Okay so Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden are not games or series you play for their stories. While there is some fun to be had with the stories of these games, generally you play these games for their gameplay and put the stories on par with something like Metal Gear Rising, not great but fine as long as you don't take them too seriously. However, that being said, the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden communities can often be drawn into certain ways of thinking that can be very easily disregarded if you look at actual character behaviors.
Kasumi is a pure hearted angel who can do no wrong, as long as you ignore the fact that for the most part she's an immature brat with a brother complex and absolutely no issues beating up people who disagree with her or vaguely sort of get in her way. Ayane is a complete bitch with no good qualities, as long as you ignore the fact that she's never physically violent outside of actual combat and whose only real animosity is toward one character. Helena is a tragic character whose actions are pure, so long as you don't remember that the death of her mother was the only thing necessary to get her attacking anyone she thought might vaguely have had something to do with it.
In this relative line of thinking, there's a bit of ambiguity around the timeline at least for many because of the Ninja Gaiden games specifically. The Dead or Alive games, while mostly disconnected, are fairly straight forward in terms of where they fall in the timeline since, disregarding re-releases and Dead or Alive: Dimensions, the games chronology is the same as the release order:
DOA1 -> DOA2 -> DOA3 -> DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball -> DOA4 -> DOA Xtreme 2 -> DOA5 -> DOA Xtreme 3.
The problem arises when you factor in the Ninja Gaiden games because information pertaining to them seem to be at odds with one another. Many, particularly in the Ninja Gaiden fandom, firmly believe that the 3D Ninja Gaiden series is a prequel to the 2D series. Evidence for this, at least for a while, was the fact that Ryu just finished his training at the beginning of Ninja Gaiden (XBox) and the fact that the dead character Ken Hayabusa (Ryu's father) was still alive, though his name was changed to Jo.
However, this theory holds less water as time goes by. One piece of evidence in support of this theory was Dead or Alive 1, where Ryu's bio states that he was retired from Shinobi work and runs an Antique Shop with his wife. This is an important piece of evidence because at the end of the 2D Ninja Gaiden 3, this is exactly what happens, Ryu retires, marries Irene Lew, and they run an Antique Shop together.
The issue with this piece of evidence though is twofold: firstly, this information came at a time when the 3D Ninja Gaiden games still didn't exist. Ninja Gaiden (XBox) was made for, well, the original XBox, and Dead or Alive 1 was made for the Sega Saturn and then the Playstation 1, a full console generation earlier. Secondly, and this ties in with the first bit, that little piece of information from DOA1 never appears anywhere else in the series, not even in remakes.
There is other information that complicates this issue as well. As I said Ken's name was changed to Jo, which you could argue is just a retcon and, yeah, a character's name is a small enough deal on its own that it's not really evidence. What's significantly harder to justify, however, is the presence of characters, like Ayane and Momiji, who are fairly prevalent in the 3D games never get mentioned or even hinted at in the 2D ones. Granted, this is a problem with prequels in general is that they include things never mentioned in the main series because they weren't thought of at the time.
However, it isn't until specifically Dead or Alive: Dimensions where this theory became completely obsolete. In Dead or Alive: Dimensions, we see a character from Ninja Gaiden 2 by the name of Sonya. However, while it was stated in interviews about that game that Sonya was not her real name, her real name is revealed in this game to be Irene Lew.
The reason this is a pretty damning piece of evidence is the fact that Ryu in the 2D games doesn't meet Irene until the first game where they form a bond over a trilogy of games. Ninja Gaiden 2 completely obliterates the possibility of prequel territory by having Irene show up in a way that was never mentioned or implied in the 2D series.
On top of this, in Dead or Alive: Dimensions, Ayane and Hayate are confused about the nature of Ryu and Irene's relationship. If Ryu and Irene were married and Ryu had retired, just revealing that they're married wouldn't be that big of a deal. Even if Ryu and Irene are coy about it, it's entirely possible that the two highest ranked Shinobi in the Hayabusa's rival clan could very easily dig that up. The reality is that that's just not the case.
This leads into the other theory, which is more prevalent in the Dead or Alive fanbase strangely enough, and that is that the 3D Ninja Gaiden games are a reboot on the original. And, of course, this has probably the fewer number of issues by comparison. Firstly, it doesn't necessarily explain why Ryu just finished his training but it does negate the possibility of support or contradiction. Meeting Irene in Ninja Gaiden II also goes well with this. The information from DOA1 is a small issue but if you take DOA Ultimate instead of the original, then that quickly becomes a non-issue. It explains a lot better why characters from the 3D games don't show up in the 2D ones, simply because they don't exist in that continuity. And it also explains why Ryu in the 3D games has moves from the Dead or Alive series, where he doesn't in the 2D series.
That said, though, continuity still isn't perfect even if it has less flaws now. Probably the biggest issue pertains to Ninja Gaiden 3 and Dead or Alive 5. Specifically the fact that the characters of Ryu and Ayane have drastically different designs in those games than the previous Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games. Dead or Alive 5 justifies this by saying it takes place 2 years after the previous installment, DOA4 or DOA Dimensions, take your pick. However, Ninja Gaiden 3 is somewhat ambiguous.
The Ninja Gaiden series has never had super tight continuity in relation to chronology since the only thing that indicates how much time passed between one and two, was Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, which is a solid game overall but it includes a character that's important to the timeline and that is Momiji. In Ninja Gaiden, Momiji isn't around, most likely because the Hayabusa Village isn't present for any of the game after Chapter 2. However, Momiji is a central character in Dragon Sword as Kureha's younger sister and Ryu's new Disciple. Momiji isn't around for Ninja Gaiden 2 but the re-release Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 shows that Momiji is now a full fledged Shinobi and now taking on the same role as Shrine Maiden that her elder sister did.
Ninja Gaiden 3 has similar ambiguity since there's really no solid way to judge how much time has passed and even Razor's Edge, which included a side story with Ayane tells us that it takes place after Dead or Alive: Dimensions since Ayane is now working very closely with Irene Lew, a character she had only just met in that game. But that tells us the order the games are taking place not necessarily their space apart.
That said, though, because Ryu looks almost identical in both games and Ayane physically looks similar in both games, I'm hazarding a guess that Ninja Gaiden 3 takes place at some point during the time gap between DOA 4 and 5. Kasumi's presence in Razor's Edge also supports this theory since her outfit in her playable sections is identical to the outfit she adopts when fighting against MIST in DOA5.
Thus my personal timeline for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games goes as follows:
Ninja Gaiden (XBox) -> Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword ->Ninja Gaiden II -> DOA1 -> DOA2 ->
DOA3 -> DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball -> DOA4 -> DOA Xtreme 2 -> Ninja Gaiden 3 -> DOA5 -> DOA Xtreme 3
Of course I'm probably the only one who cares about this but it's something I just wanted to talk about.
Have a wonderful day.
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