Dead or Alive (series) - Plot

Plot

The Dead or Alive series depicts several skilled martial artists in a worldwide competition named the "Dead or Alive tournament". DOATEC (Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee), a massive corporation with unknown motives, holds the fighting competition in arenas ranging from the North Pole to the Amazon rain forest.

• Dead or Alive, the first game in the series, introduces the characters and their reasons for entering the tournament. For example, Zack enters for profit. Kasumi, a runaway female ninja, enters the tournament to seek revenge against Raidou who crippled her brother Hayate. In the end, the strict laws of ninja society prevent Kasumi from returning to her village, and she became a hunted fugitive. Kasumi won the first DOA tournament.
• Dead or Alive 2 is set less than a year later. Here, a tengu known as the Gohyakumine Bankotsubo threatens the world's peace and stability. Kasumi's brother Hayate, previously injured by Raidou, returns from being a subject in DOATEC's bio-weapon experiment Epsilon. New fighters include Ein, Helena Douglas and Leon. Eventually, Ryu defeats Tengu and thus wins the tournament.
• The third game, Dead or Alive 3, takes place shortly after Ryu Hayabusa's defeat of the Gohyakumine Bankotsubo. This game's plot concerns DOATEC's secret goal to produce the ultimate fighter, called the Omega project. Through Epsilon and Alpha stages, DOATEC wipes the ninja Genra's memory and turns him into the vicious Omega. A third tournament is held to test Omega's abilities. In the end, Ayane and Hayate destroy the Omega entity. The game introduces four more fighters, Hayate, Hitomi, Brad Wong, and Christie.
• Dead or Alive 4 again explores DOATEC's attempts to create the ultimate bio-weapon, which is a powerful clone of Kasumi created by the Alpha project. The various fighters discover the true nature of DOATEC and set out to stop it.
• The fifth game, Dead or Alive 5, follows the last game's series of events and the explosion DOATEC's tri-tower. Set two years later, DOATEC is newly reformed with Helena still in control and Zack appearing to be in employ.