
Uppercut melee:
Moving backwards from the enemy while triggering any melee attack will make you do an uppercut attack. This attack makes you rotate towards the opponent much less than the jump melee attack.
Blocking/Guarding:
You can always block with the crouch input as long as there is an enemy close to you (range is 120) and you block melee attacks from all directions. Turbo melee attacks break the guard but do significantly less damage when doing so.
If you block an enemy melee attack and push an attack button quickly afterwards you will do a guard reversal attack similar to the blocking attacks in VOOT, except in this game it knocks people down on block. If you move while doing it you will strafe. You don't need to be targeting an enemy to do the reversal.
Watari Dashing:
Watari dashing (switching directions in the middle of a dash, also changes attacks) is much slower than in VOOT. If you start an air dash from a short jump you might not even have time to start switching directions.
Watari dashing has strange properties in that you can start a forward dash attack even though your VR is still turning to face forward. Doing a 180 and attacking has great evasive properties because you move in a circle (japanese wiki calls it a boomerang attack)
Shooting projectiles in melee range
To shoot projectiles in melee range you just switch targets and attack. If you want to do a turbo attack you can attack and switch targets at the same time (because target switch is both turbos).
Ground dash cancel recovery
Cancelling ground dashes by pushing a turbo button during a dash has fairly a long recovery animation, but you can control your characters movement during it. This plays a big role in movement as you can for example cancel a dash and then "slide" towards the opposite direction.
Dash and landing freezes:
Dashing attack freezes are shorter than in VOOT in comparison to the speed of the game and there is very little freeze from landing unless you have attacked while being in the air. Doing ground dash attacks off of platforms is beneficial; the attack animation gets skipped and you will land with a fast recovery.
Close Combat system details
The melee system is fairly different from OT and OMG so I'll explain it comprehensively. Close combat is powerful in VO4 as its speed compared to normal attacks is increased as is the amount of guaranteed hit scenarios (for example meleeing targets landing from the air)
Normal melee:
- performed by inputting a weapon while its gauge is displayed as yellow(melee range)
- you can strafe/quickstep by holding left or right while attacking. However this massively reduces how much the attack approaches the enemy.
Turbo melee:
- performed with turbo+weapon
- slower, more damaging attack that also punishes blocking
- knocks down and causes some damage on block
- quicksteppable with a trick(see advanced techniques) which also reduces the risks involved
Uppercut melee:
- performed by holding downwards and attack
- designed to hit jumping opponents, but the amount of rotation/tracking is very small (30 degrees)
Jump melee:
- performed with attack+jump (need to input attack first)
- only melee attack that doesn't make you move towards your opponent during startup
- always aims at the opponent, can turn 180 degrees during startup
- causes bigger blockstun
Dashing melee:
- performed by rotating and attacking while dashing. you can use rotation to manipulate the direction and speed of the swing.
- can be very useful, but as the recovery time is fairly long expect to be punished if these get blocked
Guard reversal melee:
- accessible by pushing LW or RW after blocking any melee attack. You can strafe/slide while performing it by inputting movement
- generally fast but not cancellable until the end of active frames
- knocks the enemy down if they block
Cancel system and combos:
Uncancellable: jump melee, uppercut, turbo melee as part of a combo
Guard cancellable: second attack of auto strings (like RW,RW), regular turbo melee
Guard cancellable including active frames: normal melee, individual quickstep turbo melee(see advanced techniques)
Cancellable into jump melee: any guard cancellable attack, anything you can jump out of (like ground dash recovery)
Cancellable into jump melee including active frames: normal melee
Comboable into turbo melee: normal melee (this kind of turbo melee cannot be cancelled out of)
Comboable into jump melee: guard reversal melee
Comboable into uppercut: normal melee
Comboable into normal LW/RW melee: normal LW/RW melee while inputting rotation. Only a little faster than just guard cancelling the end of the first attack.
Ground stab(special attack on downed VRs):
- performed by pushing a weapon in melee range next to a knocked down opponent when the RW bar has turned green
- seems to be guaranteed after some knockdowns(melee and air knockdowns are longer), may depend on VR/speed of the attack
- plays an important role since many attacks have low damage but still knock down
Special attack list for every VR:
http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=456 (by Jecht Striker)
Translations for ingame tutorial (goes through the basics nicely):
http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7008#p7008 (by JKTrix @ oratan)
Advanced Techniques
Increased rotation for ground dash attacks (can lock 180 degrees for some attacks)
You will aim towards the opponent far faster before firing than normal and be able to fire at a larger angle.
Saved rotation method
0. begin a ground dash, optional: hold the dash button during all steps (turbo rotation)
1. rotate towards opponent while dashing
2. start holding crouch + rotate
3. keep holding crouch and fire a weapon
Basically if your target is 170 degrees to the left, you hold left rotate, "lock" the rotation with crouch and then fire.
Alternative method (timed rotation):
0. input a dash attack and rotate at the same time, strict timing.
Notes:
-Hard to pull off on twin sticks?
-If playing on pad with default control arrangement, you need to set LB/RB to rotate. Otherwise you have no way of rotating and crouching at the same time.
-Doesn't work well for some VRs and attacks, but for some extremely useful (Temjin 707-J+, single shot from forward dash attack)
Individual quickstep turbo melee
You can do quickstep turbo CC attacks from a guard with the following technique:
1. hold guard (the animation must be finished), a turbo button and a direction.
2. release guard and push an attack button at the same time.
Quickstep turbo CC has a big cancel window, usually you can even guard cancel them after the attack hits the opponent.
Rapid Dash Cancelling
Doing extremely small dashes while holding the movement direction can be an efficient and safe way to move around, since you can jump out of the recovery and quickly access normal attacks while covering a lot of distance. Usability/speed depends on the VR and the length of recovery animation of the specific dash direction. Messes up the homing on most attacks that might be flying at you since your speed keeps going back and forth.
Shot dislocation
Very useful for VRs with long weapons like Temjin, Specineff, Kagekiyo(spear).
Diagonal(easy):
walk diagonally, your attack will come out from the front left or front right of your VR
Horizontal:
Input left or right and attack at the same time. If you move back and forth or rotate before inputting the direction the timing is easier(gets buffered a little I guess). Your VR will hold its weapon/hand to the opposite side and fire from it. Timing is strict.
If the attack comes out of the tip of the weapon or arm it can come out from a very different horizontal position, depending on the VR.
Vertical:
input walking attack after a stationary crouching attack that is cancellable(?). you will fire from above your VR and over walls. Also possible by cancelling rotation into a walking attack with some VRs(Temjin,?)
You can use these techniques to shoot from behind walls and vary the positions of your shots so that they are more likely to hit moving opponents.
Reducing freeze times
Attacking after a dash:
If you attempt to go into regular melee from a dash, you generally either have to jump cancel or cancel the dash, but either way there is some lag. If you allow the dash to compete, it has end lag, but you can immediately cancel into any melee or shot. This means that it is preferable to space a dash such that it ends where you wish to attack, if you wish to do something other than dashing cc. It is still faster to move with dash cancels, as they have movement delay, but this is better for attacking purposes. (from tehxdemixazn @ oratan)
Especially useful for VRs with short dashes (specineff, raiden)
Attacking off platforms:
Slide off a platform during a dash attack animation to cut it off. The landing freeze time is much shorter than a dash attack's, unlike in VOOT.
Prediction shots
Rotate and end a ground dash with the shot lined up. If you let the dash finish you can attack faster than by cancelling. (notice Reducing freeze times section)
Rowing(movement)
1. input and release a movement direction
2. do the same for another direction 90 degrees off from the previous
3. repeat
You can walk very fast with some VRs by doing this. Hard to input since you need to avoid diagonals. Movement speed gained and timing required for the taps is different between VRs. Not very useful but some VRs move as fast as dashing while doing it.
Unlockables (xbox360 ver.)
Unlocking Virtuaroids
You unlock virtuaroids in the port by completing missions in mission mode or ranking up in Ranked Match. After each mission you will unlock one or more "cards" with a star rank attached to it. The higher the rank the rarer the card, and you are more likely to get higher rank cards on the later missions. If it says NEW on the top right, it's a new virtuaroid. Otherwise it's a color scheme for one you already have.
All virtuaroids apart from the Kagekiyo series, Guarayakha, Temjin 707J+, 10/80adv, Apharmd "the hatter" and Jaguarandi have "commander" variants that are considered seperate VRs but only look different from the main variant(excluding Bal-series and Temjin 707J/c). The commander types are fairly rare unlocks. For the Bal-series these are the female variants, for Angelan and Fei-Yen a + is added to the end of the name and for Specineff and Myzr they are called Type-R. For all others the name just ends with /c, meaning commander.
Two new VRs that weren't in the arcade version were added to the port: Apharmd the hatter and Jaguarandi. The Jaguarandi is the one Guarayakha can transform into. You can't use him in versus mode.
Color schemes
Each VR has 12 color schemes in total. In mission mode you will unlock a color scheme for the VR you are using every time you beat a mission. It is displayed as a card like the VRs you unlock, but it never says NEW in the top right. Once you have the 11 color schemes from the cards you will still keep getting a card with the VR you are using. Once you've unlocked most of the VRs you can get color schemes for VRs you didn't use in the mission.
All of the color schemes are received through cards in mission mode like the VRs apart from the 12th, a shadow VR color scheme you unlock for reaching 101% sync ratio with the VR.
There are no custom color scheme options like the ones in VOOT MSBS 5.45 and 5.66.
EX option points
You can get more EX option points by beating missions or arcade mode and collecting the crystals that randomly appear in both modes.
AI points
AI points are unlocked by getting wins with the AI in arcade or mission mode, beating missions or arcade mode and collecting the discs that randomly appear in both modes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to
http://www7.atwiki.jp/vo4th (japanese VO4 wiki), tehxdemixazn (oratan.com forum)
for info on advanced techniques.
I'll edit the post when I have something to add or fix, feel free to post new findings or corrections.
Virtual-On Force guide (by zaarock)
Table of Contents:
Gameplay Mechanics
Advanced Techniques
Unlockables
Gameplay Mechanics
Winning/losing
A team wins if the opposite teams leader is destroyed or the time runs out while the team has the most total health. You get a "Perfect" if both enemy VRs were destroyed.
Locking on:
Jumping lock-on happens either at the top height of a jump or once you land from a canceled jump. This means that if you air dash in the middle of a jump you won't rotate automatically. You can still air dash from the top height. You always end up facing the opponent after a jump cancel, unlike in VOOT where if you make a short one you might not have time to turn enough because the lock-on/rotation happens during the jump.
You will also lock-on automatically when you get back up from a knockdown. Pay attention while you're down so you can switch targets if necessary.
Most VRs have an attack that if hits will disable lockon by jumping, if this happens the target VR gets visual noise and a noticable sound. This also happens to both players of a team if an enemy VR that is not the leader is destroyed.
If you finish off the secondary enemy VR with a dash attack you will start rotating towards the leader afterwards.
Switching targets:
You can switch the enemy you want to target by pushing both turbos, this will not cancel a dash. This can be done at any time as long as you're not attacking or in the middle of jump lock-on. You can also set a separate button for this in the port.
On the HUD double attack means that both players in your team are targeting the same enemy. Lock-on alert blinks when you are being targeted by both enemies. ENE1 and ENE2 signify which enemies are targeting you. Your target is shown as an outlined red arrow on the minimap.
Rescue dash:
Pushing the "special" button will make you dash at your teammate and make a distinguishable sound. You can do it from the ground and the air. This depletes all your weapon gauges but you can always do it as long as you have health left. Once you reach your teammate the teams health will be balanced out with the same total amount as before. If you push the button while you are very close to your teammate your weapon gauges will not be depleted. Angelan SH can also redistribute health with her TCW.
If your teammate is corrupted/destroyed you will also revive him. However, you can also revive a teammate and balance the health just by moving inside the circle he is in, making you keep your weapon gauges. So if you can get into the circle fairly safely it's a better idea not to use the rescue dash.
You and your teammate get momentary invulnerability if one is revived.
VR states, weapon disables
blue glow: stunned
grey particles/static: jump lock-on disabled
white circle: invulnerability (angelan MH TCW, specineff TLW)
transparency (blinking): invulnerability
transparency (pixellated): VR with stealth ability isn't attacking/dashing
large white circle, knocked down: corrupted, revivable
A red X and skull over a weapon means that its projectile attacks are disabled, yellow means that melee is disabled.
Various projectiles can also get stuck on a VR, slowing down movement and/or causing damage.
Angelan WH's TCW removes all status ailments from her teammate.
Air dashing:
The length of an air dash depends on how high you jump. If you air dash before you reach the apex of your jump you won't automatically rotate towards your target.
Turbo attacks:
Both turbos make the same attack variant if combined with an attack, unlike in oratan where you had left turbo (LT) and right turbo (RT) variants.
Crouch attacks:
You can do crouching attacks if you keep holding the crouch input, unlike in VOOT where you need to give the crouch input and attack at the same time. Looks like you cant do any crouch attacks quickly after landing from a jump?
There are no crouch dashing or crouching melee attacks, but some melee attack variants make VRs crouch while attacking. There are no crouching turbo attacks apart from some VR-specific special attacks.
Sliding attacks(moving crouch attacks) can only be performed moving to the left or right and can't be performed within range 120 from an enemy because you will start blocking(see guard/block).
Quick Step attacks:
Quickstepping around your opponent in melee range is now much easier to do, but you cant do it without attacking. Just move left or right while doing a melee attack without turbo and you will rotate around the enemy (no quicksteps that go forwards/backwards this time) You can cancel the attack and quickstep by blocking.
You can also combo into quickstep turbo attacks by inputting them after a normal quickstep attack. Quickstep turbo attacks can also be performed from a guard (see advanced techniques) Quickstep turbo attacks have more time to be cancelled (with guard, dash, etc.) compared to stationary ones.
Uppercut melee:
Moving backwards from the enemy while triggering any melee attack will make you do an uppercut attack. This attack makes you rotate towards the opponent much less than the jump melee attack.
Blocking/Guarding:
You can always block with the crouch input as long as there is an enemy close to you (range is 120) and you block melee attacks from all directions. Turbo melee attacks break the guard but do significantly less damage when doing so.
If you block an enemy melee attack and push an attack button quickly afterwards you will do a guard reversal attack similar to the blocking attacks in VOOT, except in this game it knocks people down on block. If you move while doing it you will strafe. You don't need to be targeting an enemy to do the reversal.
Watari Dashing:
Watari dashing (switching directions in the middle of a dash, also changes attacks) is much slower than in VOOT. If you start an air dash from a short jump you might not even have time to start switching directions.
Watari dashing has strange properties in that you can start a forward dash attack even though your VR is still turning to face forward. Doing a 180 and attacking has great evasive properties because you move in a circle (japanese wiki calls it a boomerang attack)
Shooting projectiles in melee range
To shoot projectiles in melee range you just switch targets and attack. If you want to do a turbo attack you can attack and switch targets at the same time (because target switch is both turbos).
Ground dash cancel recovery
Cancelling ground dashes by pushing a turbo button during a dash has fairly a long recovery animation, but you can control your characters movement during it. This plays a big role in movement as you can for example cancel a dash and then "slide" towards the opposite direction.
Dash and landing freezes:
Dashing attack freezes are shorter than in VOOT in comparison to the speed of the game and there is very little freeze from landing unless you have attacked while being in the air. Doing ground dash attacks off of platforms is beneficial; the attack animation gets skipped and you will land with a fast recovery.
Close Combat system details
The melee system is fairly different from OT and OMG so I'll explain it comprehensively. Close combat is powerful in VO4 as its speed compared to normal attacks is increased as is the amount of guaranteed hit scenarios (for example meleeing targets landing from the air)
Normal melee:
- performed by inputting a weapon while its gauge is displayed as yellow(melee range)
- you can strafe/quickstep by holding left or right while attacking. However this massively reduces how much the attack approaches the enemy.
Turbo melee:
- performed with turbo+weapon
- slower, more damaging attack that also punishes blocking
- knocks down and causes some damage on block
- quicksteppable with a trick(see advanced techniques) which also reduces the risks involved
Uppercut melee:
- performed by holding downwards and attack
- designed to hit jumping opponents, but the amount of rotation/tracking is very small (30 degrees)
Jump melee:
- performed with attack+jump (need to input attack first)
- only melee attack that doesn't make you move towards your opponent during startup
- always aims at the opponent, can turn 180 degrees during startup
- causes bigger blockstun
Dashing melee:
- performed by rotating and attacking while dashing. you can use rotation to manipulate the direction and speed of the swing.
- can be very useful, but as the recovery time is fairly long expect to be punished if these get blocked
Guard reversal melee:
- accessible by pushing LW or RW after blocking any melee attack. You can strafe/slide while performing it by inputting movement
- generally fast but not cancellable until the end of active frames
- knocks the enemy down if they block
Cancel system and combos:
Uncancellable: jump melee, uppercut, turbo melee as part of a combo
Guard cancellable: second attack of auto strings (like RW,RW), regular turbo melee
Guard cancellable including active frames: normal melee, individual quickstep turbo melee(see advanced techniques)
Cancellable into jump melee: any guard cancellable attack, anything you can jump out of (like ground dash recovery)
Cancellable into jump melee including active frames: normal melee
Comboable into turbo melee: normal melee (this kind of turbo melee cannot be cancelled out of)
Comboable into jump melee: guard reversal melee
Comboable into uppercut: normal melee
Comboable into normal LW/RW melee: normal LW/RW melee while inputting rotation. Only a little faster than just guard cancelling the end of the first attack.
Ground stab(special attack on downed VRs):
- performed by pushing a weapon in melee range next to a knocked down opponent when the RW bar has turned green
- seems to be guaranteed after some knockdowns(melee and air knockdowns are longer), may depend on VR/speed of the attack
- plays an important role since many attacks have low damage but still knock down
Special attack list for every VR:
http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=456 (by Jecht Striker)
Translations for ingame tutorial (goes through the basics nicely):
http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7008#p7008 (by JKTrix @ oratan)
Advanced Techniques
Increased rotation for ground dash attacks (can lock 180 degrees for some attacks)
You will aim towards the opponent far faster before firing than normal and be able to fire at a larger angle.
Saved rotation method
0. begin a ground dash, optional: hold the dash button during all steps (turbo rotation)
1. rotate towards opponent while dashing
2. start holding crouch + rotate
3. keep holding crouch and fire a weapon
Basically if your target is 170 degrees to the left, you hold left rotate, "lock" the rotation with crouch and then fire.
Alternative method (timed rotation):
0. input a dash attack and rotate at the same time, strict timing.
Notes:
-Hard to pull off on twin sticks?
-If playing on pad with default control arrangement, you need to set LB/RB to rotate. Otherwise you have no way of rotating and crouching at the same time.
-Doesn't work well for some VRs and attacks, but for some extremely useful (Temjin 707-J+, single shot from forward dash attack)
Individual quickstep turbo melee
You can do quickstep turbo CC attacks from a guard with the following technique:
1. hold guard (the animation must be finished), a turbo button and a direction.
2. release guard and push an attack button at the same time.
Quickstep turbo CC has a big cancel window, usually you can even guard cancel them after the attack hits the opponent.
Rapid Dash Cancelling
Doing extremely small dashes while holding the movement direction can be an efficient and safe way to move around, since you can jump out of the recovery and quickly access normal attacks while covering a lot of distance. Usability/speed depends on the VR and the length of recovery animation of the specific dash direction. Messes up the homing on most attacks that might be flying at you since your speed keeps going back and forth.
Shot dislocation
Very useful for VRs with long weapons like Temjin, Specineff, Kagekiyo(spear).
Diagonal(easy):
walk diagonally, your attack will come out from the front left or front right of your VR
Horizontal:
Input left or right and attack at the same time. If you move back and forth or rotate before inputting the direction the timing is easier(gets buffered a little I guess). Your VR will hold its weapon/hand to the opposite side and fire from it. Timing is strict.
If the attack comes out of the tip of the weapon or arm it can come out from a very different horizontal position, depending on the VR.
Vertical:
input walking attack after a stationary crouching attack that is cancellable(?). you will fire from above your VR and over walls. Also possible by cancelling rotation into a walking attack with some VRs(Temjin,?)
You can use these techniques to shoot from behind walls and vary the positions of your shots so that they are more likely to hit moving opponents.
Reducing freeze times
Attacking after a dash:
If you attempt to go into regular melee from a dash, you generally either have to jump cancel or cancel the dash, but either way there is some lag. If you allow the dash to compete, it has end lag, but you can immediately cancel into any melee or shot. This means that it is preferable to space a dash such that it ends where you wish to attack, if you wish to do something other than dashing cc. It is still faster to move with dash cancels, as they have movement delay, but this is better for attacking purposes. (from tehxdemixazn @ oratan)
Especially useful for VRs with short dashes (specineff, raiden)
Attacking off platforms:
Slide off a platform during a dash attack animation to cut it off. The landing freeze time is much shorter than a dash attack's, unlike in VOOT.
Prediction shots
Rotate and end a ground dash with the shot lined up. If you let the dash finish you can attack faster than by cancelling. (notice Reducing freeze times section)
Rowing(movement)
1. input and release a movement direction
2. do the same for another direction 90 degrees off from the previous
3. repeat
You can walk very fast with some VRs by doing this. Hard to input since you need to avoid diagonals. Movement speed gained and timing required for the taps is different between VRs. Not very useful but some VRs move as fast as dashing while doing it.
Unlockables (xbox360 ver.)
Unlocking Virtuaroids
You unlock virtuaroids in the port by completing missions in mission mode or ranking up in Ranked Match. After each mission you will unlock one or more "cards" with a star rank attached to it. The higher the rank the rarer the card, and you are more likely to get higher rank cards on the later missions. If it says NEW on the top right, it's a new virtuaroid. Otherwise it's a color scheme for one you already have.
All virtuaroids apart from the Kagekiyo series, Guarayakha, Temjin 707J+, 10/80adv, Apharmd "the hatter" and Jaguarandi have "commander" variants that are considered seperate VRs but only look different from the main variant(excluding Bal-series and Temjin 707J/c). The commander types are fairly rare unlocks. For the Bal-series these are the female variants, for Angelan and Fei-Yen a + is added to the end of the name and for Specineff and Myzr they are called Type-R. For all others the name just ends with /c, meaning commander.
Two new VRs that weren't in the arcade version were added to the port: Apharmd the hatter and Jaguarandi. The Jaguarandi is the one Guarayakha can transform into. You can't use him in versus mode.
Color schemes
Each VR has 12 color schemes in total. In mission mode you will unlock a color scheme for the VR you are using every time you beat a mission. It is displayed as a card like the VRs you unlock, but it never says NEW in the top right. Once you have the 11 color schemes from the cards you will still keep getting a card with the VR you are using. Once you've unlocked most of the VRs you can get color schemes for VRs you didn't use in the mission.
All of the color schemes are received through cards in mission mode like the VRs apart from the 12th, a shadow VR color scheme you unlock for reaching 101% sync ratio with the VR.
There are no custom color scheme options like the ones in VOOT MSBS 5.45 and 5.66.
EX option points
You can get more EX option points by beating missions or arcade mode and collecting the crystals that randomly appear in both modes.
AI points
AI points are unlocked by getting wins with the AI in arcade or mission mode, beating missions or arcade mode and collecting the discs that randomly appear in both modes.
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Thanks to
http://www7.atwiki.jp/vo4th (japanese VO4 wiki), tehxdemixazn (oratan.com forum)
for info on advanced techniques.