I missed the dark and almost gothic feel of DMC1 and DMC2.
When it came to the first game, Devil May Cry had this spirit of self awareness and actual direction. Dante was like the epitome of what was considered cool at the time, and embraced that identity knowing damn well how silly also it could be ,and in the process didn't care because it took advantage of those traits. It never tried to be anything more, but it never tried to be anything less. Dante reminded me lots of characters like Ash Williams of the Evil Dead movies.
And what made it rise above and beyond that simple formula was an action game like no other at the time. Fast, furious, and obsessed with style. Devil May Cry knew exactly what it was.
After Kamiya left you notice that direction kinda abandoned because it's was now done by people who were never able to meet each other half way in these new things they added making for an experience that sometimes became rather jarring in tone especially because it wasn't very well done.
Dante became a wannabe ninja turtle and just a dork who thought he was cooler than he actually was. You saw his signature attitude, but in what seemed like a less self aware approach. Where there was like two separate sides to it all. One side was wanting to keep this cartoonish over the top flare, and then the other wanted to get dramatic and give Dante development but in arbitrary ways with a supporting cast of characters that never could even hold these games on their own because they would all have to play off each other.
A wonky character arc while still trying to keep what they thought people missed about Dante. I'm not the only one who feels Dante in the first game is rather different from his later incarnations in the sequels. This also just goes to show how **** poor their story telling is. They could never stay focused. They could never keep the characters straight or plot points they establish. You see people seriously TRYING to tell a story and failing.
DMC 4 rolls around and they try to do even more with it without understanding still, how to tell a damn story. They shoehorn in a love interest in this arbitrary attempt to appeal to female gamers. In the process you have what is basically a poorly written teen romance which one kid being angsty as hell, and the girl being absolutely bland. And they wanted you to get emotional invested in this! They stressed that point like hell through development.
Dante......is just there because he has to be. Being an idiot. Nothing particular interesting goes down with him. He's got unfunny jokes and cringe worthy dialogue. Not even the cool cheese, just like its all an afterthought because Nero was their protagonist and they tried so hard with him and his cardboard cutout love interest.
DmC I accept as it is. It pushed forward with confidence trying to be this fresh approach, but also nodded to the originals where it counts. And that over the top self aware cheese? Please do not say when it came to the social satire they were really taking themselves all that seriously. This is a game that has the most ridiculous energy drink ads since Futurama's Slurm, and makes a level out of malicious Fox News icons. It's pretty self aware.
And the more dramatic parts (that DMC also has) I can take a bit more seriously because the overall dialogue is more natural and the voice performances better at actually portraying some emotion.
I never said it was the best thing I've ever seen, I personally would have done things differently, but it did its job to say the least and I can simply give credit and criticism where its due.
