Rather, Yamada noted that the studio’s goals with Next Virtua Fighter Project – being its first attempt at the franchise – involves aiming for a Game of the Year nomination when the title eventually comes out. This also means that the studio wants as many players as possible to try it out, and to do so, the game also has to be easy to pick up and play.

“Of course, our goal is to make a game worthy of being nominated for Game of the Year,” said Yamada. “Like the very first Virtua Fighter, we want a title that doesn’t just sit within the ‘fighting game’ mold.”

“The fighting game genre tends to be seen as a special, niche category. But Virtua Fighter actually isn’t like that; it’s easy for anyone to pick up and play, and I think that’s one of its strengths.”

This also means that the studio is taking an almost microscopic approach to its development, ensuring that it is a game that just about anyone can enjoy.

“If a game isn’t something anyone can enjoy, it won’t reach the level of recognition needed to even be considered for GOTY,” he explained. “This is the meaning behind our target of ‘making New Virtua Fighter a GOTY-worthy game.’”

As part of this attempt to ensure that Next Virtua Fighter Project ends up being easy to pick up and play, Yamada also discussed the potential of adding new mechanics, and even removing others. Removing systems comes from his belief that piling on more and more mechanics on top of the game will make it overly complex.

“But if we just keep piling more on top, we’ll end up with a game that’s overly complex,” he explained. “So, with New Virtua Fighter, we need to experiment by cutting away some of the things we’ve built up, as well as bringing in new features.”

“To make these decisions, we’ll keep testing various ideas, but I trust Takeda (VF series battle director Yosuke Takeda) to safeguard the truly important parts (laughs). As someone who’s been making VF forever, he understands this best. Similarly, our programmers and motion designers also know very well what parts of a fighting game absolutely must not be touched. It’s about preserving those core elements while incorporating new ideas.”

Among the new features that will be making their debut with Next Virtua Fighter Project is an entirely new game mode dubbed Uprising mode. While not too many details about this mode have been revealed, Yamada has described it as offering “dynamic momentum-shifting opportunities.” For more details on the core gameplay mechanics powering the upcoming fighting game, check out our coverage of the title’s appearance at Tokyo Game Show 2025.

Next Virtua Fighter Project is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It doesn’t however, have a release date yet.

Next Virtua Fighter Project will offer two distinct rule sets for players to use, both of which represents entirely separate styles of play. The first rule set, dubbed Standard, revolves around typical fighting game rules where two players have to reduce each others’ health down to zero or win by knocking them out of the arena. The victor of a Standard match will be decided in a best-of-5 format.

Uprising, on the other hand, features much of the same core rules, but with some new systems that have been described as providing opportunities for players to shift the momentum of any given fight. Not too many details have been revealed about Uprising, however, but its description makes it sound like a less formal and more casual way to experience Next Virtua Fighter Project.

The core fighting gameplay in Next Virtua Fighter Project will be powered by a few new mechanics: Break & Rush, Stunner and Stun Combo, and Flow Guard. Break & Rush is a system that rewards players for focusing on specific body parts of their opponents. Dealing enough damage to a body part will eventually allow the player to use a break attack, which puts the opponent in a “broken” state, which is also carried over between match rounds.

The Stunner system is essentially a brand new combo mechanic that makes use of Next Virtua Fighter’s core mechanics and animations to encourage more fluid combos. Flow Guard is set to be a new defense-oriented mechanic which works in tandem with the Break & Rush system, giving players a more fluid and intuitive way to block incoming attacks.

While Next Virtua Fighter Project still doesn’t have an official title yet, producer Riichiro Yamada had previously spoken about how the fighting game is being designed so that anyone can enjoy it. This largely stems from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios hanging on to series creator Yu Suzuki’s vision for the franchise from the 1990s.

“So originally when Yu Suzuki created the Virtua Fighter, he did a lot of testing,” said Yamada. “He actually tested with more than three buttons, like a lot of buttons. But they came to the three button conclusion. At the time it was more of a Game Center (Arcade) focused game, so that was the best at the time.”

“And the concept was that they wanted to create a game that was not too complicated and that anyone could enjoy. And so from that concept, I feel like, yes, I need to respect that concept. I want to create a game where anyone can play.”

Next Virtua Fighter Project is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and doesn’t yet have a release date. For more details about how the title will look and feel, check out the gameplay trailer from last month.

For context, Virtua Fighter games have typically had three buttons that formed their core control schemes – punch, kick, and block. When it comes to Next Virtua Fighter Project, however, we don’t quite know if the series will undergo a massive change by switching the three-button system out, or whether the title will hang on to the same control scheme. Ultimately, however, the decision behind the control scheme comes down to wanting to follow Suzuki’s original intent of having a fighting game where “anyone can play”.

“So originally when Yu Suzuki created the Virtua Fighter, he did a lot of testing,” said Yamada. “He actually tested with more than three buttons, like a lot of buttons. But they came to the three button conclusion. At the time it was more of a Game Center (Arcade) focused game, so that was the best at the time.”

“And the concept was that they wanted to create a game that was not too complicated and that anyone could enjoy. And so from that concept, I feel like, yes, I need to respect that concept. I want to create a game where anyone can play.”

Yamada also brought up the fact that, when the original Virtua Fighter was under development leading up to its 1993 release, the game was meant for large arcade cabinets rather than home consoles. With the new game, however, the market has changed, and RGG Studio is focusing more on players at home rather than those that might step out to find arcade machines.

“But currently, or moving forward, it’s not just a Game Center game, it’s more of a household game,” he explained. “So when you think about how people could enjoy playing this game in their living room or in their house, that’s when it kind of changes a little. So yes, the concept does stay the same, but… I’m not really focused on, oh, we need to keep it to three buttons. The more important thing is I want to create a game where anyone can play in their household when it comes to the new style.”

While we can’t quite be sure about whether or not this means that Next Virtua Fighter Project might see a revamped control scheme, Yamada’s words do indicate that the studio is focused on making sure that the fighting game isn’t too difficult for newcomers.

At Evo this last weekend, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio had released a new video for Next Virtua Fighter Project that showed off not only the game’s training stage, but also a full bout of one-on-one combat. Check out the trailer and its details in our coverage.