Tomonobu Itagaki On Dead or Alive 5: “My Daughter Was Totally Ruined”

[KasumiLover]

I am so thankful Hayashi created Marie Rose~! The first time I saw her I knew the moment I would be maining her for sure! as she is a very adorable cutesy fighter!
DOA5 would totally not be the same without Marie Rose! She is a great addition to the game.

I wonder what Itagaki thinks of Marie Rose...or for that matter, all the females he hasn't created. He's mentioned Kasumi and stuff, but has never addressed the new females at all.

 

[deathofaninja]

I like vibrant colors, but I disagree with sooo many games being nitty gritty. At one point I thought too many games had that anime style and it started to annoy the shit out of me.

What I want from Itagaki is a more concrete interview... he's now talking about Dead or Alive. So talk about Dead or Alive. Tell us how Dead or Alive 5 made your daughter sad. I want details if you're going to "bash" a great game.

The only reason I go crazy on Team NINJA is because I want them to do something they don't do enough: raise the voices of their own personal selves. Yes, Koei sucks as a company. I personally despise this company, and their crappy warrior games that are the same fucking thing every year... obviously they have a lot to do with it. At some point Team NINJA has to stick up for themselves and what they believe in.

DLC isn't the problem. Yeah it sucks, but people buy it and they need that money. Like I always say, buying DLC is like buying The Arthur stuffed animal from channel 10 for $100. You're making a donation, in an exchange you get an outfit.

 

[JIX9ISLER1986]

Interesting….

lots of damage control in the comments i see…..

(i personally don't feel doa5 ''ruined'' the series i wouldn't go that far..however its funny how i didn't hear anyone bad mouthing itagaki when he was with team ninja)

i wanna know what he has to say about ninja gaiden 3
doa5 was underwhelming to me but it didn't ''ruin'' the franchise

If you need to make 3 versions of the same game to keep it relevant I'm not interested……on to the next fighting game

 

[Argentus]

So a casual then, gotcha!

I find it interesting that the more casual players tend to prefer DOA4 and the competitive players tend to prefer DOA5. DOA5 can't be that bad...

Doa5 has the vf syndrome. It may be superior on a purely technical level, but its ugly and bland, relative to past DOA games.

DOA5 isn't bad; People will complain because it now requires you to know a little something about the games mechanics and have fundamentals to do well instead of touching somebody once then getting a 35%+ combo off stun > launch or getting braindead okizeme (*COUGH* DOA4 *COUGH* force tech system is dumb this is not a 2D fighter.) Don't even get me started on the hold damage from past games outside of 3. In 3 I accept the hold system because hi counter throw is doing like half life so ggs trying to hold somebody when you have less than half life left. In DOA2 hold damage was rivaling or outdoing strike combo damage on some if not all characters. That....is a problem.

Few things.

1) disagree on stun combos. In doa5 they can get pretty ridiculous, and the game can get pretty mindlessly easy when it comes to that.

2). Agree that force tech system is retarded, which goes along with point one.

3). Hold damage should be relative to what the attack actually is. Like Leon and Bayman have bone breaking holds. Should do a ton of damage. But simple strike holds like Hitomi and Christie have shouldn't do much

DOA5 is doing so much better compared to the other DOA titles.
I totally agree with you on the stage thing.
Itagaki didn't design Marie Rose. I really love how her costume 1 turned out, it's really beauitful!
Her moveset is pretty fun & cool! She has very fun taunts. Her Japanese voice actor did an excellent job!

This just proves Team Ninja puts their heart & soul into DOA5. not only big jiggly boobs.
However the new female character might have "Big jiggly boobs" but she might be an interesting character? or she has an interesting moveset!

Itagaki would only destroy DOA.

I wasn't aware Marie rose was "designed". Looked more like they just googled "loli" lol.

Hayashi and them may be better on technical gameplay (except for retarded things like Power Attacks and Force techs, which are only there to cater to marvel spazzes, but they NEED Itagaki back to make it look good. He had the mojo. Without him the game is ugly and lifeless, with bad music and terrible stage design.

 

[deathofaninja]

How the hell is DOA ugly and bland? Have you seen the characters up close? They are gorgeous. DOA has always set the bar for graphics in fighting games, and everyone knows it.

I don't think Last Round sets the bar for PS4 and ONE, but it's not a completely new DOA game.

 

[Kodachi]

DOA5 isn't ugly it just doesn't have the same atmosphere as the previous games

 

[Force_of_Nature]

I agree with everything you said, and I'm going to extend the following part.



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).

There's so much win in this post that it makes me feel giddy on the inside. Pretty much everything revolving around DOA5 makes sense now. I can tolerate the fetish DLC if it means we get an $8000+ pot bonus at TFC every year along with general support for the offline scene such as The Road to TFC. For every thing that DOA4 has over DOA5, DOA5 probably has 3 things over DOA4 in return.

SCV in contrast suffered heavily when Bamco stopped supporting it after July 2012.

 

[Argentus]

How the hell is DOA ugly and bland? Have you seen the characters up close? They are gorgeous. DOA has always set the bar for graphics in fighting games, and everyone knows it.

I don't think Last Round sets the bar for PS4 and ONE, but it's not a completely new DOA game.

DOA5 isn't ugly it just doesn't have the same atmosphere as the previous games

....really?

Oh yeah, lookit those amazing 1999 worthy graphics...

Literally the only thing that looks good in DOA is the updated faces. Everything else is muddy, both in palette, and resolution, most stages are just a brown box, menus are ugly, character models are low poly (I was in Camera mode and noticed that the panties are extremely detailed and high res...but the butt hanging out of them had only like 5 polys total, while the clothes OVER the panties were really low resolution)

DOA5 came out in 2012 and somehow (Except for the new faces) managed to look far uglier than a game almost ten years older than it.


I'll atmosphere can be a dealbreaker, but its more than that. The game is outright really ugly, with low res textures all over the place, muddy effects, low poly details, etc.


They need Itagaki back to make it look good. I would be okay with him not controlling the mechanics (Unless he wanted to get rid of the Power Blow/Launcher and Force Tech nonsense, then I vote him right to the top), but let him control EVERYTHING ELSE. Let him run the front end. Say what you will, but the man has style, and excellent taste in art.

 

[Force_of_Nature]

-_- Dude...

You must not play any other fighters if you think DOA5 is "ugly". It could be more vibrant and "colourful" yes, but ugly it is not.

 

[David Gregg]

What I love too is how people always zoom in really close to the characters or ground in order to prove the graphics are sh*tty. There are many more fighting games that are far worse off and you just don't realize it because they don't provide a zoom-in camera mode.

 

[Argentus]

-_- Dude...

You must not play any other fighters if you think DOA5 is "ugly". It could be more vibrant and "colourful" yes, but ugly it is not.

This isn't in comparison to other fighters. (I will say I still consider soul calibur one of the prettiest fighters, especially 4.)

This is comparison to past DOAs. Past DOAS looked ahead of their time, while DOA5 looks like a much older game (aside from the faces). DOA4 was a much better looking game. DOA3's stages looked better then, than they do in Doa5. Etc.

What I love too is how people always zoom in really close to the characters or ground in order to prove the graphics are sh*tty. There are many more fighting games that are far worse off and you just don't realize it because they don't provide a zoom-in camera mode.

um....no. Just generally having the environment in view will do the trick. It doesn't that, thanks to most of the DOA5 stages being simple box squares, the floors are one big flat texture, so its even more noticeable. Rather than say, past stages, where the areas are broken up with various different floors and details.

 

[Force_of_Nature]

If you care so much about the older DOA's, here's a thought, go back and play DOA4 and just ignore DOA5. IMHO, DOA4 is outdated as hell by today's standards for fighters (I also prefer DOA5's character models tenfold to the blah-looking "dollface" characters).

And yes, DOA5 looks better than the other 3D fighters, especially when in motion. I'm around a lot of other FG's in my scene so I'm not just spewing shit.

 

[Chapstick]

I know this is a picture of his tail but every time I glance over it, it looks like Leon has his junk hanging out

 

[Argentus]

I know this is a picture of his tail but every time I glance over it, it looks like Leon has his junk hanging out

aaaaand can't unsee.

I was trying to show how simplistic that tail was lol. Just a single plane, bent in a U shape, then curved. no actual model to it.

 

[Force_of_Nature]

I know this is a picture of his tail but every time I glance over it, it looks like Leon has his junk hanging out

World's Strongest Package.

 

[Kronin]

I agree with everything you said, and I'm going to extend the following part.

By the way sorry for all my grammar mistakes in the previous post, English is not my native language (but I don't consider it as an excuse).

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.

I agreee and just as further confirmation of this modus operandi I still remember a relative anecdote from old interview of TN (I believe from Hayashi about NG3), where it was stated how originally the team was thinking to create an original presentation for the them just for pointing up better their break with the past, but in the end they opted to leave the historical one with the "stormy sea".

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.

Sadly this is basically the thought of @MASTER on the Koei relationship with Tecmo and Team Ninja... Sometimes I ask myself what would have been the current scenario if Tecmo in 2008 would have accepted the friendly takeover proposed by Square-Enix. Koei made its move during those days giving a counterpropose to Tecmo that ended to be accepted, but if their plans were just these ones...

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).

Again right: from a side I would love to get different and more various contents but from another I recognize the value of the DLC that we got so far as support for the rest of the game.

I know this is a picture of his tail but every time I glance over it, it looks like Leon has his junk hanging out

It was just my first thought too XD

 

[just_me]

Is Devil's Third close to release (or at least to close to a final release date)? Since he's seriously trying to get some attention.

Not sure if he's in any position to talk... it's been a while since he made a game and even longer since he made a good game.
DoAX2 was just... bad...
I guess DoA4 and NG2 are still half decent, but still a significant step down from past iterations.
Devil's Third does not look like a milestone in gaming history either (probably not bad tho... Nintendo rescued the project afterall)

 

[MeadowSpirit]

This isn't in comparison to other fighters. (I will say I still consider soul calibur one of the prettiest fighters, especially 4.)

This is comparison to past DOAs. Past DOAS looked ahead of their time, while DOA5 looks like a much older game (aside from the faces). DOA4 was a much better looking game. DOA3's stages looked better then, than they do in Doa5. Etc.


um....no. Just generally having the environment in view will do the trick. It doesn't that, thanks to most of the DOA5 stages being simple box squares, the floors are one big flat texture, so its even more noticeable. Rather than say, past stages, where the areas are broken up with various different floors and details.

I disagree with pretty much everything you say. Your criticisms are ridiculous and hyperbolic. You can keep your old DOA games. DOA5 looks amazing and it's a tonne of fun to play. DOA5U is the first DOA game that I've actually loved and wanted to master. If Itagaki were to return to this series by some miracle (and make it Xbox exclusive probably, too) I'd drop this series entirely and go back to Capcom and Namco fighting games.

 

[Hayabusiness]

Is Devil's Third close to release (or at least to close to a final release date)? Since he's seriously trying to get some attention.

Not sure if he's in any position to talk... it's been a while since he made a game and even longer since he made a good game.
DoAX2 was just... bad...
I guess DoA4 and NG2 are still half decent, but still a significant step down from past iterations.
Devil's Third does not look like a milestone in gaming history either (probably not bad tho... Nintendo rescued the project afterall)

Actually, a sort of Off Topic information for every one of you who is interested and might not know:

Apparently, the E3 video of Devil's Third and its screenshots that float around the web look very different from the game's current graphics, which have been improved.

Take this with a grain of salt.
But Nintendo is financing and probably helping the project, so I'd expect them to be extra meticulous and severe on how the final product will look and play.

 

[Rikuto]

Interesting….

lots of damage control in the comments i see…..

(i personally don't feel doa5 ''ruined'' the series i wouldn't go that far..however its funny how i didn't hear anyone bad mouthing itagaki when he was with team ninja)

i wanna know what he has to say about ninja gaiden 3
doa5 was underwhelming to me but it didn't ''ruin'' the franchise

If you need to make 3 versions of the same game to keep it relevant I'm not interested……on to the next fighting game

I guess Street Fighter isn't relevant either eh. Oh wait, they had 4 versions.

Some of us actually like the fact we have a method to get new content every year. It's much better than getting no content. They aren't even full priced games at this point.

Now if you're the type of individual who dabbles into a game and hardly plays it then yes, I could see having a new game come out every year as being annoying. But the people who actually do play it are usually quite happy to receive updates.

And hey, there is always the free version for folks who just don't want to play it that much.