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DmC, if you ask me, had one of the worst luck streaks a good game can have.
First its trailer is genuinely shitty, then it has to come out in 2013, smack dab in the 2010--2015 era I call "the savaging era". And both of those things on top of an incredibly protective fandom that slaughtered it almost the minute it was announced.
I'm not gonna make a secret of it: DmC is a good game, whether you like it or not. It's got great game design, good level design, a cool soundtrack, and an interesting protagonist, but that last one is the only one I'm gonna talk about because I want to talk about it in relation to Kratos' character in the God of War series.
Continuing with my honesty, I'm still 100% sure to this day that 95% of the people who claim DmC is a bad game aren't actually upset about a bad game, they're mad about a different game with a different Dante. I've heard people who hate the game complain about bad characters and bad combat, but they never actually elaborate on that any further even when asked.
Look, I know I sound really dismissive, but this isn't projecting. Critique is a big deal these days and very few people can do it correctly or honestly, and people will lie their asses off about hating something for "the right reasons".
And that's the big problem with the DmC debacle because DmC is a separate story from Classic DMC. The publishers and developers took the smartest route possible in making it alternate universe, meaning it didn't affect the previous canon or storylines in any way, but it fell on deaf ears. No, this game ruined Devil May Cry and ruined Dante, they all say, despite it doing neither.
And I understand that reaction even if I don't appreciate it. It's a natural inclination that should be expected. What I don't get however, is the sheer scale of the inverted reaction when God of War PS4 was announced and all the hate....didn't come.
If we're going to step back and look at them both, Classic DMC (and Dante) and Classic God of War (and Kratos) are rather similar things. You don't play Devil May Cry for the depth of the story or the interesting levels, you play it for the sheer coolness of Dante and watching him hack and slash at demons with you occasionally taking part. Likewise, you don't play God of War for the depth of the story or interesting levels, you play it for the sheer hardcore-ness of Kratos and his enormous muscles utterly slaughtering anything in your path be they monsters or gods. In other words, it's the badassery factor that sells both series.
Then DmC (2013) brings us a more story-focused game, and God of War (2017) brings us a more story-focused game, and the fandom and critical reactions are both the complete opposite of each other.
Look dudes, DmC Dante is just not anything like the effortless badass that Classic Dante is. I happen to like DmC Dante more, but that's besides the point--one doesn't affect the other. DmC is a separate story by separate developers that is created with the respect of allowing Classic Devil May Cry to go untouched. But God of War PS4 did not do that.
Classic Kratos is a fucking villain. Not a tragic, but redeemable anti-hero. Kratos' self-entitlement, myopia, and utter slaughter of anything inbetween him and the latest target of his anger is not something you can twist into a decent, if hardass, dude.
Put to one side that the combat and level design and story of this game suck, because no one cares: they care that Kratos is now Joel Miller with a son who is essentially Ellie: this is a shitty the Last of Us clone and it is shamelessly placed at the end of the Classic series' timeline, insisting these two are the same character. And they can't be. Classic Kratos is pretty unlikeable and you can understand that and still enjoy his games. But even if you could somehow twist that monster of a man into the woodsy dad we see in God of War PS4, you can't fucking do it offscreen.
You can't put a game hundreds of years into the future of a series, show us a completely different character, and just say that all his mellowing out occurred over that time. That's lazy, inconsiderate to the character, and in this case, a cop-out. You plopped a completely different Kratos into this series (into a crap game by the way), made him have thoughtful life experiences with some kid, and said that that was the Kratos we all knew and were familiar with. You made an AU and then said it was canon.
This is a game that should have been AU. It should have been its own thing--a fresh start, a different start. This game needed the DmC treatment and was a disservice to its franchise for not going that route. The fans had genuine reason to be mad about this game and this Kratos, but they ate it up. And I just don't fucking get it.
It makes me angry because this game doesn't deserve its praise from longtime fans or gameplay-focused ones, and meanwhile I continue to endure the internet's ceaseless whining that DmC receives for having the balls to a decent hack and slash with a dude named Dante who is actually enjoyable to watch and play as and has more than depth than a teaspoon.
I will never understand, or respect, this phenomenon.
First its trailer is genuinely shitty, then it has to come out in 2013, smack dab in the 2010--2015 era I call "the savaging era". And both of those things on top of an incredibly protective fandom that slaughtered it almost the minute it was announced.
I'm not gonna make a secret of it: DmC is a good game, whether you like it or not. It's got great game design, good level design, a cool soundtrack, and an interesting protagonist, but that last one is the only one I'm gonna talk about because I want to talk about it in relation to Kratos' character in the God of War series.
Continuing with my honesty, I'm still 100% sure to this day that 95% of the people who claim DmC is a bad game aren't actually upset about a bad game, they're mad about a different game with a different Dante. I've heard people who hate the game complain about bad characters and bad combat, but they never actually elaborate on that any further even when asked.
Look, I know I sound really dismissive, but this isn't projecting. Critique is a big deal these days and very few people can do it correctly or honestly, and people will lie their asses off about hating something for "the right reasons".
And that's the big problem with the DmC debacle because DmC is a separate story from Classic DMC. The publishers and developers took the smartest route possible in making it alternate universe, meaning it didn't affect the previous canon or storylines in any way, but it fell on deaf ears. No, this game ruined Devil May Cry and ruined Dante, they all say, despite it doing neither.
And I understand that reaction even if I don't appreciate it. It's a natural inclination that should be expected. What I don't get however, is the sheer scale of the inverted reaction when God of War PS4 was announced and all the hate....didn't come.
If we're going to step back and look at them both, Classic DMC (and Dante) and Classic God of War (and Kratos) are rather similar things. You don't play Devil May Cry for the depth of the story or the interesting levels, you play it for the sheer coolness of Dante and watching him hack and slash at demons with you occasionally taking part. Likewise, you don't play God of War for the depth of the story or interesting levels, you play it for the sheer hardcore-ness of Kratos and his enormous muscles utterly slaughtering anything in your path be they monsters or gods. In other words, it's the badassery factor that sells both series.
Then DmC (2013) brings us a more story-focused game, and God of War (2017) brings us a more story-focused game, and the fandom and critical reactions are both the complete opposite of each other.
Look dudes, DmC Dante is just not anything like the effortless badass that Classic Dante is. I happen to like DmC Dante more, but that's besides the point--one doesn't affect the other. DmC is a separate story by separate developers that is created with the respect of allowing Classic Devil May Cry to go untouched. But God of War PS4 did not do that.
Classic Kratos is a fucking villain. Not a tragic, but redeemable anti-hero. Kratos' self-entitlement, myopia, and utter slaughter of anything inbetween him and the latest target of his anger is not something you can twist into a decent, if hardass, dude.
Put to one side that the combat and level design and story of this game suck, because no one cares: they care that Kratos is now Joel Miller with a son who is essentially Ellie: this is a shitty the Last of Us clone and it is shamelessly placed at the end of the Classic series' timeline, insisting these two are the same character. And they can't be. Classic Kratos is pretty unlikeable and you can understand that and still enjoy his games. But even if you could somehow twist that monster of a man into the woodsy dad we see in God of War PS4, you can't fucking do it offscreen.
You can't put a game hundreds of years into the future of a series, show us a completely different character, and just say that all his mellowing out occurred over that time. That's lazy, inconsiderate to the character, and in this case, a cop-out. You plopped a completely different Kratos into this series (into a crap game by the way), made him have thoughtful life experiences with some kid, and said that that was the Kratos we all knew and were familiar with. You made an AU and then said it was canon.
This is a game that should have been AU. It should have been its own thing--a fresh start, a different start. This game needed the DmC treatment and was a disservice to its franchise for not going that route. The fans had genuine reason to be mad about this game and this Kratos, but they ate it up. And I just don't fucking get it.
It makes me angry because this game doesn't deserve its praise from longtime fans or gameplay-focused ones, and meanwhile I continue to endure the internet's ceaseless whining that DmC receives for having the balls to a decent hack and slash with a dude named Dante who is actually enjoyable to watch and play as and has more than depth than a teaspoon.
I will never understand, or respect, this phenomenon.
