DragonMaster2010
Don't Let the Fall of America be Your Fall
Thought I'd come back for a bit to post this. Just an opinion I saw. That is all.
(Also good to see images are back. My post some things.)
http://gazcraft.tumblr.com/post/102691374878/human-and-demons-how-dmc-nails-it
Human and demons. How DmC nails it.
I think this is something I’ve talked about on Twitter before, but I want to put it down in a better form.
If you haven’t played Ninja Theory’s Devil May Cry reboot ‘DmC’ and you have any love for action games, then you should go fix that immediately; it’s excellent. It is a beautiful example of characters that feel like real people, something that games so often struggle to do.
One of the criticisms I remember seeing about the game was to do with its writing. They thought it was crass, they thought it swore too much, that it was juvenile. At the risk of being the guy who says they just didn’t “get it”, well… I don’t know if they did.
Ninja Theory is based in England, it is a British studio, and I think this is significant to how the game portrays itself, and explains why some of the perception could be down to cultural differences.
From my experience, for a lot of people, swearing in Britain doesn’t have the same impact that it does in, say, the US for example.
Swear words are casually inserted into conversation as a means of hyperbole or just punctuation, rather than an attempt to offend anyone.
And this is how much of the writing in DmC feels.
One exchange between Dante and a boss ends up like this:
Boss:”**** you!”
Dante:”**** you!”
Boss:”**** YOUUUUUU *throws up*”
I get it, there’s not much subtlety. But the delivery of the line from Dante is perfect. This exchange comes after some insults have been thrown already, the boss is furious but defeated and can only think to utter “**** you!”, and Dante, so nonchalantly stoops to the boss’s level because he’s just a dick to demons and is all like, nah mate, **** you, while the mocap captures the perfect, dickhead, grin on Dante’s face.
Perfect.
He doesn’t have a bank of one-liners ready to spout off at a moment’s notice, he reads the situation and comes up with something quickly. And sometimes all that is, is a “**** you!”
Old Dante was a lovable, campy, anime ‘quirky’ character. Full of zingers and flashy moves.
New Dante is mostly a ****ty kid, funny because of his comedic timing and how he plays off others, rather than saying phrases that are funny in a vaccuum.
DmC is a triumph of making character interactions feel natural, the writing, the voice acting and the stunningly good mocap all come together incredibly well. Characters banter, make crappy jokes, sly digs, get mad, lose control of emotions mid-sentence.
The character development feels logical and relatable. Dante is a punk, plain and simple, at the start of the game. Over time though, he grows to relate to the people he is with and through that, grows empathy and starts to think about others and humanity as a whole. Some characters come to deal with their own demons, while others become them.
There’s nothing like the terribly awkward scenes in the first DMC where the mostly serious Dante suddenly feels feelings and should have been the one to fill you dark soul with liiiiiight-iiight-iight-ight. The changes in character are subtle up untill key moments where characters behave in a way you might not expect; but looking back, you should have seen it coming. They’re not the same person they were.
And this isn’t even touching in the flowing combat, the balanced difficulty, the amazing level design and the completely stunning art direction; especially for the environments.
The game’s hella good, and it is a travesty that it probably won’t be getting a follow up, because Ninja Theory so completely nailed it.
(Also good to see images are back. My post some things.)
http://gazcraft.tumblr.com/post/102691374878/human-and-demons-how-dmc-nails-it
Human and demons. How DmC nails it.
I think this is something I’ve talked about on Twitter before, but I want to put it down in a better form.
If you haven’t played Ninja Theory’s Devil May Cry reboot ‘DmC’ and you have any love for action games, then you should go fix that immediately; it’s excellent. It is a beautiful example of characters that feel like real people, something that games so often struggle to do.
One of the criticisms I remember seeing about the game was to do with its writing. They thought it was crass, they thought it swore too much, that it was juvenile. At the risk of being the guy who says they just didn’t “get it”, well… I don’t know if they did.
Ninja Theory is based in England, it is a British studio, and I think this is significant to how the game portrays itself, and explains why some of the perception could be down to cultural differences.
From my experience, for a lot of people, swearing in Britain doesn’t have the same impact that it does in, say, the US for example.
Swear words are casually inserted into conversation as a means of hyperbole or just punctuation, rather than an attempt to offend anyone.
And this is how much of the writing in DmC feels.
One exchange between Dante and a boss ends up like this:
Boss:”**** you!”
Dante:”**** you!”
Boss:”**** YOUUUUUU *throws up*”
I get it, there’s not much subtlety. But the delivery of the line from Dante is perfect. This exchange comes after some insults have been thrown already, the boss is furious but defeated and can only think to utter “**** you!”, and Dante, so nonchalantly stoops to the boss’s level because he’s just a dick to demons and is all like, nah mate, **** you, while the mocap captures the perfect, dickhead, grin on Dante’s face.
Perfect.
He doesn’t have a bank of one-liners ready to spout off at a moment’s notice, he reads the situation and comes up with something quickly. And sometimes all that is, is a “**** you!”
Old Dante was a lovable, campy, anime ‘quirky’ character. Full of zingers and flashy moves.
New Dante is mostly a ****ty kid, funny because of his comedic timing and how he plays off others, rather than saying phrases that are funny in a vaccuum.
DmC is a triumph of making character interactions feel natural, the writing, the voice acting and the stunningly good mocap all come together incredibly well. Characters banter, make crappy jokes, sly digs, get mad, lose control of emotions mid-sentence.
The character development feels logical and relatable. Dante is a punk, plain and simple, at the start of the game. Over time though, he grows to relate to the people he is with and through that, grows empathy and starts to think about others and humanity as a whole. Some characters come to deal with their own demons, while others become them.
There’s nothing like the terribly awkward scenes in the first DMC where the mostly serious Dante suddenly feels feelings and should have been the one to fill you dark soul with liiiiiight-iiight-iight-ight. The changes in character are subtle up untill key moments where characters behave in a way you might not expect; but looking back, you should have seen it coming. They’re not the same person they were.
And this isn’t even touching in the flowing combat, the balanced difficulty, the amazing level design and the completely stunning art direction; especially for the environments.
The game’s hella good, and it is a travesty that it probably won’t be getting a follow up, because Ninja Theory so completely nailed it.
