FS Storyline: 1st to 5th Tournament Backstories

Virtua Fighter 1: The 1st World Fighting Tournament

During the Shōwa period a Japanese army battalion was dispatched to Pu-yi, the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The Japanese military were seeking to exploit the Emperor and his resources for their own ends. The Emperor’s answer was swift and brutal when his imperial guards, employing a martial art known as Hakkyokuken, decimated the invading force.

It is said the Japanese army, with the aim of creating the world’s most formidable infantrymen, later went on to perfect a martial art based on the secrets of Hakkyokuken.

Approximately half a century later, a young practitioner of Hakkyokuken set off on a journey of self-discovery to test his martial arts ability. His name was Akira Yūki. His path lead him to enter a contest one day, a contest that would mark the beginning of a legendary era in martial arts; the 1st World Fighting Tournament.

The tournament attracted a variety of fighters from around the world, and was to be the ultimate test of physical combat prowess to see who would be crowned the best martial artist in the world. A question was on everyone’s mind, “Who will emerge as the strongest fighter?”

1st Tournament Winner: Lau Chan


Virtua Fighter 2: The 2nd World Fighting Tournament

The 1st World Fighting Tournament attracted an array of fighters from around the world, and they had fought in the ultimate test of hand-to-hand combat to determine the best fighter in the world. The winner of the first tournament was a master of the legendary Koen-ken martial art, Lau Chan.

Facing off against Lau’s style and flowing attacks in the final match of the tournament, the young Hakkyokuken practitioner Akira Yūki came to understand just how inexperienced he really was. Soon after the tournament, he set off once again on his journey of self-discovery to further test his skills.

A year later, while still travelling, Akira received a letter. It was an invitation to the 2nd World Fighting Tournament. A list of competitors was enclosed with the invitation, and he saw the name of Lau, the defending champion along with the names of 2 new challengers that were unknown to him. His blood stirring, Akira resolved to enter the tournament but his instincts told him that something dark and foreboding lay ahead.

New opponents. Rumors of a mysterious organization somehow connected with the tournament. The 2nd World Fighting Tournament, cloaked in mystique, was about to begin.

2nd Tournament Winner: Akira Yūki


Virtua Fighter 3: The 3rd World Fighting Tournament

The 2nd World Fighting Tournament culminated in a fierce battle between Lau Chan and Akira Yūki, a battle that saw Akira emerge victorious. All the fighters went their separate ways after the tournament, each with lasting memories; some bitterly vowed revenge, while others were satisfied at having achieved their goals. A year and several months passed.

Elsewhere, a mysterious organization known as J6 continued to quietly orchestrate its shadowy underworld operations. The organization had spent decades expanding its influence under a veil of secrecy; outbreaks of epidemics, raging political disputes and seemingly never-ending wars were rumored to be connected to J6 but investigations always hit dead-ends. Slowly but surely, it had grown to cast an immense shadow over the underworld.

Akira had won the second tournament, but not content to rest on his laurels, he set his sights on greater challenges. He continued training with his grandfather at the family dōjō. One day, an invitation to the 3rd World Fighting Tournament arrived. The same line-up of combatants who fought in the previous tournament featured in the list of competitors, along with the names of 2 new challengers. The participants this time totaled 12 fighters.

Good memories of familiar faces came flooding back. With a surge of adrenalin, Akira’s fighting spirit had once again been ignited. Looking over the list of fighters, Akira swore he could feel the fighting spirit emanating from his rivals scattered across the globe. Several days later, with the permission of his grandfather, Akira set off for the tournament...

3rd Tournament Winner: Kage-Maru


Virtua Fighter 4: The 4th World Fighting Tournament

The winner of the 3rd World Fighting Tournament was Kage-Maru. Immediately after the final match, Kage-Maru was confronted by a new Dural model, which he managed to destroy. He had found what he came for, and salvaged new cybernetic parts from Dural that he needed to save his ailing mother, Tsuki-Kage. She had been abducted and transformed into Dural by J6 years ago, and though Kage-Maru had rescued her during the second tournament, her health had been rapidly deteriorating since the transformation and now needed cybernetic parts to survive.

However, using the parts only served to accelerate Tsuki-Kage’s transformation, and despite Kage-Maru’s best efforts to prevent it she completely reverted back to Dural, and once again fell under the control of J6. Successfully retrieving the now complete cyborg, J6 immediately started plans to launch production of Dural units en masse.

However tests on Tsuki-Kage revealed that because she had spent too long without her cybernetic enhancements, her combat skills had degraded to the point where J6 no longer saw her as a viable basis for mass production. J6 began designing a new Dural model and started searching for a subject that would be compatible with the transformation process. From a shortlist of targets, Sarah Bryant was nominated for assimilation.

While formulating a plan to lure Sarah into their clutches, J6 announced the 4th World Fighting Tournament. The tournament, where hopes, dreams and conspiracies converge, is about to begin once again...

4th Tournament Winner: No contest (due to outside interference)


Virtua Fighter 5: The 5th World Fighting Tournament

Facing off in the final match of the 4th World Fighting Tournament, Kage-Maru and Shun Di were locked in a desperate struggle when Dural suddenly interfered, throwing the tournament into chaos. Knowing his mother Tsuki-Kage had been transformed into Dural, Kage-Maru sought to end her misery and pushed himself to finish her off with his bare hands. Upon closer inspection however, Kage-Maru realized that he had destroyed a generic production model Dural and not his mother.

In response to the incident, there were urgent calls from within J6 to both strengthen the production models immediately and also secure a new test subject for the Dural Project. Under pressure to provide results quickly, J6 looked to data obtained from a previous subject of theirs, Vanessa Lewis.

Aiming to physically integrate Vanessa into Dural as they had done with Tsuki-Kage, J6 allowed Vanessa to infiltrate the 4th World Fighting Tournament and then successfully abducted her. However, apparently with the help of an insider, Vanessa escaped the day before the planned operation.

The plan to fully incorporate Vanessa into Dural had stalled. Vanessa had escaped but J6 had been able to successfully transfer her combat data into a production model Dural, creating a new, superior variant named V-Dural. J6 immediately began preparations for holding the 5th World Fighting Tournament. They planned to use the tournament as a platform to not only test V-Dural’s performance against the best fighters in the world but also to flush out those responsible for Vanessa’s escape.

The stage for the 5th World Fighting Tournament had been set. A tournament that means as much to the martial artists participating as it does to J6’s shadowy ambitions…

5th Tournament Winner: ???


(These are translations of the Japanese versions found on wikipedia.)

 

This is interesting to know.

 

we could make some videos to do justice to the history of Virtua Fighter, little explored in games...