The Dead or Alive series is known more for its female characters but we’ve seen more male characters revealed so far for its next entry, Dead or Alive 6. Producer Yohei Shimbori explained why in a recent interview with 4Gamer.
[Editor’s Note: Keep in mind that this interview was published by 4Gamer earlier this week, but it took place during EVO 2018 on August 5.]
4Gamer: For starters, please tell us about the current development status of Dead or Alive 6. During our last interview in June you said it was at 8%.
Yohei Shimbori, Producer: We actually haven’t progressed that much, so it’s at about 15%. However, there are some parts we’re quietly working on, so if you count that then we can say somewhere in the low 20% area.
Diego and Rig were announced as playable characters the other day. I believe many fans are also wondering as well, but why were two male characters revealed at the same time? The Dead or Alive series has many fans of its female characters, so we expected it to be one male and one female character announcements at a time. Were there any special reasons?
Yohei Shimbori: I suppose it can’t be helped to believe there was some kind of reason behind it. Truth be told, we were going to announce a female character, but the development didn’t make it on time.
[Note: We recently learned that Leifang was originally supposed to be revealed alongside Jann Lee, but there were some development issues that caused a delay.]
It was quite the surprise that caught us off guard. [laughs]
Yohei Shimbori: There are many fans who were waiting for the female characters, and we even received messages saying “Why are they both men?!” so that’s something we’re truly sorry about. Although those who’ve been waiting for male characters voiced their support saying “They both look cool!”…
Hearing the circumstances about the development of a female character taking longer, we can’t help but wonder “Were you planning on announcing a brand-new female character?”
Yohei Shimbori: I’m sorry, but I can’t say anything about that for now. However, just because it’s a new character it doesn’t mean that it would especially take longer. That said, the Dead or Alive 6 engine itself is being made from scratch, so even if we have existing characters, we can’t use their past data and throw it in like that. The models and textures are a given, but we’re also redoing everything from face to body, and even bone structure. So just because it’s an existing character it doesn’t mean we can easily progress through its development, and that part’s giving us a lot of trouble.
So regardless of whether the character is old or new, you’re saying they still need a certain amount of time to develop.
Yohei Shimbori: Yes. Furthermore, as for the expressions you can only get from the Dead or Alive series, we do plan on tossing out the old engine and switching to a next generation engine, but the old engine’s performance is just too high and the new engine still hasn’t been developed. For that reason, you might notice some unnatural movements, even in the latest exhibition version. The old engine is something that the old programmers, artists, and I poured our blood, sweat, and tears into. It was something we researched day and night to make, so it won’t be easy to surpass. I truly want to see the completed version as soon as possible, and I believe fans share that feeling as well. I apologize for keeping you guys waiting longer, but please believe in us and the engineers. Thank you for your continued support.
Dead or Alive 6 releases on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in early 2019. You can check out the official trailer for the recently revealed Hitomi and Leifang in our previous report.
