In character design, when someone tells you to "go extreme," you will often do your absolute worst works using the absolute worst ideas. It's the idea of "plussing." Capcom's actually taking a smarter approach to the redesign than anyone realizes; when you design something, you design it to be absolutely implausible, then keep cutting away until you find something that works. You then keep cutting until you wind up at the soul of what you're going after. So, I'm not surprised in the least that Dante wound up shirtless with suspenders; I mean, if you see some of the designs for Kratos early in the development of God of War, you'll understand how weird character designs can get.
I'm not saying I agree with Capcom's approach to this; 2.7 mil is still a solid pull. But they're also in a bit of a rut; sequels for games tend to do significantly worse than their predecessors, and get worse numbers iteratively. That's the usual trend. This trend fluctuates pretty regularly, but when most gamers who aren't as dedicated as, say, people who post here and actually read these kinds of articles, seeing a number on a game past the title is usually an indicator that the series is already invested. If you weren't a part of this before, don't get involved. This isn't always the case, but it does support the trend a bit. Capcom's probably looking at the usual trend and is using the reboot to get the series back on top. I don't mind wanting more numbers, but rebooting a franchise with a legion of adoring fans is not the best way to start.
That said, from here on out, I'm treating it as an inevitability. We have a reboot now. Time to make the best of it. And I'll be honest, the old Dante was spotty at best. We've gotten a somber Dante with some kickass one-liners and absolutely horrible scenes (DMC1), a mute (DMC2), a badass teenager who is EXTREEEEME (DMC3) and an odd combination of the first and third characters placed almost like an afterthought and thrown forcibly through levels the player's already JUST experienced (DMC4). As a character, he's... Kind of boring. He's invincible. He doesn't break a sweat. It's rare for us to see him falter. He is a BORING CHARACTER. He's guilty of a lot of the flaws we lambast Western characters for, yet we praise him because he looks good doing it. And that's fine, for a mindless action game, but the series spins a pretty interesting narrative, and Dante doesn't really support that.
Ninja Theory's devoted to character. They're devoted to narrative. Say what you want about Heavenly Sword's gameplay, but the narrative structure and handle on characters was fantastic. Their designs were appropriate, deliberate; nothing seemed erroneous or out of place considering their setting. And, it looks like they're taking the same approach with Dante, a pre-established character with a lot of fan love. Thanks to Capcom, Ninja Theory was NOT going to win fans over. They weren't even allowed. They have my sympathies, but I'm also rooting for them. I want them to make this character mean something. I want to be interested in Dante again, on a character level, not just on a one-liner awesome-action-sequence level. And I think Ninja Theory could do it
