Virtua Fighter rocks, but it's not good enough to top Soul Calibur yet. And in my books, it still get's beat by Tekken.
But this game is still very VERY good. It's just SC was PERFECT and I'm a hardcore Tekken fan. That aside, this game does many MANY things right. The graphics shine, although some of the PS2's technical boundaries do become apparant, it's not noticeable unless you stare at the screen (Or when 2 friends play non stop and you have to watch). The fighting engtine is great and once you master countering, you can take your cocky little firends to school.
This is a great game and worthy of purchase, but if you have a choice for only 1 fighting game, wait for Tekken. But that's only my opinion.