sisslethecat
Woah, talk about information overload.
So for a little while now, there’s been some rumors flying around concerning the future of the Devil May Cry franchise. While some ended up being meaningless (a misinterpreted listing on a voice actor’s resume), others simply not materializing into anything (being listed in amongst other games that didn’t actually get announced at this past E3), it’s hard to deny one element that has remained pretty steadfast through all of this: Devil May Cry series director Hideaki Itsuno has been teasing something for a while now. While it’s worth noting that it very well could easily be a sequel to 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma (although I’ve still pondered the possibility of that actually being what Capcom’s long since MIA Deep Down project was), the other option, it being a new Devil May Cry title, has a fans going nuts. Now that a seemingly insane amount of information has leaked, fan hopes may be going into overdrive.
Take this with a massive grain of salt.
According to Resetera user Son of Sparda, we’re getting not just a new Devil May Cry, but a new Devil May Cry in the original canon, before the 2013 reboot DmC: Devil May Cry. Sparda claims that they are part of a Devil May Cry community that has had access to this information for quite some time, and had been holding onto it in case Itsuno made an official announcement this year, possibly at PSX. After some of this information slipped out, they’ve decided (as a community) to release this information in as close to an official way as a leaker can, without risking waters getting muddied. They’ve also taken full responsibility and will be accepting a permanent ban from Resetera if the information proves to be false. Hold on to your butts.
- Hideaki Itsuno’s secret project for Capcom is the sequel to the original Devil May Cry series, the 5th installment. Internally it appears to be called “Devil May Cry V” instead of using the standard numeric system of the previous games (think MGS1-4 to MGSV).
RELEASE DATE AND PRODUCTION
- The game is slated to release some time in the fiscal calendar year of 2019. That means sometime between April 2018 and March 2019. Original plan was to release it in November 2018 but the date MIGHT have been pushed back to early 2019.
- Originally DMCV was intended to be announced at PSX but after receiving feedback on their E3 press conference, Sony decided to scale back on PSX and instead scale up E3 2018. DMCV was an unfortunate casualty of this choice and thus it’s unlikely that DMCV gets officially revealed in 2017.
- There will be a demo for the game sometime before release.
- Game has been in development for 2 years as of today. When it will release it will have been in development for 3 years at least. That is actually the highest time a DMC game has been in full production for. Pre-production started as early as 2015 around the time that DMC4SE finished releasing. There have been no development hiccups and as stated, the development has in fact been progressing smoothly.
- There is some form of Playstation exclusivity involved. Sony is paying for some of the funding for the game but the extent of it is not known. Could be completely PS4 exclusive, console exclusive or timed exclusive. If the game is announced publicly then it will be at a Sony event, which is why many people thought that it was going to be at PSX.
- Trailer has been ready for a while now. The initial trailer is 1 minute 50 seconds long (they may add new cuts to trailer to make an extended version since some time has passed from when it was made). It is mostly focused on story, characters and cutscenes. A city like setting is shown in the trailer not that different from Fortuna city in DMC4.
- The overall game is supposed to be “ambitious” for a DMC title with a broader appeal.
- Longest cutscene runtime of any DMC game yet.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
- Itsuno’s team that worked on previous DMC games and Dragon’s Dogma is working on DMCV.
- Yuji Shimomura is returning as the cutscene director for DMCV. He worked on DMC3, DMC4 and Bayonetta cutscenes.
- Rueben Langdon is reprising his role as Dante.
- Johnny Young Bosch is reprising his role as Nero.
- Dan Southworth is reprising his role as Vergil.
- No word on the actresses who played Trish and Lady if they will be returning,
- Onyay Pheori is helping with the soundtrack (she did the song for DMC4SE’s launch trailer).
CHARACTERS AND STORY (POTENTIALLY BIG SPOILERS!)
- DMCV picks up the story after DMC4.
- More than one playable character in the game, Dante is for sure playable and Nero is possibly playable as well. Up to 3 playable characters have been suggested for now.
- This is the most serious Dante has been (a “new side” of Dante), of course not counting DMC2. Dante still plays with his enemies and has his usual over the top flair but this game is going to be more personal for him.
- A third character is expected to be playable as well. Said to be “very powerful.” May or may not be brand new to the series.
- No word on whether Vergil is playable or not, he will be returning although specifics on how he is returning from his death in DMC1 are unknown.
- Trish has a prominent role to play in DMCV but no word on whether she is playable or not.
- There will be a sequence where Nero and Vergil have a confrontation, confirming their relationship (Nero is in fact Vergil’s son as stated in the DMC3142 artbook).
- Characters switch during key story points in the game.
- The “Prince of Darkness” is featured as the main antagonist of the story. (Prince of Darkness title normally refers to Mundus so it might indicate his return but that title may have transferred to another character)
- DMCV might be the end of the “sons of Sparda” storyline.
GAME PLAY/SYSTEMS
- Hard lock on is standard.
- Console is targeted for 60 frames per second like the previous DMC games.
- Level design is more open than previous DMC games but not going into Souls or open world territory of level design. Movement outside of combat has been streamlined to match the open nature of the game. The structure is more open to make the experience more “smooth.” Immersion is important to the team with this game.
- Level design and exploration is more similar to Bayonetta with action set pieces thrown in there but without the QTEs. QTEs in general do not exist in DMCV thus far.
- There is NO Stamina bar.
- This is not a Musou game but there will be encounters where you are facing more enemies than you are used to in a DMC game.
- There is some online integration but definitely no multiplayer PvP.
- Dodge system is reworked and dodging in general is supposed to be a lot smoother than before (get ready to hear the word “smooth” a lot when related to DMCV).
- Camera pulls back during big fights. The devs are really proud of the new, more dynamic camera system.
- Animations are being improved to be less stiff. Big emphasis on cloth physics (maybe Dante’s sword might not clip through his jacket now!). Battles are beautifully animated and smooth.
- Mission and Ranking system similar to previous DMC games and Bayonetta. There will definitely be mission/chapter selects.
- Bosses being ramped up dramatically in DMCV. One of the boss fights moves between multiple areas of the game.
- Style system is in for Dante – Enemies will react a bit differently to each style.
- Style system has been streamlined to be smoother to use for the players (speculated that the style system might be tuned/reworked to make it easier to get into than in DMC4).
- Certain styles will have advantages on certain enemies similar to DmC/DMC3 (you can use a single style on any enemy just fine).
- More environment interactivity than any previous DMC game. This is supposed to compliment the combat system, not detract from it.
- There is some form of dynamic environment destruction/transformation in play but not on the scale of DmC thus far.
- While this is not an open world game, some inspirations have been taken from Dragon’s Dogma.
Woah, Bessy. That’s a cubic buttload of info there. A lot more than I feel we usually get from fan leaks (even the rather robust RE7 leaks weren’t this detailed or extensive). Even not being particularly plugged into DMC as a whole (I own them all, but only sort of piddle around in them every few months or so) it’s hard not to feel the excitement a hardcore fan must feel from these details. Returning actors, picking up from the original story, and promises of being the most robust DMC ever?
This still all falls in line with Capcom’s promises of reviving “dormant” IPs from late last year, a process that started with (the albeit lackluster) Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. Since then, Capcom hasn’t actually announced much, with very little in the way of new titles known to be in production. Resident Evil has at least three titles coming (REmake 2, Resident Evil 8, and an unannounced project), Ace Attorney 7 is rumored for the Nintendo Switch, and Monster Hunter: World is well on its way – but I’d hardly call any of those “dormant” franchises. Ace Attorney has had almost one release a year since 2011, Monster Hunter once every 3 years or so, and Resident Evil… hahaha there’s like three games a year. Where are the rest of these franchises that Capcom had been promising to resurrect? I’d personally been hoping for a return of Dino Crisis, Power Stone (fuck you, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite), or even Haunting Grounds and Clock Tower (fuck you, NightCry).
Devil May Cry is also one of these titles that could really use a more modern release. Despite both DMC4 and DmC being ported to current gen consoles, the last actual release in the series was in 2013, and the last release in the original canon was in 2008. So, yeah. It’s been a while. Fingers are crossed we get more information soon, although considering the leaker also suggests that we might not be getting official info this year, it might be a while. We will, of course, keep you updated, and just on the off chance it does get announced, PSX is December 9th and 10th. Capcom is for sure going to be there, although they might just be showing off RE7‘s final DLC. I really hope there’s more than that though.
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