|
Devil May Cry 4
|
|
|---|---|
North American box cover |
|
| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Producer) Hideaki Itsuno (Director)[1] Yuji Shimomura (Cutscenes) |
| Composer(s) | Kento Hasegawa Akihiko Narita Tetsuya Shibata Kota Suzuki Shusaku Uchiyama |
| Series | Devil May Cry |
| Engine | MT Framework [2] |
| Native resolution | 720p |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows[3] |
| Release date(s) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360: JP January 31, 2008 |
| Genre(s) | Hack and slash, Action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 12 CERO: C ESRB: M OFLC: M OFLC: M |
| Media | Blu-Ray Disc, DVD, Steam |
| System requirements | [4]
|
| Input methods | Keyboard and mouse, Gamepad |
Devil May Cry 4 is the fourth installment of the Devil May Cry series. It was announced in March 2007 that the game would be released simultaneously for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.[5]
In the game, the player controls both Nero, and Dante, the game's protagonist and the series' title character respectively and fights enemies in close combat using firearms, swords, and other weapons. The characters Lady and Trish from previous games in the series make appearances, along with new characters Nero, Kyrie, Credo, Gloria, and Agnus. The game is set after Devil May Cry and before Devil May Cry 2.
Contents |
Gameplay in Devil May Cry 4 is similar to previous games in the series. The player must fight through levels called "missions", occasionally solving puzzles or gathering items. Performance in a mission is graded from D being the bottom grade through C, B, A, and S being the highest grade. Grades are based on items used, Red Orbs gathered, time taken, and the amount of Style Points accumulated. Each Style Point grade has its own tag-word. For example, the SSS grade shows up as "Smokin' Sick Style" on the side of the screen when achieved. Stylish combat is the main focus of the game, which is conveyed through unbroken combos of varied attacks while avoiding damage. The player must avoid attack enemies to continue performing combos, often by memorizing attack patterns.[6]
The Devil Trigger is a super state that enables the player to become more powerful adding a slow but steady health regeneration, with increased damage done. Devil Trigger can be activated by pressing the button to trigger it when the minimum amount on the gauge is filled or when the player is near death during combat, and also through items called Devil Stars.[6]
Some changes introduced into Devil May Cry 4 are the presence of two playable characters, Dante and Nero, and a slight modification to the shop system. A new currency, Proud Souls, is used to buy new abilities while Red Orbs are used to buy items. Proud Souls are rewarded at the end of missions and the amount varies depending on how well the player performs with S rank. Cost of abilities also increase with the purchase of other abilities, though all abilities can be sold back for the original price.[6]
The player plays as Nero throughout most of the game. He starts and ends the game with his Red Queen sword, Blue Rose revolver, and the powers of his Devil Bringer (his demonic right arm). The Red Queen features an Exceed Gauge that can be charged up, allowing for subsequent attacks that are more powerful than regular slashes, until the gauge empties. The Exceed Gauge can also be filled by pressing the rev button at the peak of each slash, which allows for more powerful combos capable of breaking the opponent's guard. Nero also has the powers of his Devil Bringer, and can use it to pull himself towards enemies or vice-versa. The Devil Bringer may also be used for context-sensitive throw attacks, leading to high damage and various effects depending on the enemy. Nero's Devil Bringer also gains new abilities during the course of the game, such as being able to detect secret missions or caches of Red Orbs. Nero eventually gains the ability to use Devil Trigger after getting Yamato, which increases his Devil Bringer's power, thus changing his Devil Bringer attacks into more powerful versions with different animations.[6]
The player plays as Dante through seven missions, taking over halfway through the game. His gameplay is similar to that of Devil May Cry 3, with him having access to multiple melee and ranged weapons which he gains after boss battles, and being able to cycle through them freely in combat, being no longer limited to equipping two weapons of each type as he was in the previous game. Dante also starts with his four styles (Trickster, Royal Guard, Sword Master, Gunslinger), each of which grants him different abilities, but he may now switch them at will with buttons or pads on the PlayStation 3 controller or the Xbox 360 controller, unlike in Devil May Cry 3. He also gains the Dark Slayer style near the end of his appearance, which only has one style level and can be accessed by pressing a direction button twice. Styles do not level up through experience as in the previous game, but must instead be upgraded in the shop screen in between missions or at statues. Dante can also enter Devil Trigger; in his Devil Trigger he gains most of the benefits that Nero's Devil Trigger has, though, as he does not have the Devil Bringer, he gets animation and property changes on some of his normal attacks instead.[6]
On September 6, 2006, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu reported that the series' eponymous character, Dante, will not be the protagonist in Devil May Cry 4. Instead, a new character named Nero, voiced and motion captured by Johnny Yong Bosch, will take the lead.[7] Nero resembles both Dante and his twin brother, Vergil, and is part of the Order of the Sword, a group of warriors who worship Sparda.[8]
Nero's attire consists of blue jeans, a long blue coat, and a red vest with a hood. He wields a revolver named Blue Rose, which has a distinctive under-and-over double barrel, and a decorated single-edged sword called the Red Queen. Nero views Dante as the antagonist, after witnessing the devil hunter first killing the Order's leader, Sanctus, and then murdering members of the Order.[1] Gameplay videos and screens reveal Dante to be an enemy boss in the game.[9]
Nero's right arm resembles a demon's arm, and glows supernaturally; it is also the source of his "Devil Bringer" power. Nero has his own "Devil Trigger" transformation, consisting of a demonic spirit hovering above him.[10] Capcom promotional videos revealed that the spirit mimics Nero's actions and that the Devil Bringer moves change depending on whether or not the Devil Trigger is active.[11]
Dante, the franchise's protagonist, is also playable, and has been updated with the core animations from his appearance in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, as well as that game's four basic fighting styles of Trickster, Royal Guard, Gunslinger, and Swordmaster, which can be switched at will.[12] Game Informer reported that he was both an unlockable and playable character, playing an integral part of the game's storyline.[13] Capcom promotional videos revealed that, like Nero and the first Devil May Cry, the properties of his moves change if the Devil Trigger is activated.[14] Out of the 20 missions available, Dante is playable in seven of them. Returning weapons in his arsenal include the Rebellion sword, the Ebony and Ivory handguns, and the Coyote-A shotgun, but he will be able to acquire new Devil Arms after defeating enemy bosses.[6]
The game opens with Nero hurrying towards the Opera House where the Order of the Sword is conducting a ceremony, with his right arm in a sling. Meanwhile Kyrie, Nero’s romantic interest, is beginning to open the ceremony with a song and is disappointed not to find Nero in the audience. She begins her song nonetheless as Nero encounters several Scarecrow demons on his way to the Opera House; he dispatches them and arrives at the Opera House just in time to hear the end of Kyrie’s song. Following this, Kyrie joins Nero in the audience where she finds Nero has left a present for her in the form of a golden necklace. The High Priest of the Order of the Sword, Sanctus, beckons the Order members to join him in prayer; Nero is visibly bored by this and is about to leave despite Kyrie’s protests, when his right arm begins to glow ominously. At this moment, Dante bursts through the ceiling and assassinates Sanctus.[15]
Nero, under the impression that Kyrie is in danger, attacks Dante to initiate a fight. As Dante gains the upper hand, Nero is forced to use his seemingly wounded arm to shield himself from Dante's Stinger. Next Nero unveils his Devil Bringer, uses its power to seemingly kill Dante by impaling him with his own sword upon the statue of Sparda. Dante responds by saying that Nero is "getting better", and then pushes himself off the statue. As Dante removes the sword from his chest, Nero asks, "You're not human are you?" Dante replies that "We are the same you and I... and them," pointing to one of the dead knights. Nero looks and it is revealed that the knight was possessed with a demonic appearance. Nero looks up to see that Dante is already resting on the hole in the ceiling from which he came. Dante states that he thinks Nero "has something different from the others", and then swoops out of view just as the knight reinforcements arrive.[15]
Nero is charged with capturing Dante and bringing him back to the Order to answer for his crimes by Credo, the leader of the Order's knights and Kyrie’s brother. Upon leaving the Opera House, however, a demonic horde begins to lay waste to the city. Nero and Kyrie are separated as Nero begins to slay the demons. Whilst journeying to Fortuna Castle he meets Gloria, a new member to the Order. Nero fights his way into the depths of Fortuna Castle. On the way, it is revealed that Sanctus has been infused with the soul of a demon to be revived. Agnus, the stuttering scientist and mastermind of the Orders demonic power manipulation, is also introduced.[15]
Nero finally reaches Agnus' facility where he gets tricked and ambushed by several white knights and becomes severely wounded. Vergil's broken katana, Yamato, responds to Nero's cry and mends itself before spinning willingly into his hand. Nero fends off Agnus' knights with the aid of Yamato, and now an intimidating spectral blue demonic aura hovers around him before he collapses in exhaustion. Agnus flees back to Sanctus and informs him of Nero’s new-found power. Credo vows to take care of Nero while Gloria takes over Nero’s pursuit of Dante.[15]
Nero is confronted by Credo, who has been infused with demonic power, has been brainwashed under the false impression that he has become an Angel, who is later defeated by Nero. However, Kyrie arrives in time to witness Nero with his demonic arm standing over her defeated brother. Agnus uses the confusion and distraction on Nero’s part to kidnap Kyrie and flee. Credo postpones his feud with Nero until he can investigate the situation. Nero once more meets Dante, but his quest to capture him is long since forgotten; he wishes to simply pass Dante. However, Dante wants Yamato, the sword used by his twin-brother Vergil, returned to him. A fight ensues where Dante is victorious; however, he decides to let Nero keep Yamato after the latter has “cooled down”. Gloria appears before Dante as Nero leaves; however, it is revealed that Gloria is in fact Trish, Dante’s partner in his demon hunting business “Devil May Cry”.[15]
Nero reaches Sanctus and the “Savior”, an enormous demon which the Order intends to bring to life using Nero and Yamato’s power. Using Kyrie as a human shield, Sanctus is successful in detaining Nero. Sanctus reveals that the Savior requires the essence of Sparda to reach full power; he originally intended Dante be used as the core, but accepts Nero as a suitable substitute, claiming that Nero is also a descendant of Sparda. Credo attempts to rescue the two, but is mortally wounded by Sanctus. Dante arrives and tells Nero to give him his sword back. Nero is absorbed into the Savior. Agnus uses Yamato to open the true Hellgate, releasing a multitude of demons onto the city. Sanctus arrives with the Savior and begins to exterminate the demons. Dante, upon hearing Credo’s dying request to rescue Kyrie and Nero, fights his way back towards the city. On his way, he destroys the three smaller Hellgates used to release the demons.[15]
Dante arrives back at the Opera House and kills Agnus. He then retrieves Yamato and uses it to destroy the true Hellgate before confronting Sanctus and the Savior. After discovering that the Savior is invincible from the outside, Dante drives Yamato into the chest of the Savior, where it is retrieved by Nero. Nero defeats Sanctus inside the Savior and rescues Kyrie. Nero eventually uses his Devil Bringer to destroy the Savior and Sanctus. After entrusting Nero with Yamato, Dante departs. Nero and Kyrie's reunion is interrupted by another demon attack. In the secret ending, at the Devil May Cry shop, Trish and Lady bicker over the small reward Lady had offered, with Lady accusing Trish for having disguised herself as Gloria and delivering Sparda's sword to the Order. After Trish forcibly drags him into their argument, Dante ends it by saying that it's better than nothing. Afterwards, Lady sets out to leave, but then the phone rings, with a customer having another job for Dante to do, and the trio moves out to help.[15]
In an interview, Devil May Cry 4's producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi noted that the production team began working with the game using a PC-based engine. He said that this was the first PlayStation 3 game developed by Capcom, and that making this transition was a "hard step", particularly because no member of the producing team was familiar with the console's capabilities. The game's multi-platform crossover was justified by emphasizing the Xbox 360's success in the North American and European markets, labeling the move as "natural". During production, new gameplay options were implemented in order to "keep up with fresh action games"; among these is the Devil Bringer's ability to bring enemies towards the characters.[16]
Unlike Dante's progress in Devil May Cry 3, Nero was designed to become stronger by upgrading his Devil Bringer ability instead of receiving new weapons after defeating boss characters. During development, the production team noted several aspects of the game, including that Nero would be one of two main characters and that Dante was not going to be the only character from previous entries in the series to appear. Unlike Devil May Cry 3, the game's difficulty would be the same in both the Japanese and European versions as in the one released in North America.[17] The company presented the game's first demo at an event titled "Capcom's Gamer's Day", where Kobayashi highlighted several of the games features.[18] With the team focused in completing the game, a new demo was not produced in time for the 2007 E3 Media and Business Summit.[17]
Itsuno said in the Famitsu article that the visuals attempt to deliver a satisfying feel of being in the air, and that the actions of Nero's Devil Bringer could not be done on contemporary generation consoles, but they could be done on the PlayStation 3;[7] however, the game has since been released on the Xbox 360, and a PC version was released in July, 2008. Gameplay visuals, shown at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, demonstrate this game mechanic. Kobayashi stated in a Game Informer interview that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions would be identical, although he did not comment on the PC version.[13] In a Eurogamer interview, Kobayashi confirmed again that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions would be identical and said that the PC version "would be great, because the same team is working on both".[19]
On March 19, 2007, Capcom announced the game would not be a PlayStation 3 exclusive; it would also be released for the Xbox 360 and the PC. In a thread questioning the move on the official Capcom message board, the company's senior director of strategic planning and research, Christian Svensson, responded by saying that they were moved by people's strong feelings about the decision, but that it was the best decision for the company and consumers.[20] Kobayashi stated that Devil May Cry 4 will have no major graphical differences between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions.[13] He also claimed that the contents will be identical, except that "the feel of the controller" may cause a slight difference.[19] The PlayStation 3 version requires the user to install 5GB of game data, taking 20 minutes, which shortens the length of the loading screens throughout the game. A slide show is shown during the installation process, which introduces characters from previous games in the series.[21]
The first teaser trailer was shown at E³ 2005, depicting Dante traveling through a snow-covered environment, and quickly performing some fast, stylish moves.[22] A more substantial trailer was released at that year's Tokyo Game Show, with a more rugged and older Dante in a city-like setting.[23] Both teasers show very little detail of the game itself. At the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, a more complete trailer debuted, along with a playable demo, featuring the character Nero.[24]
Images from the March 2007 issue of Famitsu show Dante as a playable character. A short trailer was released later, displaying the character in gameplay. While Nero is the game's main character, Dante is the supporting character, playable during the second half of the game until the final boss.[25] A trailer shown at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show revealed the return of Lady and Trish.[26]
A fourth trailer, released on December 17, 2007, revealed more gameplay and story detail, as well as information on new songs for the game, including a new version of "Lock and Load", Dante's theme music from the first Devil May Cry, with new lyrics written and performed by Shawn "Shootie HG" McPherson, the lyricist and lead vocalist on the soundtrack of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Released with the Japanese version of the game is Japanese rock band, L'Arc-en-Ciel, and their new single, "Drink It Down", which is used as the Japanese opening for the game.[7]
A collector's edition of the game was released at the same time as the regular version. The American version includes a DVD of four episodes of the American dub of the anime, while the European and Australian versions only include a signed artbook named "Art of the Devil".[27][28][29] It features a bonus disc containing the making of Devil May Cry 4, and an additional disc of the first four episodes of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.[30] A very small number of Collector's Edition packages were signed by the game's producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, on the back of the metal tin on Dante's left shoulder. This number has been reported to be as low as only 100 signed copies of the Collector's Edition for each console, making for a total of 200 signed copies. Both versions were packaged in a Steel book case.[31]
GameSpot revealed that the PC version would have exclusive features, including more modes and visual customization. Turbo Mode is featured, giving the game a slightly faster speed, and a new difficulty called Legendary Dark Knight Mode is implemented. The PC version also has both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode. It is labeled Games for Windows and runs on both Windows XP and Vista.[32] It assumes a Gamepad is present and does not use the mouse at all, providing virtually the same user interface as the Xbox 360 version.
| Reception | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Upon its release Devil May Cry 4 sold well in Japan and the United States. On February 20, 2008, Capcom's president Haruhiro Tsujimoto announced in a press release that the game shipped two million copies in its first month, making it the fastest sequel in the series to reach this mark.[45] As of March 31, 2008, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions combined to sell 2.3 million copies, according to Capcom.[46] As of July 9, 2008, the PS3 version has sold 304,652 copies in Japan, according to Famitsu.[47][48]
The game received generally favorable reviews, receiving an 84% overall rating from Metacritic. Xbox World Australia gave the game 90/100, saying "Devil May Cry 4 is everything a hack-and-slash should be and then some. Sadly it falters with repeated level design and a moderately troublesome camera; but in the grand scheme of things, these are only minor flaws."[49]
PSM3 gave the game a 80 out of 100. The magazine discussed the difficulty of the game, saying, "Most games these days tend to hold your hand all the way through...Devil May Cry is not like that. It'll throw a million demons at you because it wants to, put in half a dozen arbitrary fights in a 30-foot stretch of map, force you to survive for ages on a tiny sliver of health... and then give you a D at the end of the level because you weren't doing enough combos."[50]
1UP.com graded it A-, praising the gameplay and "predictably slick" looks, but criticized the "divisive industrial hard-rock nonsense.... that sullied DMC3 [and] returns here" and the game's "overly frugal approach to level design".[33] GameTrailers rated it an 8.6/10, and praised the voice acting while criticizing the corny dialouge.[38] IGN gave it a 8.7 saying, "Whether it's on the PS3 or the 360, action fans are going to get one incredible experience with this game, and if you own either system, you'll have a great time." However, the review also noted that, contrary to Kobayashi's claim, "Dante simply doesn't have nearly as many weapons as he did in DMC3" and found that "the amount of backtracking and repetition makes the game feel somewhat half-heartedly finished in the design department."[40] GameSpy gave it 4 stars out of 5, stating that "DMC4 succeeds on many levels because it fuses fan service with entertaining gameplay", finding that "visually, DMC4 is a dynamo." The review also praised Nero for "[bringing] something fresh to the franchise" and being "as diverse as DMC3 SE's Vergil [sic]"; however, they also claim that "it cheapens things a little to see that the team has opted to recycle assets in lieu of showing us more of this rich world" and call out the "annoying industrial-meets-butt-rock soundtrack".[37]
|
||||||||