By Mark Rodriguez
The world has changed a lot since the last round of DOA DLC... but what sadly hasn't changed is the love and hate relationship the game has had with its fanbase. With Team Ninja recently announcing that they end their DLC support with 2 last Revival sets, this could be their last season, or at least for 'vanilla' Dead or Alive 6, anyway.
The pre-order bonus for this one are Kasumi and Marie Rose wearing golden versions of their wedding outfits. Since the year just started they also get cool-looking 2020 glasses. I still wouldn't play close to a 100 bucks for golden variants of pre-existing outfits though. To save time, we already know that Mai and Kula are SNK guest stars so they won't be getting any costumes, so I won't repeat that with every costume set.
Nova "Sci-Fi" Bodysuits (20 costumes)
The crew gets their Tron on as all of them wear futuristic looking outfits that light up when you either use a Break Blow or a Taunt, complete with a light-up sound effect! All of the girls except the SNK guests get these outfits, and Zack actually gets 3 variants of these outfits which is a callback of his strange alien outfit from the older games.
I like these outfits, though some look cooler than others. I mostly got the outfits for characters like Tina, Christie and Momiji. I noticed some of them like Hitomi and Lei Fang get cat ears and tails for some sort of neon catgirl look. Pretty cool set and I like the extra sound effect when they light up.
Atelier Rhyza Mashup Costumes- 3 costumes
Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo get costumes that make them look like the characters of the JRPG Atelier Rhyza Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout. I only seen a bit of gameplay and the game the outfits are based on seems fun, Honoka herself gets to look like the main character, Atelier Rhyza herself, and that's why I at least bought her costume.
The outfits are pretty cool, though I mostly went for Honoka's outfit since I knew who Rhyza was. I don't know enough about the games to know if there were enough female characters for some of the other girls to get outfits too. I also noticed there are also new titles based on the game, so I managed to unlock them as well.
"Gust" Mashup Costumes (16 costumes)
Even though these outfits are coming back from Dead or Alive 6 Last Round, they still count as part of this set and aren't 'Revival Costumes' The 'Gust' that these outfits are collaborating with are behind certain JRPGs including other Atelier games. I bought the ones for Phase 4, Momiji and I'll probably get Ayane's eventually.
This set has several complaints. Firstly Team Ninja decided from now on that the Revival Outfits would go for 2 dollars each while the new outfits in the season sets would go for 3 dollars each. Well, despite this set coming from the previous game, they still charge 3 dollars for them. Then Phase 4 lost an extra transformation that her outfit gets, which is similar to the ninja color charge or the light up Nova outfits. Maybe the Powers that Be decided Phase 4's second outfit was too revealing for modern day, or they were just lazy. I also noticed that NiCo didn't get an outfit from this set, mostly because she wasn't in DOA5 and Team Ninja was probably too lazy to actually create a new one for her.
Design Contest Costumes 2019 (6 Costumes)
There was a costume design contest in Japan last year and at a DOA event would eventually announce the winners. For this set, Phase 4 gets a cool full-body outfit that looks more like a traditional ninja, at least when it comes to to modern media. Bass has these restraints now. Mila gets a cool kinda/sorta biker chick look. Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo get classy dresses. In this case I got most of the outfits minus Marie and NiCo.
Now with most of this event being in Japanese in DOA's social media, I don't understand the full context, but I was under the impression that this was a design contest for everyone, not just 6 characters. Plus, it seems whoever designed the outfits for Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo were all the same artist. I mean it's cool for this person, and it's not their fault since Team Ninja or Koei Tecmo made the choice, but that's pretty much hogging up 3 slots all to one artist instead of giving 2 others a shot to have their designs immortalized in the game.
New DLC Character- Tamaki
This time we finally get a brand new character that was never in a previous Dead or Alive game, or at least the main fighting series. Team Ninja announced that the latest DLC character would come from the Venus Vacation side-series, and since these games are mostly fanservice beach frolics, it also meant this new character would get some sort of fighting style. There was a lot of guessing and interest on which of the original characters would get to step into the DOA6 ring, and in the end we got Tamaki.
Tamaki is a pretty cool character and she gets the Aikido fighting style. She's a bit technical but a lot of fun to use. I always like one of her throws where it looks like she just gently shoves the opponent to the ground. And hey, she's the first all-new character we've seen since Kula Diamond.
Tamaki Debut Costumes (5 costumes)
Other than her default outfit, there's also a costume pack for her. Tamaki gets a Party Dress, Pirates of the 7 Seas outfit, Seaside Eden outfit, Deluxe costume and Summer Breeze Outfit.
Like the previous sets, you can either buy the costumes separately, buy the Debut Set separately or buy Tamaki and the Debut Set as a big bundle. For some reason, it seems Tamaki and her set cost quite a bit more than any of previous DLC characters with their sets.
My Opinions-
Like I said, this has been a very polarizing season set. I was not a fan of the price increase between what is a Revival costume and a Brand New costume... and then having a Revival set as part of the season and charging it as if they were brand new. And then Phase 4 doesn't even get her transformation, so she gets half of her original costume.
I did like the Nova costumes, I liked Honoka as Rhyza and I liked the costume contest designs for the characters. I was hoping that this was only part 1 of a set and we'd see part 2 with 6 other characters. I mean, don't tell me nobody tried to draw a new outfit for Kasumi and Ayane. As far as I could tell I didn't see anything on their social media regarding other winning designs of other characters besides the 6 already posted. And with this season being the last, I'm not sure if we'll see more designs unless Season 5 will be part of Dead or Alive 6 Ultimate.
Other than the season set, Team Ninja or Koei Tecmo also started charging a dollar (or ticket) to change character hair colors, a feature that is usually free in fighting games with customization options. The kicker is you're only renting the color, since when you change it back to normal and want to go back it'll cost you another dollar. Plus everyone has different hairstyles so just because you decided to make Tina's short hair style a redhead, it doesn't mean her longer hairstyle will get the same treatment, that would cost you another dollar. This infuriated fans to no end and eventually the game developers had to go back and refund everyone and set it so now the hair colors are a permanent purchase.
Given that the companies seemed pretty excited about the hair color scheme and saw it backfire in their faces, it's hard to say if that was the reason they decided to end DLC support for the base game. Other factors could have been the current situation the world is in, or that maybe the plan was just to have a year's worth of DLC before moving on to the upgrade.
Dead or Alive 5 has lasted around 7 years or so, with their final version, Last Round releasing seemingly endless DLC costumes to the point fans were asking if there will ever be a DOA6. It would be shame if this really did end after just a year. I'm thinking DOA6U is inevitable and it's only being kept quiet now to make sure you purchase the last 2 sets of Revival DLC first. Time will tell.
The world has changed a lot since the last round of DOA DLC... but what sadly hasn't changed is the love and hate relationship the game has had with its fanbase. With Team Ninja recently announcing that they end their DLC support with 2 last Revival sets, this could be their last season, or at least for 'vanilla' Dead or Alive 6, anyway.
The pre-order bonus for this one are Kasumi and Marie Rose wearing golden versions of their wedding outfits. Since the year just started they also get cool-looking 2020 glasses. I still wouldn't play close to a 100 bucks for golden variants of pre-existing outfits though. To save time, we already know that Mai and Kula are SNK guest stars so they won't be getting any costumes, so I won't repeat that with every costume set.
Nova "Sci-Fi" Bodysuits (20 costumes)
The crew gets their Tron on as all of them wear futuristic looking outfits that light up when you either use a Break Blow or a Taunt, complete with a light-up sound effect! All of the girls except the SNK guests get these outfits, and Zack actually gets 3 variants of these outfits which is a callback of his strange alien outfit from the older games.
I like these outfits, though some look cooler than others. I mostly got the outfits for characters like Tina, Christie and Momiji. I noticed some of them like Hitomi and Lei Fang get cat ears and tails for some sort of neon catgirl look. Pretty cool set and I like the extra sound effect when they light up.
Atelier Rhyza Mashup Costumes- 3 costumes
Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo get costumes that make them look like the characters of the JRPG Atelier Rhyza Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout. I only seen a bit of gameplay and the game the outfits are based on seems fun, Honoka herself gets to look like the main character, Atelier Rhyza herself, and that's why I at least bought her costume.
The outfits are pretty cool, though I mostly went for Honoka's outfit since I knew who Rhyza was. I don't know enough about the games to know if there were enough female characters for some of the other girls to get outfits too. I also noticed there are also new titles based on the game, so I managed to unlock them as well.
"Gust" Mashup Costumes (16 costumes)
Even though these outfits are coming back from Dead or Alive 6 Last Round, they still count as part of this set and aren't 'Revival Costumes' The 'Gust' that these outfits are collaborating with are behind certain JRPGs including other Atelier games. I bought the ones for Phase 4, Momiji and I'll probably get Ayane's eventually.
This set has several complaints. Firstly Team Ninja decided from now on that the Revival Outfits would go for 2 dollars each while the new outfits in the season sets would go for 3 dollars each. Well, despite this set coming from the previous game, they still charge 3 dollars for them. Then Phase 4 lost an extra transformation that her outfit gets, which is similar to the ninja color charge or the light up Nova outfits. Maybe the Powers that Be decided Phase 4's second outfit was too revealing for modern day, or they were just lazy. I also noticed that NiCo didn't get an outfit from this set, mostly because she wasn't in DOA5 and Team Ninja was probably too lazy to actually create a new one for her.
Design Contest Costumes 2019 (6 Costumes)
There was a costume design contest in Japan last year and at a DOA event would eventually announce the winners. For this set, Phase 4 gets a cool full-body outfit that looks more like a traditional ninja, at least when it comes to to modern media. Bass has these restraints now. Mila gets a cool kinda/sorta biker chick look. Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo get classy dresses. In this case I got most of the outfits minus Marie and NiCo.
Now with most of this event being in Japanese in DOA's social media, I don't understand the full context, but I was under the impression that this was a design contest for everyone, not just 6 characters. Plus, it seems whoever designed the outfits for Honoka, Marie Rose and NiCo were all the same artist. I mean it's cool for this person, and it's not their fault since Team Ninja or Koei Tecmo made the choice, but that's pretty much hogging up 3 slots all to one artist instead of giving 2 others a shot to have their designs immortalized in the game.
New DLC Character- Tamaki
This time we finally get a brand new character that was never in a previous Dead or Alive game, or at least the main fighting series. Team Ninja announced that the latest DLC character would come from the Venus Vacation side-series, and since these games are mostly fanservice beach frolics, it also meant this new character would get some sort of fighting style. There was a lot of guessing and interest on which of the original characters would get to step into the DOA6 ring, and in the end we got Tamaki.
Tamaki is a pretty cool character and she gets the Aikido fighting style. She's a bit technical but a lot of fun to use. I always like one of her throws where it looks like she just gently shoves the opponent to the ground. And hey, she's the first all-new character we've seen since Kula Diamond.
Tamaki Debut Costumes (5 costumes)
Other than her default outfit, there's also a costume pack for her. Tamaki gets a Party Dress, Pirates of the 7 Seas outfit, Seaside Eden outfit, Deluxe costume and Summer Breeze Outfit.
Like the previous sets, you can either buy the costumes separately, buy the Debut Set separately or buy Tamaki and the Debut Set as a big bundle. For some reason, it seems Tamaki and her set cost quite a bit more than any of previous DLC characters with their sets.
My Opinions-
Like I said, this has been a very polarizing season set. I was not a fan of the price increase between what is a Revival costume and a Brand New costume... and then having a Revival set as part of the season and charging it as if they were brand new. And then Phase 4 doesn't even get her transformation, so she gets half of her original costume.
I did like the Nova costumes, I liked Honoka as Rhyza and I liked the costume contest designs for the characters. I was hoping that this was only part 1 of a set and we'd see part 2 with 6 other characters. I mean, don't tell me nobody tried to draw a new outfit for Kasumi and Ayane. As far as I could tell I didn't see anything on their social media regarding other winning designs of other characters besides the 6 already posted. And with this season being the last, I'm not sure if we'll see more designs unless Season 5 will be part of Dead or Alive 6 Ultimate.
Other than the season set, Team Ninja or Koei Tecmo also started charging a dollar (or ticket) to change character hair colors, a feature that is usually free in fighting games with customization options. The kicker is you're only renting the color, since when you change it back to normal and want to go back it'll cost you another dollar. Plus everyone has different hairstyles so just because you decided to make Tina's short hair style a redhead, it doesn't mean her longer hairstyle will get the same treatment, that would cost you another dollar. This infuriated fans to no end and eventually the game developers had to go back and refund everyone and set it so now the hair colors are a permanent purchase.
Given that the companies seemed pretty excited about the hair color scheme and saw it backfire in their faces, it's hard to say if that was the reason they decided to end DLC support for the base game. Other factors could have been the current situation the world is in, or that maybe the plan was just to have a year's worth of DLC before moving on to the upgrade.
Dead or Alive 5 has lasted around 7 years or so, with their final version, Last Round releasing seemingly endless DLC costumes to the point fans were asking if there will ever be a DOA6. It would be shame if this really did end after just a year. I'm thinking DOA6U is inevitable and it's only being kept quiet now to make sure you purchase the last 2 sets of Revival DLC first. Time will tell.
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