Virtua Fighter doesn’t intend to compete with other popular fighting game franchises, but rather stand out as its own genre, according to dev 

With the launch of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. on Steam and the recent announcement of a brand-new mainline entry, Sega is gearing up for a much-needed reboot of its influential Virtua Fighter franchise. But with the resurgence of fighting games lately, how will the series distinguish itself from its big competitors? AUTOMATON asked Seiji Aoki, producer of Sega’s Legacy Virtua Fighter Project. 

The fifth entry in the Virtua Fighter series is now finally playable on PC, with the addition rollback netcode and some long-awaited balance adjustments to suit the needs of modern players. Not only that, but a completely new entry to the series, tentatively titled New Virtua Fighter Project, is currently being developed by Like a Dragon developer RGG Studio. The small pre-alpha build preview we got to see not long ago showcased exactly the kind of technical and realistic feel VF fans have come to love and expect from a new entry, further fueling the excitement. 

On the other hand, with its modern revival, Virtua Fighter is bound to be compared to other big franchises in the genre more than ever. Aoki has an interesting response to this, emphasizing that “the first Virtua Fighter wasn’t created as a fighting game. It was developed as part of a realistic human body simulation.” These unique roots are part of what makes Virtua Fighter “distinct from today’s fighting game scene and genre,” which Aoki considers the franchise’s strength. 

As such, rather than attempting to catch up with or overtake other fighting games, Virtua Fighter’s goal is to stand tall as a kind of separate genre, Aoki explains. He goes on to mention the series’ characteristic three-button controls, lack of flamboyant special effects and simplicity, which make it easy to pick up. 

A characteristic of Virtua Fighter that Aoki considers important and worth expanding upon is how it simultaneously “feels like a fighting game, but also feels different from a fighting game.” On the other hand, he also acknowledges that the developers will have to make sure to properly convey to players exactly what makes Virtua Fighter special compared to its peers. 

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is available now on PC (Steam), with a 20% launch discount running for a limited time. New Virtua Fighter Project is currently in development.