• DOA (AC) - Nov 1996 : This game had the original 8 character roster and was a sort of a sink-or-swing type of project for Tecmo (back when they used to be in the financial shitter). The game was built using both SEGA hardware (SEGA Model2) and software (Virtua Fighter Engine).
  
  
• DOA (PS1/Sega Saturn) - 1998 & 1997 respectively : The Saturn version was a direct port of the arcade game with less graphical detail and simplified stages. The PSOne version of the game acted as a prototype to DOA++ and both versions introduced Ayane and Bass as two new characters while making Raidou, the final boss playable.
  
  
• DOA++ (AC) - 1998 : The prototype to DOA2 and first game to introduce advanced mid-kick and mid-punch defensive holds, along with other high and low holds and parries universal to all characters, depending on whether they are in or out of stun. Arguably the most in-depth DOA game, yet the most unknown.
  
  
• DOA2 (AC/PS2/Dreamcast) - November 1999 : The game that put DOA on the map. Despite having some technical issues on the console side on things, it was fun to play, accessible and looked very nice for the time. Each version is slightly different either in aesthetics or moves, but not by much.
  
  
• DOA2: Millenium (AC) - January 2000 : Updated version of the original Arcade game. The game was later ported to the console in the form of Dead or Alive 2 Regular and Limited Edition for the Dreamcast (Japan Only) and Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore (US/EU) or Hard*Core as it's known in Japan (Hard*Core has a few more eye candies and a 'Turbo mode' which doubles the update speed of the game).
  
  
• DOA3.0 (Xbox - NTSE) - November 15, 2001 : The first release of DOA3, an Xbox exclusive game, which added new characters and stages. Despite being a good game, it was still unfinished.
  
  
• DOA3.1 (Xbox - NTSE-J) - February 22, 2002 : The Japanese version of DOA3 and every DOA player's prized possession. It is considered by most, if not all, the most 'competitive' DOA game out there, featuring frame advantage on block, a fluid stepping system, great character individuality and all-round retarded combos and set-ups. The only problem with this game is that it requires you to hack and modify your xbox (a process which is tedious) and a Japanese copy.
  
  
• DOA3.2 (Xbox - PAL) - March 14, 2002 : The European release on DOA3. The stepping system was tweaked solely to nerf the stepping ability of one character (Hayate), which in turn nerfed the whole DOA3 stepping system. Some moves can still be side-stepped, though most moves can still track no matter what. A few of the ninjas were tweaked, though the game still remained the same in terms of fundamentals. Still a fun game.
  
  
• DOA Ultime 1 & 2 (XBOX) - Oct 2004 : The Saturn version of DOA1 and an upgraded version of DOA2: Hard*Core, both bundled in one package for the Xbox. One of the first few fighting games with online play, which made the package very attractive to Xbox owners and DOA fans. Probably the most financially successful DOA.
  
  
• DOA4.0 & 4.1 (XBOX360) - January 2006 : As a casual game, it's good. However, as a competitive game, it's in same level as Bloody Roar, TMNT Tournament Fighter and Clay Fighters, except not fun. It still looks very pretty though.
  
  
• DOA Online (PC) - August 2009 : PC port of DOA2U. The game is now supported by Russian enthusiasts on their own private server. It's here if you're interested.
  
  
• DOA: Dimentions (3DS) - May 2011 : A sort of a dream match game released exclusively on Nintendo 3DS. The game went through the whole plot of the series from the first game to the last in a cinematic fashion ala MK9. Some elements from the old plot were retconned (in typical Team Ninja fashion) and some characters were slightly changed from their DOA4 versions, but not by much.
  
  
• DOA5 - September 2012 : Many things have been improved and while it's a bit toned down from the E3 and Gamescom versions (which is what most people preferred), it is still miles better than DOA4 and way more fun. While there are some small issues and features missing from the game, it's still a very decent package.
  
  
• DOA5+ - March 2013 : A direct port of the console version of the game onto PSVita. New exclusive features such as tutorial mode, combo challenge mode, BGM options, new frame data UI and exclusive PSV costumes are added to this version of the game. Tag mode however was taken out and is only available in few instances in story mode. This version is also cross-compatible with the PS3 version of the game and all titles and all characters are unlocked by default, except for the vita exclusive ones. Oh yeah, there's a touch mode or something too, but it sucks.
  
  
• DOA5 Ultimate - Coming Soon : Possibly coming around September/October. Leon has returned and Momiji from Ninja Gaiden will be making a guest appearance as a selectable character.
  
  

• Improved graphics engine with dynamic lighting, self-shading and nice decals like sweat and dirt.
  
• New mechanics such as Critical Burst can ensure guaranteed launchers and Power Blows. However, you still have to keep playing the stun game till you get the CB!.
  
• New Super-ish charge moves called Power Blows.
  
• New Side-Step system similar to the SCV and VF5FS SS system.
  
• Team Ninja are trying to give each character an identity and distance themselves away from DOA4.
  
• Certain stuns now disallow holding (and some disallow stagger-escaping) out of.
  
• Since SEGA is publishing the game in European regions, TN have had the opportunity to include VF's Akira, Sarah and Pai in the game as guest characters.
  
• Online Training lobbies where you and your buddies/girlfriens can get together and practice and comment on how great you look in your skimpy 3D bikinis.
  

• Didn't this game used to be in arcades?
  The last arcade fighting game was Dead Or Alive 2 Millennium on the Naomi Hardware. From then on DOA3 and DOA4 were both developed for the Xbox hardware. DOA5 however will be out for both PS3 and X360 and a PSVita build is in development.
  
  
• The last DOA I played was DOA2. What's changed?
  Quite a lot actually...while at the same time, not a whole lot. Characters have changed and certain things like the windows for chain throws are shorter, but the basic RPS system along with the defensive-holds are the same. Loads of old notation for old moves have also been very much standardised. DOA4 introduced a very annoying stun based system where people could end up in stun for much longer and made the game slower, other than making the defensive player having more advantage with access to damaging defensive hold that took around 60-120 of the attacking opponent's life bar.
  
  In DOA5, things have been slightly toned down, with CB giving you a safe launcher and defensive holds doing slightly less damage (it's still pretty loving stupid, but it's the less stupid than before).
  
  
• What's this whole thing about DOA wanting to be a tourney fighter?
  After the failure which was Ninja Gaiden 3 and with Itagaki gone, Team Ninja have started listening to competitive DOA players to make something that would at least resemble a competitive 3D fighter. Shimbori, the new designer of the series seems to be a level headed person and he himself is a self-described competitive player (despite not having played any other fighting game other than DOA).
  
  So far, the response has been good amongst the DOA community, but people outside don't seem to care much.
  
  
• I used to play [Character Name] in DOA2. Is he/she still in?
  Ein and Leon are both dropped from the DOA5 roster, so they won't be appearing in the future. Other characters like Tengu and Spartan are dropped as well. Alpha is still in and she is playable but requires 300 titles to unlock.
  
  
• Is this game easy to get into?
  DOA is probably one of the most scrub friendly fighting games out there along with games like Bloody Roar and...I don't know, Bloody Roar 2? Being a 3-button game like VF, it has much easier inputs, no just-frames (no true JFs anyway), simple 0-frame one button reversals for all attack, universal high and low grabs, straight forward stun system and loads of titties and panty shots. Most strings are delayable for around 10-20 frames and some have even longer delay time.
  
  
• How's the community for this game?
  Quite average, so you're bound to find some good people who play other games at a high level and some really terrible people, so basically your average FG community. The DOA community is also the one with the most casual players. The only good place you need to go for actual gameplay info would be FreeStepDodge and that still has a few terrible people which you can ignore. Matt "Mr. Wah" Ponton is the owner and he's a pretty cool guy.
  
  
• Offensive Hold? Catch Throw? What are these?
  The game is pretty similar to VF since it's based on the same engine, but there are a few noticeable differences when it comes to the fighting engine. Check 'em out here: http://www.freestepdodge.com/wiki/d...ve-terminology/
  
  
• How is the online?
  It's fun, though it still has some minor issues. Expect some P2P lagstorms. Not my cup of tea, but it's still enjoyable.
  
  
• What's the plot of DOA?
  Story mode is bad. You don't need to play that except for the titles which you need for unlocking the final boss.
  
  

• What about Costumes?
  Each character has at least 4 costumes in total, with some characters having more. You can have different accessories moved or removed based on which face-button you press while holding down the shoulder buttons or which direction you press on the d-pad when selecting your character (ala DOA3). You can try and do both for some characters to get different things.
  
  
• What kind of DLCs should I expect?
  TN are planning for more costumes for future DLC releases. They're against DLC characters and stages, though they might end up releasing some for free or part of future updates (Update: The Zack Island stage was a free DLC stage which came with the 1.03ver of the game. It's available on the PSN/XBL store). The first DLC released was a free costume pack. The rest are paid DLC for over-priced costumes (male costume packs are cheaper for obvious reasons).
  
  
• What's new in DOA5+?
  There are a couple of new things such a combo-challenge mode, a separate tutorial mode for explaining all the mechanics of the game, an updated frame data viewer, exclusive costumes and a mode for changing character or stage BGMs. However, the soundtrack options only include DOA4 and DOA5 tracks. Older tracks may be added in the future.
  

uncleKitchener fucked around with this message at May 10, 2013 around 00:22

• Ayane
  
  Ninja character and DOA's Yoshimitsu. Ayane is a fast character who excells at attacking from her backtruned stance. Using her range and speed, she can outmanoeuvre and confuse opponents. Overall a rather unorthodox character but not hard to use. Like all ninjas, she's top tier. Perfect for those whole like fast and annoying characters with loads of mix-ups.
  
  
  Finally gives up on killing her sister. No one cared.
  
  
• Bass Armstrong
  
  My man is back. Bass went from being one of the best characters in DOA3 to one of the worst in DOA4. He's been rebalanced in DOA5 to not be as retarded as his DOA3 Potemkin version while still being a fun character and having a high damage potential.
  
  Bass has some of the most damaging moves and throws in the game and can punish unsafe moves easily thanks to his superior throwing speed. He also has access to the most guard breaks. His game mostly revolves around conditioning opponents to either duck to inflict some very damaging combos or use his throws and catch-throws to punish standing or attacking opponents. Another major part of his game is to use his ground pick-up to put opponents in a 50/50 mix-up and resets.
  
  He's similar to Marduk/Jeffrey/Astaroth. His design is based on Hulk Hogan/Macho Man/Kevin Nash.
  
  
  Became Mister America Mr. Strong and tried to stop Linda Mcmahon Tina from becoming governor, but that's as far as we can go in terms of things making sense.
  
  
• Bayman
  
  DOA's Dragunov/Goh with silly name. Bayman is a true goon and all-round pain in the rear end. He's been rebalanced in DOA5 to play more aggressively with all sorts of different throws and defensive holds. While he may appear to be a grappler character, Bayman is actually a hold-heavy character. This means that he has access to some of the best reversals and catch throws, punishing those who attack. He is also a hard-hitting character like Bass, but has the ability to play a more defensive game and put pressure on fast characters, using his tank-roll catch throw to evade and stop most incoming attacks. Bayman is the only character in the series to have more than one chained defensive holds and access to every type of Defensive Hold in the game. Good for those who can read their opponent well and know when to use his tools.
  
  Based on 90s Russian stereotypes.
  
  
  Rig is his clone, if it isn't obvious.
  
  
• Brad Wong
  
  Babby's first Shun Di. Brad has loads of different mix ups and stance transitions, but never managed to hold out against the rest of the cast. He's been tweaked to not fall into the low tier with decent frame data changes and multiple stance transitions. He is actually decent now and how some guaranteed combos, but unfortunately still not very popular.
  
  He's a little better in DOA5, that is if the opponent doesn't really know what you're doing.
  its funny because drunk people
  
  
• Christie
  
  DOA's Nina Williams. Bad anime design. Uses Snake Fist. Based on a Japanese porn manga called 'Slut Girl'*.
  
  Christie excels at having an above-average poke game and speed. With the new addition of a special evasive stance, she can interrupt and crush loads of incoming attacks and high throws. One major weakness of her game however is having loads of unsafe moves which is slightly balanced by having large delay window for her strings. She also has a lot of whiff punishers since some of her moves cover a lot of distance.
  
  
  
  *No, I'm serious.
  
  
• EliotMilk
  
  He's supposed to be a British student or something. Same lovely anime design and kind of annoying.
  
  Eliot in a fairly rather linear string-heavy character (he actually has a Tekken-style 10-hit string), but has some very fast pokes and low pokes which cause critical stun. He benefits from having a decent sabaki (which is really good for beating wake-up kicks) and counter-hit dependant game, but has some string enders which can make him safe. He is rather strange because he has some very fast moves, but he also has some very slow ones. Eliot is one of those characters that has to play the stun game and doesn't get a whole lot of guaranteed damage.
  
  
  
  
• Gen-Fu
  
  Old Grand Master Bastard who everyone hates. Has touch-of-death combos and resets. Piss-easy to use.
  
  Gen-Fu is a very straight forward and easy character to use with some of the best pokes (11i elbow is a major tool) and has guaranteed set-ups. He is able to keep up the pressure and change the momentum instantly with parries. The worst thing about him is that he is very easy to use but since he's such a dry character, people who are actually looking to have fun tend to ignore him. He also has arguably the best charge move which essentially turns him into a human missile and can travel a very very long distance.
  
  
• Ryu Hayabusa
  
  Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa is a guest character in the DOA universe. Probably one of the best characters of the series and has been improved by being turned into a grappling character (not really a true grappler), essentially making him a Jack of all trades. His main game however involves his mix-ups.
  
  
• Hayate
  
  Another Ninja character. Like all ninjas, he's top tier.
  
  
  
  
• Ein
  
  DOA's Jin Kazama/Jean Kujo. He's Hayate using Karate in DOA2. Very popular character. However, Ein and Leon will not be in DOA5.
  
  
• Helena
  
  French Mary Sue who owns an evil corporation. Not a hard character to use, but she's been nerfed for the DOA5 engine Has been stupidly buffed after the ground game was tweaked. Really boring.
  
  Helena is a very heavy mix-up character who almost solely relies on the stun game. GoodAnnoying Helena players rely on her resets rather than going for maximum damage combos, so expect to see the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. From these resets she has a couple of options for mix-ups that lead to more resets and mix-ups. This pretty much means that both players constantly have to guess and everyone knows how fun a DOA guessing game is
  
  
  
  How do people keep getting away with performing secret experiments in her company without her knowing?
  
  
• Hitomi
  
  Ein's female Karate counter-part. Similar to Ein, but with more mix-ups and less damage. Fun character to use and she some guaranteed set-ups, especially after her 46K or her Side-step K.
  
  
  
  She's not that stupid any more.
  
  
• Jann Lee
  
  Where should I start? Jann Lee is a stinkyhole. You either love him or really hate him. He's DOA's Jacky/Law with loads of mix-ups and combos. Fun to use and one of the only five characters with an unblockable move (the others being Bass, Tina, Pai and Zack).
  
  JL's game involves a lot of damage. He either uses his catch throw to do guaranteed damage and make your life difficult or he'll cause a sit-down stun on counter hit or he'll put you in another sit-down stun when you're ducking and get guaranteed damage. Jann Lee has a lot of nasty ways to do a lot of above average damage and this is one of those reasons why he's one the best characters in this game.
  
  
  
  
  May have finally lost his virginity.
  
  
• Kasumi
  
  The ultimate Mary Sue of the series. Really annoying to fight against due to being quick and mix-up heavy. Pretty much a recolour of KOF Mai Shirunai, except really boring.
  
  
• Kokoro
  
  DOA's Akira/Leo Kleissen. Very mix-up heavy character. Like all DOA4 characters, she hasn't got many guaranteed set-ups.
  
  Tokyo's a scary place
  
  
• La Mariposa (AKA Lisa)
  
  DOA's El Blaze. While not as good as El Blaze, she's fun to use. She's the special evasive type of grappler of the series.
  
  
  
• Lei Fang
  
  Uses Tai Chi. Has access to loads of Sabakis and Parries. One of the 'advanced' characters in DOA. Fun individual character.
  
  May have finally screwed the man of her dreams.
  
  
• Leon
  
  Based on Jean Reno's character in the movie Léon: The Professional, this guy's an Italian mercenary who likes the desert. A more offence oriented version of Bayman who loves to use the wall. Goon favourite. Will be making his triumphant return in DOA5U.
  
  
• Tina Armstrong
  
  Bass' daughter and popular for obvious reasons. She is the more strike oriented version of Bass with her own hit throws and mix-ups. Fun to use.
  
  
  See Bass.
  
  
• Zack
  
  Token Black Muay Thai fighter of the series. Loads of mix-ups. Fun to use. Based on Dennis Rodman.
  
  
  
• Mila (AKA Leona)
  
  She's similar to VF Brad and Vanessa and is Leon's replacement in DOA5. Pretty cool new character with solid mix-ups and gameplan. She even has an infinite.
  
  
  She didn't even get to meet Hulk Hogan
  
  
• Rig
  
  "Everything is going according to plan, Mr. President."
  
  DOA's Hwoarang. Rig is a new character in DOA5. He looks fun to play. He's called Rig because he grew up on a Canadian oil rig. Like all TKD characters, he has a Flamingo stance which gives him his best mix-ups. Pretty cool guy.
  
  Rig's outstanding characteristics are his sit-down stuns which can be chained into guaranteed Critical Bursts, his stances and the frame advantage he gets from his highs.
  
  
• Akira (Virtua Fighter)
  
  Guest character from VF. I think he just lost his way and found himself in the DOA universe. Let's hope he finds his way back home.
  
  The VF characters in general are some of the best characters in this game as they have carried over their above average moves and set-ups in game where they efficient than DOA characters in ripping someone a new hole.
  
  
• Sarah (Virtua Fighter)
  
  See Akira.
  
  
• Pai (Virtua Fighter)
  
  Yes, even she's in this game.
  
  
• Alpha-152
  
  DOA's Dural. Very annoying and dumb.
  
  
• Tengu
  
  DOA2 final boss and unlockable in DOA4 and DOAD. DOA's only original character design. Every hit from this guy either stunned or knocked back. Gonna miss this guy.
  
  
• Spartan
  
  Good loving riddance.
  
  
• Raidou
  
  DOA1 final boss and unlockable character in DOAD. He's supposed to be a rapist or something, but ends up looking like a cartoon villain. Good balanced movelist, but awkward throws.
  
  
• Genra/Omega
  
  DOA3 Final boss and unlockable character in DOAD. Easiest boss in all 3D fighters. _{PPP him all day.}
  

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