Interest in Dead or Alive 6 seems to have spiked a little following the reveal of a brand new Dead or Alive project, and so it's a shame that Dead or Alive 6: Last Round is starting to sound like an unnecessarily shoddy deal.
Last Round is the upcoming PS5 port of Dead or Alive 6, but via an official press release, publisher Koei Tecmo has confirmed that it'll be cutting a couple of playable guest characters who appeared in its PS4 predecessor.
Indeed, in what we can only assume is some kind of licensing or contractual cock-up, both Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamonds will be left out of Last Round — even if you own the two DLC combatants on PS4.
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Fortunately, Last Round will include the rest of the DLC cast as standard — that's Nyotengu, Phase 4, Momiji, Rachel, and Tamaki.
But what about the other DLC you might have purchased, like costume packs? Well, the press release states that you'll be able to carry them over to Last Round, but it doesn't provide any finer details.
There are doubts over this because Koei Tecmo's support team has apparently been telling people that only "some" DLC will be transferable (as per @FreeStepDodge on X, or Twitter).
Perhaps the biggest kicker, though? There are supposedly no plans to give existing Dead or Alive 6 players an upgrade path to Last Round; it needs to be bought separately, although no pricing has been announced at the time of writing.
And then there's the crossplay situation, which — no exaggeration — could straight up kill any hardcore enthusiasm surrounding the game.
Indeed, Last Round won't feature any crossplay functionality between platforms, and you won't be able to match up with Dead or Alive 6 players.
From our perspective, all of this just feels like such an unnecessary fumble. Again, there's a renewed interest in Dead or Alive off the back of these announcements, but it feels like Koei Tecmo's shooting itself in the foot before it's even got things rolling.
Here's hoping that we at least get a little more clarification on what Last Round has to offer in the coming weeks and months.
What do you think of Dead or Alive 6: Last Round and its approach to existing players? Whiff some moves in the comments section below.