A bunch of PSN friends (From Soul Calibur) asked me about it, when they saw that I was playing DoA.
Not as good as SCV, but much better than Tekken was my answer, along with details about the Holds having been nerfed.
DoA5 looks great. It has stylish moves, very dynamic stages, some new fluid-mechanic-technology-thing for the boobs and great dirt and sweat effects with see-though and tricklets that run between the breasts.
The gameplay is nice. The nerfing of the Holds and the focus on Critical Stun have made the launchers a little less ominous (I dislike juggles, visually). The more Critical Stuns you have, the fewer launchers, in a sense.
However, the game is too offensive. The strings are too many, too long and too powerful. The game is prettu much just about one character trying to perform the correct hold (mostly by guessing), as the other steamrolls him with Critical Stun combos. There is too much guessing. The lower risk and reward stuff of guarding and punishing is just extremely non-viable, because the strings are OP. It's really about making contact first or wait until you get a hold (or land a wake up kick), so it's your turn to mix him up.
With weaker Strings (ala Soul Calibur), the forms of defense would be more varied, viable and important. And the overall gameplay would be far more skillful.
Oh, and the online is sucking for me, so far. I got 4 matches, all laggy, one of them very laggy... whereas SCV online is the best.