Characters' eyes appeared to track the opponent's position, their muscles could flex and relax, and the fighting arenas featured stairs and slopes.

If the viewpoint changes rapidly during gameplay, the player can't concentrate on the game, and it's difficult to keep up with the situation your character is in, as in [Battle Arena Toshinden].

Sega displayed non-playable demos of Lau Chan, Dural, and new character Aoi Umenokoji, who was unveiled for the first time at the show.

[14] During the game's beta testing at the Sega Joyopolis Arcade in Tokyo, players waited in line six to eight hours for one round of combat.

[20] Staff from Core Design claimed to have seen the completed 3D accelerator cartridge in action during an early 1997 visit to Sega of Japan, running a demo of the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 3 with two playable characters.

[46] In North America, Virtua Fighter 3 had a successful launch in September 1996, drawing large crowds at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show, where it was the most anticipated game.

He said that both the graphics and the combat innovations fully lived up to the high expectations for the Model 3 board, though he was somewhat disappointed that the game did not significantly diverge from the style of Virtua Fighter 2.

[30] Bruised Lee of GamePro considered this a critical problem, summarizing that "VF3's graphics showcase an awesome level of visual realism never before seen in any game, but too many recycled Virtua Fighter 2 features keep VF3 from being a true masterpiece."

"[34] AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss reviewed the arcade version and scored it 4.5 out of 5 stars, concluding that it is a "deep game with a cinematic look and virtually limitless replay value".

Edge reviewed the Dreamcast version and gave it an 8/10, stating "Bouts take place atop sloping downtown rooftops and on flights of steps, in the lapping waters of a desert island and on the Great Wall of China...But Virtua Fighter has grown into a highly technical game since the inception of the series in 1993, resulting in the uneven floors of the third game affecting the movement and attacks of the characters...Where once Tekken's approachable 'one button for each limb' system seemed the way forward for the genre, it limits interaction in a true three-dimensional space.

VF's alternative, with buttons for punch, kick, defend and dodge, while perhaps not offering the same scope for multiple attack movements, allows you to control the characters with unrivalled grace.

"[29] GameSpot's James Mielke praised the Dreamcast version, awarding it 8.2/10, saying "Virtua Fighter fans will find all they need neatly wrapped in this package".

[55] Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the Dreamcast version of Virtua Fighter 3tb for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated: "A peek beneath the exterior shows that it's still got all the right moves – the question is, will you look?

[57] The arcade release of 3tb would see a resurgence beginning in the mid-2010s, when Japanese game centers a-cho and Mikado began hosting new weekly tournaments.

As of 2020, 3tb is widely played competitively in Japanese game centers, with a large number of weekly, monthly and yearly events coordinated by an informal organisation of players.