DOA5LR Tom Lee discusses Raidou, Honoka, and the Casual audience

In a recent article on Dead or Alive 5 Last Round by Siliconera, Tom Lee is interviewed and discusses some of the reasoning for Raidou's return and Honoka's selection. Be sure to read the whole article for full details, but here are some notable quotes by the Creative Director of Team NINJA:

I asked Lee why Team Ninja brought Raidou back. "Raidou was brought back because he is a fan favorite. Team Ninja definitely wants to see more villains in the line up. I personally love seeing more characters like this it brings balance to the cutesy girls [in Dead or Alive]," Lee replied.

Lee explained Team Ninja looks at stats and player feedback when creating new Dead or Alive fighters. Team Ninja’s data says in the Western market people have been playing wrestler type characters like Rig while in Japan they favor the female characters. "There are many guys on our team. I would like to see more characters like Raidou, for instance. But at the end of the day I think the numbers support the Honoka type of character," Lee said when talking about creating Honoka. "Maybe its a cultural difference, but sometimes in the East it’s dictated by aesthetics first and then the story is developed through character design. Rather than saying, the sister of so-and-so just got messed up by him, so let’s create a revenge story. Lots of times we review character designs and she seems like a 15 year old school girl, she’s coming home from school, let’s create a story about that."

"Interactive touch points have been switched up and added. Hot Zones have changed for some stages. There may be an addition to existing hot spots and it won’t be in all of the stages. Without telling you exactly where they are, we want fans who have been with us for the last two years to enjoy finding new things," Lee said.

Tom Lee also discussed the casual audience, sometimes eerily seeming like a direct response from Tomonobu Itagaki's recent comments towards the fifth entry of the series.

While it might feel broken for competitive players, one of the reasons why Danger Zone, a stage from the original Dead or Alive with explosive traps, was added was to appeal to casual players. "I think we learned is one of the things we wanted to do better is we’ve focused on giving competitive players. Making sure it’s balanced not just for players in the East, but players in the West. That was one of our biggest focuses in the last couple of years," Lee answered when I asked how Dead or Alive 5 evolved from from 2012 to now. "With Last Round, one of the things we wanted to do is not lose focus of our casual audience as well. When it comes to game balance and even the presentation of the stages we wanted to reel back and make the experience enjoyable for casual fans."

"We want to maintain that DOA has an easy point of entry for beginners. We want it to be an intuitive sort of experience instead of learning the move list for 30 different characters or whatnot. They can come in the beginning and button mash their way through, not only having success but looking good while you’re doing it. We want people to have a great time whether they understand a character or not. In mastering it, they will learn in trial and error," Lee elaborated.

Be sure to read the full article from Siliconera for further details.

 

That bit about the new interactive touch points they mentioned is interesting.

Could they be hinting that they brought back the back room in the rooftop area of the Crimson, or expanded that back room entirely?

I was curious about that. I just hope it is not over saturated in the game. Like exploding in spots that do not call for it.

 

And he clearly knows very little about DOA if he thinks Rig is a wrestler lol.

That was from the article writer. Not a direct quote from Lee. Lee may or may not have even mentioned Rig.

@werewolfgold where did you get that picture from? He looks just like this boy that goes to my college. Lol

I swiped it from one of my friends on Facebook. I have no idea who the person in the picture is. I feel like I get a lot of use out of the picture, though...

DOA is like being the most qualified applicant, but showing up to an interview in a string bikini.

Ha ha ha. I think we can all go home now.

I know plenty of Japs that aren't happy with AKB48, and they're over 18.

Whoa, bro. Let's try to keep racial slurs out of our forums, shall we?

 

Could they be hinting that they brought back the back room in the rooftop area of the Crimson, or expanded that back room entirely?

No, but it's possible they updated some stages to have Scramble's "Generator"-like explosions. Also, if you were fortunate enough to play some of the early demos of vanilla you might have possible ideas for danger zones that didn't make the cut at the time.

 

When Tom Lee mentions "new stages", I hope Burai Zenin is one of the classics that return.

 

So do we ignore the part where they talk about character popularity and why something like Honoka exists? Or discuss why we're at this point? Or do we talk about the parts that make you feel comfortable?

Speculating about the new interactive hot spots in the existing stages sounds safe.

I wasn't banned for discussing that yet.

 

Anyway, I'm excited to look for some of the environmental changes. My guess is damage buffs on most of the powerblow environments. They look spectacular and should do more damage in my opinion. Not to mention they rarely seem to happen in competitive play (helicopter, boulder, clown cannon) but maybe buffs will give more incentive to think of those particular things.

The clown cannon, according to the balance adjustments was buffed significantly. Hopefully that is a hint of things to come.

Though I think that would also mean for a Power Launcher buff to balance out both of the "power" mechanics.

 

Speculating about the new interactive hot spots in the existing stages sounds safe.

I wasn't banned for discussing that yet.

I'm not sure why they're getting around to telling us this a week before release.

 

I'm not sure why they're getting around to telling us this a week before release.

Part of the fun is finding out things on your own. It's boring if they tell you everything straight up. Fans like discovering little things on their own, such as the new tag intros and victory poses.

 

No, but it's possible they updated some stages to have Scramble's "Generator"-like explosions. Also, if you were fortunate enough to play some of the early demos of vanilla you might have possible ideas for danger zones that didn't make the cut at the time.

are you talking just the initial explosion or all of the absurdity that happens afterwords?

 

the bounce explosion. Like the taxi at the bottom of Crimson.

 

I just read the full article. Apparently, PS4/XONE users will may get new stages/characters in the future. That doesn't affect me, since I'm in 360, but they are very good news

 

I just read the full article. Apparently, PS4/XONE users will may get new stages/characters in the future. That doesn't affect me, since I'm in 360, but they are very good news

Hmm... We'll see about that.

 

This is probably my last thought on this. I just reread the article and I think he always comes off as approachable and well-spoken. I don't know why we don't see more of him. It would be kind of cool to see him more often getting interviews and stuff.

 

Well that was interesting.

First off, I love how the writer and Tom Lee both note the actual mechanical differences in Honoka and Raidou's styles, despite both being Dural-type fighters: Raidou being a long-range powerhouse and Honoka being a close-range speedster. It's also nice to see how Lee addresses the character situation in regards to the release of an update.

The tweaking/addition of stage effects will be interesting, too. I'm not sure how much they'll affect stage balancing, but it'll be nice to see some changes to the older stuff.

As for Danger Zone, I can't hate on it. If the entire cast can get borked Home-styled damage, then let me just cue up the obvious background music for the eventual combo video.

 

i've seen more maturity on the eventhubs comments then on here, wow i got a headache and i agree with @HoodsXx for any stray person who reads this will think badly of this community especially with how this blew up here.

 

i've seen more maturity on the eventhubs comments then on here, wow i got a headache and i agree with @HoodsXx for any stray person who reads this will think badly of this community especially with how this blew up here.

Don't get me started on EH. I'm a mod there. Let's not talk about this anymore.

 

Since there will be more DLC in the future, what stages do you guys want? I hope Burai Zenin makes it.

I'd rather have some new stages.

That said, DOATECH - HK from DOA3.

I'm curious. Tom is saying they are going by what sells, but what ARE The Japanese opinions on the stages? I don't think that's ever come up.

Anyone else think they're secretly developing 6? The only evidence against this is stage DLC. It wouldn't make sense for them to release stages in LR when they could save it for 6.

Still though, it would be more efficient to start developing it now while they have the resources to do so. Not to mention if they do it this way once they eventually stop releasing DLC for LR the next game may not take that long after to be released.

I think they will start within the next year. After all, Last Round is purely a promotional port for next gen.

That bit about the new interactive touch points they mentioned is interesting.

Could they be hinting that they brought back the back room in the rooftop area of the Crimson, or expanded that back room entirely?

I hope so.

This is probably my last thought on this. I just reread the article and I think he always comes off as approachable and well-spoken. I don't know why we don't see more of him. It would be kind of cool to see him more often getting interviews and stuff.

Agreed. from the few responses I've seen him make, I like Tom.

I seriously like how Tom blatantly says he hopes to have more Raidou like badasses though. I wonder if he would have preferred the actual Tengu over Nyo? Though obviously we know why she was made, but he did say he'd like more villains.

How many villains do we really have so far anyway? Christie, Rig, Raidou, are definite yes, with P4, Nyo, Marie and Lisa all being muddy.

Spoiler

I will never stop hoping for Nicole to return somehow, like Tengu and Raidou did. She's definitely fit the criteria, and could be a villain to boot

 

Whew, this thread was a rollercoaster from start to finish...

 

Ayane (PHASE-GENRA)? I mean she got the saber.

I liked Genra's image quite a bit. The tall, imposing Samurai-Ninja hybrid thing he had going on was unique. Giving it to Ayane makes sense from a story point of view, but I'd be just as happy if they asspulled a Genra lookalike out of nowhere from some broken seal like Tekken did with Jinpachi.

If you're going to make a fortress style character who is heavy on projectile and windup they need to be imposing. Ayane is kinda short for that.

 

I like Tom Lee's philosophy regarding DOA, both respecting the casual and competitive crowds. He kinda always had the best marketing approach in my opinion, always courteous and optimistic in speech even when some fans can be annoying sometimes.

Also this could mean Aerial Gardens still have a chance. I'd feel greedy asking for more DLCs, but that stage...

I've missed that thread, I'm gonna read those 9 pages.