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“Devil May Cry” is one of my favorite series in all of video games, and it’s enjoyed all around by a decently sized audience. So when the director of previous games made a tweet apologizing for not having anything to show at E3 and that instead we will see soon enough what he’s been working on, a lot of people got excited, assuming the next game will be the long-awaited continuation to the original series, “Devil May Cry 5“.

Now, it’s not confirmed that “Devil May Cry 5” is his latest project, nor is there anything concrete to assume that the game will ever be announced, but considering the director has yet to deny assumptions by a hoard of fans of his involvement in a new “Devil May Cry”. I feel the need to write this up to say what I, as a massively huge fan of the series, would like to see in a brand-new “Devil May Cry” game. So without further ado, let’s begin.

A Return to the Original Series (Obviously)

The last title to dare carry the name “Devil May Cry” was Ninja Theory’s “DMC: Devil May Cry”, a reboot that was not well accepted by the major audience. The main character, who I hesitate to call Dante, was an unlikeable protagonist who lost everything that gave the original his charm. The original Dante was a likeable, charismatic, cartoony action hero who, despite being superhuman, still had some humanity due to his human mother. The new Dante was an edgy, overly-gritty, thug who has no connection to the human world outside of the fact that he lives there, due to his mother now being an angel, making Dante less human by nature.

Dante wasn’t the only thing to change due to the reboot. For instance, there is no “Devil May Cry”, the Mercenary “shop” that Dante runs in the original series. Other than that, there’s a certain lack of enemy variety in DMC and so few bosses throughout the game. Even the bosses that were there lacked the creative style and the difficulty of previous games. For the most part, bosses in DMC are generic humanoid bosses with really boring exploits that are required to fight them. Compare that to the original “Devil May Cry” series in which bosses were little more than regular enemies with far more health and more attacking moves. Not to mention there were so few bosses in DMC compared to the individual games of the original series.

The original series also was capable of telling their story naturally without eons worth of exposition. I’m not saying that there weren’t exposition moments, such as in “Devil May Cry 4”, which needed it for the more story-based narrative over the combat based game of the original, but in DMC it’s so dripping in exposition, that it’s almost too much to take in at once. For example, when Vergil first tells Dante of the Angel-Demon feud and why they, being half-breeds, are so dangerous. The story telling of the original was very minimal overall, only going into detail when it actually mattered, and a return to that style would be very well accepted. Not to mention, the reboot was too easy. I never found myself dying until I started playing the ironic Dante Must Die difficulty, no matter how many handicaps I gave myself throughout my playthrough.

Taking the best of the previous games

There were merits to each of the previous “Devil May Cry” games that, if used properly, could create a much better sequel. Obviously, most people would rather play as Dante in the upcoming game, even though Nero was an alright substitute for a short while. It’s safe to say that “Devil May Cry” 3 and 4, in terms of combat and other in-game systems, is the more polished, and so I’ll be pulling out a lot of references to them in terms of taking the best from the previous games.

In terms of the combat, a mix between the third and fourth game would be the best choice. I’d like to see the switching between the four combat modes, Swordmaster, Trickster, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger be as easy as pressing the corresponding button on the D-pad, as it was in “Devil May Cry 4”, but the upgrade system be as it was in “Devil May Cry 3”. While the Pride Orbs in DMC4 were a nice change of pace in how you needed them for upgrades over the red orbs (which were now meant for items). The main issue is that in “Devil May Cry 4”, you only received Pride Orbs at the end of each mission, which meant for a difficulty spike that was artificially created and not based on the skill of the player.

Having Red Orbs for everything means that the Red Orbs (which you could gain more of in previous games if you had a higher skill level) would make each individual purchase you made throughout the game so much more important. You had to decide if you needed that extra bit of health or that oh-so-useful double jump to help you in combat or reach higher areas where items, blue health shards, and Red Orb stashes were.

That being said, the separation between natural abilities and weapon abilities in “Devil May Cry 4” was so much better. Instead of previous games where moves such as Air Hike (the double jump) were attributed to swords like Rebellion and Agni & Rudra, in “Devil May Cry 4” Air Hike and similar abilities were categorized under “Abilities” where you didn’t need a specific weapon equipped to use those generic abilities.

I would like to see a comeback of the narrative style from “Devil May Cry 3”, being the minimalistic story-telling style with a much deeper meaning behind it the more you think about it. While Devil May Cry 4 was okay in this way. As it felt heavy compared to its direct predecessor, and it didn’t really handle itself very well in comparison, due to the sudden change in style, and let’s not forget the difficulty. You need skill to handle the original, and I’d like to see that the idea isn’t lost in a successor, like it was in not only DMC, but also Devil May Cry 2.

More Crazy-Fun Weapons

This was originally going to be placed in the previous category, but I find it much more important than to be a footnote in a larger category. In previous games, minus “Devil May Cry 2“, gaining a weapon felt so fantastic. Dante would get an introduction to the weapon, in later games through defeating a boss and wielding its soul, show off a bunch of cool moves in an epic cutscene that can be performed in-game once the upgrades had been purchased, and it gives you an introductory screen telling you the name of the weapon and what it can do. Though I can really do without the screen if the boss names are the same as the weapon names, as is the case in “Devil May Cry 3”.

More gun weapons would be nice. In “Devil May Cry 3”, you had Ebony & Ivory, Shotgun, Spiral, Artemis, and Kalina Ann, but the selection in “Devil May Cry 4” was kind of disappointing, what with Ebony & Ivory, Coyote-A (basically the Shotgun), and Pandora for Dante and only Blue Rose for Nero. This is a short gripe I had with most of the previous games that I hope is remedied in the next one, even though I’m probably going to stick with Swordmaster style in any case, should it (hopefully) return.

An interesting Story Line that makes the most out of it

This isn’t to say I particularly want a game with tons of story. I feel like “Devil May Cry 4” was ambitious with going for a more story-driven game while the predecessors went more for gameplay-driven styles, but that doesn’t mean that the previous games’ stories weren’t interesting or didn’t make the most out of it, except for DMC2 for obvious reasons. The stories of Devil May Cry 1 and 3 were exceptionally deep without having to make it the main focus, and I’d be fine with either style, so long as they still put a major focus into the combat, as it is the most important part of any “Devil May Cry” game. As for the story of the next game that I’m really hoping is to be announced soon, finding a place in the timeline would be very difficult.

By this point, there is very little room to put a game unless it is to be the game following DMC2. That is, unless the game takes place before “Devil May Cry 3”, the current “first in the timeline” game. I find it far more realistic that the game would take place between 4 and 2, but what I think would be interesting (and remember, I have no grounds for thinking this even a possibility) would be a game that follows the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, Dante and Vergil’s father.

There’s an entire generation’s worth of games that can be made from the story of Sparda, and just looking at him shows he’d be interesting to follow around. I’d imagine a game where he seals away the Temen-ni-gru, the tower that connects the human and demon worlds, or possibly a game that follows his departure from his demonic counterparts. This seems highly unlikely, considering there have been rumors in the past that the voice of Dante, Reuben Langdon, is working on something with them. Of course, it’s very possible that they could use him as the Voice of Sparda, given the resemblance, but who knows just yet. This idea is probably little more than a pipe dream.

Nevertheless, with all that said. This is just what I would want in a “Devil May Cry game”, “if “another DMC title ever comes out. As of yet, there is no definitive word on whether or not the series will continue or if it’s canned for eternity. I’m very hopeful that something comes from it, no matter how doubtful it may be.

And with that said, what do you guys and girls want from a new “Devil May Cry game”? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor

***Disclaimer***

I do not hate the reboot. In fact, it was my introduction to the series. I appreciate what the game was trying to do, but feel that it still pales in comparison to the original. This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers’ (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.



Justin Easler

Senior editor

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @masterjayshay

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Tags: Capcom, Devil May Cry, DMC, Hack ‘n slash, Hideki Kamiya, Playstation, Shinji Mikami