What Can We Learn From Virtua Fighter Crossroads Interviews?

Following the recent showcase at Summer Game Fest, the producer of Virtua Fighter Crossroads, Riichiro Yamada, has done another round of interviews with various outlets. However, despite the volume of interviews, they reveal little about the upcoming game, and typically only clarify some of the things that we already know.

Be that as it may, it's worth going over some of them and noting down anything that might be relevant to those eagerly waiting for release.

Rather than going one by one, it's going to be more efficient to just squeeze and combine the juice from different sources, so here's the full list of current interviews if you want to read them yourself. Just keep in mind that majority of them are in Japanese:

1. Automaton
2. 4Gamer
3. Game Informer (Preview, rather than interview, but includes developer comments)
4. IGN Japan
5. Denfa
6. Famitsu

Starting off, if you've been wondering why the game ditched the number, it's pretty straightforward. While the usual reason why games drop numbers might still apply here, Yamada explains that they wanted to express how different this new game is. Crossroads is meant to be a turning point for the series, so new logo is meant to stand out from the rest.

Many of the interviews naturally focus on the most prominent feature of the game, the new action adventure story mode split between 4 new characters. This story mode is arguably the reason the game exists at all. SEGA previously expressed that they haven't put out a new VF game because each game needs to innovate in some meaningful way, either through technology or gameplay. With VFC they are proposing a frankly absurd notion that it innovates by creating an entirely new genre in the form of "Fighting Adventure."

They want to make sure that the storytelling in this entry is as realistic as the gameplay, which is half the reason they invited an international team of writers that could offer a grounded, overseas perspective on the game's storytelling. However, they cite Watchmen comic as one of the inspirations, an example of a story that is "absurd but believable." There's a chance that Crossroads will reference or pay homage to stories from previous games, which were usually almost hidden and somewhat silly. In this game, the original VF characters are apparently largely unknown because the tournaments from previous games are treated as secret data gathering experiments done by J6, so only select few will know about the legacy of existing characters.

Despite this commitment, the story of VFC will take place in a made up, crime-infested city of Vilasapara, where criminals don't use guns because guns are banned. President Bato (not clear whether he's president of a city or unmentioned country that Vilasapara is a part of) aims to boost the economy by hosting a big martial arts tournament. Which is very inconvenient because at the same time, Vilasapara is terrorized by a masked serial killer who specifically goes after martial artists.

Stunningly realistic premise aside, that's the situation that 4 main characters will have to navigate. So far it seems like Cielo will be the guy from the streets who joins the tournament to make in big in the midst of being chased by Chinese Triad, and helping his ailing grandfather. Stella, as the American kickboxer visiting Vilasapara, might be somewhat of an outsider who joins the tournament for more straightforward reasons. Then we have two unnamed characters, one of them appears as a cop infiltrating the crime world, while the other one looks like a well-off businesswoman, perhaps indicating that she is a part of said crime world.

The original Virtua Fighter characters will appear in the story, and depending on who you play, they could appear as a friend, rival, mentor, or an enemy. While we don't know too many details about how and what it will lead to, you will also be able to develop relationships with those characters. Perhaps in a way similar to World Tour in Street Fighter 6, or in a way that is more significant to the narrative. Speaking of which, when it comes to narrative structure, you will be able to actually impact the outcome of the story depending on your choices, which can have significant repercussions.

Outside of that, there is supposedly a full set of single player activities. Like visiting restaraunts, light customization options (their cited example is buying new shoes for Cielo since he's a sneakerhead), participate in quests, and play minigames. Throughout different interviews, Yamada stressed the importance of having proper single player story mode, rather than strapping a story on top of fighting game matches, so we'll likely get something far more fleshed out than aforementioned World Tour.

If you were curious to hear more about the gameplay, don't expect it. Yamada specifically addressed that the gameplay systems aren't finalized yet. They are restructuring, reshaping, in some cases replacing old VF systems to make sure they still feel realistic, simple, and intuitive. Until they nail that, we probably won't hear any specifics about how the game plays.