At this year’s GamesCom, Yohei Shimbori, the producer and director for Dead or Alive 6, talked about the gameplay, the stages, and the theme of turning the fighting series into a showcase for “intense fighting action”. Shimbori also briefly talked about how fans have “incorrectly” interpreted the switch from the Soft Engine, and how the game still has “fan-service”.

In an interview with Rocket Beans TV Gaming, they talked about the changes made to Dead or Alive 6, and at the 4:00 minute mark they specifically talk about the reduction in sexiness, which you can view below.

The translator spoke on behalf of Shimbori, who wanted to convey that…

“For this game it’s about intense fighting entertainment. So taking that into consideration, having the characters at the start of the game not wearing much clothes? That seems a bit strange. So you will see that their default costumes are a little bit less revealing than in the past. And also the costume styles themselves have changed a little bit… there are some costumes that are really cool, or maybe they’re cute, things [or] a style that really matches the character’s personality.”

Shimbori was also asked about the game having a more serious tone, and if that would mean less fan-service. According to Shimbori, he replied by stating…

“It won’t be less fan-service. Also maybe it depends on who – maybe everyone has a different definition of what fan-service is. So people might feel [about it] differently. Maybe in the character movements or the way the body moves – you could say that. “They’re really looking into what would fit that character and what would work well in the game.”

So far there has been no indication that fan-service will be prominently featured in the game. In fact, the closest to fan-service would be Helena’s outfit, but otherwise the girls are far more covered up in Dead or Alive 6. Shimbori, in a previous interview, even stated that they shrunk the girls’ breasts to make them appear more human.

His statement is also contradictory given that he also mentioned in a previous interview that they were reducing the fan-service to match “world trends”.

Also, Shimbori had revealed in an interview with Famitsu that they explicitly changed the females in Dead or Alive 6 to be less sexual in their depiction in order to match the “cool” costumes that today’s female characters wear in Marvel’s comic books and movies.

This was also followed up with another brief statement from Shimbori about how some of the feedback has been directed toward Team Ninja. He claims that the fans are misinterpreting or rather “interpreting incorrectly” what they’re doing with the game, saying…

“Some of the fans have interpreted something incorrectly about the game, so [I’d] like to clear that up. “At E3 [it was] mentioned that the game no longer uses the Soft Engine. It was not included in the game because it was an old game engine. So in terms of character movement, with the way the female characters move, [we’re] looking for a more natural way – [so] it doesn’t look too cartoonish or too animated. And really that’s true to actual female movement, so it’s more paying attention to the physics of the character [and] human structure, the human body. So they put a lot of focus on that.”

This isn’t interpreted incorrectly, Shimbori admitted in a previous interview that they had replaced the Soft Engine for a “new” engine that allowed them to achieve more realistic lighting. This “new” engine turned out to be the Dynasty Warriors 9 engine.

Also, technically speaking, the Soft Engine was one of the most advanced physics-based engines in use within today’s gaming market. You can see some of the soft body deformation capabilities in action with the in-engine demonstration video below, courtesy of Gematsu.

The Soft Engine is also being used to power Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation, the free-to-play PC game.

As you may have noticed in the gameplay footage of Dead or Alive 6 at the top of the article, there are no jiggle physics, and there is no bounce or skin indentations based on movement, mass, or pressure, save for when the characters get punched in the face really hard. It’s also odd that they would cite the Soft Engine as having “cartoonish” physics when Dead or Alive 6 features a giant Kraken that smacks the characters around the stage.

Nevertheless, DualShockers managed to get in touch with Shimbori at this year’s GamesCom and published a video showcasing that the boob physics have been returned to the game, albeit in the “realistic” fashion that Shimbori talks about. You can view the first iteration of jiggle physics within Dead or Alive 6 in the video below.

Even still, Shimbori says they aren’t going in a “weird” or “strange” direction, but claims that they’re trying to show the characters as more “human” or “human-like”, stating…

“We’re not trying to move in a weird or strange direction, but we want to show the characters as more human or human-like. More realistic. [We] haven’t reached the point where [we’re] completely satisfied with how the characters are being showed, so that’s a work in progress.”

Dead or Alive 6 is scheduled to release in early 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

(Thanks for the news tip Richard)