Kam
Wall of text crits you for 600
Another lengthy post incoming, reader beware! Skip to the TL;DR if you don't have time for this ****
Some of the more obvious fixes that could be done:
No more platforming, puzzles, keys, or grapple swinging. This is an action title, so if there has to be something that takes away from the action, I would only pick one or two important things (like story, or a customization element), but all of those things together is a really bloated, inelegant way to pace the game. It's like if someone just wanted to play peggle, but after every milestone they were forced to play a round of excite bike before continuing the game. It's a really lazy way to handle the intensity curve, which is to say they didn't know how to handle it so they just make you play a different game every now and then to avoid fatigue.
I would also bring back the DMC3 loadout system, where a character has to pick which weapons and styles they want to equip at the start of the level. Having access to every style and weapon at the same time meant everything had to be nerfed heavily, to account for players suddenly having access to all of those things at once. In DMC3, the "baseline" difficulty curve was dante using zero styles. Every fight had to be balanced for a dante that might not be using swordmaster, or might not be a gunslinger, or might not be guarding, which meant that if you did use any of those things, you were extra powerful. Compare that to DMC4, where a player in melee can deal swordmaster damage, royal guard an attack, trickster to range, and then deal gunslinger ranged damage. Suddenly using all of these styles isn't bonus utility any more, it's become the norm.
Compare this to some of the crazy/clever bullshit you could see people pull off in DMC3, not to mention very unique playstyles based on loadout. A gunslinger using nevan bats as shields to buy time for artemis charges was completely different from an elemental swordmaster using A&R/cerberus, or a beowulf royal guard. In DMC3, gunslinger was so powerful that it was actually possible to clear the game only using guns, and still look stylish doing it. Similar things have been attempted in DMC4 and DmC, but nothing even remotely successful.
TL;DR - remove the non combat elements from the game, use different kinds and intensities of combat to meter the game, instead of splicing in different games. Bring back loadouts, because players mix and matching their characters was a lot more interesting than everybody having equal access to fewer and weaker weapons/styles.
Some of the more obvious fixes that could be done:
No more platforming, puzzles, keys, or grapple swinging. This is an action title, so if there has to be something that takes away from the action, I would only pick one or two important things (like story, or a customization element), but all of those things together is a really bloated, inelegant way to pace the game. It's like if someone just wanted to play peggle, but after every milestone they were forced to play a round of excite bike before continuing the game. It's a really lazy way to handle the intensity curve, which is to say they didn't know how to handle it so they just make you play a different game every now and then to avoid fatigue.
I would also bring back the DMC3 loadout system, where a character has to pick which weapons and styles they want to equip at the start of the level. Having access to every style and weapon at the same time meant everything had to be nerfed heavily, to account for players suddenly having access to all of those things at once. In DMC3, the "baseline" difficulty curve was dante using zero styles. Every fight had to be balanced for a dante that might not be using swordmaster, or might not be a gunslinger, or might not be guarding, which meant that if you did use any of those things, you were extra powerful. Compare that to DMC4, where a player in melee can deal swordmaster damage, royal guard an attack, trickster to range, and then deal gunslinger ranged damage. Suddenly using all of these styles isn't bonus utility any more, it's become the norm.
Compare this to some of the crazy/clever bullshit you could see people pull off in DMC3, not to mention very unique playstyles based on loadout. A gunslinger using nevan bats as shields to buy time for artemis charges was completely different from an elemental swordmaster using A&R/cerberus, or a beowulf royal guard. In DMC3, gunslinger was so powerful that it was actually possible to clear the game only using guns, and still look stylish doing it. Similar things have been attempted in DMC4 and DmC, but nothing even remotely successful.
TL;DR - remove the non combat elements from the game, use different kinds and intensities of combat to meter the game, instead of splicing in different games. Bring back loadouts, because players mix and matching their characters was a lot more interesting than everybody having equal access to fewer and weaker weapons/styles.
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