Dead or Alive 6: Last Round has been met with significant player dissatisfaction on Steam, earning a "Mostly Negative" review status. Criticisms primarily target persistent bugs, a lack of expected features, and the requirement for players to repurchase DLC they had already acquired in the original 2019 release.
The PC version of the 3D fighting game, which launched on June 24, has seen only 23% positive ratings. This backlash stems from a range of complaints from both long-time fans and new players demanding fixes and improvements.
Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja positioned Dead or Alive 6: Last Round as a minor upgrade that includes new features and promised ongoing DLC development. The $40 re-release bundles five previously available add-on characters and five new costumes. A free-to-play "Core Fighters" version is also available, but it excludes the story mode and restricts the playable roster to Kasumi, Marie Rose, Honoka, and NiCO.
Given that the game has accumulated 440 DLC items over seven years, players note that a substantial amount of content is not included in the base Last Round package. A significant point of contention is that players who previously owned add-on content can only transfer most, but not all, of it to the new version.
Specifically, two crossover characters, Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond from The King of Fighters, cannot be carried over. Team Ninja has clarified that these characters and their associated costumes are exceptions to the transfer plan, requiring players to purchase them again even if they owned them in the 2019 release. The cost for these characters has also reportedly increased from $8 to $11 each.
Speculation suggests that the licensing agreements with SNK Corporation for these crossover characters may not extend to perpetual re-release rights. Beyond DLC issues, many players have found the updates to the base game to be minimal, with some pointing out visual anachronisms such as the pause menu still displaying a graphic for the 2015 Steam controller iteration. "It's the same exact game with the same bugs that were reported six years ago with a few changes," one Steam review stated, also noting that mods are now broken and mouse navigation in menus is absent.
Players also expressed disappointment regarding the lack of noticeable graphical improvements or enhanced character models compared to the original Dead or Alive 6. The new photo mode, touted as a key feature, has also been overshadowed by the ongoing concerns about bugs and the absence of features like crossplay or rollback netcode.
"There [are] no balance changes, no major visual change; all they did was add a new photo mode and lighting changes," another review commented. "The new character coming is DLC and didn't release with the launch of the game, so who knows if it will be free or not." This sentiment is echoed by many who feel the re-release is "scammy" and indicates a lack of care from the developers towards the franchise.
Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja have not issued an official statement addressing the player outcry. However, they have announced the first post-launch DLC character, Minato, though pricing details are still unclear. IGN's review of Dead or Alive 6: Last Round described it as a "great fighting game wrapped up in a very bad package," questioning why the re-release wasn't simply another DLC pack for the original game.