GamesBeat: What characters, if any, have been especially problematic when it comes to balancing the Dead or Alive 5 roster? Why?
Shimbori: That’s easy: Alpha-152.
The impression of how strong that character is changes drastically based on the person playing. This is a very important point which is common to all fighting games, so this might get a little long. Bear with me here.
For both Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate and Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, unless a player is fighting against someone a lot better than they are, then the player will not lose just because of a character’s abilities. However, the player’s impression of whether a character is strong or weak will vary depending on how well developed the player’s strategies against that character are. This is something that can be said for all fighting games, not just Dead or Alive. Now, for Alpha-152, what makes her unique is that she has the strongest attacks but the weakest defense, so how well she performs in a fight will vary dramatically based on how well developed an opponent’s strategy against Alpha-152 is. If the opponent has no strategy, then they will be easily overwhelmed with her critical combos which are easy to pull off and lead into any of 4 attacks: 3 critical burst moves or a throw with the most damage in the game.
However, Alpha-152 does not have normal wakeups and rising kicks, no normal holds, and because she is so light, she can get launched higher than other characters and thus potentially take more damage from juggles. All of that means she has the weakest defense of any character.
When playing against an opponent who has strategies for positioning, as well as dealing with her critical combo patterns and unusual wakeups, she will have a hard time winning. You see that in play when watching the well-developed tournament fights now compared to fights from the past. Extremely unique characters might not be so strong once people figure out strategies against them, so you need to make sure you don’t make them too weak initially.
This is why balancing is hard.
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