It seems that Dead or Alive 1 was alive enough to get a sequel.
Dead or Alive 2 is a really fun sequel to its poorly made older brother, it pretty much takes everything from the console port of Dead or Alive 1 and just cranks the graphics and gameplay's smoothness to 100, it's a wonderful sequel that maybe doesn't bring much to the table other than a few basic game modes but it polishes the hell out of its predecessor and for a fighting game that's the most important thing to do.
It obviously adds more characters, stages, and game modes compared to Dead or Alive 1, the roaster doubled from its predecessor and the stages actually feel like new stages since they have this thing called danger zones, little quirk event that happens if a character get thrown offstage then a small cutscene plays and the combat resume where the character fell, dynamic stages are such a nice addition, it really reminds me of those QTEs from the Yakuza games.
And another important addition would be the Story mode, each character has its own "story" but in reality, it's just an Arcade mode with very short cutscenes between characters to explain their relations with each other, some have cutscenes and some don't but it's a very vague way to add lore, it could be a whole lot better and feel like it was made as an afterthought, though if you complete each story in the Limited Edition Japanese release you unlock Bayman from Dead or Alive 1.
Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast might be the best entry point for anyone, especially the Japanese version called the "Limited Edition" which adds two new unlockable characters, new stages, and game modes. This game is really noob friendly as it doesn't take long to learn how the combat works, it's overall just a very fun game to play even solo against CPUs.
Overall just a really good sequel that polishes everything and makes the game a ton of fun to play, the best characters are Tina, Leon, Jann Lee, and Ein.
Dead or Alive 2 is a really fun sequel to its poorly made older brother, it pretty much takes everything from the console port of Dead or Alive 1 and just cranks the graphics and gameplay's smoothness to 100, it's a wonderful sequel that maybe doesn't bring much to the table other than a few basic game modes but it polishes the hell out of its predecessor and for a fighting game that's the most important thing to do.
It obviously adds more characters, stages, and game modes compared to Dead or Alive 1, the roaster doubled from its predecessor and the stages actually feel like new stages since they have this thing called danger zones, little quirk event that happens if a character get thrown offstage then a small cutscene plays and the combat resume where the character fell, dynamic stages are such a nice addition, it really reminds me of those QTEs from the Yakuza games.
And another important addition would be the Story mode, each character has its own "story" but in reality, it's just an Arcade mode with very short cutscenes between characters to explain their relations with each other, some have cutscenes and some don't but it's a very vague way to add lore, it could be a whole lot better and feel like it was made as an afterthought, though if you complete each story in the Limited Edition Japanese release you unlock Bayman from Dead or Alive 1.
Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast might be the best entry point for anyone, especially the Japanese version called the "Limited Edition" which adds two new unlockable characters, new stages, and game modes. This game is really noob friendly as it doesn't take long to learn how the combat works, it's overall just a very fun game to play even solo against CPUs.
Overall just a really good sequel that polishes everything and makes the game a ton of fun to play, the best characters are Tina, Leon, Jann Lee, and Ein.