Which ones came back and left?
I remember Ryujin and Silent Legend coming back, even telling Shimbori and Peter at the launch party that this is the best they have done a really good job on the game and it's some of their best work.
Something Unique even came back after disappearing even half-way through DOA2U, and he currently is in flux over his character changes but even when he says he's done with the game he still comes online to play it.
Let's be serious here for a second. Dead or Alive 5 is a good entry in the series. Team NINJA made a game that they wanted to make, listened to a LOT of feedback when previously they would listen to 0% of it. Specifically, they returned natural combos, wall hits no longer allowing holds after being hit into them, you can't hold or stagger escape out of guard breaks, active frames of holds have been decreased and recovery increased even more so in stun, you still have guaranteed combos and juggles, normal hit launch height has been increased - not to the levels of DOA2/3 but enough to get at least a small juggle in, if you want to be greedy and get an even higher juggle then you can risk playing the stun game, a sidestep system has been officially added instead of just the free step system and even has moves that are free step-able that aren't side step-able, damage on holds has been on the average decreased while providing more options to hold with advanced holds, some abusive holds such as the izuna drop have been made advanced holds due to the reward they receive, and that's just the system changes off the top of my head. We're not even talking about the casual things such as separating the ranked and non-ranked options.
In my opinion, DOA5 is up there for me with DOA3.1. I can't say it's better or worse because the game hasn't even been out for a year yet. DOA3.1's game changed after a few years.
Your problem right now is that you haven't been able to adapt to your character in the game. She's been changed to a single strike or throw mix-up character instead of a string-based DOA4 stun game character. Yes, you lost your 6H+P 46P guaranteed combo, but she's the queen of whiff punishing and knocking into the walls. Yes, Bass doesn't play like his DOA3 counterpart, but I've been able to delve in and find some other way to fuck people's shit up. It required me to not look at the face value of the game and say "This isn't DOA3! ARGH! THIS GAME SUCKS! *throws controller at the wall*" but actually learn the system that was present and how my character fit in it.
So please, stop. Just. Stop. Your local community is especially not going to grow if you're constantly screaming at people that "THIS GAME FUCKING SUCKS!". Up here in the Maryland local scene I've only had maybe 4 people join up, but that's 4 people more than there were 4 years ago. It takes time, dedication, and patience. Bitching and moaning will not help you here. Meanwhile, the tournament numbers of the North East Coast have increased each major tournament, and Massachusetts has grown a nice scene that has shown some serious promise. The entire scene also traveled down together to NEC and got to show its muscle.
Again, get serious people and don't expect Team NINJA to baby feed you your own damn scene. They don't require the scene to be there because they're making more money off the non-competitive scene, and they've made it this far without it. Dead or Alive 5 is a far far far better game than Dead or Alive 4, and you should sit down, shut up, play it, and see what it has to offer as it ages.
