Team NINJA is Planning to Reboot Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden

Some breaking news has been released today during Team NINJA's keynote at the South Korea G-Star conference by Fumihiko Yasuda that Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden reboots will be the future of the company after the release of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty & Rise of Ronin. The final image presented in the breaking story has been translated by key individuals in our community including @WAZAAAAA and @Matt Ponton respectively:


DOAREBOOT.jpg

Team NINJA's Future - Reboot of Popular Series - Images of NINJA Gaiden & Dead or Alive

There is a lot of information in this story, and we will break all of it down here at Free Step Dodge, but this looks like extremely positive evidence of a future and now is probably not the time to leave the DOA community if you were planning to jump the fence. We've been covering Team NINJA's Fumihiko Yasuda all year and he checks all of the boxes of a proper president: he's been honest, he's developed legendary games, he's focused on the present and the future.

We don't know all of the details yet, but everyone interested should be inclined to give Yasuda a chance after (in all due respect) the marketing blunder that Yohei Shimbori was vacuumed into as Team NINJA director and producer for Dead or Alive 6. Shimbori was put into a position where he could not excel with DOA6 and was unfortunately retired because of it not to dampen the rest of his career which was a legendary run on his part.

If we find out in ANYWAY that these translations are inaccurate, we will remove them, but as of now they have been double checked, fact checked, site checked and approved for this story release. Also, it's important to consider that the term 'reboot' can mean a wide array of different things, some elements that could have negative impact and some elements that could have positive impact and we ask that you consider that when discussing the future of the games. Seeing as how Yasuda has been as transparent as he can be to a global audience; this is a good indicator of things to come.
 
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another team ninja press release to western media should clear things up , last time they said they're open to outsourcing legacy title to other companies
 

Maybe the context of that sentence and NOT the word in the middle of the image. From @WAZAAAAA :

hopium is off the charts cuz the last picture
Team NINJAの未来
人気シリーズのリブート

translates as this with Google
The future of Team NINJA
A reboot of a popular series

with Naver
The Future of Team Ninja
Popular Series Reboots

with Bing
The Future of Team NINJA
Rebooting the popular series

with Baidu
The future of Team NINJA
Restart of popularity series

Update: The Tweeter that wrote that just liked my correction btw. You're also free to translate the text here now that it's not in an image that I guess caused some people speculation. Not that REVIVE and REBOOT are far off course from each other anyway.
 
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Maybe the context of that sentence and NOT the word in the middle of the image:

hopium is off the charts cuz the last picture


translates as this with Google


with Naver


with Bing


with Baidu
I was thinking more in the context of them possibly having a journalist/insider at the conference to witness Yasuda speaking (although there isn't really much proof that they did, yet)
 
Tweet trying to debunk the word reboot (that was indeed a Korean translator) has now deleted the tweet after my correction. It's a reboot. Does anyone else want to question that?
I wasn't sharing to stir things up. Like others mentioned, that account linked an article by a Korean outlet so it seemed like good supplementary info.

Now all we wait is for Koei Tecmo to come forward and say something official for their western branches.
 
Do you think they will replace original voice actors with new ones?

Okay, Houko Kuwashima already replaced Sakura Tange in early 2000s, but you know what I mean.

Wakana Yamazaki (Ayane) is already 57, for instance.

If they plan the hard reboot, then...
 
If SC6 is really not only considered to be but was intended to be a reboot of SC, then yeah, that's a precedent that has me more positive about what a DOA reboot could be, a little.
oh lord we do not need them to steal anything from that game. lethal hits are the only good new mechanic and doa already kinda has those with crouch-counter fatal stuns and some tracking hit vs sidestep upgrades
 
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Do you think they will replace original voice actors with new ones?

Okay, Houko Kuwashima already replaced Sakura Tange in early 2000s, but you know what I mean.

Wakana Yamazaki (Ayane) is already 57, for instance.

If they plan the hard reboot, then...
I doubt they would replace some Voice Actors for their roles especially that most of the females keep their characters they voice.
 
oh lord we do not need them to steal anything from that game. lethal hits are the only good new mechanic and doa already kinda has those with crouch-counter fatal stuns and some tracking hit vs sidestep upgrades
I wasn't saying DOA should take anything gameplay-wise from SC6, I was saying that SC6 can be an example of how a fighting game "reboot" can be done in general. It's considered a return to form for the series by fans after SC5 wasn't received well by most fans, and it didn't throw mostly or everything out the window and start from scratch like some other reboots have in other series/genres.
 
My take on this is that it will be a nearly 100% female cast so they can definitively end the identity crisis they have been suffering for the last 10 years. They have never understood the western audience, despite it being their largest source of revenue, and it has been a constant source of drama for them in their inability to communicate and market clearly.

I think modern team ninja will be much happier releasing a strict budget, japan-focused IP (ie all boobs no mechanics) with absolutely no concern for how the west perceives it.

That is my prediction. I hope this prediction rings false, but I believe in my heart it is the most likely event.

Alternatively, they may look at the success of Nioh, which led to Wo Long and the upcoming Ronin game, and give it a more western appealing Japanese fantasy approach.
DOA works when it plays to the anime / martial arts action movie tropes.

It can have the serious fighter approach but be unabashed about also having fan service. If they just don't pretend the fanservice isn't going to be there, the vocal component of the community who wants that will be reassured and they can focus the rest of their press and marketing on cool characters, cool action and mechanics.

In summary, do they understand the western audience? Maybe their recent action games suggest they do?
 
Sadly not gonna happen. Talking to Japanese game dev friends of mine, they are adamant that Harada is 100% right that it's impossible to do rollback for a 3d fighter. Their reasonings are wrong but they have always been stubborn about it. Reasons include that hit capsules are tied to non deterministic animation and particle systems, so they say it's impossible.
What about guilty gear strive and dbfz, which are 3D models even if the game is viewed from 2d plane?
 
I think modern team ninja will be much happier releasing a strict budget, japan-focused IP (ie all boobs no mechanics) with absolutely no concern for how the west perceives it.
Lets not forget being free-to-play, along with Paid Gacha to get certain costumes that are exclusive to that system.

This is literally Venus Vacation. I know DOA fans have come to expect the worst but I see no reason to reboot the franchise to do the same thing again.
This is DOAX3 since it came out first in 2016 before DOAXVV was a thing, which that game had a strict budget (since they didn't include all the 15 DOA girls), and became a Japan-Focused IP (since KT Western Divisions chose not to publish DOAX3 in the West).

Hey, I'm even all for DOA and NG going Xbox exclusive again these days (well, Xbox and PC), or timed-exclusive I guess, but you know logically they wouldn't do what you or I would want to do... that kind of thing might only happen if they have some kind of partnership with MS again.
Even better, PC exclusive via DMM Games (since DOAXVV is usually the Number 1 game in the DMM Games website).
 
probably the best news I've heard about the game in a while, cuz DOA6 absolutely killed my love for the game. The terrible game launch, no tag, and they stripped the game of literally any creative combos and making anything that isnt a close hit combo a waste of time. Also, the new characters are so boring and completely uninspired. Here's hoping for something more akin to DOA5. DOA6 was pretty, and that's about it.
 
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