Game #22 - Dead or Alive 6 (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: 13.01.2025 - Started: 01.06.2026 - Finished: 03.06.2026 (Game is infinite completion-wise)
With the Last Round version on its way I figured I would take a look at the original version that Koei Tecmo released in 2019. Dead or Alive 6 is a divisive one for different reasons; the fanservice was toned down and the online mode wasn't as good as many had hoped. Despite this, I still wanted to give the game a try especially as a casual player.
Dead or Alive is a franchise I've been wanting to properly play for years. I have the original PlayStation version on PlayStation 3 via the Japanese PlayStation Store which is known for featuring a toggle for jiggle physics even in 1996, and also own the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round for PlayStation 4, though I barely played it and might check it out some time. Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 I have played a few years back, which is a spin-off focusing more on the fanservice, the volleyball and an RNG casino.
For those unfamiliar with this franchise, originally developed by Tecmo it's a fighting game that became known for its female cast of various body types and characters from the Ninja Gaiden series. They've also done collaborations with different games including Atelier, Senran Kagura and more.
Dead or Alive 6 has various different modes that you can explore. I started off with the Story Mode which was very non-linear, allowing you to choose different missions from different characters that occur at different timeframes. The story was jumbled and you can easily lose track on what is going on, but I got a gist of what was going on from start to finish. Many character paths do feel incomplete and I do wonder if it would have worked better if they combined it all into one big path in chronological order. Interestingly there are no trophies related to the Story Mode which is a first.
What I do like about the Story Mode is it gives you the opportunity to play many characters in the roster, including newcomers Diego and NiCO and returning characters Honoka, Marie Rose, Mila and Rig from Dead or Alive 5 as well as the classic characters like Kasumi, Ayane, Leifang, Tina and even Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. My favourite characters in the roster have been Tina and Tamaki but I also liked playing Helena, Mai, Kasumi and Leifang.
The controls were a lot different to what I had expected. The Triangle button focuses on punches, the Circle button focuses on kicks, the X button focuses on Hold and Square button is Block/Guard, and you can perform high, middle and low attacks based on the direction you are pointing with the D-Pad or Analog Stick. Left/Right is high attacks, Diagonal is middle attacks and Down is low attacks. It took some use to with the controls but once I got the hang of it, allowed for some fun combo attacks. The tutorial mode does a good job going over how to perform the moves, though I did struggle with combos related to diagonal/middle attacks because you can easily end up going forwards or down.
Outside of Story Mode we have Quest Mode where you can play a match against an opponent with the aim of not only winning the fight but you have to perform specific criteria to earn stars. The more stars you achieve, the more quests you can unlock which leads to unlocking more in-game content. I managed to get at least 2 stars on a few dozen quests but I found it to be quite challenging to perform specific attack moves and I think its because of the terminology and combo path needed to achieve it.
The missions do bring up a 'recommended tutorial' for specific ones but I don't think its enough to nail it down. Pretty much comes down to more practice, the better the outcomes. I will give praise for the game in terms of the unlocks as a lot of games these days don't bother rewarding players with new costumes or trivia like this, gives me the same vibe of the games from the PlayStation 1 & 2 era.
Then we have the other modes. Versus mode is your quick 'let's do a match' against either a second player locally or the CPU and it's good fun being able to choose a variety of characters including those from the DLC roster. Arcade mode is the classic and traditional 8 stage line-up of playing specific characters in a row, and you can select between five different difficulties to give yourself more challenge. I played through Beginner and Normal to see the difference in combat. Time Attack mode is similar to Arcade but you have a timer so you want to finish the fights in the fastest way possible. And Survival mode where you fight dozens of characters back to back and the higher the difficulty, the longer you'll end up spending in the arena.
I should probably mention that I did purchase three of the four Season Passes when they went on sale. The first pass featuring THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV characters Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond, who do not carry over into the base game version for Last Round but will remain available as DLC, the second pass featuring Ninja Gaiden character Momiji, and the fourth pass featuring Tamaki who debuted from Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation series. Also available as DLC which I didn't acquire were Phase-4, Nyotengu and Ninja Gaiden character Rachel. I actually didn't realise Nyotengu was DLC until I played through most of the game and wondered if she was locked behind specific in-game requirements like older fighting games did.
I haven't checked the online version but I expect there won't be much considering the Last Round version is on its way which has controversy of its own for not including rollback netcode and cross-play support which are integral for making the multiplayer experience the best it can be.
After playing for about 5-6 hours total, Dead or Alive 6 has been an accessible fighting game and I liked what it had to offer despite the story being a mixed bag. The roster is solid and there's apparently more characters making their way for the Last Round DLC so I'm curious to see what they have to offer. I haven't played most of the mainline games so I can't compare on whether those are better but I think this instalment is good. The game has the option to choose between prioritising frame-rate or graphics so I chose the obvious which was frame rate. The characters do sweat which I recall is a new addition to this instalment which you can toggle on and off.
And yes despite Dead or Alive being known for its fanservice and tons of costumes available, I was a gentlemen and picked suitable outfits for each of them rather than just bikinis, like Tamaki in a summer outfit with a nice hat, Mai in a bunny suit, and Leifang in an Atelier outfit.
Dead or Alive is a franchise I've been wanting to properly play for years. I have the original PlayStation version on PlayStation 3 via the Japanese PlayStation Store which is known for featuring a toggle for jiggle physics even in 1996, and also own the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round for PlayStation 4, though I barely played it and might check it out some time. Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 I have played a few years back, which is a spin-off focusing more on the fanservice, the volleyball and an RNG casino.
For those unfamiliar with this franchise, originally developed by Tecmo it's a fighting game that became known for its female cast of various body types and characters from the Ninja Gaiden series. They've also done collaborations with different games including Atelier, Senran Kagura and more.
Dead or Alive 6 has various different modes that you can explore. I started off with the Story Mode which was very non-linear, allowing you to choose different missions from different characters that occur at different timeframes. The story was jumbled and you can easily lose track on what is going on, but I got a gist of what was going on from start to finish. Many character paths do feel incomplete and I do wonder if it would have worked better if they combined it all into one big path in chronological order. Interestingly there are no trophies related to the Story Mode which is a first.
What I do like about the Story Mode is it gives you the opportunity to play many characters in the roster, including newcomers Diego and NiCO and returning characters Honoka, Marie Rose, Mila and Rig from Dead or Alive 5 as well as the classic characters like Kasumi, Ayane, Leifang, Tina and even Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. My favourite characters in the roster have been Tina and Tamaki but I also liked playing Helena, Mai, Kasumi and Leifang.
The controls were a lot different to what I had expected. The Triangle button focuses on punches, the Circle button focuses on kicks, the X button focuses on Hold and Square button is Block/Guard, and you can perform high, middle and low attacks based on the direction you are pointing with the D-Pad or Analog Stick. Left/Right is high attacks, Diagonal is middle attacks and Down is low attacks. It took some use to with the controls but once I got the hang of it, allowed for some fun combo attacks. The tutorial mode does a good job going over how to perform the moves, though I did struggle with combos related to diagonal/middle attacks because you can easily end up going forwards or down.
Outside of Story Mode we have Quest Mode where you can play a match against an opponent with the aim of not only winning the fight but you have to perform specific criteria to earn stars. The more stars you achieve, the more quests you can unlock which leads to unlocking more in-game content. I managed to get at least 2 stars on a few dozen quests but I found it to be quite challenging to perform specific attack moves and I think its because of the terminology and combo path needed to achieve it.
The missions do bring up a 'recommended tutorial' for specific ones but I don't think its enough to nail it down. Pretty much comes down to more practice, the better the outcomes. I will give praise for the game in terms of the unlocks as a lot of games these days don't bother rewarding players with new costumes or trivia like this, gives me the same vibe of the games from the PlayStation 1 & 2 era.
Then we have the other modes. Versus mode is your quick 'let's do a match' against either a second player locally or the CPU and it's good fun being able to choose a variety of characters including those from the DLC roster. Arcade mode is the classic and traditional 8 stage line-up of playing specific characters in a row, and you can select between five different difficulties to give yourself more challenge. I played through Beginner and Normal to see the difference in combat. Time Attack mode is similar to Arcade but you have a timer so you want to finish the fights in the fastest way possible. And Survival mode where you fight dozens of characters back to back and the higher the difficulty, the longer you'll end up spending in the arena.
I should probably mention that I did purchase three of the four Season Passes when they went on sale. The first pass featuring THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV characters Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond, who do not carry over into the base game version for Last Round but will remain available as DLC, the second pass featuring Ninja Gaiden character Momiji, and the fourth pass featuring Tamaki who debuted from Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation series. Also available as DLC which I didn't acquire were Phase-4, Nyotengu and Ninja Gaiden character Rachel. I actually didn't realise Nyotengu was DLC until I played through most of the game and wondered if she was locked behind specific in-game requirements like older fighting games did.
I haven't checked the online version but I expect there won't be much considering the Last Round version is on its way which has controversy of its own for not including rollback netcode and cross-play support which are integral for making the multiplayer experience the best it can be.
After playing for about 5-6 hours total, Dead or Alive 6 has been an accessible fighting game and I liked what it had to offer despite the story being a mixed bag. The roster is solid and there's apparently more characters making their way for the Last Round DLC so I'm curious to see what they have to offer. I haven't played most of the mainline games so I can't compare on whether those are better but I think this instalment is good. The game has the option to choose between prioritising frame-rate or graphics so I chose the obvious which was frame rate. The characters do sweat which I recall is a new addition to this instalment which you can toggle on and off.
And yes despite Dead or Alive being known for its fanservice and tons of costumes available, I was a gentlemen and picked suitable outfits for each of them rather than just bikinis, like Tamaki in a summer outfit with a nice hat, Mai in a bunny suit, and Leifang in an Atelier outfit.
Not decided on my next game yet. In terms of brand new games there aren't any that are on my radar until September so this will be a good opportunity to check anything in the backlog.
