Dead or Alive 4

[FelixofMars]

I feel for the guy, started off pretty well - The first character story was easy enough I though only had to restart with two fighters and then a few times. But it does seem to be getting harder the longer I play it for. I swear the CPU's tactics are, Smash player accross ring, wait for him to get up and come over, block block reversal do a 10 hit combo, let player get up... block block, smash him across floor... Player Dead!

Also if you stand still the CPU will try to grab you sometimes but it can't which is amusing!

id like to give it a chance but when a game makes u so angry you want to never play games ever again how the hell do u keep the faith

[TheForce]

Unlock Tengu. 20 Gamerscore Points. Complete Time-attack mode with everyone. That includes secret characters.

TheForce - You get the final character

->Open Spoiler<-

Tengu

for beating TT with every character.

Thanks guys... that's gonna take some time to do...

[EvilBoris]

I don't know if its been mentioned or if you all noticed, but I like the fact the team ninja intro is realtime now

[Stuart Smith]

I've played this quite a lot since getting it, I'm new to the series, but I've gotta say, this is a very good game utterly ruined by poor design, specifically the final boss character, Alpha-152. I've never played a beat-em-up with such an unbalanced and random final battle. It makes a mockery of any skill and hard work you've put in getting that far when any concept of a fair fight is thrown straight out of the window by a computer controlled character with a selection of counters and unblockable combos that take off half your health. Poor.

[Silvergun X]

I don't see the problem with Alpha 152.

I was expecting some big bad mother****er with the way you lot were explaining her.

Not that difficult. You can power move her every time she comes towards you and from experience, just standing still and blocking, waiting for her to finish, then hammering into her with just a cheap little P,P,P will work.

[Stuart Smith]

Except, of course, that when you do that, Alpha does one of her amazing 15 second long, half power bar gone throws that come out of nowhere and can't be stopped. Rubbish.

Or starts off one of her many unblockable combos from the position you're not blocking in. No character should be able to take off half your health bar in absolutely any given circumstance should the computer decide it doesn't ant you to win.

The wild jumps in the computer AI are just unfair and unbalanced and highlight the extent to which this is a game that hasn't moved on one iota from the previous generation.

[Silvergun X]

I still can't say i've noticed all these jumps in AI.

Tekken 5 was far, far worse.

Gone through arcade mode about 8 times now, finished it 8 times. Alpha's not so hardcore with a bit of practice.

I'm looking forward to watching my friend defeat Alpha in 7 seconds with Gen Fu like he claims.

---

Apparently if you hit Alpha while she's on the ground, she will stand up without teleporting.

If you can power move her, hit her on the ground, power move her, hit her on the ground, repeat, repeat, it makes for an incredibly easy fight.

[jassi singh]

*Edit* Didnt realise I had typed so much, sorry, but its just ended up as a wall of text. Ive split up my "thoughts" to stop you dudes from gettin bored ****less reading. ;p But just incase someone finds my ramblings usefull, ive not edited it out*Edit*

I still can't say i've noticed all these jumps in AI.

Tekken 5 was far, far worse.

Stuart is right, and no way was T5 jumps in A.I as bad as it is in this game in my opinion.

Had a few games last night on XBL which seemed to be perfect, then I joined Yoshimax and Silvergun's lobby, and encoutered my first set of laggy games, but it was down to my connection. Same thing has happened tonight and playing online is just like a slideshow, so I just went back to playing single player. Was really looking forward to playing this online, got 4 games in total in last night. Its not just me getting serious lag right? RR6 works fine and DOA4 was fine online till last night, but it just seems that DOA4 is the only game im getting lag issues with.

Anyway, on my quest to get all the costumes unlocked i had to go into time attack mode with the characters without a story to unlock their clobber. Piece of piss really, it was just a long and boring process of slowly getting through it all. Anyway, final character left to get was for the Spartan. Same drill, make way through characters, use skank where possible, beat Alpha Kasumi. Right...up untill Spartans 6th costume, Alpha was a ****ing walk over.

Alpha the tart!

But for some reason, it seems that Alpha is programmed to turn into an even bigger **** when you are about to finish this achievment...ON ITS DIEING MOMENTS, it decides to opt for a "Dont let player win at all costs" mode. Thinking about it, the game did get harder as I was finishing off collecting all the costumes through single player, and tbh, it was already pretty hard on the later stages anyway.

To basically beat alpha, all you got to do is

1) Dont try and throw her
2)Dont Stand over her after a knockdown
3) Dont be anywhere near walls
4) Dont be continually be walking back, as she will fly and throw you
5) Abuse standing lunging or running charge attacks
6) Stand still for a moment as she gets knocked down, and make sure you or she is not near a wall, then run and do a charging attack. You can do this from one side of the arena to the other.
7) Keep distance after each lunging\succesfull attack and rinse and repeat when she teleports towards you.

These steps I used are gauranteed...honest. Its all I did for the numerous times I played Story and Time attack mode and beat her each time if not on my first, but 2nd or 3rd attempt. Not had a problem since...untill yesterday.

I havnt sworn as many times as I did in this one 50 minute session than I have EVER. So to continue this potty mouthed trend...i declare that these final 2 battles to get the last 2 costumes were total ****ing bull****.

On the dieing hit, I could have a perfect and the bitch would teleport right at the moment of impact, when she should of been hit. All of a sudden the "Technique" of disposing her went out the window, as the AI decided that no matter what you throw at her, she will teleport through it, and do an 11 hit combo at any time it feels like it. Also, you can get in a PPPP combo right after she teleports...she went through every single one of them. :@

Was proper cheap and nasty, im sure it is rigged to be this way towards your final 2 costumes as Ive had no problem against her like this since Friday when i didnt know what to do against her (for like 30 minutes). I should of recorded it. DAMN. It was just so blatant, and the game was kinda getting tricky as I had collected more and more costumes...but from my experiece yesterday, im certain that the already cheap A.I went into overdrive.

Its not about "you aint hardcore enough" whoever said it here (could be wrong, might of read it at another forum) but simply put, the A.I in this game is not good at all, it just reads your reactions from your pad input 8/10 times and punishes.

When I finally did beat the bint with a standing punch, I put a sticky grenade on her face.

CPU A.I

Seems like Team Ninja dont know the difference between challenging AI, and down right skankness. "I know, lets just make the AI react to whatever the player is doing 80% of the time, and let it counter it\unleash canned combo #46 FTW" Leon is a prime example of this, if you come across him in survival mode at a high number, or towards the end in story mode, you will eat nothing but counters.

Itagaki must of loved all the praises about Ninja Gaiden being "Hardcore" and tried to get DOA to be recognised in the same way.

Also have you noticed that at every moment your feet leave the ground from a move by the CPU, it will basically juggles you for the maximum amount possible. Not just any 2 hit juggle...proper full whack 6-9 hit juggles ALL THE TIME. Nice to know that juggles like that are possible, but it just reaffirms that the A.I in this game is just programmed to react to players every movement at certain points in the match in order to cause grief, and cause maximum damage whenever possible with combos, juggles and wall shananigans.

The further you get into the arcade\Time Attack\survival, the more apparant this becomes.

Ill be damned if I will do this again if my save file gets deleted by that glitch. Anyway, im glad no more single player time attack\story mode, and most of all no more Alpha. Those final 2 battles really took the piss, and i understand what people were complaining about now. Alpha is easily up there with other cheap game bosses such as Jinpachi (who is a joke compared to Alpha), and SNK's entire cast of bosses EVER.

Single Player

Anyway, what a chore single player is...and for what? Sod all costumes. There is hardly any at all in this game compared to DOA:U. IIRC DOA3 had naff all costumes as well. They were all dissapointing as well...all of the bints had just pallette swaps of existing clothes. WHICH IS PANTS. The most any character had was 5 to unlock such as Kokoro, Lei Fang and Kasumi. All the blokes have 2 to unlock at most (MEH!) and the rest of the bints had 3-4 to unlock. Cant believe La Mari Posa only had 3, and 2 of those were bloody colour swaps. :angry2:

I bet Team Ninja are just holding them all back inorder to sell them on market place. Would of been a good idea had it let us have all the DOA:U clothing, then charge us for new stuff...but if we have to pay for colour swaps or the same **** we had in a previous game, im gonna go to Japan, and Grand Upper Itagaki in his.... >_<. (after buying them ofc. :@)

Multiplayer

From what I did play of Multiplayer, (30 games online, load more offline) it seems great. Just like DOA:U with its great lobby which you can just kill hours playing and chatting...but this time, we have a revised game with as far as I can tell...quite a balanced VS experience. OFC Hayabusa, Jann Lee and Ayane are still a pain if used correctly, but no where near as the amount of bull**** they were able to get away with before in regards to damage and counter move damage, and i just couldnt be arsed with it. Broken tbh.

Countering and Tips

Also, its funny when someone who just relies on Hayabusa's head torpedo move gets countered everytime...and quits. Just press back and counter as it registers as a medium punch, same with his teleport to falling punch.

If you have anyone online giving you grief with a certain move, hit training mode, and press start, and select "Log Display" and change to "Attack Attribute". If you know the move that was causing you problems (moves which players spam alot) do that move against the training dummy, and the handy little box in the left hand corner will tell you exactly what type of hit it is, (High Medium Low) and whether it is a Punch or a Kick. Then all you have to do is do the correct counter, and you will be more prepared next time.

For those not to sure, remember that the following counter commands stop the following High\Medium\Low attacks.

Fwd + Counter = Medium Kick, jumping kicks
Back + Counter = Medium Punch, Jumping punches
Up\Back + Counter= High Punches\High Kicks
Down\Back + Counter = Low Punches\Low Kicks

Random thoughts

Also, LOVE the FMV sequences in the story mode. Especially the plot driven ones of Hayabusa, Ayane, Hayate and Helena. Great Stuff.

->Open Spoiler<-

Whos the woman that gets shot in the head in Helena's ending?

Shame that some of the endings such as La Mariposa's and Kasumi's ending didnt shed any more light on the plot Team Ninja has suddenly decided to put into this series. Much better than the previous attempts.

Trying to make my way through survival, but highest ive got so far is 48, which i believe was 2 off getting the silver medal achievment. :\/ This pain reminds me of trying to beat Silverguns Geometry Wars score. ...although, Family Fry has now beaten your top score Silvergun. ;p

oooof, getting carried away again...best stop typing. >_<; Gonna try and see if I can get a decent game in today, as the lag is seriousley awful in this game. But other than that, finding it to be a great fighting game, its all I played this weekend offline in single and multi, and I can see me playing this for quite a while.

[Goemon]

Good going Jassi! Do you want to be a writer or what!? :P
I concur, and generally have the same beef.

I started playing with Kokoro (after I saw flashes of Akira Yuki in her! Reverse Body Check ? Elbow ? Double Palm anyone! ) but her clothes range was well naff! 3 costumes with colour variations AND she doesn?t have the Geisha outfit you see her modelling on the intro!! What is that about!

The training would have benefited from having a default indication (like in VF) to tell you where each hit of an attack hits - Low, Mid or High. I spend most of my time thinking ?Is that a High or a Mid hit!?? at which point I?m getting chinned!

I find it quite stunning that you, myself and others on this thread all got to 48 wins on the survival mode before buying it, spike you think or coincidence?

Online is definitely where it?s at, I?ve had some quality sessions - although I have seen flashes of move whiff with certain characters (one that stands out was a guy constantly doing Hayabusa?s disappearing act into varying attacks), which at my current skill level could not deal with at all.

[EvilBoris]

Just to let you guys know, you get more costumes if you beat story mode wearing the first unlocked costumes.
La Mariposa has 5 costumes in total

Bayman and brad wong only have 3 costumes, everyone else has at least 4

[MrDark]

The training would have 100% benefited from having indications (like in VF) to tell you where each hit of an attack hits - Low, Mid or High. I spend most of my time thinking ?Is that a High or a Mid hit!?? at which point I?m getting chinned!

If you have anyone online giving you grief with a certain move, hit training mode, and press start, and select "Log Display" and change to "Attack Attribute". If you know the move that was causing you problems (moves which players spam alot) do that move against the training dummy, and the handy little box in the left hand corner will tell you exactly what type of hit it is, (High Medium Low) and whether it is a Punch or a Kick. Then all you have to do is do the correct counter, and you will be more prepared next time.

Hehe. I always have the log on attack attribute in sparring to see the different options that the characters have. Some attacks can be annoying though as sometimes they can be high or middle. Plus you also have to think about whether if its going to be a punch or kick.

[Myth]

For those not to sure, remember that the following counter commands stop the following High\Medium\Low attacks.

Fwd + Counter = Medium Kick, jumping kicks
Back + Counter = Medium Punch, Jumping punches
Up\Back + Counter= High Punches\High Kicks
Down\Back + Counter = Low Punches\Low Kicks

Christ that would be why I can never counter kicks, i just assumed back/up/down and counter counted medium kicks and punches, didn't even think of using foward for some reason.

[Yoshimax]

Tip - If you're not sure who you still have costumes to get for check Zacks shop and see who is "sold out" - if they're sold out you got them all !

The game online has been pretty rock solid for me and when somebody joins with a poor connection you know straight away - there's a patch coming Mid-February but I eckon it'll test your connection and ban you from going online if it doesn't think you're up to it (classic Itagaki really innit !)

EvilBoris - No I didn't realise the TN intro was realtime - you sure ? If so that's a ****ing amazing feat - I noticed it was much sharper but just put that down to 360 having better video playback.....

[EvilBoris]

Tip - If you're not sure who you still have costumes to get for check Zacks shop and see who is "sold out" - if they're sold out you got them all !

The game online has been pretty rock solid for me and when somebody joins with a poor connection you know straight away - there's a patch coming Mid-February but I eckon it'll test your connection and ban you from going online if it doesn't think you're up to it (classic Itagaki really innit !)

EvilBoris - No I didn't realise the TN intro was realtime - you sure ? If so that's a ****ing amazing feat - I noticed it was much sharper but just put that down to 360 having better video playback.....

I'm sure it is.

[EvilBoris]

Christ that would be why I can never counter kicks, i just assumed back/up/down and counter counted medium kicks and punches, didn't even think of using foward for some reason.

The hold moves actually vary between characters

most characters have the same commands, but others have slighty different combonations