What makes a good "Devil May Cry" game?

[Fingar]

It's been 13 (or so) years since I sneaked out to my local electronics/multimedia store in a little town in Norway, bringing with me an older-looking friend of mine, trying to persuade the shopkeeper to let us buy a copy of the first Devil May Cry game. Of course, we were obviously way to young to play this kind of game and the shopkeeper wasn't stupid.

However, the line "...but we're old enough combined" seemed to do the trick, and before we knew it, we were rushing home on our bicycles to try the game at my friends house. At the moment, I thought my house was pretty strict, and I was scared to death that mom would find me playing violent games like this (even though it probably wouldn't have been a big deal). I used to hide the game and the cover art inside the expansion bay of the old fat PS2. Haha, talk about being paranoid for no reason.

Nowdays, I'm a game designer, and I still keep coming back for more DMC. Though I'm more critical to the games now, there is still something charming, cool, fun and exciting about playing a Devil May Cry game.

It's interesting to look at the games and try to point out what seems to be "right" and "wrong" about them, and try to find the formula of a good Devil May Cry game. The actual developers of the series may have their own idea of what a DMC game should be, but whats interesting is what the fan base thinks.

Soo..

What do you think makes a good "Devil May Cry" game?
Why? Why not? And what would you rather have?

 

[absolitude]

this is one great question, and though too.. you'll get different answers from different people who likes different devil may cry games and it can be very sensitive.. why not start with you so everyone can get a little picture from a game developer and gamer point of view such as yourself, that would help..

 

[Chancey289]

Fast and furious combat obsessed with style that makes you feel good and cool with a unique attitude unlike any other game.

Devil May Cry is one of a kind to me. Both incarnations capture the essence and spirit of what makes Devil May Cry Devil May Cry. Even if some players might not like certain details, there's still enough of that blood running through its stylish heart.

But if I'm gonna get even more personal, then I think the charm and spirit of the very first game is what is best and what Devil May Cry should be. I appreciate and view a different take for what it is though too.

 

[Fingar]

Allright!

FROM THE ROOTS OF SURVIVAL HORROR

Remember good old Resident Evil? As probably all of you know, the first Devil May Cry game was originally a concept for the forth installment of the RE series. The early RE games were central in defining the survival horror genre through the years and this shines through in the first DMC game.

In the first RE you are vulnerable character in a scary zombie/monster infested mansion where you have limited amount of bullets and a knife. You explore and backtrack through the mansion, using key items to unlock doors to new places and unexpected zombies jump out from nowhere to surprise you when you think you're safe.

Devil May Cry(1) had similarities to this, with its large haunted/demon infested Castle, with dangers lurking in every corner, but confronts the challenge with a more playful attitude. Players would feel more empowered in the scary situations by controlling a powerful son of the Dark Knight Sparda, wielding magical swords, gauntlets and guns with infinite ammo.

A Devil May Cry game should display a degree of creepiness and horror, but players should feel empowered by the playable character with his equipment and their upgrades.

SMOKIN' SICK STYLE!!!

Devil May Cry is all about being cool and stylish. Dante has a personality, attitude and a sense of fashion that reeks of coolness and stylishness, and the whole combat system in the Devil May Cry games is centered around it and encourages the player to change they're attacks frequently while avoiding damage to raise their stylish rank and thereby receive more currency.

Devil May Cry 3 and 4 played with this chain of thought by adding the "styles" system to the equation that let players change between playing styles by focusing on offense or defense through Royalguard's guard and release mechanics, Trickster's evasion and enchanted movement mechanics, Gunslinger's ranged weapon enchantment and Swordmaster's melee weapon enchantment. This, combined with the ability to change between weapons a large array of weapons like seen in DMC3, creates a pretty complex combat system that is a thrill to master, but also gives the player the tools needed to rank up their style rank using their own preferred playstyle.

This whole stylish thing is supposed to project that feeling of being cool to the player. I mean... Who hasn't used the taunt button just to display how awesome they are after messing up some demons pretty bad?!

A Devil May Cry game should make the players feel cool and stlylish by giving them enough "tools" like weapons and styles to expand their playstyle and rank up their stylish rank.

STYLIN' THE RIGHT WAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE

There is something about the locations DMC 1 and 3 that seems so much more fitting to the games. What do they have in common? You guessed it! It's that massive dark and gothic architecture, also seen in games like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and somehow also the newly released Bloodborne. DMC should be about the urbandemon hunter, traveling to evil, hidden, uncharted castles, mansions, demonic churches or whatever, smashing the teeth out of monsters.

To me, DMC2 was too urbanized. Skyscrapers and demon infested tanks and helicopters? I mean, come on... I'm sure there are situations where I could accept it more with some tweeks, but DMC2 would probably be better if they stylized the location more like a Bloodborne town with some indoor locations like castles or crypts and stuff.

DMC4 was probably the all over best game, giving the player multiple different locations. These locations were pretty cool and moody, but I think I would like a little darker game.

DmC: Devil May Cry had a cool thought of dragging the character into the demon world by twisting the realworld into a moving mess of platforms. But the whole game has this modern style that feels very dirty and messy in the wrong way. Where did the beatifully twisted, evil, gothic that I came to love? The one that actually felt like you were messing up a 2000 year old demon lord.

I think DmC does something right with the music though. Don't misunderstand.. Doesn't beat the ambient music of the older games. But the combat music in 2,3 and 4... ouff... DmC does have a lot of terrible music. But then again.. dubstep didn't seem that bad in the game.

If one only could make music with the soul of DMC1, the gothic ambience of all the old games and the punch of DmC rock/dubstep. That could work.

A Devil May Cry game should display a seemingly ancient, evil, gothic style on locations, the player character should be the one bringing the modern, rocked, urbanized style to the game.





Hey, maybe I'll keep writing some time, but that is probably enough to get you guys started... right?

 

[Chancey289]

Even though my personal favorite is still the original DMC 1, I still loved DmC. It's a very ssstylish take on the series we know and love. I always viewed it as Ultimate Devil May Cry and the original series is Earth 616. You know, like Marvel comics. I think that's the perfect comparison.

 

[absolitude]

cool, now that you've elaborate your points of view, this makes it easier for me to elaborate mine based on those, cuz honestly those are good points you've made which gives me ideas as well..

1. horror, it never cross my mind before, since dmc was originally intended as a continuity of a horror game, won't it be cool to have a dmc game with a more horror to it, and i mean real horror, where it's dark filled with ugly creepy hollow creatures. But in order to give that sense, it has got to be realistic in visual, let's just take it from enemy within, and ofc bloodborne, use that tone..

2. the essence of dmc will always be the combat, combine the realistic looks, true horror theme and what we've known from dmcs combat. and the stylishness will still work on such theme

3. humor, it is also the essence of dmc, wether it's humor-humor, or vulgar humor, it's always humor.. and we could put it into the true horror setting, don't ever think true horror and humor won't mix.. the dark setting will be there to set the mood for the gamers, give them pressure, so when they see enemies, it could be something that'll create "oh man, not this one", or they will scream or panicked, something like that.. and the humor, well it's dmc

4. for the music, we need superb composer, if you like a wub-wub, gothic and rock, the composer should be able to compose something like that, a mix of those or one of those depends on the situation.. and it needs give you shivers at times, goosebumps, horrific excitements..

5.

A Devil May Cry game should display a degree of creepiness and horror, but players should feel empowered by the playable character with his equipment and their upgrades.

A Devil May Cry game should make the players feel cool and stlylish by giving them enough "tools" like weapons and styles to expand their playstyle and rank up their stylish rank.

A Devil May Cry game should display a seemingly ancient, evil, gothic style on locations, the player character should be the one bringing the modern, rocked, urbanized style to the game.

all of your highlited points.. damnit, it'll be a whole nother level of h/s

and you are now in that business right? why don't you make one, go kickstarter or steam greenlight since i don't think it'll happen in dmc.. i'll bet people will back that up.. and visuals matter, give us your best concept designs..

EDIT : now that i think of it, what i've said isn't what makes a good dmc game, more like, how will you expand a dmc game.. lol, well one can dream..

 

[Fingar]

I think DmC was a good game... But I didn't like calling it a Devil May Cry game. Because its just such a different universe, controls are based on a different concept than the original, Mundus is running a demon infected poison energy drink firm or something. Dante is also half angel just to balance it out and make it more cliche, and is a punk rocker.

You know. DmC did a lot of cool stuff.. It just didn't have that DMC core that is important. At least to me... :/

 

[Fingar]

Consider this research.
Capcom dosn't seem to have any plans for a new DMC... At least not what I and maybe other fans think it should be. Ninja Theory would probably continue on their version, if anything. Trying to correct the mistakes they've done to please the lovers of the original series, but hated the new one.

I could make a DMC... but you know.. don't have the rights for that. Capcom would probably shut me right down.

But maybe... Just maybe I could make something "new"... That still keeps the soul of a DMC game.
A non-DMC game for DMC fans. But hey! Maybe I'm just dreaming.

 

[absolitude]

that's what i meant, make something new.. and don't just dream it, since you are in that business, you could talk about it with fellow designers/developers, make it happen, cuz seriously we don't know the future of h/s games, it's lacking.. it'll be a darn breakthrough..

oh, and Lords of Shadows are good examples from your points, the tone fits and the creatures are horrific, but it lacked the battle and music and humor cuz the title was meant to be all about seriousness..

 

[Wajpa]

I think people have varied opinions on what makes a good Devil May Cry game, but for me it was always three things. Complex combat, enemy design and bossfights. While I loved the atmosphere of the previous games, these three things were what really made me such a fan of the series.

The combat was really fun and encouraged the use of different weapons by the style system. The weapons themselves had amazing design which you didn't see in many other games. All of them were so memorable and fun to use, especially with their unique Devil Triggers most of the time. The Devil Trigger itself felt so satisfying to use with its really cool design in each game. It felt great to pull off more difficult combos and the taunts added to that cool feeling with the fact that they changed depending on your style rank. The whole thing just felt that it deserved being called "stylish".

The enemy design was varied and the enemies looked weird in a good way. They weren't similar to a lot of other games. They were memorable and you had to approach all of them in a different way.

Devil May Cry had great bossfights. Most of them were unique with many different moves and even though an average player like me got their ass kicked a lot by them, they felt so fun to fight against which a lot of other games did not manage to do.

 

[Absent Nova]

High speed combat and a high difficulty curve.

 

[WolfOD64]

Blistering combat, strung together with absurdly-fantastical maneuvers like Rainstorm and Prop Shredder, to create the illusion that the player, not Dante, is the stylish hero of the game.

To me, this was, is, and always be the essence of Devil May Cry. I never understood this feverish obsession the fanbase has with Dante as a character, since it was always Hideki Kamiya’s intention to make him a template for the player to step into—you were either a raging badass because you played really well, or a talentless pleb if you played terribly (even his Tweets on the subject of Dante’s “invincibility” are a strong indication of this). Dante isn’t interesting—he’s two-dimensional, wildly-unoriginal, and woefully underdeveloped. He isn’t the focus of the franchise, or even part of the series’ identity.

Other things like the Gothic atmosphere and the violent rock vocals are mere aesthetic compliments to the canvas of Devil May Cry’s image—they’re nice novelties, but not essentials. As the series progressed with 3, 4, and the anime developed in between,the developers were making obvious attempts to staple a full-fledged story as a novelty as well. But all three attempts failed because of Devil May Cry’s need to be a logic-devoid anime ecstasy first, and a rational story second.

So when DmC came about, it was just a nice compliment to have a story that didn’t eat a mountain of fecal matter. Again, much like the music and Gothic locales, it was a novelty—not a necessity. Its presence didn’t take away or benefit the gameplay experience, so its presence could easily be appreciated or completely ignored. I just liked it, because its gritty, urban, neo-Gothic feel reminded me of some of my favorite comics: The Crow, The Darkness, and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. It had the same tone of demons blending in with modern-day society, creeping into human consumerism and corruption like they had always been there….as opposed to classic DMC, which pretty much placed demons in the real world with the loosest and most inconsistent lore possible.

All of these things matter or appear in different scales of importance to everyone on this forum, and I’m not laying my interpretations of the series as cold, hard fact. We all play these games for different reasons, and these are just my reasons for playing the game and enveloping myself in “what makes Devil May Cry a Devil May Cry experience.”

 

[DragonMaster2010]

That's about it

 

[Demi-fiend]

Gods Must Die + Hardcore Mode + Must Style Mode + Turbo = All you need for a Devil May Cry game.

 

[Weiss Schnee]

Handsome demons
http://i.imgur.com/ZsSpcAU.jpg