I think @Modelah summarized i perfectly:
'Jūnen hayai-n-da-yo!' (You're 10 years to early!)
10 years later
'Jūnen konai-ka yo?!' (Still nothing after 10 years?!)

Another Akira quotebomb: 'Mada Mada!' (Not yet, not yet!)
lol

Happy 10th Anniversary, anyhoo

I remember the first time I saw and played VF5, if I may share it with you all:

I was in town with my then girlfriend and we went to the local game store which I think was a Gamestation. It had these huge escalators and upon nearing the top I could hear the familiar sounds of a VF fighting game.

Then I saw it on this flipping huge TV, the PS3 version of VF5. It just blew me the hell away with how it looked and sounded, the animations of the characters etc.

There were some kids playing it and I think unintentionally bullied them away, picked Jacky and played arcade mode. My lady at the time hated gaming and didn't get my love for VF, I was in there a good hour before she left without me.

Then the following xmass she bought me a 360 with VF5 and as many know I played it to death.

I certainly hope this is not the end of VF as it's my favourite fighting game that I've shared many a memory with

She got a little paranoid and stormed out my flat about a month after getting me VF5 lol Current Lady loves VF to death so it all worked out in the end

My first time playing VF was the second one. But i didnt become engrossed into Virtua Fighter until VF 4 EVO. That game...aw man. The graphics, deep in game mechanics, characters (I mained Vanessa and Wolf now my mains Are Lion and Wolf with a side of El Blaze). VF 4 Evo is truly a gem and i implore any self respecting VF enthusist to play it!!!

Ten years, and I still want to play and play this game. Unbelievable.

Even on the PS3 and XBox we are likely to celebrate not only the 10th anniversary of VF, but the 20th, 30th, etc. Those for which VF is truly a part of their life will always see life in the game. VF is a martial art in its own right. As long as there is one VF disciple and one VF master, the martial art of virtua fighter lives. The true VF scene has always been and will always be as long as there is at least one player somewhere in the world that can still perform a sabaki, OM, DM, evade escape, throw escape, back dash, inashi at the appropriate time during a match with some opponent.

VF martial artists will ultimately be drawn to others like himself. But the meaning of belonging to such a group is found in the comfort of silence, and the companionship of solitude. All that VF is, all that it has been, all that it will be is result of our community. As long as one of our community persists there will be VF.

VF lives until the last punch is thrown....
VF lives until the last back dash takes place
VF lives until the last throw is escaped
VF lives until there are no more ring outs
VF lives until we can no longer select Kage, Akira, AOI, Shun Di, Jeffrey, Wolf and the rest.

And if the last candle does ever finally go out, and we can't hear the sound of stage music any more, and the movement of the joy stick has fallen still, VF will live in the annals of the history of time because from humble beginnings as the first true 3D arcade fighter, VF brought together and produced some of the most awesome players on the planet. Friendships were born, enemies were made, courage was found, trash was talked, skills were sharpened more than razors, thus epic battles were won and lost: and for all of this; the gods were watching and recording.

Wow. This is one heck of an inspiring post. Great stuff. Well done, masterpo!

Kruza

Dam. I started playing VF in 2008. Doesn't feel like that long ago. This was the game that got me back into fighting games since 94', lol. Even though I dabble into other fighting games, as of now, VF is still my favorite one to play. And even though the online community is small, I'm glad there is one.

I have only been playing VF series since 2010. I started with VF4 evo and stayed on that for a year; and then I brought Vf5 cause I wanted to play people online. I was so terrible at VF5 the first year I played that I use to rage on J.C. black .

I was on my PS2. I was 11 years old. I was playing VF4 and VF4 Evolution with my main character Jacky at the time. I put Brad as my alternative. Then, I went to get my PS3 with VF5 on the game release and I remember there was 35 people picking it up and I was the 5th in line to pick it up. I went home at 1am and booted the game up and my first impression was because the animation and graphics were so glossed up. The characters looked different from the PS2 version. Every single character kept their appearance except for Brad and Vanessa (correct me if I am wrong) and I remember seeing El Blaze and Eileen. Tried them out and at first, I was playing El Blaze a lot because he was fast and I came up with some combos that cause major damage. Idk if I remember them at all. For Eileen, I played for very little time because I wanted to try out Jacky, Brad and Kage. After training in dojo and command training, I switched to Brad and put Jacky as my alternative along with Goh. Goh didn't became my favorite until FS. But yeah, pretty sums up where I was.

Fantastic article, @oneida! I'd love to see you write for SegaBits again in the future. After all these years, I never knew that Takenobu Mitsuyoshi voiced VF3-onward Kage . That definitely makes sense, because he was on the VF2 and 3 sound teams and arranged the soundtrack for VF1's Saturn release. Your word choice of "buttrock" to describe the VF4 soundtrack was also much appreciated (I feel that it is epecially fitting for 4:Evo's music). It truly is shocking that VF5 is ten years old... while I started with 4 Evo, I think I bought it around a year or two after 5 came out. Time really flies!

Thank you for the kind words, @Tumbling Dice ! As for writing again, it would make sense to write more about the New York community in anticipation of NYGX-2.

Quite simply the best fighting game that ever existed.

I'm a huge fighting game fan, and I go as far back as VF (2D one), Samurai Showdown, Bushido Blade, Soul Blade, DOA, MK, Tekken and Bloody Roar (THEY NEED TO REMAKE THIS BEASTLY GAME!).

I also play Raven on Tekken 6 on a fairly high level (Still undecided about T7).

However, Virtua fighter (In general) is still the deepest, most rewarding fighting game series that ever existed.

This is even including 2D fighters.

How can a game that was released years ago still stand up to 3D fighting games today using the latest development technologies like UE4 ?

How can a fighting system be so deep, that it feels like you are the player ?

How can I start discovering new combinations and techniques even after 4 years ?

Only Virtua Fighter can achieve all that, and add a few nice extras like saving replays (although I wish there were move save spots).

Even with the release of these new fighting games ? Only VF deserves my time (And maybe Mk X).

Wanna battle ? HMU and PREPARE FOR WAR!

PSN: emperorshadox