Koei Tecmo has a lot going on despite there being little to no Dead or Alive or NINJA Gaiden news available -- releases are continuing to flow from the company and Team NINJA appears to be hard at work with Rise of the Ronin while also continuing to fine-tune Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty to masocore perfection.
We'll kick off this business story with facts and the facts are Gust's Atelier franchise has been doing its best numbers ever with the Ryza saga selling over two million copies, and Ryza now has an anime to boot and a near perfect remake of Atelier Marie just recently released; the first game in the franchise released over two decades ago. If you are now just getting into this series 2023 is the best time to start with the original package and Gust's best works to date.
With Koei Tecmo now entering the anime business alongside Liden Films, maybe it's time we see or at least request Dead or Alive also get an anime of its own. While a Well-Known DOA community member has been working on a non-official anime, perhaps Koei Tecmo will work with the artist or come up with a plan to bolster the popularity of their most popular franchise through other means of media outside of the games.
The animation level of Atelier Ryza is visually pleasing, stimulating, and follows the Ryza titles perfectly through environments, atmosphere and personality of the characters. I imagine that if the day were to ever come the Dead or Alive anime would be a vibrant production with the staff studying the games closely, so it translates well to the anime. You can watch Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout on Crunchyroll for free, but the latest episode will require a premium subscription.
Koei Tecmo's Gust has also released the second Atelier title this year with Marie Remake. Once again, it's very refreshing to get a niche turned-based RPG for a second time this year. This game will take you back to the past and either cause you to double-shot your espresso or with the new unlimited days mode you can relax and play the game very slice-of-life. On our working progress scale for reviewing games this title would get 4 stars and is an easy recommendation.
The series actually makes me think of Dead or Alive because it seems like they are in the same boat. These are both very good game series that get swept under the rug and are underappreciated by the average gamer just because they are not as popular as Final Fantasy or Tekken. It's always been both a blessing and a curse to be dedicated to franchises that you must fight for to see succeed, but I personally wouldn't have it any other way as I'm always looking for a way to project my voice and 'defend & promote' the underdog.
With these types of numbers and Koei Tecmo's faith applied it makes sense to me that Dead or Alive is not a dead franchise, but coming up with fighting game innovations takes years and this needs to be something that is understood by the younger fighters in this community that have yet to experience a draught like from DOA4-DOA5.
Koei Tecmo plans to end their Q3 with Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening & Fate/Samurai Remnant. With Q4 it's hard to tell if there will be anything announced or put into play for holiday releases outside of Wo Long DLC, but rumor has it that 'Tokyo Game Show' will be the biggest it has ever been, so there is a lot of hope just waiting to be crushed leading up to those fateful days that fill out the remainder of our year and next year's plans.
Speaking of Wo Long; it's been hard to write an official review for this on a community-based level because the game gets better every other week and with each and every patch it becomes more and more refined. The latest DLC: Battle of Zhongyuan adds to the level of completeness. You get more of just about everything, you get additional gameplay including: two times the tomes, weapons, armor and extra challenging fights that make this one of the more memorable games of 2023 so far.
As far as the future of the DOA franchise: it's clearly not dead with no chance of return as made evident by Team NINJA's slides at their last G-Note press conference, but we need to give them time to finish Rise of the Ronin. A seven-year project with Sony Entertainment. This must end for us to get to the next chapter of whether or not another DOA is coming or not. That release date is the date for fans to make their case and make their plea.
Don't sleep on Rise of the Ronin if you own a PS5. This is by far Team NINJA's biggest budget title yet. Ronin is open world, with hints of Ghosts and Assassin's Creed with Team NINJA signatures. You can romance characters; stories will be inscribed in the detailed world environment and the gameplay animation is some of the best work we've seen out of Team NINJA in a while. Team NINJA is trying to make history with this title and if you are a fan of their work you don't want to miss it.
We'll kick off this business story with facts and the facts are Gust's Atelier franchise has been doing its best numbers ever with the Ryza saga selling over two million copies, and Ryza now has an anime to boot and a near perfect remake of Atelier Marie just recently released; the first game in the franchise released over two decades ago. If you are now just getting into this series 2023 is the best time to start with the original package and Gust's best works to date.
With Koei Tecmo now entering the anime business alongside Liden Films, maybe it's time we see or at least request Dead or Alive also get an anime of its own. While a Well-Known DOA community member has been working on a non-official anime, perhaps Koei Tecmo will work with the artist or come up with a plan to bolster the popularity of their most popular franchise through other means of media outside of the games.
DEAD OR ALIVE : the animation_ alpha test
/// introduction /// I introduce myself, Axel Massa AKA axouel2009, I was lucky to have two designs integrated into doa so far. Fan of doa since I was 5 years old, I have the chance today to evolve in the world of video games and animated films as a professional concept artist. I've been...
www.freestepdodge.com
The animation level of Atelier Ryza is visually pleasing, stimulating, and follows the Ryza titles perfectly through environments, atmosphere and personality of the characters. I imagine that if the day were to ever come the Dead or Alive anime would be a vibrant production with the staff studying the games closely, so it translates well to the anime. You can watch Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout on Crunchyroll for free, but the latest episode will require a premium subscription.
Koei Tecmo's Gust has also released the second Atelier title this year with Marie Remake. Once again, it's very refreshing to get a niche turned-based RPG for a second time this year. This game will take you back to the past and either cause you to double-shot your espresso or with the new unlimited days mode you can relax and play the game very slice-of-life. On our working progress scale for reviewing games this title would get 4 stars and is an easy recommendation.
The series actually makes me think of Dead or Alive because it seems like they are in the same boat. These are both very good game series that get swept under the rug and are underappreciated by the average gamer just because they are not as popular as Final Fantasy or Tekken. It's always been both a blessing and a curse to be dedicated to franchises that you must fight for to see succeed, but I personally wouldn't have it any other way as I'm always looking for a way to project my voice and 'defend & promote' the underdog.
With these types of numbers and Koei Tecmo's faith applied it makes sense to me that Dead or Alive is not a dead franchise, but coming up with fighting game innovations takes years and this needs to be something that is understood by the younger fighters in this community that have yet to experience a draught like from DOA4-DOA5.
Koei Tecmo plans to end their Q3 with Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening & Fate/Samurai Remnant. With Q4 it's hard to tell if there will be anything announced or put into play for holiday releases outside of Wo Long DLC, but rumor has it that 'Tokyo Game Show' will be the biggest it has ever been, so there is a lot of hope just waiting to be crushed leading up to those fateful days that fill out the remainder of our year and next year's plans.
Speaking of Wo Long; it's been hard to write an official review for this on a community-based level because the game gets better every other week and with each and every patch it becomes more and more refined. The latest DLC: Battle of Zhongyuan adds to the level of completeness. You get more of just about everything, you get additional gameplay including: two times the tomes, weapons, armor and extra challenging fights that make this one of the more memorable games of 2023 so far.
As far as the future of the DOA franchise: it's clearly not dead with no chance of return as made evident by Team NINJA's slides at their last G-Note press conference, but we need to give them time to finish Rise of the Ronin. A seven-year project with Sony Entertainment. This must end for us to get to the next chapter of whether or not another DOA is coming or not. That release date is the date for fans to make their case and make their plea.
Don't sleep on Rise of the Ronin if you own a PS5. This is by far Team NINJA's biggest budget title yet. Ronin is open world, with hints of Ghosts and Assassin's Creed with Team NINJA signatures. You can romance characters; stories will be inscribed in the detailed world environment and the gameplay animation is some of the best work we've seen out of Team NINJA in a while. Team NINJA is trying to make history with this title and if you are a fan of their work you don't want to miss it.
