If you watch the stream you'll hear how much the game has changed, including returning to having stuns that you can't defensive hold out of.

Does Sarah get counters?

YEEEEEEES!! i knew it!!!

They made Sarah look more Japanese than American?

Yes. Akira did.

hmm i wonder.. will sarah get a japanese VA (voice actor)? since its a doa game and all the characters regardless of nationality speak japanese.. eh anyways the game looks solid its a might buy for me

This should be a wake-up call for those who claim that VF models aren't bland and the character design is "great" even though a majority of newcomers / non-fans complain about the matter and aesthetics in general. Team Ninja got Sarah for 5min and redesigned her face to look hotter and more interesting than she's ever looked in VF so far and that with arms tied behind their backs to make the models true to their original form.

The graphics do look incredible and Akira/Sarah have never looked so good. Only thing that gets me is the sound effects on hits throw me off when I see Akira fight since it's not the same as VF. Just feels a bit odd to me.

yeah right, but you guys forget something...
VF5 was released almost over six years before on 07/12/2006 (japan arcade release) and DOA5 has still no gold status...

New photo of Sarah from Tecmo's facebook page.

Yeah, VF5 "only" looks good for its age and not ZOMGAMAZING like a game that's scheduled for 2013, I'll give you that.

Still, I'm not sure what the "bland" comment is supposed to be about, but really - would you happen to imply that DoA has the upper hand over VF when it comes to inspired character design, with such non-bland characters as...

- stereotypical ninja girl
- stereotypical ninja dude
- stereotypical traditional Japanese girl
- stereotypical wrestler chick
- stereotypical Chinese girl
- stereotypical wacky black dude
- stereotypical Bruce Lee
- stereotypical assassin girl (wearing underwear over her jumpsuit in the newest trailer)

...and so forth? Damn, VF looks like a pinnacle of character innovation in comparison... or at least they've done their cliches first. Or is Tekken better, whose idea of "Cool" is to shower every character with a ton of busy crap on their costumes, like flames, chains, spikes, tiger heads and tribal tattoos?

Not a bash on DoA really, the newest iteration looks interesting now that they got rid of doll faces and their focus on the pillow breasts, but really... "bland"?

Again, it's not underwear. It's ventilation for the racing suit, since racing suits are typically skin tight it has to allow for sweat and heat to ventilate.

This.

Also the Akira model looks fucking terrible.

I will always miss VF4's Sarah. Realistic in psyche, not hyper-idealized like VF5 or this one.

And the combos/gameplay/animations look really bad (having seen some other videos).

Really I thought Sarah looks way more realistic, but that's ur opinion, so i respect that, then.

By the way, anyone got any footage of Sarah in gameplay, IGN.com has mentioned seeing Sarah fighting in the circus stage? I didn't see any on youtube.

You confuse character fighting styles and backgrounds with graphical designs. It could have just as easy have been ninja one to twenty; as long as they are made interesting graphically and emotionally involving people would want to play the game and don't give a shit if it's an "assassin girl" or not. It has nothing to do with the age of the game it has to do with design choices. Like putting Akira / others in a silk blouse or tops that they could have bought from GAP thinking it makes him look cool cause it's more 'traditional kung fu'. Yup folks; that's the great innovative re visioning of Akira for the VF5 series.

It's the same reason why every newcomer to VF will be drawn towards Goh and ignore Lau and Sarah and newcomers to Tekken X SF are drawn towards for instance Kazuya. You can have successful character designs and unsuccessful ones. And, yes, bland. If I were to ask even a veteran VF player about costumes C to S in this game most would have to scratch their heads to even begin to imagine them. That's bland my friend. It's not like VF as a series hasn't been updating the look on CERTAIN characters on their own (Jacky for instance) but if you can't see Kage or Jeffry in his standard gi uniform / pants and understand that they feels unmodern and instead see some sort of 'purity' and whatnot there's really no point - you're biased and blind.

I don't even know why it's a debate it's hands down one of the biggest critiques towards the game (do you or do you NOT agree to this?). I sometimes feel like people are living in a bubble and don't listen to newcomers at all. I'm not whining about things cause I dislike the game I really think it's amazing how aesthetics are ignored and that it's a big akillesheel from the game going truelly mainstream that is EASILY fixed. 20yearold sound fx??? Guitar and midi drum soundtrack? Meanwhile TT2 has changed from trash metal towards dubstep etc in their soundtrack cause they actually understand these things importance. The newcomers and their knee-jerk reactions ("none of the characters are interesting") are worth (much) MORE than veterans when it comes to things like this cause they aren't effected by groupthink and people SHOULD listen to them if they really care about this game growing. Instead it becomes about them 'not knowing shit' and laughing at them for wanting storymodes or something else so that they can get an emotional bond (which is absolutely natural and one of the biggest reasons people even play videogames!) towards their character and not feel disjointed. At least they got rid of Lions skateboard finally. You and I don't need to be motivated towards the game - they do.

Some of these characters trademark uniforms have not been changed in 20 years for crying out loud. Wakeup. It's not about the engine itself the character models ARE detailed - it's design choices and grabbing someones attention BEFORE they even care about the fightingstyle or story around a character. Whether they are a "stereotypical assassin girl" or not.

it's pretty cool that they will be crossing over, but DOA to me plays drastically different, I like VF because of the gameplay, and like DOA gameplay but together? on time will tell how that will work. Tekken seems closer to VF than DOA (partly because they ripped off VF in the Beginning)

Yeah, well, so did Dead or Alive. And with how much Tekken has changed, DoA is closer, now, especially since there are probably new mechanics refining in light of bringing in SEGA's legends into the mix. Honestly, I always used to described DoA as "VF for beginners."

Perhaps not quite, but y'know.