Just a quick question because I don't think I ever knew or I'm just not remembering. Is Kasumi the "main" character in the Dead or Alive series? Much like Ryu is in Street Fighter, is she the game's "golden boy" character? If not who is?

@StriderNo9: DOATEC created a clone of her and the main story thread seems to be about that (if not DOATEC just trying to clone participants of the DOA tournament,) so I'd say that she is the main character.

89 centimeters.

Wait, what was the question again?

DOA doesn't *really* have a main character. There's no one wtih a generic moveset like the classic "ryu-type" main character.

They do sometimes change who the pin-up girl is associated with the game. Lei Fang was frequently featured in the first game. Kasumi was heavily featured for the second game. I think Tina was a big feature to the third game and Helena and Kokoro were big features of the fourth.

I honestly think the only real main character to doa is "breasts".

On the Bombcast they mentioned Kasumi as well, that's what got me thinking of this in the first place.

Yes Kasumi is the main character of DOA. All of the stories have in some way revolved around her.

@rebgav said:

@JazGalaxy said:

DOA doesn't *really* have a main character.

Kasumi is the main character in that all of the plot strands of the last few games revolve around her, primarily.

I wouldn't really go so far as to say that.

The clone-ninja story is all about her, yeah. She is definitely the protagonist of that particular storyline. But there are just as many other storylines in the game that get equal weight.

She has never featured prominantly on the cover of any DOA game aside from 5, where she is slightly bigger than the other characters. Other characters in the series have had the entire cover dedicated to solely them.

I think that Kasumi is just the character who resonated most with fans. She's the Scorpian of DOA moreso than the Ryu.

I really think DOA is intended to be an ensemble cast more than having any one lead character. Wikipedia says "Kasumi was received well among gaming fans and professional critics for both her sex appeal and martial arts abilities. In 1998, Computer and Video Games featured her as their Star of the Month, commenting, "She's so sexy, and so deadly (and so a-lively)," while Sega Saturn Magazine featured her on a cover along with a caption stating "Drop dead gorgeous!" in all-capital letters. Talking about her popularity in Japan, Itagaki claimed in 2004: "It's almost like there are too many Kasumi covers. If you look at Japanese magazines, maybe 10% of them have Kasumi on their cover." According to Brian Ashcraft, in Japan, "Kasumi is nothing short of an icon."

I consider her the main character.

pretty much

@JazGalaxy said:

sex appeal and martial arts abilities. In 1998, Computer and Video Games while Sega Saturn Magazineicon."

Stop that.

yea pretty much

She kicks high and all that stuff... so yeah.

as far as the story goes the "main" characters would seem to be kasumi, ayane, hayabusa, hayate and helena.

Kasumi is the face of DOA. it says so in the collector's edition artbook of DOA 5