Free Step Dodge

I recently read a featured article on my personal favorite game developer website, Gamasutra, where TwitchTV employee Justin Kan discussed how they grew the company from its Justin.TV beginnings.

As an overview, he talks about the explosion of streams specifically designed to broadcast not only game competitions, but marathons as well. There is also talk about how some players have found some revenue in providing such streams, and how the developers can utilize streams to make effective marketing. For example, 8WayRun has been doing a 24/7 stream of the recently released Soul Calibur V game to provide more exposure to the game, its website, and the community all-in-one.

At the end of the article, Justin Kan writes about future SDKs provided that will allow streaming directly from a game - PC and console. It's certainly something I'd like to see utilized for Dead or Alive 5, especially if it's going after a...

Team NINJA head Yosuke Hayashi and Ninja Gaiden Director Fumihiko Yasuda were recently interviewed in the February issue of Nintendo Gamer magazine. It was a short interview but here are the two biggest answers out of it:

In answering a question about the Wii U in terms of difficulty in development, Fumihiko Yasuda responded the following:

Fumihiko Yasuda said:

“It’s very easy to develop for. We’re finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for the Xbox 360 and PS3. …They’ve asked us what we would like to see from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they’re definitely listening to it and making changes. The hardware is still constantly changing.

Click to expand...

The question on Dead or Alive 5's possible appearance on the Wii U was pitched to Yosuke Hayashi who actually took the time to answer:

Yosuke Hayashi said:

We’re thinking about all sorts of things. Right now, our Wii U development is focused just on Ninja Gaiden, but we’re definitely keeping...

Click to expand...

In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, four screens of the upcoming Dead or Alive 5 demo we haven't seen yet were displayed. In them you'll find what I think is Hitomi's win pose showing her all dirty, as well as three other screens of her vs Hayabusa and Hayate vs Ayane.

Page will be updated with higher resolution screens, should they appear.

Over here in the Dead or Alive community, many members think they're in a bubble - that everything that's "gone wrong" with this community, both from a casual and competitive standpoint, doesn't happen anywhere else. This is in part due to the size of the community and limited progression the community has had. However, those of us who have participated in the Fighting Game Community, branched into other games to competitively play, all while still holding a piece of ourselves to the Dead or Alive franchise, have known of the draws competitive play brings and how it turns out our community isn't much different from others. It's easy to think that you're the master of your domain, but not truly realize just how small your domain really is. The Dead or Alive community needs to grow, and the current form isn't able to sustain it - it hasn't been able to sustain it. I look forward to Dead or Alive 5's release, for if it's truly the competitive game Team NINJA wants it to be, then the...

New screens have been released today for Dead or Alive 5.

Most of you will probably notice that Ayane and Hitomi have lost some clothing in alternate outfits, and the breasts are back to their "traditional" sizes.

I'm not one to hate breasts, but they really do seem to detract from the rest of the pics. I honestly don't know who Hitomi is fighting as I can never focus my eyes on the opponent.

Personally, Ayane seems out of place in her DOA2U/4 ninja outfit. It appears out of place with the more realistic environments and character art.

What say you? Good or bad?

Team NINJA has announced that a demo of Dead or Alive 5 will be available via DLC from the Ninja Gaiden 3 packaging. There will be three separate demos available. The regular version of Ninja Gaiden 3 will contain either a demo of DOA5 with Hayate and Ayane playable, or Hayabusa and Hitomi playable. The collector's version of Ninja Gaiden 3 will contain a third demo that has all four characters playable, a NG3 figure, a NG3 artbook, and a NG3 soundtrack cd for the price of $100.

How the differring demos are dispersed depends on region:

North America will be receiving Ninja Gaiden 3 on March 20, 2012. Those who pre-order the title from Amazon will receive the Hayate and Ayane demo. Those who pre-order the title from GameStop will receive the Hayabusa and Hitomi demo. Those who pick up the Collector's Edition from GameStop will receive the All Character...

but it apparently is. It looks like Team NINJA has claimed on their twitter that they are implementing a sidestepping system that's similar to the North American beloved Dead or Alive 3.1 version. They also have mentioned on their twitter that Normal Holds will not hold Power Attacks, but "Expert" Holds (I still prefer the term Advanced Holds, personally) will. Most of the other posts can't be determined easily without an advanced translator - and Google Translator is far from advanced unfortunately. However, if you'd like to continue the discussion over the below twitter posts, head on over to the forums and participate in the speculation until Tecmo Koei posts the English translations.

[quote="Team NINJA...

According to the Tecmo Koei Europe Dead or Alive 5 page, the release date for Dead or Alive 5 is set for Winter 2012. At the time of posting, the date is still posted. Of course, most knowledgeable players will tell you that a fall/winter release was expected due to the timeline of announcing the title. So this is no surprise really, more of an affirmation. Still, I'm keeping the "Rumor:" tag up as it's not been confirmed in any way. I'm sure the release date will be announced with a more set in stone date as time goes by. For now, they need a placeholder for game stores to start taking pre-orders.

Yohei Shimbori was interviewed for a video in Games Radar. Nothing really new is said in the interview, but I just wanted to share a Shimbori article as they are so rare. For those that don't know, Shimbori is the director of the Dead or Alive franchise. He is one of the key figureheads for the game's design and flow. He joined Team NINJA shortly before the Dead or Alive 4 project began.

View the article here.

An interview with Hayashi has recently been posted on VentureBeat. In the article, Hayashi talks about the DOA5 and NG3 stories, DLC expectations, pushing the genre forward, and dealing with the idea of a crossover series with Tekken.

VentureBeat said:

Team Ninja studio head talks DLC costumes and Tekken vs. Dead or Alive
December 9, 2011 | Sebastian Haley

Team Ninja, an in-house development studio owned by Tecmo Koei, is best known for its work on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises. The last major entry in the Dead or Alive fighting game series, Dead or Alive 4, was released one month after the launch of the Xbox 360 in late 2005. Since then, Team Ninja has focused on ports, such as Dead or Alive Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS, Ninja...

Click to expand...

There's a lot of new buzz going around due to the recent Ninja Gaiden 3 and Dead or Alive 5 press event that happened yesterday in San Francisco, California. There's also been a lot of confusion on reports based on this new buzz. Unfortunately, Team NINJA stated they did not want high level players at this event to give their immediate feedback so we'll have to just try to decipher what all the reports are saying. However, GameSpot has put up a nice video talking about their impressions. The video can be found here, but below will be the list of features and gameplay changes made to the game mentioned in the video:

• The cliff feature has a QTE event that the one falling off can use to catch on and get back up.

• After catching the ledge, the attacking player has the option to either do an attack or a throw while the falling player gets back up. The attacker...

According to a recent quarterly analysis from Koei-Tecmo Global (Japan), Dead or Alive Dimensions has only managed to sell 310,000 copies in its lifetime. That's global numbers which include North America, Europe, Japan, and Asia.

The low number could be attributed to the weak sales of the Nintendo 3DS platform. A platform which has had trouble marketing itself to consumers.

Dead or Alive Dimensions released at the end of May. So the question remains, are you one of the 310,000 owners of the portable Dead or Alive? Do you still play your copy? or have you given up on your game and/or the Nintendo 3DS?

It's easy to be a fan of Dead or Alive if you're a fan of the fighting game genre. In that regard, it's nice to hear from other company developers and directors from time to time.

In a Capcom company interview with Yoshinori Ono (Director of Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken), Ono commented on the necessity of communication with your fans (and consumers) as well as a few other notable quotes:

Yoshinori Ono said:

- What’s the regional distribution of fans for this series like?
"Ono"
Generally, North America accounts for about 60%, Europe 30%, and Japan and Asia 10%.

- It seems that Street Fighter has been widely popular in North America for a number of years.

"Ono"
Part of this popularity stems from the past success of the series, but I think the major reason can be attributed to the strategy we...

Click to expand...

Here at FSD we can be found looking from inside the box at times. It's always refreshing to see other people who aren't a part of the immediate community to discuss how they interpret the footage and news we see. In that manner, The Fading Genres blog has posted an article breaking down his take on the Dead or Alive 5 trailer. Below is an excerpt, otherwise feel free to visit the original article here

The Fading Genres said:

Very impressive indeed, but here are my thoughts:

The Good

1) The attention to character detail is rather impressive. With such visuals, DOA5 will comfortably compete with and even surpass Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Soul Calibur 5 and Virtua...

Click to expand...

In a recent interview with GamePro Hayashi goes into a further discussion over his expectations of the style of DOA5, the current state of the fighting genre, and dealing with the forced change of the team due to Itagaki's departure. The first page was all Ninja Gaiden discussion with most of the second page about Dead or Alive.

GamePro said:

Team Ninja Next: Yosuke Hayashi's Vision for Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive
by Billy Berghammer
September 25, 2011 23:08 PM PT

As if switching up Ninja Gaiden wasn’t enough, Team Ninja’s venerable fighting franchise Dead or Alive is also looking to breaking new ground.

“With the boom that’s happened with fighting games in recent years – of course we’re happy that the genre is back and is as strong as it’s become. Especially after Street Fighter IV, things have really boomed again. But we...

Click to expand...

Hayashi discussed randomness in Dead or Alive 5 stage design during a NInja Gaiden 3 interview with G4TV. Basically, he says that the level of randomness hasn't been determined and will be decided as the game gets fleshed out more. In addition, he further attempts to clarify the DOA5 mission statement of "Fighting Entertainment". Full quote from the interview below:

G4 said:

G4: Team Ninja also announced that they are working on Dead or Alive 5. You’ve stated that the concept for the game is “fighting entertainment.” I can’t help but think that might carry a negative connotation to hardcore fighting game fans, however, who view a fighting game devised as “entertainment” to be lacking in skill and competitive qualities.

Hayashi: Yes, we do understand the term has a bit of a negative connotation. We’re sure some people will hear “fighting...

Click to expand...

Hayashi has given the definition to what Team NINJA means by "Fighting Entertainment" in a recent interview with Joystiq. Below is the full transcript:

Joystiq said:

Dead or Alive 5's 'fighting entertainment' means even crazier stages
by JC Fletcher on Sep 20th 2011 12:00PM

Team Ninja pulled an Apple-style "one more thing" at its pre-TGS party, announcing Dead or Alive 5 at the last minute and showing an early trailer. At that event, studio head Yosuke Hayashi called DOA 5 a "fighting entertainment" game, something distinct from other fighting games.

Later, in an interview at Tecmo's TGS booth, I asked Hayashi to clear up that terminology. The early generation of fighting games, around Street Fighter 2, he said, "had some of the most outrageous graphics, fun gameplay, and really a lot of stuff going on." He implied that, in comparison, modern fighting...

Click to expand...

In a recent interview with Impress Watch Itagaki responded to the announcement of Dead or Alive 5, or in other words he was told of its announcement. Itagaki is fine with his game being pushed on ahead, even going so far as to saying it's like having given a daughter off to be married.

Andriasang has translated as follows:

Andriasang said:

Separate from Devil's Third, Impress mentioned that Tecmo Koei had announced Dead or Alive 5 earlier in the week. Of course, Dead or Alive is Itagaki's baby. Asked for his impression, Itagaki said, "It was announced? I still haven't seen it myself, so I'm not in a position to comment."

Impress pressed further and asked if as the series' father it feels a bit odd to see the series be continued on without him. Itagaki replied that while there are some creators like that, he is different. He views Dead or Alive as...

Click to expand...

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:

Eurogamer.net said:

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...

Click to expand...

On September 14, 2011 Team Ninja has released the Pre-Alpha trailer for Dead or Alive 5. The trailer shows off a dangerzone filled construction yard rooftop with Hayate and Hayabusa dueling it out. It should be expected that many of the attacks and motions are from Dead or Alive 4 as pre-alpha builds tend to carry over a lot from the previous version as other system mechanics are ironed out and developed. At the same time it should be warned that anything shown during the trailer could be changed once the final build arrives.

Team NINJA has set out to claim the game as "fighting entertainment", and honestly it makes me feel that the series has returned to the DOA3 style of grittiness that I personally have enjoyed. There's not much core gameplay information to be found at this time as it appears at first glance to be a consolized Dead or Alive Dimensions. I only caught two new...

Dead or Alive Dimensions has been nominated for a Golden Joystick Award in the Fighting Game Category. If you enjoyed the game and feel its worth voting for, head on over to the site to cast your vote.

It's competition consists of the following titles:

• Arcana Heart 3

• Blazblue: Continuum Shift

• EA Sports: MMA

• Fight Night Champion

• Marvel vs Capcom 3

• Mortal Kombat (9)

• Super Street Fighter IV (3DS)

• Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

• WWE: Smackdown vs RAW 2011