It’s been a hot minute since we last got a numbered Dead or Alive game, seven years to be exact, so it’s about time to jump back into the Team Ninja fighting series with Dead or Alive 6.
Dead or Alive 6
Developer: Team Ninja
Price: $60
Platform: PC, PS4, and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 copy for review
I’ll be honest, I played DOA5 but I could not tell you what happened in its plot, which left me very confused at the start of this game when I’m given a five second intro before being tossed into a fight. The evil organization MIST is doing some evil stuff and trying to resurrect series antagonist Raidou, and you need to stop them or something. It’s honestly just a mess of nonsensical drivel as characters rush into a scene, say a quick sentence then initiate a fight. The story mode itself is spread along this tree where you unlock story missions for each character as you play and each character is going through their own storyline. Various characters are going through their own separate plot threads as well which means if you’re playing Ryu Hayabusa’s mission in chapter 3 and you see Bayman in it, then you should also play Bayman’s chapter 3 mission since it’ll add some very mild context for that thread. If you just play through a single character’s line you won’t have a clue what’s going on. Hell, I played it sort of correctly and it’s a big mess of a plot so just play how you want honestly. The story mode here is such a non-element that I’m not sure why they bothered including it. Also, that final boss battle can go burn in hell.
Dead or Alive has never been a top fighting game for me. It’s fun in its own way, but the cast of characters lacks the sort of charm other games have. If you’ve ever felt the same way then DOA6 isn’t going to change your thoughts on the series, while fans of the series are likely to thoroughly enjoy this one. That’s not to say the fighting is bad however, it’s perfectly fine, but the entire presentation lacks the panache I seek from the genre. The series is very reliant on counters and stringing up combo chains so the depth is there if you’re looking for it, but if you’re just interested in slapping the controller buttons and seeing a character pop a combo there’s that too. New to the series is the Fatal Rush mechanic, similar to the “one button combo” that’s becoming a staple in modern fighting games, Fatal Rush allows you to dole out a flashy set of moves by simply mashing a single button. Another new feature is the Break Gauge which is more or less a super meter that unleashes a powerful finisher to your Fatal Rush combo or can be used to perform a special dodge that will place you behind an opponent. These new mechanics, while welcomed, don’t really add a significant change to the series’ fairly basic formula; particularly when we live in the era of Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ.
A new mode to the series is DOA Quest, which unfortunately isn’t a turn-based RPG featuring the cast of Dead or Alive. Instead it’s a sort of challenge mode that’s secretly a second tutorial mode. In it, you’ll find dozens of missions that task you with performing a variety of tasks like doing a certain amount of damage in a single combo or hitting the enemy while they’re side-stepping. There are two aspects to this mode that I particularly enjoy. The first is that you don’t have to complete all three objectives in a single go. If you’re struggling with one you can do the first two and focus on the third another time and still get all three stars. This could have easily worked the opposite way and turn what’s a great way to ease your way into DOA’s mechanics, into a frustrating wall to beat your head against. The other nifty thing this mode does is that when you open a mission it recommends a tutorial for one of the objectives. If you attempt a mission and were clearly struggling with one of the objectives the game will once again recommend sending you into the tutorial mode for that specific mechanic and once you’ve completed it you’ll be sent back to DOA Quest to attempt the mission again.
One minor annoyance is that to unlock costumes you have to go through DOA Quest where you’ll unlock “parts” of the costume until you get the full thing available to purchase with in-game currency. Seeing nearly 100 missions to complete and not knowing which outfit is hidden in each one can make the grind for finding the parts for your favorite character a bit daunting. More-so since you have to complete all three objectives to acquire the costume piece. Besides that though, everything about DOA Quest is really well executed and I could easily see newcomers and veterans alike dumping a lot of time in this mode.
Also included in the package is your standard arcade, time attack, and survival modes that all do exactly what you expect. The training mode is where the game excels. I love fighting games but I can’t stand the ridiculous skill ceiling many of them expect new players to hurdle over; you can’t get new people into the genre if you don’t give them a chance to learn. So any fighting game that includes an in-depth training section is A+ in my book. Here the DoA6 takes you through every mechanic in the game and also includes a combo training mode for each character. Timing is integral to pulling off a combo in a fighting game, so I love how Dead or Alive 6 allows you to quickly watch the AI pull off the combo. There were a few times where I know I was hitting the button inputs correctly but combo magic wasn’t happening for me until I stopped to watch the AI and saw where I was making a mistake in my timing.
The Final Word
Dead or Alive 6 isn’t going to shake up the fighting game scene, but it’s good for some quick fun and a very accessible entry point for newcomers to the genre.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
Check out our interview with Dead or Alive pro-player MASTER at EVO.
