I can't be the only person who felt that Vergil in DMC3 felt like a half a**ed rush job. The pre -Nelo concept of him was awesome but felt like a wasted opportunity.
Below I've listed some things I've often thought would give the character more depth and uniqueness when it comes to his human incarnation.
Remove summoned swords
For me this is priority one. Summoned swords are Nelo Angelo's thing and are an important trait of Nelo's character and how he is a different beast to the character of Vergil, he shouldn't need them. I liked seeing them in DMC3 but only as an easter egg in DMD.
(Of course this leaves a big gap in his long range capability which I will attempt to fill later)
Remove Beowolf and Force Edge
My reasoning for this is 2 fold. Firstly the significance of Yamato to Vergil makes the adoption of any other weapon, not a complete contradiction of his character but I feel it heavily betrays it.
Secondly the entire concept behind Vergil is that he is the polar opposite to Dante, to borrow a famous quote from Bruce Lee;
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times"
Dante is symbolically the former, kicking *** with whatever devil arm he can get his hands on so Vergil should be the latter especially as his character is so heavily built on the mannerisms of a samuri his focus should be on Yamato and learning to wield it in the most efficient, flawless and deadly way possible. Like they do in Iaido
Remap the buttons/adapt the formula
Change the default "gun" button to a secondary style button. Vergil now has an offensive style and a defensive style active simultaneously.
Our gun button can now be exclusively mapped to a non-attack focused style such as
Darkslayer ability for closing distances and evading attacks, Royalguard or maybe even something along the lines of Kafka from Bayonetta so as not to completely rob him of ranged weapons but give him something more eastern and grounded.
And our standard style button can now be focused on introducing depth to Yamato. How? By venturing out of Iaido based combat and introducing more depth and variety to the sword itself.
Styles from the likes of ancient China, South Korea, the Philippines, anywhere that Vergil could get more knowledge of what Yamato was capable of in combat. (but keep it eastern as that really compliments the yin and yang thing with the two brothers)
And most importantly both the standard melee button and our offensive style button are can be assigned to any of these and all of them would have their own separate 3 level tiers.
And finally...
Borrowing a beat from Nero.
Very simple, like Nero we now have a shoulder button not doing all that much so take the IR mechanic and adapt it to Vergil. Only instead of a charge inside the sword it would be an optional mechanic during combat that enables the player to charge and manipulate the damage they inflict. By either releasing it during an attack increasing the damage inflicted or releasing it ala the judgement cut end using a delayed hitstun effect. This would be a system that would vary according to the precision of the timing same as max rev.
Ultimately I feel vergil should have been a character that was intended to be advanced, to give the game further longevity by introducing a second playable character that was much harder to master but twice as rewarding once you did.
***tl;dr***
Get rid of Summoned swords, get rid of force edge and beo, introduce more depth to Yamato in their place along with a button remap that shifts more focus to closing distance and perfecting technique.
Of course this is all coming from a place of "if we could go back in time" i'm in no way suggesting this is something that should be implemented in the future. More like a simple "what if"
Below I've listed some things I've often thought would give the character more depth and uniqueness when it comes to his human incarnation.
Remove summoned swords
For me this is priority one. Summoned swords are Nelo Angelo's thing and are an important trait of Nelo's character and how he is a different beast to the character of Vergil, he shouldn't need them. I liked seeing them in DMC3 but only as an easter egg in DMD.
(Of course this leaves a big gap in his long range capability which I will attempt to fill later)
Remove Beowolf and Force Edge
My reasoning for this is 2 fold. Firstly the significance of Yamato to Vergil makes the adoption of any other weapon, not a complete contradiction of his character but I feel it heavily betrays it.
Secondly the entire concept behind Vergil is that he is the polar opposite to Dante, to borrow a famous quote from Bruce Lee;
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times"
Dante is symbolically the former, kicking *** with whatever devil arm he can get his hands on so Vergil should be the latter especially as his character is so heavily built on the mannerisms of a samuri his focus should be on Yamato and learning to wield it in the most efficient, flawless and deadly way possible. Like they do in Iaido
Remap the buttons/adapt the formula
Change the default "gun" button to a secondary style button. Vergil now has an offensive style and a defensive style active simultaneously.
Our gun button can now be exclusively mapped to a non-attack focused style such as
Darkslayer ability for closing distances and evading attacks, Royalguard or maybe even something along the lines of Kafka from Bayonetta so as not to completely rob him of ranged weapons but give him something more eastern and grounded.
And our standard style button can now be focused on introducing depth to Yamato. How? By venturing out of Iaido based combat and introducing more depth and variety to the sword itself.
Styles from the likes of ancient China, South Korea, the Philippines, anywhere that Vergil could get more knowledge of what Yamato was capable of in combat. (but keep it eastern as that really compliments the yin and yang thing with the two brothers)
And most importantly both the standard melee button and our offensive style button are can be assigned to any of these and all of them would have their own separate 3 level tiers.
And finally...
Borrowing a beat from Nero.
Very simple, like Nero we now have a shoulder button not doing all that much so take the IR mechanic and adapt it to Vergil. Only instead of a charge inside the sword it would be an optional mechanic during combat that enables the player to charge and manipulate the damage they inflict. By either releasing it during an attack increasing the damage inflicted or releasing it ala the judgement cut end using a delayed hitstun effect. This would be a system that would vary according to the precision of the timing same as max rev.
Ultimately I feel vergil should have been a character that was intended to be advanced, to give the game further longevity by introducing a second playable character that was much harder to master but twice as rewarding once you did.
***tl;dr***
Get rid of Summoned swords, get rid of force edge and beo, introduce more depth to Yamato in their place along with a button remap that shifts more focus to closing distance and perfecting technique.
Of course this is all coming from a place of "if we could go back in time" i'm in no way suggesting this is something that should be implemented in the future. More like a simple "what if"
