I really dug into the stories coming out of E3 last week, but one game announcement that I purposely overlooked was Dead or Alive 6. Maybe I’m getting old, but to me Dead or Alive has become a gimmick fighter – a one trick pony. Okay, a two trick pony. And those two tricks are boobs. As it turns out, I could have given Dead or Alive 6 a bit of attention after all, because developer Koei Tecmo has actually noticed how the world is changing and done something about the franchise’s obsession with things that bounce.
“This is a fighting game,” said producer and game director Yohei Shimbori, in an interview with Eurogamer. “We felt people were not looking at this as a pure fighting game. They were looking into something that was in the wrong direction. So, we wanted to make sure this is a fighting game first.”
Shimbori pointed to the global trend for sexualisation to be toned down, something which only the most tonedeaf would have overlooked, as well as a new focus on “intense fighting entertainment” for the franchise. That’s not to say that Dead or Alive will be entirely bereft of feminine curve, but things will be less ridiculous this time around. “There is still some movement, because that is part of DoA’s DNA,” said Shimbori, admitting that, in previous franchise entries, there was “too much exaggeration”.
“We are trying to achieve some natural movement, so when you move, things move naturally. That’s our intention,” he explained.
Via Eurogamer