The Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage closed beta was more of the same, but with a bigger pool of players

It's been a long while since the world has gotten a new entry in the Virtua Fighter series on current day consoles. But with a new VIrtua Fighter Project in the works at Sega with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, fighting game fans are eager to see what will happen next for the franchise. But in the meantime, Sega had a closed beta for a re-release of Virtua Fighter 5 under a new title for PlayStation 5. This new release, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage includes all the content and updates from the PC version of the game from early 2025, but with additional features added in for online multiplayer and other visual enhancements.

The closed beta on PlayStation 5 gave fans a quick glimpse into how the new version of the game would play on consoles with all the new changes. However, the beta had a big focus on the multiplayer modes online, which included cross-play with PC players and rollback netcode, something that players had been asking Sega to add for a long time. While rollback netcode was on the previous PC version, this is the first time PlayStation 5 players would have it on consoles. But beyond this, the closed beta made it clear that most of what makes up Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage is more of the same from before, but with more players being able to experience it.

Systems

ESRB T For Teen: Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence

Developer(s) Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Publisher(s) Sega

Multiplayer Online Multiplayer

Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown

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It's more Virtua Fighter 5

Some things being held back for now

The main content that I had access to during the closed beta on PlayStation 5 included online multiplayer matches, the Arcade mode, and a Training mode. Some of the bigger additions to come with Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage are still being locked away until the final release, including the highly anticipated World Stage single-player mode, which lets players fight CPU opponents in a competitive campaign style. This is similar to what was done in earlier entries of in the series, which attempted to simulate what it would be like traveling to Sega arcades to be a competitive player. But while that mode is still being kept under wraps, the beta gave me a feel for playing with the full roster of characters from the most recent version of Virtua Fighter 5, including the two DLC characters from the R-version release in 2009.

Each of the 17 playable characters has their own unique style of fighting, with a variety of tools for nearly every situation that can come up during a match. With Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage, each fighter has been given updates for balancing, making match-ups between characters feel a little different from previous releases of the game. For most people, Virtua Fighter 5 isn't an easy game to start playing, and can be incredibly tough to master at a competitive level. But devoting the time to learning each character and their moves will definitely give anyone a greater edge over others, especially if you put a lot of focus on just one fighter. Those who have been playing the series, or previous versions of the game, for a while will still have plenty of nuance changes to discover and learn for going online against other players.

Overall, this is still Virtua Fighter 5, even with the extra subtitle and minor changes added in for the new release. Nothing included in the beta gave me a hint about what's to come for the next entry in the series, coming from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. This is still the same game everyone's been playing for a long time. And while some people would've liked to have seen more done in the beta to cross-promote between the games, most Virtua Fighter fans would be totally fine without it, for now.

Taking the battles online

More than just one pool of fighters

The main focus of the closed beta was to test out and showcase the cross-platform feature for consoles and PC. Players are able to connect with others between platforms, allowing for quicker matchmaking when going online. The rollback netcode is also a big addition for console players, which was on the PC version before but is only now being added to PlayStation 5 for the release of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage. Does it all work together well on the console? Yes it does, but it's still not as perfect as the way most players would like to see it.

Matchmaking is pretty fast with Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage, with most sessions being found in less than a minute with cross-play enabled. Because of the beta being closed, there was most likely only a select number of players to run into online, but the matches I played still ran pretty well. There weren't many issues I encountered with stuttering or laggy gameplay, and my button inputs were timed exactly as they should. Part of this could be due to the quality of internet connection between players, but things worked out pretty well even against players with questionable connections.

Most of the matches I played were with players that had green-bar connections displayed before accepting, but the few I did get matched with that displayed yellow-bar connections were still playable. The worst encounter that I had suffered from slow down sporadically throughout the match, which may have been the rollback netcode doing its job. It's easy to get back into matchmaking when things like this happen, but the majority of fights I participated in weren't anything like this. Other players may have a different experience when Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage is fully released, but things appear to bode well for the game being played online.

Presentation is still top-notch

Same or not, it still looks great

Beyond the online matchmaking and arcade mode, there wasn't much to do with the closed beta beyond that. Going into Training Mode is helpful if you really want to take your skills to the next level. The command prompts and options for practicing in Training Mode are among the best in the fighting game genre, especially when I wanted to get into the finer details about combos and strategies for specific characters. It's an incredibly helpful tool. But content-wise, there wasn't much else for me to go off with the closed beta, which may or may not have been enough for other Virtua Fighter players before the official release.

However, one thing that the closed beta definitely made clear to me is that Virtua Fighter 5 looks gorgeous on the PlayStation 5. The game runs at a smooth 60 fps, and is highly detailed with its 4K visuals. Every fighter and stage looks incredible when a match is going on, including some of the grittier characters with vicious fighting styles. The series has always had a reputation for looking very good on every platform it released on, and this new version on PlayStation 5 is no exception. Although the closed beta I played was on PlayStation 5, it does make one wonder how close other platforms the game will be on, like Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, will get to this level of quality with the presentation.

A new challenger comes

Fans of Virtua Fighter will be pleased to know that Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage is looking very good. The game plays exactly how they need it to, with new balance updates to keep things fresh and interesting. The presentation is great and the promise of more content beyond the beta is good to have. While I wish there was a small section of the World Stage mode to try out in the closed beta, I'm still pretty happy with what I saw with the game's online mode. The addition of cross-play between consoles and PC, as well as rollback netcode, are great to see being added to the game, which will delight competitive players who like to spend their time in the online matchmaking modes. If things turn out well for Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.: World Stage when it releases on October 30, 2025, then it may be a good sign of what's to come for the next game that Sega has planned.

Developer(s) Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Publisher(s) Sega

Franchise Virtua Fighter

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