I've been keeping a eye on this game for over a year and with the price always hovering around US$40 I've always been hesitant to buy it without trying it first.
DOA5: Core Fighters is a slimmed down version of the full game, it doesn't have the story mode and doesn't have all of the characters but it should give you a good feel for the game play.
This free to play version was only released earlier this month on Steam, I was just checking if it was on sale and saw it.
Some video of the gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kQVYt_0A38
Screenshots: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=doa+5&source=lnms&tbm=isc…
Graphics look about a decade old. Particle effects look terrible ughhh