Fans Criticize Dead or Alive 5 Boobage

"We want bigger breasts," they chant in unison.

"If there wasn't a need for it, people wouldn't have responded to the alpha demo like they did, and send us feedback." Here, Director Yohei Shimbori isn't referring to criticsm of the game mechanics in Dead or Alive 5; according to Shimbori, the breast size just isn't up to fan standard.

"We were getting feedback from the overseas offices to tone down the sexuality -- to tone down the sexiness of the game, and of the characters," he said. Fans quickly spotted the most important ingredient in a fighting game had been mildly toned down, however:

"We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing it, saying, 'We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that.' That was kind of surprising," Shimbori told Gamasutra.

Earlier, head of development at Team Ninja Yoskuke Hiyashi went all classy on us after referring to the use of the anatomically impossible female as "common sense" in Japan: "In DoA 5 especially, we're trying to focus on the real women that surround us: the voice of a female, the mannerisms. We are being realistic about it."

Regarding the invaluable feedback, Shimbori added: "There's definitely still room for having sexualized aspects. If you have a solid fighting game system there, there's nothing wrong with having beautiful characters as a layer on top of that -- that's another layer of entertainment that there's a need for."

Staff article by Mandy Safai (September 27, 2012) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this news article, you can update your bio from the Settings page.