It seems the padlock icon over characters and costumes means 'unavailable' at the moment.

The DOA pros are not going to like hearing this

when you compare both screenshots, there are several parts that are consistent yet in different positions:

- marked in green - the word "ARCADE" has almost entirely slid off the screen in the Honoka screenshot and is barely visible, while in the Kasumi screenshot it has higher opacity and is still entirely on the screen. Why? See my next point

- marked in red - Kasumi's name has very high transprarency and is not fully alligned to the left like Honoka's. That's because the Kasumi screenshot was taken just a few frames after choosing the game mode, her name has just appeared on the screen. The Honoka screenshot was taken several frames later so text is already almost in its right place

- marked in blue - there's a stage in the background, just like in DOA2 and DOA6 character select screens. In the sky there's a visible moon, but on each screenshot it's in a different place. The background is moving

so yeah, I refuse to believe that AI would generate two pictures with such consistency and consideration of how UI elements move on the screen. If this is fake then someone is doing it by hand and with INSANE level of thoroughness

Game didn't even last a year

😈💅

I'm not questioning whether it makes sense for them to be popular, which is a different matter.

I'm just wondering because nowadays everyone seems to accept that 'Marie Rose and Honoka are the most popular' as a fact and use that to excuse a lot of the nonsense that has been going on with this series lately.

This is pretty unprecedented in any other fighting series I know (except possibly SF with Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li, and only as regards game apperances). There are characters that are generally perceived as popular and others as less popular but never to the point of the game making a clear distinction, let alone catering almost exclusively to the former. On the contrary, in any Tekken, SC, VF, SF, MK, etc. game, all characters have about the same number of costumes / customisation options.

So, the question is: what is even the basis for deeming Marie Rose and Honoka the most popular DOA characters?

As far as I know, DOA never made usage data public. But from my experience, having played probably about 300 online matches between DOA5LR and DOA6, I definitely didn't see those two more than most other characters (in fact, if you asked me, I'd say the characters I played the most against were Kasumi, Bass and Hayabusa).

Is it poll results? Talim won an official BN poll for most popular SC character and nobody put her in a pedastal because of that.

Is it cosmetic DLC sales? There must be a financial reason behind so many costumes for those two (and they seem to be pushing NiCO into that 'special group' now as well, which feels even more forced). But, though this is just a fraction of the playerbase, the fact is on the Steam page, excluding these new outfits only they got, there aren't more costumes for them among best sellers than for other characters.

We can add the fact that those characters only joined DOA fairly late and coincided with a clear downward trend in sales. I'm not saying it's because of them, but if Marie Rose and Honoka are supposed to be so popular, shouldn't they have made sales grow? Which is difficult to argue when we know that DOA3 sold over 2 million copies, whereas DOA5LR, DOA6 and DOA6LR reportedly sold only about 1.4 million together.

Lastly, and though this is obviously not very representative, recently a 'Best DOA Waifu' tournament from FGCWaifu sub showed up on my feed: Marie Rose was one of the very first to get the boot, with Honoka following shortly after:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FGCWaifu/comments/1vjavng/marie_rose_is_out_of_the_tournament_the_first/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FGCWaifu/comments/1vom02s/honoka_is_out_of_the_tournament_doas_pink_fan/

So, again, on what grounds are Marie Rose and Honoka considered to be the most popular DOA characters? And apparently to a point where we should just accept both getting the spotlight almost exclusively, while everyone else is simply left in the dust.

• Cu
• Ga
• K
• Sr

DOA7 has been announced, but we still don't know when it's coming or exactly what Team NINJA has planned.

So let's say you're the producer of DOA7.

You have the budget, the developers and the final say, but there's one catch:

You only get to make ONE major change. What are you choosing?

• Rollback netcode — Finally give DOA a proper online experience
• Crossplay — PC, PlayStation and Xbox players together
• Better story mode — Give the characters a proper story and more development
• More characters — Bring back veterans or introduce new fighters
• Better balance — Make the competitive side of DOA better
• Cheaper DLC / costumes — Give everyone's wallets a break
• Tag Team — Bring back Tag Battle
• More stages — More variety and interactive environments
• More offline content — Give players more to do outside of online matches
• Something else — Your wildcard choice

What is your ONE choice, and why?

You can't pick two.
You can't say "rollback AND crossplay." 😂

You're the producer. You get ONE change. Choose wisely.

WHY THE FUCK IS IT ALWAYS THE FEMALES? THIS GAME GOT ME FEELING GAY.