Devil May Cry- the reboot.

Yeah, but that basically came across as saying "Devil May Cry has always been juvenile both Classic Dante and New Dante are shallow teenage power fantasies."

That's not true.

The old Dante was a cool and cuhrayzee teenager power fantasy.

edited 25th Mar '13 6:05:26 PM by fakeangelbr

He actually was. Funny, too.

Isn't Donte like 28?

Pretty sure he's about 17-21. He certaintly acts that way.

Yeah, I thought the implication was that it had been ten years since Eva died.

The age I keep hearing is 27, mostly because Tameem said that Donte is about 15 years younger than him and Tameem is around early forties at the very least.

Another irksome thing about that video I posted is that one of them claimed that Donte could easily be seen/become Dante circa DMC 3, despite Donte being supposedly older.

It's kinda funny, because for all the huffing and puffing Ninja Theory had over their "artistic integrity" and "original story, do not steal" plotline. The ending of Vergin's Downfall pretty much sets up Vergin and Donte to have the exact same conflict as their original counterparts had during Devil May Cry 3.

edited 25th Mar '13 11:36:47 PM by Fairwood90

The original conflict was that Dante didn't want to many demons on Earth because it would ruin his fun. Yeah, Dino can't become Dante.

Okay, another two cents from me.

Old Dante was over-the-top, which is something gamers take as a point as to why the old games weren't that great. Now you can say that they are really missing the point here, and you are in fact correct in that. The old Devil May Cry games were never really that serious in most part, only serious when the plot calls for it.

But what people are also forgetting here is that you have to look at the games in the right context, or rather, look at the time the games came out. When the last Devil May Cry came out, it was around the turning point of the world where everything went more pessimistic, more cynical. Old Dante still came from a period where things just were silly, from a period that came after the '90s. The '90s is fairly known as a more silly period, it's why when we look at those old films we can't really take most of them serious, but that's okay, because that's what made these films so great. Now, even though the '90s were already over for about two years, Devil May Cry being released August 2001, the world was still in a '90s aftershock.

Then, a month later, came the big shock that sent the world spiralling down. It wasn't just the attack that made the world in a state where it is now, but also the economical crisis that's still lingering. For some reason, from this point onward, we wanted more serious films. Even comedies had to have some drama. It was also around the time when parodies stopped being parodies and became Reference: The Movie, because fuck humor.

This trend became more apparent with video games. Before this period, games actually did have a sort of similar plotline like most films, where most films were either slapstick comedies or no-nonsense action flicks. Or chick flicks, but nobody makes games that play like chick flicks. The point is, games were unadulterated fun. But this all changed when people began to realize that they, for some reason, wanted games to be validated as art. It's not the only reason, but it is one of the contributing reasons the indie industry has risen in the past few years.

Aside from that, though, we also had people who tried to make games as serious and gritty as possible, with as much drama as films. Basically they tried to make films in game form. Now I'm not going to say if that move was good or not, but it certainly did contribute to games now requiring a better plotline or something, more so than before. This however also meant that games like Devil May Cry, in the eyes of higher-ups, had to be revised because it didn't fit the mindset of the consumers, according to said higher-ups.

The thing is, sometimes a retool can work. That is, if you don't mess too much with the tone of the game. (Ultimate) Marvel vs. Capcom 3 had more of a storyline, and was different from its predecessors in a lot of way, yet it still managed to capture the same spirit. This is also why Dm C: Devil May Cry failed. It sort of got the story, not entirely, but sort of, but tonally, it didn't feel like a Devil May Cry.

Let me give you another example of a failed "reboot". Bomberman. Somewhere at some point in time someone thought it was a good idea to turn Bomberman into a darker and grittier game. I'm not sure if the gameplay was the same, as it was on the original X Box, but I have to assume it was the same, yet the tone was very different.

Another failed experiment in a reboot was the Looney Tunes. I'm not talking about the Looney Tunes Show, that one has mixed opinions, where overall people are either indifferent about it, hate it or love it. I'm not sure if there's a vocal majority of either group. No, I'm talking about Loonatics Unleashed. I've only seen one episode before I threw the rest of the episodes away. Why? Because it wasn't the Looney Tunes, it certainly wasn't looney. Duck Dodgers, a serial reboot of the Duck Dodgers shorts, that was a fucking amazing series. That was a reboot that did a lot of things right, but the biggest part was that it had the same tone as the shorts, it still had the same quirkiness, but now in a more episodic format.

However, would Devil May Cry 5 have worked if it was tonally the same as the original series? Perhaps, but I'm more inclined to say no. Like I said, the tone worked in context. It was a wacky period. Things have become more serious since then. Now I'm not saying a DMC 5 wouldn't work with the same cast and stuff, I'm just saying it needs retooling, just not to the same extent as Dm C.

Let me take Power Rangers for example. In the end, it's all about good against bad. The Power Rangers are just regular teenagers who transform into masked superheroes, at the same time going through teenage problems. This is why later series failed to get the same following, because they tried to do the same formula without adjusting it to the new audience, or at least not to a certain extent that was needed. I think RPM was successful only because it actually tried addapt to the audience.

Perhaps a better example could be comics. We're still talking about the Silver Age and Golden Age, about how they're mostly different in tone from each other, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the worst. When it was for the worst, it was because either they retooled it too much, so that people familiar with the characters got alienated, or it was because they didn't adjust it in the right way. I can't really think of a great example of that though, because I don't really read comics.

However, here's one thing Tameem may have missed with his reboot. Devil May Cry was always a more optimistic take on the devil fighting storyline. In the end, it has always been about being human, never about humans taking a stand against supernatural beings. Even if you are a demon by nature, it doesn't mean you can't be human, because, what makes a human? From what I understand, Dm C's Mundus was actually more human than Dm C's Dante or Dm C's Vergil ever were.

But aside from that, the games have always been full of a certain spirit, of optimism. This is something that is still relevant. You know why Squirrel Girl is fairly popular? It's not just because of her memetic bad-assery. It's because she embodies optimism. Essentially, Dante, old Dante, was the Squirrel Girl of Capcom.

Some early concept art for NuDante.

Looking a some of these designs I'd say we lucked out with what we got....

I dunno, I kinda like this one.◊

I agree; that one looked much truer to the character. All he needed was a longer coat.

From the comments◊.

Haha user reviews.

x6 That's a really good way of looking at it. Dante's character just can't work in a cynical work.

Whenever I see that Anarchy Reigns score I seethe with a little rage inside.

edited 28th Mar '13 7:15:59 PM by ShirowShirow

I like the idea of using Flintlocks like that.

Also, I seethe with such rage whenever I see that picture of Dante surrounded by women, not just because of the fact that it is just so objectifying of women but because of how "edgy" it's supposed to be.

The one shown in those slides looks worse than the one that was used in marketing, at least.

So, what do you guys think of the biker lookin' Dante?

Too Max Payne 3 for my tastes.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/28/seen-gdc-imagine-dante-in-a-western-movie/

Hey guys, remember when Capcom told Ninja Theory to imagine Dante as if he were in a Western movie?

Well, they imagined him as a gay cowboy!

HAHA aren't Ninja Theory such le epic trolls?

Seriously, it seems that Ninja Theory themselves just can't let it go, the fact no one likes their Shakesperean masterpiece.

Dem boots.

(but seriously, shut up about the shakespearean thing, that wasn't even said by ninja theory)

Dear lord, you'd think they'd learn some humility by now.

-sniff sniff- Smell that? It's the scent of butthurt. Ninja Theory butthurt, to be specific.

That better?

edited 28th Mar '13 8:55:08 PM by Ninety

@Ninety: You should probably note that you're talking about the NT thing, not a poster, because it could be construed like that. :P

As for the Shakespearean thing, It was one of the V As that made the comment, and they DID try to use that as a selling point in their ads.

No one but the critics and a somewhat sizable segment of the fanbase/non-fans. Though I personally think that the people who like the game haven't really looked at most of the promotional material and just rely on gameplay videos from places like Giant Bomb.