Devil May Cry 4 vs. DmC: Devil May Cry
I already expressed some of my love for the Devil May Cry series, DMC3 in particular, on a previous post. That said, there is still much to discuss regarding the more divisive entries, hence the subject of this piece.
Neither are necessarily bad games, just heavily flawed in different and opposite ways, which effected their reception within the fandom.
Let’s start off with the generally better received Devil May Cry 4.
Coming off the success of Devil May Cry 3, the next game had to deliver on some high expectations with serious mechanical improvements to be seen as a proper follow-up. And in some aspects, it did.
The game starts off with quite the ballsy move, introducing a brand new playable protagonist who you’ll be controlling for the entire first half.
While in retrospect, a good way to freshen things up while welcoming new fans to the series, it naturally rubbed some veteran players the wrong way.
It didn’t help that Nero, despite controlling fluidly and having his own unique bag of tricks, felt like a significant step down in moveset variety compared to Dante, as he only had one sword and a gun.
Not to mention, personality wise he wasn’t nearly as witty or likable as our main man.
All of that being said, I think it’s fair to claim now that Nero’s half of the game is actually its strongest. While it’s true that Nero is more limited mechanically, he still has quite a few tools to play around with exclusive to him.
His demonic arm is able to latch on to grapple points, pull enemies towards you and pull off a powerful grappling move which can even be used against bosses when they’re in a staggered state.
Add to that the ability to rev up his sword like a motorcycle (yes, this is real) which boosts its damage depending on the number of charges, and a powerful charge shot that can be fired from his gun and its damage, also, depends on the number of charges. I can see how that might get stale for experienced players, but going through the different missions tackling various enemies and bosses designed around Nero’s toolkit makes up for a solid action-packed experience.
Maybe not as great as DMC3, but it’s only one half of the pie that is still quite sweet. It’s the other half where the true issue lies.
After being teased so much you finally get to take control of our favorite pizza loving devil hunter, and he’s gotten quite the upgrade.
While previously Dante could only wield two of each weapon type (melee and ranged) and use a single style at a time, in DMC4 these restrictions were completely lifted, opening up Dante’s arsenal even more, allowing for some seriously complex and intricate combos.
Sadly, despite reaching the natural evolution of his mechanical depth, he got the short end of the stick when it came to his actual levels.
Dante’s missions consist of him backtracking Nero’s route, fighting the same enemies and even the same bosses with only some rudimentary level gimmicks tacked on top to change things up.
That alone is quite the disservice for the series’ iconic protagonist, but it becomes worse when the enemies you dispatched simply enough with Nero beforehand, become an absolute nightmare to deal with as Dante.
While Dante has an incredibly versatile moveset, the enemies in the game seem to feel naturally resistant to his attacks, as you have to put in a lot more work than Nero to get rid of them.
Going from the beginner friendly Nero to straight up throwing you into the wolves with Dante is a jarring contrast and a big difficulty spike.
The skill floor is just too high, instead of this part being one where you get to let loose with crazy combos, the average player ends up being pushed by the game into using safe and familiar moves which defeats the whole purpose and stops being fun. The bosses don’t have that problem, but I’d rather get new unique fights than recycling the previous ones.
All in all, DMC4’s main flaw is that it’s practically unfinished.
Leaving Dante with leftovers meant for Nero hampered his otherwise great gameplay.
And while Nero is a nice fresh addition, he can’t hold the game all by himself.
You’d think the obvious next step for the series would be working on a sequel that will fully capitalize on DMC4’s held back potential.
Well, Capcom apparently didn’t, as next came not a direct sequel, but a reboot with the focused appeal for the western market.
It’s a well known story, trying to westernize a popular Japanese IP in order to reach more worldwide success. And almost always, it ends up backfiring.
If introducing a brand new protagonist alongside Dante didn’t sit too well with fans, imagine how completely reinventing his character from a lovable over-the-top demon slaying dork to an edgy grunge boy that lives in a van and swears a lot went. Not too well, I’ll tell you.
I can sit here and endlessly goof on the wild direction this reboot took like many before me already have, but it’d be redundant by this point.
What’s more interesting to discuss is how the actual game design changed.
The first and most obvious change is the controls, the lock-on in particular, or more accurately the lack of it.
In the original games the lock-on served more than just the basic purpose of locking on to a specific target, it also opened up a variety of different moves you could perform depending on which direction you push the analog stick.
In the reboot this was instead relegated to one of the face buttons, the one you’d normally use for a style action, which meant that styles, a core feature of Dante’s moveset from 3 and 4, got completely cut out.
Streamlining stuff to better accommodate new players is understandable, but flat out removing gameplay mechanics is not the way to go about it.
What’s funny, is how they actually ended up making weapon switching a much more cumbersome process than it was in previous games.
In the original games you used the triggers to instantly swap your equipped weapon, right trigger for melee, left trigger for ranged.
A simple press, that’s it.
The reboot decided for each trigger to function as demon and angel modes respectively, with different melee weapons assigned to each.
Already an odd decision, but to be able to use these weapons you don’t just swap them out with a simple push of a button, instead you have to hold the trigger to enter either demon or angel mode which changes your attacks to whatever weapon you have assigned to either of them.
So holding the lock-on button while pushing a stick in whatever direction was too complicated to be kept in, but this was somehow all good?
How do you attempt to simplify one aspect only to overly complicate another in the same breath?
And the thing is, once you acquire more weapons you do get a normal weapon swap through the D-pad, just used to switch which melee weapon is assigned to either angel or demon mode, along with the guns of course.
It’s really a bizarre design decision, and the whole half angel-half demon shtick is a completely pointless change for the plot, so that can’t justify it.
The enemy design is.. alright.
It doesn’t have any particularly obnoxious enemy types as present in DMC4 (aside from maybe the Dreamrunner) but they’re also very generic looking, lacking any distinct features to make them memorable.
And then you have color-coded enemies which is just.. why?
The definitive edition nerfed them a bit, so using the ‘wrong’ weapon didn’t just bounce off of them, but it does do significantly less damage and doesn’t stagger them as much, so you’re still pushed to using the particular weapon type they want you to.
Needless to say, that is quite counterintuitive to put in a game all about performing creative stylish combos.
However, watered down Devil May Cry is still pretty damn fun, and it helps that the level design is actually quite solid.
It’s nothing special, mind you, but it sets a good pace and doesn’t stop the action for lame puzzles (*cough* DMC4 *cough*) and is fairly easy to replay.
For one actual improvement from the previous games though, the platforming is not shit. It’s definitely used a lot more, maybe a tad too much, but it works well, has a good flow and is a nice distinguishing feature of this game in particular. I also don’t hate the vibe of it. The story is crap, yes, but the art direction and the colors in Limbo sections look great, it’s a fine alternative take on the world of Devil May Cry.
Really, it’s a solid action title in its own right, the problem is that it’s not an original IP, but a reboot for a beloved series that has sucked away all of its charm. Whatever it does well, the original games did a lot better before.
When it comes to comparing these two games, it depends on what you’re looking for, as both are strong in an aspect the other is weak at and vice versa.
DmC: Devil May Cry is more casual and provides a smoother ride overall while lacking the gameplay depth and campy charm of its predecessor.
Devil May Cry 4, despite its rough edges, has significantly higher peaks with one of the best and most intricate combat systems in the genre that could only be beat by its future sequel.
You want good challenging boss fights? DMC4.
You want a complete straight forward campaign? DmC: Devil May Cry.
You want a good story? Well, neither will suffice honestly, but DMC4’s is more entertaining due to its classic Devil May Cry charm.
If you were to ask me to pick only one between the two, I’d say go play Devil May Cry 5.