Here’s a truly impressive example of community engagement for you; a while back, Koei Tecmo ran a contest to give fans the chance to develop their own costumes for their favourite Dead or Alive 5 characters.
Now the company has gone and turned one of the winners into a DLC costume. Marie Rose, who, controversial as she is (for obvious reasons), is by far the most popular DOA girl, has a new Arabian harem-style costume. For those with sharp eyes, it immediately looked familiar, and that’s because it was actually the winner of the costume contest.
It seems fantasy Middle East is in at the moment for bonus costumes for female characters in Japanese games. Risette, the delightful lead character from Persona 4: Dancing All Night, also has the trademark transparent pants, bare midriff and bikini top that has become so popular in fantasy stories from the Middle East over the years (as completely impractical as they would actually be in the Middle East).
— xenosaga (@xenosaga7) December 15, 2015
Related reading: Matt’s review of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.
As with all Dead or Alive 5 costumes, this will not come entirely cheap to fans, but they’ll buy it anyway. Anyone concerned for the commercial success of Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 now that it is not coming out west might want to remind themselves that Koei Tecmo could simply make DLC costumes for that game into perpetuity and end up sitting on a pile of gold.
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief