Looking back, the game industry in the past decade has been greatly affected by the popularity of ARPG and open world, and pure ACT has naturally lost its former glory. But Devil May Cry and Hideaki Izuno still insist on their own taste and fun, giving players a pure ACT experience that feels familiar but is a bit out of place in the modern era. This time, let's talk about the rare pure ACT work "Devil May Cry 5".
Perfectly evolved motion system and sensory experience
In the era of ARPG sweeping in full swing, Izuno still adheres to the original intention of the three generations of that year, blindly and with the trend of ARPG development, continue to carry forward the core action characteristics of the third and fourth generations, so we can see that Dante and Nero have their own new tricks and new weapons. Nero has played a completely different style from the four generations through the new system of various prosthetics, the previous four generations mainly based on throwing and wrestling ghost hands, to the fifth generation of prosthetics have a lot of tricks, such as whips, rockets and so on. Later in the game and after the second round, Nero will usher in the return of the magic and ghost hand, and the player can still match the original prosthetic limb plus the revolver, which makes Nero's gameplay richer than the four generations, greatly increasing the playability and complexity.
Dante inherited the style system of the three generations and the switch of the fourth generation, while allowing most of the weapons of this generation to have a state switch to increase the degree of study and depth, for example, the past three generations of three sticks are just simple ice weapons, the moves are also fixed, and the five generations of three sticks have three attributes of ice and fire thunder, and the moves have also changed. In addition, the real demon in the second generation of the player's heart is also added, although the moves in the real demon state are not many, but it is really very handsome and domineering to use, which is a good way to further strengthen the foundation of the three generations and four generations.
The old friend Virgil who joined the follow-up DLC is basically based on the 4th generation SE, which is the same as the three weapons of the Yan Magic Sword, the Fist Sleeve and the Power Blade (Avatar) with the Phantom Sword, with the settings of concentration value and perfect dimensional slash, which also requires the understanding and proficiency of the operator himself. The game also provides a new direction of protagonist V for players to change their tastes, whether it is weight, detail or entertainment. The presentation of the five generations in the feel is also a must, the feel and the performance, combat animation and sound effects of the mutual collocation has always been an important measure of the sense of blow, from this point of view, the five generations are absolutely superior, whether it is the feeling of fist to fist, fist, or the real sense of slashing the enemy and the combination of various special effects sound effects, can make the player get great satisfaction.
Conservative way of playing
Compared to the evolution of the five generations of combat systems and visual senses, the way of advancing is still the same, and the game is still the familiar linear mission level system, with a collection and skill growth system. In the past, it was not possible to draw a direction suitable for "Devil May Cry" when there was no comparison of opponents, but after the appearance of "Only Wolf", I personally felt that at least the combination and design of a wolf on the map was a direction that could be referenced.
DMC5 spends a lot of money and effort on combat and senses, but it affects the way it is conducted and the level. Although it can be seen that the game creates a sense of time difference and suspense in the story in order to make room for V, in the end, it is only the operation role of the successive levels that are different, and the linear nature does not change much. Players still have to focus on the various combos and combat responses, repeatedly challenging the play levels and bosses in pursuit of the ultimate combat experience, which will obviously feel a bit outdated for non-fans.
The insincere level design in the latter section
One of the biggest problems with DMC5 is undoubtedly the level sincerity and design. Even DMC4, which has been complained about and walked backwards, can use its own excellent scenes and some scene changes to cover up shortcomings, but the level sincerity of DMC5 is all limited to the early stage, and the city ruins or the psychedelic Magic Tree related scenes are still OK. However, from M13 to M16, these three levels are extremely bad, the visual repetition is extremely high, and the map design is really helpless to laugh. In the past, even if the demon world or the last scene of DMC1 or DMC3 reused the previous scene, at least a little novelty or small changes would be added to cover up, but in DMC5, whether it is Nero's M8 or the M13-M16 behind, the endless similar materials and disgusting plasma and perfunctory map design methods are powerless to complain.
Although the audience of soul games is small, it has to be said that the reason why people can grasp some of the right to speak for more than a decade is that clever map design and enemy configuration account for a very important part. DMC5's design on maps and levels not only does not keep up with the times, but even feels inferior in some places, which is really the most disappointing point.
Subtle feelings and plot arrangement
The plot has never been the focus of the ACT or DMC series, and only three generations or some generations of the bridge section is more brilliant, plus the series has been disorganized before the five generations, and personally there are no great expectations. And the five generations know what the players are looking forward to, so even if they deliberately cater to the story. So we see the return of Virgil and the ability of the Demon Sword and the Rebel Blade to separate and synthesize each, and we also see the return of V to Virgil, and the official setting of the controversial four-generation novel in this biography confirms that Nero is Virgil's son.
Overall, because the supervision of the cutscenes is still Yuji Shimomura, the quality and entertainment level are still speechless, and the old Easter egg that is more personally impressed is that Letty used three generations of her own experience to persuade Nero, and Nero, in order to prevent his father and uncle from killing each other, mentioned Credo in a call with Gilea and finally became a truly demonic bridge. Subjective plot arrangement aside, dmc5 performances are great, especially the show between Dante and Virgil, or related dialogues, which have deeply touched people who have played for three generations, and there are also Easter eggs such as playing hellhounds and Virgil making demons. But apart from these performances and sentiments, I really can't say whether the script of the five generations is good or bad.
People's preferences? World trends?
Since 2006, When Europe and the United States entered the PC market, the European and American style has become more and more unnoticable in the game. The original character of the DMC series has always been complained about as a Japanese cream student, so in 2013 DmC, Capcom will outsource it to the British Ninja Theory studio, which unsurprisingly caused heated debate and discussion at the time. But in any case, the European and American markets and globalization is a trend that is difficult to ignore, this subjective preference is not right or wrong, only personal taste, although it can not be liked by everyone, but this may be the current market trend.
Future development
DMC series because its main combat system is too inclined to fighting games, so it requires a lot of practice and reaction qualifications, the plot advancement belongs to the pure linearity of today's unpleasant, so the main sales and fan base may be 500W, but this is not a shortage of hot hits Kapukong even if it is not to the level of chicken ribs, but it will not be a popular work. At the same time, Izuno's related team is still using the thinking of three generations to improve and design the game, whether it is from the battle system to further deepen the thickness, or the almost ancestral collection upgrade and level design, which can be seen.
In today's era of ARPG and the open world, especially with the example of "Only Wolf", if the DMC series wants to further expand the player base and market, the changes in the map and level gameplay are absolutely impossible to skip, but Capcom attaches great importance to sales, coupled with the pendulum behavior in recent years, and the DMC worldview and plot personal feeling is also a hot potato no matter how it develops, so the future of DMC will only be pessimistic. Fortunately, at least in terms of feelings and depth of combat coolness, DMC5 does give the old players an explanation, and perhaps this is also a good ending point.