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this is a lost article from 1UP.com, a site that was shut down in 2013 during IGN's network restructuring. it first appeared on November 17, 2005, written by James Mielke, and it was one of the most interesting pre‑release looks at Dead or Alive 4. it includes a hands‑on with Spartan‑458, also known as Nicole, and a surprisingly personal interview with Tomonobu Itagaki, where he talks about the Halo crossover, his love for Halo, and how it was the only FPS he ever played, usually with his daughter. i wanted to preserve this because it's been with me since my old blog in the 2000s and not many people know how much Halo influenced him or how personal that connection was, and it feels like one of those small moments in gaming history that deserves to be remembered.
Dead or Alive 4 Preview ~ 1UP.com, November 17, 2005
As part of our month-long Xbox 360 coverage, 1UP went back to Tokyo to get the real scoop on one of the system's most anticipated titles: Dead or Alive 4. In doing so, we got the world-exclusive hands-on with Halo's Spartan character, and an in-depth interview with Team NINJA leader, Tomonobu Itagaki, to find out what makes the Spartan tick. Here's everything you need to know from the mouth of intrepid reporter, James Mielke.
In my visit to the Team NINJA offices, I set my bags down and prepared myself for the impending battles to come. Quick bathroom break: check. Stocked up on Royal Milk Tea (cold), Wonda Black Coffee (cold), and for Itagaki, a fresh pack of cigarettes: check. Weapons of choice: Two Horii arcade-style DOA4-branded 360 joysticks. One leather couch: check. One widescreen HDTV and 5.1 surround sound: check. The stage was set. The last time I had played against Itagaki was at Tecmo's big DOA4 event during TGS. I had a big advantage then, because he was drunk, and I'm no slouch with Ayane. I prefer faster, more nimble characters in fighting games, and it's no different in DOA, with the slight exception I'll make for Bayman. But with Itagaki not having slept for approximately 72 hours due to intensive tuning and tweaking on DOA4, and myself being extremely jet-lagged, we were both on even terms for our nearly six-hour romp through everything Dead or Alive 4 has to offer.
With condiments and hardware in place, we began the fight. To keep things fresh and fair, we'd switch characters after every couple of rounds, taking in and enjoying all the changes and adjustments made to each character, experiencing the game's revamped fighting system in full. As I've mentioned before, DOA4 is fast -- very fast. Thankfully DOA4 lets you adjust lifebars so that battles can last longer than 10 seconds. For our first battle, Itagaki picked his favorite character, Kasumi, and I picked mine, original DOA purple-haired training dummy and Kasumi's arch-rival, Ayane. As can be expected, two fast-moving characters with similar ninja skills pit against each other results in speedy, high-flying battles. Itagaki is truly excellent at utilizing the game's reversal system. I'll admit, it's something I've found harder to master with every iteration of the game, since successfully reversing an opponent's attacks requires anticipating where their attacks are coming from. High punches, middle punches, low punches, or high, middle, or low kicks all have different countermeasures, but since the game moves so fast now, it's really difficult for me to know exactly where to block. It's even harder when trying to interrupt a particularly speedy combo, like Jann Lee's P, P, P, K combo. This is really something a player must build through practice and "feel," and people who dismiss DOA as being a lesser fighting game series have really not spent the time learning about the things that makes the series so good.
Since my own current skills in the arts of reversal are lacking (I did get noticeably better as time went on, though), I made up for my faulty twitch reflexes with the savvy and guile of a fighting game survivor. Knowing is half the battle, and what I may lack in defensive maneuvers I more than make up for in my sharp sense of anticipation. It's a sixth sense I've used to destroy Electronic Gaming Monthly's Shane Bettenhausen in countless matches of Virtua Fighter 4, and those same instincts helped salvage the day against Itagaki as well. Part of my gameplan, no matter what fighting game I'm playing, is to mix it up. I'll attack high, low, throw, middle, dodge, etc., just to keep an enemy guessing the entire time. If I mash five high attacks in a row, it's deliberate, to get them thinking a sixth attack will come in high, while I sweep low. With DOA4's new environmental considerations (picnic tables, fruit stands, moving traffic, dinosaurs, animals, etc.), I'll knock my opponent over a barrier and sometimes race after them for a follow-up foot to the face, or sometimes I'll wait for them to come back, cracking out a roundhouse before their feet even touch the ground. Playing like this lets me set the tempo and also keeps my opponent on their toes. It's not so much that I know what's coming; it's programming the opposition to think they know what's coming. And with that, I'd turn Ayane's back to Itagaki's Kasumi, and as he ran forward I'd do an overhead flip, landing with a foot on top of Kasumi's head. When he'd get up, it'd be a backflip, foot to the chin for the win. Other times, when he wasn't reversing the Hell out of me, I'd work him into a corner, and use Ayane's fastest attacks for a quick K.O.
Every character's move list has gone through a major revision, with the majority of the highly-animated, but less than effective moves taken out in favor of faster, more confrontational attacks. Ryu Hayabusa is a good example of this. Knowing that his stock has risen thanks to the recent Ninja Gaiden games (Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black), Itagaki wanted to make him feel more like a "super ninja" than some hand-standing acrobat break-dancing his way to victory. While some of those moves still remain, Hayabusa is now extremely powerful. Itagaki confirmed this by going down 0-3 to my ninja magic. Of course, I paid for my impudence when I picked the Lucha Libre specialist, La Mariposa (a.k.a Lisa), and put her up against Hakkyoku-ken advocate, Kokoro. Kokoro's fighting style is the same as Akira's from Virtua Fighter, but a lot easier to get to grips with than in Sega's game. Her repertoire is filled with spleen-exploding punches and brutal shoulder slams, which I learned the hard way when Itagaki lit the place up. Mariposa is not the easiest character to master, although her moves are impressive to watch in the hands of a veteran, but on this day there was no mastering, just a beatdown. Each character's charge moves are punctuated by a rush of wind and a dust cloud beneath their feet when they're about to launch an extra strong attack, and Kokoro's is a steamroller. So is Hitomi's for that matter, which makes me happy since she's one of my favorite characters.
Itagaki told me during our heated battles that he wanted to do everything in his power to make this the best fighting game he could. He feels as if he has nothing left to prove after this, having created a fast, beautiful fighter, with online play and an ambitious lobby system. The game is also hardwired for future downloadable content, although that is not currently on Team NINJA's agenda. It's just good to know in case they decide to make special downloadable outfits for Easter or something. Zack in a bunny suit -- you know you want it. Still, Itagaki is so determined to make sure that DOA4 is as polished and fluid and fun as he can make it that he pushed back the game's release so he could put it through an intense, Marine-style boot camp of balancing and tuning, bringing in six of Japan's top DOA players to test it from midnight to noon every day for four weeks straight. It's these very players that, following my interview with Itagaki, he threw me into the ring with to truly test my resolve.
Now, I'm not really used to fighting the six best DOA players in Japan every day, but then again they're not really used to competing against me either, so it's no small wonder I managed to hold my own against them. I didn't actually fight all six, since my arm, which is accustomed to game controllers more than arcade sticks, was about to fall off. More accurately, I played against the top three of the top six, having watched the best of the best dismantle the rest. While I lost every overall match, I generally took two out of five rounds, with the third decisive battle often a close one. I used Ayane, Hayabusa and Kokoro in defending the honor (not too successfully) of North America. I think I surprised the guys I was playing against, as even Itagaki started whooping it up along with the other five bystanders as I'd scratch out a standing victory over my rival. They were such good sports, though, that I didn't feel crushed when I lost, knowing that I certainly could have performed a lot worse. I even managed a few surprise reversals in there, much to the delight of Itagaki, who had done his best to help me get the hang of it in the preceding hours. At this point my right arm was seriously about to fall off.
But while Dead or Alive 4 has definitely changed for the better with its interactive environments, even faster fighting, amped up graphics and staggering host of gameplay options and rewards (I've seen every CG ending, and they're amazing), what people want to know about at this point is whether the Spartan is all its cracked up to be, and the answer is yes. While the Spartan's move list was originally modeled on Bayman's set, Itagaki realized it would be pretty unimpressive if it was just a palette-swap, boring to both fans of DOA and Halo. But with Bayman as a conceptual starting point, Team NINJA slowly reinvented the Spartan until she (yes, she) was her own, unique character. With every move in her arsenal an homage to something Halo-related (see the interview at the end of this story for details), what really makes it obvious that Team NINJA put a lot of work into implementing the Spartan's likeness in DOA4 is the visual detail. The stage is based on Halo 2's Nassau space station level (the second area where tons of Covenant flood in for the shootin') and will drop jaws when players finally see it in action. In keeping with DOA's multi-tiered theme, players begin the fight on the catwalk where Covenent snipers once manned the mounted plasma rifles. It doesn't take much to topple someone from this perch to the ground below, and it's genuinely exciting to see this classic Halo 2 stage recreated in such impressive detail. Textures are now super hi-res, bump-mapping is in full effect, and tons of Halo 2 paraphernalia graces the stage, like Warthogs (with independent suspension -- the 'hog rocks when you slam a character into it), plasma shields (they change color each time they're hit, just like in Halo), Banshees and Wraiths (smoked-out and inoperable). The only thing missing are grenades littering the ground and the bodies of dead marines everywhere.
But how does the Spartan play? Surprisingly, for such a big character (she towers over Ayane, for example) the Spartan is deceptively fast, and naturally packs quite a punch. While she doesn't wield a gun -- I was kind of expecting her to rifle-butt people upside the head -- Spartan does have a couple throw attacks that utilize certain elements lifted from Halo, although we're sworn to secrecy so as not to ruin the surprise. Let's just say anyone who gets caught in a certain throw will find themselves in a sticky situation. Extensive play time with Spartan-458 revealed that she has over 55 unique moves, which gives her as much depth as a long-standing member of the series. You can't let your guard down if you're playing against someone who is using her, as I learned playing with her and against her in my time with Itagaki. She's no joke character like Gon or Doctor Boskanovitch from Tekken 3. Team NINJA's goal was to simply offer something fun from Halo, but also to do her justice, the fruits of which were the result of an extensive exchange of ideas between Bungie and Team NINJA. While her more easily-performed moves look simple enough, and are simple enough to perform, the more advanced attacks take much finer fingers to activate, but are suitably impressive when you manage to pull one off. This usually occurs in her grab-and-throw moves which can really take someone by surprise.
To test the ultimate battle of the original Xbox's leading figureheads -- the Spartan versus Ninja Gaiden -- Itagaki and I took turns playing as both. I fared a lot better with Hayabusa than he did, but he was also better with the Spartan than I was, making for some brutal, fast-paced brawls, which always ended up with us near the plasma shields or Warthog, slamming each other into every available object. Eventually I switched up and picked my favorite fighters (Ayane, Hitomi, Kokoro) and tried them out against Spartan-458. In the hands of a quality player, Halo's contribution to DOA4 holds her own, and then some. I think people will really enjoy this, and if they're not interested in her, there's still the rest of the DOA cast, plus newcomers Mariposa, Kokoro and Eliot (who is probably the most challenging to use due to his short reach and slower speed, but is amazing when mastered). For Halo fans, I'd suggest paying close attention to certain stages in the game and you might be able to spot some other Halo fan service. Think "Vegas."
So, based on our extensive test-run, taking the Spartan into the ring against other characters proved to be a blast, and should you want to test your skills in an environment free of gimmicks and tricks (e.g. wrestling type characters benefit from fighting in the wrestling ring stage), you can always take the fight to the Tatami Mat room, which is about as old-school as you can get in a 3D fighter. Completely barren of any objects or distractions, the Tatami Mat room's only decoration are the Tatami mats (traditional Japanese straw mats) covering the floor. Nothing to bounce characters off of, no danger zones, no moving traffic; only raw skill to cover your ass here. This stage actually came to be thanks to the very tournament-caliber players Itagaki drafted to help him fine-tune the game. They wanted him to create a stage where there were no handicaps or advantages for anyone, somewhere where they could claim the purest victory possible. No tiered levels to fall from, nothing, and it should be a favorite when the game goes live over Xbox Live.
At the end of the day, before we went out for Indian food in the Ichigaya district of Tokyo, Itagaki and I spent more time talking about the other features in the game, particularly the awesome CG endings. Like many of the previous DOA-related games, DOA4 features music by Aerosmith (Steven Tyler should be thankful), which appears in more than one area for added effect. Unlike past DOA CG endings, which were throwaways with little coherence, DOA4's actually make sense if you've followed the saga until now. Some are comedic, some are serious, and I won't describe any of them to you so as not to spoil anything. I will say, however, that many of them dovetail into the true, final ending, which belongs to Helena, the main character of DOA4. Helena isn't even playable until you beat the game with all of the default characters, guiding you towards the lengthy and surprisingly moving final CG sequence in the game. Why do I say moving? Well, judging from what the CG ending's story line seemed to suggest (although it could easily be construed as open-ended), I got sort of a sad feeling from it, like something was over. I asked Itagaki about it. He says he's done everything he set out to do in making the best fighting game he's able to make. Before, in his war against Tekken, he'd first trumped Namco on a visual level, and then as the DOA series went on in terms of multi-tiered stages, fast action, and a rewarding reversal system (this is, of course, subjective to the player -- I'm just the messenger here). Then came the fast tag-battle action, which preceded Tekken Tag Tournament. Then came the online play, which Tekken has never offered to this day. And now, a reinvented combat system, online lobby (with virtual houses for each player), and high-quality CG endings, all in a launch title for Xbox 360. Itagaki thought his game had surpassed Tekken long ago, and now DOA4 -- in his eyes -- confirms this fact on every level. His feelings don't extend to Tekken only. He really believes this is the 3D fighter that offers it all -- it's the game to beat, and based on the evidence it's hard to argue with this logic.
But where do you go when you've reached the top? How do you improve upon something that has covered every base? Chances are you don't. Itagaki seems to know this, having not only brought years of refinements to the fighting genre, but also rearranging the action game landscape with Ninja Gaiden. There's a reason he brought the best of the best into the Team NINJA offices. He wants to walk away with his head held up high, knowing that all these sleepless nights will result in the fighting game that not only settles all the technical arguments, but wins the war in the eyes of fighting game fans everywhere. I'll admit that I thought it'd be hard to top Dead or Alive Ultimate, since that game was beyond polished. I was concerned that DOA4 would be more of the same, but slightly better looking. But having spent so many hours hammering away at that arcade stick, I'm not only impressed, but re-addicted to the series, and the online community will help to keep this game alive (along with whatever downloadable material Team NINJA might choose to create in the future).
The game is fun, and there's so much there to master, and that's a really good thing, because it looks like the good ship Team NINJA is setting sail after DOA4 ships, moving on to greater challenges, prepared to break down even more barriers than it did with Ninja Gaiden. While DOA: Code Cronus (working title) and the upcoming DOAX2 will carry the Dead or Alive name (it's a good name) into the future, the fighting game series won't. Itagaki is looking forward, and not behind him, and while he's proud of the series and the door it has opened for Team NINJA, the next-generation beckons, and he's heeding the call. I could sense Itagaki would rather not make any definite proclamations, like Michael Jordan retiring for the sixth time, but I'm confident that if the DOA fighting series ever revives, it won't be anything like what we know. DOA4 is nearly finished, and should be in gamers' hands in less than a month. Now let's see what Itagaki has to say about a certain, sassy Spartan, and about DOA4 in general. You know he's never got a shortage of things to talk about, and this interview is no exception. Then when you're done with this, head on over to our media page and check out the exclusive DOA4 screens, featuring the first detailed look at the Nassau Space Station level, new Spartan screens that you'll only find at 1UP, and some hi-res art and lobby screenshots from DOA4's online mode. And now a word from Itagaki.
1UP: What sort of materials did you use to create the Spartan models and environments? Did Bungie help you out by giving you the wireframes and 3D data for the characters and Space Station background from Halo 2 so you could build upon them for DOA4, or did you do it all from scratch?
Tomonobu Itagaki: Bungie was very enthusiastic about this from the get-go and they sent data, object model data and said 'use this as a starting point to build the station and the character.'
1UP: There's obviously a big improvement of these elements, visually, over the original versions in Halo 2. How much of this is Team NINJA's work?
TI: Obviously we'd gotten from them the materials they wanted us to use as a base. But the way of creating those models and objects is very different between Bungie and Team NINJA. For instance there's a difference in how many textures are used, how much bump-mapping is used, polygon counts for characters, etc. The most important thing was to remain faithful to the original source material, in this case the stage that was in Halo 2, but to create it in a way that matched the Team NINJA style of doing stages. That was the first difficult hurdle that had to be crossed.
So as you can see, the character and the stage both fit very well in the DOA framework. When this first began, we had a dialogue between Team NINJA and Bungie, looking at several stages from Halo 2, and discussing which would be the best fit for the DOA universe. And as a result, this Nassau stage was chosen.
1UP: What made you settle on the Nassau space station?
TI: There were three main factors that went into choosing the space station theme for the stage. The first one is that we wanted to have a stage that you could tell was Halo and was differentiated enough from other DOA stages that you could instantly tell this was Halo. That was one factor. The second factor is as you know the DOA stages are multi-tiered -- you can knock someone off, they fall down, the battle continues. It was important to have that kind of feeling of having multiple tiers, that multi-layer construction, along with objects within the stage you can interact with. There was another option we had considered in Halo, where you're on the surface of a planet. But we felt this space station offered more opportunity to do the multi-tiered thing, because in DOA you can't go back up once you fall down. And the third reason was just simply that in DOA there already many stages that take place on the surface of the Earth, so we thought having something in space would be cool and different.
1UP: To clarify the second point, you considered a stage on the surface of either Earth or the Halo ring, but decided not to use it because you wouldn't be able to go back up on one of those areas?
TI: There was talk of doing one based on the surface, and we thought that would be cool if you could freely go between levels. But since in DOA you can only get knocked down and stay down, this particular stage didn't work as well as the space station in that context.
1UP: Can you tell us what one of the alternative stages for consideration was?
TI: Do you remember the Zanzibar multiplayer stage in Halo 2? You can go up in these towers for sniping people. That was really cool in the sense that there are many tiers and many levels. But you'd have to be able to go back up. If you're talking just from a top-down perspective, it didn't feel as interesting, so that's one of the reasons why the space station seemed to feel better. It felt more natural to start on top, get knocked down, continue to fight below, and that was it.
Another factor was that the Zanzibar stage was a multiplayer-only stage in Halo 2, so if you had people who only played the Halo 2 single-player and didn't play multiplayer much, they wouldn't be too familiar with it and recognize that, so that was another key point.
1UP: So I take it you like Halo 2?
TI: Of course.
1UP: Are you any good at it?
TI: I'd probably fit in with the lower-tier skill level. Halo is the only FPS I've ever played.
1UP: If you had to rank your Halo skills according to the Ninja Gaiden rankings, what would you give yourself?
TI: I'd be a Lesser Ninja. I particularly enjoy the cooperative play in Halo 2.
1UP: This stage sets a high precedent for Bungie to follow, visually, for what people would expect Halo 3 to look like. Fans are usually more tolerant of first-person shooters running at 30fps on consoles, like the Gears of War demos, but freak if a racing game or fighting game comes in under 60...
TI: I'd kind of have to disagree with you on that point slightly, because what you have to realize is that in a fighting game you're only having to display a certain set area. You have the characters fighting within that area constantly, whereas in an action game or FPS you have to be able to have a player move somewhere, enter rooms and new areas without load times and things like that. So you're talking about a new set of rules and limitations. For instance, if you compare the graphical quality of Ninja Gaiden with DOA Ultimate -- differences in art direction aside; if you just look at the pure graphical quality -- Ninja Gaiden doesn't quite match to DOA Ultimate, even though they're both running at 60fps. And that was made possible because the resolution of models or textures were kept to a certain limit within Ninja Gaiden in order to keep that framerate within the action game framework. Obviously that limitation is not the same as in a fighting game.
1UP: Did you have to make any special adjustments to make the Spartan move like you wanted?
TI: There's probably a lot of people around the world who want to see this fight: Ryu Hayabusa the super ninja versus the Spartan. What would it be like if the super ninja fought the Spartan? Hayabusa isn't a particularly beginner-level character. But there's a lot of ninja characters in this game -- for instance Kasumi is generally geared towards more inexperienced players. So if you took Kasumi and put her up against Bayman, who is really more for experts, if the person playing Bayman isn't an expert-level player they're not going to be able to win against Kasumi. If you consider it from that point of view and say we're going to make Spartan a kind of heavy, military martial-arts type character along those lines, then the problem is that people who are relative newcomers to DOA aren't going to be able to enjoy something like this, because you have Hayabusa who is a fast ninja character.
One of the goals was for people who are Halo fans to be able to come in and pick up the Spartan character and be able to play and be able to win against other characters without being incredibly expert-level players. But at the same time, you want to leave a good amount of growth so they can get better. So things like that -- you get better and the character has more depth. This was one thing that we really focused on. Obviously we're doing the balancing and testing and tuning now to get all the character balance together. And that's one of the things we're really focusing on: making the Spartan accessible to people who may be playing Dead or Alive for the first time, and to make things like this possible online and make it fun.
1UP: I guess people who read the novels, like The Fall of Reach, would know that there are many Spartans, both men and women. And due to the circumstances as they happened, the one who made it out alive was the Master Chief. Why was the decision made to make what appears to be the Master Chief be a different Spartan, and following that, why make her one of the female Spartans?
TI: First of all, this whole idea of having a collaboration was something that was discussed with Bungie and I originally thought, "Why don't we do it on the current-generation Xbox -- Xbox 1." But then Bungie said if we're going to do it, why don't we do it on Xbox 360? So if you think about the major players in the Xbox community, you have Bungie in the U.S., and Team NINJA in Japan. You have the two pillars holding up the Xbox platform in a sense. We've always had a lot of respect for each other, and this was something we had discussed in order to kind of, you know, make an exciting addition to the Xbox platform. So that original discussion point was somewhere like two or more years ago was when it took place. And once 360 development began in stride we said, "Let's do this." And one of the things I was really impressed with was how enthusiastic Bungie was from the get-go -- that they were really enjoying themselves, talking and working on this, and they came up with the story they sent to us, that they had completely thought out, about who this character was, where she came from and whatever. It was obvious that they had that story planned out, and we said, "Okay, now let's do this" and it was sent to us.
1UP: So Bungie gave you a snippet of a storyline. Does this mean it's explored somehow in DOA4?
TI: First of all, Bungie did prepare a storyline for her, and that will most likely show up on their website, Bungie.net, in the near future. Regarding what's actually in DOA4 itself, this is another thing we discussed with Bungie. "How much should we put or express in the game?" There is a portion. There's a certain point where we said, "Okay, this is as far as we should show," and that's included as an element, as kind of a taster.
One thing I want to mention and make clear to the readers is we've really done so much to make it as fun as possible and Bungie has been really enthusiastic and cooperative about that. Obviously you have things like the character itself, which has been designed by them, and we try to be as traditional as possible and keep it as faithful as possible, but other than that, there's a lot of things we can add this to make it more fun. We can make it cooler, more interesting." And they've been really great about sending those ideas back and forth, bouncing them off each other, and I think our philosophies of game development are very similar and that's made it really fun and really interesting to work on this together. Fun is obviously our number one priority.
1UP: I just think it's interesting how Bungie wanted to introduce one of the female Spartans.
TI: This is just one of those things that in the process of deciding all of this stuff regarding the character, it's one of those things that was put out there about, "Why don't we make it a woman?" And that sounded good, sounded cool -- there wasn't a whole lot of deep background behind it. In that respect it was nice that our philosophies were really similar and that we had a good vibe going with each other, which made things progress very smoothly, very fast. Considering the development of making a whole character and a new stage, it went pretty quickly, and that's why we're able to spend time doing the fine-tuning and balancing that we're doing with her as we're doing with the other characters.
1UP: Did you ever consider giving her any moves where she uses a weapon, not in the sense where you use a gun to shoot another character, but perhaps as a melee move, to knock someone over the head with the butt of a rifle?
TI: Okay, so I'll give an example of the design process. First of all, I don't particularly enjoy a style of game development where you're concerned with one particular thing. I like to consider all possibilities and all variables going forward to give myself as much room to move as possible. Obviously I was aware of the fact that including weapons from the Halo universe would be one of the best ways to bring out the Halo-ness of the situation. But at the same time, having her use firearms and guns from the game brings with it a set of issues and problems, so pretty early on in the process I decided not to have her shoot guns in the game.
The decision to not use guns had a couple factors involved. The first thing is personally myself, if I'm in the Spartan's position, and I'm basically joining this group of people all fighting, using martial arts, using hand-to-hand, I wouldn't feel right suddenly shooting a machine gun. That's just a personal observation. If you're the person on the receiving end, you're just going to think that's cheap; it's just natural to feel that's cheap if you're unarmed and getting shot at. Another thing that people tend to forget is that in order to show the appropriate reaction to getting shot, you have to include a lot of blood effects and that's a taboo within the DOA universe that I've set. Taking that into account, it seemed the best course not to include guns. With that said, I don't give up easily, so I thought, "Why don't we just have a gun strapped to her back as a prop? When I mentioned that to Bungie, they said, "Well if you're going to do that, it's probably better to think she wouldn't have any guns in the first place in this kind of situation." As you can tell from this one example, everything has been based on a very deep dialogue with Bungie regarding all sorts of aspects, very specific aspects of the character design, and that's how things work.
1UP: Did you ever consider adding the Arbiter?
TI: No, we really didn't consider that at all. I really like the Spartan, so I didn't really think about any other options but this one character. As I mentioned earlier, I like the cooperative play in Halo 2, and I play it with my daughter. And we like the sections with Master Chief better than the Arbiter sections, and when we get to the areas where we play as the Arbiter she asks, "Why aren't we the Master Chief any more? Why are we the Arbiter?" This is just a personal preference. So when we get to those sections we just try to get through them as quickly as possible so we can go back to being a Spartan.
1UP: Did you have to make any special adjustments to the character model to make her "work" for DOA? Like, were there any collision issues with pieces of armor or any other technical problems you had to accommodate to make her function as a DOA fighting character?
TI: So this character does have a name. I don't know if I should mention it specifically now, but she does have a name. In circumstances like you mentioned, when we're trying to make that character work in the DOA context in the fighting, we don't think of it so much as "What would a Spartan do" or "How would a Spartan move"? We think of it more like a person instead of a character. I mean there's a human being inside the suit, right? So she has a personality and individuality. So I have to think, "What would this particular individual do in this situation, how would she move, whatever." If you don't think that way, you can't make an interesting character with interesting movements. That's the number one most important thing.
Something to remember is that if this was Master Chief, it'd be a whole different set of animations and moves. Because it's a completely different human being, the suit may look the same but it's the person inside. So you always have to take into account the individual. For instance, Helena's martial art is a Chinese kung-fu, right? But when we design moves for her, we don't say "Let's follow strictly that martial art style." We say "What would Helena the character doing that martial art look like?" In that sense it's not, "What would a Spartan do? What would a Spartan look like?" It's, "What would this particular Spartan do in that situation?" And that's part of the fundamental aspect of designing all of the movements of all of the characters in Dead or Alive.
So she's got kind of a sporty feel to her attacks, and that's because we've designed it based on her personality, her individualism. We think this is how she would move based on what kind of character she is and that's why the animations are kind of sporty-looking and fast, as I pointed out. Ultimately it's my decision of what moves and what animations match her personality and what don't.
1UP: I don't remember that Banshee [pointing to a wrecked Banshee placed in the Nassau environment] being in this stage of Halo 2.
TI: As you can tell from what I've talked about, ideas were just added on top of each other and built upon, resulting in what you see here. It's all based on dialogue and opinions from both sides. There were ideas that were scrapped. Remember in that Halo 2 mission where you were looking for that purple bomb with the spikes on it? The Bungie guys call it the Pickle Bomb. Well, we originally had an idea of putting it in the stage and making it a Danger Zone, so you hit the player into the bomb and it explodes and he goes flying in the air. The problem is we got to thinking that bomb is originally in the Halo 2 stage to blow up the entire station. So having that bomb in the stage, you hit it and it doesn't harm the stage. It kind of goes too far against the Halo 2 mythology. So in that way we always went back and forth, respecting each other's universes, and we tried to find a middle-ground that's interesting and I think it turned out really well.
Okay, I'll tell you one secret. Her name is Nicole. Her designation is Spartan-458, but her assigned nickname is "Nicole." Just like in the books, Master Chief's name is "John;" well her name is Nicole. So this goes into what I was saying earlier. We call her "Spartan" for various reasons, but she has a name Nicole, a character with a background and personality. So we aren't creating moves for the Spartan, we're creating moves for Nicole, a specific character. So if we were designing Nicole and Master Chief, they would have completely different moves and animations because you have two different personalities, two different individuals in those suits. So that's an important aspect of the design.
1UP: Since many of DOA4's stages have many moving objects in the background, like the stage with the dinosaurs, or the Vegas stage with the moving cars, or the Savannah stage with the leopards running around, did you ever think to add Grunts from Halo 2 scrambling all around the stage tossing grenades or shooting their guns all over the place? Not necessarily affecting the fight, but perhaps providing decoration?
TI: We haven't really focused on doing those kinds of dirty tricks on this particular stage, because just having Nicole there and controlling her and fighting with her is really fun. So we didn't focus on those types of gimmicks here.
1UP: Seeing this stage actually makes me want to go back and play Halo 2 some more.
TI: I think so too. Seeing that kind of stimulates you and makes you want to play. But just having these objects, vehicles and things in the stage gives you a lot more depth to the experience.
Check back soon for part two of our massive coverage on DOA4, and check back on Thursday at noon for high resolution wallpaper images of the 1UP exclusive Spartan screens shown in this article.
