Virtua Fighter
Virtua Fighter is a successful 3D Fighting Game series created by Yu Sazuki and Sega's AM2 development team.
The game's story is about the dealings of the mysterious corporation, Judgment 6 (J6) who holds the World Fighting Tournament as a front to create the ultimate fighter. The game's star is Akira Yuki a Hot-Blooded martial artist seeking to fight worthy opponents and perfect his fighting style. A major recurring storyline in the game is with J6's involvement with some of the other competitors. Kage-Maru's mother, Tsukikage, is turned into Dural, the final boss of the series. Sarah and Vanessa are both kidnapped by J6, the latter used to make the newer version of Dural after Kage saved his mother.
Compared to other 3D fighters like Tekken and Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter's storyline is not as developed. This is partially due to trying to make the gameplay realistic (sorta) and the depth in the characters' fighting styles as a whole and the moves they use. Virtua Fighter is known for the balance of its characters between each other. Sumo wrestler Taka-Arashi was removed from a couple of sequels because the sumo style at the time was too hard to integrate into future games.
Aside from Taka-Arashi (who returned in Virtua Fighter 5R), all the characters from previous games always return for the next.
Virtua Fighter has released 14 games on several consoles and is critically acclaimed by the gaming community for its balance and attention to detail.
- Adaptation Distillation: The anime series is said to be pretty good.
- All There in the Manual: The plot and character biographies, they are never featured in the games.
- Alternate Continuity: Virtua Quest.
- Amazonian Beauty: Vanessa.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Virtua Fighter 4 was the first fighting game to feature accessories for your fighter that did not affect the fighter's stats in any way (even if you gave them weapons).
- Animal Nemesis: Jeffry's constant battle with the "devil shark".
- Anime Hair: Akira, Jacky and Goh.
- The Anime of the Game: Though it's a Pragmatic Adaptation, it's pretty well received.
- Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Lei-Fei.
- Badass Grandpa: Shun.
- Boobs of Steel: Vanessa.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Sarah.
- But Not Too Black: A particularly egregious example in Vanessa going from Virtua Fighter 4 to 5.
- Button Mashing: Depends who you play as, and whether your opponent knows the mechanics. You can be punished severely for this practice, even by the AI.
- Cain and Abel: Sarah and Jacky when Sarah was brainwahsed by J6.
- Canon Foreigner: Liu Kowloon, Eva Durix and Oni-Maru from the anime series.
- Career Killers: Goh and Jean.
- The Charmer: Brad.
- Chef of Iron: Lau.
- Chickification: To some degree, Sarah in the anime.
- Chinese Girl: Pai and Eileen.
- Chrome Champion: Dural.
- Combos: A staple of the genre.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Dural.
- Cool Mask: El Blaze.
- Dark-Skinned Blond: Vanessa, even though her hair is white.
- Ditto Fighter: Dural.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Sarah and Jacky have developed far different moves and backstories over the course of five games.
- Drunken Boxing: Shun.
- Drunken Master: Shun.
- Evil Albino: Goh.
- Facial Markings: Wolf.
- Faux Action Girl: Sarah in the anime.
- Fragile Speedster: Pai, Aoi, Eileen, Lion.
- Genki Girl: Eileen.
- Hot-Blooded: Akira.
- Idiot Hero: Akira in the anime, a far outcry from his 'Ryu clone' game persona. But it still works.
- Magical Native American: Wolf.
- Masked Luchador: El Blaze.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover:
- Fighters Megamix, which featured characters from Virtua Fighter and its sister games Fighting Vipers, Sonic The Fighters, Virtua Cop and Daytona USA.
- Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which has Jacky as a playable racer (with Akira as a passenger in his car).
- Mega Corp: Judgement 6.
- Mighty Glacier: Wolf, Jeffery and Taka-Arashi.
- Ninja: Kage-Maru.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Sarah.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
Rey MysterioEl Blaze. - Non-Human Sidekick: Alexander, Sarah's pet flying squirrel from the anime.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: All English-speaking characters sound American, regardless of origin.
- Lion is apparently French boy, but he sounds like a loud American teenager.
- Jeffrey has more emphasis on the Scary Black Man rather than an Australian Scary black man.
- Numbered Sequels
- Old Master: Lau and Shun.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: J6 again.
- Professional Wrestling: Wolf and El Blaze.
- Psycho for Hire: Goh.
- Really Bad Voice Acting: Several cases with characters who speak English, but especially Lion.
- Retraux: Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary, which is Virtua Fighter 4 with the first game's blocky polygons and soundtrack.
- The Rival: Wolf to Akira.
- Ryu and Ken: Sarah and Jacky.
- Scary Black Man: Jeffry.
- SNK Boss: Dural... though she doesn't spam powerful attacks.
- Sociopathic Hero: Vanessa... snapping necks while laughing.
- Spin-Off: Virtua Quest, an action-RPG featuring the cast of Virtua Fighter 4 as fighting data in Cyberspace.
- Super-Deformed: Virtua Fighter Kids.
- To Be a Master: Akira.
- Tsundere: Vanessa.
- Victory Pose
- The Voiceless: Dural.
- Warrior Monk: Lei Fei - which also technically makes him a Bare-Fisted Monk as far as we know, though it doesn't matter since this is an unarmed-combat series.
- White-Haired Pretty Boy: Jean.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: In 5, the DLC packs gave most characters the option of having brightly coloured hair.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Lau.