[VOOT & VO4] Zaarock's video thread

[Zaarock]

I'm super late to the video uploading party, but I finally got a recording device. So here we go.

Zaarock[CYP] VS FlyExponent[TEM]: high-speed offense


Zaarock[Kagekiyo 火] & Transient Nova[VOX Dan] VS Porcupine[Fei-Yen VH] & Fei-Yen PH


I'm very curious what people who say VO4 is too slow think of the latter video. I never really agreed with that statement, but a replay should show a lot more than trying to argue about it.

Uploads will be in the same vein as neoKEN's, since I liked the setup he used for his a lot. I'll take recording requests if people have any, but only one a week (for now).
Expect a lot more VOOT uploads, I only have one or two more VO4 replays saved that I want to record. I do want to share more VO4 stuff, it's just hard to play regularly to improve.

[Zaarock]

KATENASASOSU[BAL] VS Zaarock[CYP]: Danmaku Tangram


A very close match with Katena. I've played hundreds of matches with him and he always puts up a big challenge.


Zaarock[CYP] VS Dordray: aggression 2


Had long set of matches with men doru a few months ago, it was very even. I think he was rusty though, also lag as usual. He rarely gets on the game nowadays but I've seen him teaching new players in XBL parties.


Zaarock[Kagekiyo 林] & Temjin 747A VS Myzr Δ & Raiden 512E1


Using spear kagekiyo, my favorite VO4 VR here. This is with a group of jp players I played a lot with at the time. I learned a ton from those matches since they were much better than I was initially. I don't think I'll pull off a finish like that ever again.

[Zaarock]

KATENASASOSU[BAL] VS Zaarock[ANG]: pyramid stunlock


Fighting Katena's bal with my angelan. He manages to pull off an infinite stunlock with invisible pyramid which I've only seen once before. It seems he has a setup for it, after I put this on the leaderboard he uploaded a demonstration of doing it against the AI (on flat ground).


VO4 unused VR: Kagekiyo 風 commander-type


This unused variant has increased movement speed during melee (not including dashing). As such it's more powerful than the normal Kagekiyo "Wind" (which is a good VR to begin with), so this fight isn't really legitimate. I think I play pretty well outside of the speeded up melee though and the replay is a good demonstration of the things you can do with the additional speed. No idea why it has the melee quirk.. I'm assuming it's a glitch or some old variable left over from early development. But why they would be altering melee speed values so much when they're porting the arcade game I have no idea.

There's at least one drawback to the melee speed, if you sidestep very close up you will get hit by any attack the enemy can throw out because you're spinning around them so fast. However, being able to chase down backdashing opponents and close in extremely quickly is a way bigger deal than small things like that.

This was a fight with a group of jp players, since I play with them a lot I thought they might be interested to see this variant (Porcupine has shown them some other unused VR before). I know the Raiden player is very strong but it's not surprising he got confused by the melee speed. I actually almost never play Kagekiyo "Wind", I really should start using it. The more powerful single shot damage and melee is very nice in the right hands.

If it's overpowered then I guess it's the samurai equivalent of Jaguarandi or something


TEM PAPA[Temjin 707J+] & Bal m Landa VS Aph T-typeB & Aph T-typeD


Some great CC combat here by japanese players. Temjin 707J+ seems like a VR only used by advanced players. It seems to be weak though, since you never see it in tournaments. TEM PAPA is one of the best Temjin 747A players I've seen.

[Zaarock]

All VOOT uploads are now in 720P 60FPS, previous ones are already reuploaded. Brightness and audio levels should also be better on them (beginner mistakes, really). Youtube's low bitrate still hurts quality a lot but I think they look great in the 480p viewer.

lots of uploads this time. (Break week at university, heh)


neoKEN[BAL] VS Zaarock[CYP] - 9 round: evasive action


One of the old 9-round challenges I had with neoKEN. I used to not think much of this replay but in retrospect there's some nice play here, at least the projectile dodging. My playstyle hasn't changed all that much in the last couple years. I don't think I've ever seen anyone use jump laser so much though, so pointless

This is the latest replay I could find where I fight neoKEN with cypher.. I'd gotten way too stingy with replay saving. Sucks since I don't even have replays with some people I played commonly with (chiwageka, FlyExponent).


S Zetto[APB] VS S0Y0KA[CYP]: infinite rushdown


Two japanese tournament rivals at it again. Both could very well be the best player for their respective VR. Pretty sure this is a tournament match, or at least I remember something very similar. This seems like an 'annoying' matchup for both sides (cat and mouse -like by definition) but since both players are extremely skilled it's a great watch. S Zetto's execution is ridiculously good as usual.

By annoying I mean playstyles are very restricted, say Battler has to rely on hitting cypher when they land and Cypher cannot attack aggressively on the ground because of grenades. (LTRW stun into melee is also very nasty, can't really even try to melee proactively against a good Aph B).

Zetto's signature finish must be such a good mental weapon. I still can't get over him doing it in the VO Whistling tournament, haha.


Lets Prestar[APC] VS Aph C: machete mastery


Fun Apharmd C showcase. Prestar has been using Aph C as his main VR for quite a while now.

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Some VO4 content that's not skilled play but unused data related:

VO4 - Arcade mode (normal) using Ajim & Guerlain


Me and Porcupine destroying arcade mode as the glitchy final boss of the game. I don't think much more needs to be said

Curiously exiting an arcade mode replay or match causes a crash. For me my 360 fans went crazy after each time (which rarely happens), might cause a memory leak or something? As such I think it's better not to put this on the leaderboard.


VO4 VR viewer: unused Kagekiyo /c (風) & unused color


S0Y0KA and some other japanese players asked me to upload VR viewer footage of the unused Kagekiyo so they could have a better look at it. I find it weird that that helmet model just went unused, maybe the devs thought it wasn't fitting as a commander helmet for all the variants.



If anyone is curious here is how I prepare these videos for upload now:
H264 video in .TS container from HD PVR Rocket (max bitrate on it is 18mb/s, sadly) -> extract/add audio via tsMuxer & edit audio in Audacity

Very easy really. It's silly but most of the time spent tends to go to thinking of a music track that goes well with the replay. Not going to stop doing it though, I think it's a fun thing and perhaps people watching might run into something they enjoy; I tend to use some pretty obscure stuff but try to make it different each time.

[MentholMoose]

If anyone is curious here is how I prepare these videos for upload now:
H264 video in .TS container from HD PVR Rocket (max bitrate on it is 18mb/s, sadly) -> extract/add audio via tsMuxer & edit audio in Audacity

What are you exporting from your editing setup and actually uploading to YouTube?

[Zaarock]

If anyone is curious here is how I prepare these videos for upload now:
H264 video in .TS container from HD PVR Rocket (max bitrate on it is 18mb/s, sadly) -> extract/add audio via tsMuxer & edit audio in Audacity

What are you exporting from your editing setup and actually uploading to YouTube?

.TS container with the same H264 video as the source along with edited AAC audio (48khz). I only do audio editing. Video editing would be troublesome with the recording device's low bitrate I think. At least it's still possible to trim and combine video without sacrificing quality/recompressing.

18mb/s bitrate isn't enough for high quality 720p60, but 60fps is totally worth some quality loss. (in comparison 720p30 looks near perfect even viewed in 1080p)

I was lucky with starting to record these just before youtube added 60fps, rerecording and uploading took little effort!

[MentholMoose]

.TS container with the same H264 video as the source along with edited AAC audio (48khz). I only do audio editing. Video editing would be troublesome with the recording device's low bitrate I think. At least it's still possible to trim and combine video without sacrificing quality/recompressing.

That is a good way to do it. Re-encoding will cause some unwanted degradation. I was using an Intensity Pro (until it died) which can do high quality captures, but the downside is large raw files (~1GB/minute, plus I capture both DNA and RNA perspectives for my videos).

18mb/s bitrate isn't enough for high quality 720p60, but 60fps is totally worth some quality loss. (in comparison 720p30 looks near perfect even viewed in 1080p)

YouTube doesn't take the MJPEG raw files from my card so I have to re-encode (I also overlay text). However with 2-pass H.264 it looks good to me at only 10 Mbit/sec.

[Zaarock]

VOOT session: Zaarock[Angelan] VS Shamanic Beat[Temjin] - 2014/11/02 (60FPS)


Very nice session I had with Shamanic yesterday. Most fun I've had in VOOT in a long time. I don't think many people here have seen my angelan so it should be an interesting watch.

I put some timestamps for highlights in the video's description since it's long.

I've only played angelan for a few months but I think I'm already decent at it. I know I use her 'wrong' (too aggressive, close range). Playing at medium range is super fun though, she has combo potential that only Bal and maybe Aph B rival. Also, I enjoy this matchup a lot more than Cypher VS Temjin even if I'm more skilled in that.

Her standing RW for example causes stun, but with very short invulnerability time. You can combo it into any attack(including itself). A very flashy combo is RW -> CW hits -> dash CC


atmark charisma[Aph T typeB] & Guarayakha VS Jane & Kagekiyo 風


Super good japanese VO4 player, I've ran into him a few times. This seems to be his main VR. Tons of advanced techniques on display and very nice CC combat.

Running into people like this really makes me more impressed of the game, he could carry teams in lobbies with already very good players.


VO4 advanced technique tutorial #1


Small tutorial covering some important techniques for VO4. I know not many are interested in something like this but it was fun to make. I'll probably make another one in the future since this is missing many things.

It's hard to draw the line between basic and advanced tech though, IMO for example sliding off of platforms is a basic technique since it's a part of VO4's normal mechanics and requires no additional technique from the player.


Switched to using ffmpeg (very popular program, works on all OS on command line) for remuxing audio into the videos, tsMuxer was causing desyncs in half of my videos which I had to correct.

Things at university is back at full swing so uploads will be less frequent from now on.

[Porcupine]

I don't have any conceptual issue with calling dash attacks that fall off of platforms an advanced technique. It still requires knowledge of the technique, plus it also requires an element of skill because it takes experience to know the layout of all stages and when/where you can use it. The only thing it lacks is a complicated input.

Upon further thought, it also requires some element of quick thinking and good aim/distance judgment. I often try to do this technique on the super long Space (Tunnel?) stage but I tend to mis-aim and fall off the cliff before my dash shots come out. That's a lot easier to do than it sounds because in Force it generally takes longer for dash attacks to come out (compared to VOOT) yet they recover comparably quickly to VOOT. Added to the fact that dashes slow to a stop after attacking in Force, and it means you don't travel that far after your dash attack, so it is harder to aim yourself to fall off. (It's ultra easy in training mode, but in the heat of a battle where you are also trying to do other things, it is harder to make it happen exactly as you want).

Also the Tutorial mode called it an advanced technique I think, so it must be.

[Zaarock]

Idk, that sounds the same as saying that not running into walls when dash attacking in VOOT is an advanced technique. Or that timing your attacks so that you end up behind walls is advanced.

It's just about learning the timings for your dash attacks, which everyone will learn just by playing the game.

Not that this terminology really matters, I'll cover not-obvious stuff in the guide and tutorials anyway & this was the only one I found weird.

[Zaarock]

Some recent videos (not all of them)

VOOT session: Zaarock[CYP] VS katenasasosu[BAL] - 2014/11/06


I get blown up by a very good Bal player. I play stupidly at the start but start catching up by the end.


sa0001[10/80 SP] vs Bal-Bados - 2014/12/03


sa0001 doing his thing. Very nice 10/80 play.


VOOT session: Zaarock[ANG] vs Shamanic Beat[TEM] #2 - 2015/02/07


We've both improved a lot at this matchup. Getting more consistent with Angelan's rowing technique.


Zaarock[Kagekiyo 林] & Porcupine[Raiden 512E1] VS Raiden 512A & VarryoChoco[Myzr Eta] - 2015/03/15


CC craziness. Very good 512A player. I'm improving at VO4 but still a ways to go to high level play.


Starting to stream on twitch every now and then: http://www.twitch.tv/xaerock . Not sure how often, for now I'll stream the weekly VO Nights and some other VOOT sessions.

I might not update this thread anymore. You can check my youtube or twitter if you want to follow the recordings. Still taking replay upload requests in any case though!

[Zaarock]

Necro time

VOOT XBLA version 9th anniversary stream 2018


oratan casuals - European duel - 2016/halloween


oratan casuals - ft. FlyExponent, mokoko, shamanic, varryo - 2016/09


oratan casuals w/ Varryo & Shamanic - 2016/05


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Replays:

Playing the game wrong with Shamanic



katena [BAL] VS men doru [DOR]


Seabasshunter [TEM] VS Fei-Yen


MIDORINO [ANG] VS BA [CYP]


Cypher mirrored