Producer Riichiro Yamada and Battle Director Yohsuke Takeda, along with pro player Tokido, picked apart the New Virtua Fighter Project trailer that was shown back at Evo this year. “Stella” and “Akira” are going at it in the Training Stage. The footage itself was played slowly just to have the team pick it apart. The footage is as real as it could get to an actual Virtua Fighter match. Tokido was in the question seat, having the producers explain what was happening during the playthrough as Tokido posed questions.
The stage itself feels more like a standard square training stage. The Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown gym stage does feel as though this is the perfect one since there is a rotating feature of fence and non-fence fighting per round. Walls are used to help extend high damage combos and provide additional options for both attackers and defenders, such as a possible wall back somersault as Pai Chan does. It’s unknown to see if this stage will follow suit to that. Options to turn walls on and off for these sorts of stages is definitely a worthwhile feature for Virtua Fighter’s training mode.
Dodging seems to be different compared to the Evading of yesteryear. The mechanic feels similar to Konami’s Kensei: Sacred Fist’s approach nearly 3 decades ago, which happens when a character attacks a bit further from the opponent, and it’s too far to block. Akira’s crouch, blocks, and dodging look more realistic. There is a new system called “Flow Guard” which is different from regular Guarding. It gives the defender more of an advantage. Akira is seen blocking kicks and punches in a realistic approach. Virtua Fighter has had similar things in past games, but to the point of it affecting the counterattack more for the defender, it’s pretty refreshing.
Break and Rush is another new system that accumulates damage, having a character enter a “break state” once a certain threshold is achieved and a break attack is performed. The body, legs, and head are points where Break and Rush are affected. The damage is persistent, which could lead to opponents getting an unfair advantage after a round.
A new thing called Stun Combos does not float targets in a juggle state. Stunners open up opponents for the stun combos. This reduces the usual juggle combos within the Virtua Fighter way, making them less common. Stunners will be noted as the main aspect of comboing.
Two modes will come into play for The New Virtua Fighter Project as a whole. Standard Battle Mode – ringout or health bar depleted. Uprising Mode – which is a dynamic momentum shift that differs from the standard way. It seems as though, for now, both might be in play.
New Virtua Fighter Project has a bit of a variation, whereas a finish will be more emphasized with different animations for the fight’s knockout scenes. More animations will be included.
Some questions came in from the community, such as simplistic controls to join the likes of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves or Street Fighter VI. Seeing that Virtua Fighter relies on 3 buttons(Punch, Kick, and Guard) primarily, which is pretty simplistic within itself. Moves rely on inputs of the three and/or directional buttons to a certain extent for throws or other moves. The gameplay system will be built around the Pad controller more than arcade sticks. Holding back to guard was a possibility. Since Virtua Fighter has moves that target High, Mid, and Low attacks, there could be an issue with just holding “back” to protect oneself from moves. Tekken has worked just fine with this in mind.
There was another piece of footage that focused on a bit of an Asian market location for a few seconds. A man is seen walking in before the New Virtua Fighter Project logo appears. From what was seen, it’s difficult to determine who this character is. Perhaps it’s Jeet Kun Do practitioner Jacky Bryant going all Bruce Lee this time. Wolf was shown earlier this year within The New Virtua Fighter Project look.
From the look of the community, some fans are torn by what was presented as new footage. Perhaps more light can be shed in the next few months, including the Video Game Awards later on this year. Or even the Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Open Championships, which is still ongoing.
The New Virtua Fighter Project has no release date confirmed by the team.
