Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

Dead or Alive 5 Last Round is a 2015 fighting game developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Arcades, and Windows. It is the third and final updated version of 2012's Dead or Alive 5, following 2013's Dead or Alive 5 Plus and Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate. Notable changes from Ultimate include two additional characters and a graphical upgrade for the new generation of consoles. Unlike the original Dead or Alive 5, as a download update for PS3 and Xbox 360, the game can convert either the digital versions of 5 Ultimate or 5 Ultimate: Core Fighters into 5 Last Round. Like 5 Ultimate, a free-to-play version titled Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Core Fighters, was released alongside the retail game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.
Gameplay
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round features all the content from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, adding new costumes and customizable hairstyles for outside PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, as well as two new characters and two new stages for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions received upgraded graphics, running at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. These two versions also use the new game engine called Soft Engine and designed to better depict "softness" of character's bodies. Since the appearance of the Senran Kagura DLC costume pack, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions have clothing breaker mechanisms for certain DLC collaboration outfits, including female characters' Valentine's Day DLC outfits when using a Critical Burst finisher on the opponent who wears some DLC collaboration outfit, similar to the Armor Breaker from other Sega AM2's Fighting Vipers.
Characters
Last Round retains all 32 characters featured in Ultimate, including the four guest characters from the Virtua Fighter series (counting Ultimates Jacky Bryant) and the three characters who first appeared in the arcade version and then as DLC (Marie Rose, Nyotengu and Phase-4), along with over 300 costumes for them. In addition, Last Round adds four new characters, including bringing back the original Dead or Alive boss, Raidou, to life and introducing a new female fighter named Honoka, for a total of up to 36.
New
Honoka, An 18-year-old Japanese schoolgirl who uses has her own style that she calls "Honoka Fu". Although she does not have any experience in combat, she uses some fighting moves from other characters and also a mysterious power.
Mai Shiranui, A guest character from the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters series. She was announced at the 2016 Dead or Alive Festival and arrived on September 13, 2016. After her addition in Dead or Alive 6, she stopped being available for purchase on September 11, 2019.
Naotora Ii, A guest character from Samurai Warriors. She was announced in December 2015 to arrive on February 25, 2016 on Arcade version, and as downloadable exclusive to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 17, 2016 and Windows on March 29, 2016.
Returning
Raidou: An evil ninja and Ayane's biological father using techniques he has stolen from other fighters. Killed in the first Dead or Alive game, he returns as an undead cyborg. The memories on what's good left in him from his past no longer exist, leaving only his obsession to copy the fighters' fighting skills.
History
Console versions
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round was announced on August 31, 2014, said to arrive during spring of 2015. On January 13, 2015, the new character Honoka was revealed in Famitsu. The game was released on 17 February 2015 in North America, following by Japan on 19 February and Europe on 20 February. It has a digital-only English release for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. North America and South America PlayStation 3 release was moved to the February 24 due to the PlayStation Store issues. The "Beach Party" DLC has been available for free for four weeks after launch for North American and South American PlayStation 3 owners.
Pre-ordering the retail version at GameStop and GAME for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One rewarded the exclusive costume pack containing the "Ninja 2015" costume set (for Ayane, Ryu Hayabusa, Hayate and Kasumi), and "Aloha" costume set (for Ayane, Hitomi, Kasumi and Mila). Pre-ordering at Amazon.com, Best Buy and ShopTo rewarded access to exclusive costumes sets "Showstopper" (for Christie, Helena, Lisa and Tina) and "Beach Party" (for Kokoro, Leifang, Momiji and Rachel). In Japan, there are two special editions for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One: the Collector's Edition and the Strongest Package, containing various digital and physical bonuses.
A free-to-play Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Core Fighters version (similar to Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: Core Fighters) was released in addition to the retail version for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It includes the "core" content with only four characters (Ayane, Hayate, Kasumi and Ryu Hayabusa) with the option to purchase the rest as DLC. Jann Lee, Mila, Kokoro, Hitomi, Rig and Leifang have all been free of charge for limited periods at different points in time as each other.
The Xbox One also received a free trial version titled Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Xbox One Trial, which has the same playable characters as Core Fighters but allows only a certain amount of hours of playtime. After playing for the available play time, the game becomes unplayable unless the players would upgrade to Core Fighters for a small fee. A limited-time special campaign running between August 26 and September 14, 2015, has offered Leifang for Core Fighters free of charge and decreased prices on the add-ons for the game, also reducing the price of the trial version's upgrade on the Xbox One by half.
Arcade version
The arcade version of Last Round was brought by a free upgrade patch for the arcade version of Ultimate on February 17, 2015. It has the Last Round only contents unlocked by default.
PC version
The Windows PC version of Last Round is only the second game in the series on PC, after Dead or Alive Online'''s open beta, and the third game for Virtua Fighter guest characters since their last PC game appearance on the PC version of Virtua Fighter 2. It is based largely on the PS3 version of the game, does not feature the improved breast physics of the Soft Engine for the characters but have the effects from the PS4 version for the stages. Although having an accessory option as PS4/Xbox One, except it has no new stages, which are exclusive to those two consoles. Originally intended to be released on February 17, 2015, it was delayed six weeks to March 30, with Steam users being given a Halloween 2013 costume pack free of charge. The online functionality support was promised to arrive within three months since the release, but the patch to enable it was postponed indefinitely by the end of June. On October 1, 2015, Patch 1.04 was released on the Steam version, enabling ranked online functionality. This patch, however, still lacks the lobby functionality that is currently only present on the console versions of the game.
The Core Fighters version was announced to be released on October 3, 2016. Those who had already owned the full game prior the Core Fighters release received a free update on unlocking all characters, music, and the story mode.
Post-release
Director Yosuke Hayashi said they plan on supporting Last Round long-term, including "adjustments to game balance and maybe even adding additional modes." Several costume packs have been released as paid downloadable content, including ninja outfits for all characters, superhero themed costumes, destructible collaboration clothing, such as from the Senran Kagura series, and from the Deception series of video games, and those created by The World God Only Knows creator Tamiki Wakaki. Later outfits included costumes of various characters from Falcom and Square Enix games as well as from Tatsunoko productions, Shonen Magazine's Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan (including a free Attack on Titan based stage for PS4 and Xbox One), Aquaplus, Arc System Works's Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. In turn of having Senran Kagura collaboration costumes in this game and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, the character Ayane is set to appear as a DLC guest character in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, while Marie and Honoka, along with Ayane, who appeared as a DLC character in Estival Versus are set to appear as DLC characters in Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash. The costumes for the Halloween pack were selected from fan submissions for a contest. Following the release of the Halloween Costume 2015, the update spaces on adding DLC for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 already reached their limits due to a file size problem on these versions.
A new stage was added to the game with an update in July 2015 and a "major update" bringing another new stage and a mysterious brand new character was announced for spring 2016 (around March), later revealed to be Naotora. Mai Shiranui from SNK Playmore's fighting franchises was added to the game in September 2016. New DLC content and updates have continued to arrive until December 2017, when the full-time development of Dead or Alive 6 began.
Reception
The game received generally positive reviews. Reviewers such as Brian Shea from Game Informer, Blake Peterson from Game Revolution, Chris Dunlap from Gaming Age, Ernest Lin from PlayStation Universe, Simon Miller from X-One, and Ken McKown from ZTGD recommended this "great" and "incredibly accessible" fighting game with much content for those who did not get Ultimate or just never played a Dead or Alive game before, and to try out the free version first in case of a doubt. Hardcore Gamer's Adam Beck endorsed Dead or Alive 5 Last Round for those "looking for a fun, over-the-top fighter with a lot of charm," even as he criticized it for how "the few new additions are far from compelling and there are some unfortunate bugs at launch." Jeremy Duff from Gaming Nexus wrote the "jaw-droppingly gorgeous" Last Round "is an excellent ending point for this chapter of the series. It takes all of the groundwork laid in DoA5'' and polishes it off in the best way possible. Armed with an excellent roster of characters and a ton of modes, this is a great introduction to 3D fighting on the new generation of fighters." The only gripe most players had was the unrealistic bot fights in the "Training" mode. The highest difficulty of which granted the bots unrealistic advantages, including longer range, "100% mode" (which rendered players helpless to grabs and throws with no counterplay), and instant speed moves that came with "i-frames", which rarely could be responded to. Developers did not intend for players to train to fight pvp by using the bots, but rather face an impossible challenge.
The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game have sold more than 35,000 physical copies in Japan within the first week after its release. After first six months, the game's free-to-play versions on all three console platforms have been downloaded by four million users worldwide. The number of downloads crossed five million by the end of 2015 and six million by April 2016. By January 2017, the total had reached 8 million, exceeding 9 million by July 2017 and 10 million by September 2017. It got to 11 million by June 2018, and 12 million by January 2019.
References
External links
2015 video games
3D fighting games
ALL.Net games
Crossover fighting games
Dead or Alive (franchise) video games
Martial arts video games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Multiplayer online games
Video games about ninja
PlayStation 3 games
PlayStation 4 games
Fighting games
Video games developed in Japan
Video game remakes
Virtua Fighter
Windows games
Xbox 360 games
Xbox One games
Video games set in China
Video games set in the United States
Video games set on islands
Video games set in Japan
Video games set in Russia
Video games set in Germany
Video games set in Venezuela
Video games set in Antarctica