#620 Virtua Fighter 1 Prototype Characters (4/4): Prototype Dural gameplay.

Channel:

AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on March 19, 2017 1:40:09 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_qBy21SaD0

Game:

Virtua Fighter (1993)

Duration: 5:43

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Gameplay of the prototype/unused version of Dural in Sega's Virtua Fighter 1.

These characters were discovered by the user Jed Hudson. You can find his channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkzcAMTCrFh_pEPJn3e4CbQ

We wrap up our return to VF1 with possibly the strangest discovery made by Hudson; one of the original designs for Dural. This prototype Dural has all of regular Dural's moves in tact. As you can see, at this point in development Dural was male, and had his very own unique design. His design is bulky, and he actually somewhat towers over the other characters in the game. It's pretty weird to see one of the most generic bosses in existence actually having a unique design. It's not exactly known why Dural was eventually so drastically altered. In the end, Sega opted for simply making her the default female model. I presumed they did this out of laziness, but it makes it all the more jarring that they create several designs for a more fleshed out Dural, yet ultimately went for a basic design.

Ultimately, I can see why they went that way. There had been a female fighting game boss by 1993, and the prototype version of Dural is remarkably close in concept to the boss Salamander from Konami's Martial Champion, who was also a generic, bulky boss who took his moves from every other character in the game. The Dural who know and love/hate to this day certainly worked out in the end, especially as graphics improved and they were able to define her more as her own individual character. Still, this is another odd reminder of what could have been, and it's extremely fascinating all the same. In a game so void of extras, these unused characters made for a welcome surprise.

That ends the curiosity that are the unused characters in VF1. Next up, Virtua Striker.

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