Free Step Dodge

The new DOA5 trailer appears to not only show off some new animations with Ayane and Kasumi, but also shows off a new character. That is, a new character to the franchise. You might notice the character displayed from another title that shares the same numeration: Akira from Virtua Fighter 5.

The stage Ayane, Akira, and Kasumi fight on certainly looks like an "entertaining" take on Virtua Fighter 5's raft level.

Also, it looks like wall crumples (at least in this particular stage) put the opponent in the air? Guaranteeing follow-ups again (similar to Dead or Alive 3)? No word yet on any of these gameplay changes as any of this might just be for show, but I'm honestly hoping it's not just for show.

I've done a frame by frame analysis of the new trailer featuring Ayane, Kasumi, and the new entrant Akira. Unfortunately, no 60 frames per second video exists at this time. The only version available is...

A new trailer was released today for Dead or Alive 5 which showed off series regular Kasumi as well as a surprising guest character, Akira from Virtua Fighter. The trailer starts off by giving a quick rundown of a new stage, a wooden river raft area inside of a cave. The raft is initially stationery but once you knock your opponent into one of the walls it causes the raft to move downstream and it eventually goes outside, is broken apart and just hangs short of falling off of a waterfall. Dead or Alive has always been known for its large, multi-tiered stages and knowledge of your surroundings has generally played an important role during high-level matches. Dead or Alive 5 seems to up the ante by not just giving you large, static environments but by making parts of the stage actually break and change in real-time. When the raft reaches its destination at...

Ever wonder if game developers, studios, and/or publishers are storing the games they make for preservation of the future or not? Well John Andersen over at Gamasutra has, and asked various different developers from all over the globe in the past two years about what methods they utilize (if any) to storing their data.

Yosuke Hayashi responded as Team NINJA/Tecmo for their practice in Part 2 of the column. Below is a transcript of Hayashi's words, but if you're interested in seeing what other developers do and why this is important then I suggest you read over Part 1 and Part 2:

John Andersen said:

Yosuke Hayashi, leader of Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja, supports...

Click to expand...

GameSpot has put up a recording of Itagaki's panel where he discussed his story of finding Aerosmith and being deceived by Tecmo when developing Dead or Alive 2. It's about a 30 minute presentation that was titled "What we talk about when we talk about games". He even talks about deciding on switching to Xbox from the PlayStation 2. Stating he would leave the company if the business decided to go with the weaker PS2 platform, and his fight to use Aerosmith in both Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive 4 as a tribute to the band who saved his life and his family. He asks that anyone do what they want to do to make them and everyone happy, not just for self-satisfaction or monetary gain but to make something that can change an audience's life. If you'd like to listen to the entire video, head on over to GameSpot.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra.com, Yosuke Hayashi discussed the team's direction for both Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive.

Specifically, in regard to Dead or Alive he discussed how they want to make the series "high class". It's certainly a departure from the traditional Team NINJA, but only time will tell if it was worth the change:

Gamasutra said:

"We've always had the sex factor in the game; in the past, the female characters had to have big breasts, they had to have scanty dress," says Hayashi. "In DoA 5 especially, we're trying to focus on the real women that surround us; the voice of a female, the mannerisms. We are being realistic about it."

If Team Ninja's goal truly is to dignify the Dead or Alive franchise a bit, then it seems the team risks alienating some fans who may have just tuned in for the flesh parade. But...

Click to expand...

Dead or Alive fans have always wondered if Dead or Alive would get a "vs" style treatment in the vein of "Capcom vs SNK" or "Street Fighter X Tekken". Although the most common collaboration recommended is Virtua Fighter vs DOA, personally speaking I still don't believe it would set the world on fire in sales. However, Virtua Fighter's technical skills with DOA's flash could lead to a title that promotes both game franchises at the same time.

Although I'd still rather have a Soul Calibur vs Dynasty Warriors cross over title, Hayashi recently went on record in an EDGE Interview to say that a collaboration title is something the team would be interested in. He also brings up that Virtua Fighter was the first 3D game he played, lending credence to the VF vs DOA idea:

EDGE said:

In an interview, Hayashi told us: "In terms of collaboration titles, there are staff on our team who just love fighting games...

Click to expand...

NewbReview.com has released a nice article that helps break down the bad stereotypes of fighting game tournaments. The article is written by Jason Borlase who tells of his experiences in some of the most renown fighting game tournaments. I recommend it as a read to any friends who think that those who enjoy the tournament scene are egotistical, anti-social, and elitist. I honestly can't think of anyone who I've personally met that attended a true offline fighting game tournament and not been hooked. Here's a small excerpt but jump to the Full Article for a pleasant read:

Jason Borlase said:

...
Having entered two fairly large tournaments now and finishing in the top 16 of each (just thought that had to be...

Click to expand...

It looks like a photo of the controller configuration for the Dead or Alive 5 demo has been released. Some interesting things to observe:

• The "Power Blow" button does not give a macro'd button notation. It is still unconfirmed whether it is a button by itself or some macro command like .

• The advanced holds are confirmed to be mid punch and mid kick only. So could this mean that the Izuna Otoshi defensive hold has been nerfed to only occur in one of the five different holds instead of three of the four?

• The free step dodge (sidestep) has been confirmed to be using similar notation to the recently released Soul Calibur V - /

More info to come I'm sure as news from the upcoming two weeks of press tours continues.

Text added for News Article by...

I recently read a featured article on my personal favorite game developer website, Gamasutra, where TwitchTV employee Justin Kan discussed how they grew the company from its Justin.TV beginnings.

As an overview, he talks about the explosion of streams specifically designed to broadcast not only game competitions, but marathons as well. There is also talk about how some players have found some revenue in providing such streams, and how the developers can utilize streams to make effective marketing. For example, 8WayRun has been doing a 24/7 stream of the recently released Soul Calibur V game to provide more exposure to the game, its website, and the community all-in-one.

At the end of the article, Justin Kan writes about future SDKs provided that will allow streaming directly from a game - PC and console. It's certainly something I'd like to see utilized for Dead or Alive 5, especially if it's going after a...

Team NINJA head Yosuke Hayashi and Ninja Gaiden Director Fumihiko Yasuda were recently interviewed in the February issue of Nintendo Gamer magazine. It was a short interview but here are the two biggest answers out of it:

In answering a question about the Wii U in terms of difficulty in development, Fumihiko Yasuda responded the following:

Fumihiko Yasuda said:

“It’s very easy to develop for. We’re finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for the Xbox 360 and PS3. …They’ve asked us what we would like to see from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they’re definitely listening to it and making changes. The hardware is still constantly changing.

Click to expand...

The question on Dead or Alive 5's possible appearance on the Wii U was pitched to Yosuke Hayashi who actually took the time to answer:

Yosuke Hayashi said:

We’re thinking about all sorts of things. Right now, our Wii U development is focused just on Ninja Gaiden, but we’re definitely keeping...

Click to expand...

In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, four screens of the upcoming Dead or Alive 5 demo we haven't seen yet were displayed. In them you'll find what I think is Hitomi's win pose showing her all dirty, as well as three other screens of her vs Hayabusa and Hayate vs Ayane.

Page will be updated with higher resolution screens, should they appear.

Over here in the Dead or Alive community, many members think they're in a bubble - that everything that's "gone wrong" with this community, both from a casual and competitive standpoint, doesn't happen anywhere else. This is in part due to the size of the community and limited progression the community has had. However, those of us who have participated in the Fighting Game Community, branched into other games to competitively play, all while still holding a piece of ourselves to the Dead or Alive franchise, have known of the draws competitive play brings and how it turns out our community isn't much different from others. It's easy to think that you're the master of your domain, but not truly realize just how small your domain really is. The Dead or Alive community needs to grow, and the current form isn't able to sustain it - it hasn't been able to sustain it. I look forward to Dead or Alive 5's release, for if it's truly the competitive game Team NINJA wants it to be, then the...

New screens have been released today for Dead or Alive 5.

Most of you will probably notice that Ayane and Hitomi have lost some clothing in alternate outfits, and the breasts are back to their "traditional" sizes.

I'm not one to hate breasts, but they really do seem to detract from the rest of the pics. I honestly don't know who Hitomi is fighting as I can never focus my eyes on the opponent.

Personally, Ayane seems out of place in her DOA2U/4 ninja outfit. It appears out of place with the more realistic environments and character art.

What say you? Good or bad?

Team NINJA has announced that a demo of Dead or Alive 5 will be available via DLC from the Ninja Gaiden 3 packaging. There will be three separate demos available. The regular version of Ninja Gaiden 3 will contain either a demo of DOA5 with Hayate and Ayane playable, or Hayabusa and Hitomi playable. The collector's version of Ninja Gaiden 3 will contain a third demo that has all four characters playable, a NG3 figure, a NG3 artbook, and a NG3 soundtrack cd for the price of $100.

How the differring demos are dispersed depends on region:

North America will be receiving Ninja Gaiden 3 on March 20, 2012. Those who pre-order the title from Amazon will receive the Hayate and Ayane demo. Those who pre-order the title from GameStop will receive the Hayabusa and Hitomi demo. Those who pick up the Collector's Edition from GameStop will receive the All Character...

but it apparently is. It looks like Team NINJA has claimed on their twitter that they are implementing a sidestepping system that's similar to the North American beloved Dead or Alive 3.1 version. They also have mentioned on their twitter that Normal Holds will not hold Power Attacks, but "Expert" Holds (I still prefer the term Advanced Holds, personally) will. Most of the other posts can't be determined easily without an advanced translator - and Google Translator is far from advanced unfortunately. However, if you'd like to continue the discussion over the below twitter posts, head on over to the forums and participate in the speculation until Tecmo Koei posts the English translations.

[quote="Team NINJA...

According to the Tecmo Koei Europe Dead or Alive 5 page, the release date for Dead or Alive 5 is set for Winter 2012. At the time of posting, the date is still posted. Of course, most knowledgeable players will tell you that a fall/winter release was expected due to the timeline of announcing the title. So this is no surprise really, more of an affirmation. Still, I'm keeping the "Rumor:" tag up as it's not been confirmed in any way. I'm sure the release date will be announced with a more set in stone date as time goes by. For now, they need a placeholder for game stores to start taking pre-orders.

Yohei Shimbori was interviewed for a video in Games Radar. Nothing really new is said in the interview, but I just wanted to share a Shimbori article as they are so rare. For those that don't know, Shimbori is the director of the Dead or Alive franchise. He is one of the key figureheads for the game's design and flow. He joined Team NINJA shortly before the Dead or Alive 4 project began.

View the article here.

An interview with Hayashi has recently been posted on VentureBeat. In the article, Hayashi talks about the DOA5 and NG3 stories, DLC expectations, pushing the genre forward, and dealing with the idea of a crossover series with Tekken.

VentureBeat said:

Team Ninja studio head talks DLC costumes and Tekken vs. Dead or Alive
December 9, 2011 | Sebastian Haley

Team Ninja, an in-house development studio owned by Tecmo Koei, is best known for its work on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises. The last major entry in the Dead or Alive fighting game series, Dead or Alive 4, was released one month after the launch of the Xbox 360 in late 2005. Since then, Team Ninja has focused on ports, such as Dead or Alive Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS, Ninja...

Click to expand...

There's a lot of new buzz going around due to the recent Ninja Gaiden 3 and Dead or Alive 5 press event that happened yesterday in San Francisco, California. There's also been a lot of confusion on reports based on this new buzz. Unfortunately, Team NINJA stated they did not want high level players at this event to give their immediate feedback so we'll have to just try to decipher what all the reports are saying. However, GameSpot has put up a nice video talking about their impressions. The video can be found here, but below will be the list of features and gameplay changes made to the game mentioned in the video:

• The cliff feature has a QTE event that the one falling off can use to catch on and get back up.

• After catching the ledge, the attacking player has the option to either do an attack or a throw while the falling player gets back up. The attacker...

According to a recent quarterly analysis from Koei-Tecmo Global (Japan), Dead or Alive Dimensions has only managed to sell 310,000 copies in its lifetime. That's global numbers which include North America, Europe, Japan, and Asia.

The low number could be attributed to the weak sales of the Nintendo 3DS platform. A platform which has had trouble marketing itself to consumers.

Dead or Alive Dimensions released at the end of May. So the question remains, are you one of the 310,000 owners of the portable Dead or Alive? Do you still play your copy? or have you given up on your game and/or the Nintendo 3DS?

It's easy to be a fan of Dead or Alive if you're a fan of the fighting game genre. In that regard, it's nice to hear from other company developers and directors from time to time.

In a Capcom company interview with Yoshinori Ono (Director of Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken), Ono commented on the necessity of communication with your fans (and consumers) as well as a few other notable quotes:

Yoshinori Ono said:

- What’s the regional distribution of fans for this series like?
"Ono"
Generally, North America accounts for about 60%, Europe 30%, and Japan and Asia 10%.

- It seems that Street Fighter has been widely popular in North America for a number of years.

"Ono"
Part of this popularity stems from the past success of the series, but I think the major reason can be attributed to the strategy we...

Click to expand...