It's been 5 years since 2012. I remember it vividly. I was in college. We were all waiting to see how DmC was going to turn out. There were alot of arguments, alot of quality discussions, and alot of worrying about the future of the franchise. Since then, I've graduated with a Bachelors, fallen in love plenty, lost friends, seen friends get married, worked many different jobs, put family members to rest.
And after all that time, we are still waiting for a Devil May Cry 5.
Looking through the topics and comment threads on this forum, it's incredible to me how well it can still function, and how passionate this fanbase still is for these characters, and this universe, and this story. I think one of the reasons, is partly because of how much we've all connected to these games, and to each other. But the other half, I think, is probably because of the negative aspects as well.
The series was created by Hideki Kamiya, and yet Devil May Cry was the only game he was allowed to work on. Since then, even through the series' best moments, the games have suffered through numerous plot holes and inconsistencies with each new team. Plot ideas are suggested, teased, and summarily abandoned. Character designs and voice actors frequently change, for no apparent reason. Even the tone and characterizations are wildly different between games. It's these problems that keep me coming back; maybe looking for some kind of closure, or searching for something that will set these problems right; that will make everything in Dante's world make sense. But the thing that stays in the back of my mind, since the fast-tracked release of Devil May Cry 2 on January 25th 2003, is that Dante is still lost in the Underworld; a plot thread that as of yet, has never been resolved. And I think about this, and year to year it clings to me. Why?
I think it's because I feel that I owe alot of who I am today because of Dante. Confidence. Righteousness. Bravery. Years ago, I saw someone who showed me how to stand tall, even if I was standing alone. Even if I was literally standing at the doorway to Hell. (I wasn't, but he sure as **** was.) Did I want to be the kind of person who would turn away and hide? Or would I be the kind of person who smiles, and then jumps in? Did I want to be the kind of person who turned a blind eye to those around me? Or did I want to take the time to learn what was broken in others, and try to fix it? To take enemies and turn them into family. Dante himself never had any family growing up. So he made one. Out of people who were lost. People who showed him how to be better. Who taught him how to follow what was in his heart. To fight with his soul.
And that stayed with me.
For whatever reason, I happened to be at the right age, in the right place, at the right time to experience these games, and looking back at the nearly two decades I've spent playing this series, even now, these characters continue to resonate with me. Even after all this time, I still care about Dante. I think about him riding his motorcycle, whipping through a flat desert-like terrain in the Underworld, and I wish there was something I could do to bring him back.
It's not because I'm naive. I know why Dante is in the Underworld, and it has nothing to do with Argosax and flipping a coin. Partly, Dante is still in the Underworld because CAPCOM fast-tracked a poorly made sequel with a different development team, that they still don't know what to do with. Another reason is that CAPCOM let go all the former staff who created the series in the first place. But the real reason that Dante is still in the Underworld, is actually because of money.
Devil May Cry isn't just a videogame about a slick supernatural detective fighting demons. It's a multi-million dollar investment and money maker with a global audience. Dante isn't real. He's the face of a videogame series that has been put on indefinite hiatus by a company that places more value in their sales than in creating something they can be proud of. That isn't a strategy that makes compelling stories, or takes chances, or challenges me to be a better person. That's the kind of thinking that alienates the people who supported the franchise in the first place. It's creative and intellectual death. We don't tell stories to make a profit. We tell stories to share ideas. To share culture. To create art. To make heroes.
Dante isn't really in the Underworld. He's stuck in a filing cabinet while corporate developers squabble over the fiscal risks of reintroducing a series that has been treading water for nearly a decade. What kind of creativity can be expected to come from that? What kind of honesty to the integrity of the character? What kind of Dante will we get next? As the record stands, a consistent depiction of the character doesn't even exist at this point. So then, who is Dante really?
I like to think that Dante is, in part, all of us. The part of us that felt different after playing as him. The part of us that saw a dark hallway filled with monsters, and got scared... until the rock music kicked in... and we realized that we didn't have to be afraid. We were the ones the monsters were afraid of. In fact, we didn't have to be scared at all. The jumping, the music, the flash and bang in the dark. This isn't what being scared feels like. This was more like a party...
On the surface, Devil May Cry might just seem like some weird 2000's videogame about a trash talking, half-demon Blade ripoff in a red coat who gets stabbed with his own sword. But that's because it is. And it changed the way people made videogames for the following decade with more brains and balls and imagination than almost everything preceding it. I'll always have incredible memories from Devil May Cry, but I simply cannot trust CAPCOM to produce another entry when it's clear that they never understood what was special about it in the first place. Whatever games eventually follow at this point, it's not my intention to buy them. I don't need CAPCOM to keep trying to take stabs at telling me what I already know.
Is Dante really still trapped in the Underworld? Knowing him as well as I do, I doubt it. And even though that specific story has yet to be told, something tells me that I don't need someone else to tell it to me anymore.
So why do I still love Devil May Cry?
Because a long time ago, a ten year old kid sat in his basement and saw a bombshell blonde on a red motorcycle crash into a dingy office in the middle of the night and stab a man in a red coat with a sword because she didn't have to use the bathroom. And if you have any idea what I'm talking about, then I think you guys know the rest.
And after all that time, we are still waiting for a Devil May Cry 5.
Looking through the topics and comment threads on this forum, it's incredible to me how well it can still function, and how passionate this fanbase still is for these characters, and this universe, and this story. I think one of the reasons, is partly because of how much we've all connected to these games, and to each other. But the other half, I think, is probably because of the negative aspects as well.
The series was created by Hideki Kamiya, and yet Devil May Cry was the only game he was allowed to work on. Since then, even through the series' best moments, the games have suffered through numerous plot holes and inconsistencies with each new team. Plot ideas are suggested, teased, and summarily abandoned. Character designs and voice actors frequently change, for no apparent reason. Even the tone and characterizations are wildly different between games. It's these problems that keep me coming back; maybe looking for some kind of closure, or searching for something that will set these problems right; that will make everything in Dante's world make sense. But the thing that stays in the back of my mind, since the fast-tracked release of Devil May Cry 2 on January 25th 2003, is that Dante is still lost in the Underworld; a plot thread that as of yet, has never been resolved. And I think about this, and year to year it clings to me. Why?
I think it's because I feel that I owe alot of who I am today because of Dante. Confidence. Righteousness. Bravery. Years ago, I saw someone who showed me how to stand tall, even if I was standing alone. Even if I was literally standing at the doorway to Hell. (I wasn't, but he sure as **** was.) Did I want to be the kind of person who would turn away and hide? Or would I be the kind of person who smiles, and then jumps in? Did I want to be the kind of person who turned a blind eye to those around me? Or did I want to take the time to learn what was broken in others, and try to fix it? To take enemies and turn them into family. Dante himself never had any family growing up. So he made one. Out of people who were lost. People who showed him how to be better. Who taught him how to follow what was in his heart. To fight with his soul.
And that stayed with me.
For whatever reason, I happened to be at the right age, in the right place, at the right time to experience these games, and looking back at the nearly two decades I've spent playing this series, even now, these characters continue to resonate with me. Even after all this time, I still care about Dante. I think about him riding his motorcycle, whipping through a flat desert-like terrain in the Underworld, and I wish there was something I could do to bring him back.
It's not because I'm naive. I know why Dante is in the Underworld, and it has nothing to do with Argosax and flipping a coin. Partly, Dante is still in the Underworld because CAPCOM fast-tracked a poorly made sequel with a different development team, that they still don't know what to do with. Another reason is that CAPCOM let go all the former staff who created the series in the first place. But the real reason that Dante is still in the Underworld, is actually because of money.
Devil May Cry isn't just a videogame about a slick supernatural detective fighting demons. It's a multi-million dollar investment and money maker with a global audience. Dante isn't real. He's the face of a videogame series that has been put on indefinite hiatus by a company that places more value in their sales than in creating something they can be proud of. That isn't a strategy that makes compelling stories, or takes chances, or challenges me to be a better person. That's the kind of thinking that alienates the people who supported the franchise in the first place. It's creative and intellectual death. We don't tell stories to make a profit. We tell stories to share ideas. To share culture. To create art. To make heroes.
Dante isn't really in the Underworld. He's stuck in a filing cabinet while corporate developers squabble over the fiscal risks of reintroducing a series that has been treading water for nearly a decade. What kind of creativity can be expected to come from that? What kind of honesty to the integrity of the character? What kind of Dante will we get next? As the record stands, a consistent depiction of the character doesn't even exist at this point. So then, who is Dante really?
I like to think that Dante is, in part, all of us. The part of us that felt different after playing as him. The part of us that saw a dark hallway filled with monsters, and got scared... until the rock music kicked in... and we realized that we didn't have to be afraid. We were the ones the monsters were afraid of. In fact, we didn't have to be scared at all. The jumping, the music, the flash and bang in the dark. This isn't what being scared feels like. This was more like a party...
On the surface, Devil May Cry might just seem like some weird 2000's videogame about a trash talking, half-demon Blade ripoff in a red coat who gets stabbed with his own sword. But that's because it is. And it changed the way people made videogames for the following decade with more brains and balls and imagination than almost everything preceding it. I'll always have incredible memories from Devil May Cry, but I simply cannot trust CAPCOM to produce another entry when it's clear that they never understood what was special about it in the first place. Whatever games eventually follow at this point, it's not my intention to buy them. I don't need CAPCOM to keep trying to take stabs at telling me what I already know.
Is Dante really still trapped in the Underworld? Knowing him as well as I do, I doubt it. And even though that specific story has yet to be told, something tells me that I don't need someone else to tell it to me anymore.
So why do I still love Devil May Cry?
Because a long time ago, a ten year old kid sat in his basement and saw a bombshell blonde on a red motorcycle crash into a dingy office in the middle of the night and stab a man in a red coat with a sword because she didn't have to use the bathroom. And if you have any idea what I'm talking about, then I think you guys know the rest.