Since its announcement last year, the new Devil May Cry has met resistance. By which we mean it copped almost universal hatred from fans of the series. The problem was change - it just wasn't the kind many believed in.
DmC is the first of Dante's romps that isn't being developed in-house by Capcom Japan, going instead to Ninja Theory, the British team behind Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It subsequently unveiled a revamped, youthful Dante that wouldn't look out of place fronting a screamo band. However, tantalising glimpses of DmC's combat have recently been released, and all hope is not lost.
Our anti-hero's style looks less polished than that of his older self, but he's still effortlessly cool. It seems he could string together impossible aerial combos from childhood, and he switches weapons seamlessly -from sword to double pistols to a 'Get over here!' Scorpion-style wrangle.
This combat is set against two parallel worlds: a human city and its Demon counterpart, Limbo, and only one of them actually looks pleasant to live in. It's not the one you might expect; humanity is dark and dreary, whilst Limbo is delivered in sunny technicolour.
The levels maintain a gothic flavour but also look contemporary European, and are interesting for more than just their artistic design - according to Ninja Theory, Limbo itself is alive. Walls bleed, architecture is hostile, enemies spawn from out of the ground, and Dante will have to use his Angel/Devil powers to escape this reactive environment.
This combination of new demon-based tomfoolery does seem like a departure from the Devil May Cry of old. Capcom has admitted that 'liberties' are being taken with the established canon, whilst the team at Ninja Theory insist that Capcom wanted a fresh new perspective rather than a simple continuation. Nevertheless, they're both emphasising how close the working relationship is, with Capcom visiting frequently to keep an eye on progress.
From our point of view, DmC is still untested, and we're looking forward to going hands-on so we can lighten up on Dante the Younger. He'll have enough adolescent self-esteem issues as it is.
12 comments so far...
mistergrimm on 9 Oct '11 said:
- insert obligatory 'leave my games alone' rot -
Alaric14 on 9 Oct '11 said:
On a long enough time scale, fans are useless bastards to have hovering around a franchise. They're all screaming and crying over what made their particular favourite 'bit' of the whole thing the best piece of creative genius to have ever escaped the bum hole of a developer, bringing this genre to new levels of cultural integrity blah-blah-blah-blah-blah...
Enough. Dante got on my tits in the last DMC game; he talked too much and did too little. Whereas Ryu Hyabusa (sorry, I'm sure the spelling's out on that one) from the Ninja Gaiden series just shut up and got on with death-dealing, blood-letting, and all the other joint phrasing we could utilise to make ourselves look intelligent.
In short: This looks interesting and, fans, could you be quiet please?
msbhvn on 9 Oct '11 said:
Capcom do tend to listen to their fans. It's fans crying out for more characters that makes all their fighting games get mulitple re-releases.
I don't understand why Capcom didn't ask Platinum to make a new DMC game. After all Hideki Kamiya, the creator of DMC, is now at Platinum. Ninja Theory seem a little out of their depth with DMC and the gameplay videos I've seen look terrible. I should really reserve judgement until I've seen the finished product, but it's definitely not on my pre-order list.
CunningSmile on 10 Oct '11 said:
I think a big part of it may be Capcom don't want Hideki Kamiya involved. The Japanese system of having a single 'visionary' in charge of development does mean that new IPs are more imaginative but does mean franchises often stagnate as the guy at the top either runs out of ideas or believes his own hype. Makes it very difficult to breathe new life into a franchise while they are still there, and given how patchy the reviews (haven't played 3 or 4 so can't comment personally) of the last couple of DMC games has been I think new life is exactly what Capcom want.
jimbob30 on 5 Dec '11 said:
how many things look wrong here unreal 3 are you bloody kidding me and only 30 fps what they couldnt do everything with 60 fps and the look of the whole game where does it even look like devil may cry it looks like enslaved.also telling the fans to shut up isnt a good move as devil may cry is aimed at the fans where do you think sales will come from but this wont sell look how many other games are coming in 2012 and i heard about dante's inferno 2 who needs the dmc reboot when dante's inferno is coming.those that say fans be quiet means you are not a devil may cry fan and know nothing about the franchise and OXM stop defending the reboot when we already had devil may cry 4 you said that was a brilliant game.my biggest problem is DmC is stealing from other games like bayonetta and dante's inferno when devil may cry is meant to be the game that other devs try to copy.if fans dont like they will voice it and after seeing this crap who could blame them
CPT Random 82 on 6 Dec '11 said:
Wow... this post really hurt my simple brain, reading this almost gave me an embolism.
Four full stops and complete lack of grammar makes me now want to turn all the lights off in my house, get a sleeping bag and hug a radiator.
Decent_Jam on 7 Dec '11 said:
My first thought was about the grammar too, so thank you for saying something!
As for Devil May Cry, so far it's Devil May Care.
CPT Random 82 on 7 Dec '11 said:
I'm not usually a one to moan about grammar as mine is often shocking. I like the Devil May Cry series but not to the point where i'm throwing my toys out the pram, ranting like a little bitch.
jimbob30 on 11 Dec '11 said:
so ive used bad grammar oh god im going to die what ever a fan defends a franchise when he doesnt like what he and thousand of fans see and thats a bad thing.so cmon then lets see how much of a devil may cry fan you sound like.NOT the insults oh so bad they hurt shut the hell up and go talk to mummy
CPT Random 82 on 12 Dec '11 said:
I cannot be bothered...
CPT Random 82 on 13 Jan '12 said:
Actually a month on this still makes me laugh!
Sasskitten on 7 Apr '12 said:
You know what makes me laugh? Not the bad grammar. No, not that. It's the fact that the game isn't even out yet and people are complaining about it. Now, it is your choice to complain I've got nothing against that. Hell, when I was little I used to complain that they changed out all the power ranger characters. But I do get a little unnerved because people won't wait until they try the game before they complain about. In my opinion I think it is cool that they used this kind of Dante. It is like an alternate dimension Dante. Or for those who have watched the family guy episode of when Stewie and Brian go to those different realities this is a multiverse of Dante.
Also, it would require a lot of explaining on how our Dante got to Limbo city if they used the design we are all so used to.
All in all why don't you all stop complaining and making death threats (Really death threats? Are you all in diapers?) and wait for the game to come out. Then buy/rent it, play it, then go complain about something.
Anyways that is what I think is funny. Now if they added wings and made Dante a faerie then, I would have to complain.
Plus, I don't have that great of grammar skills neitherSo, I can't exactly laugh at another's grammar skills. But really jimbob30, if you are going to make a loooonnnnngggg paragraph of a complaint you might want to use periods and not make them run on sentences.