Dead or Alive 6 Last Round Project Manager Tsuyoshi Iuchi has sparked a debate within the fighting game community after explaining why the team at Koei Tecmo is dialing back on making sexy costumes.
Dead or Alive is a fighting game franchise with a fiercely loyal fanbase and a dedicated competitive scene. Despite these factors, it’s also known as the fighting game series with the most fanservice — a label that’s hard to get away from, given the jiggle physics, dating-sim-heavy spinoff games, and sexy outfits that exist in abundance in almost every DoA title.
While Dead or Alive 7 is in active development, DoA 6 Last Round is still getting content, including a new character that was just announced yesterday. Minato’s addition to the roster hasn’t come without controversy; some fans are accusing the schoolgirl of being a copy/paste of Honoka, while others are pointing toward a September 9 Famitsu interview that included some divisive remarks from the game’s development team.
Of these remarks, one is standing out from the rest: Project Manager Tsuyoshi Iuchi confirmed that Koei Tecmo is making the decision to step back from making more sexy outfits for Dead or Alive’s characters. This is a big change for the franchise, and one that’s been met with backlash and confusion from its fanbase.
The reason for this, Iuchi says, is because players are “embarrassed” to use such costumes when playing competitively. (This isn’t a huge surprise; swimsuit-style costumes for female characters have been banned or restricted at numerous esports tournaments across several different fighting games over the years.)
“I understand that some people are hoping for sexy costumes, but actually, sexy costumes tend to be used less frequently in competitive games due to embarrassment and other factors. For example, even in ranked matches, you don’t often see your opponents wearing swimsuit costumes, right? This time, we’re aiming for costumes that ‘people who like that character will continue to use,’ so the sexy elements are naturally kept to a minimum,” he said.
That’s not the only comment that’s catching players’ eyes; Director Akihiro Nakamura also responded to Famitsu’s question regarding Minato’s moveset, which the outlet noted was strikingly similar to Honoka’s.
“While they both use the same techniques, the key difference lies in their backstory: Honoka has an innate ability to instantly imitate any technique she sees, while Minato learns by studying through a device and through hard work,” he explained. “Additionally, Honoka enjoys watching martial arts and professional wrestling, so she chooses techniques she likes as a hobby, whereas Minato learns techniques with the visual appeal and enjoyment of dance in mind.”
This answer, combined with team’s decision to slow down on sexy costumes, has left the DoA community equal parts frustrated and disappointed, leading to a wave of backlash from players online.
“What did we expect?” one fan wrote on X. “They don’t care about the fans or the game. They want to shake a couple of more dollars out of the community with bare-minimum effort. I can already see DOA7 not having crossplay or rollback [netcode] and Koei saying, ‘$80 bucks, please.’”
“What happens when Minato fights Honoka? Is she going to steal her stolen moves, too?” prominent community member Emery Reigns said.
Even Japanese players aren’t happy with Minato’s moveset, with one writing, “Another cash grab? I shelled out for 6, but I can barely carry anything over, can’t even change my hair color let alone power up — it’s actually worse off, isn’t it? Way too disappointing.”
Guess its more Dead than Alive
— Hikariko Nikushimi (@yamikoai) September 10, 2026
What happens when Minato fights Honoka? She going to steal her stolen moves too? 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/LaDPbpvV5m
— EmeryReigns (@EmeryReigns) September 9, 2026
Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have mugged off the Dead or Alive player base beyond belief. Please read this shit. pic.twitter.com/bFiivxq1v9
— Mike Hollow (@RealMikeHollow) September 9, 2026
Dead or Alive 7 is still being developed, and it doesn’t have a release date at the time of writing. Dead or Alive 6 Last Round received middling reviews on its release in June, with many players — and even our own reviewers at IGN — bemoaning the lack of rollback netcode and lack of cross-platform play on launch, leaving players hopeful that the team at Koei Tecmo will take their feedback into consideration for its next DoA title.
