Not as good as it should be.
For a technical point, the game is perfect. The graphics are top notch for this game and characters looks great too. Sure they look a little plastic but its very good for me. The music is also better than the last installement so the game had the potential to become a perfect fighting game.
So then, what's the bad thing about this one? Simply the lack of single player experience. The game feels incomplete in many ways. The arcamode mode feels useless beause there's no story, no cut scene, just nothing to reward you to complete this mode so, where's the point to play this mode? Also, the basic fighting games mode are not there (Survival, time attack etc)
So the only mode left for your single player experience is the Quest mode. Sure, this mode is good in some wars but it can be repetitive very quickly. You have to participate in many match to unlock new tournament, the only way to make cash so its very time consuming.
Another thing I dont like is the fact that the characters looks cold and uninspired due to the fact that the game doesnt have a single story line on it so except the character you will choose at the beginning of the game, you'll not use or even look at the other characters because its seems useless to master a new one.
In conclusion, Virtua Fighter 5 is a good game, but not a great game. The serious lack of single player mode and online will hurt the value of this game. Sure the combat is deep and tactical, but the reward the game gives you for your effort mastering a character is so little for the time you take to perform it. If you are searching for a good fighting game for the ps3, wait for Tekken Dark Resurrection and you will have the same experience for only 20$.