Over the course of the past week, we've discussed each of the mainline games in the VIRTUAL-ON series. We've seen the best of the series with Oratorio Tangram and the worst with Marz. Now, we take a look at the merchandise, cameos, and overall legacy of the series.

That being said, there hasn't be a new Virtual-On title released in over 15 years, following the release of ill-received Cyber Troopers Virtual On: Marz.

The series' 20th anniversary was coming up in 2018 and Sega opted to change that. That's where A Certain Magical Virtual-On comes in. I feel like I would be doing this series retrospective a massive disservice if I don't at least cover this game in some capacity.

Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On AKA A Certain Magical Virtual-On's box art.


A Certain Magical Virtual-On first released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2018. The game is a collaboration between Sega and Dengeki Bunko, featuring characters from Kazuma Kamachi's light novel series A Certain Magical Index. The game features M.S.B.S. v55.55. It was released on February 15, 2018.

According to Watari Juro, producer of the Virtual-On games, the reason for the collaboration project was that since the Virtual-On series has been dormant for more than a decade, they needed entice previous players of the Virtual-On game as well new players. For the older players they wanted something that could surprise them, and this is where the "Toaru" series comes into the picture. For newer players, it is a way to stand out of the crowd as there are now many new robot fighting games and for those who don't know of the game's history would only look at the game as something of "more of the same".

Despite the initially cold response from both "Toaru" and Virtual-On series fans, Watari Juro was confident that they were heading to a good direction after the release of the crossover novel. According to Watari Juro, they chose to have the mecha that were used in the second game Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram (which is later reflected on the crossover game's own logo) for the collaboration as it just had the right amount of mecha in the game. Who would pilot which mecha wasn't decided until Watari Juro could consult talk with Kamachi but he always had a vague thought that Kamijou Touma would pilot Temjin. When designing the mecha, since Index was the main heroine, Katoki Hajime suggested in giving her a mecha with her silhouette, ending up with the unique Bal-Bados (BAL-RlooN) mecha Index pilots. While developing Watari Juro felt it necessary to have the game be released on a home console first instead of the arcades.

Like the novel, the story is written by Kamachi Kazuma, and is a sequel to the crossover novel. As there were many playable characters that were killed-off in the crossover novel, the story in the game is essentially a reset of the events in the novel. Katoki Hajime is retained as the illustrator and mecha designer for the games.

JC Staff, the animation studio that worked on all animated Toaru Majutsu no Index and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun content was later tasked on animating the promotional video for the game, which was first later released on September 19, 2017 in the 2017 PlayStation Press Conference in Japan.


Gameplay


In addition to the three weapons equipped to the Virtuaroid, a fourth weapon is available depending on the ability of the character piloting the Virtuaroid.

As opposed to previous Virtual-On games, where the victor was decided by the amount of HP remaining if a KO wasn't achieved within the time limit, a new point system has been added, with the score determining who wins if time runs out. Additionally, certain actions within the game, such as a point-dominant player running without hitting for a certain time, can result in penalties being imposed.

The game will also have online matches and co-op gameplay.


Notable Features


Voost Weapon - Players can activate abilities related to the pilot character to gain an advantage in battle. Acqua can summon Ascalon as a weapon, Kuroko can use her teleport, and Mikoto can perform the Railgun as Voost Weapons.

Tutorial - Beginner players can learn about the combat system of Virtual-On through a series of tutorials presented by Tsukuyoki Komoe.

Smart Style - Playing using Smart Style allows abilities used to lock onto enemies.

Veteran Style - Recommended for experienced players, in combat, abilities have to be aimed to actually hit enemies.

Missions - Players receive missions that, when accomplished, reward players.

Boss Battle - Players must defeat a computer-controlled enemy that is designed to be considerably more difficult to defeat.

Explosion Code - A separate combat mode where two teams of two play a gamemode similar to soccer.

Kill Attack - A survival-style game mode where a player fights against enemies until the player's unit is downed.

Arcade Battle - A traditional game mode that follows most Virtual-On combat rules.

Network Mode - Players can organize matches with other players connected through the Internet.

Online Battle - Players can look for opponents to play against. Team skirmish with up to two teams of two players are allowed.

Rank Match - Competitive players can enter Rank Matches to gain Rank Points, which are compared with other players in the game's leaderboards.

Cross-Save - Game progress can be synced between the PS4 and the PS Vita versions of the game.

Original Story - An original story written by Kamachi Kazuma details the events that follow the story as told in the Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On light novel.


Opening Cinematic




Story


The story takes place in a parallel world, just after the events of the GREMLIN Arc. Each playable character has their own story that the player can complete. Each story is concurrent with one another, with the final battle occurring in Touma's story.

Kamijou Touma: Peace has returned to Academy City after the A Certain Magical Virtual-On novel and the Virtual-On tournament Boosters Cup is being held. Kamijou Touma participates in a tag team with Index and continues winning against powerful opponents such as Level 5s and magicians. He is relieved to find Virtual-On is peaceful and safe this time, but then the Blue Stalker, who was supposedly defeated last time, appears again.

Shirai Kuroko: Shirai Kuroko planned to participate in the Boosters Cup with Mikoto. But when Mikoto left her behind and formed a team with Shokuhou instead, Kuroko's anger explodes! Driven by jealousy and vengeance, Kuroko begins attacking participants to gather companions so she can defeat Shokuhou and prove she would be more useful to Mikoto. If you want to know why Mikoto formed a team with Shokuhou, read the new story by Kamachi Kazuma that begins on page 50 of this magazine!

Kanzaki Kaori: To resolve the problems occurring around the world, Necessarius has sent Kanzaki Kaori to Academy City which is thought to be the center of the problems. To gather information, she tries to contact Tsuchimikado who is a fellow Necessarius magician that infiltrated Academy City as a spy, but she runs into various magic side criminals instead...


Characters


Playable


Non-Playable


Lilina
Faiyubu (voice-only)






According to Forbes, as of March 2019, Sega has temporarily halted sales of this game, allegedly to poor sales in Japan. As of this posting (6/28/19), I checked Amazon myself this morning and it comes up on that retailer just fine if you wish to import it though. The game lacks any English subtitles or voice over options, so keep that in mind if you're interested in checking that out. For those who don't know, PlayStation 4 can play import titles without any extra equipment or means necessary since the console isn't region locked.


Merchandise


Chibi Virtual-On Virtuaroid Model kits

In terms of merchandise based on the Virtual-On series, you can't go wrong with hunting down the various plastic model kits based off the Virtuaroids in the series. Marz may have been the worst game in the series, but we got a lot of excellent new VR mecha designs from that game and Force. Hell, I'm going to hunt down a few of these to have in my own collection with my Gundam model kits. Just know that the models mentioned below range from $40 to $90+ via imports - meaning they are a tad expensive in terms of their rarity.

Plastic models





The first plastic model series based on Virtuaroid was released shortly before Japanese release of Oratorio Tangram, and were made by Wave Corporation. These Virtuaroid models are borrowed from Operation Moongate as well as Oratorio Tangram, One Man Rescue and Fragmentary Passage. These models were also made by Kotobukiya, which is well known for making plastic models of Medabots anime and manga series.

Hasegawa Corporation also manufactures the plastic model kits of Virtuaroids from Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force and Marz video games. Some Virtuaroids, which were originally available only in a few versions, were expanded to including spinoffs, such as Virtuaroid Guarayakha with special equipment, and more alternate-colored versions of some Virtuaroids.

As of 2014, plastic models of Virtual On franchise are still in production. In 2015, even more were brought back into production for the 20th anniversary of the series.



Action Figures





There have been two waves of figures made based off the original Cyber Troopers Virtual-On video game and another line based off its sequel, Oratorio Tangram. There's a few Japanese retailers who are still selling them for those who wish to obtain the collection for themselves. For the record there's five individual companies behind the toys from over the years and I have linked them below if you wanted to see their work:




The kid in me wants all of these too, especially that Kotobukiya and XEBEC line of figures. Holy shit, those look awesome.






Appearances in other media






The Virtuaroids Temjin 747J, Ahparmd the HA-T and Fei-Yen the Knight from the Virtual-On series appeared in the Japanese, turn-based strategy game Super Robot Wars Alpha 3. This was the first occasion of characters from a video game series, owned neither by Banpresto nor their parent company Namco Bandai, appearing in a Super Robot Wars game. Of note about the game is that if the other pilots in the game remove their suits, approach the Virtuaroids and try to speak to their pilots, the Virtuaroids would say that they were being remote-piloted by pilots in another plane or dimension.




In the PSP rhythm-action game 'Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend', the 3rd game in the Project DIVA series, one of the available outfits for Miku to wear was based on Fei-Yen. The special outfit was later made into plastic model figure.



A reference to Virtual On can be found in 21st episode of Hyōka anime, where Hōtarō and Satoshi play the Operation Moongate with the Virtuaroids Raiden and Viper II respectively.

Temjin and Fei-Yen recently appeared on Senko No Ronde 2 as part of selectable characters via DLC.



Legacy

The Virtual-On series has seen it's fair share of ups and downs over it's twenty-plus years in gaming history, but still remains as one of Sega's many beloved properties. The series may not has as much widespread popularity outside of Japan as it does in its country of origin, but there are numerous fans around the world (like myself) who love it nonetheless. I firmly believe that this game is the one that defined arena-based combat to how we know it today in gaming and definitely made an impact for giant mecha-based games at the time.

It goes without saying that the Virtual-On series has inspired other giant mecha-based fighting games as well, namely the popular Gundam Versus series that mostly was limited to Japanese audiences until it's fifth entry, Gundam Versus, came out exclusively for PlayStation 4. The Gundam Versus series doesn't sport the iconic Twin Stick format that Virtual-On is commonly identified with, but it recycles a lot of the same gameplay rules (2v2 format in some of the later entries) and techniques (jump-cancels and dash-cancels are almost identical in terms of their usage) with its arena-based combat.

Out of all of the characters/properties that Sega has been sitting on for the better part of a decade or more, I'm surprised that the Virtual-On series doesn't get the attention that it deserves. The games are admittedly hard to learn, but extremely rewarding for those who dedicate the time to master them, much like any other fighting game. I think the lack of peripheral support and supply for non-Japanese audiences ultimately hurt the series in the long-run on whatever console(s) it ended up on, whether it was the initial releases on the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast, or the re-releases on Xbox 360.

Sega announced that it would be re-releasing all three of these games for PlayStation 4 later this year.

I hope Sega doesn't make this mistake on the upcoming re-releases of Cyber Troopers Virtual-On (Operation Moongate), Cyber Troopers Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, and Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force for PlayStation 4 later this year. If the fans want a Twin Stick controller that will work for PlayStation 4, then do it and make it affordable. Don't repeat the mistake of the Xbox 360 releases where the controller costs 30 times more than the actual game costs brand new. There's plenty of fans who want to continue supporting this series if Sega would allow them the means to do so.

This is a series that deserves to be appreciated by players old and new that definitely stands the test of time. I will always have a fondness for this series, but I wish more people knew about it and have the chance to see why I enjoyed it so much. That's the main reason why I took the past week to cover everything under the sun that I could find in relation to the game. I learned a lot about the series that I wasn't aware of until this week and I hope I have peaked the interest of any newcomers who would want to give the series a try someday too.


Thank you Sega and especially both Katoki Hajime and Watari Juro, for bringing this series to life and keeping it's memory alive. Last but not least, thank you to my readers for who have taken the time to check out this theme for this week.


   
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