Yohei Shimbori Now Works on Tekken 8

There was no intention of me writing this as a professional news article because I really am in distinct shock, and I'm sure there will be more articles pertaining to Yohei Shimbori in the near future that will go that route but for now let's just take it in as the holy shit moment that it is.

At first, I will admit that I had to check multiple sources to believe this was real, but Yohei Shimbori is now a Producer/Director Assistant for Tekken 8. Now I think while that it is indeed a surprise; it should not be of a surprise to most of us because of all of the signs Dead or Alive players have seen throughout the development cycle of Tekken 8. This brand jump to say the least has made things interesting as there are going to be a lot of former doubters or even advocates of Shimbori at Koei Tecmo thinking "well maybe it's time we show the world we don't need Shimbori" or "this might be a way to open up business and make some real fucking money."

While I was scrolling through the responses on X I saw a lot of mixed emotions from the Dead or Alive community, but perhaps the smartest response was from FSD Nichol (give this guy a follow) that stated:

The DOA players had it right the whole time. Crazy new environmental interactions, unbreakable throws on counter, stuff we have been trained to deal with for quite some time. Happy to see where Shimbori ended up after that fiasco with KT! Looking forward to Tekken 8.

The genius behind Katsuhiro Harada was to theoretically state that if you don't see the value in Shimbori and if you don't want him; I'll take him. That being said this opens an entirely new level of business if Koei Tecmo and Bandai Namco can come to some terms. It would mean opening the Tekken roster to Dead or Alive characters; and now that they have Shimbori even the most purist of the DOA fandom would jump to the opportunity to play.

Even if Dead or Alive 6 was met with a mixed reaction, it doesn't mean that Yohei Shimbori can't recover his career in a different way and despite my personal feelings (and many others) I hope that he succeeds, and I hope the people upstairs are open to making good business decisions that would satisfy both fanbases.

 

The DOA4 US ad is sick could use less Eliot though kek

Yeah, Nora from Tecmo USA told me specifically that due to finding the competitive players and Itagaki getting VF JP players to test the game, they wanted to showcase not the sex appeal for DOA4's marketing. It's honestly the way that they should have done DOA6's marketing, where you don't say you're *removing* anything but you just don't focus on it and showcase the cool stuff instead.

 

Is this the primary point you are tying to make? DOA never needed one in the entirety of its existence and it’s one of many reasons DOA wasn’t played in arcade by many.

Yeah DOA never needed a release in arcades back in 1996. Tecmo would have turned out just fine. What were they thinking when all those competitive players didn't need it?

The point I thought you were trying to make was that DOA3’s sales should have meant a bigger offline scene.

Yes that is part of the mystery I am trying to solve.

Per wikipedia, DOA3 is #7 on the list for best selling Xbox video games. DOA was huge. It was synonymous with Xbox. That was the fighting game you bought if you owned the console, much like how Tekken was to PlayStation and Melee/SC2 was to GameCube. Surely people didn't just buy DOA3 as a technical demo to show off the Xbox to family and friends.

But only a handful of players in Texas and East Coast? It's just weird. Granted the internet was a lot different in 2001 (would be interested if there was ever a Usenet group for DOA) so harder to organize offline I suppose. It was also a vastly different era of gaming back then too.

I wonder how well DOAU sold. vgchartz showed half a million but they could have pulled that estimate out of their ass for all we know.

 

You have to remember that the FGC was way smaller in the early 2000s before Street Fighter 4 released. Typically you'd only hear of events through forum posts. A "Major" event would be having 30 people for the "main" game, and regionals getting 100. Back then it was considered your game is "Good enough" if it got 100 people for Evo, and was a "sure lock" for the next year's lineup.

The other part of it is that the DOA community was never welcomed as part of the FGC. You were laughed at if you said you played DOA seriously. Then there was its stigma as "not being a real fighting game" because "You just have to press one button to parry anything even in stun." However wrong they were, that was the response you'd typically get from the average competitive fighting game player back then. That's why 2U brought in a boost to the offline community because players could at least meet up online with other players and level each other up whereas previously you generally were the best DOA player in your city.

 

First of all, fuck the FGC. They are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. They'll openly coom to DOA characters while bashing the games that they've never played. They tried to claim the "Core Values" as the FGC meme, and they didn't bother to back DOA6 or push people to play it. Now there may never be another Core Values moment again.

Secondly, "being laughed at for taking DOA seriously." Matthew, aren't you proving these haters right with taking DOA3++ to tournaments (and I'm sure revan's wet dream of having Hoodless take 6++ to Frostys)? It's like an admission the vanilla version of these games are not worth taking seriously within a competitive environment. Frankly I don't like this perception because not only does it harm the players who have invested their time to get good at them, but it also undermines any of the competitive integrity these games have. I know how you're going to respond "But its 99% the same game" but that's not the point. How come DOA players have to take a modded version of their games to tournaments when nobody else does it? Super Turbo and 3S are still played at tournaments despite the obvious issues with both (and they also have fan hacks of each). I get it, you like 3++ a lot and want to spread the gospel, but I don't see how that's going to help reduce the stigma against it.

If both 6++ and 3++ end up in tournaments together it would be the most humiliating thing to happen to this series. Far more damaging than old television ads and what KT could do. Granted the FGC as a whole is an embarrasment in a lot of ways but that's a different story.

 

It fucking matters because I'm talking about a game that launched in TWO THOUSAND FUCKING ONE. Not people who competed in DOA5 which is your entire fucking list.
People preferring whatever controller they wanted in 2013 has NO fucking relevance to 2001. ZERO. ZIP. ZILCH. NADA. It's this nonsensical connection you're trying to make from competitive players NOW to somehow explain why DOA was dead in the arcades pre-2001. It's literally like going "Well, the radio was dead in the 1940s because people had a television set in 1960."

Keep in mind that Japan and America didn't see eye-to-eye with how to distribute games. Sure, the arcades were popular in Japan and NOT the US, but I can't say I'd be able to find a metric that'd say DOA had to go back to the arcades.

 

First of all, fuck the FGC. They are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. They'll openly coom to DOA characters while bashing the games that they've never played. They tried to claim the "Core Values" as the FGC meme, and they didn't bother to back DOA6 or push people to play it. Now there may never be another Core Values moment again.

Secondly, "being laughed at for taking DOA seriously." Matthew, aren't you proving these haters right with taking DOA3++ to tournaments (and I'm sure revan's wet dream of having Hoodless take 6++ to Frostys)? It's like an admission the vanilla version of these games are not worth taking seriously within a competitive environment. Frankly I don't like this perception because not only does it harm the players who have invested their time to get good at them, but it also undermines any of the competitive integrity these games have. I know how you're going to respond "But its 99% the same game" but that's not the point. How come DOA players have to take a modded version of their games to tournaments when nobody else does it? Super Turbo and 3S are still played at tournaments despite the obvious issues with both (and they also have fan hacks of each). I get it, you like 3++ a lot and want to spread the gospel, but I don't see how that's going to help reduce the stigma against it.

If both 6++ and 3++ end up in tournaments together it would be the most humiliating thing to happen to this series. Far more damaging than old television ads and what KT could do. Granted the FGC as a whole is an embarrasment in a lot of ways but that's a different story.

If players have fun taking that route, who are we to stop them? I just don’t get your logic on this I’m afraid.

 

First of all, fuck the FGC. They are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. They'll openly coom to DOA characters while bashing the games that they've never played.

Uh, sort of? Maybe you could persuade them to play the games, but it won't be the first thing they do.

If players have fun taking that route, who are we to stop them? I just don’t get your logic on this I’m afraid.

Y'know what? I think you pissed him off.

 

If players have fun taking that route, who are we to stop them? I just don’t get your logic on this I’m afraid.

Sure people can play whatever they want.

My point was how are you not proving these people right taking a modified version of the game to tournaments?

 

My point was how are you not proving these people right taking a modified version of the game to tournaments?

Proving who right? About what? What are you talking about? What is this controversy you're trying to invent?

 

I don't want to say it being a launch title didn't contribute anything to the success of DOA 3 but.. it's not like a million copies of Azurik: Rise of Perathia were sold. DOA3 was a hella good game and that's the predominant reason why it sold so well.

As for Dead or Alive: Ultimate, the branding was kind of confusing. Trying to explain to the masses that this was not a sequel or update to thier latest release, while using the DOA3 engine with online play and a lot of extra content with some of the characters of 3 but not all of them... I mean... yikes. If you were reading OXM or frequenting Game Forums you got it; but everyone else? Pretty sure they gave a head tilt of confusion and a "why would I go back to playing DOA2?" (A damn shame since it is easily the best DOA game ever produced T_T)

So, you like DOA2U or not?

 

So, you like DOA2U or not?

Yes I like DOA 2U, I'm referring to the reasons why the game only sold 80k copies based on it being a strange concept for casual audiences to understand. Think my original post is perfectly clear... and I considered it to be incredibly rude to "quote" somebody and change the text. DOA 2U did not use the DOA 3 engine and I did not say so in my post.