The Virtua Fighter franchise has been one of innovation. After pioneering 3D polygonal fighting in 1993, each successive entry has added new folds to the formula en route to 2006’s critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5. However, following that, something happened: The series vanished. Sega has released revisions of Virtua Fighter 5 over the years, with the most recent one hitting just last year, but an all-new series has eluded fans. With the developers behind the Like a Dragon series and the also-upcoming Stranger Than Heaven, RGG Studio, at the helm, Virtua Fighter is finally coming back in 2027, and it may be its most innovative title since the advent of the series.
Amid a broader landscape, which sees Sega reviving many of its dormant classic franchises, with new entries in series like Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Crazy Taxi either recently released or on the horizon, Virtua Fighter also being revived makes sense. Still, according to RGG Studio, it was less about timing and more about the team figuring out an appropriate innovation to continue pushing the series forward.
“Just to talk about why there hasn’t been one in so long, it’s because every time we release a new number, there had to have been a really big, innovative part; it’s almost like our duty,” head of the Virtua Fighter IP Toshihiro Nakaya says. “The new title has to be something really awesome, innovative, and creative. That’s why it took so long to get where we are. And because in that amount of time, the video game landscape has changed dramatically, the new concept here is breaking the mold of what a fighting game is, and releasing an amazing package of a game.”
To achieve this innovation, RGG Studio established what it considers a new genre, the fighting adventure, with the aim to move beyond the scale of traditional fighting games and revitalize the franchise. In that way, Virtua Fighter Crossroads features a large-scale narrative that, according to RGG Studio, expands beyond what the fighting-game genre has seen to this point. Leveraging the studio’s storied history with narrative-driven action games, like the Like a Dragon games, combined with an all-new action movie-inspired combat system, Virtua Fighter Crossroads redefines the franchise.
Taking place in a fictional Southeast Asian city called Vilasapara, players find themselves in familiar setting for Like a Dragon developer: an area full of unsavory characters, run by gangs. Here in Vilasapara, firearms are banned, but that doesn’t mean violence isn’t absent. In fact, in this seedy society, most disputes are settled via fisticuffs, to the extent that the city attracts people who are down on their luck in search of money through underground fight tournaments.
For narrative inspiration, RGG looked toward The Watchmen comic series, to find a narrative that is simultaneously both outlandish and believable. “[Previous] Virtua Fighters have a story, but it’s never been, in-game, really well documented,” creative director and producer Riichiro Yamada says. “But we still want to pay homage to that, but really modernize it, so that it makes sense in the current climate. The other really important point we really drove home is that it has to be believable, even though it’s sort of a different world, and some stuff might be a little off, like RGG does with their stories, it makes it very grounded.”
In keeping with that philosophy, the next in-universe tournament is not so underground, as President Bato introduces the Vila Fight Fest tournament in hopes of boosting the economy. Meanwhile, a mysterious man known as The Bakunawa Killer has been targeting martial artists in the city. This serves as the jumping off point and backdrop for a story that follows four protagonists through a living city full of a venerable buffet of content for players to explore. In addition to the battle content, players can visit restaurants, participate in side quests, play minigames, and even expand and develop relationships.
In addition to that, the story is multi-branching, adapting to the choices and actions of the player. “It’s a big differentiator between other RGG titles,” Yamada says. “There hasn’t been a game like this, so that’s why we’re calling it a crossroad-style adventure.”
The combat itself is more technical than a standard RGG game, drawing inspiration from the fighting game genre as a whole. Action Adventure mode features multi-opponent fights that add new twists into the franchise, but one on one battles, similar to traditional Virtua Fighter mechanics, are also available to play. However, everything just has a completely new sheen of modernity, with new systems like Break and Rush, where you can target parts of your opponent’s body to “break” them, giving you the advantage.
Meanwhile, Flow Guard is a new cinematic defense system to give players more control over how they guard against incoming attacks, and Stunner attacks open opponents to take additional damage. And thanks to RGG’s love of action movies, as evident by pretty much its entire catalog, the battles play out in much more cinematic fashion; in one final blow I witness, the camera zooms in on the recipient’s face as the punch connects and his tooth goes flying before he collapses in defeat.
However, RGG is hesitating to go more into the fighting mechanics, even telling us that it will ultimately be up to the players and community on whether or not the game is tournament-ready. “There’s a lot of fighting game players who are going to want to know more details, more nitty gritty, more mechanics, and we hear you,” Yamada says. “We just really want to show off that this is a new game, there’s action adventure, there’s a whole new concept. But of course, down the line, we will be explaining more and more for you guys later. It is sort of a new genre of fighting adventure. For me, the most important bit is just people can pick it up and they’ll love the game. They’ll play it, they’ll have a great time, and it’s a fusion of both genres. All that matters is people love the game.”
I’m disappointed I didn’t have the chance to play Virtua Fighter Crossroads, and I have additional questions about how this will all come together while still retaining the soul of a fighting game. However, it’s impossible to deny that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is taking massive swings in hopes of completely flipping not only the fabled Virtua Fighter franchise on its head, but also expanding what a fighting game can even be, just as it did in 1993.
