Dead or Alive has a bit of a bad rep due to its rather exagerated take on the female characters but I’ve always been a fan, focusing on the multi tier stages and fantastic counter system. Then things went a bit sour for me around DoA4, which introduced the mid-kick counter and cheap as hell AI. But DoA5 was a really solid fighting game which I rather enjoyed when it came out a year ago. It had its problems (like the damn 4 point counter system returning again…) but it was solid.
And now, we get an update in the form of DoA5 Ultimate. Like Super Streetfighter 4, it adds some new characters and game mechanics, which means that they can’t push it as an update as the new features make it impossible (think of the ability to choose your ultra attack in SSFIV). The game was actually released as a disk based product a few weeks ago but now, the EU PSN store has it and we finally get to experience the thing which makes this title stand out. This DoA is FREE TO PLAY!
Normally, that would be a kiss of death to many titles I can think of but I give the benefit of the doubt on this one. Fighting game fans may remember that Microsoft also announced that Killer instinct is going to be a F2P title on Xbone but they got under heavy fire for announcing that the initial download will only contain 1 character and a handful of stages and only the most basic game modes. But at least you can play online. It’s not really surprising that people were less than thrilled and, in this case, they can really learn a thing or 2 from Team Ninja!
The “core edition” of DoA5U gives you all the stages from DoA5, 4 character and the ability to play anybody who has a copy of the game, even the full disk version! The modes are all in there as well, save for the story mode (which is a separate purchase) but as someone who has already played through it in the vanilla version, it doesn’t bother me. The tutorial mode is taken straight from DoA5+ on the PS Vita and is a massive step up from the original release. There is a pretty large amount of content in the free version and, on top of it all, 2 characters are randomly unlocked for a trial period before rotating to another character so you still get a chance to use some, even if you haven’t purchased them! The only bad thing is that you cannot fight against characters you have not purchased. But then again, if they appeared in different modes, then it would mean that their data is already in the game and you are just paying for an unlock code. Remember when ppl went into a furore with Streetfighter X Tekken?
The other complaint is that it feels like the game DoA5 should have been from the start. The number of unlockables was pretty bare bones in DoA5 and we attributed that to Tecmo wanting our money via DLC costumes but there’s way more in DoA5U. Buyers of the vita copy have more grounds for complaints as their version is now completely obsolete and it’s highly unlikely that Team Ninja was not already working on this latest version when DoA5+ was released…
Still, this may be the first F2P game which I don’t really have any issues with. I’m likely to buy just a few characters, such as Hitomi, Lei Fang and Momiji but if the whole game unlock goes on sale later, I can still benefit! Microsoft may have left a bad taste in ppls mouths when they announced their plans for Killer Instinct but DoA5U proves that a F2P fighting game doesn’t have to be stingy with the content. This is way more than a “generous Demo” and the low price of free should be enough to get more people into the game (though the online still needs some work it seems…).
