Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation

Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation (also known as DOAXVV) is the fifth game in the Xtreme series, and the only game to be released on PC. The game was released in Japan on November 17, 2017.

The game was first announced in Tokyo Game Show 2016 as a browser game. In Tokyo Game Show 2017 it was announced as a full-pledged PC game. The game uses high-quality 3D models similar to the previous game, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3.The game is free-to-play with micro-transactions. The game first played using the DMM Game Player.

DOAXVV is a gacha game, a game based on luck in earning the proper outfits/accessories - which may be upgraded in a second moment and will directly affect characters' stats.

The game features the nine characters from the previous game plus a new girl, Misaki, an original character prominently seen in magazine scans, screenshots and trailers. Later, six other new girls (Luna, Tamaki, Fiona, Nagisa, Kanna, and Monica) were added, as well as one of the cut girls from Xtreme 3, Leifang. When explaining the reasons for Leifang's inclusion, Sakuta D implied he may consider adding the other girls due to noting that several of the players had a deep love for the past DOA girls.^[1]

Although it was initially left Japan-exclusive, a playable beta eventually received a specific release on March 26, 2019 via Steam, which, aside from Japanese, also contained English, Korean, and two Chinese versions, thus marking the first time it got an official English release. The Steam’s Asian release is only for specific regions other than Japan, which are: Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Macau. However, using a VPN program can allow people outside those regions to install and play the game.

One of the characters added in this game will be added to an updated version of Xtreme 3 titled Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Scarlet, namely the veteran Leifang and the newcomer Misaki.

Characters

Misaki: A part-time staff member who works as the owner's exclusive assistant. She is a modern girl who shares a casual, friendly relationship with the Owner, although she is extremely shy, especially regarding exposure of skin.
Marie Rose: The pixie-like servant for Helena Douglas. She accompanied her mistress to the Venus Islands, but ended up being told by her to play on her own. Fed up with being treated like a child, she decided to participate in the Venus Festival in order to prove to Helena that she is indeed a full-grown woman.
Honoka: A sweet, easygoing kind of girl who has been raised all of her life by her gentle and loving grandmother. She won another raffle to the island, and ultimately accepts the proposition of working with the Owner due to thinking the festival was similar to the ones at her hometown.
Kasumi: A beautiful nukenin ("missing shinobi") and former member of the legendary Mugen Tenshin clan. As of late, whenever Kasumi reads her fortune, it tells her to head to the Venus Islands in order to find "something special." She accepts the request to aid the Owner in the Venus Festival, thinking that might be a lead to give her answers.
Ayane: The brilliant master of the Hajinmon sect, the "dark side" of the Mugen Tenshin clan. She arrived at the island to investigate it for unknown reasons, although she decided to enjoy herself during that time. However, the island was dull to her tastes, so she accepted working with the Owner to form the Venus Festival to kill time.
Kokoro: A positive and cheerful young lady who has mastered the martial art ba ji quan. She arrived at the island with the hopes that the island's Venus Festival would help revitalize her desire to train both her martial art and her apprentice geisha skills.
Nyotengu: A mysterious and beautiful tengu whose legends have been passed down from ages old in the depths of Japan's mountains. She arrived at the Venus Islands due to sensing the vibes made by humans regarding vacations, she lost her wings due to the island's mysterious power. She decided to participate in the Venus Festival to have an "authentic" vacation experience, especially after learning that whoever wins the Venus Festival will win over the hearts of various humans.
Hitomi: A young world-class fighter born to a Japanese mother and strict German father, who taught his daughter karate from an early age. Despite being involved in several fighting tournaments, she decided to pay a visit to the Venus Islands. Although confused by the beauty requirement, she nonetheless decided to join the Owner in helping set it up, being a natural optimist.
Momiji: A kunoichi of the Hayabusa clan and the last Dragon Shrine Maiden. She was ordered to go to the Venus Islands and participate in the Venus Festival in order to hone her training. Although she is unsure of the festival due to being left with scarce details, and found it odd that beauty was one of the requirements, she nonetheless looked forward to it, seeing it as another way to hone her training.
Helena: The youthful leader of the DOATEC conglomerate. She heard of the Venus Festival, as well as rumors that it housed a conspiracy. Deciding to investigate the festival herself to see if the rumors are true, she arrived at the island, disguising it as a private vacation.
Luna: A mysterious girl found collapsed on the beach of the Venus Islands from a bout of hunger before being saved by “Roasted Sweet Potatoes”. She was delighted to accept the invitation to the Venus Festival by the owner. As a scholar, she says she wants to investigate the festival and the island, although it is unclear whether her actual motive is investigating the island or simply wanting to eat the Roasted Sweet Potatoes that were grown there.
Tamaki: A former model who decided to arrive at the island in order to see for herself what the Venus Festival was like. She met Misaki while the latter was working and asked her to make sexy poses. As the excitement builds and she reaches out to remove Misaki’s top… the owner arrived in time to save Misaki from embarrassment. However, Tamaki is unfazed by the owner's actions, and if anything proceeded to ask nonchalantly if the owner will take her as his partner for the festival.
Leifang: A beautiful Taiji quan master hailing from an affluent family, she abruptly arrived at the Venus Islands. Although she was initially annoyed at no one picking her up, she changed her tune when irritably confronting the Owner, who was confused by her presence, and offered up her services to the Venus Festival.
Fiona
Nagisa
Kanna
Monica
Sayuri

Unlike in prior Dead or Alive games, whether mainline or the Xtreme series, Xtreme Venus Vacation does not mention the girls' nationalities on their bio, which effectively meant that, barring veteran characters, the girls without Japanese names (ie, names transcribed in Hiragana, exempting Kanna) have an unknown country of origin (although Fiona and to a lesser extent Monica are implied to be European, while Luna briefly implies in one of her character episodes that she had hailed from one of the more impoverished countries up north). Misaki's nationality, and indirectly Nagisa's nationality, was later confirmed to be Japanese in Xtreme 3: Scarlet via the former's in-game bio.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very different from the previous games. Instead of the two-week periods, there is no time limit, although day and sunset, and to a certain extent nighttime are used as backdrops for various scenes and minigames. The main game is still beach volleyball.

The game is energy-based. As long as there is available energy, the player can play volleyball games. The game has day-night cycles but it doesn't have any effect on gameplay. In this game, the characters has to be unlocked to play as them. Previously, all characters are unlocked from the start. The player only start with two girls.

This game also has improved user interface. The player can pause the action, speed up the gameplay, change strategies, and summon a guest player.

This game is mainly in Owner mode, first introduced in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, wherein the player do not directly control the girls. The player only do commands, like set strategy and call timeout. The player, the Owner, do level up after performing certain actions.

Characters do level up as well. Increasing a character's level unlocks her character episodes.

The game also restores a degree of interactions between various characters besides that of the owner and the girl you've chosen at that time from prior Xtreme games which had been cut in Xtreme 3 via the Main and Event episodes.

During some events, the player can also unlock Extra Episodes where the girls change in the bathroom, similar to the changing mechanic in Xtreme 3. Despite the trailers showing the failed result if the owner "opens their eyes" at the wrong time, the actual episodes require that the player fully awaken the necessary outfits via awakening stones before such can be accomplished.

Volleyball games are stat-based. Each swimsuit has statistics such as Power, Technique, Stamina, and Appeal.

Besides volleyball, there was also a new minigame released in late June/July 2018, called suikawari. In addition, Rock Climbing made a return in late September 2018. In both minigames, aside from the player character, it also shows up to three girls cheering on the player character. In the latter case, starting with the Love Rock Climbing Event, one of the girls is seen at the top of the cliff to cheer for the player character. On March 2019, Pool Hopping made a return, although in a heavily revised format.

Differences between versions

Aside from more languages and the platform, there are a few differences between the Steam and DMM versions.

The episode "Sparkling Outfit" was made into an Event Episode for Messenger of the Moon's second half in the Steam version. In the DMM version, it was an Extra Episode.
Honoka's Mint swimwear was an SR outfit in the DMM version. In the Steam version, it was an SSR outfit.
Due to the timing of the release of the Steam version occurring in March instead of November, the Christmas, New Years', and Valentine's Day episodes (including the episode where Nyotengu hypnotizes Luna and Misaki into acting like cats) were delayed to a later date (presumably due to their being international holidays), with the First Softening Lotion Therapy event being released in the place of the former two and the Naked Truth being released in the place of the latter. As such, the Christmas-related Event Episodes are no longer part of "First Covergirl."
- Also because of this, Hitomi has the first birthday in the Steam version. In the DMM version, Nyotengu technically has the first birthday via her "Special Day" celebration (with Kokoro having the first actual birthday).
Nyotengu's Dark Prison outfit was released as the Event SSR for Naked Truth's second half in the Steam version, in the DMM version, it was instead Honoka's Moo Moo Denim outfit. Because of this, the Steam version has Honoka's Moo Moo Denim being released alongside Marie Rose's Rose Whip for the First Tower Festival event instead of Rose Whip being the only event SSR.
Helena has a swimwear, Illusion, that is exclusive to the Steam version during the Messenger of the Moon event.
- On that note, Luna has an extra paid suit in the Steam version, called "To You", in the Steam version for "Targeted Island" that is a recolor of Thank You/For You.
Some of the SSR accessories were exclusive to the Steam version, such as the Vermillion Armlet for Leifang.
Misaki's Appetizer Pinchos outfit was replaced with a Sandwich outfit, with Ayane also getting an outfit. Consequentially, this resulted in Leifang's Sandwich outfit being cut as well as Misaki wearing the sandwich outfit instead of her Appetizer Pinchos outfit in the First Rock Climbing episodes.
Nagisa was teased on November 10, with a full release in December, well before Fiona in the Steam version, while in the DMM version, Fiona came first, and Nagisa only debuted during the Christmas season.

Trivia

Mostly because of it reusing some aspects of Xtreme 3, most of the original nine girls had scenes that were taken from Xtreme 3 with reworked dialogue. The only exception is Honoka, who instead gets a brand new opening sequence where she is playing on an inflatable orca only to fall into the ocean and accidentally lose her swimsuit.
- Similarly, some of the girls' endings reuse their endings from Xtreme 3, namely Hitomi and Marie Rose. While Ayane's Xtreme 3 ending is not reused for her ending, a similar scene was shown in her level 60 episode, barring that it was implied that the Owner had supplied her with the massage and that Ayane snaps at the Owner when he tries to remove her towel from below her.

Notes and references

↑ Famitsu 2nd anniversary DOAXVV coverage, page 103

External links

[1] Famitsu 2nd anniversary DOAXVV coverage, page 103

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