The Devil May Cry universe is one that has a special place in gaming today. When it first arrived on the scene back in December 2001, I don’t think anyone really new what was coming our way. In my opinion Devil May Cry is my hack and slash adventure game of choice. Sure there are others like it, but none have that certain, je ne sais quoi. Was it the controls? No, the jumping was hellishly bad. Was it the characters? No, they were awesome and cheesy.
The thing that it did, and still does, like no other was combat flow. The combat flow in Devil May Cry is still, to this day, flawless. Granted the visuals don’t hold up to well, the game has aged like milk, but the combat is just as satisfactory as ever.
Basing the combat around a system that revolves around stylishness it seems strange that the core of the fighting is in hyper fast fingers, and twitch based reaction times. If you don’t see the attack coming, then you would normally end up with a marionette blade sticking out of your chest.
But if you could see the attack coming, and dodge out of the way, then you could perhaps jump on the enemies head while juggling his friend in the air with your massive sword or dual pistols, or my favorite, the shotgun.
Like all games it had its ups and downs. The strange cousin that no one talks about in this franchise was Devil May Cry 2,it’s a perfect example of how to take made out of gold, and turn it into lead. Terrible character planning, silly gimmicks (flipping a coin to make decisions? where have I seen that before?) and even worse level design, was a terrible mark against the once flawless face of the series.
So it goes without saying that when Devil may cry 3 came around, people where a bit worried, but after seeing the first trailer, everyone, and yes I mean everyone was hooked. Spoilers follow, but come on, you’ve had 11 years to play this franchise. Dante was present in his youngest incarnation yet, the combat had been revamped to allow seamless switching between the various styles like trickster and gunslinger, the game looked gorgeous and the soundtrack was incredible, in actual fact I own it I liked it that much. The game was a prequel, so developers where given space to breath in the library of lore. For example, in Devil May Cry 1 we encounter an enemy by the name of Nelo Angelo that we have boss battles with. Dante recognizes the character at some point and makes vauge references to someone cale Vergil. But who is Vergil, wwhy should we care about this guy? Well in DMC 3 we find out the Vergil was actualy Dantes BROTHER! Mind blown right?
So with such a great series, you would think that the developers would keep it safe and retexture the existing game and change the story and continue to print money. No. No they didn’t. The series is getting a complete reboot, I’m fairly certain by now you’ve heard of it. Simply titled Devil May Cry and it looks to change a great deal of things. The art style has been altered drastically the combat is similar but fundamentally differant and the weapons will apparently come in Demon and Angel variants. But one of the most drastic changes, that has annoyed fans to no end. The design of Dante has been changed completly. Gone is the hair, the confident swagger and the sweet, sweet coat. This has been changed to a short black haired Dante, with a devil may care (pun intended) attitude, and a coat more reiminscent of Neros from DMC 4. But just as important is Vergil. He is returning again, but he isn’t the enemy this time. He is the head of a secret masked organisation taking the fight to the enemy.
This is all good. Change is good. If we don’t change things grow stagnant. And with stagnantion come bordom, units don’t shift and Devs close down. Luckily With the recent gameplay footage coming out the fans have accepted the new Dante after initaily universily hating the redeisng, but hold out hope, and trust me. Good things are coming…
Here, have these 2 production artworks on the house.
