#986 Dead or Alive 4 (X360) Hidden Characters (1/6): Helena playthrough.

Channel:

AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on October 9, 2018 8:25:29 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3KYtbkIXBk

Game:

Dead or Alive 4 (2005)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 5:43

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A playthrough of the potential sub-boss and hidden character Helena in Team Ninja/Tecmo’s Dead or Alive 4/DOA4.

I’ve mentioned Evangelion a few times a few times throughout this series, and that’s probably the best analogy for DOA4. I outright hated it at first, but the more I took my time with it the more I began to understand and appreciate it. I wouldn’t say I outright love either, but admire both for what they tried to do.

Indeed, like Evangelion DOA4 is an incredibly meta and confusing experience which is somehow both highly enjoyable and utterly insufferable at the same time. It is one of the most polarising titles I have ever covered, and one which I’m still not too sure how I feel about it. Just like Eva.

DOA4 was intended to be released as a launch title for the Xbox 360, but was in fact released a few months afterwards. This game more or less saw the end of Team Ninja’s attempts to associate them with the Xbox brand; nearly all their major titles after this would be multi-platform, barring Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 in 2006 and, oh lord, the infamous Metroid Other M for the Nintendo Wii in 2010. And if you wondered why that game was so bad before, well now you know. Because when you need a deep and interesting story, you hire the guys known for such deep and rewarding games as Tits and Ass Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

So, what’s positive about DOA4? Well, it looks beautiful, especially for a near-launch title. The stages are easily the best in the series with even more sections and variety than those in previous games, although they do contain randomised stage hazards which makes some really unsuited for competitive play. There are always stages which have obstacles which a character can hop over, which allows them to launch into a special striking attack, although more often than not it tends to leave them rather vulnerable. I’ve said before about stages feeling quite alive in that series, and DOA4’s levels are certainly the apex of that. But then you get to the gameplay itself. DOA4 is a game designed to kick your ass. It throws you in the deep end and expects you to figure out things as you’re going along. And do you? Yes, you definitely do. Spend enough time with this game and you simply will get better at it. But goddamn, that difficulty.

DOA4’s difficulty is where it gets infuriating, and it nearly always comes down to that counter system. Now, counters are not a common occurrence in fighting games. Certain characters in certain games have counter moves (Such as Geese and Kasumi in KOF, or Wolf in the Virtua Fighter series) however, these moves are usually somewhat difficult to execute and especially difficult to time, to the point that many players simply never use them. Indeed, they exist mainly as a high-end mechanic for players who want just that bit more of a challenge from a game they love. They’re not essential to the experience for a solid reason. A counter is overpowered. And having something be readily usable which is that overpowered would be a terrible idea.

Dead or Alive did this anyway. Every single entry in the series is bogged down by this horrendous mechanic, which is made all the worse by the fact that it is a game so heavily dependent on combos. This isn’t to say I exactly adore the Combo Breakers of Killer Instinct either, but at the very least that game wholly centres on combos and so supplies a legitimate reason for why you can counter them, while making it so that said counters need to be well-timed in order to work, and can only work up until a particular point. DOA doesn’t have this. Instead, any move can be countered by a hi or low counter, basically making the entire experience a mixmatch of guesswork as you attempt to attack the area your opponent isn’t seeking to counter.
Now, counters are annoying in all of these titles, though not unbearable.

This reaches a pique, however, when we get to Dead or Alive 4. You see, Team Ninja released a certain game a year before to the release of Dead or Alive 4. Ninja Gaiden, for the original Xbox. The game was a smashing success, and apparently quite the system seller, for reasons I’m not entirely sure why. Have you played one of the Devil May Cry games? Well, they were known for being pretty hard, but Ninja Gaiden is something else. The game was, of course, a reboot of the NES trilogy by Tecmo, which Team Ninja produced when it was still a part of that company. Ninja Gaiden, however, is just ridiculous.

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