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[00:00] I've always liked Dead or Alive. Unfortunately, that sentence usually has to be followed by a but, lest people think you're some kind of weird pervert. Not like that, you might yell. I just think the triangle system is rad. It's tiresome, and Dead or Alive 6 is a mechanically rich fighting game that deserves better than the stuff dominating the conversation around it.

[00:22] That said, while everything that made it special in 2019 still holds it today, Last Sound specifically just doesn't feel worth the cash if you already own the original. and there are several things missing from it that really should have been included in a re-release of a seven-year-old's game.

[00:45] Before we jump into the ring and throw some punches, let's set some ground rules and establish what Last Round is, and unfortunately is not. This is Zeta Alive 6, bundled with five of the seven previous DLC fighters, five new costumes each for Kasumi, Ayane, Marie Rose, Sonica, and Nico, a new photo mode, and some small but solid visual updates.

[01:05] What's not included are several hundred existing DLC costumes, although you can import most of what you already own. The same can't be said for guest characters in My Sure Newing, including Diamond from the King of Fighters series.

[01:17] You'll have to buy them for $11 each, even if you already did so in the original. Yikes. And that's last round. There are no new characters or returning stages from older games, as there were in Dead or

[01:29] Alive 5 last round. There is still no cross-platform play, no rollback netcode, and no tag battles, despite fans begging for these additions for years. Team Ninja has promised additional characters and costumes down the line, but this threadbare

[01:42] re-release is absolutely baffling. Dead or Alive 6 is 7 years old. If all the existing DLC were included for free, or some impactful new feature were added then maybe you could justify it.

[01:55] But as it is, last round just feels like an excuse to sell more costumes. Those new costumes are nice, sure, but there's really no excuse for why they weren't just DLC.

[02:09] That's a bummer, because Dead or Alive 6 is still a great fighter. The series has always been extremely simple. One button for punches, one for kicks, one for throws, one for holds, and a new, as of the 2019 original, special attack button that performs a Fatal Rush auto-combo, and unlock special meter moves.

[02:30] But more than a lot of fighters Dead or Alive is at its best a chess match Using what known as the triangle system every move invites a countermove Strikes beat throws throws beat holds holds beat strikes And every attack is also an opening, if you're good enough.

[02:45] What makes this fighting system great has always been the holds. See, you can counter essentially any strike by pressing hold in the proper direction, potentially stopping any offense in its tracks. Holds are inherently risky, though.

[02:57] won't stop throws and still lose two strikes if missed times, or if you don't use the right one, but land a hold right and you can swing an entire round. It's absurdly satisfying to pull off. The mind game that creates rules, and it's still here in last round, but it

[03:12] doesn't change that Dead or Alive is also incredibly easy to pick up. It's not quite as deep as, say, Virtua Fighter, but anyone can play Dead or Alive 6. Getting good at it involves really digging into moves and counter moves, knowing how both the character

[03:25] you're playing and the one you're playing against work, and using that knowledge to pick the right option at the right time. It feels great when you land a hit, and it hurts to take one. But it's sure that means you made a mistake. And when you max out your

[03:38] break gauge and turn the tables with a nifty counter, the triangle system sings. Adding a meter to a 3D fighter is always risky, just ask Tekken fans how they feel about heat in Tekken 8, but I think Dead or Alive 6's implementation has managed to stand the test of time. It

[03:53] It also feels absurdly good to play, at least on PC where I reviewed it, as an input lag issue on consoles seemingly hasn't been fixed since the original, which makes it much harder to recommend on those platforms. But without that delay, hits carry weight and impact, characters feel agile, and matches

[04:09] are quick and engaging. You can pull off some truly sick combos if you know how, but matches still revolve around risk for decision-making and execution. Positioning, poise, and proper timing are elements of any fighting game, but it's hard

[04:21] to overstate how simple and clean Dead or Alive's moment-to-moment game feel is. Everything just flows.

[04:33] Dead or Alive's Six Flats Round is largely the same game I remember, and though that's disappointing for a $40 re-release, it's mostly a good thing when it comes to the actual game stuff. It still has excellent teaching tools, including an incredibly detailed tutorial, command training

[04:48] your standard training mode, complete with frame data, and combo trials for each character. If this is your first set or alive, it's easy to find your footing, and if you're knocking off some rust, these things still help a lot. I'm also a big fan of DOA Quest, a challenge

[05:01] mode that puts you into a fight and gives you up to three tasks to complete like doing X amount of damage in a combo or hitting an enemy while they sidestepping The best part is that if you don know how to do something you can press a button and be immediately taken to the appropriate lesson in this tutorial

[05:15] practice to your heart's content, and then go back to DOA quests when you're done. Incredible. Fighting games are hard to learn, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying, so good teaching tools are essential to getting people in and keeping them around.

[05:27] DOA 6 may be 7 years old, but it got this stuff right, and that's a big deal. The other single-player modes are good, too. Say what you will, but I really like the enjoyably silly, if disjointed, story mode. Sure, it's about all sorts of crazy stuff, but it's also very endearing.

[05:42] Besides, I would much rather play through this than something like Street Fighter VI's World Tour or just watch a movie like Guilty Gear Strive. It's also nice to see a fighting game campaign that puts women in the fleet's roles instead of relegating them to supporting roles, like most others do.

[05:55] The boys play their parts and get their moments, but this show mostly belongs to Kasumi, Helena, Ayane, Honoka, Naiseng, and Hitomi. They make choices, have agency, and solve their own problems in a way people who have only ever seen them playing beach volleyball might not expect.

[06:10] I understand. Read it to me. And yeah, the overarching plot can be a bit of a Looney Tunes mess, but the individual scenes and character interactions work well and are a lot of fun. Of course, that's not the reputation that her life is typically known for, and because

[06:23] one of the selling points of Last Round is new costumes and a photo mode, I suppose I now have to talk about that thing that can change every piece of criticism about this series. How everyone looks and moves. Yes, women look like that.

[06:35] Yes, many of them are very bouncy. Yes, you can pay to dress them in revealing outfits if you're into that. Personally, I'm just here for the punching. If we're being honest, there is no shortage of sexy characters in fighting games.

[06:48] Calibur's IV is quite literally a dominatrix, and Capcom's sexy outfits for Chun-Li sell so well that the last couple of Street Fighters made the GDP of a small country. Heck, Jury has basically foot fetished the character now. Compared to some of that stuff, Dead

[07:02] or Alive's brand of horny feels kind of… quaint? Some of the outfits here are tacky or tasteless, yeah, but I also don't have to use them. In fact, many of the visual improvements that were dismissed in 2019 as Teen Ninja being weird actually hold up quite well. It

[07:17] It rules the characters' sweat during combat, and you can see cuts and bruises on their faces and bodies when they're doing their wind poses. Fighting is a brutal, bloody business, and it doesn't feel like those details have been added with purely exploitative, leering

[07:29] intentions. Don't get me wrong, Last Round still looks like a very pretty PS4 game because it functionally is but at least it holds up really well So yeah Dead or Alive is still Dead or Alive but you have to take the good with the bad and there is certainly good here Even with the DLC issues I kill to have this many costume options in most modern fighting games and it nice

[07:50] that you can unlock so many of them just by playing. I'm not saying Dead or Alive sticks as a mean to criticism, some of it is absolutely deserved, but spending time with it after a few years away also makes me think there's stuff here that deserves more praise than

[08:03] we previously gave it credit for. The lack of a tag battle in this release is lousy, but there's still plenty to do, from

[08:15] the arcade and survival modes to a library full of lore and trivia. I even like the new photo mode, despite the fact that it will inevitably be used for evil. It's easy to picture characters on stage and go through their moves list frame by frame

[08:27] in order to get the shots you want. I wish there was more freedom when it came to moving the camera, but you can zoom in in and out and rotate the characters to compensate. Basically, there's a lot to do, even if you never want to play online. But speaking of online, the lack of cross-platform play in

[08:41] 2026 is completely inexcusable, period. The lack of rollback is equally maddening, but Last Sound's netcode at least worked surprisingly well when I tested it on a wired connection. Now, I'm of the opinion that people who play fighting games on wireless connections are

[08:55] ninja dogs who will never see heaven, but people will play that way, and I'm sure it impact your matches when they do. It's incredibly disappointing that Team Ninja has the opportunity to implement a rollback solution here and shows not to, but at least it doesn't seem game-breaking.

[09:14] Dead or Alive 6, last round, is a great fighting game wrapped up in a very bad package. If you've never played it before, this is a good time to try a game that still has a lot going for it. But if you're a fan hoping for long-awaited improvements like rollback netcode, cross-platform

[09:28] play, tag battle, or even just some new content, this ain't it. Things you'd expect from the definitive edition of a fighting game in 2026 simply aren't here.

[09:42] Rollback is the standard now, cross-platform play is the standard. In a world where all the DLC was included, or tag battle was added, or where there were new characters and stages included at release, those omissions would be easier to forgive.

[09:56] but that's not the world we live in. Dead or Alive 6 is still a great fighting game, but it deserved a better last round. For more fighting games, check out our reviews of UFC 6 or Invincible Versus.

[10:09] And for everything else, stick with IGN.