2006-03-08 08:57:01 Dead or Alive 4's Graphics.. are they amazing or what?

I just finished playing a bunch of doa 4 (like i normally do) and I honestly must say this game is friggin beautiful. The detail on the environments like the safari stage, or the jungle stage among others are just unbelievable. No matter how much I play the game I can't get use to how great it looks.

I take ONE look at the safari stage and the trees down on the lower level of the stage where the rhinos are and say to myself if elder scrolls allows me to go roam around freely in environments that look THIS detailed then I may play the game nonstop.

Basically after playing i go look at some screenshots on gamespot and ign for dead or alive 4 and its absolutely incredible how far off EVERY single one of these screenshots are in comparison to the sheer beauty of this game's characters and its environments.

Anybody that has the game just take one look at the friggin trees on the floor level or on the upper part where the cheetah is and tell me isn't that the best looking thing ever? Would the perfect game be one with such graphical quality and allowed you to roam these areas? I'm just dying to see what itagaki has in store for ninja gaiden 2 I might play that game for 10 hours straight.


Also worth mentioning... since the most recent update anybody notice that cheetah is ALOT more aggressive on the safari stage and the game's ai is ALOT more challenging (I always played the story mode on very hard) and there is a noticeable difference in how amazing the game ai is. I remember in an interview itagaki seemed disappointed that someone said the game was too easy could this latest update that intended to balance out certain aspects of the game tweak the ai for the characters? Because its a VERY noticeable improvement over what it was before.

This thread might annoy some people, but I think the graphics in that game are so great that it deserves a thread. It would be a perfect 10 graphically if the characters with really long flowing hair didn't have funny looking hair when the wind blows it at times.

2006-03-08 09:04:59

it's a pretty game

some would fight you on it looking "amazing"

btw you used amazing or what for 2 topic titles lol

2006-03-08 09:24:22

optimus man, you are way over-enthusiastic about most things you post about...doa4's graphics aren't very good...my roomates saw it and went "that doesn't look any better than doa3" obviously when i showed them side by side they changed their minds, but it's hardly a significant improvement, not even nearly next-gen.

2006-03-08 09:24:27

Oops didn't notice that lol.

2006-03-08 09:34:54 In reply to dec0y (2006-03-08 09:24:22)

Are you serious dec0y (not arguing you are entitled to your opinion) , but not even nearly next gen... those environments the jungle stage and the safari stage are by far the best environments there has ever been in any game. The graphics in this game are easily next gen anybody that could mistake doa 4 for a current gen game are out of their mind.

The characters look awesome, but the trees alone... hell I've never seen trees look more realistic than the way they are made in that jungle stage. There are other great looking maps, but these 2 truly stand out. The safari stage is of a quality you'd see in those wide open areas in elder scrolls it isn't as intense (or maybe it is can't be sure till I see elder scrolls running on my 360), but its definetly in a class all its own. I mean just look at the grass, trees in the distance the heat effect over by the mountain in the safari stage that doesn't look next gen? Feel like i'm going mad this game is beautiful if you don't look at anything else just check out the grass and the trees on safari or anything on the jungle stage.


Keep in mind the art style they were going for with doa 4 wasn't the type they were going for like what you'd see with character models in elder scrolls, fight night, bia 3 or anything else. The developers for doa 4 intended for their characters to look like that maybe in the next version they'll actually add more graphical bells and whistles to show off the characters, but those trees are amazing its probably procedurally generated similar to the forest in elder scrolls because that looks way too good for it to have been done by an artist or maybe it was.

You have the game and you don't think for a second those environments are EASILY next gen? The textures on the wood the walls... the floors everything looks absolutely gorgeous.


Forget the words next gen thats absolutely stupid I just hate the term. Its totally lost its meaning. Fact is no game has EVER had environments that look as good as what we see in doa 4 and elder scrolls in my opinion will be the first to match doa 4, ghost recon (not many trees or anything, but I'll see when I get that game as well to see) I know ghost recon will be graphically gorgeous though.

Maybe if environments don't look more realistic as opposed to more comic style then people don't see them as amazing, but that isn't the case at all. Alot of people are confusing top notch 360 or ps3 visuals with quality similar to a fight night or a brothers in arms 3, but thats where I feel most people lose track. A game can have a comic look to it and still be deemed "next gen" it doesn't have to look photo realistic.

Blue Dragon for example I expect that game to have environments similar to Dead or Alive 4 in terms of the trees etc except you'll be able to explore them as opposed to just looking at it and being limited to where you can go.

2006-03-08 17:56:44

You can tell that the only thing that is graphically improved since DOA Ultimate is the lighting, everything else is the same - Lazy Tecmo! lol

2006-03-08 18:02:07

I haven't played the game that much but i'm not at all impressed in any way with the graphincs.

2006-03-08 18:07:00

Well Optimus, I wouldn't go as far as calling it amazing, but it sure is pretty.
But i can't shake the feeling that it could have looked better, or that they at least could have layed down some more effort into somehow changing the style from the previous parts.
And for the record, I find the jungle and the safari stage to be the ones that aren't very impressive, the wrestling stage however is really awsome.

2006-03-08 18:51:05

They are good but not worth starting a thread over almost 3 months after the game came out.....

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2006-03-08 20:10:36

I think it's a pretty game for sure. I think they hit the nail on the head with some of the material textures. The Spartans armour for instance looks fantastic.

2006-03-08 20:38:40

styx you think the jungle and safari stage aren't impressive?? Damn....I'm in shock I truly can't believe that I've never seen environments look that good :/

Oh well guess I guess I just love the overall style. I'm sure it could've looked alot better (the next one most likely will), but come on... the game is beautiful.

2006-03-08 21:49:34

Most of all, the look grows on you. I find that every time (this is honest truth) I turn the game on and start playing I find the game prettier. It went on like that to a point where I was like "how the hell was I ever disappointed in the way this looked?" - because I was initially.

I'm on HD and that prolly makes a big difference, but really, everything is so defined, even just based on the lighting and the volume of the character models themselves. Anyone who claims nothing was done with the models just hasn't paid any kind of attention, because the models here are far beyond what they were in the past, even though the targeted style and look of the fighters are the same. I think it's a lot like comparing Sonic Adventure, 2 and the new Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic looks essentially the same, but to say the model itself doesn't look tons more defined, sharper and "physically" richer (wtf does that sound like?) is borderline criminal.

As for favourite instances in the game.. The cutscene between Brad Wong and Eliot with Eliot in his second or fourth outfit. So sharp, such excellent lighting, and brilliantly composed. As for stages it has to be the marketplace or the city street.

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2006-03-08 23:10:10

There we go thats the type of response I'm looking for, cause I was looking like I was going crazy thinking I'm the only one that finds the trees, grass, floor and just about everything else in this game really impressive. The reason this thread comes so late is because the more I play the game as you said it truly starts to look better and better till you really start appreciating how good a job team ninja did with this game graphically. Things you easily overlooked before you begin to notice.

Check the look of the wood planks on the bridge in the jungle stage it all looks so great.

Yea I love the lighting on the city street and how the people jump back when the action is too intense. The shading on the marketplace is really nicely done as well the walls, floors, the beach front everything looks really nice. I also like how the apples continue rolling down the hill realistically after you smash into the thing filled with the apples.


I love the cutscene where kasumi is talking to hayate on the bridge trying to convince him to forget about doatec then ayane just comes jumping from rock to rock at a pretty amazing speed then says bold words from a traitor who abandoned her village I believe? It was pretty nicely done and how kasume wanted to get past to go after hayate and the way ayane just stopped her by spreading her hands letting her known they bout to throw down ;)


I like the ryu hyubusa and jann lee scene as well,