No Lock-On Is Actually Better Than Outdated Lock-On

[Goldsickle]

DMC was originally intended as a beta for Resident Evil 4, so some trappings and mechanics get carried over to the game's design.

The "hold R1 to draw weapon" mechanic was common in a lot of games that imitated the Resident Evil or Alone In The Dark format back then.
Most of the time, your character can't move but in later titles of such format, your character will lock-on to the enemy while moving slowly.

My problem with DMC's old lock-on mechanic was:

- You need to keep the R1 button held down to maintain lock-on. There are other games where you just press once to initiate lock on and press them again to turn them off. In other words, lock-on can be turned off or on via toggling.

- Your movement slows down for no ****ing reason. This isn't a Resident Evil game anymore, so there's no reason for Dante to slow down when he's locked-on to an opponent. It's no longer a 'draw weapon' button.

Whenever I play any of the old Devil May Cry game, I always only lock-on to perform signature moves.
Most of the time, I'll be running and jumping around and only lock-on for Stingers and so on.
And if there are a lot of enemies in the screen, I don't always get to lock-on the enemy I want to attack and switching lock-on in the thick of battle can be troublesome.

It should have been more like Zone Of The Enders or Metal Gear Rising, where I can lock-on to an enemy without the need to keep a button held down and without losing my speed.


For the record, I would have preferred a lock-on but only if it's implemented like in other games and not some "survival horror" wannabe.

 

[Gbraga]

No it's not.

 

[MultiBro]

Having lock-on enabled more moves for you to access in all DMC games. Simple and allowed good control over what you are doing.

In DmC, they removed lock-on and moves in favor of putting moves on every button across the controller which means a bit muddled since some buttons change what they do depending if you are in Angel, Demon or Neutral stance.

I personally prefer lock-on. Gives me better control over what I want to do.

 

[TyIquan_DmC]

I actually agree. It's just as easy to lock onto the wrong target as it is to attack the wrong target here.

 

[AlchemistFromEden]

plus, little known fact, in the new DmC you can toggle between enemies by pressing L3

 

[Gbraga]

plus, little known fact, in the new DmC you can toggle between enemies by pressing L3

Does it work with regular slashes though? I only got it to work using guns.

 

[Dante94513]

plus, little known fact, in the new DmC you can toggle between enemies by pressing L3

Which doesn't work as well as the other games, but it is there to switch target while shooting. I don't mind the lock on button though, but really to me it's not much better than the auto lock on like people say. I still target the wrong enemies with lock-on and even when switching targets it goes to the ones I didn't want to target (for instance while locking on the enemy in front of me, I wanted to switch with the one behind me, but instead the lock on icon went the one far on the left).

 

[DragonMaster2010]

I didn't like the lock on of DMC2 cause they made you target the enemies and nothing else. DmC did it right with the no lock on mechanic, because Dante swings his weapons in far arcs so lock on would be unnecessary.

 

[LeoXCV]

I much prefer a hard lock-on to hold down because I'll know ahead of time what I'll be hitting, the input potential is bigger overall, whilst I'm not locked on I have full direction control, and in general I feel more in control. That being said I have always wondered why there isn't just a toggle lock-on option in the DMC games for those that do want to use it.

 

[Shin Muramasa]

Would've been nice if they could implement a soft lock-on like in Bayonetta and I think Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Forward-forward, forward-back, back-forward, lock-on + back/forward/side/diagonal, and lock-on + forward/back and back-forward. Maybe even lock-on + forward-forward. That adds 10 if they were all separate moves. 7, if forward-forward and lock-on + forward; back-forward and forward-back with/without lock-on were the same moves. 6, if for some reason forward-forward, lock + forward, and lock-on forward were the same moves. Back-back, side-side, diagonal-diagonal I think would be really hard to implement with and without a lock-on system. Launchers/specials are already separate with DmC's control scheme. That's a lot of moves.

The only issue would be too many moves like in Bayonetta in my opinion.

 

[Dante94513]

Does it work with regular slashes though? I only got it to work using guns.

It doesn't have to work regular slashes. You can freely hit any target with any hit with the analog. It's not like Ninja Gaiden where a move set or combo will focus on one enemy.

 

[DarkSlayer54]

Personally, I like the auto-lock. It's just better overall for me. It's annoying when it attacks the wrong enemy, but hell... that happened in DMC1 as well. Stinger was really annoying too... Especially in DMC1 when I would use it to get from point A to point B, and there would still be an enemy hidden in some corner and Dante would do a 180 and stinger his way to the enemy instead.... what annoyed me the most about DMC1 was the auto-lock that took control when you weren't holding R1. I'm trying to fight one enemy, and Dante would attack a completely different enemy. :/

What I'd love most is if they somehow manages to include both auto-lock and lock-on in the same game... I highly doubt they would since that would take a long time to do, but a person can dream, right?

 

[Gbraga]

It doesn't have to work regular slashes. You can freely hit any target with any hit with the analog. It's not like Ninja Gaiden where a move set or combo will focus on one enemy.

I know, just asking.

I don't even think it has to work at all, it's irrelevant and doesn't change the real issues with the lack of lock-on. Soft lock is ok if done right when it comes to targeting (DmC doesn't exactly, but it's decent), the real problem lies deeper.

 

[Britt690]

Having lock-on enabled more moves for you to access in all DMC games. Simple and allowed good control over what you are doing.

In DmC, they removed lock-on and moves in favor of putting moves on every button across the controller which means a bit muddled since some buttons change what they do depending if you are in Angel, Demon or Neutral stance.

I personally prefer lock-on. Gives me better control over what I want to do.

I agree with this. My friend let me borrow the game and I took a shot at it to see of anything changed from the demo, which it didn't, and I kept pressing the RB button to lock-on and felt like an idiot because it wasn't there:/ . It especially sucks when the enemy moves a little to the left and he'll keep swinging in that direction instead of following the enemy -_-

 

[Shin Muramasa]

Personally, I like the auto-lock. It's just better overall for me. It's annoying when it attacks the wrong enemy, but hell... that happened in DMC1 as well. Stinger was really annoying too... Especially in DMC1 when I would use it to get from point A to point B, and there would still be an enemy hidden in some corner and Dante would do a 180 and stinger his way to the enemy instead.... what annoyed me the most about DMC1 was the auto-lock that took control when you weren't holding R1. I'm trying to fight one enemy, and Dante would attack a completely different enemy. :/

What I'd love most is if they somehow manages to include both auto-lock and lock-on in the same game... I highly doubt they would since that would take a long time to do, but a person can dream, right?

I remember the lock-on + forward shenanigans. Freaking style statues.

The auto lock-on and manual lock-on exists with Bayonetta and I think Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Bay's version of Stinger, which is called Stileto if you're using a hand weapon, and After Burner Kick (I think), could be done with a forward-forward input or lock-on + forward. So, no more lock-on shenanigans.

It's a matter of patent and copyrights (which would be freaking ridiculous) and effort on Capcom's part now.

 

[Gbraga]

I remember the lock-on + forward shenanigans. Freaking style statues.

The auto lock-on and manual lock-on exists with Bayonetta and I think Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Bay's version of Stinger, which is called Stileto if you're using a hand weapon, and After Burner Kick (I think), could be done with a forward-forward input or lock-on + forward. So, no more lock-on shenanigans.

It's a matter of patent and copyrights (which would be freaking ridiculous) and effort on Capcom's part now.

And Bayo had a great soft lock that didn't completely change the game's balance and one-on-one style of gameplay, that's soft-lock made right.

DmC has, as a result to the lack of lock-on, less moves, FREAKING HUUUUUUUGE hitboxes, crowd control focused combat and did I mention the big hitboxes?

Though to be fair most of them can be blamed on Ninja Theory's lack of knowledge (not saying they're bad, they did a great job, but if you say they're on Capcom's level, you're just lying) instead of the lock-on itself.

 

[Goldsickle]

And Bayo had a great soft lock that didn't completely change the game's balance and one-on-one style of gameplay, that's soft-lock made right.

Unfortunately, Bayonetta also suffered from outdated "survival horror" lock-on, where you must keep the button held down for the lock to be maintained and Bayonetta walked as slow as ****.

Games like Zone Of The Enders and Dark Cloud 2 were the only ones that did lock-on right.

 

[Shin Muramasa]

And Bayo had a great soft lock that didn't completely change the game's balance and one-on-one style of gameplay, that's soft-lock made right.

DmC has, as a result to the lack of lock-on, less moves, FREAKING HUUUUUUUGE hitboxes, crowd control focused combat and did I mention the big hitboxes?

Though to be fair most of them can be blamed on Ninja Theory's lack of knowledge (not saying they're bad, they did a great job, but if you say they're on Capcom's level, you're just lying) instead of the lock-on itself.

I like Bay's (Bayleef's, haha) soft lock-on and auto lock-on. What I didn't like is the fact that it felt like there were too many moves you could do. The original DMC series (mostly DMC3-4) had it right with quality over quantity in moves; except for DMC3's Vergil gimped moveset in my opinion, and DMC4's enemies being made for Nero more than Dante and it felt like Dante was disadvantaged at times.

Bay's moveset was more or less in my opinion, mash buttons/remember some combos, get Wicked Weaves, win. Also, dodge/perfect block-dodge-thing for Witch Time. Ninja Gaiden sort of did this too except it had no lock-on whatsoever unless you're using projectiles.

DmC on the other hand seems to suffer from too little moves. While they may be efficient, it gives us, the players, too little options. God of War had this too right? I don't remember since I've only played III and that was about a year ago.

 

[Gbraga]

Unfortunately, Bayonetta also suffered from outdated "survival horror" lock-on, where you must keep the button held down for the lock to be maintained and Bayonetta walked as slow as ****.

Games like Zone Of The Enders and Dark Cloud 2 were the only ones that did lock-on right.

I think you're not playing the games right, to be quite honest. You're not supposed to walk your way to the enemy in DMC or Bayo, dude. The slower movement during lock-on also makes a difference during fights, allows you to reposition yourself without running around. The very fact that you'll always face the enemy already makes it look a lot better than just running away from them.

Once you get used to style switching in DMC4, you won't even run to go to point B in mid-combat sections to be honest, you'll just actively switch between trickster and royal guard and dash your way through.

 

[DarkSlayer54]

Could it fix the problem if down on the d-pad was a toggle between the lock-on, and auto-lock?
I don't know about you guys, but I almost always held down R1 in previous DMC games.