To follow Persona 4

PERSONA 4 (MAYONAKA) ARENA

This game is supposed to tie Persona 3 and 4 and be a premise to Persona 5 (need to be confirmed)

It happen 2 months after P4. Yu return to Inaba and, has he was curious about the midnight channel again he (as well as the ancient investigation group) that it, not only reappear but it feature them in a fighting program. As they decide to investigate they fall in the ennemy's trap and are forced to fight each other. At the same time some of the ex SEES saw a super important cargo stolen from them in a hijacking of a plane. They find that the missing cargo is somewhere in Inaba and decide to investigate the Midnight channel (they were aware of the shadow activities the previous year but did nothing?! O.O). So they end up in the P1 Grand Prix also.


Story: I think ArcRise Studios did a pretty good job to make a decent story. Yes it doesn't equal a real Persona game. But it has more depht than most of battling games. The main plot is poor. But the character development is interesting.



Unfortunately, some characters should had been more worked on (SEES members in particulary). Sadly, it is awfully heavy text base and really there is one story that only have 1 %?&* fight. But it took me 2 hours to read it before reaching the fight. The mixing between P3 and P4 is forced but goes smoothliy after that. The main cons is that there is a lot of Spoilers in this game and every attempt to keep the game spoiler free is annoying. Stating that case and being introduce to the midnight channel and the Dark hour avery single story is really getting on the nerves. But at least there is some memorable scenes (Yosuke vs. Chie is epic). All stories are easy and quick to unlock. But since the ending is pretty much the same you'll get annoyed quickly at the end and learn the lines by heart.

The rest: There is a lot of contents. Of course there is the traditional arcade mode (which is the real arcade game so little story and cutscene in it). Challenge mode (for those who likes combo) there is an astonshing amount of challenge. I was suprised when I saw that. There is Score Mode attack whom I call the Ultime arcade mode, wich consist to fight every character in the game in higher and higher difficulty. There is online mode also.

Gameplay: I was sad to learn that only 2 players can fight at a time. But it is better like this. Since it's in 2D The animations are very fluent and dynamic. The commands are user friendly but the professional fighting gamers can use other skills that aren't present in the user friendly combo (example of newbie combo: Square-square-square-square-...). There is four style of attack. Light-physical, Strong-physical, Close range Persona, Long range Persona. The attack are based on the Persona mechanics so the fans are pleased. Down side it is pretty hard (at least for me) to play with the joystick so moving can be difficult or painful if go with the old way. Arrows.

Overall: Great game. Not recommended for newcomers to the series. Worth 30-20 bucks not more. Made to pleased Persona fans and make them shut the hell up about Persona 5.

The end.

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[3DS] Fire Emblem: Awakening

As a newcomer to the franchise, I honestly really didn't know what to expect. Although I did know that it was kinda like Final Fantasy Tactics (not really).

I'll start off with the controls of the game. They were pretty standard, but they worked well. The touchscreen served no real purpose, other than giving you a more in-depth insight to what your characters are carrying, and more unnecessary controls like view toggling. But that's to be expected; we can't have too much going on on the touchscreen part, considering it's a 3DS game.

The graphics were OK. I like how they made the 2D sprites 3D, and how they were placed upon the 3D lands. I thought it was a really neat effect. Although most of the time I had the 3D off, since it was battery consuming. The 3D models used for the in-game scenes could've been fine, but it disturbed me that they didn't have any feet. Their legs literally just pointed on to the ground. And the 3D characters really didn't look a lot like their hand drawn 2D dialogue counterparts, but that's okay. The cut-scene 3D was amazing and eye-orgasmic; I just had a thing for cell shading, ahaha. But even with the 3D slider up on the fullest, I never felt like I was watching the scenes in 3D. It lacked depth. A lot of it.

And now, we'll move on to the story portion! I haven't actually finished the game, but so far, the eventa were, well, uneeventful. It lacked a certain UMPF to it. It took me a day before I figured out what was happening, because all of a sudden, there was war here and there. It was hard for me to get attached to the characters, since it felt like they were all just rushed in one scene. My favorite character would have to be Donnel, a villager who was really annoyingly weak, but I managed to make him join my team. He was impossible to level up at first, but over time, he just got stronger.

The story was bland, and their speech was... I don't know. I understand that they were living in the medieval times, but it made it hard to like them.

So all in all, I'd give a 6/10. Because I got so bored of the game, I wasn't able to finish it. Maybe I'll pick it up again the future. And oh, Emmeryn is already dead, so yeah. Am I far in the game yet?

And now I apologize for my atrocious review. I'm typing on a phone, so my thoughts don't really flow the way it does when I'm on a keyboard. So sorry!

Latest game i played was Saints Row 3. I remember back in the day when it first originally came out i wasn't into it as much but this time around they did a big improvement on the series with Saints Row 3 the vast customization on your character is a big plus compared to GTA 4, the weapons were cool even though i admit id just run around swinging the purple dildo bat but who wouldn't if they played Saints Row 3 the different varieties of missions were pretty cool and zany at times especially The soundtrack was awesome especially for the in game radio since they actually had real songs and the ability to buy property's and gain money from them was pretty awesome. Overall its a amazing game and id recommend it to anyone who wants to play it I give it a 9/10 I hope Saints Row 4 lives up to the hype when it is released

SR3 was such a step down from SR2. I couldn't help but feel completely disappointed by the game since the customization options paled in comparison to 2.
SR4 doesn't look like the game's changed at all. Honestly, it just looks like a retail priced expansion for the third game >.>

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i didn't really get a chance to finish saints row 2 i got bored kinda quickly but ill probably give it another go once i get Gamefly its it cheap I enjoyed Saints row 3 it wasn't a bad game personally i enjoyed it more than GTA IV. Well we have to wait and see once its out if it feels like a sequel depending how the story rolls on plus i wouldn't consider it a expansion if the game have a longer gameplay than 12 hrs

I'll be getting GTAV. At first I wasn't too hyped for the game, but then Rockstar gave us a gameplay video that demonstrated the 3 protagonist mechanic and the biggest open world they've done so far. I got hype, and now I've got the game pre-ordered.

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Definitely getting that game as well after seeing the gameplay its gonna revolutionize the GTA series im definitely getting it that's why i didn't bother buying a xbox one yet or any new game consoles im sticking to my good old 360 since there still good games coming out

DS: Harvest Moon - DS Cute

The girl version of Harvest Moon DS and the review only counts for the girl version, as some features are not in the boy version and some things got fixed in the girl version, so they don't count for the boy version.

Story

You own a farm. But are hopelessly lazy.
The Harvest Goddess was asked by your deceased mother to watch over you, make sure that you are alright and work diligently. But the Goddess has had enough of your lazy attitude and wants to give up on you. This angers the Harvest God and their bantering ends with the God accidently turning the Goddess into a stone statue and throwing the Harvest Sprites into another world.
The Witch Princess wakes you up and hands you a letter.
The Harvest God tells you about the Goddess' and Sprites' fate and that it was your fault, because you are a lazy person. You now have to collect them all and rescue the Harvest Goddess, so things get back to the way they were before.
Catch them all!

Setting

The game takes place in Forget Me Not Valley, the location of the A Wonderful Life games, but 100 years afterwards. It's a pretty faithful rendition of the area, although there are a few changes. The place is modeled the way it looks Chapter 2 onwards in A Wonderful Life games, with Hardy living where Nina and Galen used to live and the elderly couple living in a little shack south of Vesta's Farm. Kate and her father are also already moved into the valley.

Controls

The player controls majority of the time with the buttons on the top screen. They move the character, use tools and talk with the buttons. On the second screen is a button that turns the buttons off and displays the buttons on the Touch Screen, so the player can move the character like that, but I found it to be an extreme hassle to do that...

The Touch Screen is the always present multi-menu. Here, the player can save and load from two files and can save almost anywhere and at any time. This is really helpful for certain things, like when the player is attempting to get the Cursed Tools or just rectify a wrong answer during a Heart Event, if the player saved before the event took place.

The rucksack is also there and everything is moved via touch screen. Equipping tools, accessories or putting something into the player's hand. Items stack and the rucksack is decently sized for starters and with two, rather cheap, rucksack extensions buyable, gives the player enough room to hold a ton of stuff. With items stacking, the player has to watch out to only give 1 of a stacked item to an NPC, so they have to make sure to click the border of where the item is located. Tap it twice to take 1 out of the stack. (Noticeable by the border of the box turning orange and not the entire box)

Rest of the Touch Screen menues are the map, which the player can use to teleport to places, if the Teleport Stone is equipped and the player is not in a building. Overview of their assets, with submenues showing their experience with tools, how many and which Harvest Sprites have been unlocked, what you have shipped, etc, etc, and the TV Channel menu. Here the player can view tomorrow's weather and the shopping channel to get some stuff they'll need like a big bed and a kitchen... the rest of the channels are kind of superfluous.

Characters

A sweet little feature in the game, is that the player can determine which female character they play as by answering three easy questions. Depending on the answer, the player will either play as the blond girl from More Friends of Mineral Town, Claire, or as the brunette girl from Another Wonderful Life, Pony. Of course, the player can choose what to name their character, dog, cat and farm before starting the game.

Since the game takes place in the valley, we have the characters from A Wonderful Life living there. And despite 100 years having passed, none of their descendants have changed their looks, living areas or even names. In the Japanese version, the names were changed but in the English version, they retained their original names, most likely due to localization of the A Wonderful Life games. Notice, though, that Ruby's husband Tim and Grant's wife, and Kate's mother, Samantha are not in this game...

But that's not all!
Every summer, Kai from (More) Friends of Mineral Town will appear. If the player has a cartridge of More Friends of Mineral Town and plugs it into the GBA Slot and play DS Cute, they will unlock the boys and girls from the GBA game, too. I read that you can also unlock them by having the boy version of Mineral Town plugged in, but I'm not sure.
In the European version of the game, plugging in the European GBA version does nothing!

Bachelors

Just like in the DS version, DS Cute gives the player five 'normal' bachelors to choose from to marry. They are basically the male counterparts of the girls. Once again, Marlin, Rock and Gustafa are available for marriage. Griffin is Lumina's counterpart, said girl being available for marriage in A Wonderful Life Special Edition, and Carter counterplays Flora, who was finally available for marriage in the DS version.
Each of the bachelors have rivals and if you do not pursue the guy and view all the rival scenes, they will marry.
Marlin and Celia will get married, Carter marries Flora, Griffin marries Muffy, Rock marries Lumina and Gustafa and Nami will get hitched, too.
Note that, aside from one couple, all of the rival couples do voice some doubt about their marriage...

The 'special' bachelor in DS Cute is Skye, a young man who calls himself a Phantom Thief. He gives his victims future warnings before coming to steal things. Think Kaito Kid. Skye himself, though, never really steals anything of value I think. If you go for him he will steal 'your heart' though. Skye only appears at night time, so it's kind of hard to get to him at times.

But that's not all!
With the GBA characters unlocked, the player can choose to marry one of the GBA boys as well. This means Rick, Kai, Gray, Cliff and the doctor, who got the unfortunate name of Trent in this game. They are harder to marry as they only appear once a week, except for Kai who is available all summer long, and you can only give them a gift on that day. Unlike the boy version of the game, marrying one of the GBA boys will not end the game.

And it gets even better!
The player also has the option to romance create a deep friendship with the special bachelorettes from the boy version. This means the Witch Princess, the Harvest Goddess, the sleeping princess Keira and the mermaid Leia are available to marry form a union with.
Actually, not really...
While the game does allow the player to give gifts to the girls and unlock their Heart Events, it can never progress to marriage in the English version of the game. In the Japanese version, the Blue Feather could be given to them if all other marriage conditions were fulfilled and even a child would appear after 90 days of happy bliss. But the marriage feature was removed in the English version, although the developers say that such a thing was not done.

Gameplay

Well, it's a Harvest Moon game and the game focuses on, well, farming and other Harvest Moon stuff. Although the player has been on the farm for a year, being a lazy ass, the farm is overrun with the usual stones, stumps and weeds that need clearing before it can be used for anything. And while the people in the valley know you, you have to talk to them to properly 'meet' them, which is required to unlock events.

The game gives the player pretty much a free hand on how to play the game. The player can choose to clear the farm and immediately use it for crops or to build barns and coops on it, focusing more on the ranch aspect. Or maybe screw that and just mine for necklaces, gems and ores, once the mines are unlocked. Or fish, as long as you have the fishing rod.

Goal of the game is, of course, to unlock Harvest Sprites. They all have their specific conditions to unlock and some will appear as the player plays the game, checks things out or just stumbles over them by accident. Majority of them, though, require the player to do almost everything in the game to unlock all of them. Separated into teams, doing something like farming will unlock the green team that can help with the harvest or the blue team fishing for you. Good thing is, there is no time limit to unlocking the Sprites. The player can take as much time as they want to unlock them.

The game is similar to other Harvest Moon games, there is no real end to the game. The first ultimate goal in the game is to restore the Harvest Goddess, which happens once 60 Sprites have been unlocked. Afterwards, the credits roll and the game continues. Getting married in the game, which requires the Goddess to be restored, will also cause the credits to roll and the player can still continue to play. And the credits roll a third time, when the player has given birth to a child, and yet the game still goes on.

Children

A quick, short section on the child in the game.
If the player keeps her husband happy, at a red heart, for a month after marriage, they will find out that the player is pregnant. Two months afterwards, the child will be born. Each of the normal bachelors has a child that looks similar to them... well, sort of. Since Carter is Flora's counterpart, his child will have blond hair, although Carter himself is black haired. Similar with Marlin being Celia's counterpart, only with brown instead of black hair.

The child's personality will not differ at all, no matter who the player has decided to marry. Only difference is their appearance, which means their color palette. Marlin's and Griffin's child has brown hair, Carter's and Rock's child has blond hair, although Rock's child is lighter, and Gustafa's child has red hair.

What if the player has married special bachelor Skye or one of the GBA characters?
Then the child's appearance will be chosen at random at birth. Thanks to the option of saving at almost any time, the player can save before the day of the birth, go through the birth and then load if the child's appearance is not the one that they want.

After the child is born, there will be a time skip of three years and your child will be a walking, talking toddler. Don't worry, the time skip will not harm the farm in any way, if you have anything there. Once the child is a toddler, the player can give it gifts and even see some events with it.
After two in-game years, the child will grow into a kid.
After another two in-game years, the child will grow into a teenager and stay like that. The child will not help on the farm in any way, just like your husband, so they are mostly there for decoration and a few events.

And the child can be either a boy or a girl!
Yes, the girl version of the game has the option of having a daughter. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine what gender the child will be until it is born. So the player will have to save after the wedding and then skip three months to see the birth and see whether the child is their preferred gender. Oh and no saving in between!
According to rumor, the date of the wedding influences the child's gender. Marrying on an odd numbered day will result in a boy and on an even day will result in a girl. I have made sure to marry on even days and still had times where I saved before the proposal, then after the wedding, skipped through those three months and then still end up with a boy, forcing me to reload to the save of before the proposal!

Levels

That's right, there are levels in this game... not like in an RPG, but levels for crops, trees and other stuff. Any crop seed bought will be Level 1 and putting more bag of seeds over a seeded field can result in getting Level 2 crops. The higher the crop's level, the more money it will sell for.
Downside of this is that Level 2 is the highest the player can go, until they build a Maker Shed and obtain a Seed Maker. The other problem is that the highest level is Level 100 and it takes quite some time to get there. And even then, the result may not be that great.

Only upside to this is a neat little easter egg. If the player has a Level 100 poisonous mushroom and uses it as their contribution at the Harvest Festival, the entire town will die due to poison. Cue Game Over. It's a sweet little thing and probably fun to watch once, but otherwise, it's not that big of a deal.

Music

Back to Midi-ish format! As usual, the music for the town changes per season and I must say, I am sick and tired of the Spring and Summer music... probably due to starting the game so often and playing through those seasons.

However, if the player doesn't want to listen to that, they can buy records at the Harvest Sprites Tree and listen to them instead of the game's music. The records are tracks from previous Harvest Moon games like A Wonderful Life, Back to Nature For Girls and all the way back to the original Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo. But not all the records are available at once.

The first set is available from the start and consists of 10 records. The second set gets unlocked once the player has married. But I noticed that the second record set is not unlocked, if the player has not married one of the 'normal' bachelors! The third set is available once the player's child has grown into a kid. There is a fourth set, which is more expensive than the others and only available if the game has been connected to the GBA game, featuring the GBA game's four season tracks and the ending credits track.

While the tracks are great and nice to listen to instead of the game's music, downside is that some of the audio is a little weird. The Super Nintendo Tracks have been remixed a little and it sounds quite foreign to players of that version. Another thing is that the record will stop playing when the player teleports using the telport stone. And since the teleport stone is available as early as Spring 8th, it's unlikely the player will walk everywhere...

Overall

While it's great that the girl version of the game has gotten rid of some of the annoying bugs in the boy version of the game, some so bad that two of the special bachelorettes were impossible to marry, there are problems with the game.

The game feels a lot like an enhanced version of Friends of Mineral Town and not much like a DS game at all.
The graphics are basically like Friends of Mineral Town, but with a better pixelation.

The touch screen controls are a neat little feature at times, but also annoying. I'd rather just use a button to get an item instead of a touch screen tapping... And the use of Touch Screen incorporated into the game is annoying, too. The player has the option to wash, brush and milk/sheer their animals by using the Touch Screen which... if the player has a lot of animals can be quite grating, especially since certain Sprites require the Touch Screen controls to get unlocked.

Overall, though, I felt the game was too slow for me. The game doesn't have long loading times or anything like that, but just the entire game's pace felt slow. Getting a minimum of 60 Sprites to be able to get married can take a while, even a year can feel rather slow in this game. And even then, having over half the Sprites collected by the time the game 'ends' ruins some of the fun later. Because the player knows that the last 41 Sprites are harder and more time-consuming to get.

It's possible that I just don't have the patience for such a slow-paced game, I like getting married fast, having the kid and seeing the kid grow up, but it does take a while for the game to get going. The game isn't bad, it's quite fun... just slow at times.

Score: 7/10

C-A

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Remember that all these posts are all of someone's personal opinion. And if you feel like giving your review of a game that has already been reviewed, go ahead. It'll be fun to see what everyone thinks.

Super Nintendo: Sailor Moon - Another Story

Story

A comet from a distant corner of the galaxy was heading towards the earth of the 30th Century. However, despite the crash being imminent, the comet suddenly disappeared and all seemed well. Not realizing that the problems were taking place in the 20th Century...

Awoken one morning by Luna, Usagi has to help Naru and her mother, who are being attacked by a monster in their home. After defeating it, she realizes that it's a monster she had defeated previously. Talking with the other soldiers, she learns that they, too, have noticed that previously defeated enemies have been reappearing lately.
The soldiers eventually learn that their enemies call themselves the Opposito Senshi.
They are like mirror-images of the Inner Senshi. Sin, Nabu, Nergal, Marduk and Ishtar basically counter Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus respectively. They say they came from the future and want to change Destiny...

There's also a sub-plot involving a pendant that Chibiusa lost in the 30th Century, but that is only ever shown in the beginning of the title screen and never really put into the game until the very end...
so you can ignore that thing, it's unimportant...

So where in the timeline does this fit? The game most likely takes place just after Sailor Moon S ended, but before Chibiusa attempts to return to the future. All the soldiers from Moon to Pluto appear, Saturn herself appears in her Sailor form due to the altered Destiny in the game, alongside practically every enemy that appears in the first three seasons of the anime.

Characters

The game is heavily inspired by the anime version, so we have all the usual characters from the soldiers to their friends and family appearing, but also have anime-only characters like Yuuichirou, Ryou Urakawa, Fiore from the Sailor Moon R movie and similar appearing. Almost every person that was important in the first three seasons appears at some point.

With inspiration from the anime, the character personalities are based on the anime. This means that some things got changed, like Ami being pretty much in a relationship with Ryou Urakawa, hints of a romance between Yuuichirou and Rei. But the game also is a bit inspired by the manga as well.
Sailor Moon can use the Holy Grail to turn into Super Sailor Moon, while Sailor Chibimoon can use a Holy Grail as well to turn into Super Sailor Chibimoon, something she never did in the third anime season, but was capable of doing at the end of the corresponding Mugen manga arc.
And the game even takes a bit from just pictures of the manga.
While Kunzite and Venus were at least hinted at having fallen for each other in the manga during the reign of the Silver Millenium, the others got paired up with the other Generals that served Endymion, like in this picture. Note that aside from Kunzite and Venus, nothing was ever really mentioned.

Battle System

The random encounters in the game are not too bad. While running as a character can lessen the time it takes for a new battle to begin, the characters walk a decent enough pace that running isn't required, so the random encounters are a bit lower at times.

The battles themselves are turn based. You input the commands you have for each of your four-girl team before everything is played out. The attacks are the ones that appear in the anime and some in the manga, while the player can also choose to defend, attack physically, use an item or a Double, Triple or Full-Party Attack.
The attack artes the girls can use all have a certain amount of "Diamonds" they use up. Each girl has a certain number of Diamonds that count as their MP in a battle. The maximum amount each girl can have is 12 Diamonds and they get automatically replenished after each battle. Once the Diamonds have been used up, the girl cannot use her artes or participate in any team attack and can only attack physically. Items can be bought to replenish the Diamonds during battle.

A neat little thing is that there is a chance that a Puzzle Piece is dropped after the battle. The puzzle pieces are automatically used to fill up a picture of all the soldiers and Tuxedo Mask found in the game's menu. It's kind of nice to get them all and see the picture.

Gameplay

Typical RPG-style, you have your story and linear gameplay you have to go to to unlock cutscenes and proceed with the story line. The player traverses through places to get to their goal, although there is some freedom in looking for treasure chests or talking to NPCs.

The game itself is separated into 5 Chapters, with the second Chapter cut into 5 sub-stories. The chapters vary in length. While the player will usually move around as Sailor Moon or Sailor Chibimoon, there are moments where the player will control some other soldier, mostly one of the Inner Senshi ones. Party Customization is limited for part of the game, as you either have a very limited choice of party or are going through an area solo.
Later on, the player can choose which other three team members he wants when the party splits up, again, while their mandatory party member is either Sailor Moon or Sailor Chibimoon.

Music & Sound

In Midi format and it gets the atmosphere done quite nicely. I think some of the tracks are from the anime, but turned into mid format for the game, but I'm not too sure... The game has little amount of voice acting. Upon entering a battle, "Make Up!" is called out. The soldiers shout out their attack names or cry out when attacking or getting hit, inside and out of battle during certain moments. It's a nice little feature.

Controls

There's not too much to say here...
A is the main button to do things, B is to cancel.
X opens the menu and I don't think Y has any purpose...

Endings

The game has two endings and the difference is only made during the very final boss battle. The group splits itself into two teams and Sailor Moon's group takes on the final boss. The difference between the Endings is which group manages to defeat the Final Boss - Sailor Moon's or Sailor Chibimoon's group.
The Final Boss is very difficult to tackle with Sailor Moon's group, but it is possible to defeat the final boss. If the player manages to defeat the boss with Sailor Moon's group, they are treated to a "Good" Ending where the final boss is the defeated and everything is perfect.
If Sailor Moon gets defeated by the final boss, Chibimoon's group will take over the battle. The boss is easier at this point. This results in a kind of "Bittersweet" Ending, where things are good, but one thing is done in a way that things seem a little bittersweet... I personally prefer this ending, due to the below mentioned point.

Litte things that annoy me? A big one, but I do admit it's a personal pet peeve of mine.
The game included a young boy called Anshar amongst the Opposito Senshi, he is Sin's younger brother. And of course, we get a hinted at Star Crossed Lovers romance between him and Chibiusa. And I find it dumb, because Chibiusa already had a 'Canon Love Interest' in Helios. Granted, he appeared in the fourth Season, SuperS, and the Dream arc of the manga, but he is nonetheless canon. Just because this game kind of took place before he appeared does not mean we can just have Chibiusa go for Anshar.
I had the same problem with the SuperS movie, where despite it being the season where Pegasus/Helios debuted, Chibiusa was given a romance with Perle from the movie... and Helios was nowhere to be seen. It's quite annoying, the way they whored Chibiusa out in the movie, this game and even the anime at times...

Overall

For a Sailor Moon fan, it's quite fun to play. And while it is almost 20 years old, it can also fulfill some sense of nostalgia for people, if they still have a Super Nintendo or even an Emulator. The game isn't too difficult, it ranks it up nicely as you proceed through the story.

Score: 6/10 - it's flawed and kind of outdated, but still fun to play

C-A

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360/PS3: Dead or Alive 5

Story Mode

Unlike in previous DoA games, where the player could select a character who went through their own 'storyline' and events, Story Mode involves one large arc of a storyline. Represented by a timeline, where each character gets some time in the spotlight. Each character's spotlight feels kind of confusing, as some don't connect in any way, but overall, there is an overarching plot going on.

After two years, it's time for the next tournament - Dead or Alive 5! While Zack is going around, advertising the tournament and rounding up potential candidates, Helena has some more important business with the ninjas. The perfect soldier, Alpha 152 is still out and about and seems to be having some help. Donovan is still at large and is planning something with Alpha 152, with Kasumi wanting to finish off her clone once and for all. Knowing that she can't do it on her own, Helena has Hayate, Ayane and Ryu follow her.

Overall, the story is a bit all over the place, because the spotlight switches from one character to the next after their few 'chapters' are over, although some we come back to. The story is more dramatic towards the end, but still a little confusing.

Characters

The old cast is back, with some new additions! There are only two new characters in this game that are present in the storyline. Mila, a mixed martial artes fighter who is a huge fan of Bass Armstrong with a boxing-like fighting style and Rig, an amnesiac construction worker who fights using teakwondo.
I personally felt like Mila was unnecessary to add to the game, as her fighting style is similar to Tina's.

The game has five unlockable characters. Gen Fu appears once again, but outside of the storyline, as he has officially retired at the end of Dead or Alive 3 and took over the mentor role for Eliot. Alpha 152 makes a reappearance as a playable character from Dead or Alive: Dimensions, she is most likely the last character a player will unlock.
The other three unlockables are characters from the Virtual Fighter games! Akira Yuki, Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan appear in the game, however are also not part of the storyline. Their fighting style is different from the DoA characters, which makes their addition into the game a little off-putting. The controls are different that they require more precision and timing to pull off their various combos.

Some of the previously unlockable characters are not present in this game, unfortunately. Ein, who was Hayate's 'persona' in DoA 2 and has been an unlockable character in all DoA games since, does not appear in this game. Similar for Leon, who was present in DoA 2 and DoA 3 as a playable character, but turned into an unlockable character in DoA 4, is also not present.
However, these two were added as unlockable characters in the Vita release Dead or Alive 5 + along with three other unlockable characters.

Graphics

The environments look amazing, they already looked great in Dead or Alive 4 and this game just enhances that. Even the more subtle changes to an environment during a battle is more noticeable. A roof railing getting dented when a character's body gets smashed into it. The characters get sweaty and dirty during battle - however, this can be turned off, if the player chooses to do so.

The characters look more realistic, although I will go into detail about the women.
Yes, there is still fanservice in this game regarding the women. Yes, I do think the breasts got bigger or more noticeable since Dead or Alive 4, somewhat understandable as two years have passed since. However, I feel like not just the faces got more realistic, but the body types and builds, too. The girls are more curvy and 'properly' made. Their bodytype now seems naturally capable of visually competing with their big chests. It doesn't look too fanservicy anymore, it loooks... more realistic and natural.

The graphics for the costumes is amazing. You can see the subtle pattern on some of the clothes, you can see the criss-cross-stitching of something woolen and the jeans look like actual jeans. And I have to say about the women's costumes... Dead or Alive 5 has the most modest costume selection I have seen to date for the women! Several of the costumes involve pants or tights for the women, their chest is generally covered up and there is a lot more material to their clothes.
Now, there are some skimpier outfits, but those are mostly put onto the women that were more fanservice-focused in the previous games. Christie, the seductive assassin who was already proven to have used her sex-appeal to get to her target, has some low-cut outfits or is basically fighting in a cocktail dress with a nice little garter on her thigh.
Tina was always very willing to provide fanservice in previous games, so she does walk around with just a bikini on the top half of her body or similar, but even she has some modest clothes! Lisa never did too much fanservice, but she does fulfill the sexy scientist role by wearing a miniskirt with her labcoat.
But as I said, that is nothing new. These are the top three women who were made sexy in previous games and retain that part in this game. Outfits for the other women seems to focus more on making them look cute or pretty. And it's always a beautiful eyesight to see Kokoro fight in a kimono, something that was shown in the opening of DoA 4 and promotional art, but was never implented into the game then.

Controls

As any fighting game, the controls are separated into four parts.
Punching, Kicking, Throwing and Free/Holding.
The first three mustn't be explained as they are pretty obvious. Every character has combos of punching and kicking, the throws have some combos in them as well. The Holding system is a bit more complex...

It was in previous DoA games and a bit more simpler. Originally, the player had to press H (Hold) into one of three directions for either an upper, middle or lower punch or kick. If the player used a hold corresponding with the opponent's attack, the player character made a counter attack.
With this, the player had a 1:3 chance of getting it right.
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate onwards, the H for middle punch and kick was changed. Holding towards the back would hold a punch, while holding towards the front would hold a kick. This added some difficulty to the game, as the player now had a bit of a lesser chance of getting the right Hold and this control feature was then added to the next DoA games, along with this one.

Personally, I find this Hold system to be terrible.
There is no real way of knowing what the opponent will do, the Hold system and its success are based on pure luck, especially with three directions and different combo for the middle attacks. It's like the fight is stopped in the middle for a round of rock-paper-scissors and if you get it wrong, the opponent can really lay it into the player for a good few seconds, before the player can actually do something again.
Overall, it's nice to have a way to counter an opponent attacking you, but I find the Hold system to be heavily flawed because it is nothing more than a guessing game.

Difficulty

The Arcade, Time Attack and Survival Modes are ranked into various difficulties from Rookie, very easy, up to Legend, ridiculously hard. The Legend difficulty, though, can only be unlocked once the player has played all the other ranks of that mode.

The difficulty spike between the ranks is pretty decent, Rookie is very kind towards new players with the opponents having moments where they basically stand defenseless, waiting for the player to wail on them. The Legend difficulty is pretty difficult, there are times where the player might think the AI is either cheating or can actually read the player's mind before even the player himself knows what button they will press next.

Personally, I found Dead or Alive 5 to be easier than the previous game's installment, DoA 4, which had no Easy difficulty and was even a little hard to battle on normal difficulty. However, the player can still get some decent challenge out of the game, especially in the Master or Legend Rank courses.

Missions

Story Mode gives each battle the player fights a little Bonus Mission they can choose to fulfill during the battle. Fulfilling a Bonus Mission doesn't really add much to the storyline itself, it gives the player a little title/in-game achievement to collect during the course of the game.

The Bonus Missions themselves get a Rank for difficulty ranging from Rank 1 to Rank 5. The difficulty will rise the further along in the storyline the player is, so the first few missions are quite easy and kind towards new players. The opponent's AI will alter in the battle, so they will act in a way that they will do an action that will help the player fulfill the bonus mission. When the player's mission is to escape from an opponent's throw, the opponent's AI will do throw commands several times.

These Bonus Missions are optional, although anyone who wants to 100% the game or just likes to collect things in a game will do them eventually. If the player has finished a battle without doing the Bonus Mission, the player can choose to view the timeline of story mode and select at which part the bonus mission was that they didn't do. Downside is, if it's been a while and the player doesn't remember where it was, they may have to try various battles or look up a guide for some help.

Music and Sound

I can't really say much here... the game has its themes for certain parts, every character has their own theme that generally plays when fighting them as your opponent. A few themes from previous games either got remixes used for this game or simply make cameos. I must say, I was happy to hear Purity - Kasumi's DoA 4 theme - during the latter half of the storyline.

This game features Dual Audio!
Upon first starting the game, the voices are set to English by default, but can be changed to Japanese if the player wishes for them to be so. I found the English voices to be fitting for some characters, but others sounded a bit off... but in general the English voices do their jobs and are somewhat pleasant to listen to. They even add a little variety, by having some of the characters accents according to their native home, like french, britich or russian and similar. Except the Japanese characters don't have a Japanese accent...

Online Features

Well, some of the things collectable in this game are titles and several of them have the conditions of fighting and winning a certain number of battles online with a certain character. The way I have understood it, the PS3 Online for the game was not doing very well when the game first came out... I do not play this game on the PS3 anymore, so I cannot say if it got improved. However, the 360 version of the game has no problems with Online battles.

The game also features some DLC.
The DLC ranges from price and can include one character's single outfit or a pack of outfits for various characters. Some DLC is even free and can be downloaded by anyone! Personally, I would suggest to at least get the free DLC, if the player has access to the internet on their console. Especially the Beach stage looks fun to play in, reminiscent of the Zack Island stage added into Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate and Dead or Alive 3.

The DLC outfits range from outfits from previous games, some character's clothes being put onto a different character - one of Mila's DLC outfits is an outfit that Tina wore in the first Dead or Alive game, to overall more casual clothes and even some Santa themed outfits for men and women! There are also some swimsuit outfits for the ladies, but also some trunks and... speedos... and similar for the men, so both genders have something to oggle at. The swimsuits are some featured in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 and most of them are not the skimpy kinds... again, except for the three above mentioned fanservice-y women.

Overall

Despite Itoi leaving Tecmo/Team Ninja a few years ago, this DoA game still has the same charm that the previous ones had. And I have to say, I quite like the new graphics of this game, even if the faces are different from previous games and may take some getting used to.
I remember feeling weird about Hayate's new appearance when DoA 5 was first shown...
It's a great fighting game and a good stress-reliever, although it also amplifies stress at times, when the character doesn't respond in the way the player wants them to or the opponent's AI is just being a jerk who won't let you get a single hit in before giving you a KO.
Personally, I would enjoy this game more without a few characters... Hayabusa has his own game series, he should stay in it. And get rid of Jann Lee, we've had Bruce Lee imitations/inspirations in videogames since Street Fighter with Feng Long, even Yuugi in YuGiOh! played a fighter game with 'Bruce Long' in it.

Overall, I'd suggest this game to others. It's a good addition to the DoA games and shows that it won't end, just because Itoi left. There are even hints that they are bringing out Dead or Alive X3 and considering what I have seen as graphics in this game, I am looking quite forward to it!

Score: 8/10 - Very nice game and great fun to play.

C-A

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