Dead or Alive 5: 8/10
I'm a Fighter! --Click here to view--
Its been over half a decade since the latest DOA released for the consoles and the wait was long because of its long, bumpy road after the 4th installment. First off, if you didn't catch the news years ago, the series creator, Tomonobu Itagaki, was going back and forth with statements whether he's making the next game or not. Then in 2008, he sued and left Tecmo with several other colleagues which had brought scary news that new DOA production would not make the green light and the series will be in rock bottom. However, Tecmo had said that DOA and Ninja Gaiden will be continued which brought relief for fans. After success with Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS, the 5th game soon went into production... and boy, they went all out!
As soon the game is on, there is a huge difference, graphics-wise. Since past Dead or Alive 2, the characters were still in that anime-look and when looking at the ladies like Kasumi, Tina and Ayane, the looks make them have very unrealistic proportions in all areas. (Look at DOAX2...) Plus, many people dislike the appearances of the characters, especially the ladies, because they actually looked like dolls. Now, the characters look very realistic, which some like Kokoro is an actual Japanese girl trained as a geisha, not a big-eyed doll in a kimono outfit. Also, if you have the options on, characters can now sweat when battling and get dirtied, similar to Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Now I can get to the story. So two years had passed since DOA4. Helena had rebuild and reestablished her father's company for a better future. This timeskip also aged all the characters, which means Kasumi, Ayane, Kokoro and Eliot are in legal age. (Cue the hentai!
) Anyways, as the 5th Tournament announced, Victor Donovan, the main antagonist of the series, has created his own organization named MIST and continues the research of Project Alpha. Kasumi is on a quest to find and destroy her clone, Alpha-152 once and for all.
Now, the summary looks good. Play the Story Mode... expect PLOTHOLES and a PLOT TWIST. Keep that in mind.
Since this is a fighting game, there are going to be new fighters joining in. We have a TaeKwonDo fighter from Canada named Rig, who has no "memory" of his past and works at an oil rig, which is near the tournament grounds. And we have Mila, a Spanish MMA fighter who is making her dream to become champion a reality.
Joining them are guest fighters, from, guess who? Virtua Fighter. Akira Yuki, Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan were added into the DOA universe to challenge the DOA ladies and men, for Sega teaming up with Tecmo for help publishing the European version. As you may know, DOA did first started in the Arcades using Sega's Model 2 engine. While it look very similar to Virtua Fighter 2 at the time with the standard graphics, gameplay and ring-outs, the only differences were the Danger Zones surrounding the edges of the arenas and the concept of the hold button. Will this make way for a potential DOA vs. VF crossover? I'm very hopeful that it should. The VF characters felt almost the same as the originals with some minor changes, using their VF5: Final Showdown moveset. However, they had little involvement in the Story Mode, with Pai having no appearance what so ever.
Gameplay: DOA4 was heavily criticized about a year after its release because not only for the AI, but for the gameplay being broken due to the counter system (by frames). Now the counter system is fixed, still using the four-point system and most characters now have expert holds. New to the game are the Power Blows, which is an animated sequence of the fighters attacking their opponents to ending by blow them away towards the Danger Zone. This happens when your gauge begins to flash red after losing 50% of your health. Then we have Critical Burst, an attack(s) that can actually stun your opponent during a Critical Stun to continue a combo or go right into a Power Blow when health gauge is red. This replaces the Bounce combo system from 4.
From playing it so far, the game felt more stricter with the holds, while the moves can do only 5-9 hit combos until you use the Critical Stun move(s) to continue the combo to 10+ hits. I prefer the bounce system back to give that extra ummph! when doing the combos. However, while the AI is better and beatable than the mess in 4, they can do those Critical Stuns and Power Blow combos in 5 seconds when their gauges are red. Take some notes on that when playing that because they will get sneaky.
While DOA is not only known for the ladies (and boobs) but also for the beautiful and stunning multi-tier stages. However, some stages will get too destructive if you look closely while fighting. In certain stages, you can toss your opponent to an event called a Cliffhanger. As your opponent hang on to dear life not to fall, you can strike him/her to an amazing air combo or throw them down to the ground with a press of a specific button. Although your opponent has an opportunity to guard.
Looks great and all, but here's one problem: there aren't enough stages that has Cliffhangers. It was the hyped part of the game, yet the other stages are basically regular stages with more Danger Zones with realistic touches and involving in dangerous situations and environment (example: the Hot Zone stage is like fighting in the middle of a gun/tank battle in the Iraqi War). And some are out right down scary and silly (fighting on top of construction building to cause havoc down below on the street and fighting on a rooftop near a subway track to cause train crashes).
Gone are the character themes (most of them appeared only exclusively in Story Mode and majority of them came from DOA3 and 4). Some of the music are lacking. (Can't speak for online, but my experience is the same). There are tons of DLC content, involving costumes from past games, and some borrowed each other's outfits (looking at you, Mila for taking Tina's!)
Other than that, welcome back ladies! (And the gents!) You all proving you are fighters!
As soon the game is on, there is a huge difference, graphics-wise. Since past Dead or Alive 2, the characters were still in that anime-look and when looking at the ladies like Kasumi, Tina and Ayane, the looks make them have very unrealistic proportions in all areas. (Look at DOAX2...) Plus, many people dislike the appearances of the characters, especially the ladies, because they actually looked like dolls. Now, the characters look very realistic, which some like Kokoro is an actual Japanese girl trained as a geisha, not a big-eyed doll in a kimono outfit. Also, if you have the options on, characters can now sweat when battling and get dirtied, similar to Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Now I can get to the story. So two years had passed since DOA4. Helena had rebuild and reestablished her father's company for a better future. This timeskip also aged all the characters, which means Kasumi, Ayane, Kokoro and Eliot are in legal age. (Cue the hentai!
) Anyways, as the 5th Tournament announced, Victor Donovan, the main antagonist of the series, has created his own organization named MIST and continues the research of Project Alpha. Kasumi is on a quest to find and destroy her clone, Alpha-152 once and for all.Now, the summary looks good. Play the Story Mode... expect PLOTHOLES and a PLOT TWIST. Keep that in mind.
Since this is a fighting game, there are going to be new fighters joining in. We have a TaeKwonDo fighter from Canada named Rig, who has no "memory" of his past and works at an oil rig, which is near the tournament grounds. And we have Mila, a Spanish MMA fighter who is making her dream to become champion a reality.
Joining them are guest fighters, from, guess who? Virtua Fighter. Akira Yuki, Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan were added into the DOA universe to challenge the DOA ladies and men, for Sega teaming up with Tecmo for help publishing the European version. As you may know, DOA did first started in the Arcades using Sega's Model 2 engine. While it look very similar to Virtua Fighter 2 at the time with the standard graphics, gameplay and ring-outs, the only differences were the Danger Zones surrounding the edges of the arenas and the concept of the hold button. Will this make way for a potential DOA vs. VF crossover? I'm very hopeful that it should. The VF characters felt almost the same as the originals with some minor changes, using their VF5: Final Showdown moveset. However, they had little involvement in the Story Mode, with Pai having no appearance what so ever.
Gameplay: DOA4 was heavily criticized about a year after its release because not only for the AI, but for the gameplay being broken due to the counter system (by frames). Now the counter system is fixed, still using the four-point system and most characters now have expert holds. New to the game are the Power Blows, which is an animated sequence of the fighters attacking their opponents to ending by blow them away towards the Danger Zone. This happens when your gauge begins to flash red after losing 50% of your health. Then we have Critical Burst, an attack(s) that can actually stun your opponent during a Critical Stun to continue a combo or go right into a Power Blow when health gauge is red. This replaces the Bounce combo system from 4.
From playing it so far, the game felt more stricter with the holds, while the moves can do only 5-9 hit combos until you use the Critical Stun move(s) to continue the combo to 10+ hits. I prefer the bounce system back to give that extra ummph! when doing the combos. However, while the AI is better and beatable than the mess in 4, they can do those Critical Stuns and Power Blow combos in 5 seconds when their gauges are red. Take some notes on that when playing that because they will get sneaky.
While DOA is not only known for the ladies (and boobs) but also for the beautiful and stunning multi-tier stages. However, some stages will get too destructive if you look closely while fighting. In certain stages, you can toss your opponent to an event called a Cliffhanger. As your opponent hang on to dear life not to fall, you can strike him/her to an amazing air combo or throw them down to the ground with a press of a specific button. Although your opponent has an opportunity to guard.
Looks great and all, but here's one problem: there aren't enough stages that has Cliffhangers. It was the hyped part of the game, yet the other stages are basically regular stages with more Danger Zones with realistic touches and involving in dangerous situations and environment (example: the Hot Zone stage is like fighting in the middle of a gun/tank battle in the Iraqi War). And some are out right down scary and silly (fighting on top of construction building to cause havoc down below on the street and fighting on a rooftop near a subway track to cause train crashes).
Gone are the character themes (most of them appeared only exclusively in Story Mode and majority of them came from DOA3 and 4). Some of the music are lacking. (Can't speak for online, but my experience is the same). There are tons of DLC content, involving costumes from past games, and some borrowed each other's outfits (looking at you, Mila for taking Tina's!)
Other than that, welcome back ladies! (And the gents!) You all proving you are fighters!
