Import the current control scheme but with lock-on.
DMC1-4 unnecessarily carried over "Survival Horror" controls that have long overstayed it's welcome.
Sorry, but nope.avi. DmC control scheme would kills so many buttons for no reason and that kills the potential diversity of a next DMC game. Just compare a little the control scheme and character (in a playable perspective) design in DMC4: pressing one button on the D-PAD you could acess at least 3 other movements by changing styles, each one with their very own purposes and style of play and they can be mixed to make the game even more diverse. Shoulder buttons to change weapons and have at least 3 of them instantly, the same for firearms, no need to hold unnecessary buttons, in DMC3 you would hold DTE, drive, lock-on and shoot for different maneuvers, mainly the same buttons were used in DMC4 with exception of DTE button, in DmC you need to actually hold one button just to use another weapon. The dodge buttons would be pointless to a DMC title too, jumping and rolling works just as fine and you have many other tools like trickster's acrobatics or royalguard style (or even devil bringer counters) to avoid or parry monster's attacks. Not a good idea at all, DmC controls scheme was designed to be used in DmC only, would not fit in a DMC game so well.
Things that they could analyse and upgrade from DmC to use in a next DMC installment:
- D-PAD usage to change weapons with Nero, leave the unused shoulder button to implement new moves to Nero's moveset, like a second melee button or even a button to work with dual-wielding weapons (would be like a button for right and left hand weapons) to use different moves and mix combos with Red Queen + new weapon, if you consider exceed mechanics to work with the dual-handling to get different movements you'll have a gigantic moveset to Nero.
What they should not reuse from DmC:
- Enviromental kills, this just kill all the purpose of the combat, which is the main aspect of a DMC game.
- Dumb grab/pull mechanics, DB grab/pull mechanics worked just as fine in DMC4, it has much more reasonable range than DmC's one, you still have to think of what you are doing to keep up one combo going.
- Scripted bosses, cutscenes stoping the action, slow-motion kills, excessive plataforming, easy ways to hang in the air for much time and avoid all the risk of comboing for too long on some enemies
- Color-coded enemies and enemies that kills all the point in trying to do cool combos (Dreamrunners) or have dumb ways to just stop the action of the combat like Witches shields that render some tools useless until you break it (different from the Fallen Angels wings in DMC3, for example). Some enemies need to be hard to combo to the death like Arachnes or Fallen Angels from DMC3, but it has to be possible with skill, just like this:
Overall, they have to discard all that casualizing philosophy that NT used while designing DmC. They still can put a more casual character like Nero was compared to Dante in DMC4, but without dumbing all the entire game for this purpose and killing all the potential of the game in most aspects, like the challenge itself.
I don't see why DMC should use some DmC aspects on gameplay itself, their purpose of being a great game is kinda different. Even the devs stated that they wanted to give a more cool casual experience than a deep game by itself (which DMC is recognized to be). I'm not saying here that DmC "did all wrong", but DmC clearly had a different purpose behind all the design the devs put on that game, DMC is a very different thing on its core and just some ideas could be reworked to use in a next DMC game.
I disagree with this. I think the game should increase difficulty by adding more powerful foes, instead of weakening powerful elements. At least that's the kind of game design philosophy I like, buff other skills to match powerful ones instead of nerfing ones that seem overpowered. I like having more control and ease of access, the combos should come from creativity and not restrictive control mechanics.
It does not work this way, just look at the most "difficulty" foes on DmC: Dreamrunners. They have a dumb way to stop the action of a fight to look more difficult, they stop your combos even in mid-air because of the easyness to pull out that kind of combo, the game don't real give you tools to fool them and keep your combos going with creativity and skill, their parries work in a similar way to the color-coded enemies: they limit the players option to an extent where you have to use one strategy to deal great ammount of damage with less hits (like using DE with some strong movements, for example). The Arachnes from DMC3 had a similar parrying tool followed by a "charge" attack, but still you could keep up your combos by timing them right or having the knowledge to juggle them a little and use your style to keep hurting them (using trickster to still be on their heads when they just finish the attacks, or using just-release of RG style in the right timing to deal a little damage while avoiding being hurt by their attacks). This "cap" between players skills is a necessary thing for a game offer good tools for you to tackle monster (the tools cannot be that easy to use, or else the game will be too easy) while not being totally dumb and easy to deal with them, comparing fighting with Arachnes and Dreamrunners you will see that even a high skilled player will get stuck with their combos and "CUHRAYZEENESS" with a DR because the enemy has a mechanic that counter directly any attempt to deal damage to him with one melee attack even in mid-air (and even projectiles if he's not stunned).
I will show one example of what a skilled player can do even with one anoying monster like Arachne, it starts at 2:18:
Look on how he juggles the monster to avoid that parrying thing and the games gives room for he to use another tools to deal damage while still keeping the close-range fight, this can be achieved with some knowledge of the enemy design itself and your tools, different from a Dreamrunner were you have to dodge all the time and he parries you even in mid-air.
Basically, resuming my point: if you give excelent tools that are too easy to use and master, you'll have to make dumb design choices for the game just not turn out in being the player comboing dummies in the stages and giving no challenge at all. The learning curve is very important to a challenging and interesting game, so the difficult to master a game is justified by itself, but it can get along with a lot of mechanical, playable features and even can affect directly the diversity that a hack'n'slash will offer to you.