DMC Special Edition

[Viper]

Or maybe your attempt at defending it.

Seriously now, I don't know your criteria, but as for me, a game with an incredibly dull story, an even duller protagonist, poor gameplay with practically every enemy being cheesable with maxed out pistols and tedious level design, with all that running around in overly big areas, I tend to judge that pretty much a failure, yeah. You may disagree but in my eyes, there are FAR too many problems to say it's even decent.
Besides, I didn't even say it's a failure in every aspect. I do recognize the - IMO, very few - good things that are there, I've said it in some posts in the past.

Maybe I sound like with someone with too high expectations (as if that wasn't legit after a game as good as Devil May Cry back in the day anyway), but you sound like someone in denial to me. It is no secret that DMC2's development process was a VERY messed up one and the game turned out badly as a result, by the developers' own admission too. That's why I said it needs a remake the most.

You started listing things as if literally everything about DMC2 was a failure. And yet the only things I would consider are true problems are one boss that can't defend itself when you get close to it and occasional fight that needs to be done with guns.
The story is dull? Well yeah, but only seems that way cause of dark atmosphere and silent Dante, it has as much content as any other DMC game save for DMC4 maybe, the only thing that's really different is that you don't have Dante and the bosses doing some intro talk to cover it up.
Gameplay is improvement compared to DMC1, save for sword moves. Trickster style was actually based on some of Dante's evasive moves in DMC2. I actually love the button layout, it's friendly to those who don't live and breathe video games.
Level design might be a little poor, it's very open yet didn't use it in proper amount, but is in no way more tedious than running up and down the tower, or up and down the castle, or back and forth through that mixture of settings on Fortuna island.
You can beat all the enemies with maxed out guns, but who says you HAVE to do it? In fact, I find slashing through a group to be a better option.

If you say something is bad often enough, everyone starts to believe it, even developers. You think Itsuno would be so embarrassed of it if DMC2 wasn't treated with nothing but disdain from the moment the first details came out?

Yes, it needs a remake, but not because it's a failure. It just needs to improve on good ideas it had and to finally get rid of the stigma.

 

[Foxtrot94]

@Viper
Look, if you like it, more power to ya. I strongly disagree with giving that game the credit you're giving it, but this is no place to talk about it and I already got carried away too much by replying to you and if it's not a problem to you, I'd like to apologize with the OP for the off topic you and I just derailed the thread with.

 

[RadiantWolf]

Devil May Cry 2 was in development while the first game was finishing up, from what I've heard. Kamiya learned about it when the original director asked him for his design docs while the first game was going into its localization phase.

The original director was replaced by Itsuno about halfway through development.

Honestly, I like Devil May Cry 2 a fair bit, and I would not mind seeing it remade. It was a fun little time waster of a hack and slash but mediocre compared to its predecessor. It tried to outdo Cry 1 in scope without understanding that those cramped spaces were beneficial to the game and that maybe the guns were slightly underpowered for a reason. The story was a mess but I think I might be the only human on the planet who was not too bothered by Dante's characterization there. He had glimmers of a more playful self under the silent moodiness.

Cry 2 is somewhat unfairly maligned, I think. It has problems but it should not be talked about like it's say Drake and the 99 Dragons. It's a competently made game, it's just not at all well polished.

Anyway...

to bring us back to the actual topic, we mentioned the level design a bit. I actually like the pacing of DMC1 but if they could find a way to bring in a few more levels that did not reuse old parts of the castle that would be awesome. They just have to feel tight. One thing DMC1 had over its sequels is really tight theming possibly owing to its origin as a Resident Evil title. In later parts of the game as you backtrack over areas you can see they've been partially consumed by the demon world. There is this underlying sense that the island itself is alive and shifting around you (which, credit where it is do, was also used in the tower in DMC2 to good effect). I would love to see that played with a bit more, with things being just slightly skewed sometimes when you revisit them, initially in subtle ways and then more and more in horrific, obvious ways.

 

[V's patron]

A full remake with a redone story and reworked game-play would be a good consolation prize for not getting a new adventure that DMC5 would be (hopefully).