This game is no doubt an utter abomination of Team Ninja's failure that dragged the entire franchise down to hell

[WingZeroRequiem]

From one failure to the next did Team Ninja signify their downfall and good thing that this game can be treated as if it was forgettable from the history books of DOA while DOA1-4 remain golden.

From changing the faces to stupidity of endless fanservice DLCs dropped the paint on Itagaki's face that made him realize how fallen Team Ninja has gone from their grace when he was the head of the franchise.

Not one of Itagaki's loyal followers did an effort into making the game the way Itagaki wants that made this one of a black sheep for generations.

If you were to fix the mistakes that Team Ninja did, what would you have done and to the extent demanded that needs to be stopped or be improved upon?

Last Round and Ultimate did nothing to make this game stand out since it was pointless to continue upgrading the games. At least hopefully DOA6 will stay like the way it is for now since there are indications that the sequel is in the works.

 

[PatrickHateman]

Personally I barely consider DOA5 to be a DOA game, but it's much better than the updates that followed, where all they did was nerf every character and gameplay mechanic into the ground, or add useless, bizarre looking features like power launcher or whatever it was called.

The main failure I see in the series post-Itagaki isn't even the gameplay though, it's the art. 2 looked amazing for it's time, as did 3 and 2U. I don't think 4 really wowed anyone but the colorful designs stood out at least. With 5 they threw all that way for muddy, drab environments and nonsensical or downright ugly costumes like clown Hitomi. Everything about the game was ass ugly.

The animations suffered a lot too. You can immediately tell which animations are from the old games and which ones are by the new team. This is especially noticeable in DOA6, where you have abominations like Tamaki. Her back walk animation made me think my game glitched out, but no, it's really that bad.

I do wish he'd come out of retirement and make a proper game again, but it's one of those things where they captured lightning in a bottle. You had the perfect vision, the perfect team, and the perfect timing. Itagaki would never be able to get the same caliber of talent or funding today, nevermind cancel culture.

 

[grap3fruitman]

The only thing I disliked about DOA5 was the stun system and stun heavy gameplay - but that's a holdover from DOA4. Otherwise I thought DOA5.0 was a really good effort from the new team. Rig and Mila are great additions to the series. So were the more interactive stages. I really liked the "Scramble" stage except for the cliffhanger stuff cause it slows down the gameplay too much (like slope throws) - but Itagaki was originally behind the cliffhanger too. I think 5.0 would've been the perfect DOA game if had 2M's stun system.