Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. – Review

Well, it’s about time this series released again, and it is a welcome change from recent fighting game releases. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is the PC port of the PS4/Arcade release of VF5 Ultimate Showdown 2.0, which meant it’s just as balanced as its peers. For those who have known only the more-resounding titles, Virtua Fighter is SEGA’s flagship fighting game which has a solid fanbase that is loyal to this day since the very first one on the arcade and SEGA 32X, the Genesis/MegaDrive’s expansion port during the “Bit Wars” era. Now, on to the review!

The story is. . . Well, it’s the same Virtua Fighter 5 format. You go through the tournament as your preferred character, fight Akira Yuki as the final boss, and still as painful as his attacks can get before you face the extra boss Dural, who (considering I’ve only played original VF5 and PS3’s Final Showdown) now has an “Angry Mode” where her (Yes, her since the body base is Tsukikage’s, Kagemaru’s mother) chrome body gets a bit cracked. Her fighting style becomes much more aggressive, usually after sustaining a bit of damage so it’s a great challenge overall to run Arcade Mode. But don’t worry though, Dural’s more or less an EX Boss that’s just there to truly test your skill, so it’s more or less a gauge of how good you are. Will you lose, or will you be skilled enough to tell her that she’s “10 years too early!”?

The gameplay is a lot smoother and reasonably paced than what I recall from Final Showdown on the PS3. Each missed input? That’s totally on you even if it’s the one-frame releases. You’ll have to REALLY get into it, really spend a lot of hours just practicing and re-learning adjusted mechanics if you’ve been away for as long as I have, and it’s always a rewarding feeling to de-rust, regaining old, and learning new skills. Also, it’s wise to continue a fighting game’s rule of three with VF5 R.E.V.O.: Have a character you use as your main combatant, have a sub-character in case the matchup for the main is bad, and a pocket that you can learn at your leisure and just have fun using on couch and online matches with friends.

The stage mechanics are still present, each with their own sizes and hazards. A great example would be the River stage, where there are no walls and one wrong move could give you or your opponent the chance to throw you off the edge if your combat has reached it.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is intuitive enough to be played without shelling for an arcade stick. However, it IS still preferable as an input device rather than a pad considering the frame-specific moves some characters have will need you to just lightly scrape along the button instead of pressing it, and save you long hours of frustration using a standard controller while practicing moves. It’s certainly not juggle-heavy/juggle-centric like Tekken and relies more on smarter maneuvers around enemy attacks or recoveries to begin your counterattack, but that’s where the charm lies, at least for me. Button-mashing can only get you so far before enemies can get a read on your erratic movements and even lead you off the stage and play you like a fiddle.

The music is meant to get you pumped wherever you may fight in the game’s 20 stages with their own themes. From the aforementioned River stage against Shun Di, the Ruins’ theme while fighting against Elena, even the themes against Akira and Dural are always welcome to listen to as you fight them, underlining the tense state of the battles you are part of.

If there’s something else to look forward to, there’s a Tekken collab coming to the game soon, while they have already released the Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Ryu Ga Gotoku collab DLC, allowing the characters to wear clothing from that series, with the funniest one going out to Goh Hinogami dressed up as Ryuji Goda from Yakuza 2, looking like a pale zombified version of the character considering Goh is white like stone.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is a well-deserved PC port of SEGA’s fighting game series, and most certainly a good show considering its rivals are showing up well like the aforementioned Tekken or Street Fighter and even King of Fighters or one of its main series’ up-and-coming entry, Garou : City of the Wolves. Everything adds up and the upcoming collabs seem promising, and even the throwback DLCs are worth taking a look at especially for older fans of the series who have wanted to see the old looks again. In the immortal words of Joe Bob Briggs, “Four and a half stars! Check it out!”.