A defining feature of the Dead or Alive series is the over-sexualization of its female characters. It's standard fair to see barely legal (or younger) girls with unrealistic proportions quite literally bouncing around trying to kill each other. Team Ninja knows this, and they're looking to change this image of the series with the highly anticipated next entry, Dead or Alive 5.

Director Yohei Shimbori believes that the rampant sexuality that plagued past games actually provided a "distraction" from the deep game-play systems in place.  No objections there, actually. Yohei also says that this time around, the team wants to erase (or replace) that sexuality, and give the characters more presence and personality. I don't disagree that characters like Tina have never been particularly interesting. This doesn't sound like a negative change (unlike most of what the team said about Ninja Gaiden 3 pre-release) and I'm really looking forward to seeing this new character depth up close. We'll all get our chance when Dead or Alive 5 hits the PS3 and Xbox 360 this September.