Just got my copy today after Amazon failed me so badly. What's the point in pre-ordering if you're not gonna get it on the day? Yeah, I experianced the game freezing at the beginning of every match for a couple of seconds. Was annoying as hell. It went away when I turned throwdown off and I've not had any troubles since. I'm a little hit and miss on this game at the moment, I think I was kinda expecting more from this game in a sense. I love the character Mila, I think she's a great addition and an instant new fav for me, problem is, as much as I like the character, I can't use her very well and I think she is seriously lacking in the throw department for an MMA fighter. Her fighting style as a whole is very bland too, she has no flashy moves at all compared to others since she just has bog standard strikes. Her leg locks and chokes are pretty hot though, they are not normally my kind of thing but its nice when she applies what few holds she does have.
Leon was my main, and I'm really missing him alot in this game already as I'm not as good as I could be without him. I've turned to Bass as my main dude to use online against others, often going for the bearhug against female opponants. I'm pretty good with Bayman, and I've yet to lose as him, (I'm sure that will change soon enough as the days go by) but I prefer to go Bass simply because he is so much more fun to use when he hurls people around and slams em. I'll try and pick up Mila too inspite of her fighting style short comings just cause I like the character. Her takedowns seem to be a complete waste of time as people can literally just button mash and instantly get out from what I've experianced so far with her and even against her.
Ryona wise... I dunno, was expecting more but there isn't that much new from DOA4 move wise. The only great change is the graphics. I'm not sold on the camera on the replay thing. I don't think its as good as 4 and 4 was pretty bad (at least we still have it though). You could zoom right in from what I remember and get really close to certain things on 4, but this new one seems more restricting. I would have thought by now they would let you rewind and slow things down too during the replay but it is not the case. Once you miss something in a replay you have to watch the whole thing from the start it seems to get to a part you wish to see. The control seems a bit more stable in a sense but still a bit of a bugger to control. The new models are nice, but I didn't mind the old cartoony model ones to be fair so this change doesn't bring anything new or take anything away for me personally. I think the costumes are seriously lacking. No doubt that is for the inevitable DLC to fix, but there just doesn't seem like there is that many and none of them really fit my preference personally. Little upsetting...
I'm probably being too harsh on the first day with this game, but it just hasn't gripped me as much as I would have hoped. I was really looking forwards to playing this since I have been such a big fan of DOA games since the second one came out for the Dreamcast. The Story mode is a bit of a joke and even my fav move in the game the bearhug has been hampered badly. They've changed the position of the victim in the move and as a result there is a poop load of clipping issues. It seriously limits decent angle shots of the hold when paused. They should have left it alone and have Bass squeeze their waist so there would be no clipping! Not a great start :(