I want to see impact and physicality in the new Virtua Fighter, and I don't want to see super meters

I’ve been more excited for the recent announcement of the new Virtua Fighter game than anything else going on in video games at this moment. Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 represented my introduction to the fighting game community proper, not just obsessively playing the games cooped up alone in my room as a kid but going to events and engaging with people. It’s no exaggeration to say they’re formative games in my life, not just my hobby.

I learned all my fighting game ethos from VF4; to always read others’ intentions, to train hard and fight to your fullest without mercy, but also to be kind and help each other get better. For my part, I used to keep a little notebook on VF4 Aoi along with my frame data out of the Orange Book, and a couple times a week I would head to my arcade just to play the game alone, in “practice mode”. I never really participated enough in tournaments— our scene was barely big enough— but VF is important to me. I care.

So because it matters to me, I want to talk a little bit about what we know about the new Virtua Fighter, what I think we'll be seeing, and what I do and don't want to see. We know very little right now, but more than you'd think... so it’s the perfect moment for speculation.

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I absolutely don’t want to see a conservative modern update of Virtua Fighter 5

The few seconds of gameplay we have seen have already ruled this prospect out as unlikely, but I’d like to talk about it anyway.

I like the level to which the new Virtua Fighter team is communicating with fans— their Discord is quite elaborate, their Youtube videos make their passion evident— but I don’t want them to cater too directly to us. I know Virtua Fighter fans; they used to fight over how many frames it took to crouch. They would simply tell you not to change anything from Virtua Fighter 5, to drop two new characters in– a Pencak Silat guy and a Taekwondo guy, right?– and only redo the graphics. Put a new coat of paint on the same game.

Like I just said, VF4 and 5 are very special games to me, and I believe they hold up every bit against today’s fighting games. (PS4 VF5 Ultimate Showdown has had a spike of interest and active players after the Steam beta, and I’ve actually been playing it almost every night for the last few weeks.) But it’s been twenty years since the first release of VF5, and I think that VF– indeed the genre– can take it further. If any fighting game should take it further, that game should be VF, a game that consistently represented a technical landmark for the medium during its fastest growth period.

The current fighting game formula, which favors stability by way of sensibly reiterating on solid existing systems, has given us some top-shelf games like Tekken 7 and King of Fighters XV. But there’s also a concern of stagnation in the genre, as developers remake the same perfect, untouchable, endlessly replayable games forever. We’ve been in that phase since at least Street Fighter 4 in 2008, and there are few major fighting games looking to actually push the genre forward into new territory. (As much of a mess as it is, I’d argue GG Strive is the one trying the hardest.) Virtua Fighter has a big chance here.

I want impact: The concept video, its role, and what not to get twisted

The important thing to keep in mind about RGG’s “Virtua Fighter” concept video is that it wasn’t meant for our eyes; it’s meant for executives who need to be wowed, and quickly.

If you’re familiar with the series, you already know that the guy named Akira on the screen doesn’t have Akira’s proper moves. A spin kick?! Hakkyoku-ken would never! But again, the point of the video is not to be canonical Virtua Fighter. It is to impress executives in ten seconds. And it’s a damn impressive package.

People talk about "realism" with regards to VF, but what I truly love about Sega’s arcade games is that they have always pursued a kind of magical realism. They’re obsessive about simulating real-life sports cars, fighter jets, martial artists… but they aren’t actual simulations of real life. They’re exaggerations of it. That’s where you find the magic.

And what Virtua Fighter has set out to simulate over the years is not a regulation martial arts tournament. It’s a Hong Kong action movie, with those explosive sound effects straight out of a Shaw Brothers film, the focus on direct bone-crunching physical contact, limbs cutting through the air like blades with a hurricane swoosh.

The concept video will probably not represent what little of the new Virtua Fighter we have seen. It paints with broad strokes out of necessity. And it is exactly like a Hong Kong action movie. Look at the way one attack flows into the next, the way the fighters actually parry each other’s strikes and counter, the unpredictable, hypnotic flow.

If you don’t believe my theory, that’s totally fine, because the prolific VCDECIDE on Youtube found the exact Jackie Chan movie (Dragons Forever) this choreography comes from, down to getting spin kicked into a pile of boxes.

The five seconds of Virtua Fighter gameplay we saw in the reveal trailer does not flow quite so beautifully— and it is still recognizably Virtua Fighter— but you can see that they’re using that concept as a basis. Impacts land hard and heavy. Akira dodges— not crouches under— Stella’s flying kick and lands a big punch that throws her off balance, then immediately knocks her down. Stella blocks a low attack standing.

You can see real changes to the core gameplay here, arguably pursuing the goal that the concept video sets. RGG Studio come, of course, from the Yakuza series (and before that Sega’s arcade department AM3), which inherited a lot of VF’s emphasis on physicality. If anyone understand how VF needs to feel, it’s them. (The PR video does indicate some original VF staff are on board as well.) Though I can't guess at exactly what type of game they're going to make– and I'm glad I can't, for once– I’m confident that these creators and I want something similar.

I really hope there aren’t any super moves

The reason I decided to write this is probably this part.

I don’t want the game to have resource management, via super meter especially. I don't want enhanced or EX attacks that use a resource, like Akira spending a bar to get an EX dashing elbow with super armor. I really don't want invincible moves like the Shoryuken, or, even more than that, invincible super attacks that play a long cinematic sequence and remove most of a player’s life bar. Any of it, honestly. And especially not the Heat button from Tekken 8.

And yes, I realize I am listing the selling points for the last twenty years in fighting games and telling VF6’s developers to leave them out. I might– god forbid!– even be arguing against mass accessibility. I realize I’m not telling RGG how to sell copies; I’m telling them what I want to see in a game I love.

The thing is, Virtua Fighter’s moves aren’t “normal” or “super”. They’re all moves, and as you learn your character, you can access 150 of them– from the humble elbow strike to the biggest, slowest haymakers– with three buttons and a lever, any time you want. Go ahead, do a Burning Hammer; nobody's stopping you.

One of the things that makes the game so much fun is the freedom that comes along with having all those moves at your command, the opportunity to build your own style and surprise your foes with moves that they weren't thinking of. Advanced players have so much choice that they can and do choose to play the same character in a completely different way. Try that with Cammy.

Making a bunch of moves— perhaps key moves in a player’s gameplan, or moves that are so superior you feel obligated to use them over other options— limited to a resource takes away a lot of that freedom, reduces players’ options, and cramps their style. I'd argue Tekken 8 does this with the Heat system. In Virtua Fighter, a big move is also a big surprise because there's a serious risk behind it; in Tekken 8 you're going to reliably see the same zero-risk poke, the same unbreakable 50/50 offense starter, and the same unstoppable super move almost every single round.

In VF, Akira’s Tetsuzankou shoulder slam can take 60% of an opponent’s life bar in a single strike, if he counters them at an absolute pixel-perfect point-blank. If it hits any other way, it's no big deal. But if opponents block it, the recovery time of the move is ridiculously long– half a second– to match its ridiculous damage. The defender has enough time to beat the hell out of Akira and then some. That’s high risk— too high for most players– and high reward. Akira can pull that move out at any moment and try to take the round. And every so often you see someone go for it.

In another game, the Tetsuzankou would be like all the other super moves: you could only do it once a round, it's invincible on startup, plays a little movie, always does 80% damage, and was equally punishable on block. It would be boring.

Speaking of invincible moves, they break the physicality of the game. Recall that a lot of the 90s argument for 3D fighting games was fighting without fireballs and other fancy magic tricks. Tekken— a game which has always kept up with the market to survive— is now full of fireballs, fancy magic tricks, and yes, invincible moves for every character. 2D fighting games are great— I’m someone who has spent literally thousands of hours playing and discussing them— but I think 3D games should chase their own appeal.

Virtua Fighter simulates a martial arts movie fantasy, not an official tournament or UFC match, but not a fire-and-laser-beams anime battle either. We want to admire the dance-like motions of a kung fu stance, savor the impact of fists and feet crashing into the opponent. Invincible moves break the rules of motion and impact by just plowing through everything with a gold-glowing bulldozer. One of the appeals of Virtua Fighter is that every move beats some other move, but no one move beats them all.

Overlong cinematics, on the other hand, have a real impact on game flow. It’s cool to watch those sequences one time, but long-term end up watching these cutscenes literally hundreds to thousands of times. Even an attack with a seven-second cutscene attached to it will feel longer and longer through repetition. At their worst— let’s just say it, in Dragon Ball Fighterz— the scenes’ sheer length and repetition inflate the length of a match and challenge spectators’ attention spans.

...And I think that’s everything. There’s actually a lot of room in the market for a slightly more purist martial arts fighting game, as rival Tekken has pretty much given that space up to match its anything-goes storyline. But we should take "realism" with a grain of salt: a pinch of fantasy is what makes VF so wonderful.

I mean, it's not virtual, it's Virtua.

What I suspect New VF will be

From the information we have, we know the game is a ground-up reboot with an alternate universe premise. That's already more of a commitment to story than VF, an arcade franchise for its entire life, has ever offered. I think the Like a Dragon series has gotten pretty bogged down with itself, but I've got faith RGG can spin a good one when those chains are lifted (see Judgment).

The premise was confirmed via the character Stella, who looks like Sarah, is confirmed not to be Sarah, and is billed as “the bridge between worlds”. This approach will presumably allow the RGG team to re-invent character designs while leaving their familiar fighting styles intact.

The thing with the VF character designs is they have a lot of in-game personality— and one page per game of lore— but only once you get to know them. That doesn’t really help grab people from the get, which has always been VF’s problem: you gotta get to know it to really love it. I have faith in RGG’s ability to come up with modernized, attractive character designs that leap out and demand attention.

Some people really hate the campy lines and English voice work seen in old VF4 and 5 in particular, but this being RGG I think it’s more likely they’ll lean into that kind of appeal and go campy their way, which is to say bigger. Consider Like A Dragon's absurdist streak, and I think they'll be able to lean in really well on VF.

I want RGG’s Jacky Bryant to be the coolest, goofiest and Most American dude the devs can fathom. I want him to have a cutscene where he drives through the gate of the villains’ warehouse in his F-1 car and then does a flip kick out of the cockpit yelling “YEAH!!”.

Akira is the exception to the alternate universe rule, as he's specifically billed as being the original character. But even so, note that he's been redesigned with a completely different concept. This character's never even been out of a traditional gi, and now he looks like he stole a Hong Kong gangster's clothing after beating him up. From what little we have, I suspect they've slid him towards Kiryu-cool: when he says “you’re ten years too early!” in the trailer it’s kind of smooth, where the Akira we know is hot-blooded and shouts everything he says.

A so-called "AAA" fighting game needs a story or single-player component, and it seems like RGG has that covered with whatever they're cooking on the story side of things. But it's got to have really involved multiplayer too: I think Sega remembers the golden ages of VF2 and VF4 esports and really wants it back (they've even managed a tourney series for VF5, which is called VF5 Esports, along with Puyo Puyo Esports, over there.). They've shown they're ready to support it and get involved with the community, so I feel like we're in good hands there too.

And if it plays as smooth as VF5 REVO we've got nothing to worry about. Just, uh, there is gonna be rollback, right guys? This game looks pretty high-end. You uh, aren't gonna leave out rollback, right guys?

I don't even wanna suggest it: Could it go bad?

Yeah, sure. There's always a risk. When fighting game series make big moves there's always the chance for a failure or a flop. And failures or flops can derail them for years. Arguably the instant market rejection of Guilty Gear Isuka– a misguided attempt to compete with the 2v2 Gundam games– led to the series retreating into updates of the previous version (XX) and remaining dormant for nearly a decade before the band got back together for Guilty Gear Xrd. The ideas of the experimental (and rather busted) Tekken 4 were thrown out forever as the series returned to tradition for the next twenty years.

This is a genre where you have to get it right on the first shot, or else be consigned to the dustbin of history with Samurai Shodown Sen and the first release of Street Fighter III. It's a tall order. There's a reason the genre is conservative.

So could a brand-new Virtua Fighter led by new developers who've openly said they want to shake things up go somehow wrong, become the black sheep of the family? Again, it's totally possible. But the mere possibility of failure is not a reason to retreat, or we wouldn't bother getting out of bed in the morning. This genre needs some forward movement, and if that involves taking a big risk when nobody else will, then who better to roll the dice than Sega?

No matter what happens, I'll always have VF5 with rollback. And that means I'm on this ride whether it soars to the heavens or crashes into the ground. Let's go. Ora ora ora!!