The Devil's in the Details

Devil May Cry Has a New Face...Sort Of

The New and not so Improved Dante...Meh

It's the word that never seems to die...REBOOT. Today, Capcom unveiled one of its future titles "Devil My Cry," which is being developed as a reboot of the popular demon ass kicking series.We haven't seen our protagonist Dante kick some undead butt since his last outing 2 years ago in Devil May Cry 4, but now the series is expected to enter new territory with a re-imagined, younger Dante. Despite the fact that Devil May Cry 4 was considered a downhill path for the series, I really have to question the move to reboot an already well established franchise.

Today's announcement has made in anticipation of this week's Tokyo Game Show in Japan. The new Devil May Cry, which is being tagged across the internet as "DMC," brings the story back to Dante's youth where he's being interrogated by an organization known as the “young offenders rehabilitation program." As cool as this sounds, this isn't the Dante we all know and love. Gone are the white locks and muscle-ripped surfer body that we remember from the series. Instead, all that we remember is being replaced by an emo looking scrawny kid who resembles that douche from "Jennifer's Body" who totally gets owned. An announcement trailer was released showing the new direction of the game, but frankly, I'm not too impressed. Sure, the graphics, style, and overall attitude look great, but I just don't like the new look for Dante. Devil May Cry 3 already gave us the young and brash Dante we all wanted to see, but this particular youthful approach isn't convincing me.

Here's the thing, Dante has risen to a sort of iconic status in gaming. The white hair, red trench-coat, and wise-cracking attitude are synonymous with sword and gunplay action, and now Capcom has decided to throw all of that away and bring something new to the table that really wasn't necessary. I'm all for gaming reboots, but only when a game is in the trenches and continues to be a sales slump, which isn't the case for Devil May Cry. The problem with Devil May Cry 4 wasn't the fact that Dante was barely in it. On the contrary, I really enjoyed the new character Nero, and he played like a dream. Combos were actually easier to pull off compared to Dante thanks to Nero's extending demon arm. Instead, the problem was when you did finally take control of Dante, you backtracked every level that Nero had gone through, which I consider lazy development. I will admit, the story was getting too convoluted for its own taste, but I think it was held back by a rushed development cycle. Putting it frankly, Dante is a staple of action gaming. I mean he's in the upcoming "Marvel vs. Capcom 3" video game for Christ's sake! The Devil May Cry series became an inspiration for hack n' slash gameplay, which is evident in games like God of War, Heavenly Sword, and Bayonetta.

Gathering from what I've seen across the internet so far, a good amount of my fellow internet trolls are ticked off with the new look. Devil May Cry always had a gothic flavor in its design, but that was strictly based on the art style of the environment, enemies, and architecture. I think Capcom needs to take a lesson from what happened with the "Infamous" game franchise where gamers worldwide were crying foul after seeing the "revamped" look of its main character Cole. It didn't even last for a month. After much fan backlash, Sucker Punch studios (the makers of Infamous) immediately changed Cole's look to resemble his appearance in the first game. As with Devil May Cry, Sucker Punch had similar problems when approaching its sequel, and it turned out it wasn't the main character, but rather something much smaller. In the case of "Infamous," gamers just didn't like the 6-packs of cigarettes a day, scratchy voice of Cole.

Hopefully Capcom will be able to take a page from Sucker Punch's errors and find a way to change the look of Dante back to what he resembled in the first place. Reboots aren't always a good idea. They should be used sparingly, and only when a series or franchise is going in such a direction that no one is buying it anymore. Case in point...Castlevania. I'm extremely excited for the upcoming game because we haven't had a solid 3D Castlevania game since the N64 days. That's a series that needed a breath of fresh air, and I really hope this radical new direction will take it in the right direction. 

Another interesting piece of information out of today's announcement was that "DMC" is being handled by different studios. I'm not too sure on the specifics, but a U.S. based Capcom development team is heading the project, while European based "Ninja Theory" (Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West) and a Capcom team in Japan are assisting with the project. The morning conference calls must be a blast. But seriously, with all that talent on a single project, Capcom definitely has a lot riding on this game. However, based on what I've seen so far I'm not too thrilled with the direction. Hopefully that will change as more details are released but only time will tell. Until then, I'm going to make my own personal boycott of the DMC reboot and start playing my old Devil May Cry games on my PS3 again. I encourage all gamers to support our favorite trash-talking, white haired, devil/human hybrid known as the REAL Dante.

If you want to judge the reboot for yourself, here's the reveal trailer for Devil May Cry....Enjoy

Video Games | Devil May Cry | TGS 10: Debut Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii