Akira Yuki

Here we have Akira Yuki, a fighters who have been in the Virtua Fighter series since the original in the arcades!

The Mii
Akira uses the Akira Wig and Akira Outfit, and I went with Voice Type 3 Normal to best match his original voice from Virtua Fighter 1 and 2. His color isn’t important for his look, but I would recommend either Black, to represent his original appearance in early Virtua Fighter games and in Smash, or White, to more closely match his new design where he sports a pure white gi. I made his Mii to match Nintendo’s official Mii as closely as possible. You can find my tutorial for Akira here

The Moves
I did my best to choose moves that best reflected his gameplay styles. Akira uses higher commitment kick based attacks to capitalize on openings within their opponent’s defenses, and one of his approach options in the first two Virtua Fighter games is a rising jump kick that sends him high into the air. For this reason, moves like Exploding Side Kick, Burning Dropkick, and Soaring Axe Kick felt most appropriate for his block-and-punish style of gameplay. He also has a counter, to reflect his parrying and deflecting techniques from his home series.

The Style
For his spirit, he uses Tank Style. I debated on this a lot, but most fighting game characters in Smash like Ryu, Terry, and Min-Min are on the slower side, and Virtua Fighter is, in certain ways, an even slower game than many of those franchises! Virtua Fighter, like Smash, is also a game where you are encouraged to pressure your opponent off the side of the stage, causing a round loss by “Ringing Out” your opponent. Because of this, both fighters have experience with trying to stay on-stage, contributing to their improved defense and reduced knockback.

The Spirits
His spirits are largely evasive in nature. Akira uses Easier Dodging and Easier Perfect Shield, encouraging him to punish his opponents’ approach and counter attack. He has the Improved Escape spirit, owing to Virtua Fighter’s own grabbing and throwing mechanics allowing for you to “Throw Escape” with well timed inputs.

Analysis
Virtua Fighter is a bit of an outlier in the traditional Fighting Game genre. Being one of the first 3D fighters, it based itself around pseudo-3D movement and “lane shifting” to avoid attacks. Due to the hardware limitations of the time, instead of focusing on flashy moves or superpowers like those seen in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter takes a more realistic approach to combat, with an emphasis on dodging, blocking, deflecting, and countering attacks back and forth rather than hitting your opponent with big, complicated combos.

Summary
The Ray MK II with Tank Style: 1 Support Spirit with Easier Perfect Shield 1 Support Spirit with Easier Dodging 1 Support Spirit with Improved Escape



Credits: Uielicious Mii

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