Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Free-To-Play Version Announced

[The Wooster]

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Free-To-Play Version Announced

Tecmo Koei successfully invents macropayments.

Tecmo has announced it'll be releasing an alternative, free-to-play version of Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate in addition to the full retail game.

Dubbed Core Fighters after the four playable characters it includes, the free-to-play version is currently set for a digital release on PS3 on September 3rd in the US. Tecmo Koei is currently in talks with Microsoft about a 360 version.

So only four playable characters means you can probably escape the hordes of button-mashing gremlins who automatically gravitate to Ryu Hayabusa, right? Wrong. Ryu is part of the Core Fighters line up, along with mainstays, Hayate, Kasumi and Ayane. In fact, since owners of the free version can play against those with the full retail release, you're probably going to be seeing a lot more of Ryu and his horrifying teleport pile driver. Core Fighters includes all the stages from the full release, along with the tutorial and training modes. You'll have to pony up a smooth $15 for the game's story mode, and extra characters will run you $4 each. The original Dead or Alive 5 included a grand total of 19 characters, and Dead or Alive Ultimate promises to add at least four more. I'll let you do the math.

With that pricing scheme, Core Fighters seems less like a legitimate F2P release and more like a generous demo. The point of micropayments is that they're, you know, micro. Micro means small, in case we're not clear on this. Four dollars per character is not small. On the bright side, it does let me end this piece by pointing out that the game's notorious lady bumps aren't the only things that are unnaturally inflated.


Source: Team Ninja [http://teamninja-studio.com/doa5/ultimate/us/home.html#ftp]

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[Ishigami]

Well... it is a demo... and a pretty good one!

 

[Krantos]

I can think of something else that will be unnaturally inflated when this game comes out

Despite what your parent's may have told you growing up, THAT inflation is perfectly natural.

Unless you're referring to the fact that getting "inflated" by the DOA girls is unnatural. Then I totally agree.

 

[FFP2]

Do we need XBL Gold to play online in the FTP version?

 

[RikuoAmero]

Do we need XBL Gold to play online in the FTP version?

Well, given that to just use Internet Explorer on Xbox Live at all requires a Gold account...

 

[SageRuffin]

Fuck all that. Sounds like it'd be better just to get the entire game, especially since if you're not used to seeing a certain character, unless you have the clairvoyance of the goddamned Batman, you will get fucking annihilated. Even if you are just playing "for fun" (what the hell does that even mean in this day an age?), coming across that one good Sarah, or Bayman, or even Zack's dumb ass when you're not prepared for it will destroy you.

You know what? I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about at this point. Lemme go get my Jann Lee skills up. Maybe I'll play a previous game and revel in the destructive power of my boys Ein and Jann Lee.

 

[RJ 17]

So only four playable characters means you can probably escape the hordes of button-mashing gremlins who automatically gravitate to Ryu Hayabusa, right? Wrong. In fact, since owners of the free version can play against those with the full retail release, you're probably going to be seeing a lot more of Ryu and his horrifying teleport pile driver.

Hey now, to be fair, if you can pull off the Hayabusa WTF-Driver - even WITH button mashing - you deserve a frickin' medal. I've been trying to do that move since DoA2 and I still haven't mastered it. His is always the one training I can never complete because I can't get the frickin' spin that's the third part of the attack.

Fuck all that. Sounds like it'd be better just to get the entire game, especially since if you're not used to seeing a certain character, unless you have the clairvoyance of the goddamned Batman, you will get fucking annihilated. Even if you are just playing "for fun" (what the hell does that even mean in this day an age?), coming across that one good Sarah, or Bayman, or even Zack's dumb ass when you're not prepared for it will destroy you.

You know what? I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about at this point. Lemme go get my Jann Lee skills up. Maybe I'll play a previous game and revel in the destructive power of my boys Ein and Jann Lee.

There's few match-ups where one fighter has a clear advantage over the other, really it comes down to who knows what they're doing and who doesn't.

I was playing against some Hitomi player as Kasumi and the guy just kept doing the same little five punch combo all around the arena. Took me one round of one fight to effectively neutralize it: do Kasumi's flip-kick to bounce off Hitomi's frickin' face. So he just kept doing his 5 punch combo, and I kept bouncing off his face. It went on for 15 fights and he NEVER CHANGED STRATEGIES. Really I find it a pretty rare occurrence to

On a side-note, Jann Lee is clearly the best character in the game and Bayman is the cheesiest due to his ground "throws". Also: I always thought Ein should have been one of the unlockable characters in DoA 5. Akira is absolutely pitiful, what the hell is he even doing in the game? Give us Ein!

Or Tengu. :3

Edit: Well good news, apparently Ein IS coming back in Ultimate.
http://teamninja-studio.com/doa5/ultimate/us/home.html#characters
Along with a new Shrine Maiden character and another Virtua Fighter character...I'm guessing the last new character to be revealed will be another Virtua Vighter character too. Akira and Sarah with worthless....why are they bringing in more?

 

[SageRuffin]

There's few match-ups where one fighter has a clear advantage over the other, really it comes down to who knows what they're doing and who doesn't.

I was playing against some Hitomi player as Kasumi and the guy just kept doing the same little five punch combo all around the arena. Took me one round of one fight to effectively neutralize it: do Kasumi's flip-kick to bounce off Hitomi's frickin' face. So he just kept doing his 5 punch combo, and I kept bouncing off his face. It went on for 15 fights and he NEVER CHANGED STRATEGIES. Really I find it a pretty rare occurrence to

While you do make a good point, the fact remains that if you don't know how to fight a certain character, you don't know how to fight a certain character. And that's before you factor in things like match-ups and tier lists (and scrubs, but that's another subject...).

Sure, sometimes the outcome is obvious (try to get somewhere with Freeman in Garou: Mark of the Wolves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garou:_Mark_of_the_Wolves] and lemme know how that works for you). But if it turns out that character you're not used to fighting is controlled by someone who actually knows what the fuck he or she is doing... well, you're just fucked.

An example, if I may: in every Soul Calibur game, I roll Siegfried. Now, Siegfried can be hard to use effectively, and I'm one of the few that can do so (for the most part; I'm nowhere near, say, Evo-level in skill). Most people I've played are only used to playing basic Siegfrieds, so when I roll up with stance mix-ups, spacing, mind-games, and on-reaction Supers and 40% combos, they get annihilated. I'd show videos, but there are quite a number of them and I haven't uploaded them yet.

By the by, the other character is Sarah's older brother Jacky.

 

[Baralak]

There's few match-ups where one fighter has a clear advantage over the other, really it comes down to who knows what they're doing and who doesn't.

I was playing against some Hitomi player as Kasumi and the guy just kept doing the same little five punch combo all around the arena. Took me one round of one fight to effectively neutralize it: do Kasumi's flip-kick to bounce off Hitomi's frickin' face. So he just kept doing his 5 punch combo, and I kept bouncing off his face. It went on for 15 fights and he NEVER CHANGED STRATEGIES. Really I find it a pretty rare occurrence to

While you do make a good point, the fact remains that if you don't know how to fight a certain character, you don't know how to fight a certain character. And that's before you factor in things like match-ups and tier lists (and scrubs, but that's another subject...).

Sure, sometimes the outcome is obvious (try to get somewhere with Freeman in Garou: Mark of the Wolves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garou:_Mark_of_the_Wolves] and lemme know how that works for you). But if it turns out that character you're not used to fighting is controlled by someone who actually knows what the fuck he or she is doing... well, you're just fucked.

An example, if I may: in every Soul Calibur game, I roll Siegfried. Now, Siegfried can be hard to use effectively, and I'm one of the few that can do so (for the most part; I'm nowhere near, say, Evo-level in skill). Most people I've played are only used to playing basic Siegfrieds, so when I roll up with stance mix-ups, spacing, mind-games, and on-reaction Supers and 40% combos, they get annihilated. I'd show videos, but there are quite a number of them and I haven't uploaded them yet.

By the by, the other character is Sarah's older brother Jacky.

Ha! Jacky vs Jann Lee. Two guys doing Jeet Kune Do. That will be a fight to watch!

 

[RJ 17]

Snip.

It should go without saying that someone who knows what they're doing has an advantage over someone that doesn't know what they're doing. The thing about DoA is that I doubt anyone getting this next game isn't already familiar with most of the characters and their capabilities.

Also: Soul Calibur sucks.

Ha! Jacky vs Jann Lee. Two guys doing Jeet Kune Do. That will be a fight to watch!

I just hope he's better than Akira.

 

[SageRuffin]

Also: Soul Calibur sucks.

Stick it.

Unless you're talking about SCIII to V. If so... no argument.

 

[RJ 17]

Also: Soul Calibur sucks.

Stick it.

Unless you're talking about SCIII to V. If so... no argument.

Actually...yeah, pretty much. The last one I enjoyed was II.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Does anyone need more evidence of Tecmo (or the Tecmo part of Tecmo-Koei) having gone down the tubes after Tomonobu Itagaki left?

Wait, have I said this before?

I agree. It's been said Team Ninja has been going under since Itagaki left (love or hate the man, the the games had charm under him) and I think this is just one more sign of that.

Whoops

Ok, admittedly this is a good way for people to try the game. Maybe I'm just cynical, the F2P model is fine but I'm irritated about games being monetized. As described here

You'll have to pony up a smooth $15 for the game's story mode, and extra characters will run you $4 each. The original Dead or Alive 5 included a grand total of 19 characters, and Dead or Alive Ultimate promises to add at least four more. I'll let you do the math.

With that pricing scheme, Core Fighters seems less like a legitimate F2P release and more like a generous demo. The point of micropayments is that they're, you know, micro. Micro means small, in case we're not clear on this. Four dollars per character is not small. On the bright side, it does let me end this piece by pointing out that the game's notorious lady bumps aren't the only things that are unnaturally inflated.

Ok, I'll try it

$15 + (19)($4) = $91 is what you would pay for the Ultimate edition of the game.

9($4) = 36, if you just wanted to buy 9 of the additional characters

And this isn't counting the inevitable new rush of costume DLC.

Of course, if people only wanted the story mode. Then they'd be getting a better deal.

Also: Soul Calibur sucks.

Stick it.

Unless you're talking about SCIII to V. If so... no argument.

Actually...yeah, pretty much. The last one I enjoyed was II.

I live for these internet moments.