It's been 20 years since the last new Virtua Fighter game. In those decades, the fighting game genre has supposedly died and risen from the proverbial ashes multiple times over, but Sega's once-mighty series has remained dormant even as the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken continue to reassert themselves. I think it's safe to say that Virtual Fighter Crossroads – a narrative-driven action-adventure game from the Yakuza developers – is not the comeback the fighting game community had expected.
In a behind-closed-doors presentation led by producer Riichiro Yamada, I start to get a sense of what Crossroads is all about. I'm not convinced that RGG Studio's take on the fighting series will deliver on what the genre's most dedicated fans will want, since the traditional versus mode that usually powers these games seems to be a sideshow here. But for me, a casual fighting game fan who loves the lore and likes diving into a robust story mode? Virtua Fighter Crossroads is offering one hell of a pitch. And, incredibly, it's a pitch inspired by both Watchmen and Detroit: Become Human.
