Hitomi vs. Tina
Dead or Alive 2 was the first game I ever played in the series. As I’ve previously mentioned, I first played it on the Dreamcast on a demo disc. Later I bought the game for my Dreamcast, and I loved all of it. I’m going to be discussing Dead or Alive Ultimate 2 for the Xbox 360 here, though, and it is the definitive version of Dead or Alive 2.
First of all, the graphics have received an update for DoA2U when compared with the Dreamcast release of DoA2. This is wonderful. The game looks great in motion and the characters look better than they did in DoA2. When compared with the first DoA, there is a huge step forward in graphical ability and even in the levels.
In the first Dead or Alive, as I spoke of in my last blog post, the levels were all flat with a danger zone outside of them. Those days are over with Dead or Alive 2. The levels are all very different, from a high bridge to a clock tower to an opera house. Not only that, but most of the levels have multiple sections, and you can knock an opponent from one to another (for example, you can knock someone off of a tower on the Great Wall down onto the Wall, or through the clock in the clock tower to a lower level). This adds great dimension to the game.
You can smash the snowman with your opponent!
Control wise, the game is great. There are 4 main buttons for fighting: Punch, Guard, Kick, and Throw (which simulates pressing punch and guard together). There are multiple combinations to put together in the game, and the ability to reverse attacks (back and block against a middle punch, forward and block against a middle kick, up/back and block against a high attack, down/back and block against a low attack). The reversals are a little different from the Dreamcast version (I believe back and block reversed everything) but it does add some variety to the reversals without getting too crazy (I’m looking at you, DoA4, but we’ll get to that later this week).
I didn’t cover the modes of play in my talk on Dead or Alive, but that was mainly because I didn’t feel like playing the original too much when this superior game was available. In DoA2U there are several game modes to choose from. There is a story mode, which lets you choose and character and play through their DoA2 story. There is a versus mode to play against a friend in singles battle or tag battle (note: DoA2 adds the tag battle feature in which characters can fight together in teams of 2. They can be mixed any way, but there are set teams that can perform special tag moves, instead of the generic ones offered to mixed teams). There is a tag battle mode, where you and a friend can battle through against the computer. There is a survival mode, which lets you play single or as a tag team, and you fight against opponents until you are out of life. There is a team battle mode, where you can battle in teams (up to 7 fighters) in a Tournament. There is a sparring mode to learn how to fight with different characters. There is a watch mode that lets you pick up to 4 computer controlled fighters to watch battle it out (I’ve never used this and would be bored by it). There is also a mode that lets you record fights and rewatch them. Also DoA2U is online through Xbox Live, though I’m not sure if original Xbox games work on Live through the 360 (DoA1U can also be played online).
Each character in DoA2U has been given a large number of costumes to choose from. The girls have anywhere from 13 to 20 costumes, and the guys have 6 to 8. Each character begins with just 2, and playing through the story mode will unlock the costumes for most characters (but you do have to play at different difficulties). If you beat the story mode with all of the characters, you unlock Tengu, the final boss, as a playable character. If you have a Dead or Alive 3 save on your Xbox (or 360) you can unlock Bayman (who originally only missed DoA2) and Hitomi (who made her debut in DoA3). There are FAQs all over the internet that can tell you how that is done (just beating the story mode with a specific character for each of them).
Survival mode, can solve the hassle of beating story mode over and over and over to unlock the costumes though. After you’ve unlocked the 3 extra characters, you can then go into survival and play through to unlock all of the costumes. To do this, you have to collect the 66 survival items. Every opponent you beat drops and item throughout survival and you can pick it up. Each character has 3 items that only drop for them. The best thing to do is play survival for every character, and by the time you do that, you’ll have all of the first page items. When you get 50 wins in survival (in one playthrough) you will get the medal item which is the last item for page one.
This unlocks page 2 of the items, and you need to just play through and get 1 more new character specific item for each character. This unlocks every costume in the game. For unlocking all the costumes, you also unlock a CG gallery, a DOA Icons episode, and the Booster Disc for DoA3 (if you have the DoA3 save on your Xbox, this adds new costumes to DoA3 as well as a cinematic opening to DoA3 that the US version doesn’t normally have). Although I haven’t gotten the second page items yet, I’m working on them so I can have the extra content for DoA3.
This game has a lot to offer DoA fans and it’s definitely worth owning as a fan of the Dead or Alive franchise. DoA2U also has a very nice opening cinematic that shows Kasumi and Ayane as children, and apparently they were friends when they were younger. It also shows Raidou with Ayame (the scene alludes to the rape that happens, which isn’t shown if you were worried about that), it shows Ayane being told by Ayame that she is her daughter, it shows Raidou injuring Hayate, and Kasumi leaving the village and Ayane being told to go kill her. It’s a great opening that tells the whole background to the main characters (set to “Dream On” by Aerosmith…I’m not kidding).
And now for the part where I talk about the participants of DoA2 and share their stories:
Kasumi is still the runaway shinobi she was in the first game. After she defeated Raidou she was kidnapped by the Super-Human Development Project and cloned (there is a stage in the game filled with clones of her in glass tubes). She did escape from captivity or was released. All of her other info, such as her favorite food and hobby, remains the same, of course.
Ryu has come to the Dead or Alive 2 tournament to fight Tengu who came from the dark world to the human world. Ryu Hayabusa is the winner of the DoA2 tournament, and he is the one who defeats Tengu. So for those keeping up, Kasumi is the official winner of the first game, and Ryu Hayabusa is the official winner of the second.
Gen Fu is back, and wasn’t able to get the money needed to help his granddaughter during the first DoA tournament. So he’s back again trying to save his granddaughter’s life.
Helena is a new character introduced in DoA2. She is a French Opera singer. Her fighting style is Pi Qua Quan, she likes Blanc Manger and walking her dog. Helena is the illegitimate daughter of Fame Douglas (head of DOATEC for those keeping up). Her mother was one of his mistresses. While singing at an Opera house with her mother, an assassin attempted to kill her, but her mother took the bullet. Her father was already dead (I assume killed by Bayman during the first DoA). She discovers that the death of her parents is linked to DoA and so she enters the tournament.
Tina Armstrong is pretty much the same, except now she has blond hair. She just wants to get famous.
Bass Armstrong joins the tournament with DoA2. He is Tina’s father. He is an American wrestler who resembles Hulk Hogan in the nWo days. In the ring he is a heel (wrestling term for bad guy). He likes sautéed chicken and touring and training Tina. He doesn’t like that his daughter uses her sex appeal to gain fame. He enters DoA to keep an eye on his daughter and to try and stop her from winning.
Zack is back. He entered again for public attention and for the prize money.
Zack
Leon is an Italian mercenary soldier. His fighting style is Command Sambo and he likes pizza and planting potted plants. He is a wanderer always looking to build his strength. The love of his life, Rolande, died in his arms. Her dying words were, “The man I love is the strongest man in the world.” This is why he strives to be as strong as possible.
Jann Lee returns once again. Not much new to say about him.
Lei Fang is back, as well. She returns to the tournament with the desire to defeat Jann Lee, as she was unable to in the first tournament.
Ayane makes her debut as a fighter in the series. She is Japanese and uses the Mugen Tenshin Style Ninjitsu Hajin Mon. She is a kunoichi and likes marrons glaces and aesthetics. In my post on DoA1, I mentioned that she is the half-sister of Kasumi and Hayate. She has entered the tournament to seek out and kill Kasumi, as she was ordered by her (non-biological) father, Genra. This game sets up Ayane as Kasumi’s rival. Ayane also greatly admires Hayate.
Ein is a Japanese (it says unknown, but we find out who he is fairly easily with some story playthrough) karate fighter. He likes sushi, sukiyaki, and breaking beer bottles. He suffers from amnesia and is seeking answers to his past. Here’s a hint, he is Hayate.
I’ve mentioned that Hitomi and Bayman are in this game, but they are just guest characters and there isn’t really information on them, as they aren’t in this tournament. However, when Ein woke up with amnesia, he learned karate at Hitomi’s father’s dojo.
Tengu is the name used for the final boss, but that is really more what he is than who he is. His name is Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo. I can understand why they just use Tengu. He murdered the leader of the Tengu and broke the Tengu rules, and so was cast out to the human world. Ryu Hayabusa defeats him, so everything is ok.
Ryu Hayabusa
Gaming with Hungrywolf 
Leave a comment