At least not as hard as some people would have you believe.

I get kind of dismayed when people going around saying Virtua Fighter games are the deepest, most difficult fighters out there. The main reasons are when you build up a game's difficulty it can scare people away, especially in fighters, and also because these claims mistake depth for difficulty.

Virtua Fighter is easily the deepest 3D fighter out there and it is challenging to get good at but it's not some monolithic undertaking to play it because the game is actually pretty simple from a control perspective. There's only three buttons and move for move Virtua Fighter has far less to memorize than the likes of Tekken or Soul Calibur. So where does this perception of immense difficulty come from?

If I were to guess I would say the biggest factor is Virtua Fighter's complete and utter lack of flashy gameplay mechanics. There's no super moves, no dragon punches, no roman cancels or anything of the like. Just the characters and their moves. Because of this incredibly minimalistic approach, frames are god and extremely basic fighter concepts like advantage and disadvantage become supremely important. If your opponent blocks your slow attack you can't count on an invincible move to save your ass. There's no universal counters or guard impacts to get the momentum back in your favor. Button mashing doesn't work and will get you killed.

Many fighters, especially newer ones, enable players by having tools that really mitigate the penalties of their mistakes. Even if the player barely understands the finer details of the mechanics at work in a game they can still manage victories. Virtua Fighter demands at least a rudimentary understanding. Knowledge is key in this game. You need to always be aware of your options both offensively and especially defensively. Defense is extremely proactive and requires much more active participation than simply holding a button.

However once you get that knowledge I believe Virtua Fighter is the best fighter out there. It's such a pure fighter and there's no bullshit to enable "cheap" victories. The game is so finely tuned that tiers are practically nonexistent except at the absolute highest levels of play and even then it's largely irrelevant. Though it may seem slow at first it's actually probably the fastest due to how much you need to consider at any given moment and how you feel to best react. I don't want to go into to much detail but basically Virtua Fighter's depth comes mostly from it's finely tuned but very simple design enabling all players to fight on an even playing field. In the end victory boils down to who played the smartest at least much more so than other fighters.

I don't think I'm going to hold that contest. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of interest. Still, I'd like to help spread the Virtua Fighter love to some extent.

The following is an exceptional tutorial by DandyJ, the man also responsible for the amazing Beginner's Guide to King of Fighters. Yes, the video is over two hours long but Dandy covers everything in extremely easy to understand language and in great detail. He literally covers everything you need to know about Virtua Fighter if you want to get started. Listen to it while browsing or something.