Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ The Dead or Alive series.

[Alastor]

So I bought Dead or Alive 2-4 yesterday, why did I do this?

Well, a few reasons, first off it was partly because I've been playing a lot of Ninja Gaiden 2 (Sigma and normal version) and as you may know there is a bit of a Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive crossover going on, the star of Ninja Gaiden, Ryu Hayabusa is a playable character in DOA and supporting character (and playable in Sigma 2) Ayane is also a playable character in DOA and Sigma 2 brings over one more DOA cameo that I won't spoil.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to better understand some of the stuff you see in Ninja Gaiden and just plain mess around with my man Hayabusa.

another reason is that I used to play these games a LOT and for some reason I don't anymore, I had become pretty snobby towards the series to be honest and didn't play them because I didn't see them as proper fighting games. (I only play proper fighting games for a proper fighting games fan such as myself! )


Also, I haven't played DOA4 so I thought it'd be a good point to re-enter the series and I thought hey, may as well buy all the ones I used to play!


So does anyone like this series, DOA2 is full of nostalgia for me and the series has always looked great for its time, DOA3 still looks pretty snazzy tbh and the gameplay is fuuuun, flying kicking someone through a window and into a neon sign or countering into a punch to the gut that sends someone flying across the room through a massive stained glass window will never get old.

It's always been pretty fast paced and counter heavy, it reminds me of VF but not as good, the counter heavyness may put some off as you can be doing a combo and they'd reverse it and take off a third of your health bar!

I've picked up on a few DOA/NG references in Sigma 2 now that I wouldn't have otherwise as well, it's been well worth it over all.

[Garwoofoo]

Yes, I'm a fan.

The best for me was always DOA Ultimate on the original Xbox - a souped-up remix of 2, basically. I don't think 3 or 4 ever quite recaptured the spirit of 2, but they are all good games.

There's something about DOA's reliance on blocking and countering that makes these games very different to other beat-em-ups. For a start, I don't massively suck at them like I do most fighting games, so they must be unusual. I also love all the environmental stuff - I've never seen it done so well anywhere else.

Are there any more games in the series planned, do you know?

[Alastor]

I have no idea, Itagaki as you may know has left the building and it's pretty much his baby as far as I know, erm...Gamefaqs seems to have a Dead or Alive 5 board which isn't much proof but they wouldn't put one out there for no reason so maybe I missed an announcement?

If they do it's probably going to look friggin' sweet anyway!

The best for me was always DOA Ultimate on the original Xbox

Oooh, nice, I remember that, I remember it having BAGS more costumes and levels and whatnot to unlock, some were pretty awesome like the Xbox logo suit for Ayane and/or Kasumi. (Itagaki must loooove him some Xbox, Xbox suits, life refilling Xbox in Ninja Gaiden, the 'Congratulations on the 360 Launch!' in-game ad in a DOA4 level...)


Erm...didn't it also bring the visuals of DOA2 upto the level of DOA3 somewhat or is my memory lying to me?

I remember the trade off, DOA3 had Hitomi and Hayate while DOA2:Ultimate had Ein and all the extras, apparently you can get Hitomi in Ultimate but that's news to me.

...

I think you're right about Ultimate being the best in the series actually, Gar. (undecided on DOA4)

Do you remember the Intro to Ultimate with the Aerosmith song?

[Garwoofoo]

Erm...didn't it also bring the visuals of DOA2 upto the level of DOA3 somewhat or is my memory lying to me?

I remember the trade off, DOA3 had Hitomi and Hayate while DOA2:Ultimate had Ein and all the extras, apparently you can get Hitomi in Ultimate but that's news to me.

...

I think you're right about Ultimate being the best in the series actually, Gar. (undecided on DOA4)

Do you remember the Intro to Ultimate with the Aerosmith song? 

Yeah, the visuals were brilliant. Better than DOA3 I think and not far off DOA4 (with the obvious lack of HD-ness, but still). And yes, you could unlock Hitome so you pretty much had the full classic roster there.

There just seemed to be more in Ultimate than in the other games (plus you got a souped-up DOA1 on the second disc). It even had online play - the first fighter I ever saw that even tried such a thing. It's such a shame it doesn't work with 360 backwards-compatibility. I remember spending hours and hours on Survival mode trying to get all the trophies for the unlockables (they dropped randomly, so you needed to play a LOT). Got pretty decent with Ayane in the end, but I could never bring myself to play as any of the male characters.

[Alastor]

There just seemed to be more in Ultimate than in the other games (plus you got a souped-up DOA1 on the second disc).

Oh shit, I totally forgot you get the first DOA with it, that's awesome!

It even had online play - the first fighter I ever saw that even tried such a thing. It's such a shame it doesn't work with 360 backwards-compatibility. I remember spending hours and hours on Survival mode trying to get all the trophies for the unlockables (they dropped randomly, so you needed to play a LOT). Got pretty decent with Ayane in the end, but I could never bring myself to play as any of the male characters.

I heard DOA4 did some similar stuff with its online setup, the TV in lobby that allowed people to watch matches (or something like that) for one sounds pretty cool and above all it sounded like it was a smooth experience.

Survival Mode is addictive (thanks to those drops) but hard imo, I played DOA2-4 in succession and I'd be lucky to get to the tenth guy in any of them as the AI gets progressively more psychic and counters every move you do no matter what game it is.

I'd probably die less with Hayabusa if I stopped trying to do the Izuna Drop.

Got pretty decent with Ayane in the end, but I could never bring myself to play as any of the male characters.

I want to get good with her or Hayabusa (Team Ninja Gaiden! ) but her Spinny shenanigans and turning backwards or forwards frazzles my brain.

And I know what you mean, I used to use a lot of the guys but I don't have any interest in using them this time round, bar that perfect specimen of a man, Hayabusa . (I'll spare you all the 'Ayane is hot!!11' comments )


Does any other fighting game have something similar to DOA's 'Watch Mode' where you watch the computer duke it out with itself, I know some games probably have a 'cpu vs cpu' option but this is...different, it had dynamic camera angles iirc and would sometimes just go into slow motion whenever someone got walloped down the level into a tree or something....I liked it at the time, DOA is fun to play and watch especially if someone gets dropkicked through a stained glass window.

[Brian Bloodaxe]

But what about the film eh?

[YoshiMax]

DOA4 is my favourite fighter ever - the reason for this is that on release we had a fantastic group who played almost every night - the lobby system (still to be bettered) was key to this.

It saddens me that no VS fighter devs seem to understand how much online lobbies bring to fighters - I'm hearing Tekken6 doesn't have one despite SCIV managing it - very silly and likely to cost a sale from me.

I still have DOA4 so if anybody fancies an evening of fighting I'm always up for it.

[Alastor]

Not seen the film, fortunately.

And that sounds good to me YoshiMax, I dunno' when I'll be next online with my 360 due to Sigma 2 and soon Uncharted 2 to come out and take most of my time but when I'm next on I'd love a game.

I am rubbish though and likely to just keep trying to connect the Izuna Drop throw which I have great trouble doing in DOA4 for some reason, I have better success in DOA2 and you have to use the D-Pad in that, weird...

[Billy Brush]

Got 4...i likes (i also thought 3 was a good un, and 2 on the ps2, never got ultimate)

Just like the counter system, it's easy, fast, fluid...i'm not that great at fighting games but i find with this - one counter can sway things just enough for it to matter & it's not so much a case of blocking the shots of someone spamming away at you

i think a lot of the fighting games out there have skills to learn defensively, like SFIV when you have to know when and how much to block...but doa turns defense into attack and i'm surprised that more fighting games don't copy it, works bloody well imo

only thing i don't like is the fact on 4 the in game P K etc buttons are coloured different to their corresponding 360 pad buttons, which is a bit stupid

[Alastor]

You can counter even when your stunned mid-combo too, which is what will turn some people right off, my brother hates it.

It does remind me of Aoi, who was the character I used in Virtua Fighter 5 and she was the reversal/counter character. Probably not what you're on about really but given that DOA feels like VF more than any other fighting game imo it's probably the closest comparison.

Played a bit of Tag mode today, it's rather fun I think, though the only tag move I know is launching someone in the air, tag out, juggle with tagged partner.

[feltmonkey]

DOAX2 is the Citizen Kane of videogames.

[Alastor]

When I was on the DOA buying spree I think I saw the first one of that on the original Xbox, stared at it for a minute and thought...maybe next time.

Was the volleyball part of the game any good or is it all minigames and pampering them with gifts and stuff?

[YoshiMax]

Alastor if you sent me a FR I may have accidentally declined it (drunk on live FTW) - so send again as I don't know your tab.

[Alastor]

I haven't been on my Xbox in a while bar the time I used my HDD on my brothers 360 a few days ago, so it wasn't me but I will send one anyway next time I'm on online. (As long as you don't mind me disappearing offline for a while now and again )

Also, hilariously, my brother who doesn't like DOA4 has just unlocked every character bar Tengu and got the Achievement for playing it for over 5 Hours, before this he's unlocked more costumes for nearly everyone by beating the Story Mode with people repeatedly....I haven't even done all that myself! (Although I unlocked Tengu and Bayman on DOA2 yesterday)

[YoshiMax]

Mastery of the spartans sticky-grenade move is key to online humiliation of opponents !

[Alastor]

Something about the Spartan I don't get:

As faaaar as I can tell (and shoot me if I'm wrong, And ), she is wearing armour that looks exactly like the Master Chief's but it's not him it's some woman, but really it's Master Chief with a womans voice.....so what is the point in that?

It's not as if she's showing some trademark DOA lady flesh, sooo why not just get the big guy himself? (I love the guy, but he's NO Hayabusa, let's get that straight )

Also, is Itagaki a big Halo fan or something, why is a Spartan in the game anyway?

(she's pretty beastly anyway and yay english VA)

[YoshiMax]

Cynically speaking, I Reckon Bungie/MS wanted to get some Master Chief awareness ahead of Halo3 and that motivated the inclusion; I think they didn't want master chief getting his arse kicked about hence they put a female spartan in there instead ?

Still, good character who strangely fits the game well as does the stage.

[JDubYes]

Cynically speaking, I Reckon Bungie/MS wanted to get some Master Chief awareness ahead of Halo3 and that motivated the inclusion; I think they didn't want master chief getting his arse kicked about hence they put a female spartan in there instead ?

That's pretty much what I'd figured. Plus teh interwebz would've been alive alive with cries of "but Master Chief was never on earth until after Covenant invaded!" etc.

As faaaar as I can tell, she is wearing armour that looks exactly like the Master Chief's but it's not him it's some woman, but really it's Master Chief with a womans voice.....so what is the point in that?

It's not as if she's showing some trademark DOA lady flesh

Master Chief in a bikini?!

Somewhere in Ireland, And is running to the little boy's room...

...

Anyway, Dead or Alive - I've never really liked it that much, but then it does face stiff competition. Tekken has a different, more meaty feel, more memorable and varied characters, and more bombast and polish. Virtua Fighter is a better pure fighter, is deeper, and actually also feels oddly similar.

DOA is the one with ridiculously animated boobs and the slightly arbitrary-feeling (because I'm terrible at it) counter system (which can also make CPU players bloody impossible on high difficulty levels) . It seems to be the gimmicky one, fun but lacking longevity.

That's not to say it's not a good game, it's just that I prefer the others. And would rather be playing Street Fighter or Guilty Gear (or BlazBlue?) to any of them anyway.

[Alastor]

Cynically speaking, I Reckon Bungie/MS wanted to get some Master Chief awareness ahead of Halo3 and that motivated the inclusion; I think they didn't want master chief getting his arse kicked about hence they put a female spartan in there instead ?

Still, good character who strangely fits the game well as does the stage.

Ah, guess we'll never know for sure, iirc Itagaki likes Gears of War as well (It was a Gametrailers interview, he said he's never be able to make a game like it, pretty high praise from someone who's usually very arrogant) so I would like to see The Cole Train in DOA5 if that ever happens.

I heard if you play as her in the Las Vegas Strip, a Warthog drives past.

Tekken has a different, more meaty feel, more memorable and varied characters, and more bombast and polish. Virtua Fighter is a better pure fighter, is deeper, and actually also feels oddly similar.

In DOA4's defence, I feel it still has a place in the genre, it brings a level of OTT to the genre unseen anywhere else I think, it's also extremely polished as far as the graphics, bone crunching sound effects and impressive animations go. (Just look at how near perfect the game goes from a normal move being performed to it being caught and countered).

[JDubYes]

In DOA4's defence, I feel it still has a place in the genre, it brings a level of OTT to the genre unseen anywhere else I think, it's also extremely polished as far as the graphics, bone crunching sound effects and impressive animations go. (Just look at how near perfect the game goes from a normal move being performed to it being caught and countered).

I don't disagree, it's just that it's probably the one I'd be least likely to buy of the 3d fighter elite. It always seems to me to be the most accessible of the three, but also the one with the least longevity. It's the most lightweight in terms of content and gameplay, and becomes difficult to take seriously sometimes what with the focus on lady parts and largely terrible and/or bland male character design.

That said, and as I tried to intimate in my first post, I certainly don't dislike them. They're nicely presented, less po-faced than their competitors, and I've always liked the multi-level stages and speed of the fights.

Now, can someone explain the whole Aerosmith thing to me?