Review – Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O

The universe of fighting games is usually restricted to few titles in the casual environment, with series such as, and dominating the scenario. Some players may even mention less popular works such as or Blazblue. However, after three years from the release for PS4 and Arcades, he returns with news to reaffirm his place as one of the most remarkable series of his kind.

Originally launched in 2006, Virtua Fighter 5 maintains its essence of martial combat, distancing itself from supernatural skills such as teleportes, fireballs or demonic shapes. By 2021, the game was updated to the Ultimate Showdown version, which now receives significant improvements such as Rollback Netcode, enhanced graphics, refined characters balance and 4K support.

Flame Hearts

Virtua Fighter’s story mode has always been interesting, but it was never the main focus of the series. The narrative has been the same since the launch in 2006. After the fourth world martial arts championship, Kage Maru, a Ninja, is about to defeat Shun Di, master in Kung Fu, when his fight is interrupted by the series antagonist, the cyborg DURAL.

Kage believes Dural is his mother, captured in the past to have body and mind assimilated by Android. He destroys her, but discovers that he was not his mother. Thus, the fifth tournament begins, bringing together the seventeen largest fighters in the world, now with the addition of three new competitors: Eileen, El Blaze and Jean Kujo.

Eileen, a young Chinese, admires Father Chan and specializes at Kung Fu Macaco style, standing out for his agility. El Blaze, a Mexican lucker, combines speed and typical wrestling blows, seeking to face Wolf Hawkfield. These fighters are part of the group of chosen because of their skills, unlike Jean, who joins the tournament for excuse reasons.

Jean Kujo is a French Karateka sent to the tournament by the evil organization known as Judgement 6. He was a childhood friend of the relaxed fighter Lion Rafale, but was eventually captured, tortured and conditioned by the organization to become a killer. The goal of Judgement 6 is to eliminate all competitors, but the outcome of the fifth tournament remains a mystery, as the winner will only be revealed in the next game.

Three buttons and nothing more

Virtua Fighter is not one of the most popular titles in Tupiniquin lands, which can make your experience challenging for first -time sailors. The series still maintains the same buttons layout, which differs from other fighting games. While many offer three variations for punches and kicks, Virtua Fighter 5 Rom uses only three commands: punch, kick and defense.

The game focuses on martial movement and execution needs blows, prioritizing a more realistic impact response. Therefore, you will not find Shoryukens, Flying blows or other extravagant skills. Instead, the movements seek to reflect techniques close to their real -world counterparts. It is like a Tekken, but without the exaggerated juggling, although it is still possible to perform air strikes at certain times.

An example of this difference is in the Wolf and King characters. Wolf, in Virtua Fighter, uses typical wrestling grab, but there is a time window for the opponent to recover or for you to chain the next attack. Already King, from Tekken, is known to be a character “Coin Flip” or “50-50”, as experienced players can apply a sequence of practically unbreakable agars, which can only be interrupted by pressing the exact button at the right time. This can turn the game into something more dependent on luck than of skill.

If you are the type who likes spammar, zoning or infinite combos, will have difficulties in Virtua Fighter 5 Revive the game implements an exclusive weight system for each character, which directly influences directly the effectiveness of certain strategies. This ensures that the player needs to adapt to each opponent, adding more depth to gameplay

Differences through the ages

As mentioned earlier, Virtua Fighter 5 was originally released in 2006, but underwent several reformulations over time until reaching the current result, Virtua Fighter 5 Revive the first update was Virtua Fighter 5 R, released exclusively in Japan, which maintained the aspects Visuals of the original game, but reformulated the gameplay and added the character Jean Kujo. In addition, I brought back the franchise the Sumo Taka-Arashi fighter, who had first appeared in the third game of the series.

In 2010, the Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown version was released to arcades, PS3 and Xbox 360 worldwide, again changing aspects of the game mechanics, adding a new soundtrack and reformulating the stages. Although it used the same graphic engine of previous versions, this update was considered a different interaction and, for many, a completely new game within the series.

Already in 2021, was released Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown. This version kept all the mechanics of Final Showdown, but presented the game running on Dragon Engine, developed by Ryu Gotoku Studios. The biggest innovations included updated graphics and collaborations with the Tekken and Yakuza games, which led many fans to refer to this edition as a more beautiful and polished Final ShowDown version.

Now, in 2025, we have Virtua Fighter 5 Rev, whose main difference is in the addition of new systems and improvements. Among the news are the advance with JAB forward, the weight adjustment of the characters (ranging from super light to super heavy) and the maintenance of hitboxes and hurtboxes. There is also an optimized recovery window and fountains with dashs backwards. In addition to these improvements, the game features Rollback Netcode, 60 FPS graphics, 4K support and new unpublished materials, including remixed trails and a new opening titled “Burning Souls,” played by the legendary Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.

New old fights

The Virtua Fighter franchise has been relevant for nineteen years, even updating a single title that has only nineteen fighters. This demonstrates how good gameplay can be as important as having a vast cast of characters available. Virtua Fighter 5 Revo serves as an appetizer for players while eagerly awaiting the new battles of Akira and his companions in the next edition of the series.