Ya know, there’s a problem with having a handful of gaming buddies that have largely the same taste in games as you. Because when a game like DmC Devil May Cry comes out, there’s a good possibility that without a buddy to say “Hey motherf***er, you need to play this,” you can fall asleep on a game not once, but twice.
I remember when DmC released in 2013. The game media said it was neat. It got generally good reviews but the vibe of the game largely screamed, “This ain’t for you!” So I ignored it. Then, when it came out again in 2015 with an HD remaster running at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second, it still slapped me in the face and said, “THIS AIN’T FOR YOU!” So I ignored it again.
I’ll clarify a bit. Combo action games aren’t exactly my cup of tea. Though I’ve enjoyed a few over the years, they’re not real high on my priority list. I’ve never been very good at stringing together combos, and getting rated on my performance at the end of a level has always been a bit of a turn-0ff. In short, I button mash my way through the stages and enjoy my consistent “D” rating from beginning to end. The fact that DmC was one of these combo-riddled beat-’em-ups was already one strike against it. Dante’s younger, kinda emo-looking character design was strike two, and then the final swing and miss was the weird, morphing Limbo that the action took place in. I’m not even sure if it was the aesthetics or the overall color palette, but for some reason it did nothing for me.
So, without the aforementioned buddy to tell me to ignore my instincts and give it a go, I ignored it for a good five years. It wasn’t until I was perusing Microsoft’s Game Pass and saw that it was available, so I was bored enough to say “What the hell,” and give it a shot.
And boy am I glad I did. That game was some slick shit! Dante was much more like-able a character than I expected him to be, much better than his original Devil May Cry counter-part (which was atrocious, by the way.) The style and swagger that they introduce him in was cocky and smooth and very tongue in cheek, as opposed to some smarmy douchebag I had expected him to be (also thanks to that original Dante.) Ninja Theory held back on the bravado just enough, making Dante a character that knew he was a badass, but kept the arrogance in check.
My main gripe with the game was that the entirety of the game’s action takes place in Limbo. While there’s nothing wrong with it, it did get a little repetitive that every time something’s about to happen, Dante gets sucked into Limbo. It had me wondering if Dante even had special powers in the real world. I’m assuming he did, but we never got to see him use them before stepping through a dimensional gate. I personally would’ve loved to see him go ape-shit after Kat’s capture and tear his way into the real world, laying the ever-loving smackdown on some human soldiers. Killing demons is great and all, but it would’ve been interesting to see just how much more powerful than humans Dante or Virgil really are. It would’ve at least added a bit more variety.
Speaking of Kat, is it just me or was she just plain weird looking? I mean, her character modeling didn’t match any of the other characters in the game (all three). Dante, Virgil, and Mundus all looked and moved just fine, but there was something about Kat’s design that just looked off. She looked like a doll, or a puppet. I don’t mean that in a figurative sense either, I mean she literally looked like there could be strings attached to her major appendages.
I took that screenshot because that’s probably the most normal she looked the entire game, and it’s right after she got the mess beat out of her. From that point on though, she was doing her best Pinocchio impression.
Maybe I’m being a little hard on her, but as a character who represents humanity, who is supposed to symbolize the compassion and good that’s worth saving, it’s a hard sell when she looks so artificial compared to everyone else.
In all, the prequel to the old ass Devil May Cry games is a pretty slick package that I personally can’t believe I waited so long to play. And let me take a moment to give props to the Xbox Game Pass, through which I downloaded and played a game that I probably never would’ve spent money on, and ended up loving. This is the beauty of the Game Pass. It’s not about how many games there are in the library that you don’t own (and trust me, I already own quite a few of them). It’s about finding the ones you would have never thought to purchase, but can now try out for little to no investment, and discovering hidden gems you thought were rubble. For every one of us hardcore game owners, there are casual peeps out there that only own a few games, and for them the Game Pass is a treasure trove waiting to be discovered. Whether you decide that it’s worth the extra monthly fee or not is entirely up to you, the value of it will be different to everyone. But at the same time we can’t deny how important of a service this is to the industry, and what an amazing time it is to be a gamer.
With that said, it’s unfortunate that the Devil May Cry franchise seems to have run its course. I did read recently that the creator of the original Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya, wants to do a full-scale remake, as opposed to the HD re-releases that Capcom’s been pawning off on us every generation. I would personally love for this to happen, but it sounds like he wants to take it in a different direction. Considering Devil May Cry was at one point actually Resident Evil 4, I guess the guy’s used to changing his mind on things, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
