The only thing you probably know about the Dead or Alive series is that it features a group of scantly clad anime babes that play volleyball on a beach and their boobs have a separate physics engine of their own. Oh, and they occasionally fight.
Team Ninja, the developer behind Dead or Alive series and incidentally now working on Nioh 2, is at it again tackling the issue of the jiggly boobs of Dead or Alive. The boob physics have always been a staple of the game, but the devs have progressively tried to be better at it. And when I say better I don’t mean “more of it” better but “let’s try not to resort to a gimmick that appeals to base instincts of teenage boys but make a game that stands on its own” better.
“We want to make it a lot more natural. That is one goal, to make movement very natural. Also, each character has a very strong personality and we want to emphasize that” stated the game’s director.
They have tried something similar in the past with Dead or Alive 5, but suffered a backlash from the fans, prompting them to release many, many, many DLCs “rectifying” that. Which might have gone a bit overboard, making it one of the more uncomfortable games in the series, but of course, providing the developers with a whole lot of money proving that change isn’t easy.
And that’s essentially what they want to do with DoA 6. The game’s director, Yohei Shimbori, told Game Informer: “Of course we’re going to tone down at this point, but for downloadable content, we have to see what gamers really want, what their response is. Not all the gamers want the same thing, but we want to ask their opinions, all of them, and get feedback on it.”
The takeway point from this is that when money is involved, it’s difficult to do what you want to do, and what fans of your beach volleyball simulator want you to do. Now personally I just want to have an Extreme Volleyball edition with the male characters. There’s a niche for it Team Ninja, come on, if you’re gonna give the fans what they want, why not give me what I want?