DOA 1/2 are nowadays, though. Unless you are asking for media for Japanese sceneback when it came out in the 90’s. Which is a challenge for almost any fighting game, even popular ones.
Very few tournaments have media coverage, yet it’s not that hard to get an idea regarding which games are respected and often played in tournaments.
Even if you could argue that some tournaments are given widespread coverage and some are not, the game with giant breasts and stage hazards would be pretty fortunate.
I’m going to assume you never played SF or KOF then.
Tournament wise, its just that DOA doesn’t make carbon copies of the same game all the time and do make other games regularly while its not casual friendly and requires advance thinking instead of spamming the same combo over and over or formula like play.
Well.
Justin.tv - ssh022 - Tokyo Game Night 14 ???vol.5 archive 5 1/2
Justin.tv - ssh022 - Tokyo Game Night 14 ???vol.5 archive 5 2/2
That shit was really fun to watch. lol.
I can’t believe how good the graphics and animation are for a game that came out so soon after the 360s release.
Hopefully, if they’re making another DoA game they can retain all of the charm the series has while catering for the hardcore aswell.
im wondering if doa5 gonna be a 360 exclusive or if we are gonna have the chance to see it on ps3 as well
With Itagaki out there’s no reason for them to not put it on the PS3. Especially since Tecmo doesn’t even exist anymore (the name “Koei-Tecmo” is Koei just throwing Tecmo a bone). And Koei hasn’t had an exclusive release of note in a long while.
Thanks for posting. did not know about these particular tournaments. Will add these to my tournament media
The extent that I know about the Japanese DOA scene is that it exists. And that it was once bigger. But that’s about it. Lol. Keep in mind when I say “big” I’m thinking 16 players in the Tokyo area big. Lol.
That’s about right.
Generally speaking, “Japan’s scene” is not much better than America’s scene. Mainly due to how Japanese tournaments are run (company sponsored/ran with Single-elimination tournaments), as there isn’t much grassroots going on over there. Right now it’s starting to change but I wouldn’t put money on it happening any time soon.
When Dead or Alive 3 launched they had a national tournament where the winner received 500,000 yen (~$5000). Also, Dead or Alive 3 is still the best selling Dead or Alive game for one system (Obviously DOA2 would be the best selling total due to its numerous incarnations) at ~6 million units. There were a few tournaments held in Asia for Dead or Alive 3 as well, sad that the videos have been lost as the internet grew over the years.
I know that Mochi-A is generally looked at as the leader of the Japanese scene of DOA4. He’s the one who did the guide books, and plays Virtua Fighter competitively as well. Though, he didn’t play any of the earlier Dead or Alives from what he told me. I have some shitty pictures of myself, one of the french players, and Mochi-A at a Japanese game event. It was more of a casual nite which had numerous games going on around the lounge, and every DOA4 player in Japan wanted to play me. Sad I don’t like the game, as I woulda been happy to give them my best.
Then you have the international tournaments for DOA2U and DOA4 such as World Cyber Games and the now defunct Champtionship Gaming Series. There was a push in Asia to learn the game, but most have stopped learning DOA4 as really, they went on to other fighters like Virtua Fighter, Tekken, or Street Fighter. I believe the winner of the Taiwan invitational for DOA2U got $3000. No word on how many players played in the tournament from what I remember. I think it was around 50, but I can’t confirm that number. Pic of the Taiwan winner
The first video has Mochi-A (playing as Leon) at 5:32. Don’t know the others.
this was actually a really cool post. it’s interesting to hear about the japanese scene (or lack thereof) from someone with firsthand experience. you mentioned that the scene is starting to change in regards to grassroots events, what kind of stuff is going on?
My comments were more in regard to the Japanese scene as a whole, not specifically Dead or Alive. Generally speaking, there aren’t many “offline gatherings” held in Japan. Most of the tournaments you hear of are run by the gaming company, and are typically single-elimination. I believe I’ve seen Daigo comment about it as well, saying that over here we “own” our tournaments - and that’s why it’s fun over here. Over there, gatherings are really just starting to catch hold. The streaming on the internet has really been a boom in that department as you can actually run a gathering/tournament in your living room with your friends effectively.
In regards to Dead or Alive 4, I only have that one experience of my month in Japan. My friend was friends with the guy who runs the monthly gaming events. It was basically a huge lounge where they had a giant projector in one area, and like a total of 8 or 9 TVs. It was sort of like a BYOG, with food and tables provided to chat or play. This friend of a friend told me himself that Mochi-A would sometimes beg him to put some space so they can play VF and DOA4, but then he and his group wouldn’t show for the event :(. Either way, my French friend let Mochi-A know I was in town so he and like 10 other DOA players came down to the event and wanted to play me - even if they were kicking my ass (I shoulda brought DOA3! Woulda beat them then :-P). Anyways, they basically will meet up through 2ch or MSN or whatever, they don’t go to any particular site - and the #1 American DOA site has a bad rap for it that even that friend of a friend was asking me about. I believe that the French were the top tag players at one time, but Itagaki changed his philosophy with which to focus on and instead focused on the 1v1. Originally, they designed DOA2 and DOA3 as tag games they told us, but DOA2U showed people played more singles. This in turn made the tag system in 4 rather lackluster and broken - with not even a random option on the stage select. Needless to say, French players didn’t care, and they also had online drama as well where they would bicker at each other, demand to settle it at the next offline event, and no one would show. I think Gary told me one time it was like $400USD to travel to the other side of France.
And if you’re interested in my shitty photography with a shitty camera, here’s some pics of the event:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1884.jpg - Where the event takes place every month (though this was 2 years ago)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1887.jpg - The “DOA/VF” section. That’s Mochi-A standing up on the right, talking to Len
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1891.jpg - Shot of the other side of the lounge
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1889.jpg - The Japanese are playing Gary in the game
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1890.jpg - More of the gang playing: VF on the left, DOA4 on the right
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1894.jpg - Me, Mochi-A, and Gary (KoF06)
Additional photos of my trip:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1885.jpg - VF5 arcade at Club SEGA - Never was it full (and I went to quite a few) - and typically no one wanted to play against other players. You’d come in on someone playing, win the fight, they’d stand up and move down one seat to continue in Single player 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1877.jpg - Super Turbo at a Retro Arcade. My friend told me the name of the place and even picked out one or two of the hardcore players - but I forgot. Basically there were 8 cabinets of Super Turbo going on with a crowd of 10ish standing around watching.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1878.jpg - More Super Turbo at the Retro Arcade
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1879.jpg - More Super Turbo at the Retro Arcade
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/sorwah/Japan/HPIM1880.jpg - Walls of the Retro Arcade were lined with tournament posters - mainly from “Arcade Mania”. Don’t know of they were held there
Where my NYC doa players at? Get at me, need comp in this game like all hell.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Shame that the vids haven’t been available to watch either, although like you I’m not particularly interested in watching DOA4. What I’m really curious about was how DOA2 OG fared back in its day in regards to tourney scene. I also don’t hear to much about DOA2U over there now that I think about it.
Yeah, I also would love to see what the old videos were like. Early days of DOA2 the FSD system allowed you to backdash better. It was close to the DOA1 style of backdash where you can just mash 1 or 3 to do a crouch dash forward or backwards. Early DOA2 version provided very big arenas to fight in so there was a lot of turtling. The objective back in those days was to find ways around the Hold and wake-up system. For example Ein’s 8K would be a hold resistant attack that launches. The holding player just does a position switch with frame advantage due to Ein’s now whiffed 8K. So Ein’s job was to stun you, go for the launcher or throw your hold. Additionally the same kick also evaded or beat low wake-up kicks giving him an instant launcher. Bass for example, his juggles you’d end with 6KP but instead of doing the guaranteed 2K ground stomp, you use 66P+K to dive over the grounded player making them whiff a mashed wake-up kick and getting you space. DOA2U’s engine was different than the other DOA2 engines: Giving you lighter gravity for juggles (Jann Lee’s PP6P6K46K would whiff the last hit in other words)
In the early days of DOACentral you had Taiwanese and Asian players posting up the DOA3.1 vids of their tournaments. Again, they’re now gone as the servers they were on are either closed or deleted the data so I can never see them again :(. Chances of someone still having them is also slim to none. I mean you’re talking the era before Cable really took off - before Xbox LIVE. That’s a long time ago in the internet world.
When do you have some free time?
Weekends is best. you?
Cool, I will keep in touch. I am going to start having doa gatherings again. Hopefully I can get a group of us to play.