Hayashi: Thoughts on the DOA5 Demo and the Fighting Game Community

Hayashi was recently interviewed by Gamereactor for primarily Ninja Gaiden 3 information. However, Hayashi also answered questions about Dead or Alive 5. Specifically, the sex appeal, the alpha demo releasing with Ninja Gaiden 3, receiving community feedback, and the fighting game resurgence and its relation to Team NINJA. A transcript is posted below, but if you'd like to listen yourself just jump over to the interview and start listening at 5:30.

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Yosuke Hayashi: If you look at sex for example, the Dead or Alive girls have always been known for that. So... okay let me ask you one thing right now: When you look at this concept of sex, when you go and meet a woman, do you go and look at her breasts - do you judge a woman by her breasts? You don't, that's just rude and disgusting. What we really want to do in [Dead or Alive 5], especially because our female characters have been such a huge symbol of the series, what we want to do is redefine that. What we want to do is make a woman who really moves a man's heart. When a man looks at a woman, when he looks at her posture, her manners, when he hears her voice, it's everything that makes up a beautiful woman that can really kind of emotionally move a man. That is something that we are really trying to put into Dead or Alive 5 and portray our female characters like that, something that's not superficial really. ... We're giving the series a much more deep and emotional connection than we have up to now, and we really want to give meaning to what we're doing right now at Team NINJA. It's a huge kind of movement toward the future right now.

Gamereactor: So with Ninja Gaiden 3, there's a demo of Dead or Alive 5 and that seems really early to put out a demo. So are you interested in hearing the feedback from players with the demo?

Yosuke Hayashi:
Yes, it is much earlier than you would release a demo, but the reason we released the demo is, as you said, to get feedback from gamers. I think the fighting games are made with the interaction of development and the core kind of fighting game fan. I think that the more feedback we get then the more we can adjust the system - we can adjust the system to make the game much better. With this demo we are putting into Ninja Gaiden 3, we're really excited to hear what fans and gamers really have to say about the new concept and the new direction. So we're really eager to just put the demo in and hear as much comments from fans and gamers out there, and we're really excited to see how we can fit that in while moving forward with development.

Gamereactor: So it's actually been seven years when Dead or Alive 5 comes out since Dead or Alive 4. How do you feel that the fighting genre has evolved in that time, and where do you think you could advance it with Dead or Alive 5?

Yosuke Hayashi:
Well first of all, the evolution of fighting games within the seven years we've been away since [Dead or Alive 4], I think that the biggest evolution was made when Street Fighter IV came out. That was the father of fighting games. I think Street Fighter and bringing it back this generation, redefining the game that way, kind of making it look like it looks and giving it online has obviously made a huge impact on the fighting game genre. I think it's because Street Fighter really redefined or brought back that Fighting Game boom that I think it's given us really an opportunity to look back on ourselves and make Dead or Alive 5.

So we're really grateful for that, but if you look at fighting games right now obviously online has been one of the biggest drivers to kind of create this massive community. Obviously this generation's hardware has made it look very good. Even still, if you look at 2D fighting games, it's a very static thing: You have a backdrop with fighters fighting in one line. Even 3D fighters you have some backdrops but they don't really do much and just sit there and maybe move around a bit - you have your ring outs. So it's a very kind of static experience. What we really want to do with Dead or Alive 5 is kind of push that formula of actually fighting and interacting with stages to kind of blend those in to create a holistic fighting experience. What we want to call this is our concept of Fighting Entertainment. We don't really want to use this Fighting Game term anymore, because through this Fighting Entertainment what we really want to do is blend the fight and really kind of make it interactive with the stage and what is really going on. For example, let's say you punch and kick your opponent into a certain part of the stage, and the stage is going to start falling apart, cars are going to fly, or metal girders are going to go everywhere. It's just going to be chaos. It's something like a climax scene in a Hollywood movie, so you can imagine it in that way. It's really trying to push that interaction of a fighting game to a brand new level, and we really want to define what fighting games look like in the future. At the same time obviously, being Dead or Alive, we really want to keep integrated that hardcore fighting game system that hardcore gamers can get into. So adding a brand new dimension to an already excellent fighting game system that is really going to define what the fighting game genre looks like in the future. We're really confident and excited about Dead or Alive 5 as well.

Source: Gamereactor
 
A record function would help, too... I don't remember off the top if that was ever in DOA...

I do think a tutorial of sorts would help people understand the game more, and make them less inclined to mashing...

It's always great to have frame data... But honestly, what good would frame data do if everything is negative???
 
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