MoonsaultSlayer said:
I think I sensed sarcasm from him. I don't think he was actually agreeing with me.
No sarcasm.
C- Warrior said:
Other than the occasional odd ball puzzle (dice game, looking at you) be more specific when you say poorly designed? I thought the various rooms and levels were gorgeous. The game had great continuity from each area to area. Be more specific?
The castle was designed and made perfect sense. No room or anything led to some other random room. There was not any room repetition (like the 3D castlevania games) each room, also contained a unique color tone. For example, the main hall had a bluish tint to it, while the toture chamber in the same castle a nice red hue, and then the outside was a nice dark blue snow.
The pacing was well thought out in a sense that you were being exposed to new enemies, bosses, and abilities throughout Nero's game in addition to new environments as well as story arcs. There are 9 unique boss fights which easily eclipse any other action game released this gen. Not too mention many of which being extremely well designed.
Ultimately, be more specific. I understand the odd-setting puzzle, but what about the level structure was odd? The connection between areas and rooms made sense, the art and tech., behind the visuals of each level was impressive...etc
I don't deny the architectural beauty of the levels, they're gorgeous. But it's the way they were designed, some of the levels, specifically the forest and inside the castle levels, are messy and all over the place. A door here, a door there, 3 doors on the second floor, a crack in the center, a ledge on the side... And they just drop you there expecting you to know exactly where to go. That confused the hell out of me on my first play through. And don't get me started on the forest level, that was even worse.
The pacing, especially the backtracking parts with Dante, didn't help it either. I can't remember how many times I said to myself "where the fuck do I go next?" only to realize after going through every passage in every level that there was a hidden warp passage that had appeared under the bridge. It's like basically: enter forest with 3 different ways to go through, fight (fun part), go through some more confusing places, get item thingy, go back, guess which way to take and pray you don't get lost, end mission. Such horrid pacing. That's what you get from booting Kamiya from the team Capcom.
The game does a poor job of structurally designing the levels to make the player say "ok now I know I need to go to this room or this way in order to proceed". I mean, it is a linear game after all. I never had those issues with DMC1 or the God of War games, almost all their levels were intelligently put together and made sense. The puzzles and platforming in those games were actually fun, and it was thoroughly satisfying to roam from room to room, unlike in DMC3/4, which felt more like hindrances obscuring your way from the good parts.
Of course, those problems are only present on your first play through, most if not all those annoyances disappear the 2nd or 3rd time you play the game and all become a non-issue for me. But it would've been that much more fun to replay the levels if those aspects were actually well made in the first place.
