DOA: Prototype Discussion

[grap3fruitman]

First off: No, no prototype version of the original DOA has been found. Sorry for getting your hopes up.

Anyway, protos fascinate me to no end, they really do. Take a gander at this DOA1 poster:

It's the earliest build showcased and features four characters on a single stage (sound familiar?). The characters are Kasumi, Jann Lee, Kelly and Bayman. This single poster is probably the most interesting piece of prototype DOA media out there and it doesn't quite get the attention it should.

• Jann Lee looks basically like himself. His model appears to be basically identical to his final counterpart with some minor exceptions to his out. In the final, this is his C2 and is missing the shoes (moved to C1), his red highlights have turned white and he gained a flowing belt.

• Bayman is only seen in two small screenshots however he seems bulkier, his outfit doesn't quite match any in the final and he's missing his hat!

• Kasumi doesn't at all resemble her final self outside of those ridiculously large breasts and an outfit that's sort of similar in cut to her final but that's it.

• Kelly isn't even in the final game! He resembles Jann Lee too much and likely turned into who is now Zack.

The second most interesting prototype image is the one below, it's artwork for all of the characters just mentioned and then some. You can see that all four characters strongly resembling this early artwork. Especially Bayman, who looks identical in build and appearance to the image in the top right. Who is this youngster having a seat? If someone could provide translations for the articles of text to give us a little more insight then that would be much appreciated.

 

[grap3fruitman]

I'm reserving this spot for tomorrow. I plan on putting up more information here, including some more evidence suggesting Kelly turned into Zack and Bayman's original name, Gatby, and items pointing to the origin of his codename "Bayman."

 

[Matt Ponton]

Looking closely Bayman has his beret. The other character is kenji.

 

[UncleKitchener]

^^ not sure if that is intentional or not.

So this was initially 3D KOF/RB/FF with Joe, Mai and hairy Clark.

 

[Matt Ponton]

^^ not sure if that is intentional or not.

I presume you meant my misspelling of Bayman. Yeah, my phone did that: Autocorrect.

 

[PhoenixVFIRE]

Just out of curiosity..do think some characters we have now were already made back then, but never made the final cut or were changed repeatedly until they got the desired product? I dare say the kid sitting down looks like a variation of Eliot except more buff and adult-like. It honestly, wouldn't surprise me if a lot of these fighting game makers have tons of different characters that never make the final cut because of one reason or another.

 

[Allan Paris]

Who knows, they may have characters in stock and just don't know what to do with them. I would assume a big company like TN has character concepts for days. Character designers push out characters constantly until something is finally decided on.

I believe your imagination wants that character to look like Elliot. He resembles him in no way, shape, form, or fashion.

 

[Berzerk!]

This is cool. Great finds.

 

[PhoenixVFIRE]

I believe your imagination wants that character to look like Eliot. He resembles him in no way, shape, form, or fashion.

Hence, variation. I'm not saying it is him, in fact, I'd be willing to bet anything that the character has no relation to him at all. He reminds me of Eliot because the character seems like a teenage boy. His posture seems like Eliot's personality(Unsure, why me, always putting himself down, as Ayane said to Eliot, "Get a grip."). Obviously, I put too much thought into this. Anyway, it doesn't matter, he just reminded me of Eliot when I saw the picture.

Cool book

 

[grap3fruitman]

The DOA History Team Ninja freaks has even more old basic, generic archetype character artwork. I'll finish up my post with other finds as well as posting that sometime soon.

 

[Dutch Samurai]

If you look at Kelly's face he bears more than a passing resemblance to Jim Kelly martial artist and actor with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

 

[Shinigamimatt]

Interesting. Man, am I glad they changed Kasumi. That prototype is horrible.

 

[Dutch Samurai]

It reminds me of some white girl doing bad Mai cosplay.

 

[grap3fruitman]

Here's an interesting video of an early build of the original DOA:

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It's still very early but it's newer than the build in the poster and screenshots in the original post of this thread. We're still left with a single stage but there are two significant items to note: Lei-Fang has been added and Kelly has been removed. A much more minor item but Bayman has his beret now as well but it's a different color than in the final for this outfit.​

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How do we know that's Kelly's out? Look closely at the poster everyone else is looking at the 30 second mark:​

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Enhance!

Out of the six characters there, no one resembling Kelly or Zack is present. However, there still appears to be an unusual character in between Kasumi, Lei Fang and Jann Lee.

Here's a recreation of the poster that should make things a little easier to identify:

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I thought for a second that it may have been Hayabusa but it didn't quite match up. You know who it more closely resembles?

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I'm kind of speculating that perhaps Raidou wasn't originally intended to be the final boss but just a regular character.​

 

[grap3fruitman]

I've scanned all of the concept art found in the Video Game Magazine Gamest Mook Vol. 57 - Dead or Alive, which is a guide for the original arcade version of Dead or Alive. It even includes frame data for the arcade version of the game! How nuts is that? Anyway, enjoy!

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I've got more concept art in other DOA1 guides that I'll get around to scanning at some point or another.

 

[TRI Mike]

I thought Kelly would have been a girl.

 

[KwonJigglypuff]

So we got Zack instead of Kelly. Does this mean we would have had a serious Muay Thai fighter instead ?
I'm sure only a few people in TN's current team know about him.

The guy with the glasses would make a nice rival for Eliot though. And Jann Lee's blonde hair is.. interesting.
Thanks for the scans.

 

[grap3fruitman]

So we got Zack instead of Kelly. Does this mean we would have had a serious Muay Thai fighter instead?

If you've played the older DOA games, Zack was a pretty serious Muay Thai fighter with an attitude. He had a small funny side to him too but it's only very recently that they made him an actual clown... I think DOA4 and DOA5 are the very worst portrayals of Zack.

Jann Lee's blonde hair is.. interesting.

Maybe they thought it would have been too similar to...

 

[synce]

Cool scans. You're right about Kelly being turned into Zack due to similarities with Jann Lee. The guy with the beanie and glasses is Kenji. It says he was supposed to be the protagonist but they decided on Kasumi instead.

Oh yeah the other stuff is just personal comments. The artist had weight problems and self doubt issues, or something like that.

 

[KwonJigglypuff]

Kenji... never heard of him ! Would be great to have him someday!