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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Recent Dead or Alive series spin-off entries like Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation (DOAXVV) and Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme have unfortunately not been officially released outside of Japan and select Asian countries. However, this hasn't stopped fans in the West from interacting with these games – so much so that the overseas response has come as a surprise to DOAXVV's developers.

Automaton recently interviewed Yasunori Sakuda about his involvement in Koei Tecmo's new Atelier Resleriana console game, but he was kind enough to give us some insight about DOAXVV and Venus Vacation Prism, which he is also the producer of. Sakuda says that, despite the fact that DOAXVV never got a Western release, its successor Venus Vacation Prism has received a surprising amount of feedback from players in Europe and the US.

"I'm extremely happy about the response. Frankly, we had a hard time predicting how users outside of Japan would react to this kind of immersive dating game, so the reaction has been very informative for us," Sakuda comments.

Interestingly, the producer also suggests that the feedback of Western and Japanese fans was equally considered when developing Venus Vacation Prism. "When we first announced the title, we received some voices of concern – even from users outside Japan – about the girls' designs. We continued to make adjustments to the visuals after that, and as we released updated footage during development, we gradually began to see more and more positive reactions. In the end, I believe we were able to create designs that many people found appealing. We're truly grateful to have received feedback from around the world."

Venus Vacation Prism released in March this year for PC and PS5/PS4. As opposed to DOAXVV, which is a free-to-play live-service game, the new release is a full-priced, single-purchase dating simulator. Instead of DOAXVV's Yawaraka Engine, it was developed in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's Katana Engine to bump up the realism and heighten sensory immersion. The game currently has a Mostly Positive status on Steam, and according to the dev team's past remarks, it has been a reasonable success, considering its niche genre.

Although Venus Vacation Prism has English language support, it is – like its predecessor – region-locked. However, given that responses to the game have provided its creators with a new perspective on how much the series is in demand overseas, perhaps future developments in the franchise will make things more accessible for Western players.

Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation producer surprised by strong overseas response to the series, despite lack of Western release - AUTOMATON WEST

Recent Dead or Alive Xtreme titles haven't been available outside of Japan and certain Asian countries, but demand for them is strong.

automaton-media.com

 

[cireza]

Dead or Alive 7 will have an even stronger response ! Do it !

 

[Shtof]

With the "gaming is healing" memes, this is the time to make big bank on games like Dead or Alive.

 

[IAmRei]

see, this not applied to DoA devs only, almost all japanese devs I know, especially older devs, didnt know if their products are popular overseas. when they ask how popular their product is, i often say: i finished sd gundam game in 99, played ff8 half disc, playing lot of jp only games, even without knowing japanese and started as fan back then, they are shocked : )) they are really didn't know how populr japanese games and francchise overseas

 

[NanaMiku]

see, this not applied to DoA devs only, almost all japanese devs I know, especially older devs, didnt know if their products are popular overseas. when they ask how popular their product is, i often say: i finished sd gundam game in 99, played ff8 half disc, playing lot of jp only games, even without knowing japanese and started as fan back then, they are shocked : )) they are really didn't know how populr japanese games and francchise overseas

I think it's probably because of the language. Most Japanese don't understand English, so they can't check it by themselves

 

[delishcaek]

Stop. Region locking. Your. Fucking. Game. JFC

Especially when you have an English version anyway. This is the most retarded backwards shit I have ever seen.

Just let people buy it instead of needing to do questionable things that may or may not get your Steam account banned.

 

[IAmRei]

I think it's probably because of the language. Most Japanese don't understand English, so they can't check it by themselves

i think so, i have difficulties whenever i show my games to them, only small people knows english. i use my phone and we exchange google translate for communication : ))

 

[Kotaro]

Just make a new proper DOAX already

 

[Cyberpunkd]

see, this not applied to DoA devs only, almost all japanese devs I know, especially older devs, didnt know if their products are popular overseas. when they ask how popular their product is, i often say: i finished sd gundam game in 99, played ff8 half disc, playing lot of jp only games, even without knowing japanese and started as fan back then, they are shocked : )) they are really didn't know how populr japanese games and francchise overseas

This goes both ways (and a bit of an OT) - I'm into running, and people do not know how bonkers running culture is in Japan. In a random middle-of-nowhere half or full marathon in Japan you got TRIPLE the number of finishers at top paces than in the West. You have university kids pumping sub-2:10 marathons. 250km running week - easy!

 

[IAmRei]

This goes both ways (and a bit of an OT) - I'm into running, and people do not know how bonkers running culture is in Japan. In a random middle-of-nowhere half or full marathon in Japan you got TRIPLE the number of finishers at top paces than in the West. You have university kids pumping sub-2:10 marathons. 250km running week - easy!

: )) yeah, they are kinda unique in their own way

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Stop. Region locking. Your. Fucking. Game. JFC

Especially when you have an English version anyway. This is the most retarded backwards shit I have ever seen.

Just let people buy it instead of needing to do questionable things that may or may not get your Steam account banned.

Just Koei Tecmo being Koei Tecmo. That said, it's already been mentioned in the Venus Vacation Prism thread that there are users on Steam who can help you get the game legally by gifting it to you, which won't put your Steam account at risk.
Sorry for the tags my bros.

You'll need to ask someone to gift it to you. This is the guy that got it for me, he's a cool dude: https://steamcommunity.com/id/654714412/


You'll need to send him the money he'll need to buy the game to gift to you.


There are other folks like this guy as well who's helping a lot of folks by gifting the game too: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TsundereKanojo

I can also try to gift you. The game is available in my region. But I need to make sure because I saw someone from my same region cannot gift it

My Steam account if you are interested in buying it through me: https://steamcommunity.com/id/nanamiku/

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Could have made a bunch more money releasing it everywhere.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

Why would you be surprised by the demand of yet another gooning sim? The fuck.

 

[Azure Crystal Gaming]

It's almost as if these games should get official releases in the U.S, then.

 

[NanaMiku]

Just Koei Tecmo being Koei Tecmo. That said, it's already been mentioned in the Venus Vacation Prism thread that there are users on Steam who can help you get the game legally by gifting it to you, which won't put your Steam account at risk.
Sorry for the tags my bros.

FYI, I tried helping him, but it turns out I cannot gift to US region because of the price difference.

 

[JayK47]

Seems dumb that they did not release on Steam in the west. It would have done just fine.

 

[Memati187]

I have all 3 versions physically, but couldn't finish any of them. Everytime I start to play them, I end up on some "specific" sites just 15 min in.

 

[rkofan87]

Could have made a bunch more money releasing it everywhere.

they did not want to piss off era blue sky or reddit or game jurnos.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Stop. Region locking. Your. Fucking. Game. JFC

Especially when you have an English version anyway. This is the most retarded backwards shit I have ever seen.

Just let people buy it instead of needing to do questionable things that may or may not get your Steam account banned.

There are several games and visual novels I'd like to try, but the impediment is that some are entirely in Japanese.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I'd play more games in public if they were like this

 

[spons]

If you're surprised by this you're more oblivious than a deer looking into the headlights of a car speeding towards it.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Venus Vacation is fucking great!

It is probably more difficult now, but a couple of years ago you only needed to use a VPN to Singapore, add the game to Steam, and thats it. It looks good (probably not as good as Prism) and the gameplay is cool too.

Now we wait for Dear or Alive 7, hopefully they understand their mistake on DoA6.