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4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Without Its Flaws, But A Worthy Buy For Any 3D Fighting Fans, March 16, 2010
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Dead or Alive 4 (Video Game)
This review has been a long time coming for me... Perhaps vestigially, I have to state that I've had this title longer than any other 360 game I own... Rather than make this review easier however, it's only made it more difficult, as my opinion of it has changed after playing a greater deal of fighters this gen...
Upon first getting it, like many people have mentioned within their reviews, the AI did prove challenging to the point of getting frustrating; if you're not someone who is willing to put time into things outside of actually playing a game to do well within a game, (most notably reading up on its engine) more likely this will not be the game for you, as the AI often has a truly intelligent answer to any kind of button-mashing that said sorts of players attempt, even on the lowest setting (which is normal btw; the game does not cater to people who don't wish to learn its system).
Of course I was someone who was willing to read on up on the game's system further, and eventually I proved reasonably proficient with a few characters... At this point, I'll let up a bit on the anecdotes and focus a bit on true journalism, for everyone's sake.
In addition to the truly challenging AI, (which is both a strength and weakness for this game per me) with reference to the presentation itself, things are pretty basic... The most notable example is the menu system... Every single selection icon is recycled from Dead or Alive 3, meaning they also appeared within Ultimate, and thusly have endured over 4 years of use. There isn't even a unique menu screen, as said screen just samples from some of the different stages... Is this bad? Not really, but some people might want things to seem a bit more polished.
What is perhaps my greatest gripe with the game should probably be classified with this section of the review though, and that's the online interface... The game is very old, so much so that it was the first competitive fighter available for the 360, yet even that doesn't totally excuse the lack of distinction between matches. There are no "ranked matches" or "player matches" within the traditional sense; what actually are referred to as player matches are invariably ranked. The system itself grants a great deal of experience points depending on whether or not one beats a person of a level much greater than them... Functionally, this discourages people of higher ranks to play anymore than about a letter difference in terms of rank (the ranks are defined by academic-esque "grades", with the exception of the ranks beyond A, those being S and SS).
In addition to this, the lobby system perhaps has too many options... It becomes the standard for people to leave all the settings default, granting it possible to have up to 16 players within a single session... Rather than being entertaining, players often have to wait, doing nothing, for upwards of 10 minutes before being granted a 2-3 minute match, and unless said match is won, they're sent back to suffer this wait again...
There are options to have as few as 3 or even 2 people max within a match, but virtually no one uses them and/or isn't attracted to games which host said kinds of matches... Of course this is derivative of not having a distinction between ranked and player matches, but this problem is so glaring, I had to address it singularly.
To reference the gameplay a bit more intensively, the system itself can be described as somewhat analogous to "rock, paper, scissors"; strikes beat out throws, (aside from catch throws; more on those in a moment) throws beat out holds, and holds beat out strikes. This makes gameplay generally pretty formulaic, but that's a quality of even some of the most heralded of fighting games, so things are alright. To look at things more technically however, there is virtually no frame advantage on block, making it so characters who are capable of constantly pressuring, and more specifically have a great mix-up game shut out most of the slower characters, unless the latter does nothing but spam holds and gets lucky with said holds at that... Said kind of idea doesn't correlate with every matchup, but it does regarding more likely too many anyway...
Grapplers probably do fare better within this game than its predecessor "Dead or Alive Ultimate" however, a large deal in part due to catch throws... Catch throws, (or formally defined as "offensive holds") are throws which are capable of functioning even while an opponent is attacking, and actually grant a bonus in damage if said stipulation is fulfilled. To fit with the game's "rock, paper, scissors" format, normal throws used against someone using a catch throw deal greater damage, making such a mechanic a balanced part of the game... Utilizing these along with tech traps is one of the best parts of the game per my standards, again though, most grapplers can only function well within specific matchups much of the time, as opposed to the ninjas who generally fare at least slightly better than average within pretty much every matchup...
With that said, another terrible quality about this game is the character balance (or lack thereof). Once again, this is often a definitive quality of fighters in general, but the extent thereof here is too great... All characters are capable of wakeup kicks, and while said kicks are being performed, there's some state of invulnerability, and thusly most characters defending against said kicks have to be conservative and attempt to block or hold whatever hit level a character will go for with a wakeup kick... Except the ninjas... All the ninjas can just leap over an opponent on wakeup, and often deliver cheap blows from behind. The ninjas are generally broken when it comes to spacing games anyway, as the backdash within the game isn't very practical, yet all the ninjas can leap back about 20 feet with their own command moves... Hayabusa has his broken counters in terms of the amount of damage thereof, Kasumi is one of few characters with parries, in addition to her extremely great pressure game and as aforementioned spacing game, Ayane most definitively has the best spacing game of every single character... The only ninja who even comes off remotely balanced is Hayate, but even he is probably a bit more buffed than he should be... All but 3 or 4 characters are almost completely shut out by any of the ninjas assuming both players are of the same skill level, which would of course make them broken by pretty much any standards...
To stray a bit away from criticisms and gameplay, the sound is worthy of general praise. Unlike a lot of games which merit indifference from me with regards to sound effects, this game's actually grant it a bit more character in my view... The loud crash-esque noise when a hold or throw is executed really fits with the visceral animations and everything else. Conversely, some people might find said sound effects excessive, especially if they'd prefer realistic presentation analogous to Virtua Fighter, I love the surrealism though, and I would never criticize something like this unless it was present within a franchise that really couldn't have this work.
The OST is also generally impressive; most of the themes fit the characters very well, and most tend to be very dynamic and hard-edged. The only criticism I'd grant here is that some of the tracks sound too generic and/or uniform, but at the most that's about 20%, and even those that do sound as such still sound generally good if not very unique.
What's toughest to judge with regards to sound is probably the voice acting. As best I can define it, I would say it's of high quality; the difficulty in having a definitive opinion however is that one is judging a Japanese exclusive dub. While obviously the Japanese voices and dialogue fit the Japanese characters, this really doesn't come off plausible for the rest of the cast (especially those very nationalistically and/or culturally depicted such as Lisa, Tina, Leon, etc.) Despite this though, it does sound like the voice cast is genuinely acting, and being critically objective, most of the voices fit the thematic natures of the characters, if not the nationalistic/cultural natures.
As is the standard of my game reviews, graphics are what I fixate the least on, just to mention them to be all encompassing though, they look nice, though they don't seem like they push the boundaries of the 360's hardware. Still, one shouldn't really have any issues with them unless they're going out of the way too. Each of the ending cinematics does have very impressive graphics, to be truly all-encompassing as well.
So, to recap, Dead or Alive 4 is not a casually appealing game, however, there is a lot of novelty to the game because of its well-balanced blend of simplistic and deep gameplay mechanics, truly intuitive AI, and very surrealistic audio quality. To the game's detriment however, the online interface is very primitive contrasted with other competitive fighters, there isn't much in the way of localization, and character balance is seemingly a completely foreign concept... Despite this, the game is probably worth picking up as a bargain buy provided anyone who'd consider buying it would have the patience to truly understand the game mechanics, and would define themselves as a fan of fighters (or at least 3D fighters) in general.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
a good game but.........., January 19, 2010
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Dead or Alive 4 (Video Game)
ive played the 1st and 2nd dead or alive. so when i saw DOA4, i had to pick it up. the good part is the fighting and action is still awesome. the fighters are still hot! (the female fighters). plenty of costumes to unlock. and has good extra features that any DOA fan would like,plus it looks great in HD. the bad part about this game is the final battle with the hitomi prototype. is WAAAY too difficult to beat. i couldnt get a hit in before she took half or all my health with only 2 or 3 hits. thats just unfair. it makesyou not want to play because you keep losing. al in all, its an ok game. i would recommend you buy it used, goes for under 12 bucks.
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