By Tj Denzer

Copyright shacknews

Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku continue to work hard on the next Virtua Fighter game, having released several trailers that paint a picture where the fighting is the front-and-center priority of what we’ve seen so far. Coming into an all-new chapter of the series sounds like a daunting task, and we sat down with producer Riichiro Yamada to speak about the balance of old versus new, Wolf’s redesign, and the approach of the trailers we’ve seen up to this point.

For Yamada, it’s an honor to be able to work on the newest Virtua Fighter. He shared respect for the series’ early major contributors, especially Yu Suzuki, and is excited and nervous about carrying on that work. One of the biggest challenges has been deciding what features and pieces of the series should be protected and what should be evolved. The team has a battle manager that was deeply involved in previous Virtua Fighter games to help make sure that the things that players will be looking for will be there and the balance of the fight will be as good as it can be.

When it comes to new opportunities, Yamada said the team focuses on a number of factors, such as character reasons for fighting and positions in the series following Virtua Fighter 5. In the case of fan favorite character Wolf Hawkfield, we saw that he is apparently coming out of retirement and entering the ring to throw down once more. Yamada told us that for his return to pro wrestling, they leaned into the flashy entertainment side, moving Wolf toward more of a showman versus his almost strictly athletic battle gear in previous games. Figuring out where the team can take new ideas like these and run with them versus keeping things recognizable to longtime fans has been a difficult balancing act that Yamada thinks about every day.

The new Virtua Fighter Project has plenty of time to cook while it targets a 2026 release. Be sure to check out more on the Virtua Fighter topic and head over to our YouTube channel for videos, gameplay, interviews, and more.