Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation’s Meg was created to serve as a mischievous accomplice to the player
In a recent 4Gamer interview that coincided with Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation’s seventh anniversary, producer Yasunori Sakuda revealed how the developers created the game’s newest character Meg. Unlike her more serious predecessor Reika, Meg’s rascally nature makes players second-guess her true intentions.
According to Sakuda, each girl introduced in Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation is created with a vision in mind. The developers find something unique that a girl can provide to the player regarding their mannerisms and personality and work from there. In Meg’s case, however, the team members in Japan didn’t have a concrete vision for her at the beginning.
In the end, the team decided to center Meg’s character around one of her lines- “I’ll be your accomplice”. Meg works as a waitress at the Venus Islands café; the location of which the player oversees as a tenant. With her at the player’s side, the Venus Islands could prosper into the ultimate resort.
Sakuda says that Meg was initially too naughty at first, so the development team toned her down to be mischievous instead. In the final game, Meg has a habit of slacking off while making sly comments directed at the player. Meg’s quirks helped show her laid-back and lighthearted personality, which Sakuda says is a great contrast to the cold and serious Reika. He is also very grateful for Miyu Tomita’s voice acting, which in addition to helping the development team get the character just right, made Meg feel at home on the Venus Islands.
As for the reason why Meg was released just a few months after Reika, Sakuda reveals that Reika was initially supposed to succeed Meg in the Japan version of Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation. However, due to negative player feedback regarding the separate releases of characters in different countries, Sakuda decided to release Reika worldwide in June 2024. Since Meg was the second girl to come out in this revised timeline, it was her August release that received the brunt of player backlash.
Sakuda has since apologized to both the development team and management for this decision, as they were hard at work developing and promoting Meg before he chose to release Reika early.
