I apologize to the thread creator for going off-topic, but I can't help responding to the following. It is perfectly fine to ignore my comment since it goes off on a tangent.
''As for all the condemning of the 'blasphemous westernization DmC', well...I find that accusation downright hilarious seeing as the core of the series was shaped by a plethora of Western influences in the first place. From Dante's attire in the DMC1 concept art, to the initial Gothic atmosphere, to the fact that Dante was originally stated to work and live in America in the manual of the very first game, I'd say that Hideki Kamiya and Team Little Devils had way more Western aspects in mind than Japanese ones.''
Nobody said the westernization of DmC was 'blasphemous', did they? I certainly can't find it in this thread. Nobody sees DMC as some kind of sacred thing that may not ever be changed. Many DmC fans in the past accused DMC fans of saying/implying that the westernization was the only reason why DmC wasn't too popular, or why it wasn't liked by DMC fans. But nobody said that. There are far more reasons why DmC wasn't that popular -- to just shrug it off as ''meh, it's all because of westernization'' is a bit harsh.
And no offense, but DMC was always pretty 'Japanesey'. DMC1 has a half-demon (a popular theme in Japan) with white hair and red anime clothing fighting talking spiders, talking gryphons, and a guy (Vergil) slightly fashioned after samurai. Dante constantly says things that I wouldn't really see western actors say. Even his interest in 'guts and honor' could be considered Japanese themes. Its whole style was anime-ish, with a pretty typical, theatrical and simple anime-like story with Trish. Yes, it had a gothic theme, but that gothic influence can also clearly be found in many areas of DMC3 (and even DMC4 very occasionally)... and they all still had an anime filter laid over it. Yes, DMC1 was more of a blend between western ideas and Japanese ones than say DMC4, but to say that it was like 90% western seems weird.
''The only real Japanese-type nonsense was when Hideaki Itsuno came back to right the wrongs he committed in DMC2, by overcompensating for Dante's serious tone in that game and making him a bishonen power fantasy in the sequel. And with that change came the complete alteration of the game's lore, feel, tone and emphasis. Gone were the Western influences, gone were the Gothic locales, and gone were any rational or grounded attempts at story-telling''
Firstly, the part about bishonen doesn't seem quite right. Bishonen like the Wikipedia page says, has more to do with males who don't look stereotypically male and who have fairly symmetrical and soft features. ''The bishōnen is typically slender, with clear skin, stylish hair, and distinctly feminine facial features (such as high cheekbones), but simultaneously retains a male body. This androgynous appearance is akin to the depiction of angels in Western renaissance art, with similar social roots for this aesthetic.''
Dante in the game is not distinctly feminine. Under 'usage' you can read that westerners started wrongly using this word to refer to any attractive man. Dante is attractive, sure... he's supposed to be this heroic, physically fit guy, but that's not typically Japanese.
''Anime influences and Japanese-centric approaches to story-telling will not save this series, people. It didn't save DMC4, it didn't prevent Capcom from going ahead with the Western mentality when they chose to reboot the series''
What do you mean 'save DMC4'? It sold really well, it was popular both in the west and in the east. There has been no evidence, nor indication, that they rebooted the series because of DMC4 not being as good as it could've been. I suppose you could argue that DMC4 should've sold better, considering it only sold 1 million more than DMC1 which wasn't even multiplatform, but that's mainly due to the fact that it wasn't as good as DMC3, nor even as good as DMC1 was considered to be back in 2001. But anyway, Itsuno has said he wants to make DMC5 someday (probably as a sequel to DMC4 with Nero), DMC4 SE was announced, and DmC got influences from older installments. So... I don't think we know what will or will not save the series (if it needed saving, which I'm not convinced of). If you're referring to Bayonetta 2, it didn't sell as well as it could have, but it seems its sales are good enough for Platinum. The reason why it didn't sell as well, I think is because it was on only *one* unpopular console. I know many people who wanted to buy Bayonetta 2 but just couldn't, and FYI, the first Bayonetta sold *great*, and that isn't even ages ago yet.
I very much agree with this: ''that's kind of the point. Devil May Cry, as a series, doesn't need to appeal to a wider audience to be profitable. It just needs to work it's niche well and not spiral out of control in terms of budget. That's how Platinum keeps in business - None of their titles are particularly huge hits, but neither are they flops that could hurt the company as a whole. They're marginally profitable, and Platinum turns around and reworks that money into their next game.'' So many people liked the DMCs precisely because they were so quirky, so over-the-top and partly 'foreign' to them. Even if DMC isn't as popular in the west as in Japan, who cares? Why this obsession with getting sales as high as GoW/mainstream games? According to Capcom, any game that hits over 1 million copies sold is a major hit. DMC is a major hit, isn't that good enough?
