You know, I wasn't expecting much, but... (DMC4 Impressions)
First of all, I apologise for stretching friends lists... Unfortunately, because of spoilers, I can't really efficiently LJ cut this and still keep the spoilers hidden. That being said...
God DAMMIT!! That was it?!
The DMC4 was decent. Way better than 2, not nearly as good as 3 or 1. If you're not in the mood for Teal Dear, just skip to the last couple sentences.
I can trace my complaints to three things.
1. It seems pretty clear to me that Kobayashi is intent upon forgetting what makes the series good. That's Dante, and the stylish action-packed gameplay that can't be beat. What did this game bring? Nero, overall SLOWER action, and enemies that are harder to combo off of. WTF? When my combo options, enemy-wise, are limited to puppets and blades, what the hell am I looking at in the gameplay? Now, it's not entirely a bad game, as I said. The enemies here are an improvement over the ones in DMC3, but still, when enemies are prone to guarding one in three attacks out of a combo, turning insubstantial and MOVING THROUGH THE WALLS, it tends to limit the fun in fights. Strategy in fights = Good. Tedium? NOT GOOD. You guys almost got it right, but you went back to your old tried-and-true method of stretching out a fight, while only partly addressing complaints about being able to maintain stylish action.
2. Add to that fact that Dante was available for all of seven missions, and it left me seriously disappointed. Seven missions, Kobayashi?! Seven FREAKING missions as the hero of the series? On top of that, you've slowed down Dante to keep pace with Nero, and you gutted his styles to boot?! I couldn't do half the things in this game that I could in 3. I realize you wanted to make a difference between the two games, but differences mean BETTER gameplay options. Not worse. Furthermore, we were promised "More weapons than in all the prior Devil May Cry games combined." Even if you take out the weapons from 2, and even if you lump Rebellion and Force Edge in as the same weapon, that's still SEVEN devil arms, and seven guns. Dante got three devil arms and three guns in this one. That's LESS than in each of the other games, individually, except for DMC2. All of Dante's styles and weapons TOGETHER probably had the same amount of moves available as Nero did. I get it, it's Nero's game. What's worse, though, is that I didn't feel the need to switch out from rebellion, ebony and ivory, and the shotgun. The other weapons? A poor man's Ifrit, and... I don't even know WHAT Lucifer was SUPPOSED to be, but what it WAS was a joke. At least I can take comfort in knowing that the enemies that gave Nero a challenge are a freaking joke as Dante. Oh wait, I LIKE a challenge. (Still, I did enjoy utterly annihilating each of the bosses as Dante. DAMN that was satisfying.)
3. The story. Where do I begin here? How about with the good... It's a beautifully crafted story. It holds together solidly on its own, if it were its own entity.
Unfortunately, as tends to be the case with DMC storylines, it's predictable. Nero's an inexperienced kid, Dante's experienced and all powerful, the order's bad, yadda yadda, we get it. There was ONE plot twist that I didn't see coming right from the beginning, though it was still horribly telegraphed by the fifth mission. When Gloria was introduced, I had no idea she was Trish. Bravo, Capcom! Bravo!
And that, unfortunately, brings me to my main complaint with the story. The ENTIRE story hinges on... Trish giving the Order the Sparda Blade in order to gain their trust so that she can screw them over? ... Uh...? Okay, WHY?! She could have slaughtered the lot of them on her own, even if she HAD handed over the sword to them. They were a pack of mewling kittens with swords before she showed up, and by all indication they were incompetent afterwards. There is absolutely NO reason for her to have done what she did. Now... If she did it to be a dick, or if she did it to betray Dante, I could have bought it. I wouldn't have been happy about it, but I would have at least said "Oh, well... shit. Capcom fucked up a good character. Sigh, let's see how they get through this one." No, in this case, it was stupidity for stupidity's sake.
Capcom, I don't expect a masterpiece from you. You used up your creative mojo putting together DMC3, and pumped the rest of it into Nero, I get it. But why, in god's name, did your writers think it was all right to hinge the ENTIRE FREAKING PLOT'S PLAUSIBILITY on a character acting out of character and handing over a godly weapon to a bunch of mortals that're up to no good? I'd ask why your writers thought it was all right to have Trish doing something stupid, but it's only stupid if you look at it logically. NONE of the characters seem to think there's anything wrong with this. Had you given me even a line from Trish saying "I thought it might make it more fun for us" when she was talking to Dante, I wouldn't complain. But no. You don't even touch upon the fact. As a matter of fact, we don't even SEE it happen. You tell us this major plot point as though it were of no worth to us, you mention it in a cutscene as an OFF-HANDED COMMENT from the main villain, and it's the last we even see of it until the final fight when the main villain is wielding the Sparda sword.
For the matter, you guys don't even adhere to your OWN CANON! As I lamented above, the story would work well as its own entity, but it's not its own entity. It's part of a larger series. Your villains kept saying "Oh, Yamato is the sword that Sparda used to seal the underworld! We don't need Sparda! Ha ha! Let's go fuck around with demon summoning and black magic to take over the world!" and I thought "You know, Capcom, I've misjudged you. You clearly want us to think that these villains are idiots and that something big is coming when they try to use Yamato where Sparda would be required. I mean, they don't even mention the amulets, that's a huge plot point in two of the games!" But no. No, the villains were actually RIGHT. Yamato is the key to the demon world, and Sparda is just a big ass demon sword, and Dante and Vergil's amulets don't exist. It's my own fault for assuming that you knew what you were doing, but WTF?! How hard is it to pay attention to your own games?
And while I'm bitching about the story, WHY does Nero have a demon arm? What is his tie to Yamato? Who is he, and why do I care? Where did Yamato even COME FROM?! Jesus H. Christ, Capcom, when you're making a story, there are some basic things you need to do, like INTRODUCE US TO THE CHARACTERS AND RESOLVE THE MYSTERIES. I can buy that Dante MIGHT leave Yamato in Nero's hands at the end. Maybe he knows something we don't, and at least the interaction between them was damn good. Still, I'm pretty sure that even the squirrels outside of Capcom HQ know things that we don't, 'cause we sure as hell haven't been told anything about this kid and why he's worthy of everything he's getting.
And even the secret ending. It worked, but... what was the point? You're going to give us a scene that makes us think that these three did everything exactly as planned and that they're good to go on another mission.. when we didn't even get to see most of THIS mission? What. The. Fuck?!
Now, I'm going to fill up some space with non-spoilerific praise for the game, and the characters especially. This space is mostly here so that commenters aren't going to be forced to read any of the above spoilers, but it's worth reading nonetheless.
Your villains were beautifully crafted, especially Agnus. God, I loved Agnus. Second best cutscene in the GAME goes to Agnus. The poetic speech from a character that otherwise stutters a lot? The banter that read like a play, back and forth between Dante and Agnus, in the opera house just before the fight? I laughed my ass off, in a good way. And oh god, the way he died. That was a thing of beauty. Trying to save his notes after Dante shot them, begging Dante to tell him why demons are inferior to humans, then looking through the bullet hole in the one page he managed to save only to stare right down the barrel of Ivory when Dante tells him to do his homework? Sweet Jesus, I nearly came right then and there. THAT was writing. If the rest of the game's writing had that quality, point 3 above would have been completely moot.
Credo... Well, we didn't see enough of Credo, which is a damn shame. I liked Credo, but the good bad guys are always the first to die. If he had been developed more, he'd probably be my favorite of all the new characters. The guy believed the ideals of the Order and just got suckered into their evil.
Gloria. Without spoiling anything for people who didn't read the LJ cut, I'll just say that I liked Gloria, and I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Mreow!
Berial, Bael, Echidna. The three big demons of the game, in order of my preference. They were beautifully writen, and their personalities really stood out. Poor Bael only seemed to be a fluffer for the Nero wank-a-thon, but he still had a fantastic personality. And as much as I was unimpressed with Echidna (they could have done so much more with her!), she still filled her role as a bit player rather well.
Dante, Trish, Lady. The returning cast. All of them were beautiful, fantastic even. (Aside from one point I brought up behind the LJ cut, but it was required for the game to actually EXIST, so... eh. I'll pretend that there was logic there and blame it on bad plotting.) Dante's interactions with Nero were fan-freaking-tastic, exactly how I'd expect him to act. Trish's interactions with Dante? A thing of pure beauty; those two are partners and there's no question of it whatsoever. (And yet, Kobayashi says that the anime is canon, when the anime says Trish ISN'T Dante's partner. WTF, Kobayashi? Quit fucking up my series.) Lady interacting with Dante and Trish? I wish I could have seen more, the banter was gorgeous.
As for the combat... well... it's a mixed bag. It's a step down from Devil May Cry 3 in complexity and flow, as I said above, but it isn't bad by any means. Nero, unfortunately, has moves that nobody's going to use, which is a damn shame. The moves that do get used are plentiful and smooth, and the exceed system was.... interesting. I don't want to say it was good, and I don't want to say it was bad, but I can't complain about it and I enjoyed using it. It's gonna leave my fingers sore whenever I play, but it's worthwhile overall.
I can't get behind the Proud Soul system. Really, Red Orbs are all that we needed to buy moves and items. Proud Souls just complicated things, and it wasn't needed. The refund mechanic to it was nice, especially after I saw that some of the moves I bought were novelties not worth my time, but... yeah, I don't want to see this again.
Unlockables. ... Please, god, tell me that there's going to be downloadable content, because you didn't give us ANY unlockable costumes or weapons? This isn't like you, Capcom. What did we do to deserve that?
Now then, the Teal Dear.
Better than DMC2 by leaps and bounds, but not nearly as good as the other games in the series. As it stands, unless I see something REALLY different, and soon, I'm gonna chalk this up as a miss for the series, overall. It's not a bad miss, it ALMOST hits the mark, and it's not so bad a game that I'm not going to replay it... BUT... I would not recommend this game for newcomers to the series. At all.
Sigh... two, maybe three years until the next one.
Fix what's wrong, Capcom, please?
God DAMMIT!! That was it?!
The DMC4 was decent. Way better than 2, not nearly as good as 3 or 1. If you're not in the mood for Teal Dear, just skip to the last couple sentences.
I can trace my complaints to three things.
1. It seems pretty clear to me that Kobayashi is intent upon forgetting what makes the series good. That's Dante, and the stylish action-packed gameplay that can't be beat. What did this game bring? Nero, overall SLOWER action, and enemies that are harder to combo off of. WTF? When my combo options, enemy-wise, are limited to puppets and blades, what the hell am I looking at in the gameplay? Now, it's not entirely a bad game, as I said. The enemies here are an improvement over the ones in DMC3, but still, when enemies are prone to guarding one in three attacks out of a combo, turning insubstantial and MOVING THROUGH THE WALLS, it tends to limit the fun in fights. Strategy in fights = Good. Tedium? NOT GOOD. You guys almost got it right, but you went back to your old tried-and-true method of stretching out a fight, while only partly addressing complaints about being able to maintain stylish action.
2. Add to that fact that Dante was available for all of seven missions, and it left me seriously disappointed. Seven missions, Kobayashi?! Seven FREAKING missions as the hero of the series? On top of that, you've slowed down Dante to keep pace with Nero, and you gutted his styles to boot?! I couldn't do half the things in this game that I could in 3. I realize you wanted to make a difference between the two games, but differences mean BETTER gameplay options. Not worse. Furthermore, we were promised "More weapons than in all the prior Devil May Cry games combined." Even if you take out the weapons from 2, and even if you lump Rebellion and Force Edge in as the same weapon, that's still SEVEN devil arms, and seven guns. Dante got three devil arms and three guns in this one. That's LESS than in each of the other games, individually, except for DMC2. All of Dante's styles and weapons TOGETHER probably had the same amount of moves available as Nero did. I get it, it's Nero's game. What's worse, though, is that I didn't feel the need to switch out from rebellion, ebony and ivory, and the shotgun. The other weapons? A poor man's Ifrit, and... I don't even know WHAT Lucifer was SUPPOSED to be, but what it WAS was a joke. At least I can take comfort in knowing that the enemies that gave Nero a challenge are a freaking joke as Dante. Oh wait, I LIKE a challenge. (Still, I did enjoy utterly annihilating each of the bosses as Dante. DAMN that was satisfying.)
3. The story. Where do I begin here? How about with the good... It's a beautifully crafted story. It holds together solidly on its own, if it were its own entity.
Unfortunately, as tends to be the case with DMC storylines, it's predictable. Nero's an inexperienced kid, Dante's experienced and all powerful, the order's bad, yadda yadda, we get it. There was ONE plot twist that I didn't see coming right from the beginning, though it was still horribly telegraphed by the fifth mission. When Gloria was introduced, I had no idea she was Trish. Bravo, Capcom! Bravo!
And that, unfortunately, brings me to my main complaint with the story. The ENTIRE story hinges on... Trish giving the Order the Sparda Blade in order to gain their trust so that she can screw them over? ... Uh...? Okay, WHY?! She could have slaughtered the lot of them on her own, even if she HAD handed over the sword to them. They were a pack of mewling kittens with swords before she showed up, and by all indication they were incompetent afterwards. There is absolutely NO reason for her to have done what she did. Now... If she did it to be a dick, or if she did it to betray Dante, I could have bought it. I wouldn't have been happy about it, but I would have at least said "Oh, well... shit. Capcom fucked up a good character. Sigh, let's see how they get through this one." No, in this case, it was stupidity for stupidity's sake.
Capcom, I don't expect a masterpiece from you. You used up your creative mojo putting together DMC3, and pumped the rest of it into Nero, I get it. But why, in god's name, did your writers think it was all right to hinge the ENTIRE FREAKING PLOT'S PLAUSIBILITY on a character acting out of character and handing over a godly weapon to a bunch of mortals that're up to no good? I'd ask why your writers thought it was all right to have Trish doing something stupid, but it's only stupid if you look at it logically. NONE of the characters seem to think there's anything wrong with this. Had you given me even a line from Trish saying "I thought it might make it more fun for us" when she was talking to Dante, I wouldn't complain. But no. You don't even touch upon the fact. As a matter of fact, we don't even SEE it happen. You tell us this major plot point as though it were of no worth to us, you mention it in a cutscene as an OFF-HANDED COMMENT from the main villain, and it's the last we even see of it until the final fight when the main villain is wielding the Sparda sword.
For the matter, you guys don't even adhere to your OWN CANON! As I lamented above, the story would work well as its own entity, but it's not its own entity. It's part of a larger series. Your villains kept saying "Oh, Yamato is the sword that Sparda used to seal the underworld! We don't need Sparda! Ha ha! Let's go fuck around with demon summoning and black magic to take over the world!" and I thought "You know, Capcom, I've misjudged you. You clearly want us to think that these villains are idiots and that something big is coming when they try to use Yamato where Sparda would be required. I mean, they don't even mention the amulets, that's a huge plot point in two of the games!" But no. No, the villains were actually RIGHT. Yamato is the key to the demon world, and Sparda is just a big ass demon sword, and Dante and Vergil's amulets don't exist. It's my own fault for assuming that you knew what you were doing, but WTF?! How hard is it to pay attention to your own games?
And while I'm bitching about the story, WHY does Nero have a demon arm? What is his tie to Yamato? Who is he, and why do I care? Where did Yamato even COME FROM?! Jesus H. Christ, Capcom, when you're making a story, there are some basic things you need to do, like INTRODUCE US TO THE CHARACTERS AND RESOLVE THE MYSTERIES. I can buy that Dante MIGHT leave Yamato in Nero's hands at the end. Maybe he knows something we don't, and at least the interaction between them was damn good. Still, I'm pretty sure that even the squirrels outside of Capcom HQ know things that we don't, 'cause we sure as hell haven't been told anything about this kid and why he's worthy of everything he's getting.
And even the secret ending. It worked, but... what was the point? You're going to give us a scene that makes us think that these three did everything exactly as planned and that they're good to go on another mission.. when we didn't even get to see most of THIS mission? What. The. Fuck?!
Now, I'm going to fill up some space with non-spoilerific praise for the game, and the characters especially. This space is mostly here so that commenters aren't going to be forced to read any of the above spoilers, but it's worth reading nonetheless.
Your villains were beautifully crafted, especially Agnus. God, I loved Agnus. Second best cutscene in the GAME goes to Agnus. The poetic speech from a character that otherwise stutters a lot? The banter that read like a play, back and forth between Dante and Agnus, in the opera house just before the fight? I laughed my ass off, in a good way. And oh god, the way he died. That was a thing of beauty. Trying to save his notes after Dante shot them, begging Dante to tell him why demons are inferior to humans, then looking through the bullet hole in the one page he managed to save only to stare right down the barrel of Ivory when Dante tells him to do his homework? Sweet Jesus, I nearly came right then and there. THAT was writing. If the rest of the game's writing had that quality, point 3 above would have been completely moot.
Credo... Well, we didn't see enough of Credo, which is a damn shame. I liked Credo, but the good bad guys are always the first to die. If he had been developed more, he'd probably be my favorite of all the new characters. The guy believed the ideals of the Order and just got suckered into their evil.
Gloria. Without spoiling anything for people who didn't read the LJ cut, I'll just say that I liked Gloria, and I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Mreow!
Berial, Bael, Echidna. The three big demons of the game, in order of my preference. They were beautifully writen, and their personalities really stood out. Poor Bael only seemed to be a fluffer for the Nero wank-a-thon, but he still had a fantastic personality. And as much as I was unimpressed with Echidna (they could have done so much more with her!), she still filled her role as a bit player rather well.
Dante, Trish, Lady. The returning cast. All of them were beautiful, fantastic even. (Aside from one point I brought up behind the LJ cut, but it was required for the game to actually EXIST, so... eh. I'll pretend that there was logic there and blame it on bad plotting.) Dante's interactions with Nero were fan-freaking-tastic, exactly how I'd expect him to act. Trish's interactions with Dante? A thing of pure beauty; those two are partners and there's no question of it whatsoever. (And yet, Kobayashi says that the anime is canon, when the anime says Trish ISN'T Dante's partner. WTF, Kobayashi? Quit fucking up my series.) Lady interacting with Dante and Trish? I wish I could have seen more, the banter was gorgeous.
As for the combat... well... it's a mixed bag. It's a step down from Devil May Cry 3 in complexity and flow, as I said above, but it isn't bad by any means. Nero, unfortunately, has moves that nobody's going to use, which is a damn shame. The moves that do get used are plentiful and smooth, and the exceed system was.... interesting. I don't want to say it was good, and I don't want to say it was bad, but I can't complain about it and I enjoyed using it. It's gonna leave my fingers sore whenever I play, but it's worthwhile overall.
I can't get behind the Proud Soul system. Really, Red Orbs are all that we needed to buy moves and items. Proud Souls just complicated things, and it wasn't needed. The refund mechanic to it was nice, especially after I saw that some of the moves I bought were novelties not worth my time, but... yeah, I don't want to see this again.
Unlockables. ... Please, god, tell me that there's going to be downloadable content, because you didn't give us ANY unlockable costumes or weapons? This isn't like you, Capcom. What did we do to deserve that?
Now then, the Teal Dear.
Better than DMC2 by leaps and bounds, but not nearly as good as the other games in the series. As it stands, unless I see something REALLY different, and soon, I'm gonna chalk this up as a miss for the series, overall. It's not a bad miss, it ALMOST hits the mark, and it's not so bad a game that I'm not going to replay it... BUT... I would not recommend this game for newcomers to the series. At all.
Sigh... two, maybe three years until the next one.
Fix what's wrong, Capcom, please?