Aoi Umenokoji was one of the two new fighters added to Virtua Fighter roster in VF3 and her character design was meant to take advantage of the new Sega Model 3 arcade board it was running on. When VF3 and the Model 3 arcade board were shown off in a video demonstration at the AOU show (Amusement Machine Operators’ Union) in 1996, Aoi was shown first and foremost in the demonstration with long flowing sleeves meant to move and react like real fabric. However, when the game finally arrived in arcades and later on Dreamcast, her flowing sleeves had been chopped off. I have to assume there was just too many issues with them clipping through other characters and other potential problems.
Virtua Fighter 3 1996 AOU tech trailer, posted by Dave Freeman
Lau Chan is the canonical winner of the First World Fighting Tournament in Virtua Fighter 1, however, the honor is short lived because he is by default the first character you will fight in Virtua Fighter 2. Even if you pick Lau himself as your character in VF2 you are forced to face yourself, the reigning champion, in the opening match of the tournament. Sega has ensured that Lau will be the character to be defeated the most times in single player matches. Its one thing to win the belt, its a whole other thing to defend it.
Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol.6 Lau Chan One of the more unique releases by Sega during the Saturn era was a series of “CG Portrait” discs, one for each character in Virtua Fighter 2. These discs were essentially a multimedia chapter of an art book for the game that featured a series of CGi Renderings of the character and other elements mixed with photos displayed along with the characters theme song, and also a Karaoke version of that same theme song. The Virtua Fighter series has always had a bit of a sparseness to it beyond the central gameplay, so these acted as (slightly) more robust extras. However, at ¥1280 a piece (roughly $13 usd), and 10 retail releases its maybe expecting too big of a stretch from the fanbase. But hey, that was like 25 years ago, now you can just watch it on YouTube:
Lau Chan – Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol.6, uploaded by Game Archive
