Balancing isn’t easy: Team Ninja on character tweaking in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round (part 2)

A couple of weeks ago i was sitting in a secret location in Oakland for a private demo of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. The big question yanking at my brain was how Team Ninja was going to find relevance for the series in an overcrowded, audience demanding genre? Especially when its core game, Dead or Alive 5, has had almost two years to try to establish itself.

In part one, I asked both Team Ninja and Dead or Alive 5 fans to reflect on that issue as I tossed routine questions at the development team. We covered what the studio is doing to gain ground in the competitive fighting game scene, their take on the sexuality culture clash, and what their intent with this update is.