As Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio – known for its work on the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise – continues to develop the next Virtua Fighter, the studio has now released a new video showing off some gameplay for the title. The fighting game, currently just referred to as New Virtua Fighter Project, will seemingly have a pretty big training area, if the trailer is anything to go by, and in keeping with franchise tradition, will focus on martial arts for its 1-on-1 combat.
The minute-long video gives us a look at an epic fight between two of the game’s characters, showing off some of the combos that both will be capable of. Throughout the video, we get a good look at some of the smaller details from the upcoming fighting game, including incredibly-accurate hitboxes where a character is able to avoid his opponent’s sweeping low kick by doing a kip-up when they were on the floor. The other character was also able to avoid an attack by weaving out of the way at the right time.
New Virtua Fighter Project will also seemingly have an impressive end-of-match animation, where the final hit causes one of the characters to have their face smashed in slow motion, leading to even a tooth flying out of their mouth. Along with this, the game also features plenty of reactivity thanks to detailed animations from blocking attacks with the right timing.
The visual style of the game is also seemingly going for a more minimalistic look. While it will undoubtedly feature health bars, timers, and other HUD elements, the gameplay shown off here also indicates that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is avoiding making heavy use of particle effects like a game like Tekken might use. Rather, the hits and grapples have all been shown quite cleanly, and the focus of the game seemingly comes down to the pure martial arts capabilities of both fighters.
New Virtua Fighter Project doesn’t yet have a release date. The studio has, however, confirmed that more details about the game will be revealed during the upcoming Tokyo Game Show 2025.
The game was originally unveiled all the way back in December 2024, and while we didn’t get to see any gameplay at the time, the trailer announcing the fighting game gave us a look at gorgeous visuals thanks to pre-rendered cinematic footage. We got to see more of the game thanks to a trailer released back in January. Referred to as a “pre-development concept video”, the trailer showcased in-engine footage of one of the game’s fighting stages, while also giving us a look at what characters like Akira Yuki will look like in the game.
Back in May, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio had also confirmed that Wolf Hawkfield will be returning as part of the roster of New Virtua Fighter Project. Hawkfield has been a staple of the Virtua Fighter roster ever since the franchise first made its debut all the way back in 1993. Check out the trailer announcing the character’s return for more details.
