Anime Devil May Cry series

[Machocruz]

Loved DMC1, somehow never could get into it's sequels.

The music is cool. It was never like this again. Instead we got a numbnuts growling into the mic. Kamiya is the only one who fully understood his own creation.

 

[Chamezero]

The first game music is the best, but that game has many instances of horrible design choices and laziness, like reusing Phantom and Griffon for the boss fights, that goddawful underwater part and the final boss shmup phase that was so it hurt. Still, great atmosphere and many challenging battles overall.

 

[A horse of course]

Been bumbling through DMC3: SE on steam with the style switcher mod that fixes the graphics and gamepad (mandatory imo unless you're playing the ps2 version on an emulator). Seems like a mix of 1 and 2 with lots of backtracking, recognizable gothic interiors and some puzzles, but with the boss variety and sense of grandeur from 2. Difficulty-wise I assume I'm on normal - there was a "Yellow" and "Gold" option when I started the game. After dying I got an offer for "Easy" which I haven't taken yet, as the game seems a bit fairer than than DMC1. I'd say there's more of an emphasis on picking the right strategy versus perfect twitch skills (which are still important). I enjoyed some of the boss fights, such as the proto-Ornstein/Smough battle, though I would've preferred DMC2's division of boss fights into their own levels, saving me the trouble of restarting when I died. I understand that it makes Yellow Orbs a valuable resource, but honestly why even bother using such mechanics in a hack-and-slash game? Seems like a pointless holdover from the Resident Evil era imo. But whatever, there are plenty of secret missions and opportunities to grind for improved weapons and items.

Took some shots of where I'm up to now (about level 13 I think?). They're only 1080p with no AA so not quite as pleasant to view as my DMC2 stuff (which are rendered at just short of 2k with 4x MSAA). I'm especially anal about jaggies though.

 

[A horse of course]

Finished. Difficulty spiked like absolute crazy towards the end. Fuck the backtracking, fuck the block jumping section, fuck the boss rush with the retarded colour inversion, fuck Mr. Blobby and fuck Kaptain Kaffeine Katana.

Guess what's up next?

Spoiler

 

[Jick Magger]

Finished. Difficulty spiked like absolute crazy towards the end. Fuck the backtracking, fuck the block jumping section, fuck the boss rush with the retarded colour inversion, fuck Mr. Blobby and fuck Kaptain Kaffeine Katana.

Guess what's up next?

Spoiler

Spoiler

FUCK YOU

 

[A horse of course]

I'm not doing DMC4, by the way. I finished that years ago on the 360. I remember enjoying it for a while (especially the Ice Demon, Angel and Belial fights) but it was hellishly repetitive. When the game switched to Dante and it became clear I'd be replaying every single level up to that point, I raged hard.

 

[A horse of course]

On a technical level, the graphics in DmC: Devil May Cry look phenomenal in motion. Art direction is another matter (I think it would work well enough as a standalone title)

 

[Martius]

Wait for club level. Some shades could be useful.

 

[Average Manatee]

Been bumbling through DMC3: SE on steam with the style switcher mod that fixes the graphics and gamepad (mandatory imo unless you're playing the ps2 version on an emulator). Seems like a mix of 1 and 2 with lots of backtracking, recognizable gothic interiors and some puzzles, but with the boss variety and sense of grandeur from 2. Difficulty-wise I assume I'm on normal - there was a "Yellow" and "Gold" option when I started the game. After dying I got an offer for "Easy" which I haven't taken yet, as the game seems a bit fairer than than DMC1. I'd say there's more of an emphasis on picking the right strategy versus perfect twitch skills (which are still important). I enjoyed some of the boss fights, such as the proto-Ornstein/Smough battle, though I would've preferred DMC2's division of boss fights into their own levels, saving me the trouble of restarting when I died. I understand that it makes Yellow Orbs a valuable resource, but honestly why even bother using such mechanics in a hack-and-slash game? Seems like a pointless holdover from the Resident Evil era imo. But whatever, there are plenty of secret missions and opportunities to grind for improved weapons and items.

"Yellow" vs. "Gold" is what (poorly explained) checkpoint system you use. "Yellow" is the original harder one, where Yellow Orbs let you use checkpoints and otherwise you restart levels. "Gold" lets you restart at checkpoints by default and Gold Orbs revive you in-place.

 

[A horse of course]

Been bumbling through DMC3: SE on steam with the style switcher mod that fixes the graphics and gamepad (mandatory imo unless you're playing the ps2 version on an emulator). Seems like a mix of 1 and 2 with lots of backtracking, recognizable gothic interiors and some puzzles, but with the boss variety and sense of grandeur from 2. Difficulty-wise I assume I'm on normal - there was a "Yellow" and "Gold" option when I started the game. After dying I got an offer for "Easy" which I haven't taken yet, as the game seems a bit fairer than than DMC1. I'd say there's more of an emphasis on picking the right strategy versus perfect twitch skills (which are still important). I enjoyed some of the boss fights, such as the proto-Ornstein/Smough battle, though I would've preferred DMC2's division of boss fights into their own levels, saving me the trouble of restarting when I died. I understand that it makes Yellow Orbs a valuable resource, but honestly why even bother using such mechanics in a hack-and-slash game? Seems like a pointless holdover from the Resident Evil era imo. But whatever, there are plenty of secret missions and opportunities to grind for improved weapons and items.

"Yellow" vs. "Gold" is what (poorly explained) checkpoint system you use. "Yellow" is the original harder one, where Yellow Orbs let you use checkpoints and otherwise you restart levels. "Gold" lets you restart at checkpoints by default and Gold Orbs revive you in-place.

fug

 

[Mangoose]

I'm very tempted to play this I heard good things bout the game but didn't know Dolphin had become so solid.


Edit: Oh wtf this was on PS2? I've had PCSX2 forever. Sigh.

 

[A horse of course]

Finished DmC. As someone who doesn't particularly like games like DMC, Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden, I can't say I miss the HARDKKKORE mechanics of the previous installments. Controls felt fluid (apart from some wonky mouse/keyboard interference when moving the camera whilst running), evading enemy attacks was generally easy enough and there was a fair bit of leeway when trying to cancel animations to dodge or jump. Graphically it was pretty impressive, but moving from ps2 to an end-of-life Xbox 360 title probably coloured my judgement.

The universe, atmosphere, tone and characterization are another matter. I don't need to be a fan to see how this game attracted such vituperance. For those who haven't touched it, DmC has very little in common with the old games beyond the basic story beats. Everything about the writing in the game is aggressively smug - lacking in the affectionate self-awareness of the old titles and clearly very pleased with its own faux-subversiveness. I won't bother going into detail, just assume it was written by a guy who works at Starbucks to cover the debt he accrued majoring in Postcolonial Voices in Contemporary Philosophy, then the script was lost and then rediscovered by an emo teen with ADHD.

Mangoose I loved Spartan but it's fucking frustrating in parts. It's basically old-school Ryse with more action and stuff going on around you. Also guaranteed to make classicalhistoryfags supremely butthurt.