SEGA's new Virtua Fighter borrows Yakuza's explosive 3D combat

SEGA's new Virtua Fighter Crossroads marks the return of the franchise after 20 years, and the series has gotten a big revamp with innovative new designs.

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The original Virtua Fighter made history as the first-ever 3D fighting game, and now SEGA is tapping into that pioneering spirit with the next game in the series. It's called Virtua Fighter Crossroads, with the title's first two letters stylized as the Roman numeral VI, an obvious nod to the game being the sixth installment in the franchise.

Crossroads marks a big evolution in how gamers will actually experience the combat, transforming what used to be just a stationary 2D view into a fully-fledged 3D environment (think of the transition between Tekken 3 and Tekken Force, and Crossroads' campaign mode is more like the latter). The combat in Virtua Fighter Crossroad's campaign takes a big cue from the Yakuza series of games, which makes sense because RGG Studio, the devs behind SEGA's best-selling gangster series, is also making Crossroads.

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The new Virtua Fighter isn't a beat-em-up and is still a fighting game at its core, with the 2D side view preserved in the standard versus mode, but the game does go in between 2D and 3D views dynamically based on move sets and what's happening on the screen.

The singleplayer campaign also has a kind of free roam that lets you explore the tropical island of Vilasapara in closed-off regions--think of Yakuza's cities--as well as interact with the environment itself.

The game looks like it seamlessly blends real-time brawling with cinematic sequences and QTE-style events, and the developers themselves say Crossroads is more of a mashup of genres rather than being a standard fighting experience.

All of the characters in the story mode will intersect, RGG Studio says, offering a unique cinematic-style narrative.

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"When it comes to gameplay, in Vilasapara there are lots of places to visit and side quests to take on. All the best parts of an action-adventure game that come to mind when you think of the genre but done in a way that you've never quite seen before."

"We've been calling this direction a Crossroads-style adventure," said art director Ryo Shibasaki.

Virtua Fighter Crossroads is set to launch sometime in 2027 on consoles and PC.