Dead Fantasy

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Dead Fantasy is a series of fan-made CG action movies created by Monty Oum, starring a select cast from the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series, who fight against a number of characters from the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts RPG video game franchises. The movies feature numerous brawls as the two sides fight "battle royale-style" against each other in a number of different environments, including archaic ruins and modern cities. As well as the multiple references to the namesake series, there are also many salutes to other games, films, and media in the fighting genre, plus some examples of fan-made weaponry and costumes.

Since the first installment, Dead Fantasy has been well-received by the fans of both game series, and has gained massive success on and off the internet, with trailers, previews and the installments themselves being featured at several gaming conventions. Currently, there are five movies in the series, and it is unclear how many installments will be made, although Oum has confirmed he is working on episodes 6 through 9.

Kasumi
Kasumi is a runaway shinobi from the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan, who made her debut in the first instalment of Dead or Alive, and - in the series canon - she is the winner of the first Dead or Alive Tournament. She is the first Dead or Alive character to appear in the Dead Fantasy series back in the first installment.

The girl’s Tenjin Mon ninjutsu, and skill is quite lethal, as well as quick and elegant. She also uses a lot of magic, being able to emit energy blasts from her hands for long range attacks, and her teleportation ability makes it hard to pin her down and hit, as well as allowing Kasumi the ability to teleport herself, and anyone she touches, away from danger. A weakness of hers is that her attacks with her wakizashi are not really that strong. All-in-all, Kasumi is a well-balanced fighter with normal limitations, such as exhaustion.

Ayane
First appearing officially in Dead or Alive, Ayane is a superior shadow-kunoichi of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan, and the winner of the third Dead or Alive Tournament. Although Ayane bears a strong hatred for her, she seems fine with the idea of fighting on the same side as her half-sister Kasumi in the movie series. Ayane's debut in Dead Fantasy was in the first installment alongside Kasumi, and she is set to appear in a one-on-one battle with Rikku in a future episode.

Above all, Ayane is fast on her feet, and very agile in battle, being able to leap great heights in a short amount of time, and jump out of the way of hits sharply. As well as being skilled in Hajin Mon ninjutsu, she also bears great ninpo abilities, as shown in Dead Fantasy II when she destroys the solid stone tower in a great explosion, using her "Art of the Raging Mountain God" ninpo. However, ninpo attacks like those require time to "charge up" and this leaves her open to danger, thus she needs protection from her allies for some time until she is at full power. Her weapon is a Tokkosho that once belonged to her foster father, Genra.

Hitomi
Hitomi is a high school student with a black belt in karate, who first appeared in Dead or Alive 3. In Dead Fantasy, she first appears midway through Dead Fantasy I, aiding Kasumi and Ayane in battle. She's apparently working with Helena Douglas and Hayate, although what they are doing, and their reasons why are currently unknown.

With great mastery over karate, Hitomi is, physically, the second-strongest on the Dead or Alive side, demonstrated when she breaks and throws enormous stone blocks, and pulls up solid ground without too much strain. She also seems to have strong senses and great recovery, as seen when she was able to defeat Tifa Lockhart, even while blind and poisoned.

Hitomi is not quite on the same bar as her fellow combatants, as she is currently the only fighter not to enter battle with any magical ability, but her strength and skill do compensate for this. However, saying this, towards the end of Dead Fantasy III, she steals most, if not all of Tifa’s Materia, giving her some magical ability for the time being. During her fight with Tifa while she was blind, she seemed to change her fighting style from karate to Wing Chun; a type of close-range, "open palm" defensive martial art. This makes her the first fighter to change their over-all tactics and style mid-fight (the second being Yuna changing from Gunner to Summoner.)

Rachel
Rachel is a great Fiend Hunter from Ninja Gaiden - a prequel series to Dead or Alive - who first debuted in the 2004 addition of Ninja Gaiden. In the movie series, she appears near the end of the second act of Dead Fantasy II. At the end of the movie, she is teleported with Rinoa Heartilly for a one-on-one battle in an unknown location.

Possessing cursed blood that could turn her into a Fiend, Rachel has abnormally great strength and potent magic, known as Blades of Ouroborus Sorcery, which allows her to destroy buildings with one hit, swing her massive Warhammer with ease and throw her opponents great distances across the battlefield. She can also use her Peluda Tail Whip to swing down on her foes and climb up onto higher levels. In terms of physical strength, Rachel is the strongest on the Dead or Alive side, as well as the slowest in terms of executing hits.

Helena Douglas
Helena is an opera singer and the current leader of the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee, who made her first debut in Dead or Alive 2. In Dead Fantasy, she first appears in the third installment. Although she knows Pi Qua Quan, Helena has yet to fight in the movies, and her actions, as well as her connections with Hitomi and Hayate, are suspicious and still unexplained.

Kasumi Alpha
First appearing in Dead or Alive 2, Kasumi Alpha is a result of Project Alpha, and is Kasumi’s antagonistic clone. Appearing in multitude at the end of Dead Fantasy III, Kasumi Alpha was activated by Helena and sent to go after Kasumi and Yuna halfway through their match in Dead Fantasy IV.

Although their fighting skill is only a copy of Kasumi's, since the clones attack in a large group, they can be very overpowering and hard to take down; together, the clones even managed to kill some of Yuna’s most powerful Aeons and were prepared to kill her as well, but they were interrupted when Cloud arrived and saved her. According to the third episode, they only had an estimated maximum lifespan of 14 hours without mechanical support.

Hayate
Hayate made his first appearance in Dead or Alive 2 and is the current leader of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, Kasumi's brother and Ayane's half-brother. He was the first male Dead or Alive character in Dead Fantasy, appearing in Dead Fantasy V along with a part of his clan as they go after Tifa. In the movie, he only directly hits Tifa once, and otherwise uses his teleporting skills to avoid her, allowing his clan to fight for him. His connections with Helena and the DOATEC are currently unexplained.

Ryu Hayabusa
Ryu Hayabusa, an extremely talented shinobi and the star of Ninja Gaiden, made his first appearance in the Dead Fantasy series in the second act of the fifth episode, where he dives from the sky and kills all of the remaining Kasumi Alpha clones in one attack, meanwhile saving the life of a weakened Kasumi. He then, along with Momiji, takes Kasumi away to somewhere safe. He knows Hayabusa Ninjutsu and wields the Dragon Sword.

Momiji
A prodigy of the Ninjutsu arts from Ninja Gaiden, Momiji, currently a shrine maiden, is an up-and-coming kunoichi being trained by Ryu Hayabusa. Appearing in Dead Fantasy V, she doesn't fight, but she debuts alongside Ryu while she examines Kasumi's memories from her fights. She knows Hayabusa Ninjutsu, wields the Heavenly Dragon, and can use the "Art of the Crimson Lotus" ninpo.

Yuna
Yuna is a half-Al Bhed summoner, the female protagonist of Final Fantasy X and the main protagonist of its direct sequal, Final Fantasy X-2. She was the first character to be introduced in the movie series back in Dead Fantasy I. Her main rival seems to be Kasumi.

Yuna is all-round normal in terms of speed and strength, but she is able to shoot both bullets and energy-blasts from a great distance using the Tiny Bee pistols in her Gunner Dressphere. As a Summoner, she is able to summon powerful creatures called Aeons to fight. These Aeons are: Ixion, Shiva, Valefor, Ifrit and Bahamut. She is also equipped with Potions and Ethers, as seen in Dead Fantasy II.

Although Yuna is able to hold her own in battle, when outnumbered, she eventually needs help shifting the odds in her favor, as shown in Dead Fantasy I before Rikku arrives to help, and again in Dead Fantasy IV, when Cloud Strife comes to her aid. Altogether, she's an average fighter.

Rikku
Rikku is an Al Bhed girl from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, and is the maternal cousin of Yuna. Rikku is the fourth character to debut in Dead Fantasy, appearing early in the first installment to help Yuna fight against Ayane and Kasumi. She will appear in Dead Fantasy VI to engage in a one-on-one fight with Ayane.

As a Thief, Rikku is extremely fast, using a combination of blade-work and martial art moves in battle. That, along with her natural flexibility, allows her to take on even the biggest, strongest opponents. It has been speculated that some of her attacks are based off the Afro-Brazilian martial art, Capoeira.

She is also able to change Job types via Dresspheres, but changing does take time to do so, and leaves her open to attack; her first attempt to do so in Dead Fantasy II was ruined when she was accidentally bumped into by Hitomi. Oum said Rikku will be using multiple Dresspheres for battle in the future, including some fan-made creations.

Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart is one of the main female protagonists from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, first appearing in the original Final Fantasy VII. As the sixth character to debut in the Dead Fantasy series, Tifa arrived at the end of Dead Fantasy I. At the end of Dead Fantasy V, she was taken away by the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee. It's been stated that Tifa will be back in action in a future installment.

Sporting a multitude of Materia - including Fire, Ice, Lightning, Time, Gravity, Ultima, Barrier, Poison and Blind - Tifa is classed as a highly magical competitor, mixing their magical power with her strength and skill in martial arts. She also has a very high threshold for pain, as she can fight on while seriously wounded, or even when impaled by various weaponry.

However, Tifa does have two major downfalls. First of all, she continues to fight, even if she may be gravely injured and tired, not giving herself the chance to rest and recover. Also, she does seem to be too dependant on her Materia in battle, which becomes her weakness against Hitomi when her opponent steals most, if not all, of her Materia and uses it against her.

Rinoa Heartilly
Rinoa Heartilly is a highly-powerful Sorceress and the main female protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, serving as the love interest of Squall Leonhart. She was (ironically) the eighth character introduced in Dead Fantasy, appearing at the beginning of the last act of Dead Fantasy II. She will appear in a later installment to battle against Rachel.

Being a Sorceress, Rinoa uses a great deal of powerful magic in battle: she was able to freeze a lake of lava, use telekinetic abilities, cast Holy and Tornado, and conjure portals. As she is permanently in her "Angel Wing" Limit Break, this allows Rinoa the abilities of flight, protection (as seen when she protects Rikku and Kairi from Rachel's magical attack) and acts as an augmentation of her magic abilities.

She also wields two fan-made weapons: a Gunblade named "Vanishing Star", and a Blaster Edge named "Silenced Tear". Her sword-fighting style vaguely resembles that of Amy Sorel from the Soul Calibur series, and in both terms of fighting skill and magical ability, Rinoa is by far the most powerful Final Fantasy character in this series.

One of her character symbols, a white feather, seems to be a running theme throughout the series: first in Dead Fantasy IV, when Kairi finds a feather stuck in the sand after she wakes up, and another feather appears during Tifa's flashback in Dead Fantasy V as she was summoned to combat. This may mean that it was Rinoa who summoned the Final Fantasy fighters to the battle.

Kairi
Kairi is the main female protagonist of the Square Enix and collaboration series Kingdom Hearts, and is one of the seven Princesses of Heart. She first appears in Dead Fantasy during the fourth act of the second episode. Her appearance in the movie series came as a shock to fans at first, as it was thought that only characters from the Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive universes were to make appearances.

In the Kingdom Hearts series, Kairi has seen little combat, and she is neither strong nor skilled with her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace. However, in Dead Fantasy Kairi is shown to be a very agile fighter, seen performing flips, high jumps and bearing a quick recovery time.

She can also activate Drive Forms; in Dead Fantasy II, Kairi transforms into Valor Form, which turns her outfit color red and gives her the ability to use two Keyblades: Oblivion and the Oathkeeper. Her other Drive Forms have yet to be seen. All-in-all, in Dead Fantasy, Kairi’s fighting style is, in a way, similar to Sora’s, the main protagonist of Kingdom Hearts.

Cloud Strife
Cloud Strife is one of the primary protagonists of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, first appearing in Final Fantasy VII. In Dead Fantasy, he was the first male cast member to appear in the whole series; his appearance in Dead Fantasy IV was unexpected, due to the series being thought to possess a “female only” cast.

Cloud enters the series riding in on his motorcycle, Fenrir to rescue Yuna from a troupe of Kasumi Alpha clones using his Fusion Swords. It is implied that Yuna reminds Cloud of Aerith Gainsborough, due to the words that appear at the beginning of the movie. He and Yuna will most likey infiltrate DOATEC to save Tifa.

Dead Fantasy I
Release Date: October 2007

Running Time: 03:54

Characters Introduced: Yuna, Kasumi, Ayane, Rikku, Hitomi, Tifa Lockhart

Dead Fantasy I introduces the first six female characters of the series and the first fight of the series, taking place inside, and later outside, of an enormous, abandoned temple situated on top of a tower. This movie was labelled by Oum as the one he “wanted to do the least”, as it only served as an “introduction” for the rest of the series.

The movie starts with Yuna running through the temple, being pursued by two shadowy figures - Kasumi and Ayane. The three girls fight two-to-one; Yuna is able to hold her own by herself for a long time but starts to falter. Before she is impaled by Ayane, Rikku comes to her aid, evening the numbers. The fight continues, destroying much of the interior of the temple as well. Hitomi appears midway through battle, aiding her fellow Dead or Alive fighters, and the brawl moves outside of the temple. Ayane, Kasumi, and Hitomi start to overpower Yuna and Rikku in strength and number, before Tifa appears, evening out the sides once again. The film ends with the girls bracing themselves for another fight, with Tifa glowing with Materia.



Dead Fantasy II
Release Date: March 2008

Running Time: 10:51

Characters Introduced: Rachel, Rinoa Heartilly, Kairi

Dead Fantasy II is the first segment to show the use of magic on both sides of the battle, and the first to feature a character not directly linked to the namesake franchises of the series: Kairi of Kingdom Hearts. The movie was featured at the Anime Boston convention on March 23, 2008.

The episode starts where Dead Fantasy I left off: a three-on-three battle with Ayane, Kasumi, and Hitomi against Tifa, Yuna, and Rikku outside the temple. Using different combo moves and team strategies, the girls of Final Fantasy overpower the Dead or Alive trio. Realising they need to do something, Ayane goes to the top of the tower, charging her ninpo power while Kasumi and Hitomi defend her. Yuna, Rikku and Tifa try to stop them but are unable to, resulting in Ayane destroying the temple with her magic, and forcing them all to fight during a vertical fall.

Halfway down, Rachel, who has been waiting perched on her warhammer, destroys the rest of the tower, making all of them fall towards a river of lava at the bottom. The fighting continues as the girls flow down stream on a slab of rock, until they hit a lava-fall. Rinoa freezes the lava before anyone falls to their deaths and she, along with Kairi, join in with the battle.

Towards the end, Rinoa then teleports the girls to different locations throughout the world: Rinoa is sent with Rachel, Hitomi with Tifa, Kasumi with Yuna, Rikku with Ayane, and Kairi by herself. The movie ends with Rikku and Ayane, both of whom are unconscious, falling into a giant underground cavern.

Dead Fantasy III


Release Date: July 2009

Running Time: 05:38

Characters Introduced: Helena Douglas, Kasumi Alpha

Dead Fantasy III, which shows the first of a series of one-on-one battles between the different sides, was released alongside Dead Fantasy IV. It is also the first installment to show physical repercussions from battle, such as injuries, blood, and ripped clothing.

The episodes features a Materia Magic battle between Tifa and Hitomi within a partially demolished cathedral, which is set on fire during the progress of the fight by Tifa’s fire spell. The fight is kept almost even, the two fighters constantly keeping pressure on eachother. Tifa then gains the upper hand when she poisons and then uses Darkness on Hitomi. When in darkness, light is all you can see.

As Hitomi regains her composure, she slowly loses her sight, only seeing the flames and the glowing materia on Tifa. Finally, when reaching complete Darkness, Hitomi then switches from Karate to another style: Wing Chun. The switch of technique to "open palm" lets her adapt to her new state.

Towards the end of the fight, Hitomi manages to get the upper hand over Tifa, beating most, if not all, of the Materia out of her body to use against her. The fight ends with Tifa being blasted out of the cathedral by Hitomi onto the snow outside, and she is now seriously wounded. The movie finishes with a short scene of Helena activating an army of Kasumi clones.

Dead Fantasy IV
Release Date: July 2009

Running Time: 05:16

Characters Introduced: Cloud Strife

Dead Fantasy IV was released consecutively with Dead Fantasy III and features the series’ first male character: Cloud Strife.

The movie starts with a brief scene of Kairi, waking up on a deserted beach alone and finding a white feather on the sand. The scene then shifts to a field where the one-on-one battle between Kasumi and Yuna takes place. As soon as the girls start to fight, the Kasumi clones appear and attack the two of them. Yuna transforms into her Summoner attire and tries to use her Aeons to defeat them, but the clones overpower the Aeons, and Yuna changes back to her Gunner Dressphere.

Before the clones deliver the final blow to Yuna, Cloud suddenly appears, ready to aid Yuna in battle. Before another brawl breaks out, Kasumi teleports herself and the clones away to fight them on her own. Cloud then drives Yuna away from the battle scene on Fenrir. On the way, Yuna falls asleep on his back, most likely because of the recent battle. The movie ends with a flashback of Cloud trying to stop Tifa from falling off a cliff near the ruins of Midgar.



Dead Fantasy V
Release Date: July 2009

Running Time: 08:12

Characters Introduced: Hayate, Ryu Hayabusa, Momiji

The fifth installment is a direct sequel to Dead Fantasy III, and shows what happens to Tifa and Hitomi after their one-on-one battle in the cathedral. This movie also introduces the first male Dead or Alive characters of the series: Hayate

Hayate and his ninja clan take over Hitomi's fight and pursue Tifa, forcing her to face many enemies at once while bleeding, exhausted and without Materia to aid her. After being chased along a city train, she makes a desperate jump, ending up in a warehouse. Cornered, she fights the entire horde of ninjas on her own, using objects around her as weapons, and even stealing the ninja's weapons. She manages to defeat most of them, even while being impaled by arrows and losing more blood. During the battle, she has a flashback of her goodbye with Cloud as she is summoned to battle by the words "trust me", and her arrival to the temple in Dead Fantasy I. (The exact scene that Cloud remembers in Dead Fantasy IV.)

Desperate, she resorts to more brutal fighting, disembowelling and outright killing her assailants while attempting to strike Hayate. He refuses to fight, instead teleporting right past her. The one time she does get close, he teleport-punches her back down to the lower area of the garage. In the end, Tifa succumbs to her injuries and finally collapses.

When Hitomi catches up with the clan and sees Tifa in the bloody state, she slaps Hayate, visibly angry. Helena arrives on the scene in a DOATEC helicopter with a small squad of armed personnel and takes Tifa on board, where she could be treated or experimented on. Hitomi, after showing Helena the Materia in her arm, goes on the helicopter with them, leaving Hayate alone in the snow with Tifa's blood on his hands.

The scene then cuts to Kasumi, battling against her clones in a lake. She has killed off most of the clones, but is exhausted from fighting and blood loss. Luckily for her, Ryu Hayabusa arrives, killing the last of the clones and catching Kasumi as she collapses. Momiji, who appeared alongside Ryu, reads Kasumi’s mind, and sees all the events that have happened so far. The three then disappear, likely to get Kasumi aid for her wounds, and leave a bloody lake littered with dead clones behind. The movie ends with a scene of Cloud and Yuna as they watch the helicopter carrying Tifa fly towards a luxurious city.

Development and Production
The project for the Dead Fantasy series started in July 2007, after Monty Oum gained acclaim for the creation of the fan made CG movie Haloid, which featured Metroid series's Samus Aran versus Nicole-458, then thought to be Master Chief from the Halo series. His intention for Dead Fantasy was to create a new CG movie which featured more human characters, instead of simply "humanoid" characters, as was the case in Haloid.

Animation

 * To cut down on the development process of all movies, Oum opts to leave out certain aspects of many of the character's attire such as Yuna's ponytail and sash to cut down on the time it takes to run dynamic simulations.
 * Oum has stated that an Anti Form for Kairi is "technically not possible." Her Valor Form was a simple texture wrap, but Oum said he "would like to make more interesting ones for the remaining drive forms."

Voices

 * While the original voices of the Dead or Alive cast were used, due to lack of voice clips or none at all, Oum uses voices from different sources for the Final Fantasy characters:
 * The voice of Xianghua from the Soul Calibur series was used for many of the Final Fantasy casts' attacks, including short taunts.
 * The voice of Lisa Hamilton/La Mariposa from Dead or Alive 4 is used for Tifa.
 * Yuna's attack cries are taken from Jun Kazama of the Tekken series.
 * The voices of Sion Eltnam Atlasia and Ren from  were used for Rinoa and Kairi respectively in Dead Fantasy II.

Music

 * Some of the music used in the movies comes from the soundtracks of well-known action games and films:
 * In Dead Fantasy I, the battle theme is Chateau from .
 * In Dead Fantasy II, for most of the episode, the theme played is from the climactic final race of ', the title of the song is Symphonic Touge. The theme played during the last act is Showdown from '.
 * In Dead Fantasy III, the theme is Devils Never Cry from Devil May Cry 3.
 * In Dead Fantasy IV, the song is Liberi Fatali from Final Fantasy VIII.
 * In Dead Fantasy V, the songs used are The Hitman and Assassin from the Bangkok Dangerous movie.
 * For the future music for Dead Fantasy VI, the theme will be Those who Fight Further from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

Contests

 * Oum has stated that Rikku will be going through multiple Dressphere changes in her battle against Ayane and had set up a contest where artists would draw designs for the Dressphere changes Rikku could go through. Designs seen so far include a Ninja Dressphere, a Spellsword Dressphere and a Lolita Dressphere.
 * Oum has also set up another contest on DeviantArt, stating that he needs new designs for Kairi's remaining Drive Forms, as well as new Keyblade designs. He also asked fans if they could come up with a better Valor Form.

Future Episodes
Kairi's Nobody, Naminé is set to appear in Dead Fantasy VIII. In a preview shown at A-Kon, it shows before facing Ryu and Momiji, Kairi taking off her pink dress, revealing a long white dress underneath, and her form changes to reveal Naminé; this could mean that Kairi is able to allow Naminé to take over her body or is able to channel her Nobody in order to become stronger.

Naminé is shown to be far more powerful than Kairi: she can summon multiple "Keyblades" that act as wings so is able to fly, control these "wings" and lift heavy objects via telekinesis, shoot lasers and bullets from her weapons, and open portals to send her weapons through. Like Kairi, she can wield two Keyblades in a fight: the fan-made Lunar Eclipse, and an unknown dark Keyblade.

At the end of the clip, Naminé summons a new fighter to the war: Vincent Valentine of Final Fantasy VII. It's likely that Vincent will be a Gunner - his job class in the Final Fantasy games - and may be able to shapeshift.

Other previews include:
 * Unfinished footage of Tifa waking up on a bed without any clothes. It suggests that she survives her fight against Hayate and his clan.
 * On Facebook, Oum has uploaded a beta clip of Cloud talking to a brunette teenage boy. As the dialogue used in the footage is taken from the final scene of the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, it's belived that the boy is Final Fantasy VII character Denzel, admittedly taller and older-looking than his normal appearance.
 * At A-Kon 2011, during a preview panel, Oum showed a brief piece of film, showing Rikku activating her Machina Maw Dressphere, which summons an Al Bhed machina weapon. The next shot then shows a giant gundam-like robot coming up from the sea, as Ayane watches. It's unclear if this robot is the Maw in another, fan-made form, or a new piece of technology that Rikku can use.
 * On Oum's DeviantART page, there is a small animation of Ayane and Rikku fighting in a warehouse, as well as a number of still frames, including: Ayane in a factory-like setting, Ryu and Momiji bracing for battle, Momiji against a stormy sky, a wingless Rinoa seemingly hiding behind Kairi, and a Namine with her back to the camera.

Extra Footage and Related Videos

 * Oum has created a music video under the name of Dead Fantasy - Obsessed featuring Kasumi and Tifa as back-up dancers for Cissnei from Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, who dances and lip-synchs to the song Obsessed by . The video was just created for fun, but since it is marked as a Dead Fantasy video, it is possible that Cissnei may appear in the series, although nothing has been said to support this.
 * A second music video, called Dead Fantasy - Gee, features Ayane, Cissnei, Hitomi, Kairi, Kasumi, Rikku, Rinoa, Tifa and Yuna dancing and lip-synching to the song  by South Korean girl band,.

Dead or Alive and Final Fantasy references

 * In Dead Fantasy II, the scene where Ayane blows up the temple with magic is almost indentical to her Dead or Alive 4 ending, in which she blows up the DOATEC headquarters; right down to her slow-motion punch to the ground.
 * In Dead Fantasy II, during the fight on the lava river, Yuna attempts to revive Tifa with bottles of Turbo Ether and X-Potion that are similar in detail to the Final Fantasy XII Premium Potion Bottles. One of them even displays the Ether symbol on its tag.
 * During the title card for Dead Fantasy III, Tifa is seen standing in front of flames, body slightly shadowed. This is a reference to another Final Fantasy VII character, Sephiroth and the famous Nibelheim Incident.
 * The opening to Dead Fantasy IV- right down to the music, setting, the timing and design of the words and title card on screen, and some of the character actions - is a direct reference to the opening of Final Fantasy VIII.

Out-of-Series References

 * The moves that the girls execute are not just from their respective series. Oum has included salutes to many action games, manga and movies by including famous moves into Dead Fantasy, including:
 * Moves from Soul Calibur such as Talim's "Tagga Na Kamay" throw (Hitomi, Episode II), Astaroth's "Poseidon Tide Rush" attack throw (Rachel, Episode II) and Kilik's "Great Waterfall" (Tifa, Episode V).
 * Moves from Tekken such as Lili's Femme Fatale and Soul Sweep and Ling Xiaoyu's Shooting Star.
 * Moves from Street Fighter such as Chun Li's famous "Thousand Kicks"(Tifa, Episode II) and C.Viper's "Burning Kick"(Tifa in Episode III).
 * Dante's Rainstorm from Devil May Cry, (Yuna, Episode II).
 * Black☆Star's "Certain Kill: Black☆Star Big Wave" from Soul Eater (Hitomi, Episode III).
 * 's signature butterfly kick.
 * 's drunken fist.
 * At the beginning of Dead Fantasy III, there is a slow motion scene in which Tifa and Hitomi stomp the floor and punched each other in the face, only for Tifa to use a fire spell that sends them both flying. This scene was taken from the opening of Tekken 6, in which Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima do the exact same thing.

Trivia

 * Though initially it was indicated that Dead Fantasy III was to be the one-on-one battle between Ayane and Rikku, the movie instead became the battle between Hitomi and Tifa. This decision came around after a poll Oum presented on his DeviantART page over which fight the people wanted to see first.