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rachelkaser · 5 years ago

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Devil May Cry V’s got a devilishly good story -- with one big flaw

If you had asked me right after I played it, I’d have said Devil May Cry V was my game of the year, the decade, and possibly the century. That’s the kind of guiltless euphoria the game left me in. I score this franchise only a tick below Bayonetta on my “fun, sexy, and lowkey well-read” game scorecard.

It’s got this energy and character I’ve seen lots of other games try to pretend they have -- and other games try to pretend is beneath them. Y’all know the kind I’m talking about. And when’s the last time a dev’s ever used William Goddamned Blake as their primary source of inspiration?

Basically what I’m saying is I really like DMC in general and DMC V in particular. I could talk about it for hours. So keep in mind that it took a long time to even come down from the high enough to acknowledge that there’s a major problem with the story, let alone dissect it. Between this and the Assassin’s Creed ramble of the last few weeks, this Tumblr has become my own sort of cilice where I acknowledge the problems with games I love.

If you don’t want to see me being critical in anyway and want to hear what I thought of the game when I was still in that ooey-gooey phase of post-game delight, check my review on The Next Web -- I’m not going to qualify this criticism with an addendum that yes, I really do love this game, so hopefully a link to that review will serve the same purpose since it can basically be summed up with the word “gush.”

And before you read on, be warned that I can’t really discuss this revelation without spoiling the everloving heck out of DMC V. So you know... *SPOILERS* and let the reader beware.

Get it? Got it? Good.

To recap for the purposes of setup, the game has three playable characters -- veteran demon hunter Dante, hotheaded protege Nero, and mysterious newcomer V. For their own reasons, each is pursuing a powerful demon called Urizen, who’s taken over Red Grave City with a demonic tree called the Qliphoth. The first encounter doesn’t go so well, with Dante and his partners Lady and Trish getting an almighty beatdown and Nero not doing much better. After being rescued by V, Nero has to take a few months to dust himself off before coming back to rescue his three colleagues and take another shot at Urizen.

While Dante’s and V’s motives are more obscure, Nero’s reason for taking on Urizen is pretty straightforward: At some point before the beginning of the game, Urizen snuck into his home in a human disguise and ripped off his (Nero’s) demonic arm. So he’s got a score to settle with the big ugly bastard, and the fact that Dante called him “dead weight” in the first encounter only fuels his stubborn determination.

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Sounds all well and good when I say it like that, right? Let me explain the problem.

Shut Up, Nero

I’m on the record saying that, while I’m pleased DMC V shows off the men of the franchise so well, I’m not pleased the women got the shaft. The delightful new character Nico is basically just Nero’s Merchant. His erstwhile girlfriend Kyrie makes two short appearances, including a late-game cameo to give him an emotional shot in the arm. Trish and Lady have been in the franchise far longer than Nero has -- 18 and 14 years, respectively -- and yet do nothing but dance attendance on him when they aren’t being kidnapped and forced to act as boss monsters. The fact that all of these characters motivate and facilitate Nero turns them into big neon signs hung over him reading “PROTAGONIST PROTAGONIST PROTAGONIST.”

The main issue with this is that the writers were so determined to have Nero be the hero of the story that they actually skipped right over the part where he has a reason to be in it at all.

Think about it: until the very last mission of the game, the only reason Nero sticks around is because 1) Urizen took his demonic arm, and 2) he’s pissed that Dante called him dead weight. The latter isn’t enough motivation to go on a quest -- it’s barely enough motivation to make an angry Facebook post. And the problem with the former is that it just doesn’t sound very... Nero.

Here’s some basic facts about Nero: While he is for sure the type to hold a grudge, he already had mixed feelings about his demonic heritage and doesn’t seem to give one solitary fuck about his own physical well-being. Heck, he’s been impaled more times than a dartboard -- he just doesn’t seem like the type to take the loss of his arm so personally. He talks about it like the whole incident gave him PTSD, but it’s a bit belied by his attitude, in which he merrily surfs around on his own rocket-powered prosthetics and mugs for the camera while spitting taunts at nearby demons. Despite what the script keeps insisting, this is not a young man in deep emotional pain.

Now I know why, from a development standpoint, he’s the protagonist: As a relatively new character, he’s not part of the longstanding conflicts of the series such as Dante’s family drama, so he’s the perfect viewpoint character for new players. The writers also wanted to confirm a long-standing theory that he’s the son of Dante’s evil twin brother Vergil, and that only works if Nero’s the hero of the story (since there’s no drama in informing a side character of his own lineage). He’s also got to be the one to break the decades-long detente between the twins which has at this point devolved into a toxic, never-ending nightmare that’s put the world at risk.

Actually let me walk back on a point quickly: The whole motivations I just spat on, about losing an arm and wanting to square up to the new demon? That was actually a perfectly good starter motivation, but Nero doesn’t grow beyond it at any point in the game. He never becomes more invested in the fight than he is at the beginning -- at least not until the very, very end when he discovers exactly who Vergil and Dante are to him. There was a huge gap there for Nero to do a little growing or at least a little thinking, and it just didn’t happen.

And not to be unkind, but when you discover why Dante and V have been fighting Urizen -- Dante, because Urizen is a twisted resurrected form of his long-dead brother; V, because he’s the other half of Vergil’s soul and must reunite with Urizen or he’ll die -- Nero’s motivation seems kind of flimsy. When he shouts “I lost my arm because of him” at Dante, the guy who’s had to watch his brother die multiple times and is steeling himself to do so again, what might be sufficient motivation in another game seems somewhat pathetic in comparison.

Heck, even the “dead weight” crack comes across as nothing more than a patchwork attempt to give Nero some -- any -- motivation. It’s not really in character for Dante to say in the first place, and the frequency with which Nero gripes about the jibe, up to and including the final battle, just makes him look whiny and childish. It’s been actual months since he said that, Nero. Let it go.

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You’d think that would vanish once Nero finds out about his heritage. Well, not quite...

Daddy Issues

The game almost seems to be aware that Nero loses his plot relevance once Dante gets back in the game and it becomes apparent who V is. The later chapters heavily focus on them, until the moment Dante reveals that Vergil is Nero’s father, which happens after Vergil is resurrected.

A side effect of this uneven distribution of plot relevance gets highlighted during the first Dante vs Vergil meeting post-resurrection. It’s meant to be a dramatic scene where you feel the history between the twins and wonder what will happen when they inevitably clash -- and Nero’s just kind of hanging out, watching. They even have Dante shout “Get out of my way Nero!” despite the scene’s blocking putting Nero about 12 feet out of his way already, because if he didn’t you might literally forget Nero was there.

After Dante drops the bomb on him, Nero has to process that:

Dante, his mentor, is related to him

His father is Dante’s formerly-dead brother

His father is both his traveling companion AND the demon who ripped off his arm

His father is the one who sprouted the Qliphoth and is trying to destroy the world

His father and uncle are trying to kill each other and have been for decades

He cares about his long-lost family members and doesn’t want them to die

...all within about 90 in-game minutes, because the game needs him to be the player character in the final boss battle. Ordinary people would need several years and probably a couple of therapists to reconcile all of that shit, and even the most well-adjusted video game protagonist would probably need a couple of missions to work through their emotions.

Throughout the game, in order to keep the reveal of Vergil’s return under wraps until it happens, V’s and Dante’s reasons for fighting Urizen are veiled. If you’re playing for the first time, it’s easy to just assume they’re here for the same reason Nero is: to put down a powerful demon. But when you play again, you can easily pick up on the fact that V and Dante (and possibly Lady and Trish) know what’s really going on and are keeping Nero in the dark.

That wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that Nero stays in the dark and never picks up on any of the subterfuge. He never questions who V is, where his powers come from, or why he’s part of the quest. I don’t think he’s even aware of who Vergil is until V merges with Urizen and the man himself appears. Since Nero is so utterly clueless about V’s and Dante’s real motives, it’s very strange that he’s suddenly all about saving his father and uncle within an hour of discovering them.

I’m reminded of a particularly egregious writing fumble from Resident Evil 6 (yes, I played Resi 6; pray for me). About halfway through the game, you discover that new character Jake Muller is the illegitimate son of series antagonist Albert Wesker, and its this biological connection that has the present villain making his life hell. Jake never knew the man and is bluntly informed that the father he thought was just a deadbeat with commitment issues was actually a genocidal maniac. From then on, the only sentiments he expresses when the topic of his dad come up are 1) resentment that a relationship he can’t help is the only reason he’s in this mess, and 2) worry that some of his dad’s issues might be in the genes.

And yet, in the final act, there’s a big confrontation scene between Jake and series stalwart Chris Redfield, who confesses to Jake he’s the one who killed Wesker. Jake -- who I’ll remind you didn’t know his father, has just found out Wesker nearly killed billions of people, and has done nothing but spit on his name since learning it -- reacts with sudden anger, pulling a gun and demanding to know why Chris killed him. What the hell, man? Why do you suddenly care?

To be fair, Nero’s reaction to the revelation, his determination to save the family he never knew he had, and his busting out a Devil Trigger in order to do that is genuinely awesome, combining humor, character growth, and some self-conscious angst along with some stunning displays of strength from our boy. It’s pretty great, except for the fact that all this is crammed into the final mission. It’s beyond rushed, which is criminal considering Nero’s had precisely zip to do for the preceding third-or-so of the game.

So what could have been done to fix this?

Nero Gets a Goddamned Clue

I wasn’t sure at first what, if anything, could have been done to improve Nero’s story in the game. Part of that was that I was still coming down from the aforementioned high, but the other part was that Nero’s the kind of guy who really only works with very simple, direct driving forces pushing him along.

For example, the whole previous game, he was motivated solely by a desire to protect his girlfriend Kyrie. We can’t retread that ground for this game, so that’s out. I considered having him be motivated by a desire to pay back Dante for saving him, but Nero’s kind of a mulish asshole who probably wouldn’t do his derring-do on strictly altruistic grounds -- none that he’d admit to, anyway.

So I have another idea: Nero should find out, or at least be led to suspect that Vergil/Urizen is related to him way sooner in the game.

In general, the big “he’s your father” reveal was handled very strangely by both characters. Dante just comes right out and screams the big news in Nero’s face, going on to say he’s known for some time. Keep in mind Nero didn’t even seem to know Dante had a brother until this moment, let alone that they might be related. Why wouldn’t Dante just tell Nero they’re related? It’s not as though Vergil’s name carries the negative connotations for Nero it does for Dante.

And given that he’s the viewpoint character for the new players, Nero should really be setting up the reveal for them by at least asking some questions of himself and Dante. It’d help make this revelation -- which, considering how long it’s been since the last game came out, is something that needs to be both introduced for new players and reintroduced for veterans who may have forgotten the hints -- make more sense to everyone.

Here’s my proposal: V -- who, again, is actually a form of Vergil, Nero’s father -- could drop a few hints on Nero. It makes the most sense for V to do it, because even if Vergil himself doesn’t realize Nero is his son, he still sees that Nero is clearly a descendant of Sparda (Dante’s demon father) and could make noises to that regard, maybe start asking Nero about the connection.

Nero’s not a character given to deep introspection, so it would take exactly that kind of direct prod for him to admit that even he doesn’t know how the answer to that.

Once V does that, Nero would begin to ask some of the same questions fans have wondered for years: Where did his demonic heritage come from? Why do he and Dante look so similar and have so many common abilities, despite Dante being the only (known) offspring of a human-demon pairing? Why did the Yamato, one of the sacred blades of Sparda, bond with him so quickly? For that matter, how did Urizen/Vergil know he had the Yamato or that it was in his arm?

If he’s the one who starts to put the pieces together, Nero’s now in a much better place to decide, after the suspected connection is confirmed, that he’s not going to sit idly by while his father and uncle destroy each other. In the game itself, his heart-to-heart with Kyrie involves him expressing regret that he didn’t save Credo, her brother and his best friend, from death in the last game. If you establish much earlier that Nero’s never had a family other than Kyrie’s, and he’s someone who very much cares and wants to protect the one he has, his impassioned “I’M NOT LETTING YOU DIE” feels much more earned and appropriate.

In a nutshell, if you have Nero start to suspect the reveal earlier, he not only has a good reason to be in the game beyond one-note peevishness, but he can help set up the final emotional payoff that comes from him stopping the fight between Dante and Vergil and finally making the latter take a damned seat.

But hey, what do I know? DMC V is still one of my favorite games of this generation and this whole long screed has been me trying to fix what is ultimately a very minor issue in the grand scheme. Whether you agree with my fix or not, I think we can agree that Capcom finally doing right by our devil boys was worth whatever flaws there might have been.

#devil may cry #dante #vergil #nero #dmc 5 #dmc v #video games #game review

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jacintatveit · 6 years ago

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Fotogramas Magazine June 2019

This is the google translate version of the Spanish interview. I just manually type the Spanish words into google translate.

And it’s so good！I urge all of you to read it!

A not so clear version of the scan here: x

License to mutate

Hey, did you hear anything from Disney?

To me, nothing at all. While reporting on the second coffee of the day, James McAvoy throws the glove at Michael Fassbender.

Me neither. Nothing, answer this, before the two break to laugh.

If X-Men: Dark Phoenix - the last film based on the comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the fourth joint adventure of these two monsters of the scene - is a farewell, at least it comes loaded with good vibes.

It seems that this is going to be the last. Or, at least, we feel it, even if you know, says the last Charles Xavier.

I also have that feeling, replies Magneto's alter ego. I think that with this film, the circle closes. At least, for us. Surely, in a while, the saga returns with younger people and much more prepared. Improved versions of ourselves.

Mutant chronicles

With X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the directorial debut of Simon Kinberg - a regular screenwriter and producer of the series -, ends 19 years of mutant chronicles. We are facing the twelfth film of a universe that has known a pair of casts, a temporary reset and several spin-offs. A closure that comes after accumulating delays in the premiere, endless extra filming sessions and problems with viewing tests, and after circumventing the controversy surrounding for years Bryan Singer, promoter and director of four installments of the franchise. And that, without mentioning that it will be the first comic strip to be released after the box office armageddon that Avengers has supposed: Endgame.

But none of that alters the mood of McAvoy and Fassbender when FOTOGRAMAS sits down with them. On the contrary, the feeling of the two actors is, above all, gratitude.

Is that X-Men has been something very good, has a strong Scottish accent McAvoy. I think I speak for both when I say that it has given us a lot of freedom, as well as a good salary.

Fassbender talks while playing with his huge wedding ring - in the fall of 2017 he married, in Ibiza, with Alicia - It has been like a home ... and it has allowed us to pay for our houses. And also my mother's, jokes before let McAvoy take over:

It has paid for the houses of enough people around us. It is strange to say something like that, but X-Men has been the pillar that has sustained my last ten years as an actor. When you have something so salty in the bedroom, you can afford to risk your trade, but also make vital decisions like buying a house or even being a father. I guess it would have been very different from having to go from work to work, trying to make everything right. It has been a luxury, a fucking splendid luxury.

Crossed destinies

The end of his days as Professor X and Magneto puts a dilemma to the duo mutant fans: they need to find a new project that will allow them to continue working together.

Or, Fassbender points out, we could stay and hang out there. Is not that better, James?

And McAvoy answers: Much better. Going out on the spree and acting on something together just because yes, because we feel like it. I love collaborating with Fassy. But, to tell the truth, we have only done it in X-men: First generation and a little in X-Men: Days of the future past. Outside of that, we have hardly had a fucking scene together. I miss him!

Fassbender agrees: We only see each other when one arrives and the other leaves. The right time to get a little up-to-date, roll: Hey, how are you, dude? How are you doing?

And, when we agreed, it was always more or less the same scene, continues McAvoy. He tries to mess it up. I ask him to stop and reconsider, and he says nanay. In the end, Erik, your character, just wants to lead a quiet life. It's not bad dude, but something always happens that fucks the existence! What the fuck you have!

To which Fassbender agrees: It is to think twice before going around with him. Because he's a fucking magnet for misfortunes, he laughs.

Battlemates

The two jump like a spring when we ask them when was the first time they heard about each other. In the shooting of Blood Brothers, they point out referring to the HBO miniseries.

It's been 19 years now, Fassbender snorted. I was part of the cast, and he came to act in an episode. I remember how much James impressed me then. Behind the cameras, the thing was like in front of them: the new recruits and the veterans platoon. James was the rookie on duty with a suicide mission: a very complicated scene with the toughest of the company. But the guy came with that confidence of his, that chunky air that he knows is good. I thought: This guy I like.

McAvoy replies: Chulesco? It was all facade. I had a bad time because of the scene, but also because one of the protagonists, I'm not going to say who, was dedicated to making my life impossible. It was an integral cocoon. You, on the other hand, were very nice. Dexter Fletcher too. And Robin Laing. It was weird because, shortly after arriving, I already had a scene ... and with dialogues! Meanwhile, some of the cast members had been there for months and had not had any.

The (Blessed) Crisis of the 40

(James did a lot of movies in the recent years.)

Meanwhile, Fassbender ...

He has not done anything !, ends the phrase the Scot. And it was always the other way around. At the time I had made a play or filmed a movie, Michael had acted in ... I do not know, 20? I'm happy that I can explore other interests, but ...

The reply of Fassbender is not long in coming: Since I was a kid I dreamed of being a racing driver. I always thought that if everything went well, when I turned 40, I would try to change my goals a bit, so I did that.

From 2018, the Irish competes in the Ferrari Challenge, at the wheel of a model 488 of 670 horsepower.

It is very difficult to get insurance that allows me to pilot and interpret at the same time. So I've decided to focus on cars, but I'm still working on behind-the-scenes projects with my production company, DMC Film. And, if there is something that I can shoot in the months when there are no races, then I am open.

McAvoy cuts him off: It's the most fucking awesome excuse for not acting. I can not shoot because they do not assure me because I'm a fucking racing driver. Will it be possible ?, he asks himself, and both laugh eagerly. My hobby is to stay at home looking at the walls. In shorts, the Scot jokes.

Fassbender protests, teasing him: It's not true. You also play football very badly, do not you?

And, when the laughter fades, McAvoy picks up the thread to make the final point to the meeting: The 40 is a stage ... interesting. Right now, I am in a vital moment in which I rethink a lot of things, because, who knows, maybe I have already gone through the middle of my life. Have you seen the one of people who die at 70? Sometimes I think: Fuck, you have to make it worth it! And I am clear that not everything must be work ... so I think I have to do it too, take some time for me.

#Michael Fassbender #james mcavoy #mcfassy #fassavoy #mcbender

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firstpuffin · 5 years ago

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A look at the leading ladies in the Devil May Cry series:

I do love the Devil May Cry (DMC) series. The action is fun and over the top, the music is super engaging and the designs great. But there are absolutely some big flaws in the series and I personally feel that while the male leads are generally good to fantastic, the ladies are typically…dull.

I was chatting with friends about the series and tried to bring this up only for them to…miss the point. Completely. And then to tease me about it. It was infuriating. Instead, I’m going to discuss it here, where I can flesh out my thoughts to my heart’s content.

Of course as I haven’t played DMC 5 yet and I haven’t even looked at DMC: Devil May Cry (the reboot) in years I won’t be bringing them up, but I’m currently on the fourth game of my series playthrough so I can at least talk about those four.

So let’s start by pointing out that there was a real problem with the writing of the series which they tried (and freakin’ succeeded at) to do better in the third entry, and eventually with DMC (the reboot; god that’s confusing) they tried to redo everything from scratch. DMC(.5?) was… well, it was a bad Devil May Cry game although not a bad game by itself, but the writing was worse. Really, any writing that relies on that level of sex and shock value and swearing is pretty poor. Sure, all of those have their place in writing, but it’s easy to rely too much on it, but this and DMC.5 is really a subject for another article.

Anyway, not only did the writing improve drastically for DMC 3, but that also included the lead lady…Lady. But again, that’s for later; I wanna start with DMC 1’s Trish.

Devil May Cry wasn’t all that close to what it would become, especially given that it was originally a part of the Resident Evil franchise that was rejected but ended becoming a standalone game. And you can tell. It’s noticeable through the sound design and the aesthetic of the game, as well as the fact that Dante is pretty much a dull Leon Kennedy.

Basically the game starts like this: Dante is at his store, the titular Devil May Cry, when Trish who looks “exactly” (not very much) like Dante’s dead mother, drives her bike into the front door, stabs him and hucks the bike at him.

Then she dumps exposition on us and away they go to this mysterious island, yadda yadda ya. It’s not very interesting and neither is she. She is literally the inciting incident and love interest. She betrays him, saves him, appears to die… but this isn’t character. These are all token events to add drama to the story and that at most say that she is a troubled character who overcomes life-long conditioning, but that’s about it.

Let’s move on because there really isn’t much to say about her. Next is Lucia who… could easily be no more than a paragraph. DMC 2 was outsourced, presumably because Capcom didn’t realise how much the fans loved the first game, and it was a travesty.

Dante, who was already short on personality, had his cockiness mostly removed and zero agency, repeatedly relying on a coin flip. The story was a series of loosely connected events, connected by poor dialogue and made confusing by out of the blue statements that make no sense. The only good points were Dante’s outfit, and Lucia’s Devil Trigger. Oh, and the music was pretty good.

Lucia herself was a very typical example of an early 2000’s love interest: watch almost any action movie from the time period and honestly, you have a prime example of Lucia, the story points and how they attempt to make things dramatic. Seriously, watch Mission Impossible 2.

-Lucia and her Devil Trigger-

Yes, yes, YEAH!! Onto my favourite lady-lead.

-Lady-

Yes, I should calm down. I’ve just finished DMC 3 again and my adult brain got so much more out of it than my teenage brain. There is emotional depth and complexity, characters with character and- damn. It’s just so good.

Yes, Lady dresses a bit like a stripper, but it’s also pretty practical (I frequently struggle with trousers that limit movement so I understand). More importantly, she doesn’t act as sexual as Trish and where Lucia is boring Lady just isn’t. But she isn’t a perfect person either.

She’s determined to kill all demons but she clearly won’t stop there; she shoots Dante before she even knows that he’s a demon. Lady is angry and she lashes out, but it’s also easy to see how vulnerable she is and how hard she works.

Lady was betrayed by her father (Arkham) who killed her mother and he is currently her primary target, but when she finds him already dead she is devastated. Then he wakes up, confesses to her that he was being used and she actually believes him. She shouldn’t have.

Arkham was using her again, but that’s not the point. The point is that she so desperately doesn’t want to hate her father, thus falling for his lies. It’s touching and tragic, and when she finally kills him her laughter turns to crying and then laughter again. Her emotions are a mess.

Which especially makes the fact that while she eventually gives in and lets Dante help, she doesn’t turn into his girl. She rejects his kiss assuredly but without vehemence. Lady is an emotional mess and yet doesn’t leap into our charismatic hero’s arms. More stories need this because it’s kinda boring at this point.

-this, this is straight up sexualised-

And Kyrie. Wow. Kyrie is just… wow.

She could literally be replaced with a photograph in a wallet. Kyrie is there as motivation for our protagonist, Nero. She gets kidnapped some way through the game but that barely matters.

-at least she dresses modestly; I can appreciate that in a video game lady-

Devil May Cry is not a deep, complex series, apparently reaching its peak in these areas in the third entry, but the characters are usually pretty good, as long as they have a penis hanging between their legs.

#first puffin #opinion #female characters #devil may cry #dmc #Lady #Lucia #Trish #Kyrie #storytelling #character #Character Design #video games #thosetagswilldofornow

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cosmiciaria · 6 years ago

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Devil May Cry 4 SE spoiler free review/rant!

With all the DMC5 hype, and with all the no-money I have, I went and watched the cutscenes of the new game. Yes, don't judge me, some people just don't have the money to buy it the day it's released. Some people don't even have a ps4 so watching cutscenes is the only alternative if you wanna enjoy the story. This was my case for far too long, when I only owned a ps2 and I was craving for the ps3 I never got. So I'm used to watching cutscenes of the games I knew I wouldn't be able to play at all; and this is no difference, for I have some priorities (cof cof Kingdom Hearts 3 – yes, I'm still saving for it) before throwing my money at Capcom.

SO obviously after watching the cutscenes and getting all the feels and, idk, reminiscing all my love for these characters, I went back to my old file of DMC4 and kept playing. I had been stuck at Mission 11 for a stupid platforming thing that I couldn't wrap my head around it, but somehow, magically, this time I managed (after falling from that wall like 25 times). I'm going to be honest here: I like the DMC franchise for its story, which, ironically, is what most people consider to be the worst aspect of these games. What I try to say is, I suck at playing it. I'm not ashamed of that fact. I play games first for their stories, and then for their gameplay, and my philosophy is that, if I can't enjoy the story because the gameplay is obstructing me, then I'm sorry but that game just isn't for me. That's one of the reasons why I hesitated so much before buying Bloodborne (you can guess: I still haven't finished it). Yes, I suck at DMC4 and 3, and probably the other two as well. I did play the first three, but I never finished them, and I followed their stories thanks to the magic of Youtube. Around that time, when I wanted to have a ps3 and I couldn't, I watched DMC4's cutscenes many times. When it was finally on sale in psn, I didn't think twice: I bought the special edition. So here I was, trying to finish this stupid file on Human difficulty (then again, I'm not ashamed of admitting it) and at last claim the title of "yes, I PLAYED that game!"

Initially, like I said, I've only watched its cutscenes. I was in love with Dante, with Vergil and with Nero. I admired them and their badassness. Slash, punch, wahoo, everything. And I've heard multiple times that DMC3 was a masterpiece and that DMC2 fell flat in almost everything and then that DMC4 is just… an unfinished game. And oh boy, did I feel that as well!

A little introduction for those of you who for some reason don't know anything about Devil May Cry: Dante, the son of the legendary demon Sparda and the human Eva, is a demon hunter. He's cocky, confident and loves taunting his enemies. Vergil is Dante's twin brother: as you can guess, brotherly rivalry (maybe too much rivalry). Nero is the newcomer to DMC4, which triggered many debatable reactions, because fans just love their Dante. Unfortunately for those who don't like Nero, he's the real protagonist of this game. The story revolves around his city, Fortuna; Kyrie, his love interest; and the fact that he's one quarter of a demon, because he descends, too, from Sparda.

So the leader of this occult religious order, Sanctus, worshipper of Sparda, has some god-syndrome and wants to rule the world, opening the hellgates all over the place and kidnapping Kyrie in the process. So it's up to Nero to rescue his (girl)friend, learning some things about himself in the way there. He crosses paths with Dante, who's there because, well, he gotta stop that stupid Sanctus, you know? But Nero confuses his intromissions with an enemy, and their relationship starts off as an opposition. Soon Dante sees something special (even familiar) in this young man, but we'll leave that for another day.

So that's it, that's the premise: you fight your way across the city of Fortuna with Nero and his devilish arm. Halfway through the game(ish) Nero is incapacitated for the time being and it's time to go back to sweet old Dante. Sadly, it's not actually "half" of the game, but just a few missions, and here's where the "unfinished" thing comes into place.

You see, Nero goes forward across the map, and then Dante undoes the same way, going backwards, up until the very first section of the game. And they fight exactly the same demons, the same bosses and go around the same places. Hadn't it been for the fact that Dante plays quite differently than Nero, you wouldn't see a difference between these two routes. And it's frustrating.

Another thing that screams "unfinished" is Mission 19. This is your own very section of boss rushes. The same four bosses that you've encountered with Nero and Dante, you have to fight them yet once more. So it's the same four or five bosses that you fight three THREE THREE times. By this point, you can play against them with your eyes closed.

And this is such a pity! Because the story is good, Nero is a good protagonist to attract younger audience, Dante is at his prime in both personality and abilities, and they even threw some romance into the mix to shake some things up. So why did this have to happen? Well, the devs have admitted they had to release the game in a certain deadline and they had to rush things by end of the cycle, acknowledging that it was incomplete. Due to this, Dante's section of the game feels like a replay of Nero's section, in the lazy kind of way. I can't blame anyone if they complain about this, because it's painfully true.

But still, I can't help but love these characters. I can't help but care for Dante, and his quirky, funny dances; I can't help but cry NOOO whenever Nero wants to save Kyrie. I know Kyrie receives a lot of hate, but it's not her fault the devs decided to make her this useless. I do wish she had a better role than just being the plain damsel in distress. It goes against everything we women have been fighting for these years! Nevertheless, Nero's love for Kyrie is felt, and it’s the main driving force for our main character, so think it this way: without Kyrie, Nero would've been a very plain protagonist, without real motivation.

This time around, the gameplay is faster than before, for the special edition has the "turbo" mode (I recommend it). And not only you can play as Nero/Dante, but also Lady and Trish make their triumphal appearance here, and also – yes, the lord of all special editions, the man everyone was longing to see in action: Vergil. Although, you may've guessed by now, his role in the story is null (except, well… you'll get it) and he only replays all of the missions as if he were Nero/Dante, with no real involvement in the plot, just like it had happened with DMC3 SE. Same happens with Lady and Trish, but hey, at least you can play as Lady! It's the first time she's playable! And she ROCKS!

I know graphics were never so much a thing for the DMC games, but this title still holds a variety of eye-candy visuals that make me rethink how capable the ps3 was. I know that now everything pales in comparison with DMC5 but don't forget, this game dates from 2008, and the remaster is from 2015, and it still holds up to this day! Pretty amazing, to say the least.

From a technical aspect, this game is a let down because of the unfinished business, but it feels like, it plays like DMC game. And for many years it was the consolation to that DMC reboot they tried to pull off (we don't talk about that game – although personally I like it, but I don't consider it canonical, or at least, I don't consider it part of this franchise at all). Nero's character is growing ever since, with now being the undeniable protagonist in DMC5. His role, his powers and his origins will drive the plot from now on, obviously accompanied by our beloved Dante, taking in the mentor mantle. Who knows, maybe Nero will be our next devil hunter in red cape?

This game is old, and probably nobody is speaking about it, but I couldn't not add my words to the void. DMC4 was one of my favorite stories back in the day, when I couldn't play games and only could watch cutscenes in YouTube. It holds all these nostalgic feelings for me. It was a time when I didn't have money, when I needed a game to relieve stress and I couldn't, and I found so much joy in these characters that I can't not love them. In fact, after playing it, I realized most of the aesthetics I find beautiful come from this game: the concept of angels, the Savior, and hot dudes with white hair. I just can't even.

In conclusion, it's not the best of games. It's very mediocre. It's very short. And it feels incomplete. But characters are loveable, and it opens the door to countless possibilities for the future of the franchise.

And the future is here! Go play DMC5 and then lend me a copy! 😉 Jk. But DMC5's story is good, and I've heard the gameplay is even better, so Capcom returned with everything they got this year. And I'm glad they did.

#devil may cry #devil may cry 4 #devil may cry 4 special edition #devil may cry 5 #dmc4 #dmc5 #nero #dante #vergil #kyrie #videogame #videogame review #review #rant #sparda #lady #trish #capcom

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lechevaliermalfet · 6 years ago

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Seasonally Appropriate, part II: A Long Look at the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Series

In the early to mid-2000s, there was an odd trend of Japanese game developers farming out high-profile intellectual properties to Western developers. To the best of my knowledge, this began with Metroid Prime, though it really got going with the beginning of the first HD generation of consoles, and would go on to include DMC: Devil May Cry, Bionic Commando, Sonic Boom, Sonic Mania, every Silent Hill game from Origins onward, and probably a host of others I’m forgetting.

The reasons for this are difficult to pinpoint, and probably vary considerably from developer to developer. Some developers seemed to have been caught flat-footed by the sheer amount of personnel and time required to make a game in HD. Konami is said to have, at one point or another, pulled basically every single human being capable of operating a keyboard to work on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Others may have wanted to capture a larger audience (thanks to the increased expense of creating games in HD), and felt that their games looked and felt “too Japanese” to cater to a more international audience (a move that ironically would have angered many existing fans, and often did). Still others may simply have wanted a breath of fresh air, to see what a different design sensibility brought to the table. Yet others may have noticed the upswing in popularity enjoyed by Western games and developers, and thought the best way to ride that gravy train was simply to give their franchises to Westerners to handle.

At any rate, it was a thing that happened.

More below the cut. There will be spoilers.

If Metroid Prime isn’t the first example of this, then it’s the first big, high-profile example. Nintendo basically co-founded Retro Studios, along with some of the development staff that had made the Turok gmes, and said “Here’s a big pile of money. Cancel all your ongoing projects and make us some Metroid games. Try not to fuck it up.” This looked completely insane on the surface of things. Nintendo buying what was at that time a no-name studio and giving them one of their sacred cow franchises to develop seemed unthinkable at the time. But, as they often (though not always) do, Nintendo knew what they were doing, though their reasoning was opaque to outsiders.

On the more recent side of this phenomenon, meanwhile, we have the Sonic games. If I had to guess, I’d say the decision to farm the series out to a Western developer was motivated by some of the same factors as Metroid Prime for Nintendo. Like the Metroid series, Sonic has greater appeal for a Western audience at this point, I think, so Sega let that audience call the shots. This initially resulted in Sonic Boom, a multimedia blitz that consisted of a decent cartoon, a couple portable games of variable quality, and a WiiU title broadly derided as a buggy, broken shit-heap of a game.

But this really just amounted to what was at the time the most recent manifestation of the so-called “Sonic Cycle”. It seems to go something like this: Sega announces a new Sonic game → The fanbase collectively gets hyped for the game on the strength of some carefully vetted videos, screenshots, and assorted other promotional materials → The game comes out → Reviews and impressions come in, and the game is revealed to fall somewhere on a spectrum that goes from “okay, I guess” to “complete, total, utter, and absolute flaming garbage” → The fandom reminisces mournfully about the good old days of the 16-bit era → Sega announces a new Sonic game… The Sonic Cycle is basically the perpetual triumph of hope over experience.

The exceptions tend to be of the rule-proving variety. Miraculously, Sega’s next move was ultimately to farm the series out to yet another developer, who had the dangerous idea that perhaps the best thing to do – by process of elimination, since Sega seemed to have tried literally everything else by this point – was to give the fans precisely the thing they had been clamoring for since Sonic 3 & Knuckles (which, for those of you playing at home, was over two decades ago): A new 16-bit Sonic game.

Sonic Mania is great, by the way. Incidentally, it’s also probably the most widely acclaimed game in the series since the 16-bit titles it so lovingly homages.

There’s probably a whole thinkpiece to be written, right there: Contrasting Nintendo and Sega’s decision-making abilities. But you really only have to look at where the companies have wound up over the years to get the essence of it. Nintendo is still bravely, confidently, profitably soldiering along in the hardware business despite having been technologically outclassed on both the console and portable fronts since 2006. Sega, meanwhile, ended the hardware side of their business with neither a bang nor a whimper, bur rather with a sort of resigned shrug, a sigh, and a muttered “Fuck it, we tried.” They have since managed to defy expectations by staying in business. And they still keep churning out Sonic games, despite the Cycle, to an audience that seems to consist primarily of

Children whose grandparents bought them the games

Furries of a certain stripe

Deluded Sega fanatics who are probably still waiting for the promised day when Sega releases the Dreamcast 2 and we all go home to glory.

The rest of these Western-helmed sequels, reboots, and re-imaginings of popular franchises have had varying reactions from the fans. The phenomenon seems to be over for the time being, the causative problem either having been solved or otherwise rendered irrelevant. At any rate, I have gone far, far afield in a piece that’s supposed to be about the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series.

I brought up all of the foregoing to lend some context, and it went to its own weird place, but it entertained me, and fuck it, it’s not like I have an editor. So…

Somewhere in the middle of all these Western-flavored farmings-out, we had Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. In terms of why it got farmed out to a Western developer, this one seems to descend from the House of Fuck If We Know What To Do With It; Let Someone Else Take a Crack At It. Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness tried to make the series work in 3D on the N64, and failed. There was a running joke for a while that Capcom had made 3D Castlevania work in the form of its Devil May Cry series, which must have incensed more than a few of the fine folks at Konami. Then Koji Igarashi, fresh off his successes with the Metroidvania games on the Playstation and the Gameboy Advance, was given a shot at it. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness were better games than the N64 efforts, but… well, you could make the argument that a good trepanning might be a better experience than those games. If anything, both were ultimately kind of shallow Devil May Cry imitators that lurked somewhere in the B tier of the PlayStation 2 library, far less than what the series deserved.

So, come the next generation, Konami decided to let Mercury Steam handle it, and assigned Hideo “Motherfucking” Kojima to keep an eye on the project from time to time.

It had been remarked by any number of industry wags that Capcom's Devil May Cry franchise was probably the closest we were going to get to a translation of Castlevania into three dimensions. This mostly amounted to a snide, backhanded swipe at Konami's troubles bringing the franchise into 3D on the N64 more than anything else. There are certainly some similarities at a surface level, such as the aesthetic. Like Castlevania, Devil May Cry is a horror fantasy that leans far more heavily into the fantasy side of its heritage. The horror imagery is less for actual scares, but more to project an easy sense of danger and menace. And like Castlevania had been in its 2D outings (Symphony of the Night aside), Devil May Cry was a pure balls-to-the-wall action game. But this is mostly where the similarities ended. Castlevania's pace, in the 2D games, was always more deliberate than many of its peers (contrasted against, say, Mega Man), though you still had to have nimble fingers and a keen sense of timing.

But perhaps the greatest difference was in personality. Devil May Cry's personality as a game was centered on its protagonist, Dante. Sarcastic, wise-cracking, brash, cocky, and irreverent, with his long red coat and his trademark giant sword and twin pistols, Dante was the epitome of badass. And that's before we get into all the crazy antics in his moveset. Castlevania, meanwhile, didn't as a general rule really have characters as vivid as Dante; in fact, the only real recurring character is its villain, Dracula. Its heroes, members of the Belmont clan of vampire slayers, tended to come across as grimly determined, muscular, sort of generic warriors who tore down all their enemies with a combination of skill and raw force, with a few straying into leather-and-fur-clad barbarian territory. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it does leave most of the characters lacking in personality. But it’s to be expected. The template for the series was created in the 8-bit days when any kind of personality was difficult to convey.

One of the most distinct features of the heroes of the classic Castlevania games (for reference going forward, "classic" is going to be shorthand for "the 8-bit and 16-bit games prior to Symphony of the Night") is the sense of pace and momentum. There was a sense of weight and heaviness to the various members of the Belmont clan who served as player characters in those games. Some of it came down to the way they moved. None of them were especially fast on their feet, as video game characters went, and the series was unique for not letting you control the direction of your jump in mid-air the way so many other video games did. It's realistic, of course, but was unusual for the time. There was no course-correction possible if you jumped wrong, no mid-air take-backsies if you misjudged your timing. If you got your timing wrong, then oh well. Don’t fuck up next time.

And the Belmonts' weapon of choice, the Vampire Killer whip, was also a bit unique. As a whip, it's got a bit of a wind-up to it. Not a huge one, but enough that you have to be aware of it. Your attacks don't land immediately with the press of a button. Castlevania III was probably the best early demonstration of this, where even though it only takes three frames, swinging that whip for the attack and pelting the morning star forward is clearly animated as a full-body action. It gives the attacks a deeply satisfying feeling of force, regardless of how much damage they do, but also means you have to pay attention to how you maneuver through the game, and have a keener sense for spacing and timing when facing an enemy.

This is another reason I feel like the assessment of Devil May Cry as the ideal for a 3D Castlevania is off. Dante is a fun character to play as, but when it comes to maneuvering him, he's constantly leaping, dodging, and rolling about. He's lighter than air. And that's fun, naturally. But he also doesn't really feel like a Castlevania hero.

After the first disappointing venture into the third dimension with the N64 titles, Konami came out with a second set of 3D Castlevania titles for the PlayStation 2: Lament of Innocence, which aimed to tell the origins of the Belmont clan and their eternal war against Dracula and everything else that goes bump in the night; and Curse of Darkness, which was a sequel/side story to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. With Koji Igarashi at the helm, these fared somewhat better than the N64 entries, but still ultimately wound up climbing no higher than the upper end of the B tier of PlayStation 2 games. Which is kind of sad, really. Castlevania deserved better than to play second fiddle to the top tier of hack-and-slash action games. As a series that used to be a premier example of that kind of game back in the 2D days, it deserved to be on that top tier.

Really, you'd think all anyone had to do was just rip off Devil May Cry (which, given the accusations of Devil May Cry lifting liberally from Castlevania in the first place, would certainly seem justified if not terribly original), but the final products were ultimately lacking something, though it was difficult to say exactly what. The response from critics and fans alike was generally positive, but ultimately with a feeling that something was missing. The games were good, but didn't seem to quite live up to the legacy of their forebears. And so the idea of creating a 3D Castlevania seems to have gotten shelved again for the time being.

As the first generation of HD consoles really came into its own, it became apparent that the old total dominance of Japanese developers in that arena, at least at the upper end of technical and technological prowess, was on the wane. There are a number of different reasons for this, and the discussion frankly deserves its own write-up. The bottom line is that Western developers were quickly becoming ascendant in console gaming, where previously they had made up a small minority of the notable output. And so Konami got the idea to do with Castlevania what they had done with Silent Hill, what Capcom had done with Bionic Commando and what Nintendo had done with Metroid: give the franchise to a Western developer to handle.

MercurySteam was, in the beginning, basically a no-name outfit with nothing published under their own name. Wikipedia indicates that MercurySteam was made primarily of personnel from an older development studio called Rebel Act. They were notable apparently for just one game, and that had been back in 2001. What they did in the nine-ish years between that and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, if anything, is a mystery to me. Why they got chosen to work on one of Konami's classic series is likewise a mystery. But whatever; it happened.

Lords of Shadow was initially teased just by its subtitle, and first billed as a new intellectual property for Konami. This was done in part to avoid trampling the hype Konami wanted to build for Castlevania Judgment, a Wii-exclusive fighting game featuring multiple characters from different points in the timeline. This was almost universally dunked on and dumped on by critics and users alike, so it's questionable how much damage the announcement of Lords of Shadow could have done to it.

I can't pretend to know what the reaction was when Lords of Shadow was announced officially as a Castlevania game. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention until near its release, though I picked up a copy near launch. I sometimes think that even without the impending release of Castlevania Judgment, Konami might still have teased Lords of Shadow without the Castlevania name for a while. At that point, it may have been easier to build hype for an all-new IP than for a new Castlevania game on console, given the baggage the series carried.

I was curious to see what a Western-developed installment of the franchise might look like. In terms of aesthetics, the classic 8- and 16-bit Castlevanias had always had more of a Western look to them, which made sense given the eastern European setting and backing history/mythology. If anything, this was one of the franchises where handing it off to a Western developer made the most sense.

(As a side note, MercurySteam later went on to make Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS, which now makes them the only developer of Metroidvania games to have worked on both a Metroid and a 'vania.)

For inspiration, Lords of Shadow seems to have turned to the God of War series. From the burly, muscular hero, to the chain-based weapon that allows the player to operate at some distance from the enemy (though in fairness, the chain whip has been part of Castlevania since way before God of War was a thought in anyone’s head), to the brutal take-downs, to the regularly occurring puzzle-solving challenges, to the quick-time events used to finish off bosses and major enemies, there is a lot of God of War in this game. But one of the first, biggest differences is in tone. The player character's brutality in Lords of Shadow is more utilitarian, more matter of fact and by the way, where God of War's Kratos explicitly relishes his violence.

Rather than a sequel, though, Lords of Shadow serves as a reboot of the series, which frustrated some. There had been talk by various characters in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, which take place in 2035 and 2036, respectively, about a conflict in 1999 wherein Dracula was finally beaten and destroyed once and for all. Fans had naturally been clamoring for the chance to play this epic final showdown pretty much since it was first hinted at, and had been repeatedly disapopinted when it failed to materialize. The forecast for said showdown appearing seemed to go from "unlikely, but stay hopeful" to "nope" with the announcement that Lords of Shadow was going to be a reboot. This kind of thing usually signals that the old continuity is done for good. And it effectively is, though that's mainly because Konami seems to have gotten out of the video game business entirely at this point.

As a story, Lords of Shadow follows to some extent in the series tradition, which is to say, it's pretty ridiculous.

We start off with Gabriel Belmont, an original creation for this reboot series. He belongs to the Brotherhood of Light, a group of holy warriors whose purpose is to eliminate supernatural enemies of humankind. Clad in their signature red outfit (probably a nod to the artwork for Simon Belmont in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest), he wields the Combat Cross, which is (or rather, will become over the course of the game) this continuity's take on the Vampire Killer whip.

It is medieval times, and Satan has cast a spell to seperate Heaven and the Earth, trapping the souls of the dead in the world of the living, and generally causing all sorts of supernatural shenanigans. Gabriel, at the behest of the Brotherhood, is after an ancient relic called the God Mask, which should enable its wearer to break Satan's spell. However, it's been broken into three pieces, each one held by one of the titular Lords of Shadow.

Said Lords are revealed over the course of the game to have once been members of the Brotherhood of Light themselves, who achieved such a degree of holiness that their spirits ascended to Heaven. However, they were so holy that they didn't even have to die for this to happen. Their spirits just... ascended, and left their bodies behind. Their fleshly, mortal bodies, which were now susceptible to all manner of vice and villainy and corruption, and lacking none of their former power. Thus were the Lords of Shadow born as dark reflections of their former holiness.

Along the way, Gabriel is occasionally assisted by another, older member of the Brotherhood, named Zobek. In addition to his passive observation, advice, and occasional hands-on assistance in Gabriel's quest (all meant to subtly goad him in particular directions for reasons initially left unexplained), Zobek also narrates between chapters.

Zobek is voiced by Patrick Stewart, but unfortunately, he just seems ever-so-slightly off in Lords of Shadow. He's not bad at all. It's just that he seems to always be a little off from what I think of as the right tone for the character and his lines. Robert Carlyle, who provides the voice of Gabriel, seems to be a bit more on-point.

Gabriel also has a dead wife to avenge, or ideally, to bring back to life, a feat he hopes to accomplish with the power of the God Mask. He also has (without his knowledge) a son, whose gestation and birth occurred during one of his long absences on Brotherhood business, and whose existence goes unmentioned until later entries in the series. The secret of this child's birth was deliberately kept from him by the Brotherhood and his wife (who was sworn to secrecy by them) due to some unspecified danger they saw in his future.

His journey takes him through the wilderness of a version of Europe that never existed, and then into the ruins of the ancient fictional civilization of Agharta, and to worse places yet. Background lore is dispensed by way of scrolls found on the bodies of fallen Brotherhood members that Gabriel encounters as he goes. All of this, as well as information about the various creatures Gabriel faces, items he acquires, and moves he learns, is kept in a tome he brings with him, which the player can read at their leisure. Most of it is stupidly, wonderfully overwrought.

Gabriel, we are eventually told, is God's chosen champion, empowered to confront Satan himself in order to undo his malevolent magic. Slowly but surely, Gabriel confronts each of the Lords of Shadow and retrieves their piece of the God Mask. This includes Zobek, we eventually discover, who is a necromancer of considerable power, and who is ultimately revealed to have escaped death despite his defeat.

Through the course of Lords of Shadow, Gabriel does indeed successfully beat up Satan and restore the world to its normal order. However, he is unable to resurrect his wife after all. Then the DLC gives him a new foe to face, and in order to do this, he must give up his humanity and become a vampire.

This culminates in him becoming the evil Dracula who served as the villain for the vast majority of the original Castlevania series.

Mirror of Fate, a spinoff released physically for the 3DS and digitally for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, occurs in the ensuing years and decades after Gabriel rises to become a vampiric overlord with ambitions of world domination.

We start off as Simon Belmont, who is unaware that Dracula was once a Belmont himself (in fact, Dracula is his grandfather). Simon is a fur-clad, muscular barbarian with very little in the way of characterization, who is aided from time to time (sometimes without his knowledge) by a pale, black-clad stranger running around the castle, who turns out to be Alucard, the son of Dracula. The two team up to stake Dracula, though as series fans already know, this isn’t going to be permanent.

Then the game shifts focus, and we get to play as Alucard. Alucard likewise has very little character growth or development. Then, when his section is finished, the game shifts focus again. We end the game playing as Trevor Belmont, Gabriel's son, a generation or so before Simon's time, and find out just exactly how bad Trevor's own mission against Dracula went.

When we come to the opening of Lords of Shadow 2, we find that Gabriel-as-Dracula is still God's chosen one, despite all the murder and blood-drinking and oppression that's just du rigeur for being a vampiric overlord. As such, he is immortal – virtually impossible to kill even by the standards of vampires.

But Lords of Shadow 2 proper begins in the modern era. Zobek, now a wealthy and powerful businessman with his fingers in a variety of pies, approaches Dracula in the cathedral where he has recently reawakened. But the lord of vampires persists in a diminished state. Weakened and desiccated, he looks like a walking corpse, a pale shadow of his former self, hating his eternal life but feeling compelled to go on with it in order to spite his enemies (Zobek, Satan, and God Himself). So he lingers.

Zobek offers him a way out. Satan's minions are increasing in power, gearing up for their master's return to the human world. As God's chosen one, Dracula alone is empowered to fight against him. In exchange, Zobek promises he can finally put an end to Dracula's life once and for all, as he has reassembled the broken Vampire Killer whip once wielded by Gabriel himself. And so, after a meal to freshen up (probably one of the most disturbing and problematic parts of the entire series), Dracula sets off through the city that now stands on the foundations of his ancient, massive castle from centuries ago.

Where the original Lords of Shadow was more plot-focused, Lords of Shadow 2 tries to be more character driven, focusing on Dracula's return to humanity – in spirit, if not physically. Unfortunately, the focus on story, not just in Lords of Shadow 2 but in the entire reboot series, is where it most falls flat.

The whole thing is difficult to take seriously much of the time. Granted, Castlevania as a whole is ridiculous and over the top. This has been true from the very first game, which was riddled with anachronisms (fighting Frankenstein's monster somewhere in the sixteenth or seventeenth century) and featuring Death himself as Dracula's right-hand man – well, right-hand personification of the abstract concept of the end of life – all throughout the series. Seriously, it isn't a proper Castlevania game if there isn't a boss fight against Death somewhere near the end, preferably one tough as nails. But that oddly makes a certain amount of sense. As a being who routinely flouts death by coming back to life once a century just as a matter of course (not even getting into all the times people resurrect him just because), Dracula might be expected to be on some kind of terms with the Grim Reaper.

But then the Lords of Shadow continuity introduces this whole Satan business, and I just...

No.

So the idea in the Lords of Shadow continuity is that Gabriel Belmont is for whatever reason God's champion, chosen to face down Satan and prevent him from taking over the world. And for some reason, I just have a hard time buying it. Having a character fight off lesser demons and mythological monsters? Sure, no problem. Having that character fighting off the servants of Satan in this world to prevent him from entering it, yeah, that's perfectly fine. But having a knock-down, drag-out with the big man, the capital-D Devil himself? Somehow, my brain draws a line there. Maybe it's because the game uses a generally Christian mythological framework, and Lords of Shadows' idea of Satan doesn't really mesh with that. You don't just throw down with the Father of Lies. I mean, yes, there are all sorts of folktales about conflicts between humankind and the devil, but none of them end in a brawl. That's just not how it goes; that's not what he's there for.

Which is a goddamn shame, because there are hints of something more interesting going on. Gabriel-as-Dracula in Lords of Shadow 2 has positioned himself as an enemy of God (he refers at least once to being a thorn in His side), mainly by going against God's stated purpose for him. The game opens pretty memorably with him in a conflict against the Brotherhood of Light, displaying his immunity to the holy powers they try to call down on him, screaming at one paladin in particular that his reliance upon God is his undoing, because despite Gabriel's defiance, he is still God's chosen one. There's also the idea that as Dracula, Gabriel is a necessary evil, that although he stands in opposition to God (over his anger at the fate God thrust upon him), he also stands as a bulwark against Satan, as well as Zobek, who has his own designs on the world.

And the games are gorgeous. All of them lean hard into a sort of quasi-gothic horror-fantasy aesthetic that I really would love to see more of. This is all quite apart from the technical capability on display, which is also top-notch. I love just running around in them, looking at the scenery and beating the unholy hell out of the monsters that come crawling out of it.

But it ultimately falls apart for being too self-serious. Castlevania has always had an odd silly streak. As mentioned, the original games took a bunch of mythological creatures and classic horror movie monsters, mashed them all together, and played the whole thing completely straight. They did this knowing how ridiculous it was, but doing it anyway because it was also completely fucking awesome. This is in the grand tradition of old-school video games, where the plot was less of a story that you got invested in and more of an excuse for all the things the game was going to have you do.

The problem is that this really works best when you do it in the style of those older games, when you don't draw too much attention to it or elaborate on it too much. I mean, let's break down the series mythology from the original continuity:

-- Since the Middle Ages, Dracula the vampire has been terrorizing Europe, returning to life once every century to do it. He summons to him all manner of creatures from myth and legend (and other fiction) in pursuit of this goal.

-- The Belmont clan, carriers of the Vampire Killer whip, are uniquely empowered to smite him. This they do, with as much reliability as Dracula's return, alongside a growing number of allies.

-- Sometimes there are cultists or other Bad People who resurrect Dracula for their own ends outside the usual once-per-century pattern, or other evil entities who borrow his power in some fashion.

And that's basically it. And it worked. It was simple, but it was effective, in the way that the stories of games like, say, Super Mario Bros. or the early Sonic the Hedgehog games were. It wasn't built to handle a lot of lore and characterization, and in fact it kind of falls apart under the weight of those things. You start trying to give Castlevania a really deep, involving story, and that just exposes how ridiculous the whole thing actually is, how shaky the framework, how unsteady the foundation is to build lore upon. You can hear its light, almost slapped-together framework creaking under the weight of all that load.

We see this happening in the original series. Symphony of the Night, and the portable entries that followed in its footsteps, crammed in just about all the story that the games were really set up to handle. Then we get to Lament of Innocence, which tries hard to justify Dracula's motives and tendency to return from death to fulfill them, the Belmont clan's struggle against him, and all the rest. And the real problem is that it's totally unnecessary, and the attempt to sell it as high drama with this inherent silliness in its premise just continually falls flat.

To a certain extent, I get the perceived need to do this. We seem to have left behind the era when major, big-budget games can be just fun. They have to be these big, trampling, sober, serious things now, all high stakes and serious business. Most of the games that revolve around being fun tend to find themselves in the vanishing B-tier of games, or else indie titles. Or the exclusive province of Nintendo. There doesn't seem to be room in the industry any more for big-budget games that don't take themselves entirely seriously.

So what does Lords of Shadow, as a sub-series, get right?

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Despite its missteps with the story, the world looks gorgeous. I'd love to see a remastered version that features the games running at 60 frames per second in 1080p, and maybe sharpens the textures up a bit, but honestly, it looks pretty much fine as it is. The characters and environments are nicely detailed, and I love the overall sense of design. Especially toward the middle of the first game, where the levels tend toward "Gothic, but totally over the top".

The beginning of Lords of Shadow seems a little questionable, mainly because of the focus on purely fantasy creatures: goblins, trolls, etc.; things that don't really have much to do with the horror imagery Castlevania typically goes for. It's not bad, it just doesn't quite fit right.

But as the game goes on, it dives more into horror territory, with werewolves, vampires, and more outlandish creatures still. Boss battles are giant setpieces which are plenty challenging, and usually end with a series of quick-time events that work you through an ultimately brutal but satisfying take-down of the boss in question.

The sense of substantiality, of heaviness, that I usually associate with the classic Castlevania heroes is present and accounted for. With his broad shoulders and muscular physique, Gabriel evokes the deliberate movements of the heroes of the classic Castlevania games. And his attacks land with a satisfying impact, again hitting that feeling of "considered and deliberate" that I associate with the classic titles. At the same time, he's actually quite light on his feet. While that still makes him a little different from the Belmonts of old, it makes sense with the way the game's designed. Unlike those classic games, most of the enemies don't die in just one or two hits. Like many hack-and-slash games, Gabriel's movement through the game's areas is very stop-and-go, stretches of travel and puzzle-solving punctuated by combat encounters with multiple enemies (or one major enemy), each of which takes some work to bring down. Faster and more complex maneuvers are necessary to avoid being obliterated.

There are also a few callbacks here and there to the previous series. Although Gabriel is a completely original character to the series, his design is clearly meant to evoke the look of Simon Belmont as he appeared in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Structurally, Lords of Shadow borrows from the more linear structure old-school, classic style of Castlevania games. The first Lords of Shadow follows in the classic mold more than either of its sequels in the rebooted continuity. Lords of Shadow 2 features a seamlessly interconnected environment, but in the end, the player is still directed through it in a mostly linear fashion, with the optional digressions being just that.

Mirror of Fate, meanwhile, is the least classic-like of the three, instead hewing much closer to the Metroidvania style, but it's pretty shallow as Metroidvanias go. It apes the style of Igarashi's 2D predecessors, but lacks much of the real substance. It's not bad, but it's sort of a letdown. It’s disappointing mainly in the way that it presents itself as a Metroidvania game, but then... isn't, really. The whole thing is so on-rails that most of the major backtracking feels forced, and the backtracking that isn't is so minor that you can safely skip over it. It's more of a straight-up action game dressed up like a Metroidvania, as if they did it because that's just what's expected of a 2D Castlevania these days. Which is a shame, becasue MercurySteam can make a good Metroidvania – they went on to do it with Metroid: Samus Returns (though, admittedly, they were working from the template of a pre-existing game).

Interestingly, one of the classic series features that doesn't get touched on in Lords of Shadow is the music. Over the years, the classic Castlevania titles have built up a variety of iconic pieces that people tend to expect to hear. "Vampire Killer", "Wicked Child", and "Bloody Tears" are just some of the more famous ones. These often get worked into the various sequels and remakes in one form or another. Lords of Shadow mostly lacks these, barring a music-box rendition of "Vampire Killer" in an unlikely spot. In fact, the soundtrack is mainly comprised of generic orchestral pieces which are nice – they swell and pound in all the right places to evoke the appropriate mood – but not really melodic or memorable.

A number of fans of the series were upset by the lack of classic tracks. While I can understand the general complaints about the soundtrack on its own merits, I do find it somewhat overblown. It would've been nice, sure. But plenty of other well-regarded games in the classic seriess, such as the particularly revered Symphony of the Night, did without the classic tunes from the series history, and nobody complained then.

Bits of original series lore also pop up here and there, recycled and repurposed to match the tone and style of the new continuity, as a wink and nod from the developer to the fans. But in the end, it almost feels more frustrating than anything else. These bits of the original series that poke up into view here and there seem to serve as reminders of the game that I wanted, bolted onto the game that we got. I was looking for something dark and grim and gloriously over the top, borderline goofy in its melodrama.

And that, I think, is most of my problem with Lords of Shadow, as a continuity unto itself. There are some great setpieces, and the combat is fine, and the games look about as good as it's possible for last-gen console hardware to get. And the story is gloriously over the top. It just... It takes itself too seriously. It gets in its own way, falls over itself, and just generally doesn't land right. It looks right, it just doesn't feel quite right. The tone is off, and it dwells on itself too much. Classic Castlevania would do something over the top and ridiculous and awesome, and then move on. Lords of Shadow dwells on it, lingers on it, and it’s neither deep enough nor solid enough to support that level of seriousness. I think most times that it really should have been its own intellectual property.

It's better than the 3D Castlevania games to come before it. But Castlevania still deserves better.

It's a shame that, with Konami being what they are now, we're probably never going to get it.

#halloween #castlevania #lords of shadow #lords of shadow 2 #mirror of fate #video games #games #video gaming #gaming

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startselectscreen · 5 years ago

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Devil May Cry 5: Xbox One Video Game Review

5 STARS OUT OF FIVE

Major badassery was spent by mashing demons to death in Devil May Cry 5, where the scent of familiarity flashes before your eyes. This was the case of nostalgia, battling out demons and creatures from hell that spurred out in hallways and big zones as you have an arsenal of weaponry to chain those insane combos. DMC 5 marks a return of its 360 game, DMC 4 from everything you knew about it’s played, plus new additions on what it has been improved since then. This brilliant iteration of the series qualifies, balancing the good and better from its predecessors.

With that in mind, this game is all about killing demons from and through the depths of hell in some cases. In that sense with an array of melee and projectile attacks that you would inflict, mashing combos strings as well as avoiding incoming attacks, by dodging or jumping away from it. The in-game ranking system is crazy, from D to SSS, it really encourages you to go insane with the combos. Each playable characters; Nero, Dante and the new addition, V each have their own play styles that produces great results of cleaning up house. Combat is benefitted where the game most expresses itself showcasing the nuances in many creative ways.

The previous continuity, DMC 4 with Nero mashes the old and new ideas together. Earlier on, Nero lost his Devil Bringer arm from a mysterious assailant but was luckily replaced by a choice of multiple prosthetic arms, Devil Breakers. Each of these upgrades with help you rain on those combos as you pull enemies towards you ala Bionic Commando style to grappling something from the environment to swing across, it’s really a grand assortment of special abilities. Other abilities like Overture can deliver a shock attack, kinda similar to Big Boss in MGS5, whereas grappling from Bionic Commando, it feels like they were influenced by them. You receive new and better arms as you progress through the game by defeating bosses near the end of the chapter, where you can equip them at the start of the chapter.

This doesn’t affect the limitations a thrilling and spontaneous combat as it becomes more adaptable. From the start, it can rather compel you while upgrading more storage space from a different prosthetic arms to produce a devastating strings of combos alongside melee and projectiles, much more strategically from multiple stylish combo to an even higher one. It’s a sense of adapting different playstyles with your Devil Breakers, a sense of dodging incoming attacks to prevent enemies from shattering your badass string of combos. The gratifying free-flowing techniques that your Devil Breakers inspire make it easy over initial frustrations from the starting learning curves.

Where as Nero brings the combat from its previous iterations, V brings an awesome of the three V is more of a hunter-class from WoW, summoning beasts or familiars, a shape-shifting panther named Shadow and a wise-cracking griffin bird called Griffon which you may recognize from DMC1. One of them inflicts melee attacks as well as transforms into some sort of demon skateboard as you travel faster while the other shoots projectiles and can give you a small boost over one platform to another. Each of them has their own perspective health bar and can be out of combat if you are not careful. The third familiar is a hulking golem named Nightmare which acts as a Devil Trigger that will inflict tremendous amounts of damage in a short time and can be upgraded to be commandeered/ mounted on to inflict more devastating attacks against enemies and bosses. With this array of familiars, the damage is not well and done as V must execute a final blow with his cane on enemies that can surely boost a higher chain of combos and stylish points. It lacks any sense of being troublesome, dodging enemy attacks for that final blow, sure you can blow it with someone flanks you and destroys your combo chain but with two familiars that can gag and stun your enemies, it becomes less irritating and disorienting when you go for the blow. V is literally the best addition to the gang, having a literal button that have him sprout poetic jargon while hopping on the panther to skate around the battlefield makes him the most lovable character of the three.

Much like Nero, Dante maintains the traditional mechanics of the previous games. He is able to seamlessly switch between four playstyles, each with different and unique maneuvers and start-ups. This wide arrange of gear makes a heavy punch with having an arsenal of four bladed swords and guns each varied to make the most of a devastating combo attacks. It’s just fun to just mutilate demons with his extensive arsenal while the typical badass himself rhythmically dance those combos around and then finishing off with a demonic motorcycle chainsaw.

Each playstyles is different as you progress throughout the game that of which you will be gradually implant into them. You start off with Nero and eventually can pick the latter two, V and Dante at the start of a new chapter, growing accustomed to them with new mechanics being introducing keeping the faith of stylish combat. There is a wide arrange of foes to test your abilities, bosses in particular offer the most trials, with different challenges to suit up whatever protagonist you have selected. Having Dante or Nero be effecting in close-range combat, slicing and dashing creatures to death while V summoning familiars in play, forcing you to be on the edge of your seat with button-mashing those attacks. These challenges are kept consistent, as the learning curves gets better later on, improving your skills to increase those combos so that you can retrieve more stylish points.

The story in DMC5 is an engrossing saga of extravagant action that posies you to be thoroughly entertained in its ride. Having customized your abilities in Nico’s big van of the three, predicts awesome results within each chapter. Much like the previous games, it has a non-linear structure with a variety of events unfolding before you. The narrative benefits from its approach of storytelling, keeping you focused and invested on each mission that has to contribute of the timeline, as it starts off the time.

It seems to be refreshing that Capcom decided to go back to its roots since the Xbox 360 version of the DMC franchise. The return of the cool-hand luke, Dante with his white hair as well as others like Trish and Lady seems like they finally return to please fans unlike its previous iteration that was controversial. This fanservice seems to be paying rich dividends, as partial to nude scenes as well as many callbacks and references. However, not much is out there and both of these returning characters don’t have much of them in the sense of camaraderie and felt minimal characterizations. However much like the three is badass, Nico stands out the most as a gunsmith, being fierce tsundere that smokes in the van (which of Nero’s disgust) while ramming incoming demons in splendid fashion.

As the game is online, an effort was made with its Cameo system which is a subtle online cooperative element to the formula. At the start of each mission, you will see “Starring as” another player who’s playing the mission as you have, indicating on the left side of the screen,. It can change from a default AI or random player. It’s quite nice that this feature will indicate who is playing the same mission as you are.

In short, DMC 5 thrives on its stylistic and badassery prowess of its predecessors. Capcom seems to be listening in from its fans’ disappointment of the previous iteration reboot, sticking to its traditional playstyle while implementing strong new ideas on the way. It is fortunate that the game keeps on constantly leveraging its spectacle and depth to put aside to any frustrations. With that in mind, it really includes a charismatic charm that you will keep coming back to and better yourself with getting more stylish points to upgrade into an adaptive momentaily combat. DMC 5 proves that the series be more awesome and creative without negating its previous opinion.

#dmc 5 #capcom #xboxone

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our-reb00t-boi · 4 years ago

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I've always had a soft spot for how downtrodden and abused the reb00t Dante version is and still do after they had to "reboot" him again for the official launch (man, to be rebooted twice👈). The 2010 trailer had hammered the point how he has a different backstory from the Uncle Awesome Dante fans were used to.

I'm not gonna highlight which is supposed to be "superior" or anything, because that's such a gatekeeping mindset and that's been called out now. People prefer so many things we'll never agree on.

And I think that's what might have happened behind-the-scenes. Capcom--the company who planned the "reboot" title from the start--had such a specific idea of "westernizing" a very niche fantasy title, there was friction from what Ninja Theory also had in mind. It bothers me, to this day, how Capcom, aka the higher-ups, handled this development, PLUS they got a Hollywood writer, Alex Garland (remember this guy??) to "help" with the writing development.

I don't think Capcom, at the time, couldn't really go on with the idea of an oppressed, marginalized protagonist that implies such a very Rated 18 backstory on what had been a funhouse, power fantasy title franchise, even though they've explicitly made it clear--or not, because the term "reboot" is such a contested marketing tool of a word that is up there being so vague, but okay, I'll make it clear, the two universes are simply separate universes that shares themes and character tropes--AFTER Capcom's realized what they've done and told us it's a separate, original story.

And yet they had gone to hire a different team--who does have an idea of what DMC is, but has no experience with developing it whatsoever--to "Westernize" whatever the fuck it's supposed to be, then turn a 360 and have the internal team from Capcom "help" in redeveloping the initial reboot idea when it was met with disdain and, dare I say, panic.

It's insane how they've let go of what a genuine idea was that Ninja Theory had cooked up, and it had likely been just a rough draft. I'm suspecting they've never really been given the chance to polish their rough drafts when Capcom had to intervene. It really makes me wonder why hire a different team when they could've talked to their own internal teams to begin with???

I will say, however, both studios are a product of their time. It's only now are many games, especially indie developers--and yes, even Ninja Theory, with their title Hellblade (even though they're under Microsoft now)--genuinely showing off backstories of mental illnesses, abuse, trauma, or an otherwise very vulnerable past with some respect and open-mindedness, that doesn't put it in an edgy, grimdark tone. As if torture and torment are the only palpable things that can "make" a character and their troubles believable.

Tldr whatevs it was such a waste. And don't even get me started with your beloved uWu Uncle Dante. His franchise has holes we tried to excuse and Uncle ain't fucking with his cambion dick.

#tone #super mega rant #ignore #whatevs #I'm never letting go Elsa #or don't ignore #it's fine #it's opinion piece #nothing about dmc ruined my experience of it #I do want to point out holes in its development and its #agree to disagree

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cobrienba1b · 6 years ago

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Animation Principle Analysis 1 - Devil May Cry 4

youtube

This clip was gathered from the 4th installment of the devil may cry franchise. Vergil is a skilled swordfighter, sibling to the main protagonist, Dante, and in the 3rd installment, he served as the main antagonist to him. He wields a katana and is known for being extremely quick, to the point where most of his movements look like a blur or a blue streak.

Squash and Stretch

Since Vergil has demonic super speed, it is fair to say that squashing and stretching will be something commonly seen. Where this isn’t cartoony in the way that it does squash, it is evident through posture and poses as opposed to what we would normally see in a bouncing ball. Where he is in a stretched position in the air, indicating his descent to the ground, then quickly transitions to the landing pose where it is very outstretched to the sides, emphasized by his jacket spreading out. This emphasizes the speed and weight of the attack, which this particular attack holds a lot of.

Anticipation

Since a lot of Vergil’s movements happen at such ridiculous speeds, it would be extremely difficult to tell what he is doing if he didn’t show any anticipation for his attacks. As you can see in the gif, Vergil does a slight spin and swings his katana into his pose before he does his attack. It shows that this attack is going to be powerful since it has such a build up. This happens with a lot of his attacks in the video.

Timing

As previously iterated, Vergil is a very fast character, and although he doesn’t seem to obey the laws of physics, timing is used to exaggerate his speed massively, for most of his anticipation, he moves very slowly, sometimes even too slowly, and then once the attack is in motion, he moves extremely fast, leaving a couple frames of blur.

Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose

Vergil, as well as quick, is very stylish in his attacks. Straight ahead action is used mainly in his anticipations and followthroughs, this is where most of the fluid actions come into play as everything is slowed down and where animating in keyframes comes in handy. When it comes to pose to pose, this is where the fast attacks come into play, the anticipations and followthrough tend to be separate poses held for dramatic effect and the in-betweens are either a blur or a few frames of transition.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action

This is used a lot after a fast movement is executed, not only does it give the piece a realistic feel, but it also helps to emphasize the speed and acceleration. When he stops, the followthrough often shows in both his posture and his jacket. The ends flail and the body braces and then relaxes after the movement is complete. The overlapping action often happens in the jacket as well, since he is moving so fast, the jacket sometimes needs a few frames to catch up, showing the audience just how fast the movement is.

Staging

Where Vergil’s stylish nature comes into play a lot in this cutscene, there are a lot of instances where staging is emphasized. Since the Vergil is the main focus of this cutscene, the camera is focused on him for the majority of the video. Directing the attention of the audience to him and only him. There are a lot of enemies with the same appearance and dull colour scheme. Vergil’s blue coat does a good job distinguishing him from the crowd and distracting the audience. As well as this, the other entities are in slow motion for most of this video whereas Vergil is moving quick, drawing the audience’s eyes towards him the whole time.

Slow In and Slow Out

During each motion that Vergil goes through, there is usually a short duration of easing in and out of moves. There is a couple frames of the move starting, one or two frames of blur or smearing and a few frames in the finish. This easing is useful for showing Vergils stylish nature and making the animation much more fluid and easy on the eye.

Arc

Arcs are used a lot in this cutscene, mainly through swinging the sword and spinning around during attacks. It not only presents fluidity in the animation but also carries lots of momentum and helps to emphasize some of the other principles such as timing and anticipation etc.

Secondary Action

Vergil expresses secondary action a lot in this video, from his clothing moving at the same time he is or is may be his arm swinging the sword as he twists his body. This gives the animation more life, vergil isn’t robotic, he’s an organic lifeform that moves just like any other human, just at a much fast pace. When he relaxes just after a swift movement, you can see his arms move down whilst his legs straighten, making the animation a lot more believable.

Exaggeration

In the devil may cry franchise, exaggeration is the norm. Vergil's movements and attacks may stay true to reality but they are all much wilder in form, speed, and weight. From blurring to front-flipping downward kicking to the ground while 20 feet in the air is definitely something that would be extremely difficult to achieve in reality. Exaggeration is also seen in dust that appears after movements, the slashes that emanate from the sword attacks and the ground breaking in the final kick are all good examples.

Appeal

Vergils stylish nature and behavior can be seen as appealing to the audience, rather than static movements, Vergil performs lots of swift actions, flips, and tricks to defeat his enemies. The hair correction shows some of his personality, making him look clean and organised as opposed to his messy and chaotic brother, Dante.

There is many other scenes in the DMC franchise that I could use but this one was one of my favourites and I felt showed the most action to analyse.

#principlesanalysis

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adamnovice · 8 years ago

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Is PlayStation finally Aloying female protagonists to shine?

NO LINE ON THE HORIZON November 23rd 2012: Rumours were beginning to stir of a new console generation but as far I was concerned the PlayStation 3 was far from done. With the releases of God of War Ascension, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, Gran Turismo 6, Beyond Two Souls and The Last of Us still to arrive. But first up came Sony’s much mocked “Smash Bros rip off” PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale to PS3 and Vita. In fact it was this very day that said title arrived. As a massive fan of Sony’s hugely successful brand since Christmas 1997 this felt like a dream game (a brawler featuring all of PlayStation’s most memorable characters in a huge fan service package). Sadly this didn’t turn out what I hoped it would be, while the the actual fighting was sound, the roster and presentation was very lacking. Notable omissions included Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Solid Snake, Cloud Strife and Lara Croft. Of course Sony would have needed the rights but when other fighters like Raiden from Metal Gear, Big Daddy from BioShock and Dante from DMC were there just to promote upcoming games, it ended up exasperating the issue. But later on there was another problem I had with the roster. The game had a total of 24 fighters…only 3 of them were women, Fat Princess, Nariko from Heavenly Sword and Kat from Gravity Rush. Even then Kat was DLC and ironically despite 4 Fat Princess games existing this was the only time where you actually play as the titular princess. It left me thinking “where’s all the cool female characters that Sony have had over the last 20 years”? It’s not as if there wasn’t any options: Elena and/or Chloe from Uncharted, Jennifer Tate from Primal, Carmelita Fox from Sky Cooper and Kai from Heavenly Sword to them just a few. I can’t stress enough that this isn’t me pushing some kind of feminist agenda, far from it, it’s merely an observation on where Sony had been lacking in creating such memorable characters that I feel they could and should do better in.

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO February 25th 2017: And now the landscape looks quite a bit different. As I write this Sony (fresh from the continuing success of the PlayStation 4) are about to release arguably one of their most important games in their 20+ years in the industry… Horizon Zero Dawn by Dutch studio Guerilla Games. The game has so far received huge critical acclaim for it’s combat, gorgeous world and surprisingly deep story. This is coupled with the game garning loads of hype ever since it was revealed at E3 2015 and quite possibly the biggest marketing push I have ever seen from Sony in all the years I have followed the PlayStation brand. But why is it so important? Ask yourself this, who is the face of PlayStation right now? Chances are you would say Nathan Drake or Kratos, problem is those characters have been well established for nearly a decade now and Sony usually gives birth to new heroes that become the unofficial mascot of the brand. PS1 had Crash and Spyro, PS2 had Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and Kratos and PS3 had Nathan Drake and Sackboy. So far on PS4, it has lacked a new IP that can become a flag bearer for the platform. That’s where Horizon final key aspect comes into play, it’s protagonist Aloy, a young female tribal hunter with a curiosity of the outside world that she inhabits. Guerilla have stressed from the beginning that Aloy jumped from the earliest concept art right to the developers demanding to be the lead character. And I believe them, why? Because Sony had serious doubts, which they had every right to do so, if your running a business and you’ve greenlight a game that’s an old open world RPG (one of the most expensive genres you could make next to MMOs) that is not only a completely new IP but it’s been made by a studio that only made first person shooters in the last ten years. Sony quite rightly needed to make sure that they weren’t taking needless risks before dropping the likely $100million + in production costs. After all in recent times how many AAA games starring a female had been a big success outside of Tomb Raider? Sad state of affairs true, but nevertheless it warranted caution. Especially when Sony made the decision a few years previous to not publish Dotnod’s (of Life is Strange fame) Remember Me which also had a female protagonist. Though I imagine the game was dropped for far more then just that as the game did turn out to be rather ironically forgettable. Thankfully Sony bite the bullet, and ever since have expressed huge confidence it the game to the point where president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios Shuei Yoshida announced on stage at E3 “I get the honour of introducing a completely new franchise that I’m totally excited about” the keyword there is “franchise” not new IP but franchise as in Sony is in this for the long haul. This was emphasised even more when Guerilla’s managing director Herman Hulst just seconds later proudly announced “on behalf of everyone at Guerilla Games, I’m delighted to finally reveal our newest franchise”. The fact that this was the same E3 where The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue 3 were announced yet Horizon wasn’t buried speaks volumes of the impact the game had on people. So what about Aloy herself, what is special about her? Frankly I don’t know because I haven’t played the game yet but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t “intrigued” about her. Like where did she come from, how has her experiences morphed her into what she is now. She seems to perfectly embody the player’s curiosity to explore this vast beautiful world where nature has retaken the landscape. Finding that out is going to be part of the fun.

A STORM IS COMING But here’s the rub, as far as PlayStation is concerned Aloy is not going to be alone as far as leading female characters for their games go. At PlayStation Experience 2016 the keynote was bookended by Sony biggest and most relevant studio… Naughty Dog. But what was also noticeable was that their games in question (Uncharted The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us Part 2) will have female protagonists in what are arguably the two biggest IP’s in Sony’s portfolio. In fact Sony didn’t even need to show all of Ellie’s face for people watching to erupt with glee, so was the impact both the first game and Ellie herself made. But why is this significant? Because things are gradually changing, the gaming industry is getting increasingly more diverse in sex, religion and race. And I’m not just talking about people who actually make the games we play but those that work in the media and the actual fandom of our favourite hobby. I’ve lost count of the times when I’ve seen female gaming Youtubers who are not only super into videogames too but also have excellent knowledge of various parts of the industry that they can teach me a thing or too. As for Sony to go from a company that only had three females in it’s own celebratory fighting game to now betting the farm with games like Horizon and The Last of Us Part 2 which are female led and don’t actually hide behind that fact show an extraordinary turnaround in such a few short years for me speaks volumes of gaming ever growing reach. FINAL THOUGHT At the end of Horizon Zero Dawn’s reveal trailer Aloy said “a storm is coming…And I…Will be ready” while I have no doubt that she was referring to an oncoming threat to her people in the game, for me it feels like she’s hitting the eye of the storm where half the world’s population is maybe just maybe finally getting the kind of cool and awesome characters that don’t always have to be defined by their sex and their sex alone. If things are indeed changing then maybe if or when Sony does a PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale 2, Nathan Drake and Kratos as they enter the battlefield they will see Aloy on the Horizon and she’s brought some friends with her.

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