Dead or Alive 5: Last Round Reviews
Overall, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is the definitive version of a last gen game. Visually, it still looks great; however, it's still based on a last gen game. A new DoA running on current gen consoles with higher resolution textures can't come too soon, but for now, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is satisfactory.
Dead or Alive 5: 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. Just be prepared to be smothered with DLC options.
I'm blown away by how well thought out the base design in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is. The designers stuck with a traditional, no-thrills, rock/paper/scissor foundation that provides for depth and complexity to evolve on the player's part.
I'm not the world's biggest fighting game fan. Those fighting games that I do enjoy (Blazblue, or Persona 4 Arena, for example) always offer something beyond the fighting mechanics to hook me in (narrative and characters, in those two examples). The fact that I've been playing Dead or Alive 5 for years now, and keep coming back for each new release (and continue to buy the DLC) is therefore proof that what is on offer here is something more than a simply entertaining fighting game. It might be decadent, and looking at the screenshots in this review will tell you if it's a decadence that make you uncomfortable, but the gameplay behind it is rock solid and perfectly precise. I can't see any scenario where I'm not still playing this for however long it takes for Koei Tecmo to get around to Dead or Alive 6.
Solid, if far from revolutionary, and well past its used-by date in terms of its treatment of women.
Dead or Alive: Last Round doesn't have the contortionist special moves required to master its Street Fighter rival, making this the more immediately accessible game by some margin. But neither does it have the mascots of Capcom's stable (it's telling, perhaps, that the most recognisable characters here are borrowed from Ninja Gaiden and Virtua Fighter). But at its deeper levels, it's an equally engaging and challenging proposition as its rivals, a quick tempo test of dexterity and reaction that, at its best, transcends the mildly grotty aspects for which it is best known.
