Hayashi: "[DOA5 is] trying to push the envelope for fighting games"

Eurogamer.net has given the first interview of Dead or Alive 5 with Team NINJA director Yosuke Hayashi. In it, Hayashi emphasizes that other fighting games have done nothing to advance the genre for the past 10 years, and Team NINJA is looking to make Dead or Alive 5 more about the stage design and take you into dynamic levels.

Head on over to Eurogamer to see the original article, but below is a copy incase Eurogamer ever closes the article:

Dead or Alive 5 to "push the envelope"
by Fred Dutton

16/09/2011 @ 07:25
The fighting genre has lacked innovation in recent years, according to Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi, but its just-announced scrapper Dead or Alive 5 will be the game to push things forward.

Speaking to Eurogamer backstage at Tokyo Game Show today, Hayashi argued that though the likes of Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 looked spectacular, they hadn't offered fight fans anything new in terms of gameplay.

"Of course there have been some great fighting games that have come out and the genre has really exploded in the years since Dead or Alive 4," he said.

"But when we were looking at those games we felt that there was something missing. They definitely looked great and they played well, but they were still the same sort of fighting game from 10 years ago.

"When we were looking at what to do with Dead or Alive, we want to make sure it provides something else, something different and moves the genre forward. It's not going backwards, it's trying to push the envelope for fighting games."

Hayashi didn't offer much in the way of concrete details on how the game, which is due out some time next year, intends to reinvent the wheel, but suggested we can expect a greater focus on the series' trademark destructive environmental events.

"We wanted to bring that into the modern gameplay and update that into modern action elements. Now you're able to focus on different ares of where you want to launch your opponent and we have several different sorts of dynamic attractions in the stage so that players can enjoy that sort of aspect even more."

Team Ninja revealed a relatively classy piece of concept art during the announcement event earlier this week, which you can see below. Could this be a hint that it's dialing back the series' notorious boob fixation?

"That image encapsulates the kind of sensuality and the kind of beauty we're looking to incorporate into Dead or Alive 5," he explained.

"So, guys who just look at chick's boobs... c'mon, there's more to women and more to beauty than just boobs, so we want to take a little more adult approach to how to make women beautiful."

 

Exploding walls.

 

I would take Hayashi-san's statements with a grain of salt. I'm not expecting huge gameplay changes despite what was said, or will be said. Being the face and leader of Team Ninja, he's just stirring up hype for the game. Interview statements on consumer gaming website's like Eurogamer and not say, an intuitive dev source such as a gamedeveloper magazine, should be treated as such.

This is self-evident of all pre-release 'producer interview talk' for any game, per palpable M.O.'s for others in the same position: Ono-san Street Fighter/Harada-san Tekken/Daishi-san Soulcalibur/Itagaki-san DOA(#) > DOAD.

Also, interesting tidbit about the 'make women beautiful in an adult way'. Good bye floppy boob physics? I love the series either way.

They don't really understand what's wrong with the game, so I believe that criticizing the gameplay this early in the development cycle could have nothing but good effects. Take the Dimensions play-test for example: they invited a few DOA "pros" to Japan to test the game, right? Except it was a month before release and, even if they wanted to, they couldn't push for significant changes. That's why pushing Team Ninja early in development is so important.

Judging by the timeframe and even the way it was portrayed in the media; I think that was just a(n obvious) publicity stunt for the game. I can honestly say that based on the lack of months-worth, legitimate playtests in arcade settings for the past few games (something of which many serious fighters do before console releases- Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, hell even Blazblue), community feedback in regards to dramatic system changes is inadmissible. If they're like any other fighting game developer, they're going to develop the system as they see fit, and only turn to the community for balancing issues.

That said, depending on how much profit DOA5 accrues will most likely be consequential validation on whether a 'significant' system change will be implemented, but *only* on a future installment (i.e. if DOA5 -assuming it sells as it's pre-alpha state- doesn't sell well, expect changes in DOA6).

 

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Bouncy Exploding Walls?

 

So happy i found this site (not ok with DOAW and DOAC) This is awesome, thank you for making this site, and posting this interview up!!

Also regarding the interview; you have to admit he is telling the truth regarding those games, And also notice he does not mentions SC! Team Ninja has often said that they are not impressed by other fighting games (Tekken, SF) But they have always respected SoulCalibur. If you think about it, SC with its side step and DOA with its interactive environments are really the only fighting games to offer something different! To this day both Tekken and SF use the same formulas they did 20 years ago.. You have to admit he is speaking the truth...

 

No problem on my part

 

But they have always respected SoulCalibur. If you think about it, SC with its side step and DOA with its interactive environments are really the only fighting games to offer something different!

I wouldn't be surprised if there will be some type of collaboration between the two in the distant future, haha. Virtua Fighter and Soulcalibur are most likely the top candidates for cross-overs. Tekken was pretty high up there as well, but that got thrown out with Tekken X Street Fighter.

 

VF and DOA have the highest chances of a crossover still, the control schemes are a perfect match.

Tekken X DOA is the hardest as Tekken has 4 strike buttons and DOA only has 2.

 

Soul Calibur would be a difficult cross over for any other 3D fighter as well. One of its issues (it's honestly a benefit) is that it uses weapons for zoning and attacking. No other 3D fighter really utilizes zoning as well and are all fist fighting. Although, we would probably finally get a chance to see Kasumi or Hayate use their weapons.

 

In an age where DOA has a spartan and soul calibur has yoda, anything is possible...

As long as they stop giving Kratos guest character placement, I'm getting tired of him.

 

In an age where DOA has a spartan and soul calibur has yoda, anything is possible...

As long as they stop giving Kratos guest character placement, I'm getting tired of him.

Right lol - I do however can imagine RYU being transported to the past to Guest start IN SC and Maybe Taki somehow making her way to DOA I don't know - I just love this two games, and if they did cross over im pretty sure my brain would explode from happiness, so maybe it's best they don't!