During a recent press tour, Team Ninja’s creative director Tom Lee answered questions about Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round, the latest and last iteration of this fighting game, which will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and digitally on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Due out February 17, 2015, Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round is described by Lee as being, “basically the complete version of the game. It will include all of the content that we’ve released since the first Dead Or Alive 5 came out two years ago, as well as two new characters — a woman and a man — and two new stages. So there’s over 400 costumes, but it has all of the same modes. We’ve also balanced the characters a couple times since the original version came out in 2012, and this will have the latest improvements in terms of balance.”
Lee also confirmed that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, “will both be running at 1080p and 60 frames-per-second, but content-wise, they’re the same.” Which means those versions will have all of the characters, costumes, stages, and updates that have been added to Dead Or Alive 5 over the past two years, including any and all DLC, as well as additions made to the previous iterations, 2013’s Dead Or Alive 5 Plus (which was made for the Vita) and that year’s overly-ambitiously named Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate. Though Lee did admit that, “It’s not likely that we’d add a third character or stage, but you never know if we might release something in the form of DLC.”
While Lee wasn’t able to give any details on those two aforementioned characters, aside from their gender (details on them will be announced at a later date), he was more forthcoming about the new stages. Though maybe “new” isn’t the right word. “The first one,” he explained, “is called ‘Crimson.’ It first appeared in Dead Or Alive 2, and it’s kind of our signature stage for Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round because it really takes advantage of everything we can do. For instance, when you knock someone off the side, they can actually grab on and hang off the ledge, and even block the other character while they’re hanging there.
“Our other stage,” he continued, “is ‘Danger Zone,’ which was a fan favorite from the original D.O.A. In it, some segments of the floor are electrified, and if you slam down on them, you’ll get a shock and take even more damage than you would on the parts that aren’t electrified.”
Lee also noted that while they would love it if people playing Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round on Xbox 360 could fight their friends on Xbox One, and PS3 players could do the same with PS4 owners, “No, not at this moment. We would love to see it happen, and there’s talk of [letting Xbox 360 go mano a mano against Xbox One, etc.], but not at the moment.”
Sadly, though, while this fighting series has been around since 1996, they’ve never fixed the most glaring mistake that’s plagued every single edition of the game and its spin-offs: they’ve never had Van Halen’s “D.O.A.” on the soundtrack. What the hell? “Well, in the past, my sensei was actually biased towards Aerosmith,” Lee jokes, making a reference to former Team Ninja mastermind Tomonobu Itagaki, who once said that Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” had “…saved my life, my company, my friends, and my family.”
“But to be honest,” Lee admitted, “I know that song, and I love the band, but you’re the first one to bring it up. Though maybe we’ll get David Lee Roth in the game, just for you.” Yeah, something tells me they might be, as Diamond Dave might say, “outta luck.”
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round are currently available for pre-ordering on Amazon for $39.99.
