Vanilla was underwhelming. 5U was going in the right direction.
LR was dope with Mai being added as a guest character. Was flooded with mostly optional dlc.
PC was a letdown port (lacked some stages, no lobbies).
I would love a modern port with cross play but probably will never happen.
EDIT: Thought I was posting on Twitter and answered a completely different question there.
DOA5 did what it set out to do, and that was to be a solid fighting game. By the third iteration, it was the most feature-rich and roster-heavy to date. I enjoyed my time with it, despite my personal struggles throughout the early to mid 2010s.
The GOAT. I got into DOA with DOA5 Ultimate and joined FSD back in January of 2014. I did play DOA2H on the PS2 back then, but I was just a kid mashing buttons. Gotta say, DOA5U - DOA5LR were some of the happiest times of my FGC life. I've met lots of cool folks here and made great memories. Its as Camel said, this game was basically our version of SF4. I like DOA6, but DOA5LR will always be the absolute peak to me.
The best of the series. It had issues, like the sidestepping could have been better but it was a solid game. That and I think force techs were too strong
Doa5 was the best DOA for gen x imo, we moved on too quick to doa6 when we could have had a solid game for more years besides 2-3. It deserves a remaster with an adjusted mechanic system
DOA5 is the Definitive Version of the franchise, and revolutionary step in terms of fanservice/sex appeal from costumes & extra features, I've even got a full opinion on why DOA5 is the Best DOA Game at Comment #10:
Please articulate to the community in your own words your favorite DOA and why it is mechanically the best game to you in the franchise. With your vote you are essentially voting for every version of the game, but you can specify a version in particular within the comments section. I think...
As @Camel with 2 thumbs said, DOA5 overall ended being the widely-considered best (imo as well) DOA game, our SF4 and to this day I'm going back to it since the netcode is tolerable (most of the times) and I can find people on it from time to time....at the same time, it definitely shows its age from lack of rollback to quite bad PC port to now seeing what TN/KT can achieve with UE5.
It brought the franchise out of obscurity, introduced DOA to new generation, and really improved people's perspective on DOA
And yet, its not a game I find myself wanting to go back to and play; im greatful for all that it did, but its definitely not muh favorite