I met up with Perfect Legend at UFGT7 and we talked a bit of DOA. I asked if he had ever gotten responses to his follow-up questions to Team Ninja and, to my surprise, he did but hadn't posted them anywhere. I asked him to forward them along so we could post them on FSD and here they are:
1. Are there attacks or attack strings in the game that the opponent can't hold out of like in DOA3.
For example Hayate's string if you were hit by the first part you couldn't hold the second part.
2. When you are knocked into a wall and now you are in wall critical state in DOA are you able to totally avoid being attacked by using slow escape aka hitting buttons and directions. In DOA4 you could do this and most of the players including myself weren't a big fan of this. Actually this is by far the only problem with slow escape because of how much it effected being knocked into walls.
3. Were there any changes to how critical works? You said for 25 frames the opponent can't move? What does this mean exactly. Are they not able to Hold or Slow escape? Does it eliminate those options? Does this apply to all critical states or just some?
4. Since the old DOA2U ground hit is back does this mean it stuffs wake up kicks when they are coming out from off the ground or does it mean you have to hit them before they decide to get up kick?
Also does this stop opponents from being able to tech roll or can they avoid the hit by tech rolling?
Also can you still tech roll into a get up kick or must you have to stay down then get up kick?
Oh and when you hit someone with the DOA2U style ground hit, afterwards are they able to still perform a get up kick or does it force them to get up?
Can you keep hitting them with DOA2U style ground hit when they try to perform get up kicks or are they allowed to get up afterwards?
Sorry for so many questions about that; the okizeme, haha.
5. Also about sidestepping? How does it interfere with the purity of DOA? It adds more defensive options to the game thus balancing out attacking and defending even more and adds an entire dynamic to the game which will be very much appreciated by the players. In DOA3 we saw this implemented a little bit and it was greatly appreciated. Please at least give us more evasive sidestep attacks for each character. Gen Fu () has one that is very useful for example.
1. Are there attacks or attack strings in the game that the opponent can't hold out of like in DOA3.
For example Hayate's string if you were hit by the first part you couldn't hold the second part.
We felt as if this be a bit harsh on the beginners so we left these out. The only character who can do attacks such as these is Tengu. As you know, Tengu is a boss character. He’s big and a bit slow, but since he is very powerful and has quite a bit of momentum behind him, some of his combo strings are not hold-able. In Tag-Team matches, we have left some of these strings where, after a guard-break, you tag you partner and then do an attack from there on.
2. When you are knocked into a wall and now you are in wall critical state in DOA are you able to totally avoid being attacked by using slow escape aka hitting buttons and directions. In DOA4 you could do this and most of the players including myself weren't a big fan of this. Actually this is by far the only problem with slow escape because of how much it effected being knocked into walls.
We have left this the same as DOA4. We purposely did this because we felt that we didn’t want to make the game so one-sided, and thus went ahead and balanced the game out this way. I think that the slow-escape tech is something that only the best players know and something they can only use as their advantage. But then again, to hear this from you is a really valuable opinion to us so we will definitely think about it because we want to make each fight deeper and more exciting.
3. Were there any changes to how critical works? You said for 25 frames the opponent can't move? What does this mean exactly. Are they not able to Hold or Slow escape? Does it eliminate those options? Does this apply to all critical states or just some?
In the previous games we had the same system. After you get hit and you are in critical, you can’t do any holds for a few frames. For most criticals you weren’t able to hold or slow-escape for around 6 frames. This is the average time you were prevented from doing anything, and it depended on the type of stun. Some of the bigger stuns disabled you from holding or slow-escaping for around 20-30 frames. In DOAD there are new stuns/criticals after you get high-countered and some of these will have their own frames in which you’ll be disabled. I think that you’ll find that you’ll see more variety of these critical situations than you had in DOA4.
I think you may have misunderstood about wall crumples making you unable to hold for 25 frames. This is actually not the case, rest assured! You’ll be able to hold quicker than this. For example, in regards to adjustments for the wall crumples, we have, for example, made a juggling tech such as Ein’s 3KK not be able to land 100% (among others). If you use the Skill Info menu you’ll be able to read the frame data and use this as a guide when you’re playing.
I think you may have misunderstood about wall crumples making you unable to hold for 25 frames. This is actually not the case, rest assured! You’ll be able to hold quicker than this. For example, in regards to adjustments for the wall crumples, we have, for example, made a juggling tech such as Ein’s 3KK not be able to land 100% (among others). If you use the Skill Info menu you’ll be able to read the frame data and use this as a guide when you’re playing.
4. Since the old DOA2U ground hit is back does this mean it stuffs wake up kicks when they are coming out from off the ground or does it mean you have to hit them before they decide to get up kick?
It’s really more of a timing thing. If your timing is correct you will be able to hit them as their kick is coming of the ground.
Also does this stop opponents from being able to tech roll or can they avoid the hit by tech rolling?
You won’t be able to stop opponents from tech rolling. The reason we disabled this is that we didn’t want to give the attacker the ability to keep piling up combos on the guy who is on the ground. That’s why we made the guy on the ground invincible. This is one reason we disabled Tengu’s down attack that follows his combo.
Also can you still tech roll into a get up kick or must you have to stay down then get up kick?
The latter (stay down then get up kick) is the way we made it in DOAD. I think this gives you more opportunity to strategize your tech rolls.
Oh and when you hit someone with the DOA2U style ground hit, afterwards are they able to still perform a get up kick or does it force them to get up?
Can you keep hitting them with DOA2U style ground hit when they try to perform get up kicks or are they allowed to get up afterwards?
The conditions for this depend on each character so I can’t really say this or that for sure, but for the most part I can tell you that it’s the same as DOA2U. One more thing is that (the same as up to now) you’ll be able to mash buttons to get up quicker so it’ll be harder for your opponent to keep laying down attacks into you while you’re on the ground.
Sorry for so many questions about that; the okizeme, haha.
Nah, that’s cool. One thing that we understood is the fact that all of you feel very much the same about criticals, down attacks, and okizeme. We may not be able to answer very single one of your wishes, but please keep attacking us with your suggestions.
5. Also about sidestepping? How does it interfere with the purity of DOA? It adds more defensive options to the game thus balancing out attacking and defending even more and adds an entire dynamic to the game which will be very much appreciated by the players. In DOA3 we saw this implemented a little bit and it was greatly appreciated. Please at least give us more evasive sidestep attacks for each character. Gen Fu () has one that is very useful for example.
One thing I have to mention is that we didn’t have any online modes in DOA3 so we couldn’t tell as to the effect sidesteps had on the game. We realized that this was an issue for the first time after seeing so many players online because DOA2U was the first DOA game to have online mode which was able to connect so many DOA players together across the world. The biggest mistake we made in DOA3 is that the increased side-step techs were way too strong and too easy to pull off, thus making it too advantageous for one player and hell for another. Since we made this online mode in DOA2U a tool to that can connect players across the globe and give them an awesome DOA experience, we didn’t want these side-step techs ruining everyone’s online gameplay experience. After considering the game balance with side-steps in DOA4 we came to the conclusion that was…well, DOA4.
OK then, for DOAD, we also contemplated about having side-steps in there as well. We thought to ourselves as to what the actual core and bedrock of DOA is and how players would perceive the game when picking it up and start playing. I think that our intention for the game is fairly obvious when you pick up and start playing. As you know, the thing that really separates DOA from any other fighters out there is the Hold system. Using the side-step to evade an attack would make our intention behind the Hold system very blurred in a sense and would not make the Hold stand out so much in the gameplay. What makes the Hold system as fun as it is has to do with the high risk and high return that it exhibits, and we wanted players to feel this. We are taking the same approach with the back-dash and some of the other basic movements. But rest assured, because this doesn’t mean that we have dropped the idea of the side-step completely. We are always thinking of how we can incorporate what our fans say and how we can match that to DOA so we are glad to hear your voices.
OK then, for DOAD, we also contemplated about having side-steps in there as well. We thought to ourselves as to what the actual core and bedrock of DOA is and how players would perceive the game when picking it up and start playing. I think that our intention for the game is fairly obvious when you pick up and start playing. As you know, the thing that really separates DOA from any other fighters out there is the Hold system. Using the side-step to evade an attack would make our intention behind the Hold system very blurred in a sense and would not make the Hold stand out so much in the gameplay. What makes the Hold system as fun as it is has to do with the high risk and high return that it exhibits, and we wanted players to feel this. We are taking the same approach with the back-dash and some of the other basic movements. But rest assured, because this doesn’t mean that we have dropped the idea of the side-step completely. We are always thinking of how we can incorporate what our fans say and how we can match that to DOA so we are glad to hear your voices.