I can completely understand where you're coming from here and I can sort of agree. As negative as we come off, it's because we're usually discussing the items we have issue with because we feel these items need attention. We don't really focus on the positives of the game that make us like the game. I can see how a listener might be under the impression that we hate DOA despite Mr. Wah running this site, my running the podcast and everyone contributing here. I'll keep that in mind for future episodes and, while I don't expect our negatives to go away, we'll try and talk about the positives as well.However I feel the podcast is being unfairly harsh on Mr Itagaki
Rikuto brought this up on the show, after reading my mind, but we're all a little puzzled by the disconnect in the difficulties between his games. So you're right, he's likely not the single person to blame but since he was the face of Team Ninja, he's the only one we can really point the finger at.DOA1, ++,2,3,3.1: Even though the authors of this podcast love to treat DOA pre-DOA4 as some sort of fluke that just happened despite DOA, it would really REALLY be disingenuous to assume that itagaki would be so hands-off as to not understand how his games were being played. These games were all incredibly hardcore and required practice and learning to master, unlike games such as soulcalibur or even tekken which had high levels of accesibility right from the beginning (even though they do stand up well to tournament play)
So, with this kind of track record, does it make sense that this guy who apparently likes hardcore games would suddenly dumb down a game because HE was a scrub?
Agreed and what we do is just basically speculate based on what we know.However your guess is as good as mine because nothing concrete has been said, all we have are facts and the man's track record, and despite the proofs you gave to bezerk earlier on which are basically related to his personality and quotes, you have to agree that his prior work and the work he is known for would be a better barometer of his tendencies.
It could potentially be enough time but not without the intervention of people who are extremely knowledgeable of the game. Rikuto also stated that it's easier to break something than to fix it on the show specifically in regards to this topic and that's a very good point. It would take a lot more time to fix things and reevaluate on whether or not they work now than to just makes changes without real concern for how they work. Rikuto also made a similar comment in regards to Shimbori and DOA Dimensions and how the whole throw system was handled there.* 1 year is enough time to fix the problems of DOA5. You yourself say DOA4 was ruined in a few months prior to launch. Remember that there is still the strong base of DOA3.1 to work from. Fighting games do not change drastically when this mature.
DOA3.1 was a strong base, agreed, and DOA4 was looking very promising prior to its release. There was just such a large disconnect between what we saw and what we got that it hurt the community that much more. There was a point in DOA4's development that Team Ninja basically went on a media blackout and no new info came out. That's the month or two when Itagaki went to "fix" the game as to how he see fit and gave us the game that we got.
I really appreciate your comments and I'm glad you like the show as much as you do. It really lifts my spirits to hear that from a new listener. Thank you.If you got this far, I salute you once more, and congratulate you on aquiring one more devoted follower of your content. Peace