In DOA5...Holds last longer and have small windows all together...like in DOA4, you get someone in a stun but they low counter to recover thus making your advantageous situation a disadvantage because depending on the character, the person who low counter will be at an advantage...like lets say Lisa stunned Kasumi, but Kasumi low countered and proceeded with her pokes...8 times out of 10 Kasumi will win that exchange due to her being better overall and it doesn't help Lisa's recovery is horrific...
Now in DOA5 you get someone in a stun and they low counter, well, they'll be stuck in that position long enough to where you can see them and react with a free launcher without them being able to do anything but guess right the next go around. I also love the fact that in DOA5 each counter "High, Mid, Low" all look vastly different, unlike in DOA4 with some character's High and Mid looking the same and bigger character's Low counters looking like Mid counters...
Players won't be able to easily hold and get stupid amount of damage unless they advance hold or juggle. In DOA4, a well played counter and or grab took away more than most juggles lmao, so DOA5 adjusted that and is now more balanced as it shoulda been in the past, now that E3 is coming, we'll be getting more solid information to go off of instead of just an Alpha Demo.
And Emperor, the reason characters like Hitomi got Adavance Hold was because the overall damage of counters was lessen but for a more damaging hold you'll have to work a bit harder which grants you a free launcher thus adding more damage ala Bayman...basically the changes were to compliment the new Hold system in DOA5.