There’s been a very long debate in the video game world about how female characters should be interpreted. From Samus to Lara Croft, to the characters of certain fighting game franchises, not all of them are created equal or shown in the same respect. One franchise that has been rather infamous for their interpretation of female characters and how they move and fight is Dead or Alive. However, just before E3 2018, Dead or Alive 6 was revealed, and fans were stunned that the game “covered up” most of its female characters.
Many were happy about this, yet some “hardcore” fans of the franchise feel this is a copout to appease “social justice warriors”. But what’s the truth? Well, in a chat with Game Informer, Yohei Shimbori stated this:
“This is a work in progress, a prototype, so we might change in the future,” said Shimbori. “For this version, we still have Kasumi with her previous costumes, and there are some parts that are going to jiggle or move, but we want to make it a lot more natural. That is one goal, to make movement very natural. Also, each character has a very strong personality and we want to emphasize that.
He went on:
“Of course we’re going to tone down at this point, but for downloadable content, we have to see what gamers really want, what their response is. Not all the gamers want the same thing, but we want to ask their opinions, all of them, and get feedback on it. Having said that, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, we put [sexuality] on the front line and used the soft engine [an engine that was used in DOA5 for “advanced” butt and breast jiggling] for that. And actually, we’re reflecting on that… maybe we did a little too much. Of course, we will have some jiggling and some movement, but as a whole we’re going to tone down.
So it appears that Dead Or Alive 6 is aiming to be more of a fighting game than “fan-service” as it’s been called in the past. We’ll have to see how it plays out.
