Lopedo's GVN SJ6 Interview

[lopedo]

Kay since I'm caught up after my 10 hour trip to the event I can now post something longer than two words. I won't bother linking the finals in this since they are everywhere, but I do encourage people to watch my post finals interview as I had (in my opinion) viable things to say. You can find that here >

The game, overall, is very solid. To be blunt, it makes fucking sense unlike DOA 4. Side stepping is a very good addition to the DOA series and it shined in my final match. A few concerning things happened such as low hold recovery, chain throws now being "just framable", and some pre release glitches which I'm sure are going to be fixed.

Finally, I'd like to thank Hubbs and Sorwah for organizing the event and letting everybody get hands on with DOA before and after the tournament. It was pretty awesome seeing all of the people I've known for years in person and playing some offline DOA.

Onward!

 

[Rikuto]

Absolutely nothing wrong with just-frame multi part throws Loopy. Just don't get hit by em, mine is like 24 frames for christs sake you had no trouble ducking the 17 frame ones in SCV lol.

And not everyone gets advantage on throw break either.

If you remove it, you're only helping the ninjas get more damage than they deserve

 

[Matt Ponton]

The jf throw breaks have been in the game since doa1

 

[Allan Paris]

The jf throw breaks have been in the game since doa1

Then they brought it back 10 fold in DOA5, I never got caught that many times by any character's chain throw in DOA4. Thinking about it Hatrify got Zacks chain throw off on me in some casuals, and he's never done that to me before.

So more stuff to think about when playing against a character that has them.

 

[lopedo]

I'm all for attackers advantage, especially when it comes to characters like Bayman who could never match a ninja in speed. BUT, either make the throws guaranteed in certain situations or give me a fair shot to break them. When it comes to DOA, the throw inputs are usually a direction and the throw button. In tournament play, nobody is going to time the throw incorrectly making the option to break it basically not existent.

Don't get hit by it is a valid argument but doesn't stand the test of time in fighters. If nobody "got hit by it" you would see perfect wins. I appreciate that the grab itself is slow but that doesn't change the fact that teasing a break, when there is a 99.99% chance its impossible to preform it, is silly.

 

[Berzerk!]

The game, overall, is very solid. To be blunt, it makes fucking sense unlike DOA 4. Side stepping is a very good addition to the DOA series and it shined in my final match. A few concerning things happened such as low hold recovery, chain throws now being "just framable", and some pre release glitches which I'm sure are going to be fixed.

Congratulations, and you spoke very well in the interview. I'm interested in more feedback and thoughts from the players who have been able to compete at a decent level.

We seem to still be fairly zeroed in on the main issues being:

CB not effective enough - should it be on 3rd or 4th hit?
Low hold - or holds in general, require additional ~5i recovery?
Unholdable stuns - effective enough?

Where do you (and people generally) stand on these issues?

 

[Matt Ponton]

I'm all for attackers advantage, especially when it comes to characters like Bayman who could never match a ninja in speed. BUT, either make the throws guaranteed in certain situations or give me a fair shot to break them. When it comes to DOA, the throw inputs are usually a direction and the throw button. In tournament play, nobody is going to time the throw incorrectly making the option to break it basically not existent.

Don't get hit by it is a valid argument but doesn't stand the test of time in fighters. If nobody "got hit by it" you would see perfect wins. I appreciate that the grab itself is slow but that doesn't change the fact that teasing a break, when there is a 99.99% chance its impossible to preform it, is silly.

You seem to be complaining about something that's been in the game since the beginning, and I haven't heard you complain about it before.

The reason the jf throws work is because the timing is open at the same time but if both players press the button on the same frame at the exact same time then advantage goes to the player who is throwing.

CB not effective enough - should it be on 3rd or 4th hit?
Low hold - or holds in general, require additional ~5i recovery?
Unholdable stuns - effective enough?

Where do you stand on these issues?

Overall it's good. One thing I brought up to Sean and I don't expect this to be fixed is that the property of having to be at 50% life AND only using Power Blow once a round is too much. Either choose one or the other.

 

[lopedo]

Thanks again.

CB- It does what it should do, and that is tell players who like to spam counters to learn to slow escape and block. In casuals, and in the tournament to an extent, power blows came in really handy. My character played a heavy stun game and naturally people try to counter it. With CB, you only have a few chances to do so. If a player doesn't catch my hesitation and slow escapes, they hold, and if they hold too much, they get punished for it.

Low hold- Make it like it was in the Alpha Demo, period. As I told Mr. Tom Lee, they can make a perfect game, but hold recovery, especially low hold recovery, can ruin it all. As for what it was in the build, its do-able, but could be better.

Unholdable stuns- Honestly, I didn't do many of those in the tournament but I did try it out in casuals for a little while. From what I saw every character has at least one, and they are effective. I'll analyze more on these as I come across them at Seasons Beatings when I get a chance to play again, or probably earlier since the game will be out by then.

@Sorwah- I know its been in the game, but 5 enforces it to an extreme that's never been done before in DOA.

 

[Berzerk!]

Overall it's good. One thing I brought up to Sean and I don't expect this to be fixed is that the property of having to be at 50% life AND only using Power Blow once a round is too much. Either choose one or the other.

Wow, I didn't realise it had TWO restrictions. I have to agree with your assessment. I think I'd much prefer they have it used as much as you like under 50% if its to be restricted at all. They aren't easy to land so I wouldn't be fussed if it was unrestricted, but no way should it have a hard limit of once only.

Nice to hear the positive feedback and that the key remaining concerns have been very consistently and politely delivered to the ears of Team Ninja. Those of us who want the game to be competitive, and to have pride in showing the game to players of other games, are certainly hoping for the hold recovery and solid guaranteed damage (unholdables and CB) to work well.

It's so good too see the community come together strongly, too, this is what we have to keep up. Can't wait to do the same locally when I get to showcase DOA5 here mid next week.

 

[lopedo]

Agreed on the Power Blow issue for the reasons stated above.

 

[Matt Ponton]

Personally I'd favor the one per round limit over the 50% limit. What I've noticed to happen at the 50% limit is that players become accustomed to just launching after the critical burst in the early part of the round, so much so that when they actually can do a powe blow they muscle react to doing a launcher anyways. Considering you can lose 50-70% off a PB post CB!, it would make sense as to why restricting it to only one would be the better option (for me).

As for the discussion about JF Combo Throws. You have to remember something as well, Bayman is now +3 on any combo throw break of his, so now Rikuto can decide to purposely let someone out of the throw just so he can stuff their attack with a 3P. You saw the other Bayman player doing this against Mystik where he was just letting her break the combo throw (there was one time she didn't even bother and so she just fell to the ground) to get the advantage.

That isn't the case for Bass and Tina. For each of their combo throws that are breakable, Bass is -10 and Tina is either -5 or -7 (I forget exactly about her). For them they HAVE to practice their timing of the combo throw because they are severely disadvantaged for getting it broken AND they played a huge risk in going for the throw to begin with. It's the sole reason Kasumi, Rig, and Jann Lee are currently Bass' worst match ups because he needs that pick-up and a stun for the pressure advantage but those three generally don't bother learning to block because they have no attack to fear from Bass.

 

[lopedo]

My point is that DOA combo throws are easy to execute and with the current system it is practically impossible to escape any of them.

 

[Matt Ponton]

My point is that DOA combo throws are easy to execute and with the current system it is practically impossible to escape any of them.

And you've had this issue with all versions of DOA?

 

[lopedo]

No. I'm not sure what they did with 5, but it is very prominent in the build we played at GVN.

They really put an emphasis on not allowing throws to be broken as easily, while the input to execute them remains as easy as it always has been.

 

[DyByHands]

I have a minor question for those who had hands on time with the game. Was the training mode available for you with this build? I think I seen it played around with, on one of the streams. But, can you do a PB whenever in training, or can you set your health to allow it?

 

[CyberEvil]

Power Blows for the win. I will sacrifice damage for my Shinkuu Hadouken every time.

I'm more into the idea of limiting it to just the 50% health, though, rather than the once per round limit. Power Blows are insanely high risk except in the two stages with ceilings and the characters that can take advantage. They're the DoA equivalent of SC's Unblockable attacks. I don't see the need to limit them to once per round, though I do understand where people are coming from on the other side of the fence.

I have a minor question for those who had hands on time with the game. Was the training mode available for you with this build? I think I seen it played around with, on one of the streams. But, can you do a PB whenever in training, or can you set your health to allow it?

Hoping someone posts before me since I'm on a tablet and don't want to double post (editing is...trickier on it), but training was available and yes you can do one whenever. You can just turn them on. There are a ton of settings in training, so much so that I was intially lost in all of the options. It's an incredible training mode.

 

[Matt Ponton]

No. I'm not sure what they did with 5, but it is very prominent in the build we played at GVN.

They really put an emphasis on not allowing throws to be broken as easily, while the input to execute them remains as easy as it always has been.

Placebo effect then. Rikuto is one of the people who have his DDT down pat and will only fail once every 10 times at best... unless he wants it broken. I've talked to them personally about making it easier for grapplers to continue their combo throws (keep in mind other characters had guaranteed combo throws that were totally inescapable regardless of the opponent's input timing), and was flat out refused that they prefer having the "first to press the button" window game.

It's the same system, only now you know for sure that the button press is awarded to the attacker if the defender and the attacker press the button at the same time, because it's the first time since DOA1 that the training mode was able to show this.

 

[DyByHands]

Ah, great. Thanks for the info CyberEvil. And, nope you got a double post

 

[CyberEvil]

Ah, great. Thanks for the info CyberEvil. And, nope you got a double post

You're welcome. Mr. Wah fixed it though so we're all good.

 

[lopedo]

While I still don't necessarily agree with the decision about the grapples, I can take it for what it is and work against it in anyway I can find.