I was looking at the recent Capcom Steam Sales, and I saw Devil May Cry 4 for quite cheap, and I realized I never actually played it before. I remember reviews at the time being quite unenthusiastic about it, so I ended up skipping it and then promptly forgetting that it ever existed, as just a year later Bayonetta would pretty much re-invent the genre. But like, I don't have anything better to do nowadays, so I figured I might as well give it a go.
1. It really annoys me that the only version of the game readily available digitally is the "Special Edition". Especially because apparently the original version had some pretty significant differences in the combat, and it is now extremely difficult to find any information about such differences, as they don't seem to be accurately documented anywhere. The original version of the game only existed physically as far as I can tell (or at least has eventually been delisted from consoles' digital stores), so, like, this kinda sucks. Like I get that most people would almost always want to play the "better" version, but like, I dunno, shit like this always feels like history is being eroded away.
2. Talking about history, this game is positioned in a very interesting place in time. As mentioned, Bayonetta will be released about a year after DMC4, and it will rejuvenate the genre by cutting out all of the vestigial remnants of Resident Evil-like horror-adventure that it was still carrying, coining the signature Platinum Games-style which focused on faster-paced cinematic-adjacent setpieces. At the same time by 2008, the fixed-camera adventure style of Resident Evil games was long gone, replaced by on-rail shooter spinoffs and whatever Resident Evil 5 ended up being. So... the fact that DMC4 released Before the genre was stripped of its Resident Evil-elements, still proudly carrying along clunky puzzles and gothic locales explored through a (mostly) fixed camera, makes it, in a way, the closer thing that we ever had to a new old-style Resident Evil on HD consoles. I mean, it's still very much an action game for most of its length, and those elements are relatively minor (especially when compared with the first Devil May Cry), but still, sometimes, when the pace slows down and it's kinda confusing to figure out where to go next, it definitely gives some unique and fascinating anachronistic vibes.
3. I know at the time people were annoyed by the game introducing a new main character, but Nero is honestly very fun. I think they should release a Super Special edition where Simple Plan's "I'm Just a Kid" starts playing whenever something bad happens to him. He's such a loser and I love him.
4. Nero plays pretty well too. The buster grapples definitely feel like a concession to the more mainstream/less technical/more cinematic wave of action games like God of War and Heavenly Sword, and I could take it or leave it; but on the other hand, the Snatch ability feels great and speeds up the pace of combat a lot and his combos are different enough from Dante's that yeah, he's just pretty fun to play.
5. I have not played DMC5 yet, but so far DMC4 has hands down the best writing for Dante in the series. I'm So here for goofy aged-up Dante. I like how as the game opens they make him look like this brooding dangerous threat, and then as soon as you get to his half of the game he's just doing silly shit. Each of his cutscenes is a delight.
6. Look, as mentioned, it's hilarious when Nero gets his ass kicked. But if I win a boss fight he should not be then get his ass kicked in the next cutscene! That's against the rules! There's ways around it!
7. I have zero idea what was The Order's actual plan. But that's ok. I'm pretty sure the writer didn't know either.
8. Look I get that this game notoriously had a mildly troubled development and is generally considered "incomplete", but like, I dunno, I feel like they actually did an excellent job wrapping it with the resources they had. Like, yeah, there are some repeated enemy models, but the "powered-up" enemies always have enough interesting new attacks to make them a very different challenge from their alternate type. And yeah, all of Dante's levels use the same environments as Nero's one, but they also feature some great economic level design that makes them feel snappier, faster (playing into the theme of Dante being mostly above all this shit at this point), and generally different. Like yeah, they probably ran out of resources, but they also did a great job in using, and recontextualizing, what they had to finish up the game. So like, I think that's neat.
But yeah, I enjoyed this. It's a silly action game with some extremely fun combat, from the weird in-between era of video games, also known as 2005-2013. Like, it's no Bayonetta, but not many things are. It's pretty ok, solidly ok even, the Itadaki Street Boss Rush was super ass, I had fun, the end.
1. It really annoys me that the only version of the game readily available digitally is the "Special Edition". Especially because apparently the original version had some pretty significant differences in the combat, and it is now extremely difficult to find any information about such differences, as they don't seem to be accurately documented anywhere. The original version of the game only existed physically as far as I can tell (or at least has eventually been delisted from consoles' digital stores), so, like, this kinda sucks. Like I get that most people would almost always want to play the "better" version, but like, I dunno, shit like this always feels like history is being eroded away.
2. Talking about history, this game is positioned in a very interesting place in time. As mentioned, Bayonetta will be released about a year after DMC4, and it will rejuvenate the genre by cutting out all of the vestigial remnants of Resident Evil-like horror-adventure that it was still carrying, coining the signature Platinum Games-style which focused on faster-paced cinematic-adjacent setpieces. At the same time by 2008, the fixed-camera adventure style of Resident Evil games was long gone, replaced by on-rail shooter spinoffs and whatever Resident Evil 5 ended up being. So... the fact that DMC4 released Before the genre was stripped of its Resident Evil-elements, still proudly carrying along clunky puzzles and gothic locales explored through a (mostly) fixed camera, makes it, in a way, the closer thing that we ever had to a new old-style Resident Evil on HD consoles. I mean, it's still very much an action game for most of its length, and those elements are relatively minor (especially when compared with the first Devil May Cry), but still, sometimes, when the pace slows down and it's kinda confusing to figure out where to go next, it definitely gives some unique and fascinating anachronistic vibes.
3. I know at the time people were annoyed by the game introducing a new main character, but Nero is honestly very fun. I think they should release a Super Special edition where Simple Plan's "I'm Just a Kid" starts playing whenever something bad happens to him. He's such a loser and I love him.
4. Nero plays pretty well too. The buster grapples definitely feel like a concession to the more mainstream/less technical/more cinematic wave of action games like God of War and Heavenly Sword, and I could take it or leave it; but on the other hand, the Snatch ability feels great and speeds up the pace of combat a lot and his combos are different enough from Dante's that yeah, he's just pretty fun to play.
5. I have not played DMC5 yet, but so far DMC4 has hands down the best writing for Dante in the series. I'm So here for goofy aged-up Dante. I like how as the game opens they make him look like this brooding dangerous threat, and then as soon as you get to his half of the game he's just doing silly shit. Each of his cutscenes is a delight.
6. Look, as mentioned, it's hilarious when Nero gets his ass kicked. But if I win a boss fight he should not be then get his ass kicked in the next cutscene! That's against the rules! There's ways around it!
7. I have zero idea what was The Order's actual plan. But that's ok. I'm pretty sure the writer didn't know either.
8. Look I get that this game notoriously had a mildly troubled development and is generally considered "incomplete", but like, I dunno, I feel like they actually did an excellent job wrapping it with the resources they had. Like, yeah, there are some repeated enemy models, but the "powered-up" enemies always have enough interesting new attacks to make them a very different challenge from their alternate type. And yeah, all of Dante's levels use the same environments as Nero's one, but they also feature some great economic level design that makes them feel snappier, faster (playing into the theme of Dante being mostly above all this shit at this point), and generally different. Like yeah, they probably ran out of resources, but they also did a great job in using, and recontextualizing, what they had to finish up the game. So like, I think that's neat.
But yeah, I enjoyed this. It's a silly action game with some extremely fun combat, from the weird in-between era of video games, also known as 2005-2013. Like, it's no Bayonetta, but not many things are. It's pretty ok, solidly ok even, the Itadaki Street Boss Rush was super ass, I had fun, the end.