Dead or Alive 6 Last Round Review So Far
I’ve always liked Dead or Alive – unfortunately, that sentence usually has to be followed by a “but,” lest people think you’re some kind of weird pervert. “Not like that!” you might yell. “I think the mechanics are rad!” It’s tiresome, and Dead or Alive 6: Last Round deserves better than that stuff dominating the conversation around it. I’ve spent the last few days shaking seven years of dust off, but I really want to put it through its paces and spend some more time in the ring before I slap a number on it – as well as test it out on live servers since this updated edition still doesn’t have rollback netcode for some baffling reason.
Fighting games are complex beasts, even when they’re essentially just re-releases that bundle all of the DLC together into one big package, and I want to give Last Round its due. But, so far, my impressions are positive.
The Triangle System and Core Gameplay
The Dead or Alive series has always been extremely simple: one button for punches, one for kicks, one for throws, one for holds, and a “new” (as of the 2019 original) special attack button that performs a Fatal Rush autocombo and unlocks special meter moves. But more than a lot of fighters, Dead or Alive is, at its best, a chess match. Using what’s known as the Triangle System, every move invites a countermove – strikes beat throws, throws beat holds, holds beat strikes – and every attack is also an opening, if you’re good enough.
What makes this fighting system great has always been the Holds. You can counter essentially any strike by pressing hold and the direction you expect the attack to hit (high, low, or mid, though mid punches and mid kicks require different directional inputs), potentially stopping any offensive in its track. Holds are inherently risky, though. They won’t stop throws and still lose to strikes if mistimed or if you don’t use the right one – but land a hold right and you can swing an entire round. It’s absurdly satisfying to pull off, even against the computer.
The mind game that creates rules, and it’s still here in Last Round, but it doesn’t change that Dead or Alive is also incredibly easy to pick up. It’s not quite as deep as, say, Virtua Fighter, but anyone can play Dead or Alive 6. Getting good at it involves really digging into moves and countermoves, knowing how both the character you’re playing and the one you’re playing against work, and using that knowledge to pick the right option at the right time. It feels great when you land a hit, and hurts to take one.
New Features and Re-release Value
When you’re getting smacked around and watching your health bar go the way of the dodo, it stings. But it should. That means you made a mistake. Shouldn’t have mistimed that hold, ya know? But when you max out your Break Gauge in order to hit a Break Blow – think Critical Blows from Dead or Alive 5 – or get just enough Break Gauge to pull off a Break Hold and turn the tables with a nifty counter, the Triangle System sings.
Adding a meter to a 3D fighter is always risky (just ask Tekken fans how they feel about Heat in Tekken 8), but I think Dead or Alive 6’s implementation has managed to stand the test of time.
This is mostly a re-release with its DLC, which is a fine enough thing for it to be. As far as the “new” stuff, Last Round doesn’t have a lot beyond a new photo mode, which I haven’t played around with much yet. This is mostly just a re-release of Dead or Alive 6 with all the DLC included, which is a fine enough thing for it to be.
As someone who played a lot around the original’s release in 2019 but then didn’t keep up with every update since, I haven’t tried all of the DLC characters yet, but I have run some sets with Momiji and Rachel, and they feel right at home. The former trades power for speed and aggression, while the latter is all brute strength through short strings that turn into lots of damage, which tracks if you’ve played as either of them in Ninja Gaiden. Beyond that, I’ve been enjoying the disjointed but breezy story mode and the still-quite-good teaching tools as I mess around with various members of the cast.
Story Mode and Character Representation
Story mode in particular is enjoyably silly. Sure, its story is about tournaments and evil corporations and global conspiracies and ninjas and cyborgs and all sorts of crazy stuff, but it’s also very endearing. Where else can you see a guy yell “Hey, ninja man!” at an actual ninja before throwing a steel drum at him and immediately thereafter watch two women bond over their love of fighting, and then watch a couple of kids cheer on a New York street fighter after a sparring match? Not many places.
It’s also nice to see a fighting game campaign that puts women in its lead roles instead of relegating them to supporting players like most others do. The boys play their parts, but overall this show belongs to Kasumi, Helena, Ayane, Honaka, and Hitomi. They make choices, have agency, and solve their own problems in a way people who have only ever seen them playing beach volleyball might not expect. And sure, the story is a little Looney Tunes, but every fighting game’s is. Ever paid attention to Street Fighter lore? There’s a guy who thinks he’s a car, and that might not even be the weirdest part of it.
Dead or Alive makes a hell of a lot more sense than something like Mortal Kombat (and I say this as someone who likes MK’s nonsense), and while the overarching plot can be messy, the individual scenes and character interactions work well and are a lot of fun. Of course, that’s not the reputation Dead or Alive is typically known for, and because one of the selling points of Last Round is that you get all the DLC costumes (though they still have to be unlocked in-game even if you own them), I suppose I now have to talk about the thing that consumes every piece of criticism ever written about this series: how everyone looks and moves.
Yes, the women look Like That™. Yes, many of them are very bouncy. Yes, you can dress them in revealing outfits. But that’s not all the story is about. The core gameplay, character dynamics, and story elements are worth considering, especially if you’re a fan of the series or new to it. The game still has its quirks, but it’s clear that Dead or Alive 6: Last Round is a solid re-release that offers value for both newcomers and long-time fans.
