In the previous DMC series, Dante has always been our silver-haired protagonist in his familiar red trench coat. And that was cool. He was a pretty kick-ass guy. Now, Capcom/ Ninja Theory turned a complete 180.
Our new ‘Dante’ (we’ll call him Dante-X) is a scrawny, dark-haired teenager who is believed to be the ‘rebooted’ version of Dante. Why the change? Well, let’s take a look:
At the end of the DMC 4 era, don’t remember when…, DMC 5 was announced to be more “Westernized to better suit American and British style games”. Apparently, we all took that the wrong way.
We thought: fighting style!
They thought: game design!
The DMC series is known for its hack-and-slash/ combo game play which is unique to the series. No way were they going to get rid of that. However, nobody was prepared for this entire makeover.
With the arrival of the new DMC game trailer, many fans went “NEDNQ!!@#T# r#vb^@!!!”, am I right? (raise your hand, you know you did.)
When I first saw this trailer, I did (almost) the same thing. “What the hell? Where’s Dante??” However, my brother also watched it (he’s not a big DMC fan), and his reaction was, “Whoa, awesome game! When does it come out?” That reaction triggered something in my mind. I believe it was Capcom’s idea to attract a new generation and wider range of gamers. Now honestly, picture yourself as a 13-year boy. Which game would you play: the one with the Abercrombie model or the grungy rebel?
That’s not the only reason, however.but I have noticed a lot of repetition in the games. Throughout the series, Dante has “been there, done that”, so to speak. He has faced pretty much every enemy in the Underworld. Now, Dante-X comes along; New character, new story, perhaps some tie-ins to the original series? It pushes the original fans’ to wonder what the hell happened, so much that it makes them hate our new character. People do NOT like immediate, unplanned change. Has no one paid attention in history class?
So, my opinions about Dante-X has changed over the past 100 times viewing the trailer, squeezing every bit of information out of the trailer that anyone is humanly possible to do. Now, I’m not so critical about him.
Time for your part in this!! I want you to go watch the trailer right now, except don’t think of it as a DMC game.
So you did? Isn’t it scary-close to another action/adventure game like, say Prototype, or Dark Sector, or something like that? In my opinion, I think this is what they were aiming for in their reboot. Something not so…Devil May Cry.
I’m sure Capcom was aware that the fans loved Dante, his style, his character, his everything. And then they change it all.Many want to assume that this is a much younger version of Dante (before DMC 3). I think otherwise. I mean, wouldn’t he still have the white hair and blue eyes? In the trailer, he clearly has red eyes and brown/ black hair. I’ve noticed too that their faces are different (could just be Dante-X’s malnutrition though; I mean, he is kind of a toothpick). Wait…correction. In the beginning of the trailer, it looks like Dante-X has those icy-blue eyes. Go look for yourself. I could just be imagining things, though.
However, I have a theory completely different to that. What if, hypothetically, Dante-X was somehow haunted or possessed by Dante? What if this was some average kid that gained these abilities from a demon (Dante) that overtook his mind? Think about it; the insane asylum, the brain scans, the part where he screams, all in the trailer. When you think about it (as a DMC fan), it all makes a little more sense. However, it becomes that much more of a sci-fi game rather than a fantasy genre.
Overall, I cannot say whether I hate the game or love the game.Even if it isn’t a very accurate DMC game, it’s (most likely) still a good action game with good graphics and such. It’s a win-win for fans that play the games for fun.
On the other hand, I can sense many “hardcore” DMC fans that are not and may not warm up to the reboot. All I want to say is that you ask yourself, “What more could I possibly get out of another 5 hours with Dante/ Vergil/ Nero?”
Perhaps the reboot is for the better. Perhaps Devil May Cry will crash and burn
