Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega have released a “pre-development concept video” for the modern Virtua Fighter project, which was announced at The Game Awards last month. Check it out:
Looks good, right? Well, this is all just a proof of concept at this point, marked as “Pre-Development Engine Footage” and “Not Actual Gameplay”, so there’s absolutely nothing about the game’s name, platforms, or release windows, but that shows some from the assumptions of the revival of the RGG fighting game series.
There are various things to note here, from the density of detail in the background, to the 3D delicate moving around the scene, and the element of destruction when one Akira throws another Akira. There’s also a bit more of a fighting game visual style with movement paths and other effects as you hit, where Virtua Fighter is generally more narrow than other games in its genre.
All of this is subject to change, of course, but this is the initial direction RGG is taking.
Over the past few years, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has become a mainstay of Sega. You know them best as the studio behind the hugely popular Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, but as broad as that series has become, they’ve also handled the most recent Super Monkey Ball games. Considering that Yakuza’s fighting was taken from Shenmue, which in turn was taken from Virtua Fighter, this makes them the perfect team to take the helm of the series.
So far, we’ve only seen Akira and Sarah Bryant fighting, and this pre-production video shows Akira’s pair fighting.
Fans of the series have been waiting patiently since the release of Virtua Fighter 5. While it has leapfrogged several previous generations with Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown and is still very simple to play on current consoles, the online community has little or no interest in it right now. Sega wants to give this game a chance, both with last update 2.0 for Ultimate Showdown with a modern PC port, Virtua Fighter 5 REVO will be released later this month.
