Well, as I’m sure you know, we have tons of threads here with arguments breaking out over which is better, or deeper, or takes more skill and so on. Numerous times these arguments are about 3d games, and we’ve had the typical Tekken vs Virtua Fighter, or DOA vs Tekken or Virtua Fighter vs DOA arguments. But what about Bloody Roar and DOA? I mean, let’s look at some things shall we?
Bloody Roar(in particular BR3 and Primal Fury):
-Considered a gimmicky game due to the whole beast changing ability
-Combo system considered to be shallow and not very indepth or skillful
-Movelists and options rather short compared to say a Tekken game
-game generally not taken very seriously(altho at one time there were actually tournies for the game in Japan, not anymore, and good luck finding any vids from that tourney)
-System considered broken(in BR’s case, mainly due to the juggling system which allows insane combos, and certain characters like Uriko have very long combo easy to perform combo strings)
-Hyperbeast considered cheap due to the ability to use it more than once per match(only applies to BRPF)
-known as a button masher
-has a ridiculously broken character in the form of Uranus
DOA(in particular DOA3):
-considered gimmicky due to the breasts jiggling and the backgrounds
-combo system considered to not be very indepth or skillful
-movelists and options not quite on par with games like VF and Tekken
-known as a button masher
-counter system considered cheap due to the damage it can produce not to mention the time window it gives for screwing your opponent over)
-environments can be cheap, as knocking an opponent off a ledge damn near kills them
-generally not taken seriously(altho there are tourneys for it including that infamous one with the Hayate…)
-has a broken character via a special cartwheeling move, Hayate
Now there are other things I may have missed, but these are the issues I can remember off the top of my head. The question is, which game is considered to be the more broken, and which the more skill based? Secondly, what can be done to improve these games to make them more skillful and perhaps even deep enough to be considered possible contenders for games like Tekken and VF?
I’ll just throw in my thoughts on this here, at least on the issue of which game requires more skill. Personally, I consider Bloody Roar(3 and Primal Fury/Extreme) to be a little more deep than DOA3. My reasons for this are:
- DOA3 has the counter system, which many complain about for being too cheap. hell, there’s times where you can accidentally push the counter button without even timing properly, and you end up countering someones attack. That just seems screwy right there. The timing just seems odd, like there’s enough lag in the counter that allows you to hit your opponent with a counter even if you made a mistake and pushed the button by accident.
Bloody Roar has something called Fast Evade. What this is, is a special system that allows you to dodge any attack. You tap the block button at the exact moment an attack is about to hit you(rather like parrying from SF3 games) and your character will dodge the attack. if your opponent launches a combo string, you tap multiple times. The thing is, i feel this takes more skill than DOA3’s countering, because the timing is more precise. If you’re fighting Shenlong for instance, and fuck up a evade, you’ll get nailed. There’s not much room for error, you have to really be on your toes and watch what you’re doing to see the moves coming to dodge them. Also, there is no real counter here, if you fast evade an attack, you have the option of attacking, but there is no automatic countering where you take a chunk of your opponent’s life. You fast evade, and then decide whether you can afford to risk attacking in the time you have before your opponent attacks again, or if you wish to anticipate your opponent’s next move and prepare to evade again should you need to. This also is a counter for button mashing, as it’s harder to button mash against a person who can skillfully dodge every single one of your scrubby button mashing attempts, and fuck you up bad.
Another thing I think gives BR games more depth than DOA games, are the beast changing. The reason being, beast changing adds another dimension to the game. More moves for your character, more strength and speed, in addition to Beast Drives, which are basically supers. You have to make decisions on when to beastorize and how, whether in midcombo, in the air, or just standing to counter an oncoming enemy’s attack. You have to decide whether you need to beast change as soon as you have just enough bar, or whether you should wait a bit more to increase your beast bar or even if you should just wait it out and go hyperbeast. Not only that, but while hyperbeast can be cheap, as you can do it at any time multiple times in a match, you lose life depending on how much beast bar you have. Have a near full bar, and you won’t lose as much life, have barely enough bar to even go beast, and you lose a ton of life, so it is a risky choice.
Hyperbeast adds another interesting thing, special abilities for each character. Different characters get different abilities in hyperbeast, for instance, Busuzima turns invisible, Ganesha gets hyper armor making him difficult to attack and damage, Cronos gets an entirely different beast form(which can be quite cheap), Alice’s kicks all gain the ability to guard crush you instantly, and various other chars gain more comboing abilities. This adds something to the game that DOA just doesn’t sem to have. With the beast forms included, the game’s roster of characters becomes more interesting given the extra options you have. Things like this are just why I feel Bloody Roar games actually have somehwta of an edge over DOA in the skill department.
Discuss
