• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition |OT| Two girls, one motivated Vergil

Seyavesh

Member
Capcom sure was lazy with the added costumes. Giving coat less versions of Dante, Vergil, and Nero wouldn't have been every labor intensive.

for real. even worse, modding tools for SE models are basically rare and limited to some weird circle alongside being slightly broken so it's totally out of our hands.
at least for vanilla 4 there's someone doing a coatless nero, as seen here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/crIhONT

but all i want is dang coatless vergil!
 
Regardless of the quality, the quantity of added costumes in this game were really disappointing as well.

I mean after 7 years and with 3 new additional characters DMC4 still has lesser costume variations compared to the original version of Bayonetta which is a game that came out back in freaking 2009.

Capcom seriously needs to step it up with costumes in DMC5.
 

Seyavesh

Member
dmc5 is somehow gonna only have LDK/sparda costumes again instead of coatless or anything interesting

seriously does anyone actually like those dang costumes? they look so dumb!
 

Dahbomb

Member
Yeah the costumes are so fucking paltry.

Yet another thing DMC3 was best at. DMC1 Dante, Coatless DMC1 Dante, Coatless DMC3 Dante etc.

One of these days we will get a DMC2 Dante costume in a GOOD DMC game...


Speaking of which has that been listed in the suggestion? Because that has to be one of the most suggested things for a new DMC game, a DMC2 Dante costume option (really all legacy DMC costumes).
 
Yeah the costumes are so fucking paltry.

Yet another thing DMC3 was best at. DMC1 Dante, Coatless DMC1 Dante, Coatless DMC3 Dante etc.

One of these days we will get a DMC2 Dante costume in a GOOD DMC game...


Speaking of which has that been listed in the suggestion? Because that has to be one of the most suggested things for a new DMC game, a DMC2 Dante costume option (really all legacy DMC costumes).
I do remember watching those initial DMC2 trailers where Dante looked bad ass.. Like the one where he jumps down from the tower... RIP DMC2 Dante.
 

Seyavesh

Member
dmc3 got all the costumes that matter anyways.
dmc3/1 outfits the besttt

dmc4's still maintains that unique style but man the cowboy chaps bug me a lot, haha
and dmc2's just feels.. too slick? it looks something from the matrix with some slight color alterations while the other outfits are still crazy enough to fit that hair metal coolguy style

also
clicking that lead me to this vid which is incredible: (dmc3 secret theater stuff?!) alongside a bunch of making of vids that aren't in DMC3- a rare find!
it's even got the rehearsals for the post vergil 2 cutscene!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgYiTX8mI4
 

Golnei

Member
dmc5 is somehow gonna only have LDK/sparda costumes again instead of coatless or anything interesting

seriously does anyone actually like those dang costumes? they look so dumb!

The bar's been set low enough for me to just be happy they have alt costumes at all...

Still, I agree that they're really behind in that aspect - you can compare it to the original Bayonetta, but what I find more damning is that SE has less costume variety than MGR; which was subject to an insanely compressed development cycle. There's so much potential that's being completely ignored.
 

Sesha

Member
Capcom sure was lazy with the added costumes. Giving coat less versions of Dante, Vergil, and Nero wouldn't have been every labor intensive.

It was probably a combination of lack of time and budget. There's stuff in SE that's clearly made on the cheap. Costumes, f.e. Even though there's five costumes it's actually more like three (Dante, Nero, Lady). Four if you count the Sparda DT. I think that's why we didn't get, say, a Nelo DT for Vergil.

I don't agree with calling them lazy. Itsuno and team and Access Games probably did they best with what they could. Remember the original plan was to make Vergil a complete character and Lady and Trish as model swaps of Dante and Nero.
 

Golnei

Member
It was probably a combination of lack of time and budget. There's stuff in SE that's clearly made on the cheap. Costumes, f.e. Even though there's five costumes it's actually more like three (Dante, Nero, Lady). Four if you count the Sparda DT.

I don't agree with calling them lazy. Itsuno and team and Access Games probably did they best with what they could. Remember the original plan was to make Vergil a complete character and Lady and Trish as model swaps of Dante and Nero.

You can definitely see they were being constrained; but the lack of something as simple as coatless costumes is still a little odd - I wouldn't go as far as to say their exclusion is lazy, but it would be a relatively easy thing to implement, considering how small the edits to the model would be. Similarly, palette swaps in the original release of 4 could have helped alleviate its costume variety issues without requiring much asset creation.
 
IMO, devs were lazy with DMC4SE. Maybe not in designing new costumes but stuff like not even adding an option to disable the timer in Bloody Palace or adding a very simple training mode (which is something that Mods have added to PC version years ago) pretty much shows how lazy the devs were in adding anything else besides new characters.

It actually worries me a bit cause something like timer in Bloody Palace is one of the most requested features to be changed and it's really simple to add an option to disable it and after all these years devs have to know how many people want that yet here we are.

Speaking of which has that been listed in the suggestion? Because that has to be one of the most suggested things for a new DMC game, a DMC2 Dante costume option (really all legacy DMC costumes).

There was a suggestion for having lots of costumes and another for adding legacy bosses and weapons but no, there wasn't one that exactly asked for legacy costumes.

They should be able to connect the dots, though.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
An older video posted in this thread also displayed much more skill. Can't remember what page... That was the best Vergil I have seen by far.

I think it was this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbfWY-3EKoE


IMO, devs were lazy with DMC4SE. Maybe not in designing new costumes but stuff like not even adding an option to disable the timer in Bloody Palace or adding a very simple training mode (which is something that Mods have added to PC version years ago) pretty much shows how lazy the devs were in adding anything else besides new characters.

It actually worries me a bit cause something like timer in Bloody Palace is one of the most requested features to be changed and it's really simple to add an option to disable it and after all these years devs have to know how many people want that yet here we are.

As previously mentioned, budget and timing constraints. While I agree that a removal option of the Bloody Palace timer wouldn't have taken a ton of time, it might have probably opened the door to additional bug testing and balancing.

They were spread thin with this release. It wasn't even fully developed in-house. We barely got Trish and Lady as it is. For a company like Capcom, maybe every decision has to go through a committee and budgetary approval. Basically, I wouldn't call the devs lazy for this release. If it wasn't on the initial approved contract with Access, then maybe it couldn't be added. Like with DmC, Itsuno couldn't convince NT to make a taunt after people requested it.

While they didn't add a bunch of modes and features, but they added so much substantial "meat" with the additional characters. Even with recycled movesets, what they managed to put together was impressive given their resources.
 
[As previously mentioned, budget and timing constraints. While I agree that a removal option of the Bloody Palace timer wouldn't have taken a ton of time, it might have probably opened the door to additional bug testing and balancing.

They were spread thin with this release. It wasn't even fully developed in-house. We barely got Trish and Lady as it is. For a company like Capcom, maybe every decision has to go through a committee and budgetary approval. Basically, I wouldn't call the devs lazy for this release. If it wasn't on the initial approved contract with Access, then maybe it couldn't be added. Like with DmC, Itsuno couldn't convince NT to make a taunt after people requested it.

While they didn't add a bunch of modes and features, but they added so much substantial "meat" with the additional characters. Even with recycled movesets, what they managed to put together was impressive given their resources.

I know they had little budget and time but still come on GE, it's just an off option. A single modder can probably do this in less than half an hour, hell even I can do it with certain programs on PC version.

Honestly, there is no excuse for them, even if you say that it wasn't on the contract when they signed it with Access games so they were not able to add it afterwards (which certainly couldn't be the case since they decided to add Trish and Lady later on) it still shows how much they ignored the problems that people had with the game.

Don't get me wrong, they did a hell of a job with new characters especially considering the limitations that they had but the fact that they decided to completely ignore the problems that people had with the game and didn't even try to fix them (even the very small ones like timer in BP) and instead just did their own thing, doesn't sit well with me at all.

Actually, it's something that Itsuno said during one of the DMC4SE streams that has been bothering me all along and makes me worry for the next game. He was asked whether he ever thought about bringing back the bosses and weapons that were cut in the original release with this game and this was his answer:

We had our hands full adding 3 new playable characters to the game basically so if we had any resources available we wanted to use it towards that....

...We are bringing the same game back to you, so we can't just completely remake the content, but we want to use our resources effectively and I think giving you 3 new playable characters, such a wide variety of gameplay, is a better way to do it.

The bold parts do not sit well with me. Yes, characters and combat system are very important when you are making an action title like DMC but that doesn't mean that it would be okay if everything else is awful. And make no mistake, everything else is awful in DMC4. I would much rather have a few other modes like "Boss Rush" or "Training" or a small campaign with new environments and enemies for Vergil than what we have right now with DMC4SE. New characters are fun but not when you don't have any new contents to go along with them. After 7 years I'm sick and tired of the level design and enemies of DMC4 so giving me new characters to play in the same tired levels with the same enemies is not the best choice that you can make when you are releasing a Special Edition.

I'm afraid that after seeing what pro players can do with combo videos Itsuno and the team might have gotten the wrong impression that the majority of fanbase will accept anything as long as you give them good combat system, which is not true at all. If that is indeed how they are reading the situation then I don't think I can have much hope for DMC5.
 

Seyavesh

Member
it still drives me nuts that trish's motion set has all of dante's stuff and vergil's yamato stuff (except DT'd moves + judgement cut end)

like dang, i would've accepted trish as a skinswap of dante if she just got a full on darkslayer yamato+summon sword style!
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I know they had little budget and time but still come on GE, it's just an off option. A single modder can probably do this in less than half an hour, hell even I can do it with certain programs on PC version.

Honestly, there is no excuse for them, even if you say that it wasn't on the contract when they signed it with Access games so they were not able to add it afterwards (which certainly couldn't be the case since they decided to add Trish and Lady later on) it still shows how much they ignored the problems that people had with the game.

Don't get me wrong, they did a hell of a job with new characters especially considering the limitations that they had but the fact that they decided to completely ignore the problems that people had with the game and didn't even try to fix them (even the very small ones like timer in BP) and instead just did their own thing, doesn't sit well with me at all.

Actually, it's something that Itsuno said during one of the DMC4SE streams that has been bothering me all along and makes me worry for the next game. He was asked whether he ever thought about bringing back the bosses and weapons that were cut in the original release with this game and this was his answer:

The bold parts do not sit well with me. Yes, characters and combat system are very important when you are making an action title like DMC but that doesn't mean that it would be okay if everything else is awful. And make no mistake, everything else is awful in DMC4. I would much rather have a few other modes like "Boss Rush" or "Training" or a small campaign with new environments and enemies for Vergil than what we have right now with DMC4SE. New characters are fun but not when you don't have any new contents to go along with them. After 7 years I'm sick and tired of the level design and enemies of DMC4 so giving me new characters to play in the same tired levels with the same enemies is not the best choice that you can make when you are releasing a Special Edition.

I'm afraid that after seeing what pro players can do with combo videos Itsuno and the team might have gotten the wrong impression that the majority of fanbase will accept anything as long as you give them good combat system, which is not true at all. If that is indeed how they are reading the situation then I don't think I can have much hope for DMC5.

Yeah, it's more of an administrative and logistical reason than a excuse. It's the same reason why so many PC releases are featureless. Making new changes opens doors to new potential issues. Something a modder can do in an hour isn't the same thing because the modder has no accountability for the product. The mod that they create is up to user discretion. That said, something like the Bloody Palace timer still shouldn't take a great deal of time, but it all gets lost in the administrative quagmire of corporate approval.

The fact that DmC was created at all shows that Capcom recognizes the pitfalls with DMC4. This was their attempt to broaden audiences, flesh out a story for Westerners, and add elements besides just combat. There's recognition of a certain deficiency, even if their attempt to remediate that deficiency was a fanbase-dividing and potentially series-destroying stain.

As for Itsuno's statement, DMC4SE, at the end of the day, is still DMC4. There's only so much they can do with a limited budget to modify and enhance the existing game, and I'd much rather Itsuno put new ideas and changes in place with DMC5. This was a budget release. $25. Compared to DmCDE at $40. And consider how the additional characters extend the longevity and freshness of the game as opposed to something like REmake HD. I wouldn't take DMC4SE's new modes or features (or lack therof) necessarily as indication of anything on the table for DMC5. I'd mostly look to DMC4SE as potential ideas for characters, movesets, and combat scope... and those are more transferable elements to a future DMC5 than piloting new modes.
 
Yeah, it's more of an administrative and logistical reason than a excuse. It's the same reason why so many PC releases are featureless. Making new changes opens doors to new potential issues. Something a modder can do in an hour isn't the same thing because the modder has no accountability for the product. The mod that they create is up to user discretion. That said, something like the Bloody Palace timer still shouldn't take a great deal of time, but it all gets lost in the administrative quagmire of corporate approval.

The fact that DmC was created at all shows that Capcom recognizes the pitfalls with DMC4. This was their attempt to broaden audiences, flesh out a story for Westerners, and add elements besides just combat. There's recognition of a certain deficiency, even if their attempt to remediate that deficiency was a fanbase-dividing and potentially series-destroying stain.

As for Itsuno's statement, DMC4SE, at the end of the day, is still DMC4. There's only so much they can do with a limited budget to modify and enhance the existing game, and I'd much rather Itsuno put new ideas and changes in place with DMC5. This was a budget release. $25. Compared to DmCDE at $40. And consider how the additional characters extend the longevity and freshness of the game as opposed to something like REmake HD. I wouldn't take DMC4SE's new modes or features (or lack therof) necessarily as indication of anything on the table for DMC5. I'd mostly look to DMC4SE as potential ideas for characters, movesets, and combat scope... and those are more transferable elements to a future DMC5 than piloting new modes.
Your argument about adding new things resulting into unwanted bugs and responsibility for Capcom would've had more weight if we were talking about more advanced stuff that changes more variables like adding a new modifier like Must Style or a new difficulty. But you can't honestly tell me that putting a dummy with no AI and infinite health into one of the BP platforms is one of them. I mean, seriously, what would have been the wost thing that could have happened that made them decide not to add something so simple? There is no balancing involved, there is no AI, no other enemy, it's the same environment, same character, same everything.

I don't wanna over simplify it, I'm sure they still had to code some of these things into the base game and it would have take a bit of time but still saying that they couldn't have done it or it would have created bigger problems just doesn't seem right to me.

That's one way to look at it. When I look at DmC I see Capcom getting greedy after noticing GoW's 5 million numbers and chasing after that money. They went for NT and more cinematic western game because GoW had proven to be more successful financially using those attributes than other Japanese action games like DMC4 and Bayonetta. IMO, it had nothing to do with them realizing a deficiency in their game or wanting to give fans what they wanted. Capcom saw money and went after it, plain and simple. If anything, DmC:DE is NT and Capcom trying to do right by the fans that they completely ignored with original release.

I know SE is still DMC4, I'm not asking them to do a remake, I don't think anyone ever did. But when you are releasing a Special Edition of a flawed game after 7 years people (rightfully) expect you to try and fix some of its flaws. They can't change half of the game and give Dante an entire new campaign, it's okay we understand, but when they don't even attempt to fix much much much simpler problems, that is not understandable no matter how you look at it. It's as if they were completely oblivious to what people disliked about DMC4 in the past 7 years.

What was DMC4's problem?
It had a great combat engine with two awesome characters but with no content to go along with them.

What did fans want and asked for?
Better and richer contents to play these awesome characters with.

What did Itsuno and team added when they had the chance to make a SE version?
More awesome, somewhat fresh characters with zero new contents.

And I get what you are saying that they are testing waters and new ideas with these characters but the same would have applied to new modes. If we had a new training mode in 4SE that only had the bare bones then the chances for having a much more advanced training mode in DMC5 that had command/combo challenges (like in fighting games) would have been much higher. Or we might have gotten newer modes in DMC5 like boss rush and such since they would have already tackled Training mode in 4SE and had the fundamentals ready for DMC5.

tl;dr, I don't like the vibes that I'm getting from 4SE and especially what Itsuno said about it. It seems like they have completely shifted their focus to just make better combat and the content that's suppose to come with it probably won't get as much attention as it needs.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Your argument about adding new things resulting into unwanted bugs and responsibility for Capcom would've had more weight if we were talking about more advanced stuff that changes more variables like adding a new modifier like Must Style or a new difficulty. But you can't honestly tell me that putting a dummy with no AI and infinite health into one of the BP platforms is one of them. I mean, seriously, what would have been the wost thing that could have happened that made them decide not to add something so simple? There is no balancing involved, there is no AI, no other enemy, it's the same environment, same character, same everything.

I don't wanna over simplify it, I'm sure they still had to code some of these things into the base game and it would have take a bit of time but still saying that they couldn't have done it or it would have created bigger problems just doesn't seem right to me.

That's one way to look at it. When I look at DmC I see Capcom getting greedy after noticing GoW's 5 million numbers and chasing after that money. They went for NT and more cinematic western game because GoW had proven to be more successful financially using those attributes than other Japanese action games like DMC4 and Bayonetta. IMO, it had nothing to do with them realizing a deficiency in their game or wanting to give fans what they wanted. Capcom saw money and went after it, plain and simple. If anything, DmC:DE is NT and Capcom trying to do right by the fans that they completely ignored with original release.

I know SE is still DMC4, I'm not asking them to do a remake, I don't think anyone ever did. But when you are releasing a Special Edition of a flawed game after 7 years people (rightfully) expect you to try and fix some of its flaws. They can't change half of the game and give Dante an entire new campaign, it's okay we understand, but when they don't even attempt to fix much much much simpler problems, that is not understandable no matter how you look at it. It's as if they were completely oblivious to what people disliked about DMC4 in the past 7 years.

What was DMC4's problem?
It had a great combat engine with two awesome characters but with no content to go along with them.

What did fans want and asked for?
Better and richer contents to play these awesome characters with.

What did Itsuno and team added when they had the chance to make a SE version?
More awesome, somewhat fresh characters with zero new contents.

And I get what you are saying that they are testing waters and new ideas with these characters but the same would have applied to new modes. If we had a new training mode in 4SE that only had the bare bones then the chances for having a much more advanced training mode in DMC5 that had command/combo challenges (like in fighting games) would have been much higher. Or we might have gotten newer modes in DMC5 like boss rush and such since they would have already tackled Training mode in 4SE and had the fundamentals ready for DMC5.

tl;dr, I don't like the vibes that I'm getting from 4SE and especially what Itsuno said about it. It seems like they have completely shifted their focus to just make better combat and the content that's suppose to come with it probably won't get as much attention as it needs.

I don't have a career in game development, and I certainly don't work for a publisher, so I'm not going to assume anything. But you can make the same argument about adding toggles and features to display modes in a lot of Japanese PC ports. Should they do it? Absolutely. Again, I'm not justifying the lack of options here. I'm saying that this is why it happens. It's not necessarily because of laziness, apathy, or ignorance. Sometimes it's because of the administrative and procedural lag that accompanies working for a large corporation, especially if your pet project isn't the company focus (and a $25 digital re-release isn't).

To me, DmC's origin is a little from column A and a little from column B. I know where you're coming from, but when Capcom tried to capture the GOW audience, why do you think that was? You're right, it was money. But how did they try to get that money? By capitalizing on the story elements and characterization often found in western games like GOW. They recognize that DMC4 was lacking in this, among other things. Whether you look at it from the perspective of greed or from the perspective to trying to better the brand, the end goal is the same - a focus on story and characters to appeal to the casual western demographic. Their failure in this regard in DmC doesn't change the motives behind it.

I personally just think you're reading too much into what DMC4SE stands for. You have a right to feel uneasy about it, but to me DMC4SE just isn't a sign of direction or focus for the series. You mention "But when you are releasing a Special Edition of a flawed game after 7 years people (rightfully) expect you to try and fix some of its flaws" and while I don't entirely disagree, I don't buy that the "after 7 years" somehow means they had time to fix every little overarching issue with the game.

They haven't been working on this thing for 7 years. This is a remastered re-release that was in development for about a year (I was trying to dig up the source of the exact months, but I can't remember it at the moment). 7 years is a long wait for fans to have their next slice of the real DMC, but what really matters is the development time involved.

To me, DMC4SE is a testing ground for combat concepts for DMC5, as well as more of what people loved about DMC4. It would have been amazing if they had completely redone the game, added a ton of modes, and fixed up the general ham-fisted execution of everything not combat in the original release. I'd be an idiot to suggest that'd somehow be a bad thing. But the lack of those things isn't concerning to me as far as the future goes. In fact, them using DMC4SE as an early testing bed opens up their freedom to enhance and develop non-combat elements of DMC5.
 

Dahbomb

Member
What gets me the most with DMC4SE is that they could've EASILY made some balance changes but they chose not to, probably to not piss off some hardcore fans (when they were the ones who wanted some balance changes the most).

Hell there are actually different versions INSIDE DMC4SE... classic and SE balance (there's a code to revert back to classic DMC4 settings). So they could've gone a bit more ambitious with the changes and had the option to go back to classic in case some things didn't fit well with the hardcore fans.

Another thing that worries me about DMC for the future is how a majority of the mechanics/moves they added to the game in SE are designed around large groups of enemies. I really hope DMC5 is not just Sengoku Basara with DMC characters because that would be awful for the series.

I can understand why they didn't add a lot of new content to DMC4SE. It's an old game and one that is unlikely to get a lot of purchases to begin with. It's why it's digital only in US as well. They basically just wanted to remaster it with better visuals of the PC version, features from the PC version (which let's be honest isn't anything new) and Vergil. Itsuno managed to squeeze blood out of a stone by putting in Lady and Trish, he has clearly stated that it wasn't even the original plan to have them be in the game.

And yeah just because SE came out 7 years after 4 doesn't mean it's been worked for that long nor does it mean that the same amount of staff/resources were devoted to it. In fact, if DMC5 is in fact in the works then it means that 4SE and 5 were being worked on concurrently. Would you rather they put more effort in SE or on 5? The answer here is simple to me.
 
I'm not implying that they were working on DMC4SE for 7 years. What I meant with that line was that they had 7 years to realize what were the issues of DMC4 and somehow after all these years they managed to release a Special Edition that doesn't even attempt to fix even a single one of those issues.

So, either one of the higher ups in Capcom was hell bent on making sure that they won't improve upon anything from the original release
(I'm clearly joking here if you couldn't say :) )
or devs just did what they wanted to do without looking or caring (or whatever they were thinking at the time, maybe they were working on DMC5, who knows) at fans feedback. I personally think the latter is true, considering that DmC:DE manages to actually change and fix a lot of the issues of the base game which was in a somewhat similar situation with 4SE. (I know that it had retail release and was $40, but still it was a somewhat budget re-release for the fans)

Anyway, I guess we have to wait and see what happens in the future with DMC5. I personally would love to be proven wrong but I can't shake off this bad feeling until I see it with my own eyes.

Just one thing.
To me, DmC's origin is a little from column A and a little from column B. I know where you're coming from, but when Capcom tried to capture the GOW audience, why do you think that was? You're right, it was money. But how did they try to get that money? By capitalizing on the story elements and characterization often found in western games like GOW. They recognize that DMC4 was lacking in this, among other things. Whether you look at it from the perspective of greed or from the perspective to trying to better the brand, the end goal is the same - a focus on story and characters to appeal to the casual western demographic. Their failure in this regard in DmC doesn't change the motives behind it.
While the goal might have been the same the intent is different and that matters a lot. Cause the message that the failure of DmC sends to Capcom would be quite different depending on what their intentions were for making the game to begin with.
 

Dahbomb

Member
They probably know of the issues but with the budget and time allotted to them they did what they could.

My guess is that they could've probably made a lot of changes with higher budget (like with DmC DE) or hardly any at all with lower budget. Thing is that with a game this old you have a very hardcore following and if you make changes to a very old game then some people always get pissed. "Oh noes my Dante's sword swings 1 frame faster, all the timing on my enemy steps that I have practiced for 7 years have gone to waste!"

It's why when Capcom released 3rd Strike Online they didn't make balance changes when even they know the game has severe balance issues. It's an old game. Sure they added features just like SE added features but they didn't mess with the core game.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I'm not implying that they were working on DMC4SE for 7 years. What I meant with that line was that they had 7 years to realize what were the issues of DMC4 and somehow after all these years they managed to release a Special Edition that doesn't even attempt to fix even a single one of those issues.

So, either one of the higher ups in Capcom was hell bent on making sure that they won't improve upon anything from the original release
(I'm clearly joking here if you couldn't say :) )
or devs just did what they wanted to do without looking or caring (or whatever they were thinking at the time, maybe they were working on DMC5, who knows) at fans feedback. I personally think the latter is true, considering that DmC:DE manages to actually change and fix a lot of the issues of the base game which was in a somewhat similar situation with 4SE. (I know that it had retail release and was $40, but still it was a somewhat budget re-release for the fans)

Anyway, I guess we have to wait and see what happens in the future with DMC5. I personally would love to be proven wrong but I can't shake off this bad feeling until I see it with my own eyes.

Not only have they not been working on the game for 7 years, but they haven't been thinking about it for 7 years either. And with the short window between announcement and release, there wasn't a mass harvesting of fan related requests. The DMC4SE announcement came out of nowhere, and there's always been a barrier of communication between the Japanese teams for feedback from the west. That's part of why I'm hoping that the Wishlist you put together hits home. One of the reasons why DMC3 is so incredible is because of fan feedback. I'm hoping DMC5 is a similar return to form.

There are so many elements of DMC4SE's development that we don't know, so I'm wary of making any assumptions on what the changes or lack of changes means for future titles. Like DahBomb, my biggest concern at this point is that they'll adopt a musou approach to future titles given the crowd control abilities and the hitboxes of the added characters, but just because these characters were tailored for Legendary Dark Knight mode doesn't meant that Legendary Dark Knight mode is going to be the future standard.

Just one thing.

While the goal might have been the same the intent is different and that matters a lot. Cause the message that the failure of DmC sends to Capcom would be quite different depending on what their intentions were for making the game to begin with.

That could be. It's too early to tell. The majority of the complaints about DmC were the execution of the story, characters, and gameplay, not the mere attempt to enhance it in general, but who knows how they'll interpret it. We'll have to see.
 

Seyavesh

Member
in regards to dmc4 encounter design: honestly I think it's really wack. The enemies are way too easy and few in number barring chimeras and blitz who are plain bad to the point of where you just wait to annihilate them the instant they become vulnerable

dmc3 had a real aspect of crowd control that I think was lost in 4. The crowds of enemies weren't LDK huge but they were big enough to feel dangerous and make dante feel really powerful at a basic level due to the fine tuning of his hitboxes and tools for those crowds. that's a huge thing missing in 4 that i think LDK was slightly meant to address, with the mega fucked up hitboxes being designed as an accessibility thing for new players- in the same lieu of how vergils damage is insane
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Happy new year DMCgaf!

Hopefully this is the year of true dreams

Kx2iRj2.gif


Happy new year!


in regards to dmc4 encounter design: honestly I think it's really wack. The enemies are way too easy and few in number barring chimeras and blitz who are plain bad to the point of where you just wait to annihilate them the instant they become vulnerable

dmc3 had a real aspect of crowd control that I think was lost in 4. The crowds of enemies weren't LDK huge but they were big enough to feel dangerous and make dante feel really powerful at a basic level due to the fine tuning of his hitboxes and tools for those crowds. that's a huge thing missing in 4 that i think LDK was slightly meant to address, with the mega fucked up hitboxes being designed as an accessibility thing for new players- in the same lieu of how vergils damage is insane

There weren't as many interesting combinations of enemies, I feel. In DMC3, it wouldn't be uncommon to engage in like 3-4 different types in one room, but you don't get that sense of variety in DMC4. The areas are just more open and larger in 4 as well, which makes the enemy groupings feel smaller.
 
Not only have they not been working on the game for 7 years, but they haven't been thinking about it for 7 years either. And with the short window between announcement and release, there wasn't a mass harvesting of fan related requests. The DMC4SE announcement came out of nowhere, and there's always been a barrier of communication between the Japanese teams for feedback from the west. That's part of why I'm hoping that the Wishlist you put together hits home. One of the reasons why DMC3 is so incredible is because of fan feedback. I'm hoping DMC5 is a similar return to form.

There are so many elements of DMC4SE's development that we don't know, so I'm wary of making any assumptions on what the changes or lack of changes means for future titles. Like DahBomb, my biggest concern at this point is that they'll adopt a musou approach to future titles given the crowd control abilities and the hitboxes of the added characters, but just because these characters were tailored for Legendary Dark Knight mode doesn't meant that Legendary Dark Knight mode is going to be the future standard.
I feel like I need to be really specific with everything that I say, otherwise you guys will interpret my words differently from what I actually wanted to say. I am being too vague or something? Hmm, I don't know

Anyway, yes I know they haven't been thinking about the game for every day of their lives in the past 7 years, but the point is that they still had all those years to gather and listen to feedback from fans. If they haven't then that's really on them for being.... well, lazy. And I don't think game development works that way GE. 4SE came across as a surprise to us but devs surly knew about it many months in advance so they had time to gather the feedback even if they somehow managed to avoid them in the past few years after DMC4's initial release.

But yes, after feeling underwhelmed with 4SE I thought it's time to make sure that devs know what we want and thanks to you guys we managed to come up with a really good list of suggestions. So, hopefully that'll give the devs some ideas for future DMC titles.

Actually I don't think you need to worry about hitboxes very much. I don't have the exact quote but I'm pretty sure someone asked Itsuno about it and he said that they needed to do that for LDK mode to make it balanced in this game, which pretty much means that it wouldn't be like this in future titles.

They probably know of the issues but with the budget and time allotted to them they did what they could.
Which was absolutely nothing. You see that's my problem with what they did with 4SE. They added more to the combat when the original game had no problem in that area but left every other actual issue of the game untouched.

Couple that with what Itsuno said, I find it worrying that they might think it would be okay to give us another DMC4 (content wise) as long as the combat design is solid. While GE thinks that the content (or the lack of it) in 4SE won't necessarily be an indication of what we see in the future titles in series.

Personally, I hope that I'm wrong and GE is right, but we have to wait and see.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Lady and Trish were beyond what was intended for DMC4SE initially but Itsuno squeezed it out.

Basically DMC4SE was to ship with JUST Vergil and that's it. Anything extra is Itsuno squeezing blood out of a stone. He somehow convinced the team to get in Lady/Trish. That's why they feel like a rehash of moves but he still managed to make them decent characters.

Honestly if I were the guy in charge of the DMC dev team (overseeing even Itsuno) and I was given a very tight ass budget to work on both DMC4SE and DMC5... you bet your CANDY ASS I would devote almost all resources on DMC5. That's the point I am trying to make.

Of course I am far less critical on DMC4SE than I should be. From my perspective, a lot of the changes the game needed required a lot of work... work that is better off being used for DMC5.

Like for example... sure they could've made brand new bosses for Dante's campaign (like Pandorra, Lucifer, Gilgamesh bosses with those names as rumored to be initially)... but that's 3 new bosses they can ALSO put in DMC5 with more resources put into them plus better assets. Sure they can give Nero more weapons... but they can give him those weapons in DMC5 as well (and likely to be more fleshed out).

In the end you have to ask yourself what would Capcom even accomplish making DMC4 better? They wouldn't really receive all that many sales as it's a very old game. Everyone knows the story, characters and base combat mechanics... some extra content wasn't going to sway a lot of people. And if making DMC4 better comes at the cost of making DMC5 worse... well then that to me makes the choice very simple.


Itsuno is a god tier director that has sadly been shafted a ton by being given very little time and budget on his games. If they gave him as much free reign as they did Mikami for RE4... then Itsuno could make a true GOAT caliber game. DMC3 and Dragon's Dogma as great as they are were made with constricted budget and time. DD had a big budget by Capcom standards but even then you could tell it wasn't quite enough to reach his ambition. I just hope Capcom gives him a decent sized budget for DMC5 and there's no other side guy trying to overwrite his decisions *cough* Kobayashi *cough*.
 
Okay, so then let me ask you guys this. Which one would you prefer?

A) DMC5 with one or two fleshed out characters that have their own unique styles and weapons with a long varied campaign and tons of different contents (Training, Boss rush, mission mode, costumes, unlockable weapons, etc etc)

B) DMC5 with 5 or more different characters each with their own unique combat style and weapons but with a somewhat disappointing campaign and not many side contents (one or two costumes and maybe a Bloody Palace mode)

In short I'm asking you to choose between a better version of overall package of DMC3 or a better version of all five characters in DMC4SE.

Actually let's make a thread about it and ask other DMC-Gaffers as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=190952292

PS: Happy new year, guys.
 

Crumbtiny

Member
Having not played any of these games in years, I'm eyeing the DMCSE holiday bundle on Xbox (DMC and DMC4SE). People have mentioned 3 as the pinnacle of the series so I'm considering picking up the HD collection as well.

That covers pretty much everything right? Not sure if I'll retread the first two. But playing 3, 4 and the newest one (which I never picked up) sounds fun.

Gotta love the ever growing, never slowing backlog. Maybe that should be a 2016 resolution lol.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Okay, so then let me ask you guys this. Which one would you prefer?

A) DMC5 with one or two fleshed out characters that have their own unique styles and weapons with a long varied campaign and tons of different contents (Training, Boss rush, mission mode, costumes, unlockable weapons, etc etc)

B) DMC5 with 5 or more different characters each with their own unique combat style and weapons but with a somewhat disappointing campaign and not many side contents (one or two costumes and maybe a Bloody Palace mode)

In short I'm asking you to choose between a better version of overall package of DMC3 or a better version of all five characters in DMC4SE.

Actually let's make a thread about it and ask other DMC-Gaffers as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=190952292

PS: Happy new year, guys.
The way you phrased this, hardly anyone is going to pick option B

It's more characters vs more levels, more bosses, more weapons per character, more moves per character, more modes, more costumes

It's a stacked question.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I also don't think any of our prior discussions suggested that Option B was preferable to Option A. It's kind of a separate question entirely. All of us recognize the flaws in DMC4, and the great majority of folks prefer DMC3 overall.


Having not played any of these games in years, I'm eyeing the DMCSE holiday bundle on Xbox (DMC and DMC4SE). People have mentioned 3 as the pinnacle of the series so I'm considering picking up the HD collection as well.

That covers pretty much everything right? Not sure if I'll retread the first too. But playing 3, 4 and the newest one (which I never picked up) sounds fun.

Gotta love the ever growing, never slowing back log. Maybe that should be a 2016 resolution lol.

That's a great choice! You should be all set with the holiday bundle + HD Collection. That's the entire series at your disposal.

And if you do decide to start them, feel free to pop in and let us know how it's going. There are some beginner tips that can really enhance your experience.
 
I also don't think any of our prior discussions suggested that Option B was preferable to Option A. It's kind of a separate question entirely. All of us recognize the flaws in DMC4, and the great majority of folks prefer DMC3 overall.
The way you phrased this, hardly anyone is going to pick option B

It's more characters vs more levels, more bosses, more weapons per character, more moves per character, more modes, more costumes

It's a stacked question.

It's a question about future of the series and what route devs should take. I wanna know how many people would actually prefer more characters to more content which is something that devs thought would be the thing that people want to see in DMC4SE.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
It's a question about future of the series and what route devs should take. I wanna know how many people would actually prefer more characters to more content which is something that devs thought would be the thing that people want to see in DMC4SE.

The devs didn't think "it's either content or characters, and we know our fans want characters." The fact is you can't fix DMC4's glaring weaknesses on a shoestring budget. It's just not possible. Removing a Bloody Palace timer doesn't "fix" DMC4. There are inherent core issues with the pacing and structure that would have to be completely overhauled, and it's more work than a remaster could accomplish. This is what Itsuno meant in that quote you posted earlier.

We are bringing the same game back to you, so we can't just completely remake the content

Your question doesn't really touch upon this. A more accurate question would be "In a remaster, would you rather have additional characters or additional modes?" Because your question frames it that the campaign would be changed substantially, which wouldn't have been possible given the time that we know they had.

And even then, projecting it onto the future of the series is a huge assumption.
 

Dahbomb

Member
It's a question about future of the series and what route devs should take. I wanna know how many people would actually prefer more characters to more content which is something that devs thought would be the thing that people want to see in DMC4SE.
New content was never on the table for DMC4SE, you still aren't getting that.

It's not like they chose to include Lady/Trish over adding other new content. It was either Lady/Trish or no Lady/Trish. There was no trade off made here.

Basically we were getting half a burger (the campaign) and a side of fries (Vergil) with DMC4SE. Itsuno decided to give us ketchup for free (Lady/Trish). The ketchup was NOT a substitute for the other half of the burger, we were never meant to get that other half of the burger.

It's difficult to understand but when you put yourself in Capcom's shoes and start to look at it from a business angle it would make more sense.
 
The devs didn't think "it's either content or characters, and we know our fans want characters." The fact is you can't fix DMC4's glaring weaknesses on a shoestring budget. It's just not possible. Removing a Bloody Palace timer doesn't "fix" DMC4. There are inherent core issues with the pacing and structure that would have to be completely overhauled, and it's more work than a remaster could accomplish. This is what Itsuno meant in that quote you posted earlier.

Your question doesn't really touch upon this. A more accurate question would be "In a remaster, would you rather have additional characters or additional modes?" Because your question frames it that the campaign would be changed substantially, which wouldn't have been possible given the time that we know they had.

And even then, projecting it onto the future of the series is a huge assumption.
I know you can't fix the game without completely remaking it but there are certain things that you can improve on if you decide to assign some of your resources and time on it and if you do that the game might become much more enjoyable or have more replay value. Like removing the Red Orb requirement from the ranking system at the end of the missions or adding a new Training mode or Boss Rush mode which gives you new ways to try and play around the characters. PC players might already have access to these things but it doesn't change the fact that you are screwed if you play the game on consoles which means your only way to practice or try new things is to go through the tired levels over and over again.

But it doesn't really need to touch upon that since I'm not asking about 4SE anymore. I wanna know if the fans would be okay with team going forward with that mindset. It's clearly an assumption on my part which hopefully will be proven wrong when they finally announce DMC5.
New content was never on the table for DMC4SE, you still aren't getting that.

It's not like they chose to include Lady/Trish over adding other new content. It was either Lady/Trish or no Lady/Trish. There was no trade off made here.

Basically we were getting half a burger (the campaign) and a side of fries (Vergil) with DMC4SE. Itsuno decided to give us ketchup for free (Lady/Trish). The ketchup was NOT a substitute for the other half of the burger, we were never meant to get that other half of the burger.

It's difficult to understand but when you put yourself in Capcom's shoes and start to look at it from a business angle it would make more sense.
None of us were part of the development team so we don't know that for sure. The truth is that they had X amount of time and X amount of resources and they decided to spend some of them on Lady and Trish. They didn't appear out of thin air, clearly some budget and time were spent on them, time and budget which could have been spent on other things like fixing few of the issues of the game.

Now, I'm not saying that if they hadn't include Lady and Trish in the game then we would definitely have new modes and other contents, they easily could have spend those resources on Vergil's combat and polish him up more without adding anything else to the game. So, there is that.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Itsuno basically stated in the interview was to make DMC4SE just with Vergil like DMC3SE. Late into the development they decided to add in Lady/Trish. It's also pretty obvious when Vergil clearly has a lot of new animations and even mechanics whereas Trish and Lady are made mostly of reused assets.

Yeah they could've added some new modes like GMD and Must Style instead of Lady/Trish but IMO Lady/Trish give the game more character (no pun intended). The characters are also very beginner friendly so they can mash some buttons and feel good with them. Plus of course gender diversity.


The question that could be asked is what could they have instead of the two characters that would've been a better addition? Maybe two more bosses for Dante's campaign but more than likely those bosses will be reused assets of existing enemies/bosses. So it would've just given more of a cheap feel to the campaign. They could've added two new weapons for Nero. Again those would probably have reused assets as well.

Neither of these options bring in more people. It's easier to market new characters than new bosses/weapons. So it was the maximum they could've done with that small extra resource.
 

Sesha

Member
It's ultimately a question of budget vs. profit. When it comes to 4SE, three new characters are more likely to generate interest from both old and new players than a couple of additional modes and costumes.

It's possible they had initially allotted time and resources towards modes and costumes that they spent on making Lady and Trish full characters instead. Itsuno's wording when he mentioned they'd planned Trish and Lady as costumes suggests maybe they had planned additional costumes for Dante, Nero and Vergil.

Oh, and happy new year!
 
Itsuno basically stated in the interview was to make DMC4SE just with Vergil like DMC3SE. Late into the development they decided to add in Lady/Trish. It's also pretty obvious when Vergil clearly has a lot of new animations and even mechanics whereas Trish and Lady are made mostly of reused assets.

Yeah they could've added some new modes like GMD and Must Style instead of Lady/Trish but IMO Lady/Trish give the game more character (no pun intended). The characters are also very beginner friendly so they can mash some buttons and feel good with them. Plus of course gender diversity.


The question that could be asked is what could they have instead of the two characters that would've been a better addition? Maybe two more bosses for Dante's campaign but more than likely those bosses will be reused assets of existing enemies/bosses. So it would've just given more of a cheap feel to the campaign. They could've added two new weapons for Nero. Again those would probably have reused assets as well.

Neither of these options bring in more people. It's easier to market new characters than new bosses/weapons. So it was the maximum they could've done with that small extra resource.
Fair enough.
 

Dahbomb

Member
If I get a sniff of Capcom skimping out on DMC5 content the pop off would be legendary.

Of course this stuff is impossible to know in advance.

And after the initial hype-gasm of DMC5 the analysis will be very critical. Everything will be called out. There will be no "but it's still being worked on excuse". I am talking microscope lense analysis, frame by frame shit.

I feel like I have been accurate on my analysis thus far on DMC stuff related.
 

Sesha

Member
I'm pretty sure they know they can't fuck up like they did with 4. I'm sure the jump to HD, being one of the first games developed on MT Framework, and developing for PS3 caused made things a lot more difficult. In addition to the team being supposedly tired of DMC at the time.

But what's really uncertain is the stuff the majority of people won't care about, but we will. How the style system works, whether or not stuff like inertia is present, enemy design/AI, the campaign structure, additional modes/features that we expect (like Boss Rush, features from DMC3 and DmC we'd like to see return), etc.
 

Dahbomb

Member
I don't think GMD would have been too hard to add...
Neither would a training room, boss rush modr or Must Style mode.

My far off theory is that they might hold off on these feature to hype them in DMC5.

On GMD I think they need to constrict the difficulties. GMD exists because DMD isn't hard enough. Starting difficulties should be the standard E/N/H followed by SoS and DMD but SoS should be like DMD and DMD should be like GMD.

The name doesn't matter, it's about the scaling. And let us unlock all modes after beating game once. None of this going through difficulties so many times.
 
Top Bottom