Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Concerning Devil May Cry 4

Dear Capcom,

Thank you for Devil May Cry 4. Having now put sixty hours of play into the game in question, and having beaten every difficulty setting save for Dante Must Die and Hell or Hell, I can say with some certainty that it's very nearly everything I could have hoped for. I forgive you for re-using level geometry, since I know current generation games require truly ridiculous amounts of art assets. The strength of the game has always been in the combat, and you delivered on that.

I don't quite forgive you for the dice game, but I won't speak of it at the moment. There is one complaint I do, indeed, wish to speak of, however.

I know it's coming up to time for the super-duper bargain-priced re-issue edition, probably within a year or so of now. You did it for Devil May Cry 3, I see no reason to suspect you won't do it for Devil May Cry 4. DMC3's special edition included a new character with a new combat style. When you re-release DMC4, please address the following problem:

Dante's gameplay is ass.

Sorry, but it needs to be said. I'm sure a direct lift of DMC3's controls seemed like a good idea at some point along the way. However, there are only so many times I can attempt to switch to trickster style in order to teleport next to a far away enemy, throw the enemy into the air with Rebellion (holding the button down to follow it), switch to swordmaster to do three hits from the four-hit swordmaster air combo, then switch to dark slayer style to perform its two-hit air combo, switch to gunslinger in time to land in order to use Coyote-E's fireworks maneuver to clear away any nearby enemies, and then switch back to trickster to do it all over again with another foe, only to have some part of this process disrupted by a crappy D-pad switching me to royalguard instead of swordmaster or gunslinger, or to gunslinger or swordmaster instead of trickster, before I grow tired of the process.

Playing as Nero is much more satisfying.

When you re-release DMC4, please enable the following control scheme for Dante:

Right Analog: Camera
Right Analog (click): Center Camera
Left Analog: Movement
A Button: Jump
B Button: Trickster Maneuver
X Button: Gun
Y Button: Devil Arm
Left Bumper: Devil Trigger
Right Bumper: Lock-On
Right Trigger: Royalguard Maneuver
Left Trigger + B Button: Dark Slayer Maneuver
Left Trigger + X Buton: Gunslinger Maneuver
Left Trigger + Y Button: Swordmaster Maneuver
D-Pad Up: Next Gun
D-Pad Down: Previous Gun
D-Pad Left: Next Devil Arm
D-Pad Right: Pevious Devil Arm
Start: Pause
Back: Taunt

Got it?

Good. I'm glad we understand each other, Capcom.