July | 2019 | stephensopinions

A prime example of poor understanding of your consumers is the case of DmC: Devil May Cry. This game started development in 2010 as a reboot to the character action series Devil May Cry. What is odd is that the previous entry, Devil May Cry 4, was released only 2 years prior and was commercially successful. Despite this, Capcom outsourced their production of the series to a western studio in an attempt to sell better to a western audience. I will not get into too many of the details, but essentially DmC: Devil May Cry was a reboot that nobody wanted, and was made with the express purpose of changing what people loved about the series. It’s a well-made game, but it simply clashes with fans’ expectations.

The most obvious and vitriol-inducing change was to the main character, Dante. His appearance shifted dramatically. His signature long white hair and red duster were done away with, and new Dante sported a black leather jacket and short black hair. This gave Dante a grungier, more punk look, which is in direct conflict of what fans expected of Dante. The far more frustrating change to Dante however was to his personality. Our goofy, cocky, pizza-loving action hero had been changed to edgy hedonist. His classic one-liners became crass and hard to take seriously. New Dante’s “I don’t care” attitude reeks of an immature teenager, as opposed to the fun-loving, half-demon mercenary he had been previously known as.

Not only was Dante changed, but all of the backstory and characters were also modernized. Dante and his brother Vergil are now Nephilim, half angel and half demon hybrids. The main antagonist, Mundus, is no longer an omniscient and mysterious demon-king. Mundus and his followers are demons who use debt, media, and mind-controlling substances to subdue the human populace. Through these means, Mundus keeps people passive and under his control. Honestly, this modernization is actually pretty interesting. Devil May Cry games have never been known for their stories, they are often overly cliché and cheesy. DmC: Devil May Cry actually has an interesting plot, but it is dragged down by its poorly written dialogue and unlikable characters.

Lovable characters can carry a poor plot, but bad characters can ruin a good plot. I discussed why I dislike new Dante, and similar issues plague the rest of the cast. Flat jokes and flippant attitudes run rampant. The writing is at best forgettable, at worst it can be difficult sitting through the cringe-inducing dialogue. It’s a shame because the actual plot isn’t terrible. Dante and Vergil team up to recount their past and take down the demon-king who seeks to control the world. There are pretty obvious allusions to modern corporatism. Soft-drinks poison the mind and make people weak, the media spouts lies to propagate Mundus’ will, and Mundus controls the population through money. It’s fairly heavy-handed, but it’s a good story by Devil May Cry standards.

The strongest aspects of DmC: Devil May Cry are its world and level design. Instead of demons running rampant through the world, they are instead confined to the realm of Limbo. Limbo is a plane of existence that is parallel to the real world, and Dante is constantly pulled in and out of Limbo. The realm itself is living, and desires to exterminate the intrude. It will spawn demons and manipulate the world to impede you. Roads, buildings, and the environment around you gets torn apart to obfuscate the path forward. The living Limbo is an incredibly engaging game mechanic that allows for some unique level design. Furthermore, the enormous set pieces and action sequences are breathtaking.

The one big flaw with the level design is its overreliance on platforming. Devil May Cry games have always contained a few platforming sections, and they have always been the weakest parts of the games. DmC: Devil May Cry revolutionizes the platforming mechanics and actually makes these sections far more tolerable. Dante now has grappling-hook functions to bring platforms closer to him, or to launch himself towards platforms. Unfortunately, platforming sections are far too common and quickly become a nuisance. Down time is always needed between high-octane action sections, but a large portion of this game is just jumping between platforms. I’d estimate half of the game is spent platforming. This is unacceptable for a game that is primarily an action title.

The undeniable heart of any Devil May Cry title is the action. Not unlike the rest of the game, DmC: Devil May Cry changes many aspects to the classic formula. Admittedly, I am not very good at Devil May Cry games or combo-based fighting games in general. In previous titles I never tackled the highest difficulties and I barely scraped by. My end of mission scores were often As, Bs, or Cs; I rarely got an S-rank. Interestingly, I played DmC: Devil May Cry on the highest available default difficulty and received an S-rank or higher in every single mission.

In an attempt to reach a larger audience, the combat was undeniably simplified. There are no more alternative styles to play with and master. Weapons themselves have far less combos to learn and string together. The style meter no longer decreases unless you get hit. Essentially, every aspect of combat was dumbed down. It is incredibly easy to receive and maintain a high style ranking regardless of how skilled the player is. The move list has culled many combat techniques which drastically reduces the creative and stylish combos that could be performed. The combat is not necessarily bad, but it will be strangely simplified to returning fans of the series.

While the combat was made significantly easier, there were a few features that improved upon the established formula. The most obvious inclusion was the ability to hold down a button to change weapons. In the midst of combat holding down the left or right triggers will transform Dante’s weapon to an angel or demon weapon. This makes switching weapons during a fight remarkably smooth. Quickly swapping between Dante’s standard sword, angel weapons, and demon weapons is fluid and opens up possibilities for longer and more stylish combos. Additionally, Dante can pull enemies to himself or pull himself towards enemies. This added mobility allows the player to maintain the pace of the fight without ever having to slow down.

Other than the simplification, there are some other issues with the combat. With the accessibility of the angelic and demonic weapon variants, there were also corresponding enemies. These color-coded adversaries could only be damaged by their respective weapon types. Red enemies can only be hurt by demon weapons, blue enemies can only be hurt by angel weapons. This defeats the purpose of the ease of swapping weapons. It is meant to facilitate switching weapons mid-combo to create new combos, but instead you become limited to a single weapon. Worse still, these enemies would interrupt your combos and the flow of combat if struck with the wrong type of weapon. The color-coded enemies do nothing but halt the action.

Furthermore, DmC: Devil May Cry has no dedicated lock-on feature. This is an absolutely baffling decision for a 3D action game. It is a pain to try to focus on a single enemy as the game schizophrenically decides what target it wants to aim at. This is especially frustrating when dealing with the color-coded enemies, as it there is no reliable way to single them out and use the correct weapon. Dealing with flying enemies is similarly rage-inducing as getting the game to target them is a war of attrition. Lastly, Dante’s signature guns, Ebony & Ivory, have been substantially weakened. In prior games these guns would often be used for chip damage or to maintain a combo. Since you don’t need them to maintain combos anymore, they only serve as damage. Unfortunately, the damage they deal is pitiful.

Overall, DmC: Devil May Cry is not a strictly terrible game. It undoubtably has its shortcomings in gameplay and characterization. Realistically, the games biggest issues stem from the fact that it is a Devil May Cry game. There was a deep misunderstanding of the fanbase of these games as Capcom vied to gain traction in the west. This backfired spectacularly as DmC: Devil May Cry upset loyal fans and will permanently remain a stain on the legacy of the series. If it weren’t a Devil May Cry game, it would be a decent game. Unfortunately, it just left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are many descriptive words I could use to describe The Last Guardian: emotional, dated, beautiful, frustrating, immersive, and clunky. One word that could not be used to describe The Last Guardian is fun. Admittedly, this game is more of an artistic adventure than a traditional video game, and I’m ok with games forgoing fun for a more poignant experience. Unfortunately, The Last Guardian is just an unmitigated disaster in so many aspects that it nearly undermines the impact the game was meant to have.

This is a game about a boy and his dog. Well, not exactly a dog. The main character wakes up in a cave alongside a giant, hulking beast. This creature is some sort of dog-bird-cat chimera that the boy subsequently frees from its chains. The heart of the game is the boy and the beast, known as Trico, traveling through a dilapidated city. The boy has no knowledge of how he arrived in the sprawling and ancient metropolis, but it is apparent that he wants to escape. The boy and Trico must rely on each other to progress, and as a result the game is about their growing bond and friendship.

The story of the game is mostly about the journey of the boy and Trico. There is a narrator who acts as a hint system as well as a few sparse cutscenes, but the vast majority of the game is a silent adventure. The interactions of Trico and the player is plenty to convey their developing companionship. Trico’s animations in particular are gorgeously animated, it is seriously impressive how lifelike and playful this feathery creature is. The atmosphere is equally as remarkable. The ancient city is rife with details as well as awe-inspiring vistas. Every environment stirs the imagination. The art direction and meticulously designed architecture are breathtaking. The crumbling interiors, the overflowing lush foliage, the interconnected towers that reach to the sky, everything contributes to the memorable world of The Last Guardian.

In the beginning, the boy and Trico are apprehensive of each other. Despite feeding, freeing, and assisting Trico, the beast does not fully trust the player. The pair eventually learn how reliant they are on each other. The standard gameplay is as simple as progressing from room to room, area to area. Sometimes you are impeded by simple environmental puzzles, you often have to open gates for Trico to progress. Mostly, you will be using Trico and his size to help you reach high up places, or he can make leaps across large gaps. As you progress, the boy continues to feed, pet, ride, and command Trico. The development of the pair’s relationship is magical, Trico eventually becomes staunchly loyal and fiercely protective of the boy. The evolution of their relationship is the absolute highlight of the game, and it is what makes the experience so emotional.

As a result of the story being the core focus, the gameplay of The Last Guardian is simple. As I previously mentioned the game mostly consists of simple puzzles to progress forward. These puzzles aren’t complex, but instead are just speed-bumps on your grand adventure. The majority of the time a puzzle consists of two parts: deduce how to use Trico to advance, and then figure out a way for Trico to come along with you. Along the journey, the boy and Trico will encounter a few more interesting obstacles. Possessed suits of armor chase the boy and attempt to drag him away. The young boy has no means of combat, so you must evade enemies while Trico smashes them. This mix of evasion and spectacle was quite satisfying. Watching your companion absolutely destroy the foes like they were toys is viscerally entertaining. There is an air of mystery in The Last Guardian, the background of Trico, the city, and the soldiers is unknown.

Despite everything that The Last Guardian does correctly, the game is plagued by frustrating problems. The most forgivable of those nuisances is Trico himself. In an effort to make Trico seem like a real, living, thinking, and independent being, he was essentially given a mind of his own. Often times Trico will not listen to your commands. He is curious and playful, and will often wander off to do his own thing. This can be enormously annoying to many players, as sometimes you just want to play the game and move forward but Trico won’t cooperate. Trico’s stubbornness wasn’t a big deal to me, some patience is required to deal with him. His independence is absolutely necessary to masterfully portray him as a living being rather than just a tool for gameplay.

What is less forgivable than Trico’s stubbornness is the boy’s horrible controls. Nothing about controls is intuitive or particularly responsive. The boy has two speeds: full sprint and tiptoeing. Additionally, there is a strange weight to the character, he constantly feels bogged down by some invisible force. It’s hard to explain, but it is immediately apparent when you being playing the game. The boy constantly stumbles, bumps into things and falls over, and is generally unwieldy. There is a fair amount of platforming, jumping from place to place, but the imprecise controls make this an exercise in aggravation. Every single action you do is so deliberate and slow that I was getting impatient. Everything takes way too long. The worst offender of this is getting on and off of Trico. This is the absolute core mechanic of the game, and it simply does not work.

Trico is gargantuan, and climbing on him is a monotonous task. The boy climbs needlessly slow, and often gets stuck on Trico’s wings, legs, chest, or tail. The only thing worse than getting on Trico is getting off of Trico. For some reason the developers decided that it was a genius idea to make the boy automatically grab onto things when he is falling. This is nice when platforming as it allows you to grab onto ledges easily. In the case of getting off of Trico, everything is grabbable. His entire body is one big sticky pad. So, when jumping off of Trico you immediately latch back on. I just want to get off of Trico, why is it so hard?

I know faithful defenders of this game claim its controls are intentional, but that’s not a good excuse. You can make a realistic feeling character that doesn’t make you want to rip your hair out. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are examples of games with weighty and realistic characters that aren’t imprecise or unresponsive. In the case of The Last Guardian, the clumsiness of the controls adds nothing. Games like Human Fall Flat utilize unwieldy controls for comedic effect. Stephen’s Sausage Roll uses its strange control scheme to allow for complex puzzles. These are valid reasons for unintuitive controls. The Last Guardian has no excuse. I get that the main character is a young boy and shouldn’t be an acrobat like Mario, but that doesn’t explain why he moves likes he’s inebriated.

While I praised the game for its gorgeous world building, impeccable details, and lifelike animations, these all result in a less than stellar framerate. I’m not one of those elitists that demands that all games must run at 60 FPS. If I’m getting a steady 30 FPS, I’m happy. However, The Last Guardian has performance issues that often dips the FPS into very noticeable territory. This happened often enough that it became an irritant. Worse than the performance issue is the dated camera.

Making seamless cameras for third-person video games is hard, but this is an issue that has been solved many times over by plenty of games. The camera has a strange acceleration delay, when you start trying to maneuver the camera it moves extremely slowly. Moreover, the camera is like Trico, it does what it wants. The game often tries to pan to show you the environment or Trico, but this often gets in the way of what the player actually wants to look at. If I’m trying to make a jump or scale a tower, I don’t want to have to battle with the camera the whole time. It gets especially bad in narrow corridors because then the camera gets wedged between Trico and the wall, meaning you get to appreciate a black screen for upwards of thirty seconds.

The overall level design of the game can often be confusing. It is not always apparent what you can jump on, hang on, or what Trico can leap to. The gorgeous world came with the expense of readability. There are so many details that it can be hard to tell what you can actually interact with. The worst offender of this unclearness is when you need Trico to do something. As I stated prior, getting Trico to do anything can be tough because of his stubbornness. So, when it is unclear how to progress it can be a real struggle to test out potential solutions. Is Trico not jumping to that platform because he’s just being stubborn, or is it because that’s not a platform he can even jump to? Situations like these are abundant in The Last Guardian.

The most insidious issue of The Last Guardian is its tendency to just not work sometimes. The game can be particularly picky when it comes to solutions to its puzzles. You may have found the right solution right away, try it, but then it doesn’t work for whatever reason. Some examples of this: Trico won’t make a jump, the boy doesn’t grab a ledge, Trico refuses execute whatever scripted action you need to progress. This is a colossal waste of time because once you try a solution to a puzzle and it doesn’t work, you immediately start trying other possibilities. But if the first solution was actually correct, you may just be going in circles and wasting your time. The worst offender of this for me was during a puzzle in which I was supposed to feed Trico. The goal was to feed Trico numerous barrels to give him energy to continue. After collecting every barrel, I fed them to him, but nothing happened so I figured I must have missed one somewhere. I spent 30 minutes searching for this non-existent barrel. It turns out a cutscene was supposed to play and Trico would get up, but this never happened for me. I had to restart from a checkpoint and do the whole puzzle over again.

It may sound like I hate The Last Guardian, but I don’t. I think it’s a shame that a game with such high potential stemming from its unique concept, stunning architecture, immersive atmosphere, and powerful emotional bonds is bogged down by generally technical issues. The camera, framerate, and controls feel like remnants from a prior era. I really wish I could get past the frustrations that I had with the game. When the game clicks and everything works, it is a truly magical experience. Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between. Regardless, it is a truly memorable experience despite its flaws. Even though the game angered me on numerous occasions, I nearly cried at the end, which should say a lot about the raw emotions this game conveys. It is for these reasons I give The Last Guardian a 5/10. Your enjoyment of this game is directly proportional to your patience and your tolerance to its clunky gameplay.

stephensopinions

Month: July 2019

DmC: Devil May Cry (2013)

The Last Guardian (2016)