Genre: Fighting, 3D Fighting
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Corp
ESRB Rating: Mature
Release Date: February 17, 2015
What do you think when the name Dead or Alive comes up? Most of the gamers of course already very understand what can be anticipated from this fighting game franchise. The interference of Keoi Tecmo and Team Ninja does make Dead or Alive present as a unique product, especially from the design of female characters that deserve to be called the best in the gaming industry. Combining the fun gameplay mechanics of combat, the pampering design of female characters, and the always tempting sensuality, Dead or Alive seems to know exactly how to grab the attention of gamers. Now they are trying to upgrade it to a higher level, through the HD Remaster process for the latest generation platform. Say welcome to Dead or Alive 5: Last Round!
Gameplay mechanically, Last Round does not inject any new things that are significant enough to be discussed. Since it was introduced for the first time, Team Ninja focuses on only two things that are the main selling points - the latest "Soft Engine" engine implementation that is said to be able to visualize human skin more realistically and of course the presence of two new characters, one of which indeed exclusively designed only for Last Round. Most of the screenshots and trailers released over the past few months seem to lead to one similar conclusion, that Team Ninja keeps the Dead or Alive 5: Last Round "female character" as the main spearhead.
So, what is actually offered by Dead or Alive 5: Last Round this? Why do we call it a game that offers a more perfect quality of sensuality? This review will discuss it more deeply for you.
The Experience Is Not Much Different
Given the side of the gameplay, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round actually does not carry significant changes to be discussed. In addition to several series that offer some new characters, he remains Dead or Alive that you are familiar with. Therefore, the reviews we have time to throw for the previous generation version is actually still relevant to describe what kind of experience you can anticipate from this one game.
"One thing that can be concluded with certainty from Dead or Alive 5 is the success of Team Ninja to present it as a competitive fighting game, but on the other hand, it is still fun. The simplicity of key inputs that can be required will make you more focused on applying the right strategy and timing to attack and persist, instead of thinking about recalling complex attack inputs. Through three main buttons - attacking, defending and slamming, you can create so many deadly combos, juggling, and utilizing existing Danger Zones and Cliffhanger. With Power Blows, you are given the opportunity to create a more dynamic atmosphere of the game.
Of all the elements that he offers, Dead or Alive 5 does appear as a fighting game that is almost perfect. Design a sensual female character and pamper the eyes into extra value that will make you feel at home playing this game for a long time. Beautiful animations, cinematic and dramatic attack movements, there is almost no shortage to be extracted from this fifth Dead or Alive series. The only disturbing thing might be on the unclear side of the plot. So many characters, so many interactions, and so many battles that are produced, but end up with countless stories. The existing dialogues are also not characterized. Team Ninja failed to perform optimally in this one aspect.
Apart from this little flaw, Dead or Alive 5 is a fighting game that must be played by you who are fond of the genre of simple fighting, let alone you men. A fighting game that combines the pleasure and spirit of competition through the battle mechanism and visual design is certainly not something that is easily found today. Dead or Alive 5 does a great job. "
Welcoming the Soft Engine!
Regardless of the basic mechanical changes of the battle that are no different than the original version, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round certainly offers some novelty as the main selling point, to make it look as an interesting series to glance back. One of them is the latest generation debut engine from Team Ninja - Soft Engine. In accordance with the name that he stretcher, Team Ninja claims that "Soft" here trying to represent the quality of human skin is more realistic, making it feel smooth and soft. Not only that, they will also improve the quality of character texture as the core of a HD Remaster process. The result? Quite awesome.
Soft Engine in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round that we tasted it did not feel phenomenal, unlike the engine changes made 4A Games for Metro 2033 Redux, for example. But you can see clearly that this engine does make all the female characters Dead or Alive 5: Last Round looks much more indulgent eyes. The impression that the skin that envelopes every three-dimensional model is more subtle indeed feels quite subtle, especially with the detail of the face that now looks more sharp. But the biggest thumbs up should be directed at eye design that makes the Soft Engine illusion even stronger, making all of these female characters look like beautiful dolls, or arguably, the typical perfect lady you've probably only imagined. Team Ninja knows very well how to implement this engine perfectly.
Not only face, body (or in particular - breast) every female character is now also wrapped with the same technology. You can see the skin texture is more pale and impressed more smooth. No kidding for this one affair, Team Ninja even pinning an additional Breast Physics for gamers who are focused on "plot" this one. Not only offering options for breast movement at Off, Normal, and DOA levels, now an extra option - Last Round is also offered. Movement offered feels more realistic, a little bouncy, but not too much like the setting of "DOA" itself. But for those of you who are not too concerned about this one aspect, this option will pass without contributing significant experience.
Soft Engine does make the sensuality of every female character up to a higher level, making this fighting game increasingly spoil the eye. The problem is, as you can predict from all our conversations above, it all seems to focus on the existing female character. While on the other hand, the visual quality of male characters that existed seemed to have not improved anything. They are still present with dark skin, a texture that feels more rugged, inversely proportional to what is offered Team Ninja to Kasumi et al. As one of the gamers who are focused on the character of women, this does not bother us. Only, when these two genders fight in the same arena, you can see clearly the difference we are talking about. The only male character who might look more "cared for" is Bayman. As for male characters who focus more on costumes like Ryu or Hayate, the texture of their clothes is now much sharper.
The sharper faces and body details are just a few of the visual rendering the Soft Engine has to offer. The process for changing this high definition texture is also done to produce better sweat and water effects. As we know, to bring a better sensual atmosphere, every character's outfit can indeed get wet when faced with water. Details of wet clothes is of course seen more clearly in the Last Round. Not only wet, every drop of sweat that appears on the face or body of characters when the middle of the fight also looks more clear and detailed. Lighting and shadow also look more realistic here.
Is this significant for gameplay? Of course not. It can be concluded that Soft Engine was built to maximize the effects of Dead or Alive 5 cosmetics itself, resulting in the latest generation platform effect that is worth it. Especially on Playstation 4, the version we tested, with the Share button easier, you can share screenshots of your favorite characters into the world. Spectator Mode that will play Replay battles that you save can be positioned just like Photo Mode is being a trend in the latest outbound games, such as The Last of Us Remastered or Shadow of Mordor. By accessing this one mode. You can set the camera, zoom, dismiss the moment of the fight there, to "enjoy" Soft Engine is with more leverage.
Coupled with a series of costumes on offer, from crossover themes with other Tecmo Koei games, to just a sexy bikini, all support Soft Engine effects.
Honoka - The New Cutey
Soft Engine is the main feature that defines Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, but the Ninja Team itself is trying to offer extra content by offering two new characters for this series. An old character who finally returns again in this battle arena - Raidou and the new female character - Honoka.
We certainly do not want to enjoy Dead or Alive 5: Last Round to see the action of an Undead cyborg with great attack power like Raidou. We ourselves believe that he has never been the focus and the main reason why you are glancing at this one game. Honoka is a more realistic reason. As you can predict, you can always give up the responsibility of creating a woman character that is easy to fall in love with Team Ninja, and they will never perform disappointingly. Honoka comes with an extraordinary design, a combination of a sensual teenage girl, especially with a posture that focuses on a particular part, and strength that can not be underestimated.
Honoka is described as a genius in martial arts. His knowledge of many techniques ultimately led him to create his own movement which he called "Honoka-Fu". This unique technique is more focused on short-range attack is fast, and flexible enough to combine the combination of the hands with timings that will complicate the enemy. As far as the eye can see, Honoka is a new, "safe" character. It comes with a super-cute facial and personality design, and on the other hand offers a less complex attack technique to master in the near future. It's not hard to fall in love with this character, regardless of any underlying motivation.Honoka is described as a genius in martial arts. His knowledge of many techniques ultimately led him to create his own movement which he called "Honoka-Fu". This unique technique is more focused on short-range attack is fast, and flexible enough to combine the combination of the hands with timings that will complicate the enemy. As far as the eye can see, Honoka is a new, "safe" character. It comes with a super-cute facial and personality design, and on the other hand offers a less complex attack technique to master in the near future. It's not hard to fall in love with this character, regardless of any underlying motivation.
Looks Not Ready!
Dear one thousand dear, despite the high anticipation, Team Ninja does not seem quite ready to guarantee Dead or Alive 5 release: Last Round is trouble-free. Those of you who followed the information of some of the outside gaming sites over the last few days of course know what we are talking about. The Ninja team admits that in mainland Europe, DOA 5: Last Round Xbox One version has a bug that can even permanently delete your save data. Indeed we did not find it in the version we tasted, but that does not mean this game comes with no problems at all.
One that is quite annoying is a game that does not run stable when trying to connect to online mode. No, we're not talking about how bad the connection or lagging is, but rather the implementation of a function that actually hurts the playing experience.
Opening space for other gamers to "invade" your game and challenge your fight is an interesting feature, but this game actually slows down when connected to the virtual world. The menu response becomes longer for execution and sudden loading time increases for no apparent reason to move from one screen to another. When you want to get out of the online mode as well, for example, games can suddenly show only the animation loading, as if stuck. We have several times to get out of this game via PS Menu and access it again to solve this problem.
Unpreparedness is also seen not only from Team Ninja's side, but Sony itself, at least in region 3 as we feel. Trying to buy extra sensual costumes for Honoka in order for us to show you, access to the PS Store just shows you a blank page with no content. And obviously, in the main page Dead or Alive 5: Last Round itself, plainly posted ads that write discounts for new costumes available. Then, where to go, if we are interested to spend more money digitally? Trying to access the digital guide to learn the mechanics of gameplay deeper after being destroyed without a sense of humanity in the online game is also the same, tipped ends. The written guide is not ready and is being worked on. For a final product, things like this can not be tolerated.
Conclusion
So, what can be inferred from Dead or Alive 5: Last Round this? That he will be a series that is quite tempting for you who have never tasted this one fighting game series, and coincidentally already have the latest generation platform in hand. Improved details born from the implementation of Soft Engine makes it more indulgent eyes, especially with the design of female characters and the variety of costumes are so sensual. Honoka's presence that featured in super sweet personality and design of Team Ninja's topnotch, with extra ease to master the existing move set also become its own selling point. As far as the eye can see, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round throws a cosmetic selling value that commensurate with its status as a new generation game, and nothing more.
There are no significant changes in the gameplay side. Instead of getting refined, you just have to deal with technical problems that can not be tolerated, of course. From slower or even stalled menu movements when you open online access to invasion from other gamers, it's strange that you can not "spend" more money on this game because of the empty DLC items column in the PS Store. Site guide that is still not ready in the middle of release also be a separate note.
So, are you glancing at Dead or Alive 5: Last Round? The answer yes, if you have never tasted or have this game before. It will satisfy your curiosity how the concept of sensuality and super-fun fighting gameplay is integrated in the same space. But if you've ever tasted this game on the platform before? There is no reason to buy the same game twice for an experience that is not much different.
Advantages
- Easy-to-master gameplay
- Soft Engine
- Honoka
- New costume design is more sensual
Deficiency
- Online connections that sometimes backfire
- PS Store Unpreparedness
- Guide is still under development
- Need more unlockable content that can be opened without having to spend money
