Without Itsuno

 

When legendary developers fade from our studios it is often usually the end of a run we're not going to see again for quite a while. When Hideo Kojima left Konami that was pretty much the end of thier relevancy as a game developer- they've not even managed to scratch the AAA world since despite recent attempts- but hey, I guess they're happy serving slop up to their audience of awaiting guppy fish. When Shinji Makami left Tangoworks, he did so under the force belief that if they just kept making award winning games then someone would want to keep them around- obviously they ended up being shut down in the next year and had to be bailed out in a temporary resurrection we can only hope sticks. (Bailed out of a shutdown? Huh, I guess that means someone found the award winning studio worthwhile. How bizarre.) And now that Hideaki Itsuno has left Capcom- what does that mean for the franchises he left behind?

Itsuno's legend began a little bit into his career when the man was brought on as a 'reorganiser' to a failing project that was spiralling down a pit. The horrifically disastrous Devil May Cry 2 was being helmed by a figure purposefully hidden to history because the mess they were making of the project was that bad all have stricken their name from the books. Devil May Cry 2 was apparently on a nose dive and with the hard work of Itsuno in refocusing the project the team managed to squeeze out something that could actually be released in the public- but if you've ever actually sat down and played the thing you'll know that's small praise. A largely gutted charm and wit, distinctly missing stylistic flair of the original, thoughtless level design, unambitious combat improvement, (or, more appropriately, regressions) laughably ill-conceived bosses- yet also the only actually worthwhile secondary campaign in the franchise. It wasn't something worth resting your cap on. And Itsuno agreed.

What happened next could only have been the result of someone with a fire lit under them, because the absolute heel turn from Devil May Cry 2 to 3 is a mind-blowing achievement. When I did my playthrough of the franchise recently, even all this years removed from the original environment and release dates, I could feel that Devil May Cry 3 was something special without any context. Combat wasn't just revived, it was rewritten- they created the style-based combat the franchise has been known for ever since. Dante and his brother Neo-Angelo/Vergil got their souls this game. The supporting cast stood out proud with great moments and designs so good we're still comparing modern Lady redesigns to her original. The game was challenging, the bosses were impressive and memorable, the title was a powerhouse- plain and simple. And Itsuno established himself as a director with a mark to leave.

He may not have birthed the series himself but Itsuno would go on to help define Devil May Cry over the years with the honestly under-appreciated Devil May Cry 4- which refined a lot of what 3 was doing into an actual half-decent evolving narrative, the heavily critiqued DMC, which is the only game I haven't had the pleasure of in the franchise so far, and my favourite of the franchise- Devil May Cry 5- the absolute pinnacle of this genre of games, a master in every facet. All with Itsuno either in the director's chair or on as a supervisor. If the man was so eager to rewrite history so he wouldn't go down as the cause of Devil May Cry 2- he ended up going above and beyond in his role. But what if I told you the reason I lauded the man's work had nothing to do with any of that?

You see, a while ago there a little Fantasy title that dropped off the face of the earth for being released at the same time as Skyrim- the single biggest fantasy game of that console generation. This title was not as big as Skyrim, nor as immersive, nor as pretty. But do you know what Dragon's Dogma of that age did well? God it was charming. And unique. Dragon's Dogma was an action adventure hack-n-slash brimming with identity and purpose in the robust grapple and climb mechanic to the cleverly designed and dynamic boss enemies- I could go on about my love for Dragon's Dogma until the cows come how- and how severely underappreciated it was by the public! 

Itsuno similarly agreed that the game never got it's flowers from the public and spent a decade trying to give it another go around. In that time we'd forever hear allusions to a potential sequel, got a middling Anime to tide us over and had to endure China bragging about their country only MMO version of the game. Only now, in the year of our lord 2024, was Dragon's Dogma 2 finally given the greenlight to release and it finally introduced the world to a game unlike what they expected. A creativity machines begging it's audience to play around, just like the modern combat for the Devil May Cry franchise. And whilst I have my issues with it, I would love to see more content come to DD2 to push it ever further beyond! But now, I'm not sure that's ever going to happen.

Like a spirit hanging around past it's due it would seem that Itsuno was just hanging around Capcom in the hopes of getting Dragon's Dogma out the door and now that's done- so is he. Itsuno has left the company behind and in doing so robbed Capcom of their strongest talent- in the shaky hope that those left behind will be capable in his absence. But so far? All I know of non-Itusno products is the absolute mess that was made out of the non-chinese release of the Devil May Cry Mobile game- a once exciting little product in it's own right. And Dragon's Dogma? I'm afraid to see that delicately balanced little swansong dragged off a cliff by weak directors manhandled under dumb executives.

Capcom aren't going to drown, they'll always have Sonic. But my reasons for still keeping up what the blue studio was up to? Yeah that was pretty much exclusively caught up in the many machinations of this one creative powerhouse. Truly the company isn't going to be the same and the legacy he leaves could be in shaky hands. Dragon's Dogma 2 pleads for more content but do I really want a DLC that Itsuno didn't work on? Do I want more Devil May Cry games that he didn't work on? We kind of starting from scratch in the trust department and that's always the sad part of departures like this. I just hope the man is proud of himself.

Jackpot!!!

 Can't believe I said it...

Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition Review

 Time to wake up, you're missing all the fun!

Finally we come onto the Devil May Cry game which stood as fan's sole bastion for the many year span between 2008 and 2019; their only satiation to that thirst for DMC goodness which afflicts them all. Because no other game or Devil May Cry property was released within that gap and that's exactly the story I'm sticking to so I can wrap up this franchise retrospective within an orderly time frame- we all cool with that? Cool. Then let's talk about the second game to land during the point at which this franchise really developed it's personality. Not that the original DMC was itself a bad title, mind you- it's just one of those games that doesn't quite shake hands with the characters and stories that the franchise tells today, and after finishing 4 I can categorise that as a good thing. I quite prefer the Dante of today to the Dante of the distant past.

But before we get into specifics let's talk a little bit about the overall game, from a development process level. (We always seem to touch on that in these reviews, don't we?) So it would seem that with the release of Devil May Cry 5, Itsuno unsealed some old wounds to talk about issues that befell 4- most prominently being a lack of funding. Despite being a sequel, and thus presumably being more ambitious, Devil May Cry 4 was apparently afforded roughly the same budget as 3 was, which led to a scrapping of planned scope during the development stage. Essentially that meant the team ended up creating the first half of the game in the way that they wanted and then had to dig around reusing assets and levels to make up the second half of the game- which is probably why you end up fighting most every one of the major bosses three times throughout the game, including in the boss rush level. 

Circumstances being what they are is ephemeral to the raw matter of the game itself, however, so let's focus on the specifics of what Devil May Cry 4 actually ended up as and see the issues from there. Firstly, I feel it's important to note that this is easily the smoothest feeling Devil May Cry game I've played to date on a gameplay level. From the fluidness of the animation to the way that each character has their entire movesets scrunched up into one controller, meaning there's no more need to go digging through menus in order to swap up and re-equip the things that you want. Even Dante's styles have gone the Yakuza route and can be switched to in an instant via the face buttons. I makes the gameplay feel fluid and opens up the range of possibility in each combat encounter, but it does come with the cost of a very slight pull back on individual complexity. Some weapons don't quite feel like they're designed to be stand-alone anymore, and the styles carry over the main features they had in 3, but with a little less of the extra punch that made them solo-friendly. It's an infinitesimal drawback in the grand scheme.

In many ways I really like the condensing down of everything into one hand, as it allows the player to switch off their mind from all the styles of play they aren't currently engaging with and just flow with the moment. Those moments when you're juggling an enemy with Swordmaster and then switch to Gunslinger quickly to pepper the surroundings with a quick shotgun blast and quickly dip back before your original target can recover, are what stories are made of. Nero, on the otherhand, feels strangely static by comparison, but his moveset is just about stacked enough to be okay to a blanket degree against every possible threat. His Buster Arm in particular is a wonderfully cool little addition, allowing the player to pull enemies around the battlefield and smash them for heavy damage. Nero can even pull off special grapple set-piece attacks on bosses during their vulnerable stages, which just lends to the bombastic action of the big fights.  Honestly, it's a toss-up of whether I like this or DMC 3 more... until I remember the painful buster arm platforming sections. Definitely 3.

Devil Trigger has gone through another reworking this game around, and now has regained a scant few of the special moves we used to enjoy in our winged forms. (No flying though. DMC 2 killed that dream for good, it would seem.) This time around the regen of Devil Trigger is actually alright, not overpowered but not painfully nerfed either, it just takes a while to warm up- so you can't just pop on DT to gain a few handy hit points and pop out again, which is a fine enough middle ground. I also appreciate how there's a difference in the actual way that Dante Devil Trigger's compared to Nero. Dante has his instant switch like in previous games, allowing him to flip on mid combo, but Nero's stops him in his tracks with a little burst animation that also breaks the chain of any combo he's being punished by- neat little trick there.

Progression has been seriously switched up this time around with a brand new currency used exclusively for levelling that is now separate from the Blood Orbs still used for the item store. These new Proud Souls are awarded at the end of each level rather than as you progress (or they get tallied up if you die) and are based on the rank you get at the end of each mission, particularly your style rank total. Style is actually ludicrously easy to build up in this game too, the developers seriously toned down on the 'no consecutive moves' stipulation of the old system, making getting to SSS only a matter of finding an enemy with enough hit points to last that long. (I actually only managed to nail it once on the Snake-Dragon boss. Which is insane considering how often I'd max on Devil May Cry 3.)

That 'ease' is not exclusive to the stylings either. Devil May Cry 4 is actually quite a bit more chill paced than 3 was, but a heck of a lot more engaging than sleepy 2. 4 has it's share of annoying enemies, mind you, including one, the Blitz, which is so frustrating that on Hard difficulty the game only makes you fight it twice in the entire game. You fight every boss at least three times. They knew the Blitz is the worst creation in the franchise since... the helicopter. (Although you know... for different reasons.) One point of contention I maintain due to this direction of 'accessible ease' is the 'enemy handicap' feature that comes tied to encounters and lies totally out of the player's control. As in any Devil May Cry, if you die enough times to a single encounter the game offers the choice to turn down the difficulty, except for Devil May Cry 4 there is no choice. Die enough and the game will do it automatically without alerting you, so you only figure it out after basking in the glory of your victory in the results screen. (That's just arse system design which fundamentally misunderstands what it is that challenge gamers are looking for.) 

I particularly enjoyed the bosses of DMC 4, even if they were considerably more light weight than their previous game counterparts, (excluding 2) and the game makes us fight them way too much, they all asked for different skills and boasted some of the most consistently solid game design in the entire game. (Even if most are best hurt by jump flurry attack spam.) The Dante boss was the only real standout, boasting a totally distinct philosophy of reactive action which mirrors the players moves, he plays more like a Elden Ring boss begging you to bait him into cheese strikes. My only gripe is a universal design flaw that every boss in this game shares that I like to call the 'last gasp' system. Basically, whenever an enemy enters their last two slivers of health notches, they enter their second phase. (Yeah, that late!) And every enemy has a second phase specifically designed to draw out their final moments as long as possible. It's such a head screw to feel the rising relief of a sinking healthbar only for all progress to grind to a halt, forcing the player to devote twice the amount of time to drag the needle those last few yards across the finishing line. It isn't particularly fun, the second phases are simply frustrating, and the best moments are the times you time the enemies vulnerable stagger and your own Devil Trigger just enough to totally skip by the stupid second phase altogether. Not my favourite design idea by a long shot.

In world, Devil May Cry 4 takes a bizarrely fantasy-tilted approach that feels fundamentally distinct from the gothic castles and modern/ruinous style of previous outings. At times you almost feel like Dante has been isekai-ed to some strange fantastical realm where placid villages, snowy tundras and rainforests can be found within the same square mile of one another. This only gets reinforced by the residents, all wearing hoods and rustic quasi-religious garments, affixed to some vague praise of Sparda, because it's always about Sparda in these damn stories. Even the yawn-worthy damsel who is inexplicably the beacon of our chief protagonist's desires, Kyrie, looks like an almost dead-ringer for Princess Elise from the worst Sonic game. I'm not sure this game really looked like this franchise usually does.

But the world did feel that way. In fact, the movement from one area to the next, split between missions that funnel you though it all, felt almost Resident Evil reminiscent, which is a sensation I haven't properly felt since DMC 1. And I like it, to be clear. It's just a shame that these explorations are never as detailed as Resident Evil maps, and that due to the somewhat linear nature of mission based exploration, you really notice it in the late game where Dante's entire campaign are literally Nero missions backwards. At least it was a lot harder to get lost this time around thanks to the clear movement from one area to another, but I wish a Devil May Cry game could get away with surprising me with new environments until the end. (Maybe 5. They had a good 11 years to work on it, and absolutely nothing would have been in the way to soak up development time.)

Within that world comes out story, which I'm happy to report is the most comprehensive this franchise has ever delivered! I was almost shocked to experience it all, there was establishment of setting, characters properly introduced a decent time before their showdown moments, properly built stakes and potential consequence, and events seemed to actually unfold instead of just sporadically occuring. These seem like basic tenements of narrative but you have to understand, Devil May Cry has never enjoyed the fundamentals before! It's actually nice following along with the story and feeling the progression of acts and building of plot momentum. Now next time maybe they can focus on making the actual events themselves a little more interesting... Bah, it was serviceable enough. I enjoyed the story.

As you may have caught, Nero is our new protagonist this time around and he makes for a decent enough stand-in for Dante, who seems taciturn and a little off-colour early game, to a point I feared the writers were trying to make this older depiction of the character more in line with his painfully goofy and dull original self. As it so happens he just needs some warming up, which means we're left most of the game with Nero as our Dante and he... well, he's pretty much just Dante. A bit more punk and less certain of his own immortality, Nero acts almost exactly like young Dante with a one drawback. He is unfortunately afflicted with 'generic anime protagonist' virus, specifically the 'obsessively in love' strain.

Nero is hopelessly affixed to the affections of the franchises singularly most dull heroine ever, she's such a nothing character I hesitate to even identify Kyrie as a heroine. What the box sees in the cardboard box girl I cannot possible imagine, but the desire to protect this girl forms the backbone for most of his core motivations to such a nauseating extent that by the midgame you won't at all be surprised to hear him screaming "KYRIE!!!" every other scene like he's in Sam Raimi's Spiderman. I actually somewhat prefer Dante's bizarre play of not caring about anything or anyone that doesn't even feel like an act most of the time. He seems constantly surprised whenever someone manages to get him to care about them, and that strangely detached relationship with... well, relationships, helps identify him as this kind of other entity in the way his, occasionally churlish, brand of charisma disguises. Nero's chief most interesting features are fully in his design, with it's send ups to Vergil and Dante, and in the mystery of who he is which is addressed (He's directly identified as part of the Sparda bloodline) but never explicitly stated. I can't really blame DMC for lacking exposition, it's kind of the franchises thing at this point, but the utterly miniscule offering the DLC gave us to hint in that narrative direction felt a little like an insult. In fact, I going to assume it was an insult for the crime of being invested.

As for the supporting cast, they were all fine if largely forgettable. I found that most everyone, in writing and, sometimes, in performance were totally overshadowed by their designs. I personally don't love the heavy shades look of Lady, but it's one of her most iconic looks and I was utterly surprise to see it matched with an almost entirely absent character who lacks everything which made DMC 3 Lady unique. (Apart from in look, she's literally not even the same character.) Trish and Dante are as good as ever, it's fun to see them interact in the few moments they get to, but everyone else? I literally can't remember the city cast's names. But their designs! Solid, even great in some instances. Across the board the design work was simply top notch, and I wonder if there isn't a happy medium between great designs, cool and memorable characters and a nifty narrative that this franchise can't hit. Please? For me.

Summary

Devil May Cry 4 seems like it correctly identified what it was that made 3 such a revolution and thus solidifies those improvements to a neat fluidity. Outside of visuals there aren't a great many overall leaps forward that the game offers, and though the narrative does become admirably ambitious to an extent that DMC has not tried before, the broadening in scope does lead to a loss in narrative focus and memorability in some places. But gameplay is king in games like these, and DMC 4 neatly balances it's class of solid characters and gives each one solid and strong movesets that are easy fun to get into and tough fun to master. So far I could see myself coming back to this game the most in order to refine my abilities against it's many gauntlets. Still, in terms of 'moments in history' I think that the surge of Devil May Cry 3 may burn brighter in my heart and mind. I'm still recommending this game, it's simply great fun, but I think my arbitrary grading system can only dish out a surprising B Grade, when I was really hoping to push things to the next tier. So far Devil May Cry has demonstrated all the elements I want in one of these games individually- (aside from a seriously interesting narrative, but I think that might slot together if the others come first.) if 5 can bring them all together, then my wait for the next title might have actually been worth it! Fingers crossed...