Standing by Microsoft's booth at this year's TGS, we had the good fortune to watch someone who identified themselves in broken English as a "hardest core fanu" of Devil May Cry. And although we have seen this build of DMC4 before, both at this year's Leipzig and before that at E3, seeing someone with a deep understanding of the game's mechanics play it reinvigorated our enthusiasm for the house (of monsters) that Capcom built. Here's why.
Leave No One Alive!
Watching our unnamed friend tear through the icy foes that infested the mountain level we've talked about, we were struck by how beautiful and stylized the violence is in DMC4. Next to our player, an American and a Japanese player managed to cut through their enemies in the mountain stage and the docks, respectively, but our player managed his kills so phenomenally beautifully that it was like watching two different games being played.
It's easy to look at Ninja Gaiden and see how the game pushes you to improve, because when you fail to improve you die. Watching Devil May Cry 4 being played masterfully, it's clear that DMC4 will push you to improve but without quite such a savage stick as death. Like the previous games in the series, the reward for improving is seeing your character become closer and closer to the angel of death he's supposed to be.
This was exquisitely clear during the boss fight, the same fight against Berial that we've seen before. Where our fellow press often found themselves unprepared for the encounter, our nameless player stepped into the fight as if he'd done it dozens of times before. As Berial's tactics changed, so did our players, matching and countering the demon's steps as if they were old dancing partners.
And in a way, they are. There's no arguing that Devil May Cry 4 is very similar to previous games in the series. On the other hand, seeing hard core Devil May Cry fans step up and instantly be able to grok the game, but still leave with a delighted, frantic smile on their faces shows how there's no real problem with putting a pretty spin on an already-great game.
