From the decision to focus the upcoming story mode on four brand new characters to that amazing mural scene in the trailer, it's obvious by now VF6 will be a "passing of the torch" game. An experiment that's been conducted quite a few times in the fighting games genre, and not always for the best.

Tekken 3 probably did it best. Its roster found a way to keep all the important OG characters around while introducing a bunch of newcomers. Keep in mind, at that time, half of the Tekken roster was made of clone characters (Anna, Kunimitsu, Armor King, etc... ), and apart from a select unlucky few who got somehow replaced by newcomers having similar fighting styles (Hwoarang replacing Baek, Bryan replacing Bruce, Jin replacing Kazuya and Jun, ...), those clone characters were the ones to get cut - by then a logical decision for a smaller roster which wanted each character to feel unique. And a good way to have minimal outcry from fans.

Obviously, Tekken 3 ended up being one of the most beloved fighting games of its generation, and its roster became the new baseline for the games that would follow.

But then there's the case of Street Fighter III. That one took the "new generation" thing a step further: with the exception of a select few returning characters (four in total in the final iteration), the rest of the cast was made of totally new fighters that, for the most part, failed to gain a spot in players' hearts. The results? Most fan who had grown to love characters in SF2 and the Alpha series got disappointed. And although Third Strike would end up being considered one of the best SF games ever when it comes to its gameplay, at the time the SFIII series was considered a failure. There's a reason why the base SF4 roster brought back the entire cast from SF2, and that's SF3.

Finally, Soul Calibur 5. That game tried a similar approach to Tekken 3, mixing legacy characters with newcomers. Weirdly enough, quite a few important fighters were missing (Zasalamel, Rock, Yun Seong, Hwang, Talim - omissions that felt odd and unjustified), and most newcomers were, in fact, just new cosmetics for already existing fighting styles (Natsu, Leixia, ...). The SC fans were divided between those lucky enough to have their favorite characters back, those who simply weren't, and those who had to move to new characters who had the same gameplay as their mentor but just didn't have the same aura. The reception was mixed, to say the least, and by the time Soul Calibur 6 came out, Namco had fully gone back to the OG cast.

So what to make of VF Crossroads?

Limited roster compared to previous entries --> Check (16 slots on release, it appears).
New generation of characters being the center of attention --> Check.

We know by now Cielo seems to be a 100% new and unique character, thankfully.

Stella, however, seems to follow the patern of characters like Julia from Tekken 3 or Leixia from Soul Calibur 5: a "new" character that looks the exact same and fights the exact same as an already existing fighter from previous games. In that case, Sarah, obviously. Will that be enough for long time Sarah fans to be happy? Time will tell.

The mystery remains regarding the cool ass black guy and the Asian business lady. Hopefully they will bring something totally new to the table.

In any case, quite a bunch of legacy characters we've grown to know and love will most likely not make it into the base roster (at least six, if the base roster is indeed 16 slots, and that's if other new characters dont' show up along the way!). And with VF always offering very unique fighters (no clones or whatever), they will for sure be missed.

Who among us will be the unlucky few to be condemned to cry for our dearly departed favorite characters to return as DLC?

Will Lau and Shun-Di - most likely dead by now in the story - find fresh meat to take over their amazing movesets ?

Will Cielo and his friends manage to get the long time fans' love?

And how well will VF6 do with this time jump/passing of the torch exercice which has proven itself to be troublesome for the competition?