Devil May Cry Series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I just thought that I'd list my play-style preferences that I have developed over my 30+ hours of playing DMC3:

Favorite Devil Arms Combo: Rebellion and Beowulf
Rationale: Rebellion is pretty much the best "bladed" weapon in the game, in that its pretty much an all-purpose weapon and well-balanced with little weaknesses. Beowulf, on the other hand, is the best blunt weapon in the game. Cerberus is fun, but lacks a double-jump, and its harder to consistently pull off jump-cancels with it, whereas jump-canceling with Beowulf is both extremely useful and extremely powerful, and it makes quick work of the stone enemies like the Damned Chess pieces and the Blood-goyles (in their solid forms).

2nd Favorite Devil Arms Combo: Rebellion and Agni & Rudra
Rationale: I just like swords a lot. In this case, the combo isn't the most practical, but I really do enjoy using these weapons together with the Sword Master style to pull off some really awesome combos. Additionally, Agni & Rudra is also a great weapon to use against the Arachne, even if they aren't too common of an enemy in the game.

Favorite Gun Combo: Ebony & Ivory and Kalina Ann
Rationale: Ebony & Ivory is just the perfect weapon for both stringing together combos and keeping certain enemies stunned for a bit. The guns have a decent range to them, and while they barely do any damage at all, they fire fairly rapidly, and they are also a good way to extend your air-time to avoid certain ground attacks with ease. As for Kalina Ann, its a very short-range gun but is extremely powerful for crowd control. If you get a bunch of enemies crowding around you and fire off a rocket from that gun, then you'll pretty much knock all of your enemies back and take an instant advantage over the entire room. It is also extremely powerful in damaging enemies when you are in Devil Trigger mode, and can be helpful against certain bosses or just tougher enemies.

2nd Favorite Gun Combo: Shotgun and Spiral
Rationale: The shotgun is short-range but has amazing knock-back properties can can really help you take advantage over certain enemies, and can also stop enemies in their tracks and even propel them to the ground when they initiate charge attacks at you. Spiral is also a slow weapon, but it has an amazing range and while it can't be fired in the air just like Kalina Ann, it can be extremely damaging to certain enemies if used properly. Together, both it and the Shotgun can also have their rate of fire artificially increased by switch-canceling, and switch-canceling these weapons makes for a particularly deadly combo against you enemies and even against some bosses.

Style Preferences:
1. Sword Master (Rationale: Its the most fun to use since I'm a guy who likes beating the crap out of stuff more than anything else)
2. Trickster (Rationale: Its the most practical style to use, and the air-dash is insanely helpful under any circumstances)
3. Royal Guard (Rationale: Its extremely powerful and effective if you know how to use it right, but its hard to master)
4. Gunslinger (Rationale: It can be fun to use, but to me it just feels like the least suited to my particular play-style)

Current Control Scheme Of Choice (for XBOX360 Controller):

A- Jump
B- Shoot
X- Attack
Y- Style
All other buttons are set to default

Rationale: The default control-scheme wasn't suited to my play-style in terms of allowing me to capitalize on the deeper aspects of this game's combat, so much like with Nero in DMC4, I changed the control scheme to make certain advanced tactics a bit easier for me. The best example of this is with jump-canceling, which is MUCH easier by having my melee attack button immediately adjacent to the jump button, which allows me to press both of them in rapid succession, which is needed to pull off most jump cancels being that the timing required for this skill is VERY specific.

[Grave]

So, just out of curiosity, for any of you guys out there who are DMC fans, if it were ever announced that we'd be getting a proper DMC5, what would you guys like to see from it? What would it take for you guys to make it a game that could potentially be considered the best in its genre for its time?

For me, I'd of course like to see even further additions to the combat system and whatnot. Personally I think that they should find a way to make Dante's Royal Guard style part of his base move-set, as I'm a huge fan of counter-mechanics in fighting and hack n' slash games.

I should've answered this earlier. Sorry for getting to this so late.

It's no secret how much I like DMC3 and DMC4. To me, DMC4 is just as good as DMC3, but what puts 3 over 4 just a hair is Vergil. I already consider Dante and Vergil the best characters ever made, but I feel Vergil is just that ideal character for me. I have no problem with Dante's personality whatsoever, but Vergil being so cutthroat really won me over.

With that being said, I don't really know how the combat can be improved from DMC4. I think I read in reviews that people had an issue with the combat being nearly the same as DMC3, and I'm sorta of the opinion that if it's not broke don't fix it (kinda contradict myself since I'm looking for something new in the Zelda games lol). I don't mind the idea of implementing Royal Guard more, although I never used it. I guess if I had to say something about improving combat, make it more visceral/impactful. I know it's blasphemous, but the way DmC's combat is (no way is it better than DMC3/4's combat), that last hit just make it feel so good, and even then I guess this is the main reason why I like Nero as well. Sure he don't have the styles as Dante, but all of Nero's moves just felt so good, and then Exceed made it even better.

As for what I want if a DMC5 were to be announced, a Zelda-like adventure. I don't need the long dungeons (the key searching can be tedious at times), but when you enter a door, while it's brief, it does take away from the action for a brief second. Very small, but I'd like it to be continuous or if there is a cutscene, go right into it. Kinda like MGS4 transition from cutscene to gameplay. I don't know if I'm explaining that right, so hopefully people know where I'm going with that.

While I don't recall having much of an issue with the camera in the DMC series I would like to see (again blasphemous) God of Wars camera be implemented more. That way it could free up the right toggle for something else. If there's one thing I liked about GoW series it's that the camera was never an issue. It was always in the perfect position and never interfered with the combat. If more games in this genre were to follow this I'd be a happy camper.

Favorite Devil Arms Combo: Rebellion and Beowulf
Rationale: Rebellion is pretty much the best "bladed" weapon in the game, in that its pretty much an all-purpose weapon and well-balanced with little weaknesses. Beowulf, on the other hand, is the best blunt weapon in the game. Cerberus is fun, but lacks a double-jump, and its harder to consistently pull off jump-cancels with it, whereas jump-canceling with Beowulf is both extremely useful and extremely powerful, and it makes quick work of the stone enemies like the Damned Chess pieces and the Blood-goyles (in their solid forms).

Favorite Gun Combo: Ebony & Ivory and Kalina Ann
Rationale: Ebony & Ivory is just the perfect weapon for both stringing together combos and keeping certain enemies stunned for a bit. The guns have a decent range to them, and while they barely do any damage at all, they fire fairly rapidly, and they are also a good way to extend your air-time to avoid certain ground attacks with ease. As for Kalina Ann, its a very short-range gun but is extremely powerful for crowd control. If you get a bunch of enemies crowding around you and fire off a rocket from that gun, then you'll pretty much knock all of your enemies back and take an instant advantage over the entire room. It is also extremely powerful in damaging enemies when you are in Devil Trigger mode, and can be helpful against certain bosses or just tougher enemies.

Agreed of all accounts although, I'm more Ebony & Ivory and Shotgun. I just love the knock-back properties of the shotgun. I must admit, though, that I've never actually did any combos with the guns. I've seen them before, but I've never implemented them into my game.

Style Preferences:
1. Sword Master (Rationale: Its the most fun to use since I'm a guy who likes beating the crap out of stuff more than anything else)
2. Trickster (Rationale: Its the most practical style to use, and the air-dash is insanely helpful under any circumstances)
3. Royal Guard (Rationale: Its extremely powerful and effective if you know how to use it right, but its hard to master)
4. Gunslinger (Rationale: It can be fun to use, but to me it just feels like the least suited to my particular play-style)

I'm more of Trickster guy myself. If I were to rank them.. Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger would be my top 3. I've never used Royal Guard.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's no secret how much I like DMC3 and DMC4. To me, DMC4 is just as good as DMC3, but what puts 3 over 4 just a hair is Vergil. I already consider Dante and Vergil the best characters ever made, but I feel Vergil is just that ideal character for me. I have no problem with Dante's personality whatsoever, but Vergil being so cutthroat really won me over.

From a gameplay standpoint, I think that the little that I've played of Vergil is fun, but his lack of a double-jump is a serious issue for me, since I am so used to having that ability that I just end up screwing myself over on so many occasions when I play as Vergil and instinctively try to use that feature in certain situations. Other than that, though, his combat is very unique, and still pretty fun.

With that being said, I don't really know how the combat can be improved from DMC4. I think I read in reviews that people had an issue with the combat being nearly the same as DMC3,

The people who said that don't know jack shit about the combat in these games outside of just hitting the attack button to hit things, then. The addition of the ability in DMC4 to switch between styles on the fly adds an insane amount of depth to the game's combat system alone. That, and Nero's combat is very unique from Dante's. Really, the people who complain about the combat in DMC4 being too similar to DMC3 just make no sense to me. What are they looking for, exactly? Obviously for a video game sequel, you want to capitalize on what made the previous game great, and the main thing that played to DMC3's strength was its combat, so why would they completely change every aspect of it? They might as well make an entirely new game, then. Now, if the implication is that its barely different from DMC3's combat, then like I said, those people don't know jack shit about what they are saying, and clearly either didn't play more than the game's demo, or just don't know how to play without button-mashing. That's the same BS as someone saying that Ninja Gaiden 2's combat is more of the same as NGB. The core mechanics are kept in-tact, but there is tons of depth added to NG2's combat that was never present in NGB, and its not even stuff that's so nuanced that only a pro could see it. Once again, people who make BS complaints about stuff like that clearly don't know how to even play the game.

I guess if I had to say something about improving combat, make it more visceral/impactful. I know it's blasphemous, but the way DmC's combat is (no way is it better than DMC3/4's combat), that last hit just make it feel so good, and even then I guess this is the main reason why I like Nero as well. Sure he don't have the styles as Dante, but all of Nero's moves just felt so good, and then Exceed made it even better.

I agree with this. I'm not saying that it needs to be bloody. There doesn't need to be any blood at all, really. However, to take a cue from the Ninja Gaiden games, I think more hack n' slash games, the DMC series included, should have that instant reaction from enemies upon getting hit. I mean, the NG games are among the only few hack n' slash games that go out of their way to put just as much effort into enemy animations as they do for the main playable character. Most enemies have a convincing reaction animation to getting hit, and more than the blood or any amount of violence, that's where the visceral and satisfying feeling of NG's combat comes from. In the DMC games, it feels kind of like you aren't really hurting your enemies that much until you actually manage to kill them. What I mean is that you don't get the immediate satisfaction of landing an attack on your enemies like in the NG games, though to be fair, the satisfaction in DMC games comes more from juggling your enemies in a long combo rather than in single, well-placed, and well-timed attacks.

Very small, but I'd like it to be continuous or if there is a cutscene, go right into it. Kinda like MGS4 transition from cutscene to gameplay. I don't know if I'm explaining that right, so hopefully people know where I'm going with that.

Well, yeah, at this point it kind of just doesn't cut it anymore for you to defeat a boss or something and have the screen temporarily fade to black before showing the next cut-scene. Just like in DmC, all future DMC games should just seamlessly transition from the gameplay into a cut-scene, and vice versa.

While I don't recall having much of an issue with the camera in the DMC series I would like to see (again blasphemous) God of Wars camera be implemented more. That way it could free up the right toggle for something else. If there's one thing I liked about GoW series it's that the camera was never an issue. It was always in the perfect position and never interfered with the combat. If more games in this genre were to follow this I'd be a happy camper.

Honestly, aside from the horrible platforming, I found DMC4's camera to be just fine for the series in terms of combat. If you pay attention to your surroundings, you'll notice that enemies in that game can never initiate attacks on you from off-screen (with maybe just a few exceptions in the entire game). So, really, there are no cheap moments occurring from off-screen, and the camera is just good enough where I can almost always see where I am and what I am doing with perfect clarity.

Agreed of all accounts although, I'm more Ebony & Ivory and Shotgun. I just love the knock-back properties of the shotgun. I must admit, though, that I've never actually did any combos with the guns. I've seen them before, but I've never implemented them into my game.

Well, as far as knock-back goes, once again, Kalina Ann technically has the most knock-back of any weapon in the game. I mean, the thing pretty much knocks back an entire group of enemies if they are clustered around you, and this works most of the time even if they are in Devil Trigger mode. That said, the shotgun has a faster rate of fire, can be shot from mid-air, and the charge-shot with it can also knock back most enemies even if they are in Devil Trigger mode, as well.

I'm more of Trickster guy myself. If I were to rank them.. Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger would be my top 3. I've never used Royal Guard.

Like I said, Trickster is the most immediately practical style in the game. You could argue that Royal Guard is the most practical once you master it, but it is pretty hard to master. Trickster takes almost no skill to use correctly, and it makes avoiding most enemy attacks incredibly easy and intuitive, and also puts you in a strategic position to immediately strike back. Truth be told, its the style that I use the most in the game, myself. That said, Sword Master fits my personal play-style the most in that its by far the most fun style for me to use.

[Grave]

From a gameplay standpoint, I think that the little that I've played of Vergil is fun, but his lack of a double-jump is a serious issue for me, since I am so used to having that ability that I just end up screwing myself over on so many occasions when I play as Vergil and instinctively try to use that feature in certain situations. Other than that, though, his combat is very unique, and still pretty fun.

That reminds me, I need to go back and play DMC3 since I never got the hang of playing as Vergil. Not to mention I found it pretty hard to be fancy with the Yamato since it only did 3 hits I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). I do agree that not having a double jump was really a big issue for me as well, especially since I'm terrible at using Trick Down/Up.

I agree with this. I'm not saying that it needs to be bloody. There doesn't need to be any blood at all, really. However, to take a cue from the Ninja Gaiden games, I think more hack n' slash games, the DMC series included, should have that instant reaction from enemies upon getting hit. I mean, the NG games are among the only few hack n' slash games that go out of their way to put just as much effort into enemy animations as they do for the main playable character. Most enemies have a convincing reaction animation to getting hit, and more than the blood or any amount of violence, that's where the visceral and satisfying feeling of NG's combat comes from. In the DMC games, it feels kind of like you aren't really hurting your enemies that much until you actually manage to kill them. What I mean is that you don't get the immediate satisfaction of landing an attack on your enemies like in the NG games, though to be fair, the satisfaction in DMC games comes more from juggling your enemies in a long combo rather than in single, well-placed, and well-timed attacks.

Exactly. I also don't need the bloodshed. Just give me animations that looks like I'll feel it and you got a winner, at least from me anyway. This is why I found MGR to be so fun.

Honestly, aside from the horrible platforming, I found DMC4's camera to be just fine for the series in terms of combat. If you pay attention to your surroundings, you'll notice that enemies in that game can never initiate attacks on you from off-screen (with maybe just a few exceptions in the entire game). So, really, there are no cheap moments occurring from off-screen, and the camera is just good enough where I can almost always see where I am and what I am doing with perfect clarity.

Yeah, I didn't have an issue with DMC's camera from what I can remember. I just got so spoiled with God of War's camera that places perfectly, and you don't have to use the right analog stick for the camera. Just an option to free up the right analog for something other than rotating the camera.

Well, as far as knock-back goes, once again, Kalina Ann technically has the most knock-back of any weapon in the game. I mean, the thing pretty much knocks back an entire group of enemies if they are clustered around you, and this works most of the time even if they are in Devil Trigger mode. That said, the shotgun has a faster rate of fire, can be shot from mid-air, and the charge-shot with it can also knock back most enemies even if they are in Devil Trigger mode, as well.

I guess what I was initially trying to say was the knockback from the shotgun, while not as powerful as Kalina Ann, but had more of an impact on me. I got a kick out of shooting someone up close with the shotgun. Sorta kinda had that effect you see in action movies... (Desperado would be a nice example of what I mean Probably not to that degree though)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just beat Mission 18 of DMC3 on Very Hard mode, and I have to say: holy mother of fucking god was that chessboard fight a bitch! Keep in mind that I make it a point to almost never using healing items, more out of my own stubbornness than in actually trying to get a good level ranking. So in that regard, it took me a shit-ton of tries to get past that fight on this difficulty setting. You'd think it'd be easy to strategize for something like this, but each time that I tried something, it backfired one me in some way or the other. You'd think that its easy and you just have to destroy the King to end the battle, but then the damn thing castles with one of the Rooks any time you so much as graze it with any kind of attack. So, then you think that you should focus on taking out the rooks, but those damn Bishops keep throwing damn fireballs at you when you try to focus on them. So, then you think that you should prioritize the bishops first, then take out the rooks, then the King, but then that pesky Queen gets in the way and keeps fucking raping your health by attacking you from any given direction. The only enemies you really can afford to ignore are the Pawns and the Knights, but I ended up killing off all the pawns, anyways, just to clear up some room on the board. After a while, I just said screw strategy and had a long grind of try after try before I finally just managed to kill EVERYTHING on the board aside from the King itself.

You should have seen how hilarious it was when I had just The King and 3 Knights left on the board (yes, 3 of them, because apparently the developers of this game have no idea how Chess works other than the pieces involved with the game). As soon as it was just them, all 3 of them started spamming that stomping attack. I had almost no health left, so just 1 hit would kill me at that point, so I just played it safe and started running to the other side of the board, and then turned around and took a few pot-shots at them with Kalina Ann until they were all dead. Then just The King was left and it was even more hilariously pathetic, since he could only move a measly one space at a time and use an easy to avoid AOE attack (it was easy because there was nothing else left on the board to distract me from fighting him, and the fucking coward couldn't fucking castle his way out of this situation, anymore). I basically just used the same strategy on him as I did on the Knights, in that I just hit him with a missile, and then walked out of his AOE before he could attack, and when his attack was done I just shot him again. He barely even moved, so it was just me walking back and forth and shooting him once each time until he was dead. It took a good few minutes to kill him, but it was so worth it when I finally managed to get past that fight, which took me over an hour to finally beat. After that I just took the shortest possible route through the boss gauntlet to get the level over with (by only fighting Cerberus, Agni & Rudra, and Beowulf). On Normal and Hard mode I actually bothered to go through every single boss fight again just for the sake of completion, but on this run through the game I barely had the patience to put up with that after such a grueling fight on the chessboard. The worst part about this whole ordeal was that....it wasn't even the worst part. That's still yet to come. I have to deal with the dreaded mission 19, now, and I will most certainly be breaking the no item rule for the Arkham fight. Fuck that fight to hell.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just have to say that unlimited Devil Trigger practically breaks the game. It also makes Nevan the most overpowered weapon in the entire game, since with infinite Devil Trigger you also get infinite Air Raid, and you can just spam lighting attacks from high above where most enemies can't reach you. Still, I could see this feature totally spoiling me and making me a much worse player for it, so I'm going to try not to use it at all until after I beat DMD mode, and maybe Heaven or Hell mode as well, if I feel up to it. I'll try and clear Bloody Palace mode with it, and that's pretty much it. But, good lord is it fun as hell to exploit DT when you can use it for as long as you want to.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Out of sheer boredom, I decided to come up with a list of the top 10 things that Capcom can do for a future DMC game to actually make it have a really enjoyable (and maybe even legitimately good) story that we can all care about and even be somewhat invested in (I say this as someone who still enjoyed DMC3's story for what it was):

10. Give the side characters some actual characterization and development. We know that Trish was created by Mundus, and that Lady's (Mary's) father killed her mother....and that's where their characterization ends. Now, go do something else with them.  Oh, and if they decide to keep Nero and Kyrie around, do more with Kyrie other than making her the Nero's own personal Princess Peach.

9. Give Nero some fucking back-story already. How the fuck did he get his demon arm? I actually kind of want to know you pricks.

8. Do something in the story to piss Dante off. Everything is usually too easy for him, and we only ever got to see him truly pissed of at one point in the entire series, so far (when Mundus "killed" Trish in DMC1). I'd like to see more of that, please.

7. Have the next game take place AFTER DMC2 for a change, just to show us that DMC's lore doesn't end with a boring as fuck version of Dante. That would be a very bitter ending point for the series.

6. Make Dante's team at Devil May Cry (or Devil Never Cry for you hard-asses out there) an actual "team" by having more scenes with these characters interacting with each other and working on the same cases. It makes for a lot of potential chemistry between them.

5. Have a new member join the team, make them a REALLY likable character with a lot of great back-story and with tons of great chemistry with the rest of the team, and then kill them off half-way through one of the future DMC games to make everyone feel sad. I learned that from watching Angel. It's very effective.

4. Expand the lore of the world that Devil May Cry takes place in. This can easily be done through the form of collectible articles that you can find and read throughout the game. Classic Resident Evil games do this to great effect.

3. Just let Dante meet his freaking dad already. The possibilities of this world are so damn vague that any writer can easily BS some excuse to make such an encounter possible. After that, have his dad turn evil or be possessed or something so that you can have an epic Vergil-esque boss-fight with him.

2. Give Dante a mentor-figure to help give him some form of discipline and get him to achieve a higher level of combat that both enhances the gameplay and makes him seem even more bad-ass than before, all the while keeping Dante's fun as hell personality in-tact. I learned this from reading way too many shonen manga for my own good.

1. Make an actual fucking threatening villain you pricks at Capcom! Stop making Dante's life a piece of cake in all of these games. Make a villain who can match him in both personality and skill. No scratch that, make a villain who downright outwits Dante at every turn AND is also more skilled than him from the get-go so as they can kick his ass. You could say that Mundus was threatening, but we didn't see him until the very end. You could say that Vergil was threatening, but Dante pretty much matched his level of skill after only their first fight. The best way to make us care about a DMC story-line and really be invested in it is to make a villain so dangerous that it actually makes you wonder how Dante will overcome him. Any villain that can at least initially make Dante look weak in comparison has to be all sorts of bad-ass. It's the best way to pump you up for a DMC story, IMO.

[Spark Of Spirit]

dmc2 is on the way!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

dmc2 is on the way!

Here's a new one:

Make the beginning of the next game in and of itself a plot twist, with the twist being that DMC2 never actually happened and was all just Dante's bad dream. It's not entirely unlike how SMB2 was just Mario's dream, except his actually didn't suck as much.

[Rynnec]

Actually, depending on whether or not you consider Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne canon to the DMC franchise or not, then you can consider that game to take place last chronologically. I mean, it's not like Dante being summoned to a different universe from Hell is too far-fetched.

10. Give the side characters some actual characterization and development. We know that Trish was created by Mundus, and that Lady's (Mary's) father killed her mother....and that's where their characterization ends. Now, go do something else with them.  Oh, and if they decide to keep Nero and Kyrie around, do more with Kyrie other than making her the Nero's own personal Princess Peach.

Well, 4 and TAS showed that Lady likes to bitch about Dante about whatever money he owes her, and Trish is...Trish. So yea, expanding on their personalities would be nice.

9. Give Nero some fucking back-story already. How the fuck did he get his demon arm? I actually kind of want to know you pricks.

Well, the novelization of 4 did give him a bit of backstory, but it's sort of divisive among the fanbase.

3. Just let Dante meet is freaking dad already. The possibilities of this world are so damn vague that any writer can easily BS some excuse to make such an encounter possible. After that, have his dad turn evil or be possessed or something so that you can have an epic Vergil-esque boss-fight with him.

An Indy 3-style plot with Dante meeting up with his Dad would be great to see. Either that, or a Sparda prequel, you can make an entire subseries considering how much stuff he's done.

2. Give Dante a mentor-figure to help give him some form of discipline and get him to achieve a higher level of combat that both enhances the gameplay and makes him seem even more bad-ass than before, all the while keeping Dante's fun as hell personality in-tact. I learned this from reading way too many shonen manga for my own good.

Well, the (now non-canon) prequel novel to 1 did give Dante a sort of mentor when he had briefly lost his memory and was going by "Tony Redgrave". There's no reason they can't give Dante a mentor in the new continuity, said mentor would probably would had to have tutored him pre-DMC3, since by 4 it's pretty clear he's powerful enough on his own.

1. Make an actual fucking threatening villain you pricks at Capcom! Stop making Dante's life a piece of cake in all of these games. Make a villain who can match him in both personality and skill. No scratch that, make a villain who downright outwits Dante at every turn AND is also more skilled than him from the get-go so as they can kick his ass. You could say that Mundus was threatening, but we didn't see him until the very end. You could say that Vergil was threatening, but Dante pretty much matched his level of skill after only their first fight. The best way to make us care about a DMC story-line and really be invested in it is to make a villain so dangerous that it actually makes you wonder how Dante will overcome him. Any villain that can at least initially make Dante look weak in comparison has to be all sorts of bad-ass. It's the best way to pump you up for a DMC story, IMO.

This. This so much. Aside from Vergil and Mundus, all of DMC's Big Bad's have been incredibly lame.

[Foggle]

Devil May Cry 2 is either the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe or SMT 3: Nocturne depending on your point of view.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Devil May Cry 2 is either the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe or SMT 3: Nocturne depending on your point of view.

I have never heard people compare it to the latter before. What comparison would they use?

[Foggle]

Dante is in it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Actually, depending on whether or not you consider Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne canon to the DMC franchise or not, then you can consider that game to take place last chronologically. I mean, it's not like Dante being summoned to a different universe from Hell is too far-fetched.

Considering it's the DMC2 version of Dante in that game, I'd rather not.

Well, the novelization of 4 did give him a bit of backstory, but it's sort of divisive among the fanbase.

Yeah, I myself have never been a fan of using outside novelization and comics to expand video game story-lines. I mean, I get the reason for why they do it, but I like to see as much information as possible put into the actual game itself. It's the very reason why when people try to argue with me about why they think the story-lines in the Halo games are good, I never accept any reasoning involving anything along the lines of "well in the novels/comics, this and this were explained about this character." In order for the game's to have good story-lines, all of the major revelations and characterization should be put IN the game itself. And Capcom clearly has the budget to go all-out on a new DMC game if they wanted to, so I couldn't accept any excuses from them in that regard.

An Indy 3-style plot with Dante meeting up with his Dad would be great to see. Either that, or a Sparda prequel, you can make an entire subseries considering how much stuff he's done.

A Devil May Cry 0 starring Sparda is one of my many dream games that I'll never get to see.

Well, the (now non-canon) prequel novel to 1 did give Dante a sort of mentor when he had briefly lost his memory and was going by "Tony Redgrave". There's no reason they can't give Dante a mentor in the new continuity, said mentor would probably would had to have tutored him pre-DMC3, since by 4 it's pretty clear he's powerful enough on his own.

Yeah, considering how insanely skilled Dante is, I fail to believe that he could have picked up such expert skills by himself. I mean, yeah, I know he's got a strong demon heritage and all, but having a lot of power at your disposal AND being extremely skilled with it are two completely different things. Maybe he and Vergil could have had the same master or something before they split off, but that might be a bit too cliche. It'd be interesting if they had found separate masters after they each went their separate ways, and you could actually have Dante square off against Vergil's own master. That'd certainly make for an interesting boss fight, if nothing else.

This. This so much. Aside from Vergil and Mundus, all of DMC's Big Bad's have been incredibly lame.

My god, I just have to cringe whenever I think about DMC2's main "villain."

As for DMC4, I get what they were trying to do with Sanctus, and he potentially COULD have been a great villain, but they basically made him an immature power-hungry ass for Nero to do away with using his bad-ass final move. Honestly, a great villain should be one who is both intelligent and just as skilled as Dante, which is why Vergil is my favorite DMC villain so far. The only problem is that they didn't really do nearly as much as they could have done with Vergil's characterization, so that was kind of a missed opportunity, IMO.

I would've thought that the DMC anime would be a great way to capitalize on some of that potential, but apparently they never used Vergil in that show, which I feel is one of the dumbest things that I've ever heard of. Why NOT use one of the most popular characters from the DMC games in a fucking DMC anime?

[Rynnec]

Actually, depending on whether or not you consider Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne canon to the DMC franchise or not, then you can consider that game to take place last chronologically. I mean, it's not like Dante being summoned to a different universe from Hell is too far-fetched.

Considering it's the DMC2 version of Dante in that game, I'd rather not.

Dante has something resembling a personality in Nocturne, basically the one he should have had in 2. He also says one of his best lines in that game ("Which would you rather end up in...a coffin or a dumpster?").

Well, the novelization of 4 did give him a bit of backstory, but it's sort of divisive among the fanbase.

Yeah, I myself have never been a fan of using outside novelization and comics to expand video game story-lines. I mean, I get the reason for why they do it, but I like to see as much information as possible put into the actual game itself. It's the very reason why when people try to argue with me about why they think the story-lines in the Halo games are good, I never accept any reasoning involving anything along the lines of "well in the novels/comics, this and this were explained about this character." In order for the game's to have good story-lines, all of the major revelations and characterization should be put IN the game itself. And Capcom clearly has the budget to go all-out on a new DMC game if they wanted to, so I couldn't accept any excuses from them in that regard.[/quote]

I understand novelizations and comics in stuff like fighting games or platformers, which are scant on actual story content to begin with, but for big budget stuff like Halo and DMC, and especially RPG's, I agree.

Well, the (now non-canon) prequel novel to 1 did give Dante a sort of mentor when he had briefly lost his memory and was going by "Tony Redgrave". There's no reason they can't give Dante a mentor in the new continuity, said mentor would probably would had to have tutored him pre-DMC3, since by 4 it's pretty clear he's powerful enough on his own.

Yeah, considering how insanely skilled Dante is, I fail to believe that he could have picked up such expert skills by himself. I mean, yeah, I know he's got a strong demon heritage and all, but having a lot of power at your disposal AND being extremely skilled with it are two completely different things. Maybe he and Vergil could have had the same master or something before they split off, but that might be a bit too cliche. It'd be interesting if they had found separate masters after they each went their separate ways, and you could actually have Dante square off against Vergil's own master. That'd certainly make for an interesting boss fight, if nothing else.[/quote]

Considering it's implied that Dante and Vergil were seperated until they were in their late-teens, I doubt they'd have trained under the same master. Speaking of which, I also wouldn't mind a game elaborating on what Dante and Vergil did pre-DMC3, since the first novel is now out of continuity.

I would've thought that the DMC anime would be a great way to capitalize on some of that potential, but apparently they never used Vergil in that show, which I feel is one of the dumbest things that I've ever heard of. Why NOT use one of the most popular characters from the DMC games in a fucking DMC anime?

Oddly enough, I don't think Vergil is so much as mentioned in the anime. I get that they couldn't have exactly shown Vergil in the present, since he presumably died in DMC1, and I imagine Capcom would want a plot point as big as Vergil's return to be in the games, but a flashback episode detailing how Dante and Vergil's first reunion would've been much preferable than whatever episode 8 was about.