Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden creator Itagaki passed away at 58

He was known for his ruthless opinions, his obsessive approach to design, and wanting to push the envelope.

His rivalry with Tekken creator Harada was well documented over the years. They made up in the recent years.

He was a visionary, and a complicated creator. The world will be less interesting without him.

Dead or Alive 3 was one of the ONLY fighting games I "got" or enjoyed to play. To this day I can't really put my finger on why (it's not the women, rather, something in the gameplay).

3 has a really organic take on fights. the combo system was still very basic, in an approachable way. You could to P P P and it'd do something satisfying.

Plus the block and guard system was really easy. It turned the fight into something super simple: attack, control spacing, bait into parry. I think the later games became more sophisticated, which appeals to the fighting game community but loses the more mainstream players.

If you want to play something like that nowadays, I would recommend Nidhogg, Samurai Gunn, and maybe even the Soul Caliber series still.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomonobu_Itagaki