Anyway, I replayed DMC4 since we're talking about it.
This is ultimately still the game that underwhelmed me in 2008, but time has been kinder to it in the sense that when removed of that original release context, it need not be so beholden to serving all the various masters that it seemingly had to, at the time. In my view, it needed to 1) prove that 3's functional comeback for the series wasn't a fluke 2) drive forward the series's ongoing narrative, after the irrelevant 2 and prequel 3 3) figure out this whole "HD" thing. Fulfilling all those obligations at once seems a tall order, and especially when taken together some things begin to chafe, so with 4 there's a sense that it's both a risk-taking and safety-in-formula kind of continuation for the series's voice.
My personal antipathy toward it at the time (and somewhat still now) was largely rooted in the realities of console development at the time and what the fidelity jump entailed; we had larger screen resolutions now but the scale of asset development and familiarization with the related tools would take years upon years for most people to get a better handle on--it's why the mid-to-late 2000s are the most aesthetically dismal period in the wider medium that I can recall, and DMC4 carries many of those scars. Overly spacious environments for how barren and sparsely populated they are, a washed-out and monotonous colour palette, an entire forest made out of aggressive bloom lighting. It does not help that 4 invites a direct comparison, as it looks to DMC1 most of all for guidance in a plethora of ways, including its environmental narrative. The castle --> forest --> colosseum and back again game loop is more or less present here, just in less captivating form or without the sense of interconnected sprawl that leaves a game world mentally persistent even after it exits one's immediate field of vision.
DMC1 looms over much of the game and it oscillates wildly whether the influence is for good or ill. More abstract parallels are welcome, such as Nero's playstyle evoking the non-weapon-switching focus of the original, but in many instances the cribs are strangely literal. A large starring role of the regular enemy cast is given to DMC1 transplants like Frosts and Assaults (Blades by another name, really) or opponents that very directly evoke their earlier counterparts, as the Scarecrows are to Marionettes and Mephistos and Fausts are to Sin and Death Scissors, whether in appearance, behaviour or related tactics. Almost all bosses are fought more than once, even outside of the scope of the customary Capcom boss rush, though in contrast to DMC1, it's usually you as the player character who are changed and not they from encounter to encounter. Regardless, all of it together and on a consistent basis can leave the game feeling like it's searching for an identity it doesn't really have, and leaves one wondering whether the reliance on previous concepts was defaulted to in the wake of the generational jump that complicated all other development matters. DMC was functionally dormant for so long of its existence that it can sometimes escape recollection that this fourth part was only a six years and change after the first game, leaving the backwards-facing nostalgic bent of it a little premature in how it comes off.
Dante's playable role is something I've come to appreciate more over time, or at least shed some of my hangups about his integration. He still feels a visitor in someone else's game, with the nuances and overall rhythms of battle tailored for Nero's specifics, but depending on personal aptitude with his vast kit, he really can just override much of the projected challenges and scenarios presented by those dynamics. I'll never maximize his potential because I don't possess the mental computing nor finger dexterity necessary for it, but even sloppy, haphazard play can result in him projecting the same showboat power he exudes in the narrative and as a boss. What I am not so fond of is his arsenal, which taken together as it always is during play turns dizzyingly diverse, but in its individual components rates more than a little uninspired. Four sixths of it consist of familiar staples, with particularly the gauntlet and greaves combo in Gilgamesh being a functional repeat of 3's Beowulf with a few DMC1 Ifrit niceties mixed in. Lucifer and Pandora are both conceptually inventive, but practically fussy and very pro-oriented in how much you can show off with them and how awkward they are outside of mastery, which leaves the overall dynamic between the arsenal and Dante himself embodying much of the disconnect in the various things that make up what DMC4 is: either curiously stagnant, or pushing it toward an extreme that leaves a middle ground largely exempt from the proceedings.
It almost escapes mention for how outrageously blatant it is about it and thus ostensibly needless to particularly detail, but... you also can't play this game and come out of it with a sensation that it regards women as anything but sex objects. On a "friendly to women" scale in what it's about and how it expresses itself, DMC has for all its existence been skimming the bottom, but 4 represented a kind of turning point even by that excessively low standard that it has not reoriented since. It's not the kind of subtly insidious sexism that poisons a narrative when you think about it for a while or colours irreparably your understanding of a work--it's the kind of shamelessly unexamined, heaving-breasts parading and posing of women, whether in the throes of orgasmic combat, embroiled in sexy peril, or just bending over for the camera, all sculpted and dressed up for that consumptive end. It's completely devoid of subtext in its aims and so can be read directly for what it is, and consequently grant oneself with the understanding that the game could be like this because none of it was ever questioned in how normalized this type of content was and is, especially from Capcom's internal culture during this period. You can't particularly defeat sexism and misogyny, with them just adapting to the different standards and conventions of an era--the only way in which DMC4 might appear exceptional in this regard is that it can cause whiplash in reacquainting with a recent past's permissible and expected norms that may have by now morphed into something else.
Do I like DMC4? Maybe, though it would be a reserved affection. Its mechanical retexturings of series tenets rate a little paradoxical in personal estimation, while its navigation of its place in that lineage tracks similarly soul-searching. It is reliable and floundering all at the same time, confident in its ability to entertain while stalling for time. It may be uncomfortable, but an equilibrium all the same.
This is ultimately still the game that underwhelmed me in 2008, but time has been kinder to it in the sense that when removed of that original release context, it need not be so beholden to serving all the various masters that it seemingly had to, at the time. In my view, it needed to 1) prove that 3's functional comeback for the series wasn't a fluke 2) drive forward the series's ongoing narrative, after the irrelevant 2 and prequel 3 3) figure out this whole "HD" thing. Fulfilling all those obligations at once seems a tall order, and especially when taken together some things begin to chafe, so with 4 there's a sense that it's both a risk-taking and safety-in-formula kind of continuation for the series's voice.
My personal antipathy toward it at the time (and somewhat still now) was largely rooted in the realities of console development at the time and what the fidelity jump entailed; we had larger screen resolutions now but the scale of asset development and familiarization with the related tools would take years upon years for most people to get a better handle on--it's why the mid-to-late 2000s are the most aesthetically dismal period in the wider medium that I can recall, and DMC4 carries many of those scars. Overly spacious environments for how barren and sparsely populated they are, a washed-out and monotonous colour palette, an entire forest made out of aggressive bloom lighting. It does not help that 4 invites a direct comparison, as it looks to DMC1 most of all for guidance in a plethora of ways, including its environmental narrative. The castle --> forest --> colosseum and back again game loop is more or less present here, just in less captivating form or without the sense of interconnected sprawl that leaves a game world mentally persistent even after it exits one's immediate field of vision.
DMC1 looms over much of the game and it oscillates wildly whether the influence is for good or ill. More abstract parallels are welcome, such as Nero's playstyle evoking the non-weapon-switching focus of the original, but in many instances the cribs are strangely literal. A large starring role of the regular enemy cast is given to DMC1 transplants like Frosts and Assaults (Blades by another name, really) or opponents that very directly evoke their earlier counterparts, as the Scarecrows are to Marionettes and Mephistos and Fausts are to Sin and Death Scissors, whether in appearance, behaviour or related tactics. Almost all bosses are fought more than once, even outside of the scope of the customary Capcom boss rush, though in contrast to DMC1, it's usually you as the player character who are changed and not they from encounter to encounter. Regardless, all of it together and on a consistent basis can leave the game feeling like it's searching for an identity it doesn't really have, and leaves one wondering whether the reliance on previous concepts was defaulted to in the wake of the generational jump that complicated all other development matters. DMC was functionally dormant for so long of its existence that it can sometimes escape recollection that this fourth part was only a six years and change after the first game, leaving the backwards-facing nostalgic bent of it a little premature in how it comes off.
Dante's playable role is something I've come to appreciate more over time, or at least shed some of my hangups about his integration. He still feels a visitor in someone else's game, with the nuances and overall rhythms of battle tailored for Nero's specifics, but depending on personal aptitude with his vast kit, he really can just override much of the projected challenges and scenarios presented by those dynamics. I'll never maximize his potential because I don't possess the mental computing nor finger dexterity necessary for it, but even sloppy, haphazard play can result in him projecting the same showboat power he exudes in the narrative and as a boss. What I am not so fond of is his arsenal, which taken together as it always is during play turns dizzyingly diverse, but in its individual components rates more than a little uninspired. Four sixths of it consist of familiar staples, with particularly the gauntlet and greaves combo in Gilgamesh being a functional repeat of 3's Beowulf with a few DMC1 Ifrit niceties mixed in. Lucifer and Pandora are both conceptually inventive, but practically fussy and very pro-oriented in how much you can show off with them and how awkward they are outside of mastery, which leaves the overall dynamic between the arsenal and Dante himself embodying much of the disconnect in the various things that make up what DMC4 is: either curiously stagnant, or pushing it toward an extreme that leaves a middle ground largely exempt from the proceedings.
It almost escapes mention for how outrageously blatant it is about it and thus ostensibly needless to particularly detail, but... you also can't play this game and come out of it with a sensation that it regards women as anything but sex objects. On a "friendly to women" scale in what it's about and how it expresses itself, DMC has for all its existence been skimming the bottom, but 4 represented a kind of turning point even by that excessively low standard that it has not reoriented since. It's not the kind of subtly insidious sexism that poisons a narrative when you think about it for a while or colours irreparably your understanding of a work--it's the kind of shamelessly unexamined, heaving-breasts parading and posing of women, whether in the throes of orgasmic combat, embroiled in sexy peril, or just bending over for the camera, all sculpted and dressed up for that consumptive end. It's completely devoid of subtext in its aims and so can be read directly for what it is, and consequently grant oneself with the understanding that the game could be like this because none of it was ever questioned in how normalized this type of content was and is, especially from Capcom's internal culture during this period. You can't particularly defeat sexism and misogyny, with them just adapting to the different standards and conventions of an era--the only way in which DMC4 might appear exceptional in this regard is that it can cause whiplash in reacquainting with a recent past's permissible and expected norms that may have by now morphed into something else.
Do I like DMC4? Maybe, though it would be a reserved affection. Its mechanical retexturings of series tenets rate a little paradoxical in personal estimation, while its navigation of its place in that lineage tracks similarly soul-searching. It is reliable and floundering all at the same time, confident in its ability to entertain while stalling for time. It may be uncomfortable, but an equilibrium all the same.
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