DOA5: An outside look at the DOA5 trailer

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

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 Fighter 5: Final Showdown graphically. Please take into account this is the pre-alpha version. Just imagine how the finished product will look . . . Exactly. With such visuals, DOA5 is poised to be a graphically monstrous game.

2) I really like how Team Ninja have made modifications to Hayate's default appearance. Seeing as he is my favourite character from the series, I can safely say Hayate looks even " sicker " and battle ready than ever before. I look forward to seeing the modifications that have been made to the other characters (if any).

3) From the looks of things, Team Ninja are placing emphasis on destructible environments and highly interactive environments with movable and deform-able environmental objects. This is something which if done well, could set DOA5 apart from the competition. If the environment Interaction was completely random in nature (not scripted physics), it would certainly make fights unpredictable. And yes, that particular arena in the trailer looked beautiful.

4) I have always loved the side-stepping/evasion in the Virtua Fighter series. Although it seems as though you can sidestep in DOA5, no 3-D game (so far) has successfully implemented evasion and side stepping as effectively as the Virtua Fighter series. It will be extremely interesting to see how Team Ninja can make side stepping/side walking/evasion effective in DOA5.

5) The arena demonstrated in the pre-alpha trailer seemed rather huge. I really like this. Huge arena's are always welcome and can always provide some breathing space for less experienced players. Im not saying all arena's should be of that size, but huge arena's are always welcome.


The Bad

1) One thing I noticed in the trailer was the presence of something that put me off the DOA series: lack of distinctive move sets and how things eventually boil down to a counter and advanced poking and button mashing fest. It was nice seeing the Izuna drop, but Team Ninja need to realize the fact that players need to be able to define their characters past moves that look lackluster. Put players in control of the moves, and truly amazing fights will surface. Aside from the Izuna drop, all I saw was two characters hitting each other in a rather boring manner. The moves didn't seem definite and recognizable. If DOA5 is serious about competing in the 3-D fighting game arena, Team Ninja need to completely overhaul every single characters move sets. Make them meaningful! This will add an incredible amount of depth to a game that has the potential to rival Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Boring moves and mechanics lead to boring fights.

 

some good and some bad. It kinda sounds like he wants it to be more like VF. Isnt that what happened with DOA4 with the testers? Then again we are still on the pre-apha stage. So no telling how much of what we seen in the video will even be in game. LOL i had a long rant about how people compare games not just fighter but all in general. Ill make it short---If you put your mind set into hating it before you play it- chances are you wont like it

 

1) One thing I noticed in the trailer was the presence of something that put me off the DOA series: lack of distinctive move sets and how things eventually boil down to a counter and advanced poking and button mashing fest. It was nice seeing the Izuna drop, but Team Ninja need to realize the fact that players need to be able to define their characters past moves that look lackluster. Put players in control of the moves, and truly amazing fights will surface. Aside from the Izuna drop, all I saw was two characters hitting each other in a rather boring manner. The moves didn't seem definite and recognizable. If DOA5 is serious about competing in the 3-D fighting game arena, Team Ninja need to completely overhaul every single characters move sets. Make them meaningful! This will add an incredible amount of depth to a game that has the potential to rival Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Boring moves and mechanics lead to boring fights.

Does anyone actually know what he's actually trying to say here? What the hell is a definite move? Is he actually trying to suggest that the ninjas fight too similiar to someone like bayman or jann lee? or god forbid, bass? And what exactly makes a boring punch different from an exciting punch? Then he has the audacity to claim that if the game wants to compete at ALL then Team Ninja must completely revamp absolutely everybodies movelist from scratch so it can fit his delusional standard?

It's like the guy is trying to sound more insightful and profound then he actually is or something. Kind of reminds me of Itagaki.

I mean the first parts he made some good observations I would expect from a decent fighting gamer, but then he just says the most random scrubtastic shit. . .

 

You know how I came across this article? Team Ninja pointed it out on their Twitter.

 

I noticed it earlier as well. They've been busy on that twitter page.

Unfortunately, not with our extended trailer. . .

 

One thing I noticed in the trailer was the presence of something that put me off the DOA series: lack of distinctive move sets and how things eventually boil down to a counter and advanced poking and button mashing fest.

I pretty much stopped reading after that.

 

According to him DOA5 needs to be on the Kinect and the Move to compete with other fighters. This would make fights seem less boring annnnddd players could throw EXCITING PUNCHES while being in control of their moves.

 

So this guy is where team ninja has been getting all their terrible feedback all these years!

quick, someone write a blog!

 

Seriously lmao.

 

A lot of casual gamers hear from competitive players of other games that DOA isn't a good game. However they don't know *why* that is, and even if they played the game over a long period of time they wouldn't be able to understand, because at the end of the day they just aren't good players. Yet, because they hear it from competitive SF, TK and SC players, they feel comfortable repeating it, even though they can't qualify what they say. So they just make bad arguments that people who are just as clueless as they are will agree with. And those people agree because they are afraid if they don't agree they won't appear knowledgeable.

Criticizing the engine I understand, but the movelist? The reviewer just doesn't know much about 3-D fighting games at the competitive level.

I'm not impressed by the gameplay in the trailer I see. However I didn't like DOA4 or Dimensions, so I imagine someone who liked those games will probably love the trailer. Personally I'd really like to see sidestepping become a major part of the game, and from the looks of things that's not going to happen.

 

An outside look always seem to come to the same baseless conclusions. Where is Dr. Dogg? maybe he can write a more informative article that Team Ninja can take notice of.

 

Point by point

"Good"

1 - Agree, the graphics look very promising.

2 - Stylistically, it's a little different and players are taking notice and becoming excited. Agree again.

3 - Yes, perhaps moreso than character refinements, there is the grander aspect of the stage dynamics. This is an equally important part of how DOA5 is likely to impress and entertain. Indications are that stage changes will not be random, but triggered by players. Giving players control over how danger zones are triggered will give a strong feeling of interaction and engagement with the changes in the stage. Random elements may be included but these must be kept to a benign minimum.
This is one of DOA's big opportunities to stand out, and its the area in which they are already far ahead of other fighting games - the environments are excellent.

4 - Basically agree. DOA and VF are similar, but different games and the differences must be understood and respected. Just so, that very carefully looking at implementing worthy gameplay elements other games do well is important and by specifying Sidestepping, have hit the nail on the head here.

5 - Agree, though variety of types of spaces within an arena is important.

"Bad"

1 - Lost me here. Lack of distinctive movesets? Try going through training mode and this theory will be put to bed very quickly. The movesets and signature moves for each character are highly recognisable, from Hayabusa's flashy Izuna to Lei Fang's backturn bodycheck, Zack's weaving Muay-Thai, Ayane's spinning ranged game, Bass' burly grappling... seriously!
Players of 4 have complained about the leniency of the defensive mechanics allowing players to escape more situations than they'd like, which can be argued to water down the effectiveness of some variations of playstyles, but this isn't a criticism of the movesets.
DOA has some of the most spectacular moves and animations in all fighting games. It attracts fighting players and non players, and non gamers to look twice. I've observed this many times.

What they need is to tighten up the counter window and other ways to escape situations so players can put real pressure on one another. They've already taken some positive steps with their tweaks of DOA4 in the 3DS game DOA Dimensions, so by the only indications we have so far, they are looking at these issues and plan to make DOA a serious contender.

 

This guy who posted that excerpt from the OP sounds like Xino.

I bet my own copy of "Sonic and the Black Knight" that it is.

 

Who the hell is Xino?

 

Who the hell is Xino?

someone who probably doesn't matter.

 

isn't he some douchebag from the official xbox forums?

 

^Yeah, Rikuto, that's him. Currently though, he's in his own little world in the Tecmo Forums being his own "know-it-all", which is more of a ghost town than DOAC's ever been.

I'm surprised you forgot about him, Raansu. That guy was the very personification of the of a person who makes casual players look bad. He even went so far as to try to give all competitive players a bad name. I wouldn't be surprised if he changed his name for certain people to get off his case... myself, more recently. >_>

 

Thought the name was familiar. I never did follow his.. umm... exploits, as I think most people didn't... remember hearing about his douchebaggery now and again though.

It's takes some button pushing to get you publicly pissed off at someone though, I guess that says something.

 

^Yeah, Rikuto, that's him. Currently though, he's in his own little world in the Tecmo Forums being his own "know-it-all", which is more of a ghost town than DOAC's ever been.

I'm surprised you forgot about him, Raansu. That guy was the very personification of the of a person who makes casual players look bad. He even went so far as to try to give all competitive players a bad name. I wouldn't be surprised if he changed his name for certain people to get off his case... myself, more recently. >_>

Ehh, there was a lot of idiots on the xbox forums that I put in their place. He was probably one of them that just wasn't worth remembering.

 

I would like sidesteps to matter though(outside of positioning.). Man, Why are there no parry sidesteps? Or just sidesteps? I mean yeah there were in doa2 and doa3 but where did all the metagame go? Can someone elaborate on my jumbled message?