My personal ... also similar people.
I agree with everything you said, and I'm going to extend the following part.
I repeat that in all this is a shame that the good old casual aspects of the game - part of the identity of the series - were partially forgotten, otherwise we fans would have got a perfect DoA (at least in my opinion). And appear even a shame that just with DoA5, dicatated from the new policy of the producers, there is a bigger focus on the sexy elements that cover the rest of the game in the title that has to offer the most technical elements in the series. However TN seems aware that DoA5 is missing the first ones and I'm optimistic for seeing back an attention on these matters in future (not in DoA5LR but rather in a new title as DoA6).
People should also understand the position they were in too. It is my belief that the change in stage, music, and art direction was trying to make a statement: That this is not the same Team NINJA that was with Itagaki. Yes, I believe you can take that statement in the negative and the positive, but the point was made that this was a relatively new team extending the franchise. They didn't want to use the same character models that had been in use for nearly 10 years, or even the same menu user interface since Dead or Alive 3, and the system was not going to be a DOA4.4. They decided to actively listen to the playerbase that plays their game more than any other, that's something Itagaki would never do. Yes, he used competitive "Virtua Fighter" balance testers for DOA4, but that's like getting Guilty Gear balance testers for Street Fighter 4.
Lastly, I believe that they didn't want to make the stages orthodox in design. I believe that it had to do with
a combination of many things. One of which was probably Koei's frugal finances and micro-management. A project has the combination of Time, Money, and Scope. Further, it's my theory that Koei cut the development of DOA5 short, by about a year (The same can probably be said for NG3). That's why DOA5 Ultimate came out, and I accept that as what we
should have recieved as the "vanilla" DOA5, and what was most likely planned. Koei I believe does not care for the Dead or Alive series as a design, and that's most likely due to it not being one of
their core games, but a series by
the weak company they purchased. Notice, Dynasty Warriors has many female characters, and actually has a huge following in Asia, but there aren't any "towel" or "bikini" packs for that game. That's something I'm sure they know would bring them money, but sadly, I don't think the Koei founders would approve of the shamefulness in
their game. However, it's okay to be done in
that other game series.
With that said, the "casual" DLC content such as the bikinis and "sexy" packs bring in a
lot of money for Koei-Tecmo. Trust me, if it weren't selling we'd be stuck with DOA5 v1.01 and would have never seen Ultimate, Last Round, Arcade, or any of the updates. Those casual purchasers are what keeps funding the balance updates to our game. You would prefer games like Soul Calibur V which were left with two patches that crippled the competitive system (by accounts of what I've seen/heard from players)? I sure wouldn't. The competitive community has been the largest it's ever been, and has had pretty consistent tournament results (of which is around six to ten times the amount previous iterations had).
