Free Step Dodge

I say this cause while it grinds my gears when I watch DOA players just whoof whole strings like mad and there's no attempt from the opposition to punsh the whiff, I can't even get mad because there is literally 0 incentive to do so, most moves on NH don't lead to significant plus states and the ones that do don't tend to lead to big dmg or oki (unless ur playing stun monsters like Nyo or Rachel), so why bother?

I feel like this is something that should be addressed, but then again most of DOA's big dmg and stun being locked behind CH states is part of the balance and appeal, and switching that up could lead to unforseen consequences, like I don't need this game to be TT2 where 1 whiff leads to 70% combos into oki, but there should be SOME punishment for whiffing...

If the gameplay is online, it's because you can't react to anything on reaction in a DOA game. In general though, the aim in DOA is to get your offense started through stuns. Hitting a NH stun on a whiffed move is an example of DOA's whiff punishment. It's not a: "whiff punish everything with a df+2 or hopkick" game. Stuns are incredibly dangerous in DOA and lead to the bulk of the game series' dynamics.

I've been playing DOA5:LR a bit more up late this year, and I like how sit-down stuns (SDS) work in that game. Nailing Ayane's 4K on NH is very satisfying compared to in DOA6. Momiji's 9K basically leads to guaranteed follow-ups on NH (unless completely slow escaped at "FASTEST"). Stuff like this is good.

Though I think whiff punishment should be encouraged more even if it's just Kokoro's 66P or Eliot's 6P+K for example. I'm interested to see how DOA's gameplay would be if Rollback netcode was the standard. The game doesn't work if you have to guess at almost everything.