The Problem With Devil May Cry

I love the Devil May Cry games, but with the impending release of DmC (the 5th game in the series, probably releasing sometime in 2012), I thought I would take some time to cover my problems with the series.

DmC isn't really a reboot of the franchise (at, least I hope not); it's just an origin story for Dante, the main character.  I thought we sort of got one of these with Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, but DmC goes back even further.  It goes back so far, actually, that the Dante I saw in the debut trailer was completely unrecognizable to me.

Here is the wonderfully convoluted game chronology of the Devil May Cry series:

5, 3, 1, 4, 2

Doesn't make much sense, does it?  There was the first game, which created a genre, and which was then followed by the second game, which was pretty much a colossal disappointment to all the fans of the original. Then the third game was released, a prequel to the first, and it was amazing.  The series was rejuvenated.  The fourth game was next, taking place between the first and second games and not even featuring Dante as the main character.  Nonetheless, it was all good... and then DmC was announced.  It's a prequel to the prequel, making the Devil May Cry chronology cry with sadness.  I read once in a forum that Devil May Cry 2 screwed up the story so badly that Capcom didn't even want to try and follow it, so instead they set about making games that were all set before it.  It was funny at the time, but now I'm beginning to think it's true.

Anyway, onwards; it's time to complain about the new DmC.  My initial reaction after watching the trailer was something along the lines of "WHAT THE F*** WAS THAT S***?!".   Apparently, many other fans of the series are of the same opinion.  The new Dante design takes everything we love about the character and throws it all out the window.  They gave him black hair, made him skinny, and decided to make him a smoker.  Wonderful.  Nonetheless, I would have eventually gotten over that if it wasn't for the horrible concept presented to us in the trailer.  Dante is in some sort of mental asylum as a subject, and to me that doesn't fit the tone of the series at all.  All I know is, Team Ninja has a huge weight on their shoulders.  They said that they expected the negative reactions to the changes they made to Dante, and that gives me some hope that maybe they know what they're doing.  Maybe.  But probably not.  Anyway, they have to find some way to tie in Dante's origin (with the mental asylum he's apparently in, and the smoking) with the other games. I look forward to seeing Team Ninja explain how Dante went from a cigarette-smoking punk to arguably the most bad-ass character in gaming, and somewhere along the way I'm hoping they'll explain how he got his white hair.

I have to get this game, if only to see if they manage to piece everything together.  So in the end, I guess Team Ninja wins... they already have my money.