VF feels more like a martial arts simcade than a traditional fantastical fighting game like Soul Calibur or even Tekken that's extra anime since 6.
Ironically, VF retained movement and defensive options while Tekken nerfed movement severly since 5 and added extra mechanics to mitigate defensive options, so if people bitching about Tekken had a small impetus to try VF they would be ecstasic to find out every pressure situation in VF has at least 2 escapes, the game is deeply complex with open/closed stances (if your character is facing the fore or background, it changes where you should sidestep and even the range of the attacks and that's just one layer)