Dead or Alive 6 makes a comeback! (Some doubts and concerns)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Back in 2019, Dead or Alive 6 came out with mixed reactions due to how the girls were more covered up when compared to previous titles. For better or for worse, the Dead or Alive series has always been known for the alluring outfits and martial arts fighting women with bouncing boobs. Team Ninja tried to focus more on the fighting than the sex appeal for the sake of making it on EVO, which would kill its popularity and eventually never make it on EVO anyway. Personally I always figured they'd eventually release all the bikinis and maid outfits you'd expect from the game series through waves of DLC, but it looks like by the time we got there it was too little too late for a lot of the fanbase.

Other problems were the hundred dollar season packs, having to re-purchase characters that were already DLC in DOA5 (Nyotengu, Phase 4, Rachael, Momiji and Mai), the free costumes being broken up into parts which take forever to collect, re-selling previous costumes and worse of all, charging people to change the character hair colors... and then charging them again to change it back. While some of these features were fixed or rolled back, those hundred dollar season sets didn't lower in price.

It was due to all of these factors (and probably more) that led to the game ending its support after a single year. Some fans were expecting a DOA6 Ultimate to come out soon, but years went on and as far as we knew, this game... and maybe the series overall.... was done.

Then suddenly this past February, out of nowhere, Dead or Alive 6 Last Round was announced, set to be released on June 25, 2026, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC gaming. It's pretty much re-releasing the game on newer hardware (rather than upgrading it from the previous gen) with enhanced graphics, an improved camera system and a new costume for Kasumi, Ayane, Marie Rose, Honoka and NiCO. This time the previous DLC characters Nyotengu, Phase 4, Tamaki, Momiji and Rachel will be free from the get-go and there will be promise of new characters and costumes coming soon via DLC. While all of this sounds fun, I do have a few concerns.

 

 

What about people who own the original Dead or Alive 6?

I've been playing the classic DOA6 on my PS5 for some time now and wonder what will happen to it once Last Round come out. So far the game is up for pre-order for 40 dollars... but there is no mention of it either costing less or being a free upgrade if you already own the original. Are these going to be essentially two separate games?

What about Mai and Kula? 

Dead or Alive 6 brought in Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond from the SNK Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series as guest characters. They are both notably absent from the Last Round trailer. I'm guessing they're treating Last Round as a completely separate game that didn't get the license from SNK, since you can still purchase Mai and Kula for the original DOA6 today as of April 2026. This makes me think Last Round will treated as a stand-alone game and not an upgrade. It doesn't look like (so far) that you can upgrade to Last Round and still use Mai and Kula assuming you already purchased them beforehand. In comparison, Dead or Alive 5 has a lot of license expired DLC (Mai and KOF outfits, Guilty Gear outfits, Attack on Titan stage and outfits, etc) that you can no longer purchase today but you can still use if you bought them before they left the online shop.

Will we see actual NEW characters?

One of the many issues Dead or Alive 6 had, other than Diego and NiCo who were introduced from the start, was the lack of any brand new characters. Rather, they wasted time (and player's money) just re-releasing Mai, Nyotengu, Phase 4, Rachael and Momiji from the previous game, added Kula (a guest character) and Tamaki who comes from their Venus Vacation side-series. After they ran out of pre-existing characters from DOA5 I was wondering who was coming next. The only possible old character they had left was Gen Fu and I wasn't sure how a male fighter in a series mostly known for female fighters would sell. Then the game's support ended. Did they just run out of ideas?

So the question for Last Round is... are we going to see completely new characters? Will they just bring in more guest characters and people from Venus Vacation? Or will we finally see some new female characters that fight using Judo, Tae Kwon Do, or some other fighting style we still haven't seen in the series? Actually it's kind of disappointing a new character wasn't announced from the get-go similar to how DOA5 Ultimate and DOA 5 Last Round did. THAT'S how you lead off an update, not just some free costumes and a promise of new stuff to come. 'New stuff is coming guys!! Honest!!'

Will this last beyond a year? 

Other than a trailer for this upgrade, we also got the very first glimpse of what could be Dead or Alive 7. It is still too soon to say, since this was one of those 'super brief glimpse' teasers and an official title wasn't announced... but how long will an upgraded DOA6 last with the promise of a brand new DOA7 on the horizon??? Maybe similar to Luke in Street Fighter 5 and 6, some of the new characters in DOA 6 Last Round will return as major players in this new game.

So those are my initial thoughts on the upcoming game and how it might or might not tie into the last one. Are we going to lose Mai and Kula? Are we going to see brand new from-the-ground-up characters? Time will tell. When DOA6 came out, I used to write articles cover the Season Passes. I plan to return to them once this new game hits. I just hope they don't cost a hundred dollars this time.