Well I finally beat DMC4. As usual here are my thoughts
Overall good game, but definetly not as good as DMC3.
It was weird seeing so many humans in this game. In the past games they were more rare with the demons being the big bads but there were quite a bit of humans here. Even seeing them populating the streets in cutscenes. This is something that just stuck out to me
I loved Nero. As a character, I think I preferred him over Dante and didn't really miss playing as Dante. I loved the Devil Bringer and how that really altered the gameplay and made the two different. When you do play as Dante, I was kinda disappointed a bit but I got over it. I really dug his look and he has the best costume in the series. He came across as a pretty well developed character here.
It was good to see Trish finally return after 2 games being absent but her presence seems almost pointless. Her Gloria look was so over the top and unnecessary. I expected her to have more interaction with Nero than she had. Once she is revealed as Trish, she seems to kinda fade out of the story. It would have been great if she helped Dante throughout his section and joined the fight against Sanctus. Lady's cameo was even worse.
Speaking of the story, DMC3's felt more personal and emotional and bc of that I was more invested in it. 4....not so much. It was kind of mediocore and predictable. DMC3 had cutscenes at the start and end of each mission, but quite a few here did not. I will say I thought it was interesting to take a religious angle and explore some cult which pitted the angels vs the demons. And you have this Pope-like figure who literally goes insane with power.
As for the gameplay, as usual its top notch here. I love that you could change the style on the fly. That improves things so much and its MUCH better than only being to do so before a mission or at a Divinty Statute. One thing I don't think I liked though was how you upgrade them. In 3, they leveled up just by using them and you could by new moves to add to them. Here you don't buy new moves per style but rather purchase level ups. I guess this was done bc you don't play as Dante for the entire game and it would be too slow to go back to the other way but I liked how he got stronger over time based solely on your experience.
The graphics are amazing here. Of course they've vastly improved over DMC3 due to the new hardware but comparing it to games today, it still holds up very well for a game that came so early in this console gen. Mind you I did play on PC, so that could attribute to why it looks so much better. The forest environment especially looked good as did all the effects associated with Nero's hand.
All the backtracking was a letdown. 1 and 3 had it but not to this degree. Literally the second half of the game is primarily repeating the first half backwards with Dante. Poor game design in my opinion and kinda drags it down instead of pushing it forward.
Biggest letdown of all though is that they NEVER tell us who Nero is. Like WTH? He clearly looks like Dante and has very similar abilities but they don't even make an issue out of this. Like why don't either men react to each other when they meet for the first time and why don't any of the other characters point it out? The only hint the game gives us is Sanctus saying Nero has the blood of Sparda after he gets Yamato. So any theories as to who he is? Im thinking one of these:
1. Sparda's third son, aka Dante and Vergil's younger brother
2. Dante or Vergil's son
3. Vergil reincarnated
Its too bad they never told us and I wonder if that was left off intentionally for a future game.
Overall I think Id give this an 8. While I don't feel its an improvement over DMC3, it isn't a disappointment. Id have given it an 8.5 if not for the repetitive second half. I think it stands out as a good first (and only) entry of the series in this gen. It would be my second favorite game in the series, followed by 1 and then 2
As far as rebooting the series, I can see why some people are upset now. It does feel way too soon as there were only 4 games and they didn't exhaust story potential or run it into the ground. If you are looking in terms of Dante as a protagonist, he's only really had 2and a half games. I think 2 is so irrelevant and easy to ignore and most do. After he is introduced in 1, 3 gets a prequel so 4 is his first appearance post the chronology of the original title and he isn't even the main character. I can see why people would be starving for him to get more focus. They very well could have done a DMC5 with Dante as the lead character again. Actually when I finished the game, I really would have liked to have seen the next game star both he and Nero as playables from the very beginning and you could swap them before each mission. Sadly, I knew that wasn't to be....
Now onto DmC. It'll be interesting to see how they switch things up and how things improve or don't from the original series.
