Siliconera recently caught up with Dead or Alive 6 Director Yohei Shimbori, who talked to us about designing Diego and NiCO, how DoA6 will help players become better fighters, a ‘Core Fighters’ free-to-play version of the game, and more.

How did you design the two new fighters, Diego and NiCO?

Yohei Shimbori, Director: “Diego was targeted towards the North American market and for male players. I did my research based on what kinds of characters those players would like to play with and we came up with a character who you might see walking around on the street in your everyday life who could be a friend or someone that feels familiar. That’s why I came up with someone who wasn’t that extravagant and was a street fighter.

For NiCO, I needed a scientist for Dead or Alive 6’s story, but not Lisa. I wanted to look into a character who was influenced by anime because not just Japan, but also anime fans are everywhere around the world. I’ve seen that Dead or Alive fans also tend to be anime fans so I thought this character would be appealing to them too.”

How will Dead or Alive 6 train players to be better fighters?

Shimbori: “While I was working on fighting games, I was researching a lot on how to do that and having them learn everything is impossible. I put a lot of effort for players by adding a training mode which also shows which frames you can take advantage of for professional players. There are also combo challenges to help players to learn combos. For beginners, we would like those players to start with the R1 button, which we’re calling the Special button this time, to evoke Fatal Rushes. These attacks show flashy moves and give decent damage. This will help players learn while they play the game.”

How have Danger Zones changed in Dead or Alive 6?

Shimbori: “They give about the same amount of damage, but since we don’t have the Power Blow system in Dead or Alive 6 it might make it harder for players to make use of Danger Zones. Throws or other motions can be used to bring players into those areas where you can inflict heavy damage.”

Before eSports had wide popularity, Dead or Alive 4 was part of the World Cybergames. How do you view eSports for Dead or Alive 6?

Shimbori: “We’re regarding ourselves as a challenger in eSports since there are already giants in the competitive fighting game scene such as Street Fighter and Tekken. One thing unique is we will have a free-to-play version which will appeal to casual players to make the eSports fanbase broader.”

Speaking of the free to play version, the Xbox store showed Dead or Alive 6 Core Fighters recently. What can you tell us about that?

Shimbori: “First of all, about the listing on the Microsoft Store, that was a mistake from the development team. We do have plans to make a free-to-play version, but we haven’t announced when it will be available. We can promise it will be out post-launch of the full game. We can’t talk about it yet since we don’t have concrete details about what will be included yet. But, it will be similar to what we had with Dead or Alive 5: Core Fighters.”

Dead or Alive 6 releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 1, 2019. Check out the latest announced fighter, Raidou, and the new Chinese Festival stage, in our previous report here.