Devil May Cry: The Chronicles of Vergil
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My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 07:54 am (UTC)So I bought and beat the new DMC: Devil May Cry game and honestly? It's pretty damn good. Combat is smooth and takes advantage of the six axis controller. I do still question the purpose of a reboot when the original franchise was doing just fine..except that it never gave us a true sequel beyond Devil May Cry 2... Which is the worst in the series. Best in the series is Devil May Cry 3 and the first game of course. Where does this one fall in? Well honestly, I put it up there with 3, beating out the first game by a margin. It is different, yes. An Americanized version, yet still maintains the core. As with Devil May Cry games, the story is usually a weak point, but I always felt that they give you enough to understand and know what the hell is going on. It is no different here. What makes this different is that it is a true origin story. Dante's Awakening didn't feel like an origin, just an early adventure in his life. Speaking of, if you're a fan you can sorta work out the order of games with this one in a way that makes sense.
DmC: Devil May Cry - the origin of Dante where he discovers his past, power, and meets his twin brother, Vergil, for the first time. The Demon World is also secret and unknown to the real world. He also begins to develop the trademark white hair.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - Dante encounters his brother, who tries to open the gate to the demon world. He discovers Devil Trigger for the first time and starts his demon bounty hunter business. It is also where Vergil battles the main villain Mundus, loses and becomes Nelo Angelo, leading to Devil May Cry.
Devil May Cry - First game that started it all. Dante meets Trish who is made in the image of his mother, Eva, by Mundus. Battles Nelo Angelo and later discovers that it is really Vergil under Mundus' control. Final battle with Mundus where Dante finally unleashes his true power and true Devil form.
It all comes full circles then. If you're a fan and know how to reconcile things, that's the way to consider it. The games after, just filler when you think about it. Devil May Cry 4 was good though, but still. Hopefully some version of the previous games have taken place in this continuity and we can just have some new and original stories.
One of my beefs is Dante. He's still the badass who loves to troll demons to their face, but he is pretty foul mouthed. I am no prude and have a colorful vocabulary myself, but in previous games, Dante didn't need to curse to be a badass and piss off his foes. Having him curse, just makes it feel cheap. Also, I do feel that Kat was more useful than given credit for. She doesn't have to be the fighter type, she's good with spells and gadgets. If she's in later games, I hope to see what else she can do. Also the "Devil Trigger" in this game can be useful as long as you know how and when to use it. Also I see it as Dante unleashing a bit of his true power in bursts. He's not yet able to fully control it, so it makes sense that it works the way it does. Overall, it's a good game and if you are a fan, give it a look and just reconcile the story the way I suggest. It might help.
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 09:24 am (UTC)In no way does this game fit in with the rest of the series.
If you like the gameplay, fine. If you liked the story, whatever floats your boat.
But the story of Devil may Cry: Devil May Cry in no way can fit with the past games. Besides direct contradictions (Donte and Vorgil's parentage being a demon and an angel unlike Dante and Vergil's humand and demon parents), Sparda being alive in DmC:DMC while he's not in the others, DmC!Mundus dying, among other things, make it impossible to reconcile it with the original games.
Heck, this comic is impossible to reconcile with the game it's based off. From implying the Slurm Queen fight happens a year before the game, where Donte acts as if he didn't know of the "secret ingredient" during the game; to direct contradictions like the scene where
Tameem AntoniadesDonte meetsStandard Ninja Theory Female Character #5, hold the red hairKat happening at a different time of day.Well, at least the comic fits with the game's idea of facial structuring that makes all the characters look like they're making funny faces.
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-11 12:45 am (UTC)Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-11 07:17 am (UTC)Not sure how they'd go writing those two, DMC3 is a much bigger fish to fry than DMC1.
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 09:33 am (UTC)I can see why they did a reboot. "Classic" Dante's story arc was pretty much finished.
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 10:23 am (UTC)Admittedly Nero was never half as popular as Dante, but if even the universally reviled Raiden got Rescued From the Scrappy Heap, I'm sure they could have figured out some way to make Nero more popular, while keeping Dante in the background as a mentor.
Alternatively, make a reboot where the director doesn't say that old Dante had to be changed to a grim and gritty version because "he'd be laughed out of bars."
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-11 12:57 am (UTC)Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 05:36 pm (UTC)Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-10 06:35 pm (UTC)Originally DMC2 was supposed to be a completely different game. However, since the original DMC turned out to be such an outstanding success, Capcom tried to milk that cow by pulling out a sequel as quickly as possible.
Notice how DMC1 came out in August 2001, and DMC2 came out in January 2003. One year and four months just isn't enough to make an AAA game from scratch (DMC3 came out over two years after DMC2, and DMC4 came out 3 years after DMC3). The truth is, they took one different game that was already half done, and modified it to make it more like DMC.
Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first game, was very pissed about that. He said some pretty nasty things in an interview about that (he compared the original DMC to his girlfriend, and DMC2 to that same girlfriend who has been sleeping around behind his back), and in Viewtiful Joe he had Dante tell Trish that he never went to Vie de Marli, that the guy in DMC2 is just an impostor who stole Dante's clothes.
I guess this is why I generally don't really consider DMC2 as canon. I mean, I don't actively argue against it or anything, I kind of just ignore it.
Re: My thoughts on the new DMC
Date: 2013-02-11 12:59 am (UTC)That's ultimately what I decided to do.
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Date: 2013-02-10 10:16 am (UTC)I had been a huge fan of DMC for ten years. I really, truly loved that series. I beat all the games (even the ones where Dante is just a guest star, like Viewtiful Joe), got the art book, the action figures, the anime, the manga, the comics, the novels. I really, really, really loved that series. Heck, the girl in my default icon? That's Trish.
I can't express what I think of the reboot because such words aren't allowed in this community. All I can say is that I hope it bombs.
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Date: 2013-02-10 10:55 am (UTC)http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2013/02/04/dmc-ships-1-million-copies-drastically-under-performing-dmc4/
It's being forecast as the worst selling game of the series so far.
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Date: 2013-02-10 11:01 am (UTC)Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Mmmmmmmm, delicious schadenfreude!
Thanks for the link ^_^
EDIT: I'm sorry to learn that Resident Evil 6 underperformed as well, though.
I... can't play it because... because I'm scared of zombies >_>. I can happily slaughter demons and monsters and gods and whatever, but ever since the original RE I've been scared of walking human corpses.
But I have very fond memories of watching my friends play RE2 and RE4. I wanted the series to keep being successful :/
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Date: 2013-02-10 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 12:25 pm (UTC)Nonetheless, considering that Taneem (director of DmC) posted a tweet directed at a 360 magazine thanking them for a 9/10 review when it hadn’t even been published yet, I somehow doubt that the glowing reviews for DmC are, shall we say, "genuine." (He quickly deleted the tweet after that).
Further, many reviewers (like the ones on Kotaku) admit that they didn't like the previous DMC games. One of the most enthusiastic reviewers in particular (I think it was Kirk something, but I may be wrong) outright said that he thought the previous DMC games were stupid, and liked DmC so much precisely because it had none of the old games' "stupidity". So he likes DmC because it lack the series' trademark features, then bitches at the long-time fans for not appreciating the overhaul.
I don't blame anybody who loves DmC. Different strokes for different folks, everybody is different. I'm sure I love plenty of things that other people despise.
But I hate the generalization of DMC fans as "entitled whiny brats who are complaining only because they changed the colour of Dante's hair." Sure, a tiny minority of dumbasses have done incredibly dumb thing (like the White House petition... Good Lord what were they thinking?) But for the most part we have been trying to explain why we didn't like what we saw, and we got misquoted and lambasted.
Hell, I did a quick google search after Zero gave me that link, and I found that when the sales figures were revealed some "journalist" actually blamed the customers for low sales.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/02/05/are-fans-to-blame-for-lower-than-expected-dmc-sales/
It's finally happened. Somebody in the industry claimed that the customers are actively hurting the companies by refusing to buy products they don't want. At this point it sounds like it's just a matter of time before gamers are called "entitled" for not pre-ordering games and buying all day-1 DLC.
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Date: 2013-02-10 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 11:04 pm (UTC)But, by the time DMC4 was announced, everybody and their mother knew that DMC3 was awesome, so they said: "I'm sure they will make another good game".
Which they did.
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Date: 2013-02-11 12:09 am (UTC)I liked DMC4 a lot, but the third game is my favourite. I sincerely believe that DMC3 is as close to perfection as an action game can get.
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Date: 2013-02-11 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 07:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 09:33 pm (UTC)I feel it would be a disservice to any sort of fan to reboot a series without providing the previous continuity with any true closure.
On that note, I pray this game DOESN'T bomb.
DmC might have tainted the studio in your eyes, but they've honestly produced two interesting, creative, and underrated games around: Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In spite of an impressive script by Alex Garland (who was also involved with DmC, and wrote Dredd), and strong performances by Andy Serkis and Lindsay Shaw, Enslaved had mediocre sales.
One of the guys at Ninja Theory mentoned that they were saddened by the poor sales, but were happy Capcom would give them a chance to deliver a quality product.
So I hope this game is successful, if simply for the sake of the studio.
That said, was there really no way to have Serkis play a character in this game?
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Date: 2013-02-10 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 09:55 pm (UTC)Which is why, when I first heard of the reboot, I didn't really mind it. Personally I would have much preferred to keep following Nero's story, with Dante on the background as a mentor. But still, a reboot in and of itself wasn't a terrible idea.
Unfortunately, I completely disagree with you about Ninja theory. I have an extremely low opinion of them, as I find them utterly unprofessional jerks.
What kind of developers, upon being entrusted with the remake of a hugely popular series, begin their interactions with the anxious fanbase by basically saying "we had to completely change the nice and funny protagonist you know and love because he was ridiculous and he'd be laughed out of bars. Also the games were stupid and dated, and we are not going to listen to fan's feedback."
Each and every interview they gave was a PR nightmare. They were rude, dismissive, and downright insulting. You know how Quesada baits fans of the Spidey marriage because he thinks that pissing people off is a good way to get them to buy his comics? Taneem sounded just like that.
I don't doubt that the guy you read about is a perfectly nice guy. Ninja Theory is a relatively large studio, I'm sure that somebody in there is nice. But as a whole, I don't wish success upon supposed professional who mistreat their customers. If you tell fans "we don't value your input, just shut up and give me your money" you deserve to bomb.
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Date: 2013-02-11 01:11 am (UTC)Well, shows what I know. But that is MORE of a reason to play through all the games before I jot down an idea for a sequel.
And yeah, I heard Tameem was a bit of a dick - but considering Dante's got his red coat and white hair permanently by the end of the game, maybe he was just trolling too.
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Date: 2013-02-10 11:28 pm (UTC)I can't comment on Heavenly Sword's story because I only played the demo and that was enough to put me off the game. The constant frame drops were enough to make me physically ill, and the combat had no weight to it, making it feel weak. The game did look pretty in still shots, though.
Enslaved had better performance graphics wise (staying at constant *shudder* 30 FPS) and still had good art direction but it's combat was shallow and incredibly off putting. While it did have some modicum of weight, it having interrupting cutscenes at the end of combos just made it annoying. The story, writing and acting were mostly forgettable and uninteresting for me. Game still looked pretty in still shots.
But as for the DMC series, most of the plotlines were resolved, except for the question of Nero's parentage.
Also most of the bad blood against Ninja Theory should really be directed at Tameem Antoniades; who, in most of his interviews, showed nothing but contempt and derision for the fans of the series and the series itself.
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Date: 2013-02-11 01:14 am (UTC)I thought it was shallow... as every other hack n slash out there. Which is to say, the gameplay was ok. And the story does get interesting as it goes on for Monkey and what's-her-face.
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Date: 2013-02-11 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 05:12 am (UTC)Heavenly Sword sports a surprisingly talented cast including Anna Torv (Fringe), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), Richard Ridings (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Stephen Berkoff (Octopussy).
Enslaved also features Linday Shaw, best know as Moze from Ned's Declassified, and Serkis in a role that I swear makes him the perfect next choice for Wolverine should Hugh Jackman or Steve Blum stop associating with the role.
Not to mention, the latter was written by Alex Garland (Dredd, Sunshine, 28 Days Later).
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Date: 2013-02-11 03:55 am (UTC)While I haven't been as strong/hardcore fan of a series in comparison to others (especially like you, that's amazing), I do love it a lot and tried to enjoy Dante in as many incantations as well.
The reboot was foul from the start to me. Tameem and NT didn't have a clear concept of what DMC was nor did he seem to have much respect for it (by a lot of what he said) and then he took a worse attitude and it just felt like him and Capcom were spitting in people's faces. And even if something is supposed to be a reboot, I don't see why you would change/abandon so much about a world and its star character.
Admittedly, I am glad the game bombed and hope it will be a lesson to both parties. But it is a pretty game with solid gameplay, so I hope NT get to work on an original title at least.
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Date: 2013-02-11 09:19 am (UTC):)
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Date: 2013-02-10 10:43 am (UTC)Sorry, Superfangirl1.
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Date: 2013-02-10 05:30 pm (UTC)I sort of like it for what it was even though I perfer the old games. :)
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Date: 2013-02-10 11:37 am (UTC)The best part about the reboot IMHO is Kat. She's pretty much the most awesome character in the game, possibly in the franchise. Dante -- foulmouthed jerkass-with-a-heart-of-gold Dante -- even admits that she's awesome at the end of the game.
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Date: 2013-02-11 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 09:30 am (UTC)The anime was far from perfect, but it did have a few gems :)
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Date: 2013-02-11 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 10:41 am (UTC)I have no problem with cussing, mostly. But it seemed like the cussing in DmC was there for its own sake. Was this trend also present in the other games? Because it seriously took me out of the mood of the game, as it felt like a pitiful attempt to be edgy when the gameplay on its own was taking me there, anyways.
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Date: 2013-02-13 11:45 pm (UTC)No, there was virtually no cussing in the other games. The worst you could hear was tame stuff like "what the hell is going on?"