The Innovations of Virtua Fighter 3

Dimension and Structure: for the first time in VF, stages were no longer all square in dimension and we saw the introduction of walls. Walls made for extra combo opportunities and saw the introduction of special “wall throws”. That is, throws performed when either your or your opponent’s back was against the wall, resulting in a special, exciting animation.





for the first time in VF, stages were no longer all square in dimension and we saw the introduction of walls. Walls made for extra combo opportunities and saw the introduction of special “wall throws”. That is, throws performed when either your or your opponent’s back was against the wall, resulting in a special, exciting animation. Inclination : for the first time in VF, stages were no longer all flat. This affected the gameplay in a number of ways, but the most profound was while performing a combo “downhill”, the opponent spends a little longer time in the air, which made it possible to extend the combo even further, carry for longer distances, etc. Other minor effects included a slight damage bonus for performing a heavy down attack (aka Pounce) on a prone opponent on lower ground. Effectively, the player who had the “higher ground” had an advantage in the fight, and with some stages having one player starting higher than the other, the fight was both literally and figuratively an “uphill battle” for the lower player.





: for the first time in VF, stages were no longer all flat. This affected the gameplay in a number of ways, but the most profound was while performing a combo “downhill”, the opponent spends a little longer time in the air, which made it possible to extend the combo even further, carry for longer distances, etc. Other minor effects included a slight damage bonus for performing a heavy down attack (aka Pounce) on a prone opponent on lower ground. Effectively, the player who had the “higher ground” had an advantage in the fight, and with some stages having one player starting higher than the other, the fight was both literally and figuratively an “uphill battle” for the lower player. Surface Effects: the surface of each stage had its own coefficient of friction, which affected dash speed and the distance traversed by attack strings. For example, in the desert stage, a Knee launcher by Jeffry might not have a fully connect due to the high coefficient of friction of sand.

The release of Virtua Fighter 3 introduced a whole slew of innovations never before seen in other fighting games. Many of these shaped the future of the Virtua Fighter series and some were never to be seen again. Let’s look at a few of these:: probably the most fundamental change to the VF series was the introduction of the Escapebutton. For the first time, this allowed the cast to freely move laterally, in or out of the screen to either evade the opponent’s attack, or just for re-positioning. Thebutton could also be used for dashing by combining it with a forward tap(and holdto run), or backward tap. The Escape button was never seen again after VF3, since AM2 found a more integrated way to input evades by simply using the Joystick. However, the concept and execution of the evading mechanic would later prove to be even more significant as the series evolved.: Crouch dashing in the forward direction was still possible as it was in previous titles, but did you know that it was not possible to perform acrouch dash in VF3? Previously in VF2, with the advent of the Taiwan Step (made famous by Taiwanese VF players) it was possible to move around the ring quite quickly with forward and backward crouch dashes, essentially always remaining in a crouching state. This meant that your all of your opponent's high attacks would whiff, you couldn’t be thrown easily, and you could always stand up in time to guard slower, powerful mid attacks (i.e. fuzzy guard). An Akira player who was proficient with the Taiwan Step was extremely tough to fight against due to Akira’s many strong attacks from the crouching state. So, many regarded the removal of the backward crouch dash as AM2’s way of promoting a more aggressive playing style, and less of a defensive (or ‘machi’ / waiting) style). However, backward crouch dashes did return in VF4 and beyond, as AM2 found other ways to solve the same issue.: Continuing with the theme of fixing something “broken” from the previous title, AM2 standardized all high throws to now end with acommand, and all low throws to end with. This was an effort to remove the powerfulthat was possible in VF2 with mid attacks and throws. For example, in VF2, Jacky’s Clothesline Throw wasso if you were within range and the opponent was standing and guarding, then you’d end up throwing them. However, if they were crouching then you would get theElbow attack instead, which staggered the opponent, allowing you to hit-confirm into the follow-upfor good damage and knockdown. So Jacky players would always enteras their standard mid attack and the game would(elbow or throw) depending on the opponent’s state. This kind of OS was prevalent throughout VF2, but obviously was not intended by design, which is why commands for throws were now standardized in VF3 and remained so in future releases.: Many people will cite the innovative stage designs when recalling VF3, and some still call for their return. But here are a few things you probably didn’t know about the stages in VF3:: In another first for the VF series, players had limited control of their character prior to the start of the round, allowing them to either start in a standing or crouched state. Additionally, Shun Di was able to “sit down” (one of his stances), and Jacky was able to “switch stance” to change his foot position. This feature was removed from subsequent VF titles, however, Jacky has always retained the ability to “switch stance” prior to round start.