Is it all about the fighting style?

I know what you mean as far as the stick., It took me a long, long, long time b4 I was able to do the same things with a stick that I could do with the controller, but once I conditioned myself to use the stick, then the moves that required lots of d-pad action on the crontroller were much easier on the stick. My main problem with the stick was I could not use it in my lap, I had to find a portable table that was just the right height and size, one that I could take to tournaments, and over friend's house easily, etc.

In all honesty, since VF is made to play with a stick (Arcades)
some moves, will just be a little more difficult to pull off with the PS3 controller, some moves might be next to impossible because the D-pad just doesn't have the same action as the stick.

 

True, even after I adjusted the triggers for shortcut K+G, I couldnt for life execute Akira 1 frame knee in actual match. That and combos which need standing double palm (big part for max damage combo) is what really hurts my game plan. Although I found a way to slide effieciently (without killing my thumb) to perform it, it is kinda hard.

Overall, playing Akira without a stick hurts, sore thumbs is certain

Either way, I dont have tourney scene at all due to some problems here, and even if there is one, it wont involve Virtua Fighter .

 

Even if you aren't going to do tourneys in VF (but you never know, a new console release could change everything[/size]), it is still worth while trying to learn the stick.

Lei Fei is my fighter, but I couldn't learn the stick with him, because I felt so frustrated whenever I tried to use the stick, I could always do so much better with the controller, and my reflexes were trained so much with the controller and Lei Fei, that the stick just seemed a waste of time.

I had to pick another character, that I never used before, which was Lau, and therefore there was no muscle memory to worry about. Also since I never used Lau, I didn't feel like I was going backward. So I really used Lau to learn to play the Stick, and then when I could get through quest mode on the highest difficulty without losing, I learned the stick with Lei Fei. Like I said it took a long time, but now I'm glad I did it. You get more out of the game mechanics with the stick in the long run. You can play at the highest levels with a controller, but you'll enjoy the highest levels more with the stick (IMO).