Free Step Dodge

Has Emi worked since getting pregnant? I thought her oops marriage basically killed her career? It certainly killed off Okatsu's role in the Nioh story prematurely...

character model = checked, only need new VA.

Hanzo and Okatsu seem fitting. Add two more characters from other fighting games and it's all set.

William however doesn't know physical combat and making one up just doesn't seem fitting for him. He'd make a huge amount of sense for Soul Calibur though.

@HHH816 Doesn't work like that, sadly. They'd have to renegotiate, and I'm not sure if there was a iyakukin pay out from her agency to TK or not. (They paid off 1 billion odd yen to her cosmetic contracts.)

Given they didn't replace her for Nioh's DLCs, I'd imagine she's still contracted as Okatsu. Whether that means she'll actually record again for the character is anyone's guess. If they use someone else, they're paying two royalty fees. If they use her, they're skirting her tarnished image.

*shrugs*

The Japanese media circuit is vile. 20 years on, and they've still learnt jack from what happened with Namie Amuro.

Seems more of a matter of fiction than realism in inclusion here.

The voice of Hayate/Ein is retiring soon. If continuation of work series progress for DOA, it's only a matter of time where things will get replaced with or without a VA.

Anyways, despite William being a main character. It just seems really strange to see him in a DOA game when his bio provides 0 information on physical hand-to-hand combat aside from a few punches and kicks. Unless people want to take the Noctis T7 route which you throw in a sword character when majority of the fighters there are hand-to-hand.

He's retiring... His contract will expire, so of course they can replace him.

Emi Takei didn't retire. She didn't take a planned leave of absence. She got pregnant out of marraige at 23, and her agency had to fork out a tonne of cash to offset her damaged image.

(Keep in mind, Emi isn't just the VA for Okatsu - her entire likeness was used to create her in-game model. There was a big marketing drive based on her inclusion in the cast.)

But again, it's putting too many straws in the box here. If there is sufficient demand for it there will be leeaways to bypass this if it's within company standards. None of the DOA characters were actual characters with character schemes based off anyone and you have characters from other games get remade entirely to fit DOA. 5th barrier protections such as that may even be non-existent without anyone realizing.

I don't think you understand - it's not about what the company wants. It's contractual law. It's her face. They have to pay to use it. Now she's 'damaged goods' in the public eye, they may not want to fund her anymore. Dead contract. Either pay to renegotiate or abandon the character.

Which they did for the game she was actually starring in. Why would they reneg for a guest appearance?

And hell, it may be that she's taking time out because she's just had a baby. But the fact that the publisher didn't even comment on the matter suggests otherwise.

It was a big, big deal, what happened with her and Takahiro, here.

Once again, because you are additionally adding straws here without any guaranteed outcome of how things work. This is beyond licensing of any sort, this is leeaway when it comes to company specific standards. It's more towards a decision with a given feedback on her end due to the fact that the actual character (NiOh specifically) is fiction.