How would you fix DMC2?

[Meg]

How would you make this game better? Assume you can’t throw out the whole game and start over. This isn’t a remake either; it’s the 2000s again and you’re tasked with saving the sinking ship. You can make changes based on what’s already there, but not rewrite a whole new story or create brand new environments out of thin air, for example.

What I would do is keep Dante’s more quiet personality, but tweak it so he’s quieter out of boredom and apathy. He defeated Mundus and avenged his family. He doesn’t really have any long term goals and hasn’t faced any tough fights in years. He’s phoning it in basically.

His decision to ride off into hell, at the end of the game, is so he can find tougher opponents to fight. Which he does, leading him to feel energized and ready to go. I think that leads nicely into how he acts in future installments.

For gameplay, I would stick with basic improvements like tone down how powerful the guns are and make the enemies more aggressive. I would also have a number of bosses try to taunt Dante, only for them to get utterly wrecked by him. While I wouldn’t want the game to be a cakewalk, I would still want to keep it a little easier than the first game on Normal, in order to highlight Dante’s growth and justify his “meh” reaction to enemies. Higher difficulty levels would be more in line with what we expect from a DMC game.

Those are my thoughts! What ideas do you guys have?

 

[V's patron]

I'd scrap Dante and use the original protagonist- he was some dude in a green suit. But that might be too big a change.

I'd keep Dante's original personality and make it more off a case of the week style story.

Up until 5, the stories are pretty self-contained. So Arius and Uroborus are an existing threat Matier hires Dante to face after the Vie Di Marli get wiped out.

Essentially Uroborus is Shin-Ra from FF7.

Lucia would probably be the protagonist while Dante is a mentor figure.

His apathy is there but he hides it better by being aloof. Dante was canonically a mercenary so he has expierence with that.

Lucia is a defective version of the secretary enemy but I'd add another character to be the original- a Vie di marli defector titled Umbra. She is Lucia's Rival while Dante fights Arius's bodyguard- a former devil hunter he used to know. Arius's bodyguard could be an existing character like Enzo or someone new.

I'd probably use the Dante trapped in hell ending as a teaser for the next game. Although I'm not sure if he ends the game trapped or that's something that happens in the beginning.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Bring in dante's personality from 4 or 1, keep the style sytem from 3 and add more devil arms for dante in it

Give lucia a unique style for herself, have lady and trish in it as cameo's who fight with the clan and help matier, also allow them both to be playable in bloody palace

Have arius be the human disguise of despair embodied, then have a 3 stage fight with him in all forms including argosax as dante, and have a separate final boss for lucia aswell as her own bosses just for her. Have lucia fight lady and trish in a case of mistaken identity.Let nero have a cutscene or 2 setting up his younger years.

Show what happened with vergil right after he was bested as nelo angelo.

Vary the level design as much as possible for the tech of the time and make it more dynamic and less empty and barren, but keep the open spaces. Get rid of the tanks, and instead have dante fight possessed soldiers with their souls gone. Allow the mission areas to be traveled too on motorbike or by flying as dante, as an intermisssion style between stages.

 

[berto]

That’s a loaded question. There’s a lot of scraping to be done and elements that need to reorganized. One thing that’d need to happen is to look at every room and encounter and redress them. That’s if we’re not scraping the whole thing. The game is boring and the issues come from the combat and the environments. The game has some badass looking spots but, especially in the beginning, there is even more dull spots. The town, for example, doesn’t look bad, but walking through it is a bore. The ambiance needs fine tuning.
Alright. Breaks over. I’m at work so I’ll continue this later.

 

[V's patron]

@ef9dante_oSsshea
You could have Argus and Gloria pop up as side characters.

Maybe Argus worked for Uroborus before he went to Fortuna?

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Ya you could setup the order in 4 during 2, good idea @V's patron

I would also like to have dante fight fake mundus from the novel, as a tutorial fight and whoop his ass

 

[V's patron]

Trish's absence is explained via unlockable content. It's just a series of letters Trish sends Dante about her travels. You could tease some connections to other Capcom properties but they are vague- meeting a detective Wolf in Badger city.

@ef9dante_oSsshea
I'd adapt the novel as dlc but that works too.

The tutorial could be a dream of Dante fighting Mundus again- a recap of the first game.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

I think the one aspect that would really add to it would be the ability to travel between areas in real time, not via cutscenes.

Also, nerf dante's guns so that they are not so op and he needs to focus on melee combat and his styles more. On top of that have majin dt work like sin dt, but limit the time it lasts so again it is not op

Get rid of all possesed vehicles too, and change those to fights with demon generals or just high ranking demons

 

[V's patron]

I think the one aspect that would really add to it would be the ability to travel between areas in real time, not via cutscenes.

Also, nerf dante's guns so that they are not so op and he needs to focus on melee combat and his styles more. On top of that have majin dt work like sin dt, but limit the time it lasts so again it is not op

Get rid of all possesed vehicles too, and change those to fights with demon generals or just high ranking demons

You could have driving missions- where Dante outraces enemies on a motorcycle or chases after them.

FF7Remake did something like that. Its one way to make traversal a mechanic without making the game open world or a platformer.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Ya that works well, he could fire ebony and ivory or use rebellion one handed while driving, or even have the bike have a demonic version with rockets when he devil triggers

 

[V's patron]

Ya that works well, he could fire ebony and ivory or use rebellion one handed while driving, or even have the bike have a demonic version with rockets when he devil triggers

You could have it be Geryon from the third game or a early boss Dante fights and the bike is a devil arm.

 

[berto]

So, I thought about this on and off and I had some thoughts that I had to polish into something more articulate.
Everyone here knows the story of the game. How when Itsuno came in there was nothing but random elements done. The scenario was non existent, combat animations were nowhere to be found, and it was do out soon. This is the result. So I have sympathy for the whole staff and I get why things are as they are. I tried to approach this question with that in mind but that wasn't leading anywhere so I stepped back and stopped thinking about it actively and just let my imagination go. I got better results like that.
These are my little flights of fancy on the matter. So, starting with the worst fight in the game, the chopper fight. Why does it suck? Because it's long and repetitive; all you really do is shoot the thing with accurate firearms and wait till it dies. Thats boring. Oh, heaven above, is that boring. You start the thing with the game pushing into the building to start a climb but that was clunky and pretty sloppy. You move up to the roof of that building where you can fight the thing then then jump to the next building, climb that one and finish the fight on that roof. How about this: When you're pushed into the building you instead run through some corridors to outrun the flames encountering enemies trying to slow you down as the flames take the building. Some optional, some not so much. When we get to the roof of the building we focus on the top of the next building. That one has 4 pillars, one on each corner. Those is not just platforms anymore, they're turrets. Maybe one's gun and the other a missile turret. Who know. This is all fantasy so why not. The fight on the first roof is with regular enemies assisted by the helicopter. I also thought that maybe there's be two helicopters. The first you take out on the first roof by getting it caught on some power lines or using something there is only one of forcing you to use the turrets on the other. The second fight can be this situation where you are forced to leave a turret for a little time and use the other while the first reloads or cools down or stops being on fire (not joking). When I thought about this I was reminded of the Bayonetta fight in the building where you use the turrets but that didn't seem fitting. For this I was thinking of maybe something faster, making the helicopter quick and agile while the turret is manurable. Lastly, instead of the helicopter landing on Dante at the end of the fight I'd have the helicopter crash against whatever pillar Dante was on and knocking him off the building like that.
The Jokatgulm was a bit weird to think about, too. See, the Orangguerra (Monkey, from now on) is easy. You change the animations to be better. It's a fight in a room. Just fight the monkey. Give him a better move set and done. Jokatgulm (hydra from now on) has to be revamped because it's just not working, nor would any variation in that. This, I'd have as a corridor fight where you fight each tentacle till you get to the head and torso where it become a snake boss fight but where it only comes out of the walls, never shows its full body. I also thought about doing it like this so you'd have to go find the room where it defends its heart. There is where you fight the head and the tentacles. If you've ever been to a construction site you sometimes see these large metal sheets the size of bed or even a wall. Those things are supremely heavy. I imagined this fight taking place in a half constructed area and as a killing move Dante spots one of these sheets hanging on wire on a crane. He slices the sheet into a V shape, it goes right through the 'head' and pierces the heart. The head doesn't fall off because it didn't fully decapítate the thing but once it slices through the head, even before impaling the heart, the thing goes still and things go quiet. Slowly and eventually the head lays down gently on the floor.
This is like writing fanfiction, I swear. never done that but I'm kinda having fun. Anyway, this one I'm not all that enamoured with but it's something. This is also getting long so I'm calling it here.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Thinking back actually, there is a window of oppurtunity for matier to be related to lady and scrap lucia

Then have lady go to the island to train as a priestess like her bloodline before her, and gain use of magic and other skills. Lady then reaches out to dante for help and he goes there to help her out, and trish could have a part to play too so they are not just useless cameo's

 

[V's patron]

Thinking back actually, there is a window of oppurtunity for matier to be related to lady and scrap lucia

Then have lady go to the island to train as a priestess like her bloodline before her, and gain use of magic and other skills. Lady then reaches out to dante for help and he goes there to help her out, and trish could have a part to play too so they are not just useless cameo's

I don't mind connecting Lady to the Vie di marli but I'd keep Lucia and make her Lady's surrogate younger sister. Lady's original concept was more of a mentor for Dante. So I'd reuse that and have her be Lucia's mentor figure.

I rather replace Dante with Lady and Trish than Lucia as I feel like she has more of a connection to the game's events.

I'm also fine with using Vergil or your take on Nero from your rewrite thread.

Since this game has two campaigns, I don't think you need to cut anyone. You could just give missions where Dante and Lucia team up with either Lady or Trish.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

Vergil was mia in this timeframe, but u could have it be ur intro to v

Or someone new entirely

 

[V's patron]

Vergil was mia in this timeframe, but u could have it be ur intro to v

Or someone new entirely

I had a pitch for Dante's rival in the other thread. Essentially it's a mercenary that works for Arius. I could use that guy as a focus character- his arc is to grow a conscience and help Lucia against Arius. You could recycle Dante's stoic characterization and coin flip for him. Before DMC2 was conceived, it was separate ideas folded into DMC2. One of them was a character with a green jacket. So that mercenary could have a green jacket as a reference.

I dub him Matthew or Mister Green.

His fighting style would revolve around hand to hand moves and manipulating a mist-like
substance into different forms like an ax or a staff.

I disagree about Vergil. His whereabouts after 1 is unknown till he pops up in 5.

Vergil grew up under Mundus and would have a more screwed perspective. Rather than being like Darth Vader, Vergil is comparable to Darth Maul. You would see this take on Vergil as too far gone but never having the chance to actually be good.

So 2 could be a testing ground- would Vergil left to his own devices be good? Or is he too far gone?

His game play relies on his styles- dark slayer and summoner.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

I have an interesting take, what if the story was changed back to Dante being Sparda's twin

Since we are doing a rewrite for that time, it is before 3 and vergil even existing. So what if dante was full demon, and had the same powers as sparda, but got all 3 weapons. So he has the rebellion, yamato and force edge. He also has his 4 styles and darkslayer style making 5.

I mean he has doppleganger and quicksilver from 3, but they never get use again which is dumb and this idea retcons 3 anyway.

 

[V's patron]

I have an interesting take, what if the story was changed back to Dante being Sparda's twin

Since we are doing a rewrite for that time, it is before 3 and vergil even existing. So what if dante was full demon, and had the same powers as sparda, but got all 3 weapons. So he has the rebellion, yamato and force edge. He also has his 4 styles and darkslayer style making 5.

I mean he has doppleganger and quicksilver from 3, but they never get use again which is dumb and this idea retcons 3 anyway.

You would have to change 1 significantly. This might be a better idea for my series rewrite thread.

 

[CaitNíSé_D_Huntress]

I would change it from an island to a cyberpunk like city at night, don't know why but i think a neon city with smoke and flickering street lights and demons in human disguises would have suited a DMC game as the setting back then

 

[V's patron]

I would change it from an island to a cyberpunk like city at night, don't know why but i think a neon city with smoke and flickering street lights and demons in human disguises would have suited a DMC game as the setting back then

Dante had a past as a mercenary and was originally a detective or a police officer. So having a story that was more crime based and seedier feels like a good angle for him.