Introduction

The most respected Virtual-On, and the only one that actually got a re-release in XBLA internationally unlike the other games, Oratorio Tangram is essentially the Smash Bros Melee of the Virtual-On series in reception and in complexity, both at surface level [new Virtuaroids and appearance, faster paced gameplay, airdashes and easy dash cancelling] and at more advanced tech level [Watari Dash, turbo attacks, V-Armor, special attacks for all VRs].

There's a good chance you are reading this because it's the one you are familiar, or at least it's the game that introduced you to the Virtual-On series [if it wasn't the first game]. The official OT websites linked are in Japanese, so you should enable the translation feature in your browser if you want to check those out.

My Arcade Mode runs

These are all the arcade mode runs I've recorded and uploaded. Most of these are 1CCs since they...well, are 1CCs - it isn't consistently easy to pull that off if the CPUs get nasty, you're playing with a disadvantaged/unconventional VR...or even playing in Dreamcast's Fog Mode. Dreamcast/5.66 NAOMI runs done with Flycast, 5.66 XBLA runs done with Xenia.

Playing as Ajim (and related details)

Ajim is a very particular character in Oratorio Tangram: A secret boss that appears if you camp the enemy too much in Arcade mode (getting timeouts to make him appear is the main theory, although it seems to also involve the amount of health between players and some luck), extremely strong, quick and durable. If you unlock the ability to play as Ajim, you get the strong and quick abilities...but you'll be even more fragile than Cypher AND will have passive health drain that stops you from ever winning by time out - assuming you haven't got hit a single time.

I even made a video analyzing Ajim's (somewhat inconsistent) spawn conditions, attacks, quirks and how it is to play as it.

I covered this in the Boss Analysis video mentioned above, but unlocking and playing as Ajim depends of what version are you playing at. The only shared connection is that in the Machine Select screen [except for the 360 and PS4's Versus/Training menus, where it appears with its own slot], you need to hold down both Turbo buttons for Ajim to appear and be selected.

• Model 3 Arcade MSBS 5.2/5.4 - Ajim will automatically be selectable at any point if the machine is set to a date after the year 2000.
• Dreamcast MSBS 5.45 - Ajim must be defeated by KO in Arcade Mode to unlock, and to be selectable, the date is between the 15th and 31th of any month, as otherwise Ajim won't be selectable even if you beat him and saved. However, you CAN access Ajim in the Japanese version's Virtuaroid Customize option if you're in a date where Ajim would be selectable, even if you haven't unlocked it yet.
• NAOMI Arcade MSBS 5.66 Ajim MUST be time-unlockable by machine usage time since manual date set has no effect here. Unfortunately there's no information about the exact amount of time required for this, but I can confirm that having an Ajim color saved on the VMU will show the slot in the VMU BUT it will be unselectable...so it seems that even that isn't allowed unless the machine has Ajim enabled.
• Xbox 360/PS4 MSBS 5.66 - Ajim will be unlocked if you encounter it in Arcade Mode once, regardless of whether you win or lose.

Dreamcast Survival Mode

Calling it "Dreamcast" only isn't exactly correct since this is also a toggle in the arcade versions of VOOT (both in Model 3 and NAOMI)...but unless you're intentionally digging into an emu/cab to do that or somehow have an extremely evil arcade operator, it is most likely that the only way you'd run into this would be from the Dreamcast version, as the option seems to be absent in the XBLA and PS4 ports.

If you're familiar with fighting games, then you could have guessed that the challenge is to go through several fights with one healthbar, although here, not only you don't get your health increased EVER, but also its in a game where attacks can take 10-20% of health most of the time, let alone the stronger attacks which range into the 40-50% (even more if used against fragile virtuaroids).

It isn't a "dedicated" survival mode, but rather a switch that disables health regen between rounds in Arcade mode. So this does mean you have to go through five fights, then Bradtos, then three more fights before reaching Tangram...and I have the feeling that completing the game with Survival Mode active is almost impossible.

As with other games, I only got into trying this myself because of an achievement in RetroAchievements that asks you to beat Bradtos in Survival Mode, but even that was quite tough to pull off, because ANY stray hit from enemies before that will make you be steps closer to immediate death and back to square one. You CAN survive Bradtos with low health, but either you'd need to have just enough to tank a few hits before getting over the first phase with the harder to dodge attacks...or somehow avoid EVERY attack in order to not die if you have too little health.

And of course, I only have a section here about this because I managed to beat that challenge (refer to the Arcade Runs table for the video), but what intrigued me further was trying to find footage of other players trying it out...and I only found TWO nicovideo uploads, both SOMEHOW getting to Tangram...and tragically, both dying to Tangram while being so close to win - or maybe intentionally dying for some reason?

• Survival with Temjin by 晩メシ (2007)
• Survival with Grys-Vok by けろきん (2009)

Dreamcast's Network Versus

After Virtual-On on Sega Saturn having a Netlink/XBAND version with online support, Oratorio Tangram on the Dreamcast would get a network versus option integrated to play online, as the Dreamcast was tailor made to include online features...but this feature was exclusive to the Japanese version - being removed entirely in the North American release.

However, the reason I decided to revisit this website was to add two particular findings related to this feature in the Dreamcast port (as international players only got a chance to try VOOT online through the XBLA release): Recordings of online matches/replays from when the service was functional...and the recent advancement of restoring the online mode for this Dreamcast version.

Restored Online Mode for Dreamcast VOOT

On May 14th, 2026, flyinghead announced on the Flycast Discord server that the online mode for Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram on the Dreamcast (Japanese version) was back online, compatible with Flycast and even real hardware through DCNet.

This specific advancement, which (as of writing this) oddly enough hasn't had any big fanfare on channels like Video Game Esoterica or DreamcasticChannel, is what led me to update the VOOT page with the new info...and a new theme to go with it. The icon at the corner is a high res, widescreen screenshot of a replay from one of the matches I had online!

Now, it is very impressive that the online can actually work across countries, as I've tried it from where I am (Venezuela) to players from US West Coast, Texas, and even North Africa. BUT...there's a catch, and you might have seen it coming when the netcode is from 1999/2000: There will be quite the delay in controls the higher the distance.

If you can adjust to that though (kind of forcing a different playstyle where you often buffer your next moves in advance instead of always being able to react quickly unless its something that's far away), then it is actually playable and often stable, although there's very few times where the matches might desync.

As there's a lot of videos I've uploaded recently just from recording these matches I played with others, you can refer to this playlist to watch the matches uploaded so far. A few of them have an input display that should also indicate the delay in effect while playing online in these cases. It's still very cool that it works though, more so when one of the players (Reyn) was playing through a real Dreamcast and Twin Stick setup.