Capcom has moved to reassure Devil May Cry fans that the franchise is in good hands with developer Ninja Theory and that together the teams involved aim to make DMC the best in the series so far.
The cause for concern over the upcoming Devil May Cry game, titled DMC, is a redesign of protagonist Dante, who appears younger and a tad grungier in what will be the fifth in the series.
It was a move by Ninja Theory, which caused something of a backlash, but a Capcom staff member known on the official forums as 'onlyonet' has told followers not to worry:
"The exact same concerns were raised over Dead Rising 2 being made by Blue Castle games, which were totally ill founded, on what was an excellent game that 'got' everything that made the first game so amazing."
"[Ninja Theory] are renowned for the quality of their production everything from motion capture, scripting, design and performance, areas perhaps areas that Capcom have been criticised over the past few years?"
"Capcom bring to the table years of experience with design of fighting systems, characters and the little things that make DMC, well DMC."
"Combine all the best elements of Capcom and Ninja Theory you will have one of the greatest DMC titles ever created... and that people is what we're working towards."
"But we haven't handed over the family silver to some strangers we are working with Ninja Theory on this together. We believe that by going down this route we can breathe new life into the franchise and make a game that sits above DMC3 for this generation."
Talking about Devil May Cry games of the past, onlyonet said,
"Lets be honest they were great games (averageing in the low 80's on metacritic) but not perfect. We're now aiming to make the perfect DMC game that gets 90's"
In a video interview back in September, Ninja Theory's lead producer, Alex Jones and chief creative, Tameem Antoniades revealed the team's thinking behind Dante's controversial new look.
Comments
20 comments so far...
El Mag on 7 Mar '11 said:
But Devil May Cry 3 was the perfect DMC game, it had 90+ scores and was praised all round.
FAUNA on 7 Mar '11 said:
From a western gamer: DMC 4 is one of my all-time favorite games. A perfect masterwork. ALL JAPANESE GAMES SHOULD BE MADE IN JAPAN. I play Japanese games BECAUSE they are Japanese. With that said, out of all the western developers possible, NINJA THEORY IS THE BEST CHOICE. They are true visionary art masters, & the thought of them crafting a DMC title is simply mind-numbing. I can't wait. Oh yeah CAPCOM, PLEASE GIFT THE WORLD WITH A PS3/360 MT FRAMEWORK TECH 'STRIDER / ONIMUSHA / POWERSTONE' (MADE IN JAPAN)...
zombiesinmyhead on 7 Mar '11 said:
Well does anybody actually aim to make a game thats a pile of steaming donkey plops?
I have to say I'm not a fan of Ninja Theory's work. I'm a big fan of the Monkey story, even going so far as to read Wu Cheng En's Journey to the West, and I hated their characterisation of him in the game. From what I saw they completely missed the most important aspects of Monkey's character, and I think if they'd kept it closer to the original Monkey he would have been a far more entertaining and likable personality.
This is probaly why I'm very wary of what they'll do with Dante. No, the current Dante isn't cool, he's a string of cheesy cliches, but is there a better treatment of such a cheesy background? Half demon? Come off it, an Emo restyling is hardly going to make that any easier to swallow.
Oh and Capcom just seem to be messing everything up right now. How are the mighty fallen.
steve w on 7 Mar '11 said:
I must be strange I still like the 2nd game, the best looking forward to the reboot.
ste hicky on 7 Mar '11 said:
remake 1 and 3 special edition then.
done.
lerm on 7 Mar '11 said:
i'm looking forward to this game, dante may look like a crack head now but as long as it still got the crazy combos and slick gunplay i couldn't care less what dante looks like
i like jam donut on 7 Mar '11 said:
My thoughts, altough the first one is still the best, great atmosphere.
CaptainCortez on 7 Mar '11 said:
Who grassed up Onlyonet? :/
If you're a member of the Capcom forums, sometimes you can get a little more inside information on things like this, but the Capcom Staff are always careful with what they say, so if anything, they just want to put faith back into you where the series new direction is concerned.
I absolutely hated the idea at first, and having a smoking and black haired Dante just did sit right with me. However, after hearing and being told a few things (and possibilities) of why the series is going in that direction, I gained a little more faith again.
The music in the TGS teaser is still bad, but I'm eagerly awaiting more information on the game. No point in ruling the title out completely until we've seen some actual gameplay and possibly a few cutscenes. You never know though, we might see some more information after Captivate or around E3 in June, though the game is still a good way off yet.
Also, I know this is all just speculation at the minute, but being a huge DMC fan, I came up with a theory on what might be going on with this new direction. If you're bothered, read below people:
Suppose the Limbo City Police Department know who Sparda was? Dante keeps having enemies come after him that hated Sparda, so surely that would mean they know Dante is his son, even at a young age? He's the only one to still be alive (to their knowledge), and the reason why Dante has dyed his hair black is because he's on the run from them, in hope that they don't recognise him, while he tries to understand everything going on with his body and everything that's going on around him.
The white patch of hair suggests that his hair is dyed, because the roots are white, but in some parts the white gradients/fades to black.
If I had things trying to kill me at a pretty young age that I thought wasn't even humanly possible, I'd have a lot of issues, so maybe he thinks he's going insane and seeing things? It's plausible. The people giving him the Psycho Evaluation Treatment might think that he has dementia at such a young age......or they could be working in accordance with an evil corporation/the demon world to get answers out of Dante for a much bigger scheme.
I don't know where I'm heading with this, but all of the above seems pretty plausible to me, and fits well in the DMC universe.
Demons have always been plotting things against the kid (and Sparda bloodline), and if Limbo City is over-run by demons, I'd say the police could be corrupt and working for a demon warlord/boss of some sort.
Makes sense?
budge on 7 Mar '11 said:
I could never really get into these DMC games however i've just completed Darksiders which i thought was fantastic.
Matthew_Greg on 7 Mar '11 said:
Someone really told that the franchise is in good hands by NT? I'm definatelly not looking forward to this game if there's gonna be this lanky jerk. NT is doing something unexplainable and without logic.
Queen Skillage on 7 Mar '11 said:
Emo Dante makes kids cry.
Spiketheslayer on 7 Mar '11 said:
No, Capcom is not aiming to make the perfect Dmc game. If that had been their intrest all along they would have given this game to Kamiya who is the original creator and who after many years was willing to make another Dmc game after Capcom had screwed him over big time in the past.
Instead they give it to one of the crappiest western developers around. Ninja theory are like the clowns of the biz, especially Taneem. They have only 2 next gen games and neither had great sales. In fact it's awesome how Namco atleast got burned big time because of their blind faith in NT, saying things like Enslaved will be the next Uncharted franchise, hoping to sell millions, then later one million and then it was hoping to sell 800000 copies. And even that they couldn't do. Why? Because people don't buy crap! And just as predicted, NT refuses to take any blame in their screw ups. Every single time a product of theirs, fails they come up with lame excuses, always refusing to take any blame.
This is by far the worst possible developer for a Dmc game. They lack the skills and know how that goes into making a top tier action game. NT also seems obssessed with wanting to make movies, they can't and thus try to turn games into (boring and that have crappy stories)movies. Capcom aren't saints either, they started this gen so good, previous ip's(Dmc4, RE5) got next-gened and they made some new(Dead Rising,Lost planet) succesful ip's too. Then it all went downhill, Capcom is so fixated on money, filled with greed and they were punished harshly for it. Their obsession in outsourcing their games. Bionic commando,Dark Void,LE2, all utter flops. They've also gotten so greedy with their games. Just look at Street fighter4 or MvsC3, how much they are charging for simple outfits. And don't be praising Dead Rising 2 that much, the game barely looks better then it's almost 5 year predecessor. That's just plain pathetic. And i'm pretty sure that Ninja theory's Dmc won't look better or that much better then Dmc4. NT has a terrible handle on the unreal engine(s**t engine that most developers use because it's so cheap), Enslaved barely had a consistant 30fps. A hardcore action game like Dmc has no chance in NT's hands with that engine.
I can only hope that after this monumentel screw up, NT will finally kick the bucket.
I also have no intrest in seeing or hearing Andy Serksis, Reuben Langdon has done amazing motion capture and voice acting for Dante. It being NT, Serksis will no doubt get a role in it, odds are as the villian(s**tty teaser hints of him being in it) and i do not like his acting in anything as he always plays the villians in a one-note manner. Always with the pathetic hissing that he does as angry Gollum,Bohan or retarted baby-tone speaking he does as docile Gollum or stupid Pyramid(, dude can't act evil,dangerous for s**t other then perhaps some creepy rapist loser.).
MANYOO4EVA on 7 Mar '11 said:
@spikethe slayer
Enslaved is NOT a crap game, it got good reviews across the board and was very good adventrure game, so STFU!! What I do NOT want to see in DMC is RESPAWNING ENEMIES they are so damn annoying and lazy, and should not be in current gen games - nods to SP of Black Ops and DMC 4.
Spiketheslayer on 7 Mar '11 said:
No manyoo4eva i will not stfu, this is a public forum and i have every right to critique and voice my opinion. If you can't deal with that then i suggest you take your own advice and STFU!
It got decent reviews but in the world of business that means jacks**t. They made a game that even a monkey could play, no challenge or hardship what so ever, the game almost plays by itself. NT has never understood that for gamers gameplay is and should always come first, the rest comes afterwards. And even then the graphics of enslaved weren't that special to begin with, choppy framerate,glitches, crap story.
And i'm super glad that my opinion was proven true, validated by the abysmal sales, those speak for itself more then any reviews ever will.
shadowsblaze on 7 Mar '11 said:
Sales never speak for themselves. Okami was a fantastic game, but got very poor sales along with titles such as Zack and Wiki, Little King's Story, etc. Meanwhile, unoriginal claptrap like Call of Duty sell by the bucket load. Enslaved was a good game, not perfect by any means, but had real potential which could have been explored in a sequal, had it sold enough copies. Unfortuantely, it was a new IP, released during one of the busiest times of the year and was drowned out by the shear volume of titles being released at that time. Anyone who judges a game's quality by it's sales needs their head examined.
STARSTyranT on 7 Mar '11 said:
The thing that grieves me is that tonally they seem to be on the money - but the imagery is all wrong.
I love the idea of Dante being younger, more vulnerable and having the absolutely s**t kicked out of him/tortured.etc. Similarly to the Tomb Raider reboot it takes a preestablished character and puts them totally out of their usual comfort zone.
But the overall image and style of this Dante is just so wrong, the sad thing is there is a fan art which retains his more usual appearence and yet fits this new gritty style perfectly....
From this (his actual appearence in DmC): http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/183979-dante.jpg
To this.....:http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp45/DanteVergilLoverAR/Devil%20May%20Cry%20Images/DMC5-Dante3.jpg
Simpy yet effective - his hair made him a bit iconic and different, yet it's just emo... *sad*
i like jam donut on 7 Mar '11 said:
Ninja Theory? Really?
That's a pass then.
tekplyrx on 8 Mar '11 said:
Well anyone tryin to justify capcom's selection of ninja theory IMO doesn't wish well for the devil may cry franchise.. ninja theory is only interested in making "movie" type "interactive" games.. which clearly devil may cry isn't. Their previous efforts were a let down.. i only had to play the enslaved demo to decide I was NOT going to buy it, i bought heavenly sword as one of my first ps3 games but i traded it in immediately after trying it for a day.. those games don't compare in any way or form to dmc.. i just dont see how they're going to make it work, all those fast lightning moves of dante and all will just be slowed down to some s**tty camera panning slow mo moves that'll indeed make anyone cry. Like some guys said, this whole "let's develop western style games" by japanese developers is not a good thing for them. their games are unique, they should change their business model or something NOT their game styles.. konami did that with castlavania LoS and see how that turned out.. it was a good game but definitely NOT a castlevania game.. Capcom get your heads on right and hand this next project over to platinum games.. they'll give the gamers what they want, a REAL F***KING DMC GAME!!
Spiketheslayer on 8 Mar '11 said:
Actually it is all about the sales. For us it's a hobby,entertainment but for developers it's a business and it would be judged as such. Indeed Okami was a fantastic game but it got a lot more positive reviews then crappy Enslaved. Why? Because unlike Enslaved it does not play by itself. And there you go, sounding exactly like Taneem making farfetched exuses on why your games are crap instead of simply stating the obvious which is that NT are crap developers, end of story. Anyone who judges a crap game like Enslaved to a masterpiece like Okami should have their head examined. And there is nothing wrong with Call of Duty, it's a tried and tested formula. They have the complete package of graphics,gameplay and replay value. That's what happens when you give the fans what they want, they'll eat it up like candy. Sure there's not an ounce of originality but that doesn't matter, the reviews and sales speak for themselves, which are things Taneem can only dream about it.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 8 Mar '11 said:
Does anyone else think that the new Dante, might not actually be Dante. Just someone that thinks they are. Would be a good twist.