VineBigBoss
GGXRD <3
Very good discussion you're bringing here! It's good to try and reach and explanation to what gives the "personality" of a game or a franchise, great thoughts from you and your friends.
I think that to analyse this we have to take from what ideas Devil May Cry started off, and them, how the devs developed the game to be sucessfull and recognized as a great franchise from the PS2/XBOX/GC generation:
- Dante as a character is one of the recognizable things about Devil May Cry, i mean, when you see the red coated and white-haired demon hunter with a cocky attitude and his two signature guns you know what is this all about. This are things that changed with time, but when Capcom realized with DMC2 that they've interpreted Dante in a displeasent way, they've returned more to the thing setted in the very first DMC, but showing us a younger and irresponsible Dante developing a little more on what he became in the first title, DMC4 kinda messed this up by making Dante more like he was a young adult than in his DMC incarnation, but it's understandable too.
- DMC first started as more an action/adventure game than a hack'n'slash itself, just looking by the enemy design you can tell the difference between DMC and DMC3. DMC enemies were more about figuring out their weakness and critical hits than on relying strongly on your reaction and adapting the combat system itself to beat them, you would search straight in the enemies their weakness rather than on exploring the combat and combo system overall to develop good techniques to hit them (still, some enemies work this way, like Death Scissors DTed helm breaker technique or Frosts DT-canceled infernos). So, basically, DMC developed to a hack'n'slash franchise when they've introduced new concepts focusing more on combat itself than on understanding the design behind the enemies, i would say they balanced the well-designed enemies with more deep combat to make all that in a good mixture. But still, DMC3 sustained most of that concepts, just like enemies weakness to elemental weapons or by making their tools of combat useless like using Nevan against Enigmas or stoping the Arachne charged attacks with well-placed strong attacks with A&R (rather than hitting Scissors in the right timing and shooting them to a free kill, for example). So, basicaly: the well designed enemies, playable character and movements were a remarkable feature in most of the DMC games (excluding DMC2) and then it developed to a well designed combat and combo system too, this is where the "CUHRAYZEE" thing would be born.
- "Cheesy" and cliche story was ever a thing that distinguished DMC from another games from his time too, DMC started as an unpretentious game, just giving you a background to kill some demons but this was rethinked in DMC3 and they decided to focus more on the characters for a bit and make the story more enjoyable overall besides being just a background to demon-killing. As well as cool (but somewhat cliche too) characters and cool-looking weapons and designs overall.
- DMC become like a "father" to most modern hack'n'slash games, introducing concepts and well applied ideas in the franchise that became general gameplay features to most of the subsequent hack'n'slash games. Most games ripped off concepts presented on DMC3 and 4 to apply on their very own games. Games like God of War 3, Bayonetta, Darksiders and so on clearly took some of DMC ideas to implement in their franchises and make the combat more enjoyable. So, another thing that make us remember of DMC is just saying "hack'n'slash genre", is one of the most important franchises for the development of this genre itself. It's like Mario, Sonic or Megaman were to the plataformers and side-scrolling games. Most of this features are: - Combat foundations on inputing commands and pressing buttons to use different moves and giving them different properties to work with.
- Fluid and instant changing of weapons, styles and mechanics like exceed made the games more diverse, cool-loking and deep on the mechanics.
- Well designed bosses and enemies to work with all these features
I think that what makes DMC be DMC is all that things that were developed over time, but for someone who doesn't know too much about the franchise itself: Just seeing Dante, Vergil, big swords, guns, or some CUHRAYZEE action in DMC games were like the trademark of the series. The gameplay of DMC3 itself is a "mirror" of Dante's personality, the combat looks fun because the character is having fun beating up demons and that is what made the franchise have some fame on the general audience view.
I think that to analyse this we have to take from what ideas Devil May Cry started off, and them, how the devs developed the game to be sucessfull and recognized as a great franchise from the PS2/XBOX/GC generation:
- Dante as a character is one of the recognizable things about Devil May Cry, i mean, when you see the red coated and white-haired demon hunter with a cocky attitude and his two signature guns you know what is this all about. This are things that changed with time, but when Capcom realized with DMC2 that they've interpreted Dante in a displeasent way, they've returned more to the thing setted in the very first DMC, but showing us a younger and irresponsible Dante developing a little more on what he became in the first title, DMC4 kinda messed this up by making Dante more like he was a young adult than in his DMC incarnation, but it's understandable too.
- DMC first started as more an action/adventure game than a hack'n'slash itself, just looking by the enemy design you can tell the difference between DMC and DMC3. DMC enemies were more about figuring out their weakness and critical hits than on relying strongly on your reaction and adapting the combat system itself to beat them, you would search straight in the enemies their weakness rather than on exploring the combat and combo system overall to develop good techniques to hit them (still, some enemies work this way, like Death Scissors DTed helm breaker technique or Frosts DT-canceled infernos). So, basically, DMC developed to a hack'n'slash franchise when they've introduced new concepts focusing more on combat itself than on understanding the design behind the enemies, i would say they balanced the well-designed enemies with more deep combat to make all that in a good mixture. But still, DMC3 sustained most of that concepts, just like enemies weakness to elemental weapons or by making their tools of combat useless like using Nevan against Enigmas or stoping the Arachne charged attacks with well-placed strong attacks with A&R (rather than hitting Scissors in the right timing and shooting them to a free kill, for example). So, basicaly: the well designed enemies, playable character and movements were a remarkable feature in most of the DMC games (excluding DMC2) and then it developed to a well designed combat and combo system too, this is where the "CUHRAYZEE" thing would be born.
- "Cheesy" and cliche story was ever a thing that distinguished DMC from another games from his time too, DMC started as an unpretentious game, just giving you a background to kill some demons but this was rethinked in DMC3 and they decided to focus more on the characters for a bit and make the story more enjoyable overall besides being just a background to demon-killing. As well as cool (but somewhat cliche too) characters and cool-looking weapons and designs overall.
- DMC become like a "father" to most modern hack'n'slash games, introducing concepts and well applied ideas in the franchise that became general gameplay features to most of the subsequent hack'n'slash games. Most games ripped off concepts presented on DMC3 and 4 to apply on their very own games. Games like God of War 3, Bayonetta, Darksiders and so on clearly took some of DMC ideas to implement in their franchises and make the combat more enjoyable. So, another thing that make us remember of DMC is just saying "hack'n'slash genre", is one of the most important franchises for the development of this genre itself. It's like Mario, Sonic or Megaman were to the plataformers and side-scrolling games. Most of this features are: - Combat foundations on inputing commands and pressing buttons to use different moves and giving them different properties to work with.
- Fluid and instant changing of weapons, styles and mechanics like exceed made the games more diverse, cool-loking and deep on the mechanics.
- Well designed bosses and enemies to work with all these features
I think that what makes DMC be DMC is all that things that were developed over time, but for someone who doesn't know too much about the franchise itself: Just seeing Dante, Vergil, big swords, guns, or some CUHRAYZEE action in DMC games were like the trademark of the series. The gameplay of DMC3 itself is a "mirror" of Dante's personality, the combat looks fun because the character is having fun beating up demons and that is what made the franchise have some fame on the general audience view.
