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Video Game: Virtua Fighter

Virtua Fighter is a successful 3D Fighting Game series created by Yu Suzuki and Sega's AM2 development team.

The game's story is about the dealings of the mysterious corporation, Judgment Six (J6) who holds the World Fighting Tournament as a front to create the ultimate fighter. The game's star is Akira Yuki a Hot Blooded martial artist seeking to fight worthy opponents and perfect his fighting style. A major recurring storyline in the game is with J6's involvement with some of the other competitors. Kage-Maru's mother, Tsukikage, is turned into Dural, the final boss of the series. Sarah and Vanessa are both kidnapped by J6, the latter used to make the newer version of Dural after Kage saved his mother.

Compared to other 3D fighters like Tekken and DOA, Virtua Fighter's storyline is not as developed. This is partially due to trying to make the gameplay realistic (sorta) and the depth in the characters' fighting styles as a whole and the moves they use. Virtua Fighter is known for the balance of its characters between each other. Sumo wrestler Taka-Arashi was removed from a couple of sequels because the sumo style at the time was too hard to integrate into future games.

Aside from Taka-Arashi (who returned in Virtua Fighter 5R), all the characters from previous games always return for the next.

This series provide example of:

All There in the Manual: The plot and character biographies, they are never featured in the games.
Alternate Continuity: Virtua Quest.
Amazonian Beauty: Vanessa.
And Your Reward Is Clothes: Virtua Fighter 4 was the first fighting game to feature accessories for your fighter that did not affect the fighter's stats in any way (even if you gave them weapons).
Animal Nemesis: Jeffry's constant battle with the "devil shark".
Anime Hair: Akira, Jacky and Goh. Brad's is almost there.
The Anime of the Game: Though it's a Pragmatic Adaptation, it's pretty well received.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Lei-Fei
Badass Grandpa: Shun
Boobs of Steel: Vanessa
Brainwashed and Crazy: Sarah
But Not Too Black: A particularly egregious example in Vanessa going from Virtua Fighter 4 to 5.
Button Mashing: Depends who you play as, and whether your opponent knows the mechanics. You can be punished severely for this practice, even by the AI.
Canon Foreigner: Liu Kowloon, Eva Durix and Oni-Maru from the anime series.
Cain and Abel: Sarah and Jacky when Sarah was brainwahsed by J6.
The Charmer: Brad.
Chef of Iron: Lau.
Chickification: To some degree, Sarah in the anime.
Chinese Girl: Pai and Eileen.
Chrome Champion: Dural.
Combos
Costume Porn: In Virtua Fighter 4 and 5.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Dural
Cool Mask: El Blaze
Dark-Skinned Blond: Vanessa, even though her hair is white.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown has two examples:
- Training mode includes an animation frame counter that displays how long it takes for a technique to execute, as well as how much of an advantage you have after a successful hit or guard. Usually, this kind of feature is available only to the developers, who would use it to tweak moves to make them faster or slower. This trope is notable because no other fighting game before Final Showdown has a frame counter.
- You can configure your buttons at the character select screen. A much-appreciated feature for tournament players.
Difficult, But Awesome: The series is widely recognized for being one of the most complex and difficult to get into in the Fighting Game genre, but it is also arguably the most well-balanced amongst its characters and a perennial tournament favorite. While the game has tier lists, a low-tier character can easily best a high-tier one with practice and skill. The difference is nowhere near as pronounced as in other series.
Ditto Fighter: Dural is the Goddess of them.
Divergent Character Evolution: Sarah and Jacky have developed far different moves and backstories over the course of five games.
Downloadable Content: The costume packs in Final Showdown. If you bought the PS3 version early, you got everything.
Drunken Boxing: Shun
Drunken Master: Shun
Edge Gravity: Averted. Despite being the first major fighting series to use Ring Outs, there is nothing stopping you from meandering over the edge and costing yourself the round. Later installments did include physical walls, however.
Evil Albino: Goh
Facial Markings: Wolf
Faux Action Girl: Sarah in the anime.
Fragile Speedster: Pai, Aoi, Eileen, Lion
Genki Girl: Eileen
Glowing Eyes of Doom: In Final Showdown one of the customisation pieces is an Egyptian mask with glowing red eyes Kage Maru and El Blaze also have unique face pieces which have the same effect.
Gratuitous English: While Jeffry, Jacky, Sarah, Vanessa and many other characters do, in fact, speak coherent English, some of their win quotes seem... awkward...
Jacky: "I've done handcuffed lightning!"
Sarah: "Even Good Guys blow it..."
Hey, It's That Voice!: Akira Yuki's as good at fighting as Takumi Fujiwara's at driving.
Hot Blooded: Akira
Idiot Hero: Akira in the anime, a far outcry from his 'Ryu clone' game persona. But it still works.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Respectively Pai and Sarah.
Magical Native American: Wolf
Masked Luchador: El Blaze
Mega Corp: Judgement Six.
Mighty Glacier: Wolf, Jeffery and Taka-Arashi
Ninja: Kage-Maru
No Celebrities Were Harmed: El Blaze is a pretty clear clone of real life luchadore and WCW/WWE wrestler Rey Mysterio.
- Never Live It Down: ...until you realize that other Luchadores exist beyond Rey Mysterio, and that the mask/trousers combo is a common clothing choice to all of them.
Noblewoman's Laugh: Sarah
No Export for You: Virtua Fighter 5 R (for arcade goers, anyway.)
- Sega's bringing the next version (Final Showdown) home, though it took two years past the initial release.
Non-Human Sidekick: Alexander, Sarah's pet flying squirrel from the anime)
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: All English-speaking characters sound American, regardless of origin. Equally all the Asian characters speak in Japanese.
- Lion is apparently French, but he sounds like a loud American teenager.
- Jeffrey has more emphasis on the Scary Black Man rather than an Austrailian Scary black man.
Numbered Sequels
Old Master: Lau and Shun
The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: J6 again
Professional Killer: Goh and Jean
Professional Wrestling: Wolf and El Blaze
Psycho for Hire: Goh and Jean
Retraux: Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary, which is Virtua Fighter 4 with the first game's blocky polygons and soundtrack.
Ring Out: In the very least the Trope Codifier for the fighting genre, if not the Trope Maker.
The Rival: Wolf to Akira
Ryu and Ken: Sarah and Jacky
Scary Black Man: Jeffry
Shout Out: One of Shun's customizations in the 5 series is a blue tank engine. Sound familiar?
SNK Boss: Dural...though she doesn't spam powerful attacks.
Sociopathic Hero: Vanessa... snapping necks while laughing
Spin-Off: Virtua Quest, an action-RPG featuring the cast of Virtua Fighter 4 as fighting data in Cyberspace.
Super-Deformed: Virtua Fighter Kids
To Be a Master: Akira
Tsundere: Vanessa
- Aoi to Brad too, if you read their backstories.
Victory Pose
The Voiceless: Dural
Updated Rerelease: The VF games undergo many revisions, but VF 5 is noteworthy for its Final Showdown update. It made significant system changes, such as changing the jump physics and the throw escape system.
Warrior Monk: Lei Fei - which also technically makes him a Bare Fisted Monk as far as we know, though it doesn't matter since this is an unarmed-combat series.
White-Haired Pretty Boy: Jean
- White-Haired Pretty Girl: Vanessa
Yamato Nadeshiko: Aoi
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: In 5 the DLC packs gave most characters the option of having brightly coloured hair, in Final Showdown everyone gets it.
Your Days Are Numbered: Lau