Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PS4
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round – Review
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo, is the third updated version of 2012’s Dead or Alive 5 – after Dead or Alive 5 Plus and Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate. While it is ‘yet another’ remastered version of earlier mentioned games, the game remains great. It features the core content from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate but it also brings new costumes and hairstyles as well as two new characters and stages. All of this in a neat package for the current generation consoles with stunning, updated graphics.
Story
Dead or Alive 5 is set two years after the events of Dead or Alive 4 in which the DOATEC’s headquarters were destroyed. The rebuilding of DOATEC has been done under careful supervision of Helena, who wants to use DOATEC’s technology to bring peace to a world that has yet to believe in it. She’s intending to blow some new life into the tournament and has announced the 5th one which will be hosted by Zack. At the same time, Kasumi is fixed on hunting down Alpha-152 and ending the destruction its causing.
The storyline is DOA5 is easily followed, even by those who have never played the series. The story mode in the game is certainly a lengthy one, with a whooping 71 chapters but the game leaves enough breathing room for the player by adding in multiple cutscenes which tell the story. It is not told in chronological order, which is slightly confusing at first especially since there are two main storylines found in the story mode: one involves the story of the fifth tournament and its contestants, the other one is centered about the hunt for Alpha-152. You’ll be quick to notice that each of the chapters are somehow linked and that it simply shows you the events through different eyes which is why it is easy for a novice to understand the storyline – at least a more confused understanding of the story.
Graphics
Graphically the game has improved quite a bit. The woman are more feminine and round busted while also maintaining a certain ‘softness’ to the skin. The men on the other hand are more bulky. In both ways, this adds more realism to the game and the droplets of sweat pouring down from the characters only increases that realism. There are a few characters in the story mode that will look completely different, simply because of their wardrobe but it’s not disturbing at all.
The character models look great, even more now than ever before but during the cutscenes of the story mode, there are certain body motions which feel awkward. A raised eyebrow or a frown certainly happened a few times because of this. During the actual fights, there’s none of this. The body motions seem flawless and the moves follow each other up quite well.
A notable difference from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is the fighting UI. For the most part it remains the same, both the font and the overall layout but instead of a regular yellowish bar, you’ll be looking at a blue-green gradient bar.
Sound
One of the things DOA seems to excels in lately is the voice acting. Dead or Alive 5 Last Round is not different. It is simply brilliant to listen to all the characters come to life with the powerful voice acting the game has to offer.
As for the music, there are some catchy tunes during fights, although it’s hard to pin-point what exactly it is as each character has their own background music. You can change this to songs that are more of your genre but you can only choose between the background sounds of other characters.
Gameplay
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round offers novices an extensive tutorial with no less than 42 tutorial segments, each divided into even more sections. It covers the basics as well as more advanced fighting commands. This will turn any novice into a great competitor which you will need if you are to play the game online. The game offers even more extensive training such as a free training and a command training.
The story mode, which we covered in the story section, will not be where you will be spending most of your time but it is advisable for novices to play it through as you’ll be able to ‘test’ several characters. The storyline isn’t too bad either.
If you don’t want to get your ass handed to you on a silver plate, you can always battle it out in the more classic modes such as the versus, arcade, time attack and survival modes. All of these offer a solo mode and a tag team mode where you can play with two characters. If you want your fights to last even longer, you can always opt for the team fight mode in which you can fight with a team with up to 7 characters.
As for the gameplay, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round plays much like any other fighting brawl game. You will tend to button smash and scream inappropriately at the screen, at least I tend to do that, ultimately learning the very basics but it takes hard work and dedication, as well as carefully smashing of buttons to truly master the game’s more advanced combat skills.
Conclusion
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round is yet another great title of the series. The game offers a decent amount of offline and solo content as well as competitive online gameplay. Fans of the series or fighting games in general cannot go wrong with this title.
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