Venus Vacation PRISM DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme Review – A Sun-Soaked Dating Sim with Style Over Substance

Venus Vacation PRISM DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme takes players to a picturesque island paradise for a summer of romance and relationship-building with six attractive “Venuses.” Our review of Venus Vacation PRISM DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme will examine the game’s strengths in visuals and character interactions, while also looking into its limitations in gameplay depth and replayability. From its photographic mechanics to its mini-games and dating sim elements, we’ll explore what makes this latest entry in the DOAX series worth playing for fans of the franchise, as well as where it falls short of reaching its full potential.

Story and Setting

The game places you as the owner of Venus Islands, tasked with running the Venus Festival—an event centered around beauty and strength. You manage six women called Venuses: Misaki, Honoka, Tamaki, Fiona, Nanami, and Elise. Most come from DOAXVV (Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation), with Honoka being the only representative from the main Dead or Alive fighting games.

As a dating sim, Venus Vacation PRISM focuses on building relationships rather than dramatic storylines. The gameplay revolves around small, intimate moments: conversations on the beach, sunset walks, or watching the Venuses gain confidence. The visual novel format presents these interactions from your perspective, with 3D visuals that make each moment feel more immersive. Your choices during conversations affect how the Venuses respond and their feelings toward you, potentially unlocking new story paths, scenes, or improved endings.

The Venus Festival itself remains somewhat underdeveloped. While it’s supposedly about taking photos and videos for unseen fans, the game only shows the aftermath rather than the event itself. This creates a disconnect, as mini-games could have been incorporated to make running the festival more engaging. The narrative lacks significant challenges or stakes—it’s an endless summer where your worst problem is choosing the wrong dialogue option. Even then, poor choices don’t have major consequences, and there are no truly negative endings.

Character Development

The game features six distinct Venuses to interact with, each with unique personalities and backgrounds:

• Misaki: A shy part-timer seeking financial independence
• Honoka: A sweet schoolgirl with unexpected interests in pro-wrestling
• Tamaki: A mature fashion designer who enjoys teasing you
• Fiona: A naive princess who develops strong feelings for you
• Nanami: A cool, natural beauty who shows interest in you
• Elise: A strict yet attractive instructor who keeps you in line

Initially, these characters seem to embody familiar tropes, but as you spend time with them, their individual characteristics become more pronounced. While not profoundly complex, the characters are likable and engaging. Your dialogue choices highlight their unique traits—Misaki responds better to honesty than flirtation, Tamaki enjoys your moments of awkwardness, and Fiona’s unwavering affection evolves from merely amusing to genuinely endearing as you learn more about her background.

Beyond the main story, you can message the Venuses through a smartphone app, with your responses affecting their favorability rating. These interactions expand as their favorability increases, and viewing specific conversations before certain chapters unlocks three unique episodes per character, providing further insight into their personalities. Long-time Dead or Alive fans may be disappointed by the absence of franchise mainstays like Kasumi, Ayane, Helena, and Hitomi, with only Honoka appearing from the main fighting games.

Mini-Games

Certain chapters include mini-games that allow you to connect with the Venuses through simple, entertaining challenges:

• “Hand Sumo”: A pushing match to build core strength, where pushing too hard might result in hitting a wall or getting pinned down.
• “Abs”: You cheer for a Venus doing sit-ups, with visual details like sweat making clothes stick to her body.
• “Water Fight”: A one-against-two splash battle where dodging and returning splashes increases favorability.
• “Big Jump Rope”: Requires synchronized jumping with a Venus, with distractions that can cause you both to get tangled up.

Participating in these activities strengthens your bond with a Venus, raising her Interest Level and making her more receptive to your conversations. However, these mini-games feel more like elaborate photo opportunities than substantial gameplay. They’re limited in number and primarily involve simple timing-based button presses without much depth. Earlier Dead or Alive Xtreme games offered more varied activities like Blackjack, roulette, or cliff climbing. Venus Vacation PRISM streamlines these elements, reducing mini-games to brief moments that showcase the Venuses in attractive poses rather than providing engaging gameplay.

Photo Mode

Photo Mode serves as a central feature of Venus Vacation PRISM, integrated into both the story progression and gameplay mechanics. Available during character episodes, conversations, and events, this feature allows you to capture moments during beach chats, sunset walks, or mini-games. This integration makes photography a core aspect of the experience rather than a supplementary feature.

You can freely position the camera, adjust angles, zoom levels, and rotation, and even switch to vertical format. Additional options include aperture adjustment for background blur, lighting controls with up to three additional light sources, exposure settings, and various filters. Frames and stamps can also be added, though stamp options are somewhat limited. After reaching a specific point in the story (or with early access via the Digital Deluxe Edition), you receive a “Time-Stopping Hourglass” that freezes time during interactions, allowing you to capture specific moments like shy glances or laughter from any angle.

A recent update (Ver 1.042025.04.17) has enhanced the Photo Mode experience with several improvements. The camera screen now displays ☆ symbols for photo evaluations during photography, making it easier to gauge potential scores while shooting. The update also includes a function to retain the position and color of point lights during gameplay, allowing for more consistent lighting setups. Additionally, the scoring system has been adjusted to make achieving higher scores in photo evaluations easier, addressing previous concerns about unclear rating criteria.

Fan accumulation unlocks various outfits and hairstyles. The costume options are extensive, including dresses and bikinis for different occasions. Some outfits allow for customization, such as adding or removing accessories for a personalized look. For players more interested in the narrative than photography, a “simple shooting” mode captures the current scene with a single button press, providing sufficient functionality to progress through the story and achieve a good ending.

Visuals

Venus Vacation PRISM replaces DOAXVV’s previous engine (derived from DOA5 in 2012) with Koei Tecmo’s Katana Engine, also used in games like Dynasty Warriors: Origins and Rise of the Ronin. This upgrade delivers more realistic clothing and skin textures, including features like clothing that clings more naturally to characters’ bodies and becomes translucent when wet, as well as lifelike skin tone changes such as blushing.

The game’s visual quality is impressive, particularly in its character models. The six Venuses display remarkable detail—individual hair strands and the play of light on their skin are meticulously rendered, ensuring they remain the focal point of every scene. Close-up shots showcase the attention to detail in their design. The romantic scenes are especially noteworthy, with character animations conveying subtle gestures and expressions ranging from shyness and excitement to anger.

However, the environments don’t receive the same level of attention. Despite references to a grand Venus Festival, the resort feels strangely empty, with no guests around the pool or background characters to create a sense of life and activity. While this approach keeps the focus on the Venuses, it also makes the island setting feel artificially isolated.

Replayability Issues

While Venus Vacation PRISM provides a satisfying experience on the first playthrough, subsequent attempts face significant challenges. The game lacks options to skip previously read text or scenes, and while text forwarding exists, it functions slowly and sometimes inconsistently. The main storyline remains unchanged across playthroughs, making additional attempts feel repetitive.

Though the chapter menu indicates alternate scene routes, you can’t start midway through a chapter or backtrack to previous points. This structure may align with the fan-tracking narrative framework, but it significantly hampers the replayability of the game.

Verdict

Venus Vacation PRISM DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme creates a relaxing atmosphere and visual appeal, offering a dating sim where players can bond with six Venuses in a sun-drenched island setting. The transition to Koei Tecmo’s Katana Engine results in standout character models with detailed hair, skin, and clothing effects, while the Photo Mode provides extensive tools for capturing memorable moments. The mini-games, though simple, add enjoyable interactions that strengthen connections with the characters, whose personalities—from Misaki’s shyness to Fiona’s endearing attachment—create enough engagement to encourage players to explore different dialogue choices.

However, the game has notable shortcomings. The narrative lacks depth and meaningful stakes, presenting an endless summer without significant challenges or dramatic tension. The Venus Festival, despite being central to the premise, feels underdeveloped without any visible guests or active events. The absence of beloved Dead or Alive characters like Kasumi or Ayane may disappoint longtime fans, with Honoka serving as the only representative from the fighting game roster. Replay value is also limited by the inability to skip previously experienced content and the unchanging nature of the main plot.

Despite these limitations, Venus Vacation PRISM delivers an enjoyable escape for those seeking attractive character interactions and light romance, though players expecting a more substantial adventure with narrative complexity may find themselves wanting more.

Played on PS5

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