For most players, a training mode is just a fun way to practice combos and improve with your character outside of actual match experience. However, for tournament veterans, a proper training mode can make or break a game. They’ll spend hours upon hours in training mode with a single character, practicing various setups, frame traps, combos, movement, and a variety of other advanced techniques. In Dead or Alive 4, the training mode was somewhat lacking, offering little more than the ability to practice combos and juggles. Now, Team Ninja has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink to make sure the game is tournament-ready come September 25th.
The most important feature that Team Ninja has added to the DOA5 training mode is the ability to take control of the training dummy and record a series of inputs, then take control of your character and react to the inputs recorded by the training dummy. This is extremely important because it allows players to record a specific situation, and practice how to defend against it. For example, if you have a hard time defending against one of Rig’s combos, select him as the training dummy, then record the combo you’re having trouble defending against. When you play back the recording, you can figure out where to counter, when you can side step, or even find a way to use an evasive attack to avoid it.
A record feature like this isn’t limited to only practicing defense. You can use the record function to determine if a specific setup is guaranteed, or how an opponent may be able to escape. Simply select your character of choice as the training dummy, record whatever setup you want to test, then play back the recording and see if you can escape the setup. The possibilities are endless with a record feature like this.
While the record functionality is great, the sheer number of options available in the training mode allows you to bypass recording for many situations. You can set the training dummy to recover from knockdowns and staggers at varying speeds, or randomly. Are you trying to determine if your ground throw is guaranteed after a certain knockdown? Set the dummy to recover and it will tech roll as soon as possible. Are you unsure if a Critical Burst is guaranteed after a specific sit-down stun? Set the dummy to escape the stagger at the fastest setting to mimic an opponent’s maximum Slow Escape speed. You can adjust these settings to be slow, fast, fastest, or random speed. Similar settings are available for throw escapes and counters as well.
In fact, when it comes to counters, you have multiple options in training mode. As with most fighting game training modes, you can set two generic actions for the dummy. The first action is the default action and can be set to block (at all heights), attack (a punch, kick or throw at any height), remain in a neutral state (standing, crouching, or back-turned in either position), side step (left or right), or counter (at any height). The second action is what happens after you interact with the dummy, and can be set to the same options.
If the second action is set to counter, it will only counter after a stun and not during a stun. There’s a second counter option that allows you to set the dummy to counter at varying speeds. If this is set to “fastest”, the dummy will counter as soon as possible, in stun or out of stun. This lets you know exactly how effective an unholdable situation can be. Combine this counter setting with the stagger recovery option and the dummy will shake out of an unholdable stun at maximum speed, then counter as soon as possible, or counter as soon as it’s stunned (if the stun is not unholdable).
Of course, everything you’ve seen in previous builds of the game is still intact, with a few new additions. You can turn on a technical display in any mode of the game, including training mode. The display shows attack information including: damage, height, character status (jumping, crouching, etc.) frame data, tracking ability and now… critical damage. This new addition allows you to determine the exact stun value of each attack so you know when a combo crosses the stun threshold and when is the best time to use a Critical Burst. The read-out even changes color from white to yellow to red, to indicate when the stun threshold is crossed.
The basic features you’d expect from a training mode are also present. You can reset the character position back to the default starting spot, have all attacks connect as a counter hit or hi counter hit, turn the ability to use a Power Blow on or off, turn danger zones on or off, and even adjust the latency to mimic online lag (from 5 bars all the way down to a 1 bar connection). There’s also a command training option that goes through a character’s move list one attack at a time. In addition, you can even set the dummy to be controlled by the computer at one of eight difficulty levels, or allow a second player to take control of the dummy and spar infinitely.
To some, a solid training mode may be expected in the modern day of fighting games, but the features in the DOA5 training mode go above and beyond the expectations of even the best tournament players. It should be the starting point for all fighting game training modes from this point forward.
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