This was such a blast to play!
I played this for way longer than I originally thought I would; DOA3 hasn't got shit on this! It doesn't suffer from the same framerate dropping issues, the costume unlocks don't have psychotic requirements, and I know it's the same engine, but I swear it even looks better. The redone stages look GORGEOUS and the new stages are very welcome as well. Simply put, this is everything I loved about DOA2 but better in pretty much every way. The gameplay is still super fun, smoothe, and GOTCHA-ing your opponent with a well-anticipated Hold to turn the tide of the fight has never felt more amazing.
I played as Leifang a lot this time around; enough so that I unlocked (almost) all her costumes. I really like Costumes 3, 9, and 18 for her. I played some Kasumi, Tina, Hayabusa, and Ayane too, as well as dabbling with Bass and Jann Lee. It was pretty fun branching out with different characters in this entry, as opposed to playing the same 3 as I had previously.
After ignoring it for a while, I dipped back into the Tag Battle mode this time and I rather enjoyed it. It's still not my favorite, but the Tag attacks you can do with your partner are really fun. And while I didn't even come close to getting all the Survival Mode items, I can easily see myself coming back to this game to do just so I can get that so I can unlock everything.
I do have some complaints though:
1) The screen blurring + the white flash that happens during Tengu's boss fight (the same blurring effect was also used in Omega's fight in DOA3). It sucks. I hate it more than anything else; it makes Tengu's fight harder than it already is because you're just blind for half a second while he rushes you.
2) There's a weird rubber-banding kind of effect going on with the game's difficulty. Generally, I felt the game is quitea bit harder than DOA2 on Dreamcast. Now, this would've been fine in and of itself; I adjusted just fine, even though Tengu is pretty bullshit this time around, he's much harder than before. However, the real problem is that the CPU (ESPECIALLY Tengu) will outright read your inputs on Normal sometimes and even moreso on Hard. It's kind of just such a crock of shit that can result in you losing the same fight 3~7 times in a row before the CPU decided it's had enough of obliterating you and then lightens up.
Despite my problems with it, I can safely say this is my favorite entry in the series so far, even moreso than DOA: Dimensions.
I played this for way longer than I originally thought I would; DOA3 hasn't got shit on this! It doesn't suffer from the same framerate dropping issues, the costume unlocks don't have psychotic requirements, and I know it's the same engine, but I swear it even looks better. The redone stages look GORGEOUS and the new stages are very welcome as well. Simply put, this is everything I loved about DOA2 but better in pretty much every way. The gameplay is still super fun, smoothe, and GOTCHA-ing your opponent with a well-anticipated Hold to turn the tide of the fight has never felt more amazing.
I played as Leifang a lot this time around; enough so that I unlocked (almost) all her costumes. I really like Costumes 3, 9, and 18 for her. I played some Kasumi, Tina, Hayabusa, and Ayane too, as well as dabbling with Bass and Jann Lee. It was pretty fun branching out with different characters in this entry, as opposed to playing the same 3 as I had previously.
After ignoring it for a while, I dipped back into the Tag Battle mode this time and I rather enjoyed it. It's still not my favorite, but the Tag attacks you can do with your partner are really fun. And while I didn't even come close to getting all the Survival Mode items, I can easily see myself coming back to this game to do just so I can get that so I can unlock everything.
I do have some complaints though:
1) The screen blurring + the white flash that happens during Tengu's boss fight (the same blurring effect was also used in Omega's fight in DOA3). It sucks. I hate it more than anything else; it makes Tengu's fight harder than it already is because you're just blind for half a second while he rushes you.
2) There's a weird rubber-banding kind of effect going on with the game's difficulty. Generally, I felt the game is quitea bit harder than DOA2 on Dreamcast. Now, this would've been fine in and of itself; I adjusted just fine, even though Tengu is pretty bullshit this time around, he's much harder than before. However, the real problem is that the CPU (ESPECIALLY Tengu) will outright read your inputs on Normal sometimes and even moreso on Hard. It's kind of just such a crock of shit that can result in you losing the same fight 3~7 times in a row before the CPU decided it's had enough of obliterating you and then lightens up.
Despite my problems with it, I can safely say this is my favorite entry in the series so far, even moreso than DOA: Dimensions.