My very first reaction upon seeing the new story-driven focus of Virtua Fighter Crossroads – RGG Studios’ bold new reimagining of the storied fighting game franchise – was “Hey you got Shenmue in my Virtua Fighter.”
Both of those franchises were created by Sega royalty Yu Suzuki, who was responsible for many of the company’s biggest hits from Space Harrier to After Burner. Shenmue was arguably his most ambitious, an early open-world game with a scale (and commensurate budget!) that wowed the Dreamcast audience in 1999.
Six years earlier, Virtua Fighter was the first 3D fighting game and its creation heralded a massive shift in the gaming industry. So it stands to reason that Suzuki’s legacy looms large over the franchise, not to mention Sega itself, and Crossroads’ creative director tells GameSpot that it was important to them to show Suzuki their game.
At Summer Game Fest last weekend, creative director Riichiro Yamada told GameSpot that they had a chance to show off their concept for Virtua Fighter Crossroads to Suzuki who “gave such great feedback” about “how this really is still Virtua Fighter.” With this motivation imbued in them from the franchise creator, RGG knew they were “going in a good direction.”
“All right, we’re doing it. We’re doing it well,” he recalls thinking.
“When I came into the company, Shenmue was big, and Yu-san was the top creator. So, the fact that I was able to pitch this game and get such great feedback made me feel pretty good,” Yamada said.
“The old game was really an arcade game, but when we were talking to Yu-san, we threw out, ‘It can’t just be arcade. It’s got to be a game for everyone first.’ And that means story and narrative that we weren’t able to do in the old games.”
While Yamada was scared he’d get bad feedback from Suzuki, he said, “Yu-san was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right’ [about adding story and narrative].” And with that validation, he thought “Ok, we all agree let’s do this.”
Despite the fact that Yu Suzuki stepped down from much of his responsibilities at Sega nearly two decades ago, after spending over two decades there, his imprint and legacy are still helping define what’s next for Sega.
For more on Sega’s Summer Game Fest lineup, check out our coverage of Virtua Fighter Crossroads’ 1v1 mode, the new Crazy Taxi World Tour, and even [checks notes] Tupac in Stranger Than Heaven.
