00:06Welcome to MojoPlays and today we're taking a look at 10 things you may not
00:11have known about the legendary Team Ninja fighting franchise Dead or Alive.
00:17Before we begin we publish new videos all week long so be sure to subscribe to
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00:26In Your Angel Eyes
00:35Before Dead or Alive became a household name in fighting games Tecmo had already dipped a toe
00:41into the genre with a very different kind of game. Beginning development in 1994 Tecmo would
00:47release this Japan exclusive called Tokidensho Angel Eyes, an arcade fighting game that marked
00:54Tecmo's very first foray into the genre. The game featured an all-female roster and fast
01:00fluid combat mechanics that would serve as a clear blueprint for Dead or Alive in the
01:05following months. It wasn't a direct predecessor in gameplay but it did give the company plenty
01:11of experience in designing combat. So when Dead or Alive arrived it didn't come out of nowhere,
01:17it was somewhat built on earlier experiments that most fans likely never got to play for themselves.
01:24Voices of the Ages
01:29A lot of fighting games churn through voice actors like their arcade tokens, but Dead or Alive has
01:34been unusually loyal to its Japanese cast. Hitomi's voice has long been associated with Yui Horie, who
01:42also voiced Chie in Persona 4 and Alisa Reinford in the Trails of Cold Steel games. Since Dead or Alive
01:513,
01:51Kasumi in Phase 4 have been performed by Huoko Kuwashima, the voice behind Shinoa in the Castlevania
01:57games, and Primrose in Octopath Traveler. Meanwhile, Ayane has been tied to Wakana Yamazaki, the voice
02:05actress who some may know as Ran Mori in the Detective Conan movies. This level of consistency
02:12gives the series a familiar identity through and through, and for long-time fans, these voices are
02:18practically part of the characters themselves. Lisa's humble origins
02:30Lisa isn't just another newcomer tossed into the roster. Her background was shaped by a bigger idea.
02:37The developers drew from the United States itself, imagining Lisa's ethnicity as a reflection of the
02:43country's huge mix of cultures and backgrounds. That makes her concept feel less like a single
02:49origin character and more like a product of multicultural identity. In a series known for
02:54flashy fighters, that's a surprisingly thoughtful piece of world-building hiding in plain sight.
03:04Before the Scandal
03:16It's easy to associate Dead or Alive with flashy, provocative advertising,
03:21but that wasn't always the series' reputation. Well, sort of. The infamous She Kicks High commercial
03:28helped cement that image later on, especially once the franchise leaned harder into its sex appeal
03:34with the extreme spin-offs. Before Dead or Alive 3, though, the games were generally marketed more
03:40like serious arcade fighters, with ads focusing on speed, combat, impressive visuals, tasty jams,
03:47the whole nine yards, and a little bit of risqueness in there. You know, the same way we had always
03:52been
03:52sold on other fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter. In other words, the series didn't really start
03:58as a punching bag. It just evolved into one through a very specific branding shift.
04:03Wildest dreams come true in Dead or Alive Ultimate and Xbox Live. Real-time online action
04:10across town and across the globe. Hitomi the Hero?
04:17As most of us know, Dead or Alive 3 was, you know, a Dead or Alive game that followed Kasumi
04:24and some of the
04:25other fighters, with a few new faces mixed in. Nothing super different compared to what we had
04:29already been playing, but the story was initially planned to go in a different direction. Hitomi
04:34wasn't originally just meant to be another character. According to developer comments over the years,
04:40Hitomi was designed with the idea of potentially becoming the new face of the series. In early planning
04:46for Doha 3, the team reportedly saw her as a possible replacement for Kasumi, which is a bold move
04:53considering how iconic Kasumi already was. That never fully happened, of course, but it explains why
04:59Hitomi feels so central to the franchise's roster from the moment she appeared. The Hardcore Soft Engine
05:12First being implemented with Dead or Alive 5, the Soft Engine was designed to enhance realism,
05:17especially in areas like clothing movement, skin shading, and the overall fluidity of character models.
05:24It gave the game a smoother, more dynamic look that helped characters pop on screen in a way that felt
05:30distinctly modern for the time, while making characters appear more lifelike than they ever did before.
05:35Koei Tecmo would build upon and reuse the engine in other Dead or Alive games, proving this wasn't just a
05:41one-off
05:41gimmick, but a useful part of their visual toolkit. Outside of the Dead or Alive series, it's only ever
05:47been used for Warriors All-Stars, a musou starring Koei Tecmo's various characters, including Kasumi,
05:55Marie Rose, Ayane, and Honaka. How Extreme came to be.
06:06Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball sounds like a joke that somehow escaped a brainstorming session,
06:13and honestly, that's not too far off. The game reportedly grew out of a desire to give the
06:18Dead or Alive cast something goofy that Tekken and Street Fighter fans had already been enjoying for
06:23years. Silly game modes. Street Fighter had bonus stages where you could beat the snot out of cars,
06:29while Tekken had a volleyball mode and a bowling mode in some of its other installments.
06:35So, Itagaki and his team gave us a game that was supposed to be a casual and somewhat silly game
06:41mode.
06:42Sort of. The result was bizarre, controversial, and impossible to ignore.
06:47Exactly the kind of oddball move that keeps a franchise in the conversation. And over the years,
06:53the Extreme games have allowed folks to paint Dead or Alive in an unfair, misunderstood light.
06:58When the grass does indeed become greener.
07:08When Dead or Alive 3 hit the scene, it was a statement piece for the original Xbox.
07:13This was the first game in the series to be exclusive to Microsoft's console,
07:17marking a major shift from its earlier multi-platform roots. That partnership turned out to be a big deal,
07:24because Dead or Alive 4 and Dead or Alive Extreme 2 would also end up as Xbox exclusives in 2005
07:32and
07:322006 respectively. For a while there, the franchise became one of the Xbox brand's flashiest weapons
07:39in the console wars. For better, and for worse. And all three games still look incredible all these
07:46decades later. Dead or Alive Online.
07:55Not every Dead or Alive project made it to the finish line, and Dead or Alive Online is one of
08:00the most
08:00interesting casualties. The game was planned as a free-to-play online fighting experience, with the
08:06goal of bringing the franchise's fast-paced combat to a wider, multiplayer audience. It was reportedly going
08:13to be completely focused on online play, but it never got the chance to fully take shape, only going
08:18so far as to see a beta phase. Eventually, the plug was pulled, and few players ever got to try
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08:53The thing about Code Kronos.
09:04Dead or Alive Code Kronos was the codename attached to an even more ambitious project,
09:09one that was said to focus heavily on a new story direction and would center on Kasumi and Ayane's
09:15lives before the first Dead or Alive tournament. Unfortunately, like so many experimental fighting
09:21game ideas, it was shelved before players ever got to see what it could have been. According to head of
09:27Team Ninja, Yosuke Hayashi, Code Kronos never even got past the framework level of development, likely
09:33meaning the prototype wasn't even in a playable state before getting axed. The closest we've ever
09:39got to having any idea of what it could have been like is an image of Ayane in Dead or
09:45Alive 4 promo
09:46material with a timeline below her that teased Code Kronos. Did any of these facts surprise you?
09:52Let us know down in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.
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