Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: September 15th, 2018
By now the controversy is well known, in order to “Match world trends”, the creators of Dead or Alive 6 have decided to make the female characters’ breasts smaller and to remove jiggle physics from the game. The reasons stated so far is that smaller boobs would make the girls appear more “Human”, making the increasingly popular and fallacious argument that many of the extreme left seem to love these days, even though it amounts to little more than modern slut shaming and literally objectifies any women who happen to have that body type in real life (It’s not like large breasts are exclusive to video games). The excuse here is that it will make the game more “Accessible”. Here’s the thing though, most gamers liked the games the way they were, the fans were obviously pleased with the product and most casuals either didn’t play the game or didn’t care about jiggle physics being in the game (It’s not like enjoying hot girls is exclusive to white male video game fans or something) so who are they making it more accessible for? Only game journalists, activists and SJWs are demanding these changes and since SJWs don’t play games, that makes for a pretty narrow potential costumer base, especially after alienating the existing fanbase as they did.
Part of making the game more “Realistic” involves having the female characters beaten up and bruised as they fight. Yes, you can see the women of DOA 6 getting beaten into a pulp but seeing skin would be going too far, apparently. It is also interesting to note that so far we have seen that one stage will involve a giant tentacle monster, making the claims of a shift towards “Realism” rather laughable at this point.
It was also revealed that some of the new character designs, like Kasumi’s, were inspired by Marvel comics, which is an odd inspiration given the state of Marvel; they have recently cancelled many comics after slumping sales, most of them were titles that embraced political correctness. Dead or Alive 6’s desire to follow a trend that has popularised the saying “Get woke, go broke” is probably one of the most absurd business decision they could have made. E-sport was also mentioned as being one Team Ninja’s aims, which many gamers believe might have influenced their decisions. But again, e-sport is struggling now at best and many of the early promising numbers have gone down, making sacrificing core elements of your franchise to reach e-sport status seem rather counterproductive at this stage.
Originally posted by IGN
It goes without saying that this decision is heavily influenced by the fact that the industry is moving away from overtly sexualized female characters in general, but Team Ninja seems to have a concrete vision behind this shift in style. If you look at the game’s concept art, you can see that Kasumi is no longer just a fantasy figure for young boys; she’s a warrior.
Other characters have also been demonstrated with outfits that either fully cover the body or significantly reduces the sexuality of the characters; such as Hitomi and Leifang, as seen below:
It is important to note that while the female characters were dressed up to be more conservative, the male characters are still bare chested and wearing outfits that highlights their raw, masculine sexuality. In essence, to be politically correct you can admire and appreciate the male body all you want but if you appreciate the female body your are “Objectifying women”. This is simply a rewording of old fashioned slut shaming and sexism where men were praised for their fit bodies but women were told to cover up and stop “Tempting men”.
If you still had any doubts that they went full SJW or somehow were naive enough to believe this wasn’t because of the West and that Team Ninja weren’t trying to cater to western “Sensibilities”, then read this extract from the Kotaku article which uses pretty much the same language as the western social justice warriors:
Originally posted by Kotaku
We were looking for a character that would really appeal to the West. We realized as a team that we were under-representing the Hispanic community, and we felt that was something that was needed in the Dead or Alive roster. From there, [we picked] the region of New York City and [made] this cool street fighter-type guy who kind of figured things out on his own. I thought that would be really appealing to the casual audience as well as the audience in the West.
As if all of this isn’t enough, Koei Tecmo Europe conducted an interview with Rikuto (DOA 5: Last Round champion) where the current controversy was addressed and he decided to tell the fans what he thinks of them:
But among those, I think you’re going to find a lot of them are just internet activists trying their hardest to blare their megaphone, regardless of the cause.
It seems Koei wants to follow in the footsteps of EA and DICE in attacking their fanbase for not supporting the agenda.
After that, Shimbori had an interview with PSU where he decided to attack and citicize Dead or Alive Xtreme 3:
There are a lot of different things involved in this approach. With DOAX3 we probably took it a little too far with the way things were shown in that game, and with the VR version we got a lot of flak for that. With DOA6 it’s unlike X3. We want to be able to show it as a proper fighting game.
The one bit of silver lining came from DOA 6 director and producer Yohei Shimbori who was interviewed by Twin Galaxies and said:
I got a lot of feedback worrying about that. The costumes that we have been showcasing are only a part of the game. But I don’t want everyone to be worried because we’re expecting a lot more costumes coming out.
…
I wasn’t surprised at all [at the feedback]. I actually expected that and I understand it as well. I expect that those worries will be gradually resolved, because we’re just showcasing the stuff that the team can [show] at this point in development. We don’t plan to do something very extreme, and I would like to tell the fans, “Don’t worry.”
While reassuring, this doesn’t address the fact that the game is being advertised as a feminist-friendly product, which, as we’ve seen in the western industry, is how censorship begins. It also doesn’t change the fact that we have yet to see any evidence that suggest “Sexy” will be part of the game and all new released footage actually points to the contrary. With an early 2019 release deadline, it leaves little time to release promotional material showcasing the “Sexy” content, if any exist that is.
Even for those uninterested by the fan service, the fighting mechanics have also been dumbed down, to be able to be more “Accessible” as well. This push towards an uninterested casual fanbase only serves to destroy the game’s identity and what made it unique. This will turn the existing fanbase against them and can only lead to disaster in the long run. Many other games already offer violent fighting mechanics while others actually cover the fighting gameplay much better than DOA, leaving this game as little more than a lesser version of existing fighting games in a genre already saturated; and with Soul Calibur VI covering the fanservice market, there might not be a market for Dead or Alive if they decide to come back to their senses in time for the 7th instalment. This is evident in that many gamers have taken to boycotting the game in protest, feeling that political correctness has led to the westernization of an iconic Japanese fighting game. Gamers who wish to protest these changes can contact Koei directly (Many already have): Japanese contact
And so with this, I leave you with the following: How many times have western fans said naively over and over that Japan didn’t care about the feminists? All thought the Japanese industry was immune. But this should be the wake up call people need to finally realize that nothing is beyond their reach. If you care about artistic integrity and are not fond of being served social engineering instead of entertainment then it is time to finally show it. How you might ask? It is simple, do not support companies that compromise their ethics to bow to the whims of an anti-gamer movement (As doing so encourages them to continue) and support companies who actually cater to their consumers (Like the upcoming Soul Calibur VI game, which has the balls to make the games both the creators and the fans want in spite of massive criticism). For those interested I have already written articles in the past covering how Japan would be pressured by the West into following this course of action.
The trailer for the upcoming game can be seen here:
Source: IGN (Link 1 and Link 2), Kotaku, Koei Tecmo America and Article Image: Dead or Alive 6 gameplay footage