14 DAY TRIAL // Team Ninja, the developer behind recent games like Ninja Gaiden 3 or Dead or Alive 5, has revealed that the sexualized female characters in both titles are the result of feedback from fans, as they want top notch gameplay mechanics but also attractive women.
Ninja Gaiden 3 was released at the beginning of the year and included a pre-alpha demo of Dead or Alive 5, which showed off the game’s new fighting mechanics as well as the more toned down versions of its classic female characters, like Ayane or Kasumi.
This new approach, however, wasn’t a hit with fans of the series, as Team Ninja was flooded with feedback from fans who wanted the female fighters to be more appealing.
"We were getting feedback from the overseas offices to tone down the sexuality -- to tone down the sexiness of the game, and of the characters," said the game’s Director, Yohei Shimbori, who talked with Gamasutra about the new fighting game.
"We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing it, saying, 'We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that.' That was kind of surprising,” he admitted.
According to Shimbori, he and his team realized that, if the gameplay felt right, there was nothing wrong with adding attractive female characters, provided that was what players wanted.
"There's definitely still room for having sexualized aspects. If you have a solid fighting game system there, there's nothing wrong with having beautiful characters as a layer on top of that -- that's another layer of entertainment that there's a need for. If there wasn't a need for it, people wouldn't have responded to the alpha demo like they did, and send us feedback."
One of the core lessons to take from this example, according to Shimbori, is that developers should first think of their loyal fans, especially when dealing with a franchise.
"One of the things that I learned was the power of having a series behind you, and what it means to be part of a series. There are existing fans out there, and you have to think about the people who have supported the series for so long, and you want to make sure that the game that you make appeals to them first, and satisfies those fans first."
Dead or Alive 5 was released late last month and, just like with previous installments, it once again impressed not just through combat mechanics but also through an array of attractive fighters.