Review #310: Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage 2

 This is not the true successor.

 Let me tell you a bit about myself. I love Dynasty Warriors and I love Hokuto no Ken, which means than when Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage was announced I was static, and when I finally got to play it... I adored it. It's among my favorite Musou games. And then Ken's Rage 2 was announced, and I got even more hyped, and then I played it.... Godammit, Koei.

 There's two modes, Legend Mode and Dream Mode, let's cover the former first. It's an extended redux of sorts of the previous game's Legend Mode, covering the Raoh, Shura and Final arcs from the series. 'More' is not always better, case in point, Shura is the worst thing to ever happen to Hokuto no Ken. Us fans have a saying 'What happened at Shura stays at Shura', it's a mess full of plot holes and stupidity. And Hokuto no Ken is filled with ridiculous, sometimes even stupid stuff, but it's good stupid, while Shura is just dumb stupid. I could've sword that Koei said that they would rewrite Shura alongside Ohara and Buronson, but its the same mess it's always been, with one of the stupidest things to happen to Rin, where she is basically turned from a badass into an object. 'Hah! I pressed this pressure point that will make her fall in love with whoever she sees first!' and then a couple of guys take turns 'She must see Kenshiro!', 'Nah, you keep her, I got better stuff to do.', etc, etc. God, I hate Shura.

 But, y'know, Shura is just one arc, even shorter than Raoh's, and then there's the Final arc which is rather good and as emotional(Manly tears will be shed) as Raoh's arc was, so it's not such a wash, is it? Wrong. The presentation is both lazy and laughable. They 'reenacted' the manga panels with the 3D models They are barely even animated. Let's play devil's advocate, let's say that they were huge fans of the manga and wanted to redo it in 3D, fine. Then why not simply use the panels from the manga? Look, these character models look fantastic in motion, but on 2-D stills? They look terrible. These cutscenes look straight out of something like Garry's mod, with laughable gestures on the characters' faces, it looks terrible. And you have to actually watch them play out or skip them, it'd been just fine if I could just tap X to advance the dialogue, since I can read faster than they can talk Japanese. Eventually I started skipping these, since nowadays I don't like having my time wasted. To be fair, there's still a few cutscenes, some are from the previous game, some are new and some have been edited a bit, and they are still fantastic. These are a joy to watch, reenacting the scenes from the manga oh so beautifully, which is a stark contrast to the other, more common manga-like cutscenes. But the problems with Legend Mode are more than skindeep, the way the levels play is a bore. Why do I play Warriors/Musou games? To bash dozens of heads in. It's cathartic, it's fun. But the game wastes your time with unskippable 'Event' scenes, where characters stand awkwardly while talking in a very drawn out way, it's so damn boring, since I can read the text oh so much faster than they speak, and it's not like it's trying to immerse me into the game, since characters look so awkward as these moments play out! But not only does the game waste my time, it also forces the player onto awkward objectives like half-baked stealth missions. Stealth missions? I'm playing a Warriors game, I want to fight, I don't want to go around stealthily, I've Dishonored for that, goddamn. And the rest of the objectives are just dull and restrictive, I lost count of how many times the game locked me onto a tiny area for two minutes with a 'kill as many enemies as you can' objective. Where's the freedom that Warriors game give you when going through battlefields? I loved going through the previous game's Legend Mode, but this time around I couldn't wait for it to end.

 Then there's 'Dream Mode' where each of the 20 characters get about 8 stages each(To be fair, some are repeated) alongside a what-if story(Told via those awful manga-like cutscenes). And... I couldn't take it. I played 5 stages with Ryuga before calling it quits and uninstalling the game. But why is it so bad? Warriors games, even those based around capture points, like the Gundam DW games, always pepper the stages with moving enemies and allies, so that it feels like a battle. Here it's you and the bases. There's no moving enemies, although every now and then an enemy commander will spawn and chase you(While not even bothering with the bases), and sometimes you'll get allies. Oh, and capturing bases makes allied NPC fodder arrive. But where's the moving enemy fodder? It's so dull, boring... Lifeless. I've never, ever had had so little fun with a Warriors game. I clocked about 60 hours, and even got the Platinum Trophy, on the previous game. I clocked over 120 hours on DW: Gundam 3, which I platinum'd as well, not to mention all the other Warriors games I've played, to say that I love the franchise is an understatement. But Ken's Rage 2 gravitated between being a chore and being a bore.

 And the saddest part about it? There's been noticeable improvements to the previous game. The previous game had only 7 characters or so(Albeit all of them very different from each other), now we get 20. There's grown up Bat, there's Shachi, there's Shew! Although, on the flip side, not all characters feel as... 'complete'. Some characters have very, very limited movesets, like Rin and Juda. Jumping has been removed entirely, which I didn't like at first, but you get used to it, and in its place now you've got a dodge, and by using energy you can use it to dodge any kind of attack. I objected to the increased speed at first, but then I popped the first game in, to compare, and.. as much as I loved the first game due to how heavy it felt, the new one feels much better thanks to the increased speed. I've read that some people said that this game looks worse... and they are wrong, no two ways about it. As I said before, I actually played the previous game again, to compare, and... the textures were hideous, PS2-level, if not worse. This time around, character models are much more detailed, much more defined and with proper textures. The special effects have been enhanced as well, there's more variety on the environments and on NPCs, and this game looks better in almost every respect.

 The way you level up your stats has also changed, while the previous game had the Meridian Chart, which I really liked, now you must collect scrolls and equip up to five of them. It's... it's not a terrible idea, but it pales in comparison to the Meridian Charts. Special Moves also work a bit differently, previously, after executing it, the game would freeze and show you multiple camera angles, while your character said the name of the technique. It was very accurate to the anime, and look really badass. Now... they work as in any other Dynasty Warriors game, without the extra fanfare, which is disappointing to say the least.

 The beauty of the Warriors games is that the pit you in large scale battles, while you get to pummel dozens upon dozens of enemy fodder before arriving to an enemy general, which actually poses a threat. They are fun, relatively mindless, but fun. Ken's Rage 2 feels like a parody of these games, like what most people think the games are. Instead of large battlefields, populated by both fodder and generals, you go through dull, lifeless corridors, searching for 'bases', the only areas where enemies spawn, and then you have to defeat 50 of them. Maybe, every now and then, an enemy commander will spawn and chase you, or sometimes one will pop up from a base. It feels so mechanic, so soulless. It feels like it was made by people that were told 'make a Warriors game' but had never played one before. Then there's the 'Legend Mode', which feels like a chore, since you are restricted even more than in the corridor-based Dream Mode, to smaller areas, with repetitive objectives. And the game loves to waste your time, with dull unskippable 'event scenes', were they state the obvious, or with half-baked 'variety missions' like the aforementioned stealth sections.

 Ken's Rage 2 is a mess. And it's a shame, because they actually improved on the combat elements, but due to its restrictive, messy nature, these changes never get the chance to shine. And it's hilarious, because in Japan it was named 'Shin Hokuto Musou', 'True Hokuto Musou'. Because it was supposed to improve upon the previous game. And the saddest part? If they had kept how the previous Legend Mode worked, how the previous Dream Mode worked, they could've had something really, really good. But they decided to fix what wasn't broken.
 2.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage 2

 Oh boy.

 And the disappointment train continues with Ken's Rage 2! Ken's Rage was one of my favorite Warriors game out there, partly because it felt relatively different, partly because it nailed the feeling of the series so well.

 So, where to start? The cutscenes. The previous game had amazing cutscenes that were a treat to watch. They were faithful to the manga and looked really nice. Now we've got seconds long cutscenes like those, and the rest are some very weird, sparsely animated manga-panel like scenes using the 3D models. And they are laughably bad, the character models look fantastic in motion, not in stills, where it comes across as some creepy Garry's mod shenanigans. Who thought that these were acceptable? I hope, HOPE that they only went this route with what the previous game covered, and instead will get proper cutscenes once we get to the Shura arc.

 Then there's the gameplay... it's been sped up. And, usually, I like fast paced games, but in Ken's rage, it made every move have extra oomph, which made it extra satisfying. Also, when using special moves it would freeze the screen and show the aftermath through various still camera angles. That's gone. For whatever reason, jumping is gone as well, which got changed into dodging. And the story mode is a drag, I understand they went for variety, but us Warriors fans want to bash enemies, not go through poorly made stealth sequences that offer no challenge or fun whatsoever.

 And... Yeah, I'm strangely hopeful for the game to get better once I unlock more characters and tackle dream mode. Maybe it's the story mode that's giving me a bad first impression. I hope. I mean, the Meridian chart leveling system was fun, right? Right? Well, it's gone, and now we have some weird scroll equipping system...? What?

Review #309: Bioshock Infinite - The Complete Edition

 Get the girl and clear the debt.

 Bioshock Infinite was kind of a big deal when it came out, as big, if not bigger, than the original Bioshock at its time. And... I kinda can't see why.

 You play as Booker DeWitt, a man swimming in debt due to gambling, who is offered a deal he can't refuse: Get the girl and wipe away the debt. And so Booker embarks towards the city of Columbia, a dystopia flying over the skies, where not everything is as it seems(It is a dystopia after all). Previous Bioshock games had had mute heroes, but very memorable villains. These time around, we have memorable heroes and supporting cast, but not much in the way of villains, not in the traditional sense anyways. For starters, Booker actually speaks, although he is a bit of a generic gruff guy that's just trying to do his job, but then there's Elizabeth, the girl in question, who will accompany you throughout most of the game. She's alright. I will concede that she is fairly expressive, the big eyes do help, but I wouldn't go as far as to call her a memorable character. As far as the rest of the characters go, it's pretty much Bioshock: You'll hear about all these important figures, be it heroes or villains, on audiologs until you finally meet them, just as in the previous games. The game also has a quirky sense of humor that pops up every now and then, just as in the previous games. It also has 'arc words', just as in the previous games(Bioshock 1 actually). To be honest, while the plot twist is entirely different, in many ways it felt like another take on Bioshock 1, even the setting is similar in its differences(It's a bit of an opposite to Rapture). Plus, the story is kinda... kinda plain and somewhat dull until the last stretch of the game, which, mind you, is totally worth it to follow all the way to the end.

 With a gun in your right hand, and a Plasmid... erm, 'Vigor', on your left, you'll go on your way through a somewhat linear path. Just as in the previous games. There's no longer passive skills to equip, but rather 'clothes', five pieces in all, which can grant you different bonuses. You also carry a regenerative shield now, which is kinda nice since you can't carry health packs any more. Oh, and you can only carry two weapons, but in an ironic twist of fate, ammo is way more plentiful this time around, since most enemies are armed, so if you run out of ammo, just swap one of your guns or wait for Elizabeth to pass you another clip. Oh, yeah, Elizabeth comes along for the ride, and she's not a burden since enemies just ignore her, and while she won't attack them, she will give you health packs, salt('mana') packs, ammo clips or even money every now and then. Remember how Bioshock 1 had a few horror elements? They are all gone now, all of your opposition and run-of-the-mill soldiers. And there's a ton of them at every turn of a corner. There's no tension, no fear, no nothing as you know a shootout is coming as soon as you arrive to the next open area.

 There's a new gameplay element in the form of 'Skylines', rails that lie above ground onto which you can use your melee weapon to hook on to. Rails felt like a gimmick to me, they are frequent, but not too frequent, and they double as both defensive and offensive tools. Once hooked, you can traverse them at fast speeds to avoid damage, but you can also drop down from them onto enemies and deal massive damage, if not outright kill them.  Oh, and when outside of combat, you'll sometimes have to use them to go to different places in Columbia. Not that there's a lot of to do besides going towards your objective, that said ,there are a few sidequests, and exploration often yields rewards in the form of Infusion tonics that can be used to upgrade your shield, health or salt reserves. And just as in the previos games, you'll scavenge for food to heal yourself and money to buy upgrades for your Vigors and guns.

 It seems like I'm giving the game a lot of hell for being 'more of the same', but I'm not. I mean, the game was so well received that I was expecting something revolutionary, but all I got was... more of the same. The same kind of writing, the same kind of environment, the same story structure(Even if it plays out in vastly different ways), the same kind of gameplay.... it almost felt like 'another take on Bioshock 1'. And mind you, when you are a game like Bioshock, being 'more of the same' is actually a good thing, it's just that I was expecting something game-changing.

 The Complete Edition includes all the DLC. Some which is just baffling, as it starts you off with 5 free infusion tonics and 2 entire pairs of clothing. Why? Why are you giving free stuff, and very useful stuff at that, just for preordering the game? That's just wrong. Then there's the 'Clash in the Clouds', which I didn't care for, that is an arena-based DLC, where you must survive wave after wave of enemy, having a small respite in between waves to prepare. You get to unlock art, but... eh, it's just an arena. Lastly, there's 'Burial at Sea 1' and 'Burial at Sea 2'. I loved Burial at Sea 1, it's a throwback to Bioshock 1, with returning plasmids and returning weapons. It's relatively harder than the main game, since ammo is more limited, and it delves deeper into Booker and Elizabeth. Kinda. Burial at Sea 2 pits you as Elizabeth, and while it offers a whole lot more story, with a few bits that actually contradict Bioshock 2, it was a bit more dull, since for whatever reason Elizabeth isn't as good as combat as Booker, so she has to rely on stealth. It's much slower paced as well, but it does give new insight on some of the NPCs from Infinite. Both of them are really good, but part 1 was more up my alley.

 I liked Bioshock Infinite, I had fun with Bioshock Infinite, but to call it slightly underwhelming is an understatement. It feels like something I have played before, like it's got little more to offer than its plot twist. And I must insist, even if I felt disappointed, the game is not bad by any means, Bioshock's gameplay is really good, so even if its more of the same, it's still welcome.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Bioshock Infinite - The Complete Edition

 I already booked my flight.

 Starting classes means more time locked up in my house, which translates into more time which means... 'first impressions' are back! Which is something I've always liked, to compare how I felt about something before finishing it, and comparing afterwards.

 Anyways, I'm up to the Hall of Heroes and so far... it's alright. Nothing special. I mean, I come from Dishonored, which gave me oh so many options and alternatives, and while there is exploration... it feels so linear. The game itself doesn't impress me either, because it's so similar to previous Bioshock games. Sure, it was cute how the game is the opposite of Rapture(You start on a lighthouse, but it takes you up instead of down, a dystopia on the sky instead of underwater, here there's a GOD, while Rapture stated: Men, not gods, etc), but... the novelty ran off, and all I'm left with is a third Bioshock games.

 And yes, the skylines are cool, but so far they feel like little more than a gimmick or a way to traverse the sky, and that's it.

 And I'm not saying the game is bad, not at all, just that it doesn't impress me. The story so far is, well, it's there, but nothing has gripped me yet. The gameplay is solid, but it feels exactly like the previous two Bioshock games, and mind you, it's fun, but it's nothing I hadn't seen before. Oh, except that I'm limited to two guns now because reasons!

Review #308: Dishonored - Game of the Year Edition

 Where's my honor?

 The best way to describe Dishonored is: Thief meets Bioshock. This is a first person stealth game with varied combat options and a realistic, but cartoonish art direction.

 The story centers around silent protagonist Corvo, bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwall and her daughter. Dunwall is under the ever-growing threat of a deadly plague that turns people into zombie-like beings call Weepers. Back from a trip for information, the Empress is assassinated, her daughter is kidnapped and Corvo is blamed for both. But that's OK, there's a resistance group that knows about the conspiracy and sets Corvo free, in order to use him as an assassin, for the greater good. And it gets better for Corvo, the Outsider, a supernatural being, visits him and grants him powers. It's a cliche set-up, with cliched characters and a plot twist you'll see coming from leagues away. Still, there're a couple of memorable characters, like Granny Rags, that hide more than a few surprises, and so many 'books' and notes to read that enrich the overall lore of the game.

 The game follows a very simple structure: You are given a mission on your hideout, and then you get to prepare and buy all your necessary supplies, sometimes, you might even be given sidequests on that particular mission, which most of the time consists of assassinating someone. There's about 8 different missions, which all take place in different areas(Although, sometimes, they might share starting areas). Missions themselves are decently long, some contain sidequests, and all of them hide numerous collectibles: Bone charms, which can be equipped for bonus passive abilities, Runes, which are used to acquire spells. and all sorts of items from supplies to money. As for the missions themselves, they are fairly entertaining, there's many different ways to tackle them and finish them. There's always a non-lethal route as well. And your choices, whether you do sidequests or not, and how you deal with your targets, will affect the game in various different ways.

 Corvo wields his blade on his right hand, and the left hand is used for spells and long-ranged weapons. Melee combat is elegant in its simplicity. R1 attacks and R2 blocks, blocking right before getting hit will execute a parry. Holding L2 enters a sub-menu where you can equip a gun, a crossbow or the different spells that you can acquire, and are used with the L1 button. It's so simple, but it works so well and it's so much fun that it's a shame the game actually discourages the use of violence! The more you kill, the harder the game will get. There will be more guards and more weepers. As a matter of fact, a couple of sections actually feature endless waves of enemies, so you'd better not be spotted, and if you are, escape! What's more, this will also affect different facets of the game, from the behavior of certain characters, to what happens in the last chapter and how it all ends. Still, you can do away with enemies in non-lethal ways, either creep behind them and choke them until they pass out, or use sleeping bolts. Either way, they won't wake up for the remainder of the mission... but you should probably hide their bodies.

 The bone charms allow for a noticeable degree of customization towards your play-style. For instance, I always opt for brawling(Which also means I got the worst ending!), so I picked the charms that made enemies miss their shots more frequently, the ones that made it so that I would win more blade clashes and another one that made it less likely for my bolts to break upon shooting them, so that I could pick them up after a scuffle. Then there are the runes. There's simply not enough runes in the game to get every ability, so this will also factor in how you develop your character. There's both passive and active abilities, and each can be upgraded once at the cost of even more runes. Now that I think about it, you could probably get every ability, at the cost of not being able to upgrade any. Anyways, passive abilities include having enemies turn to ash if you kill them without them noticing, and its upgraded version, having every enemy that you kill turn into ash. There's extra health, faster movement and even and 'adrenaline' passive that lets you use instakill attacks after crossing a few swords. As for active abilities, there's the mandatory, and always useful Blink, which teleports you a short distance away, possessing enemies(and rats!), having rats eat your enemies and even a wind blast. There's not a huge amount of different spells, but they are enough as to allow you to customize your playthrough. I went with all the passives, and an upgraded Blink, first, since I was always getting into fisticuffs, but had enough runes left over to learn Time Bend and get(And upgrade) the wind blast ability.

 The GOTY edition includes all the DLC as well, of which quality varies depending on each. There's 7 'packs' that grant you bonuses at the start of the game, a ton of extra cash and extra, and exclusive, bone charms. Then there're the 3 major DLCS: The Trials of Dunwall, which has no story whatsoever and is just a collection of challenges and... I didn't care about it. But I know that some people do enjoy these, so there's that. Then there's The Knife of Dunwall and the Witches of Brigmore. These make up one single story, following Daud, a character that appears late into the main game, and run parallel to Corvo's story. These DLCs pull no punches, they expect that you have already finished the main game, and they are tough. As for Daud, he gets a slightly different spellset and arsenal from Corvo. Slightly. They also have a few different enemies, and entirely new environments, missions and objectives, which make them feel like more than just a retread from the main game. Naturally, them being DLCs, these missions don't offer as many alternative approaches as the one from the main game, but there's still quite a few.

 Dishonored is a fantastic game, and I think it's in large part due to how simple it is. It's a very simple, very predictable, but effective story, a very simple, but very tight gameplay that's very easy to learn and understand, but thanks to the alternatives the game provides for you to tackle each mission, as well as the many options you have to deal with your enemies, it doesn't get boring. When it comes down to it, the only reason I'm not scoring it any higher is due to personal taste, I like more action as less hiding, heh!

 9.0 out of 10

Review #307: DmC - Devil May Cry

 Just cry already, dammit!

 This game never really had a chance, did it? As soon as Dante's redesign was revealed, fans got up in arms, and they wouldn't let Ninja Theory hear the end of it. Many of them argued that 'it's not just about the hair'... but isn't it really?

 First, Story and Characters... it's gonna be a while. This game was meant to be a reimagined reboot, so everything's almost completely different. The premise resembles the movie 'They Live', were people are being controlled by propaganda, this time by demons, and the bad guy also uses debt to control everyone. It's not a novel idea, but it's been rarely used in videogames in this way before. I liked the story, Devil May Cry has never, ever had a good story and it made up for that with cool. You saw cool characters doing cool stuff and that was the end of it, and it didn't really matter, because story was never the main draw. What isn't good, and it's something you'll realize during the opening cutscene, is that the dialogue isn't very good. It's funny, because the audiovisual presentaton nails the look they were going for perfectly, very reminiscent of those old 90s action movies like The Crow, and somewhat like the opening scenes of the first Highlander film. But the dialogue comes across as if its trying to hard to be dark and edgy, at times it feels cringeworthy and forced.

 A lot of criticism has been leveled towards new Dante, mostly because he is a 'douchebag'. And he is. Towards his enemies, that is. Y'know, kinda like old Dante. Remember when Rudra and Agni offered their help, and Dante responded by 'No talking', and then smashing their heads because one of them did? Or how about when Lady asked him if he had killed her father, and his answer was 'What if I did?'. Dante's always been a dick towards his enemies. And this Dante cares about his allies, he cares about Kat and even asks her about her past, he cares about her when she is about to get captured. He cares about Vergil, his brother, even when they don't see eye to eye. This Dante hates demons, but when he sees one being harassed by other demons he goes to help him, and then Dante asks him to take him to a certain place, which the demons answers 'I'll help you if you help me first.'. Dante doesn't complain, doesn't hurl insults back, he hears him and helps him. Does this Dante seem like a dick to you? He isn't much more of a dick than Dante, the same Dante that cracked a joke in DMC 4 after Sanctus started laying death and destruction. Something that Sanctus was only able to do because Trish decided it would be a good idea to give them Sparta. But maybe being a dick is only OK if old Dante and his pals do it. And when it comes down to it, Dante has had THREE different personalities already, who's to say that this isn't Dante either? There was a lot of complaints about a joke, when a white wig falls on Dante's head and he says 'not in a million years', some even claiming that this was NT's way of saying 'Our Dante is better than yours'... it's just a joke, particularly considering that, spoilers, Dante's hair ends up white anyways.

 Combat is like a simpler version of previous games. The skill barrier is set lower, not to say that the moveset is limited in anyway, just that making and maintining SSS combos is incredibly easy. On previous games, your combo rank would decrease over time, not anymore, now it only decreases if you get hit. Plus, repeating the same moves over and over again do increase your rank, although at diminished returns. There's plenty of finger gymnastics involved if you want to create combos, but there's a ton of options. Triangle, by itself, uses Rebellion, the sword, and circle performs an enemy launcher. But holding L2 when pressing either will make Dante attack with an Angelic weapon, or holding R2 allows him to use Demonic weapons. There's two of each, and you can switch them on the fly by using the directional pad. Basically, doing large, varied combos is very, very simple, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And it looks cool to boot, as cool as 30 fps allows anyways. It doesn't end there, Dante can use fire arms with Square, or combine it with either L2 or R2 to produce two different chains, one that pulls enemies towards him, and another that pulls him towards enemies, not unlike Nero! I can't stress this enough, there's a ton of different moves and possibilities with the combat system.

 The one thing I did find annoying was the lack of a targeting button. Let's be honest here, the lock-on reticule was serviceable on previous games, but it was there and it was helpful. There's no such thing here. And enemies require different strategies here. Some will have attacks bounce right off them unless using either a demonic or an angelic weapons. Others can't be approached haphazardly since they have super armor on, there's winged enemies that are best dealt with by shooting at them, to break their wings, and then pulling them towards you. There's even shielded enemies! So the combat is not mindless, although much easier than previous games, and a lock-on feature would've done wonders for the game. Plus, as much as I liked so many options in combat, sometimes it's easy to get confused, since there's so many different button combinations,

 Which shows mostly during the platforming sections in the game. These are deceptively simple, 'cause you see, you might have to pull, with the demon chain, objects towards your path, or grapple through certain blue orbs by using the angelic chain. It's not hard to mess up the inputs. That said, these sections look complex, but they are very easy and require little thought put onto them. Jump, jump, maybe do an air dash, pull something, air dash, grapple, air-dash, land, rinse and repeat. They are very mechanics once you properly remember which combinations gets which chain out. Previous games had a small, but existent, exploration element to them. There's none of that here, but, you are free to explore, which will net you keys to open doors(that must also be found!) in order to access different challenges, for health and devil trigger upgrades.

 Thankfully, the game borrows the best additions from DMC 4: Red orbs and White orbs are different currencies, both are earned by scoring high combos and mission rankings though. Doesn't stop there, just as with DMC 4, white orbs are used to buy moves, which can be refunded as well. Even better, the store shows you a preview video and lets you try them out before you buy them. It might be a bit too much for the system though, scrolling through the different moves makes it feel as if the game is choking, and, as a matter of fact, the game froze on me once while buying moves!!

 The level design is alright. It's made up of a lot of cyans, oranges and blacks, and that's about everything you'll see. It's mostly urban environments, which I guess makes sense according to the story the game wants to tell, but it does make for a bit of staleness. That said, there went a lot of creativity towards certain sections, namely, the boss fight against the news anchor, which is probably the most memorable part in the game, as well as a rather cool sequence in which you must protect Vergil and Kat's car, by pulling and pushing objects around it. It's much cooler than what it sounds like. The game lasts about 6-7 hours, and sadly there's not much in the way of unlockables. There's about 4 difficulty settings, a must for any DMC game, including some rather creative ones, where Dante dies in one hit!

 It may not look like a Devil May Cry game, but it feels like one and that's what matters. There's little things, like how Dante fights like a mixture between old-Dante and Nero. He can pull enemies towards him, like Nero, and even gets his aerial Roulette attack. He also gets Dante's Stinger and Million Stab attack, even the Stinger-to-Million stab move! Remember the Shotgun-fun move Dante had in Gunslinger style? New Dante gets it as well, and there's even a punchy weapon that allows you to charge any of its attacks. This may be a slight spoiler for those new to the franchise, but you get to fight Vergil and... my god, the way he fights is so similar to how he fought in DMC 3. It feels like an alternate take on that fight, as a matter of fact, this game is what it was meant to be: An alternate take on Devil May Cry.

 Do I prefer new Dante over the old one? Nope, the old one is so ridiculously funny that's impossible not to love. But I believe that both series could co-exist, kinda like Marvel's Earth 616 and the Ultimate universe. I want to continue seeing how this story unfolds as much as I want to see Nero and Dante go on. Because it's an alternate take on characters I like, because I can have both characters coexisting without throwing a fit. Because while this game could've accommodated for new and old players alike, like DMC 4 did with Nero, who could do massive damage with few hits, but if you wanted to delve deeper there was always mastering the EX gauge, and Dante, for returning players that wanted to style, instead of pandering mostly to new players, with it's easy average difficulty and easy combos, it's a fun game on its own right.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #306: Devil May Cry 4

 When you gotta save the world, ya gotta save the world.

 And then the DMC franchise made the jump to the then-next-gen and... they made exactly what one would expect of a generational jump. And, considering how much games fail at those, that's a good thing. Instead of streamlining, the game builds upon what the previous game set as foundation, and it uses the power of the then-new consoles to give us stuff that would've been impossible on the PS2.

 What took many people by surprise, was that DMC 4 featured a new hero, and we all know how bad gamers take that, just as Raiden from Metal Gear Solid! Still, I'm always open for a franchise to grow, evolve and expand, so I had no problems with Nero. And NEro is fantastic, he is basically a younger version of Dante from Devil May Cry 1. Speaking of Dante, he's never had a consistent personality before, but DMC 4's Dante is DMC 3's Dante, a totally ridiculously awesome guy, and he is even more ridiculous this time around. As for the supporting cast, they are a bit lame, Kyrie, Nero's love interest and damsel in distress, only exists to smile or look depressed. Those're the only things she does in the entire game. Human bad guys are relatively plain and forgettable, the final boss included, and there's one that's a walking joke, Agnus, however, he and Dante share one of the best cutscenes in the entire game. Then there's Lady and Trish, and... they went full Japan on them. Lady was an amazing character(well, as amazing as it gets in DMC, since characters don't really have much depth, but they make up for it in coolness) back on DMC 3, now she only appears about a minute or so and is only there to jiggle her breasts, plus, her visual design is a mess. Trish looks like she did in DMC 1, and her personality is a neat complement to Dante's, shame she looks ridiculous whenever her breasts move all over the place, since, y'know, Japan. And don't even let me get started on Gloria, one of the worst character designs I've ever seen. And it does matter, DMC has always had cool character that lived and died by the rule of cool, now both Trish and Lady look ridiculous(Not the good ridiculous) in whatever few scenes they get.

 Nero and Dante are the only playable characters, and they each get their own missions, kinda. But first onto what matters, the combat system feels even better than it did on DMC 3. EVEN BETTER. Not even gonna bother mentioning how much better it feels to land hits, thanks to the audiovisual feedback, although I kinda just did. But then there's the fact that Nero and Dante are completely different. Nero only has two weapons, Red Queen, his sword, and Blue Rose, his gun. The gun is about as as useful as long-range weapons get in the DMC series(Read: useless), but he also has a Devil Arm, the Devil Buster, which is used with the circle button. The circle button can be used to use powerful attacks on enemies, and even on bosses if you know when to use it, it can also be used to pull enemies towards you, or in the case of big enemies, pull yourself towards them. When using Nero there's no downtime when it comes to fighting, it's fast, furious, and you force enemies to come towards you. And the Devil Buster grabs look so visceral that it makes it very satisfying to land, heck, on each boss he performs a unique grab. And then there's the EX-gauge, Nero can rev up his Sword to land stronger attacks, or even EX versions of some of his attacks, problem is, revving up his sword, normally, takes a while... but there's a time-window after each slash that, when pressing the rev up button, will instantly fill the gauge. It's not as easy as it sounds!

 And then we have Dante. He plays very similarly to how he did on 3, retaining the 'Style' system. But this time around, Dante has all four basic styles(And later down the line, a fifth) at the same time, toggled by tapping different directions on the directional pad. On DMC 3 you could only change styles before a mission, or on save spots, which was a bit of a downer since certain styles where much better for certain bosses or situations, that's not a problem any more, tap a button and BAM, switched styles. Dante only gets three fire-arms and three melee weapons this time around, but much like Vergil, he carries all six at the same time, and you can switch between them in real time. A few of them are predictable, Rebellion, the sword, and a new 'punching' weapon, his guns, Ebony and Ivory, and a shotgun... but the third new weapon of each is crazy amusing. The melee weapon throws arrows towards an enemy, and if they stick, you can make them explode by throwing a rose(Back+Attack), which, trust me, is much better than it sounds, and Pandora is... Pandora is a lot of long-range weapons in one, including a floating sphere with cannons all over its surface.

 It sounds too good to be true, and it kinda is. There's not enough game to make the most of either character, sadly. A lot of people made a lot of fuss about Dante's stages being 'Nero's in reverse', but that's not quite right. Y'see, while you could play the entire DMC 3 as either Dante or Vergil, this time around, Nero gets 13 chapters to himself, while Dante only gets 7. To add insult to injury, Dante's stages are quicker, gimmicky versions of Nero's levels, 'Now there's poisonous gas!', 'Now there're portals so exits take you to different places!', 'Now you can't sit in place, else a monster takes you onto an enemy arena!', etc. There simply isn't enough game to make the most out of Dante, which is a shame since he's got an incredibly deep moveset, and the way you have to use him is different from Nero's. 

 There were also a couple of sections I could've done without, involving a die. This is an action game, and while there's some exploration, you are constantly moving, It's a fast paced action game, with some adventure elements here and there. And then you get to the die room, in which you must hit a die, and then wait for a board piece to move, depending on where it lands, you'll either get showered with red orbs, or have to fight some enemies. This section brings the game to a halt, and its so very boring that it sticks like a sore thumb from the rest of the game. Hilariously, Dante comes across the same die, but he cuts it in half. 'Oh! So maybe it was worth it to endure that part, since that was really funny, considering how boring it was'... except that they bring it back for the 19th mission. And this time around, unless you hit the exact number, the board piece is gonna do rounds around the board. Fun. But what's even worse, they brought back the only part I didn't like in DMC 3: The boss rush at the end. And this time around, it's tied to this annoying die-mini game. Oh boy, it's gonna take a while. And this makes it so that most bosses are fought three times. THREE TIMES!! And there's not much in the way of unlockables, no characters, no costumes, just more difficulty settings and some art.

 It's not all bad though, the game runs at a very consistent 60 frames per second, which looks beautiful in motion. They really took advantage of the new hardware, most bosses are huge, and it's a joy to fight them, up to the second time as Dante anyways, the third time, again with Nero, was just pushing it... And they did away with most fixed camera angles, there's a few here and there, but usually not where monsters are, now the camera is under your control, which is about damn time! The currency used to buy skills and items has been divided into two: One for items, the red orbs, and one for skills, the Proud souls, which are earned upon completing a mission. This... this is pure genius, no longer having to decide between more moves or health/devil trigger upgrades. Proud Souls are refundable as well, so if you don't like your new moves, or want to try others, you are free to do so.

 DMC 4 did so much good for the franchise. The combat is as tight as ever, Nero was a cool new character, the little enhancements to the camera, the way you buy items and skills from the store, it's a shame that, whether the budget ran out or Capcom rushed the development, Dante wound up having too little game to himself. Still, I can't help but love the game, but part of me wonders just how much better would it have been had Dante gotten his own levels and bosses.

 8.5 out of 10