virtuaPAI said:
-You are absolutely correct in stating that SS is not perfect in DOA5/5U. However, it is far from shit-useless. The truth of the matter, the last time SS(FS-Dodging) had any effective use in competitive DOA play was over 8 years ago. No one except the very few who have stayed with the series remember its usage. Shit, I made it very known you can Side step and even Free Step Dodge in 3.1(The very name sake of this site we are currently using!). Even I have trouble implimenting it into My game. Not because I cannot effectively use it, but because it is currently foreign to My style of play. It is in fact foreign to all the top players as well. The look and feel of high level play is dictated by those high level players. Trust, once its adopted by them, it will be a mainstay gameplay mechanic.
-I do not know if you were here for the transition between DOA2U to DOA4. For the first 2 or so years, everyone played the game like it was DOA2U. Than the top players like Rikuto, Mamba and Perfect Legend came to the realization that the game had to be played guess heavy, with the abandoment of all learned previous DOA skill. What's in bold is paramount! 7 years of this forced bad habitual play stunted the growth of the competitive community. Now with DOA5/5U, the competitive scene is relearning what is true DOA play. It is going to take 2 or so years(I pray for a much shorter recovery) for the look and feel of High Level play to excel.
I came from a SoulCalibur background so I know what effective sidestepping looks like. DOA3 did have decent sidestepping mechanics but DOA4 ruined that. So DOA5 did kinda feel back to square one in that regard.
I was essentially eluding to notion that sidestepping appears useless in DOA5 because of the lack of proper distinction between linear and non-linear strings. The Move Details specifically labels moves as "Tracking" or "Non-Tracking", however, I have constantly been hit by strings that have no moves classified as "tracking" while performing sidesteps. In SC, or even Tekken, if you sidestep a linear string, NO part of the string retracks into you.
The reason why sidestepping isn't utilized more is because it feels like there is unnecessary risk attached to its usage with all the retracking on linear strings. I can guarantee in a year or 2, sidestepping won't be utilized much more than it has already been. It also doesn't help that sidestepping is complete ass online too, hence why characters like Kokoro can feel like a pain in the ass to fight, when in reality, she's below average offline. Don't forget also that the average DOA player kinda just mashes buttons instead of technical fighting. In about 1 or 2 years, that probably won't change much.
However, I'd love to be proven wrong in this regard and would be all for sidestepping being an integral part of DOA5U play (hence why I prefer 3D fighters to 2D fighters), but with the current direction the series is going in, I can't see that happening. My top two things to be updated in DOA5U is a more effective sidestep mechanic and a faster crouch speed.
David Gregg said:
Now it all makes sense! I never knew that (not being sarcastic).
LOL!