Dead or Alive 5: Itagaki Gives Advice To Team Ninja On How To ‘Save Our DOA’

Tomonobu Itagaki has written a new note addressed to the current members of Team Ninja working on Dead or Alive 5, giving advice on what they should do to save the game.

Itagaki starts off by saying he is not a negative person, clarifying any impressions fans would have gotten from his last Facebook note about the game.

He describes Team Ninja’s problems as being in a double bind (a dilemma stemming from two irreconcilable demands). Similarly, the fans are in a double bind, economically, and this puts the devs in a psychological double bind. Without mentioning it now, he is alluding to the situation where the many DLC packs for the game have the devs stuck. I presume he means the dilemma between making more profitable DLC, and addressing complaints from fans regarding the same DLC.

Itagaki’s advice is simple and straightforward:

Never add any meaningless features to your games.

He describes developers that keep adding features to their game without meaning as lacking confidence, and goes so far to describe ‘boring playabilities’ that can’t be hidden, and the game’s deficiencies as a ‘cancer’ that can’t be healed.

Itagaki ends by saying that he is confident that Tecmo Koei’s management are respectable, alluding that they would let Team Ninja do what they want. Again, in his words, management wants them to do good work for gamers.

Itagaki continues to be a firebrand after all these years. Do you agree with his assessment of Dead Or Alive 5’s problems? Or are you among the current fans that prefer the game as it is, for whatever reason? Did you have other problems with the current game, such as issues the game had launching on PS4 and Xbox One? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.