Fighting games don’t need a plot. I think Street Fighter set the standard for ensuring no fighting game would ever come equipped with a plot. Still, Dead or Alive 2 attempts to throw some innuendo that a plot exists, despite the fact we all know fighting games don’t have plots. It is, otherwise, one of the most incredible fighting games of its time.
Dead or Alive 2, or DOA2 for short, has a very simple objective: Kill your opponent. The layout of the game is simple, a health meter, and your character. The button combinations are easy, yet flexible, as each button in conjunction with a directional key (diagonals included) performs a different move. There are almost no super moves or special attacks in the game, which I find a refreshing change from the spear-producing, fireball shooting, gun firing other “fighting” games on the market. A key concept in the game is learning how to counter enemy attacks. Not only does a counter stop your enemy’s attack, but it also usually inflicts severe damage on them. In order to counter you must predict the direction of the incoming attack, low, middle, or high. Fail and they inflict a little extra damage on you and possibly stun you briefly (briefly is all it takes to find yourself on the ground). Succeed and the seamless animation will make you wince as your character breaks the unwitting opponent’s limb (or worse). Counter attacks can be countered by throw moves, which are also extraordinarily well animated and usually quite painful to watch. This triangle of attack, counter, throw creates the basis for the strategy behind the game.
The visuals in DOA2, for their time, were the best on the market. Many scenes in the game have multiple levels, which you can land on by smashing your opponent through a feature in the board. An example of this is the Church, where you fight at the top of a cathedral. Send someone through the stained glass window for an animated sequence that is as painful to watch as it is to their health meter and finish your fight outside the chapel entrance. The cut-scenes are also well animated, showing the incredible flexibility of the animators with both peaceful scenes and kung-fu action sequences right out of a cheesy B rated film. Of course, I can not talk about DOA2 without talking about the “Babes of DOA.” A key arguing point for this game is the obsession with hot female characters, with big breasts, luscious curves, and a setting in the option menu to make their “features” bounce more. Included with the CD is a special computer-only section, where you can download the swimsuit pictures of the babes of DOA onto your computer desktop. Sex sells, and since my background wallpaper is Kasumi in a bikini, I guess I can’t argue much.
This game’s problem comes from the plot. Strangely I think this game would have been better off if they never had any plot at all, yet, they somehow felt to include a convoluted system where you learn about each character every 3-4 battles for about 10-15 seconds. This means they are trying to convey an entire story in 3-4 scenes of 10 seconds. Here is an example of what you get: Kasumi remembers her being cloned and ends up fighting her clone. She then meets the ninja character, Hayabusa, who is trying to capture her because he promised Ein he wouldn’t let her escape. Then she meets her sister, who tries to kill her for being the heroine of the family. Finally she meets Ein, who is apparently her brother but doesn’t remember her. She defeats the evil Tengu (the final boss, Tengus are demons basically), and it ends with a scene of her looking at a flower and saying “Home… I want to go home…” That’s IT! 4 scenes which ALMOST tell a coherent story, but fall vastly short leaving you confused and quite sad that Kasumi can not go home … which is no shock since it seems her entire family is TRYING TO KILL HER! If you pretend the game’s plot doesn’t exist at all you will be a lot better off, since Kasumi’s tale is one of the more coherent ones.
Overall this game is amongst the classic games released for the Dreamcast system. If you were a fan of Virtual Fighter, this game is the game for you. If you like fighting games with plots, you should probably keep waiting for someone to make one. Now, if you don’t mind, I am going back to drooling at my wallpaper.
I am the PR Manager for a successful game company and enjoy writing reviews for non-competing products. I am married to a lovely wife and we have a lovely daughter named Rowan, who is currently two. I am also a professional juggler and swordfighter, which comes in handy in a variety of situations.
