Take any of my ratings of non-Smash fighting games with a grain of salt, as they're usually based off a single run or two through the arcade ladder and general surface impressions.

And here we start to step away from the purity of form that defined the first two Virtua Fighters. The arenas here are starting to become more varied, with minor things like steps, obstacles, and size making where you're fighting all the more important. I think this makes the moment-to-moment decisions more impactful, but it takes away from the heart to what draws me to the series in the first place. I don't necessarily dislike it, though, I just think it made the arcade ladder far less memorable, since it's now easier to cheese certain fights. Doesn't help that the arcade ladder is now mostly randomized, rather than being a predesigned series of fights. Characters no longer appear to serve specific roles in the singleplayer experience, outside Akira and Dural. I believe the rest of the series will follow this standard, so... too bad. Still a rock solid core, just a diluted experience compared to 1 and 2.

I don't really have enough experience with Aoi to comment on her. Taka-Arashi is super memorable for me for reasons completely unrelated to VF3, but I have some fondness for him - sumo is always a fun fighting style to see, and it certainly makes him different than other "big guys" Jeffry and Wolf.