Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme Discussion & Release

(Notice: The DOAX/VV thread is getting extremely clogged with Prism's addition, and since Prism is being counted as the third DOA IP, it makes sense to grant Prism its own official thread. Please do not create any additional DOAX threads on Free Step Dodge as they will be locked. Please do not post any pornographic content as it is not officially included in any DOA game and violates are SFW policy. The initial post is a complete release program of Prism and is currently being perfected. Feel free to point out any corrections you may have related to Prism's complete release coverage.)

Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation: Prism has caught the attention of Team NINJA and Koei Tecmo players all over the world, and while it is not the next big mainstay Team NINJA title there are many factors to suggest that it will lead to bigger things in the future. Let's go over what we know so far pertaining to this title.

Concept

Without question, the most important piece of information we have been given so far is that Prism will be more of a dating simulator more than Venus Vacation ever was. While VV offers plenty of interaction with DOA girls; it's all about the eye candy for most players. The Prism experience will be more narrative driven and within weeks you can "fall in love" with one of the six available girls.

Players have also noted that the outfits available aren't very revealing and this is not because of Sony censorship. The developers are trying to make it a casual dating game. If you get a Venus to "love you" maybe then they will show themselves off to you in more revealing articles of clothing as a reward of bonding.

Spreading DOA Characters Across 3 Separate DOA Intellectual Properties

The six available Venus being: Misaki, Fiona, Tamaki, Elise, Honoka and Nanami at launch with only "consideration of future DLC" by the development team. Likely no DLC at all, but strong sales could definitely change that approach for any developer team.

Yasunori Sakuta pointed out some important aspects pertaining to the lack of original DOA girls being featured within Prism and believes it's a good thing that there are a strong variety of girls that aren't original DOA fighting characters. He states that if there is going to be a new IP for DOA that each IP will be different.

With DOA you have the classic competitive 3D fighting game, with DOAX/VV you have the sexy beach and volleyball experience and with DOAXVVP you have a narrative focus on dating one of the DOA girls.

From a personal POV, Prism probably should have more OG characters such as Kasumi and Ayane but making them available characters would be more of an interference for their storyline. Does falling in love with the owner destroy their storyline being bad ass NINJA characters? I think that is far more questionable than the original DOA female characters being tricked by Zack into taking a break on an island (DOAXVV).

Graphics & Engine Information

These characters were crafted using an optimized and updated version of Koei Tecmo's Katana engine. Some areas of the models look very nice and other areas such as the overly thin arms need some tinkering even after all of the final adjustments made for the release. The "arm issue" has been a prevalent issue within Koei Tecmo development for a while and even if it's a small nitpick that does not mean it isn't a concern. They have everything else done perfectly, but the arms should match the rest of the proportions as shown by NINJA Gaiden II Black.

There are things that the Katana engine can do that can't be done within DOAXVV. The most important being a higher range of freedom. You will walk with the girls on the island and see them walk on the island, and you will also see weather effects such as rain be implemented for the first time which will have an impact on the character models as well with tantalizing wet effects.

The beaches and vistas also look much better than what we've previously seen before. Just like Venus Vacation, Prism will revolve around taking stunning photographs to be shared on social media. The camera presented in this game is among one of the best cameras ever implemented into a video game.

Storyline

The storyline for Prism is pretty simple and depicts what you didn't see and what you didn't know with the Venus Vacation storyline that only these six Venus characters can incorporate according to Sakuta. Misaki appears to host and guide the owner through the Venus Festival which is a strength and beauty contest for the Venus.

Venus Vacation will continue as a Summer that never really ends, but Prism will start out as a standalone title where storylines will come to an end and expand into other titles if it is well received (it has been so far). Sakuta has also reminded the press that there will not be standard DLC in the swimsuit or character sense if any at all. It has actually been heavily implied that there will not be DLC; but that will always be left for debate and can change in the blink of an eye.

My guess is the selling point will be to buy new story chapters and that will be the DLC of the Prism title. Within those new story chapters is where you will be introduced to different characters rather than selecting one to take on a two-week vacation as done in DOAXVB-DOAX2 or setting a main character with your Venus Vacation experience.

There is a Complete Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme YouTube Playlist with every single complete story for each of the six girls, all of the cutscenes, endings, game interactions, individual mini-games and even the EX-Chapters. This is great for people that want to experience the entire game as a storyline, and for those that don't want to go through the importing hassle. Seeing as how the game requires so little interaction and is basically a visual novel; this spectating method will save you game costs as well.

Release Packages & Future

I think the most logical explanation is that if Prism is successful, it will branch off from being a physically/digitally owned PS4/PS5/STEAM/DMM to another FTP model, but naturally the team is not going to reveal that when in the beginning they are trying sell actual paid copies of the game like DOAX3 and DOAX3: Scarlett.

While the game seems enticing; the interviews presented do make it feel more like an experiment to see if the idea sticks to the DOAX audience but given how many people have asked for more dates (especially within the Japanese audience) there is no question that it will likely perform very well and sell out on websites like Play Asia.

Several weeks ago, the game almost broke Top 10 on the Japanese Amazon and is expected to be the highest imported game ever on the PlayStation 5 home video game console. If you are an EU or NA player, you will want to import the game by purchasing the Asian version of Prism.

Preordering the game gave you an early dress outfit for not just Nanami as shown in the promotional picture, but for the remaining five Venus as well. Preordering the game from the Koei Tecmo Store got you a "special clear file" for physical documents.

There are several editions of Prism you can purchase, but the basic edition does not include these extras from other editions, and the Special Collection Box "Goods" edition does not include the actual game. Also including an unboxing video you might like from Well-Known Community Member, @Jotamide!

Special Collection Box Contents:

- A 40-page artbook that contains all six Venus and a photo page with ASMR scenes.
- An additional date with Tamaki (DLC Code).
- One Fabric Poster that displays all 6 Venus.
- One Nanami Pillowcase that features two sides with alternative outfits.
- Yomu Illustration Desk Mat that features the Venus in business outfits.

The Premium Box also has a "Goods Only" version, but the Premium Box does not include the Pillowcase or Desk Mat.

 

『Venus Vacation PRISM』アンケート

この島で、恋する現実（リアル）。「DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme」シリーズ初のイマーシブ恋愛アドベンチャーゲーム。リアルな恋を感じる、ドキドキの距離感をあなたに。2025年3月27日発売。

www.gamecity.ne.jp

Latest survey

 

『Venus Vacation PRISM』アンケート

この島で、恋する現実（リアル）。「DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme」シリーズ初のイマーシブ恋愛アドベンチャーゲーム。リアルな恋を感じる、ドキドキの距離感をあなたに。2025年3月27日発売。

www.gamecity.ne.jp

Latest survey

Thanks. Only main question was if there was a sequel which Venus would you pick.
They only had VV options (no Rachel) so had to choose Leifang.
Stinks you can only pick one.

Wonder how many total physical copies have been sold.

 

Thanks. Only main question was if there was a sequel which Venus would you pick.
They only had VV options (no Rachel) so had to choose Leifang.
Stinks you can only pick one.

Wonder how many total physical copies have been sold.

You can still request Rachel in the survey section using the 'other' category. As a side note feel free to also recommend FSD as your preferred website for KT & TN promotional/news stories. Thanks!

 

You can still request Rachel in the survey section using the 'other' category. As a side note feel free to also recommend FSD as your preferred website for KT & TN promotional/news stories. Thanks!

I'm requesting everyone at this point because we need a chapter 2 with different girls. I understand the formula now since they're doing the story and interactions after set girls so let's get some doa OG girls in

 

I'm requesting everyone at this point because we need a chapter 2 with different girls. I understand the formula now since they're doing the story and interactions after set girls so let's get some doa OG girls in

Their biggest mistake of the game was not including Kasumi or Ayane. Like WTF? I don't care what their intentions were really, if they wanted to sell more units, they would have included them period.

 

『Venus Vacation PRISM』アンケート

この島で、恋する現実（リアル）。「DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme」シリーズ初のイマーシブ恋愛アドベンチャーゲーム。リアルな恋を感じる、ドキドキの距離感をあなたに。2025年3月27日発売。

www.gamecity.ne.jp

Latest survey

Unfortunately, I cannot participate since one of the questions specifically asks for what region in Japan you live in, and I can't answer that since I'm obviously not Japanese.

 

My hope for the reason they didn't include the DOA girls was because they actually care about character/story integrity, some of which they said was the case in interviews, but I got more of the impression from interviews that they wanted to push their original VV girls harder using this game.

I mean, if they wanted to they could have gone the same route as past devs who made dating sims out of their fighting franchises like SNK did with Days of Memories and just made it a blatant non-canon spinoff with no connections to the rest of the series, any girls already with romantic interests could even express their frustrations with not getting anywhere with their guys (i.e. Lei Fang and Hitomi).

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this before but I wish there were other NPCs populating the island in the backgrounds... a private island with just the girls and Owner-san on it feels kinda creepy if you think about it lol. That said it might be weird to suddenly change that now after 2 games with Owner-san. With Zack in charge in DOAX 1 and 2 at least it was better since he only ever interacted by sending presents to the girls which didn't matter to them, lol.

Oh, I did the survey (I said I'm from Hokkaido and my occupation was housewife), but I'd be fine if there was no sequel to PRISM tbh.

 

Yeah the whole excuse about their stories and stuff makes no sense as Xtreme is already non canon to the main universe and XVV barely has a story anyways and is essentially the same fucking thing as Prism it's a terrible excuse lol

I think for the sequel if they really go down this route of XVV exclusives only VVP2 needs to drop DOA from the title, it just isn't a DOA or even a DOAX game if there's no DOA characters in it lol and I think they should up the girls to at least 8 and add Sayuri, Nagisa, Yukino, Reika, Shandy, Tsukushi and Meg. Add the bootleg Marie with big boobs Koharu too.

 

Yeah the whole excuse about their stories and stuff makes no sense as Xtreme is already non canon to the main universe and XVV barely has a story anyways and is essentially the same fucking thing as Prism it's a terrible excuse lol

I think for the sequel if they really go down this route of XVV exclusives only VVP2 needs to drop DOA from the title, it just isn't a DOA or even a DOAX game if there's no DOA characters in it lol and I think they should up the girls to at least 8 and add Sayuri, Nagisa, Yukino, Reika, Shandy, Tsukushi and Meg. Add the bootleg Marie with big boobs Koharu too.

If Prism becomes a series, moving forward they'll include 1 mainline DOA girl (Marie or Nyotengu is my guess) among the cast purely to keep DOAX as a subtitle to bait people into endless discussions online. Part of why I stick to discussing this game in the VV discord is because OG fans cannot let go of the fact that:

a) The girls they grew up with are near irrelevant for a 2025 Japanese audience. A decade of only Marie and Honoka crossovers should have made that clear but they seemingly never got the memo. The situation in the West is different but this isn't being sold in the West, is it?​

b) In 7 years of operation, VV has carved its own niche almost completely detached from mainline DOA and they're catering to those players (and whales) instead. You aren't the target market.​

c) By trying to push OG DOA girls in VV, fans of mainline DOA are working against their own interests imo. Some day in the future I want to see a new fighting game with the old cast. I don't care about dating Kasumi and Ayane because it completely mischaracterizes them. Those girls are fighters, let the new OCs be cutesy moe characters befitting of a dating sim.​

​

I've made my peace that if someday we see the fighting game again, it will be most likely rebooted and things might change. But in the meantime, I enjoy VV for what it is and don't hope nor want that KT brings back DOA through it. It's a near separate thing by now.

 

Yeah the whole excuse about their stories and stuff makes no sense as Xtreme is already non canon to the main universe and XVV barely has a story anyways and is essentially the same fucking thing as Prism it's a terrible excuse lol

I think for the sequel if they really go down this route of XVV exclusives only VVP2 needs to drop DOA from the title, it just isn't a DOA or even a DOAX game if there's no DOA characters in it lol and I think they should up the girls to at least 8 and add Sayuri, Nagisa, Yukino, Reika, Shandy, Tsukushi and Meg. Add the bootleg Marie with big boobs Koharu too.

I wouldn't say Xtreme is non-canon. Aside from Xtreme being the game that Lisa Hamilton debuted in (BEFORE her fighting debut in DOA4), DOA4 also had two direct references to the Xtreme games (one with Zack's ending which was meant to set up Xtreme 2, and the other being Kasumi's mermaid dream where she wakes up in the Gemstone Suite from DOAX2).

If Prism becomes a series, moving forward they'll include 1 mainline DOA girl (Marie or Nyotengu is my guess) among the cast purely to keep DOAX as a subtitle to bait people into endless discussions online. Part of why I stick to discussing this game in the VV discord is because OG fans cannot let go of the fact that:

a) The girls they grew up with are near irrelevant for a 2025 Japanese audience. A decade of only Marie and Honoka crossovers should have made that clear but they seemingly never got the memo. The situation in the West is different but this isn't being sold in the West, is it?​

b) In 7 years of operation, VV has carved its own niche almost completely detached from mainline DOA and they're catering to those players (and whales) instead. You aren't the target market.​

c) By trying to push OG DOA girls in VV, fans of mainline DOA are working against their own interests imo. Some day in the future I want to see a new fighting game with the old cast. I don't care about dating Kasumi and Ayane because it completely mischaracterizes them. These girls are fighters, let the new OCs be cutesy moe characters that suit a dating sim.​

​

I've made my peace that if someday we see the fighting game again, it will be most likely rebooted and things might change. But in the meantime, I enjoy VV for what it is and don't hope nor want that KT brings back DOA through it. It's a near separate thing by now.

Near irrelevant? Last I checked, even Sakuta acknowledged that the current year audience want the girls from past games (heck, technically speaking, we didn't grow up with Christie, Lisa, Mila, and Rachel in DOA either, those being fairly recent [as early as DOA3 at best, Mila's recent, and so is Momiji). And that's not even counting how even Famitsu and other Japanese gaming rags (EXCLUSIVELY Japanese rags at that) are insisting they put the cut girls in, and they're more likely to cater to current year needs. Also, it technically IS being sold in the west. VPNs and Imports, remember?

And maybe you've forgotten, but most of those whales and players ALSO demanded for the cut girls to be added in, as even Sakuta himself acknowledged when directly asked about it (to say VERY little about Leifang and Tina being blatant examples of this).

And I really fail to see how Kasumi and Ayane are mischaracterized in DOAXVV (heck, if anything, Ayane's arguably MORE in-character to her post-3 development in DOAXVV than she was in DOAX3 where she tried to go to New Zack Island using the pretense of trying to hunt down Kasumi under Hayate's orders DESPITE their already burying that hatchet in DOA4). And let me remind you that two of the characters in the fighting series, Lisa Hamilton and Tamaki, literally DEBUTED in a so-called "dating sim" game.

And just as an FYI, I'm nowhere NEAR an OG fan (if anything, I got into the game during DOA5, and initially avoided the heck out of it, and only REALLY decided to go for it thanks to doing some digging into its story and finding it a LOT better than some of the more recent Metal Gear games, Peace Walker in particular).

EDIT: Correction, it's Moonlight Reef, not Gemstone Suite. Still...

 

Yeah I always felt DOAX and X2 at least were canon, I'm forgetting if that's confirmed or not tho. But I don't see why not. Anyways, canon isn't the story issue the VV devs have when it comes to OG DOA girls, the problem they bring up is that they find it too hard to write owner-focused stories for them because they say they have to work with their already established backstories, and stuff like some of the girls already having their own romantic interests... I guess even if they say the game is non-canon they would still need Kasumi to be Kasumi to be convincing for fans, they can't just ignore or erase her past even in a non-canon game. Like I said, I think it is an excuse because they really just want to rather work with original girls they can freely write however they want.

But yeah I agree with Jotamide that I don't even care to see OG girls in a Prism game, I didn't even care to see them in VV in the first place, I wish the series would just finally separate its self from DOA completely because any semblance of the DOAXBV series is pretty much dead now, the spinoff has gone far off into its own thing now. Volleyball doesn't even need to be a thing at all in DOAXVV at this point, they could just as easily replace it with butt battles for the same results, most people wouldn't care as long as they get their dailys and event stuff to do more gacha. And obviously most VV/Prism fans care more about the new girls just like the devs do. Even just anecdotally online in VV I come across far more teams of new girls than OG girls in Arena.

 

Yeah I always felt DOAX and X2 at least were canon, I'm forgetting if that's confirmed or not tho. But I don't see why not. Anyways, canon isn't the story issue the VV devs have when it comes to OG DOA girls, the problem they bring up is that they find it too hard to write owner-focused stories for them because they say they have to work with their already established backstories, and stuff like some of the girls already having their own romantic interests... I guess even if they say the game is non-canon they would still need Kasumi to be Kasumi to be convincing for fans, they can't just ignore or erase her past. Like I said, I think it is an excuse because they really just want to rather work with original girls they can freely write however they want.

But yeah I agree with Jotamide that I don't even care to see OG girls in a Prism game, I didn't even care to see them in VV in the first place, I wish the series would just finally separate its self from DOA completely because any semblance of DOAX is pretty much dead imo, the spinoff has gone far off into its own thing now. And obviously most VV/Prism fans care more about the new girls just like the devs do. Even just anecdotally online in VV I come across far more teams of new girls than OG girls in Arena.

For what it's worth, Leifang's relationship with Jann Lee WAS given an indirect reference in I think her ring episode, so they at least acknowledged that bit in some way.

And personally, I didn't really see much of an issue with how the OG girls were written in that game anyways since they were essentially the same as in the mainline DOA games. If anything, DOAXVV was still more consistent with the OG girls' depictions in the mainline games from what I was able to gather of them than the Kojima-made Metal Gear games had been with MGS4, Peace Walker, and MGSV regarding characterizations (and that guy flatly admitted he'd gladly wreck canon just to make sure he wrote a good story). And I'd know, I actually wrote an essay explaining one such characterization inconsistency with a certain subplot for Peace Walker. And don't get me started on Arrowverse and Supergirl in particular, which rivaled later Metal Gear games with badly written and inconsistent character writing. Also Pikachu's depiction in the episode Betrayed, Bothered, and Beleaguered! where Pikachu uncharacteristically for that time acted more like his Episode 1 depiction (and even made him jealous of Riolu even though that's NOT a known character trait of Pikachu at all.).

Besides, other than Leifang (and even she at least had an indirect reference to her relationship to Jann Lee in one of her birthday episodes where she reluctantly accepts a ring from the Owner), Hitomi, and maybe Helena (and even in the mainline games, its left VERY vague whether Helena herself actually viewed herself as being in a relationship with Zack), how many of the mainline girls actually HAVE canon love interests, much less are actually IN a relationship?

 

there's latest interview with sakuta, if only it got translated

 

there's latest interview with sakuta, if only it got translated

i know YouTube Translation's not the best, but I'm using this to listen to it.

http://imgur.com/a/geo4Isg

 

Lol I watched with auto translation, which is kind of annoying, but I seem to get the jist of what's being said. The girl interviewer is pretty funny with how she's saying something like "isn't DOA a fighting game"? and they keep insisting this is a "cute game with cute girls", and when she's told there are guys in the fighting game she asks "where did all the guys go?" XD. But it is kinda sad that DOA's inception is basically being described as "VF with jiggle physics" by the other guy as Sakuda nod in agreement. Then when they get into explaining how DOA became DOAX Beach Volleyball she asks "so let's play beach volleyball together", lmao... "no, it's really a game where you take pictures of cute girls!", but she asks to play beach volleyball again and the other interviewer jokes "hey you don't need that kind of thing" and Sakuda says "the girls play volleyball but you take pictures of them". Sakuda explains VV as a gacha with 31 girls and they're like "ohh, so it's an idol game now, where did the fighting game go?". I know this is basically just a half assed history lesson of how the series went from DOA to Venus Vacation but I'm kinda loving it XD They're clearly poking some fun at Sakuda. I kinda feel like they're speaking my mind in a way. At first I didn't check and thought this was another in-house KT interview, but they're clearly outside interviewers, not holding KT's water.

When they finally get to talking about Prism, Sakuda's just basically explaining how it's an "immersive romance adventure" this time and why he decided to make it, stuff he's already said before. At this point any ribbing of Sakuda/DOA seems to be over as far as I can tell, they just express how everything they're seeing/learning about the game is sugoi.

After the watching the a trailer of the game, about 20 minutes in, they get back to asking questions, getting into why most of these girls aren't from the fighting game. Sakuda points out only Honoka and Tamaki are a fighters. Then the guy asks Sakuda "why are they fighting in Dead or Alive?" XD. He briefly explains "ninjas" and "Kasumi", and they ask "why isn't Kasumi there?". Sakuda's answer seems about the same as the reasons he's already given before, ultimately "I wanted to focus on original girls", "show off their cuteness" and had to consider personalities and the overall story and how all the characters connect and wanted to give a platform to characters he feels less people would know unless they've played DOAXVV.

Yeah I didn't find anything new or interesting from Sakuda in this tbh. For the remainder of the interview Sakuda describes each girl and how to progress in the game. Apparently the female interviewer has done gravure photoshoots? She explained how she likes it best when a photographer takes amateur shots where she's just doing her thing and not posing professionally, and Sakuda says that's exactly what conceptualized the idea of Prism, because in DOAXVV the photography is more focused on posing while in Prism you're more free to take pictures in a more freestyle way (I guess).

I don't know how I ended up typing out a whole summary here, lol, I didn't plan to but whatever. If anyone else tried to read the poor translations and got something different from me or something I missed, chime in.

 

Yeah I always felt DOAX and X2 at least were canon, I'm forgetting if that's confirmed or not tho. But I don't see why not. Anyways, canon isn't the story issue the VV devs have when it comes to OG DOA girls, the problem they bring up is that they find it too hard to write owner-focused stories for them because they say they have to work with their already established backstories, and stuff like some of the girls already having their own romantic interests... I guess even if they say the game is non-canon they would still need Kasumi to be Kasumi to be convincing for fans, they can't just ignore or erase her past even in a non-canon game. Like I said, I think it is an excuse because they really just want to rather work with original girls they can freely write however they want.

But yeah I agree with Jotamide that I don't even care to see OG girls in a Prism game, I didn't even care to see them in VV in the first place, I wish the series would just finally separate its self from DOA completely because any semblance of the DOAXBV series is pretty much dead now, the spinoff has gone far off into its own thing now. Volleyball doesn't even need to be a thing at all in DOAXVV at this point, they could just as easily replace it with butt battles for the same results, most people wouldn't care as long as they get their dailys and event stuff to do more gacha. And obviously most VV/Prism fans care more about the new girls just like the devs do. Even just anecdotally online in VV I come across far more teams of new girls than OG girls in Arena.

I mean that's basically what I was saying, I just mentioned that their excuse for not using OG DOA characters is a terrible one. As much as I would love Ayane and Hitomi in a Prism style game it won't happen, Ayane/Kasumi aren't the golden geese they used to be anymore, hell, even Marie and Honoka have been dethroned at this point I think. There's enough XVV originals to do a whole new game all by themselves without a single OG DOA character at all too so there's plenty to do with them.

And ofcourse as Sakuta has stated XVV originals are a blank slate they can pretty much do whatever they want with them too so a dating game or anything else isn't completely off the table. If there's a Prism 2 though I just want better date scenario's and Sayuri and Yukino

 

Yeah I can easily see there being a Prism 2 with around 6 more girls being mostly XVV original girls again (plenty more to choose from, after all), different ones from Prism 1, and I guess Marie Rose this time...

 

As long as it actually allows the cut girls into DOAXVV itself, I could care less if they don't have the mainline girls in Prism 2 or not (even though I personally wish they'd just add the main girls in).

I wouldn't say Kasumi/Ayane aren't golden geese, though. Last I checked, they still got collaborations outside DOA (Senran Kagura, that shipgirls thing, and others).

And quite frankly, I NEVER bought the claim that the girls weren't fighters. Aside from the fact that Lisa Hamilton debuted in DOAXBV and clearly WAS a fighter, I find it very hard to believe those girls would not be fighters (heck, Fiona in her ring episode if anything gave a VERY plausible means for her to BECOME a fighter).

 

If DOA7 DOES get made, it wouldn't surprise me if they brought VV characters since Tamaki became a fighter eventually.


I hope they don't consider Prism 2 next.
Maybe later down the road.
Rather get DOAX4. (Gimme wave racing KT) They can learn from X3 mistakes and improve it.
With the Switch 2, perhaps something will happen, but I won't hold my breath.

 

TN just not that kind of developer that will revisit no profit project