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killscreencinema · 4 years

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Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

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When Kingdom Hearts was first announced, I was excited to say the least. By this point, I was still a diehard Squaresoft fan (let me emphasize - SquareSOFT, before the dark times... before Square Enix...). I was also a lapsed Disney fan. I used to be obsessed with all things Disney as a child, and even dreamed of some day being an animator for Disney, before I discovered not only how limited my art ability was, but how torturous an existence being an animator is. Ah, to be steeped in the warm nostalgic womb of Disney, before life pulled me out and smacked my ass with adulthood.

Anyway, Kingdom Hearts appealed to me because it was the conglomeration of my childhood fandom with my mature fandom, smooshed together in a way that made every bit of sense, like peanut butter and chocolate. When it released in 2002 (wow, has it really been that long???), it did not disappoint, and I spent countless hours playing and replaying it until I 100% completed it. Oh man, sorry, I’m having ‘Nam flashbacks to the many fits of rage I had while trying to beat the Ice Titan. Screw Sephiroth, the Ice Titan was a real bastard, what with his only vulnerability being knocking his projectiles back at him, taking off lil bits of his health at a time, while he relentlessly pounded you with area attacks or magic that freeze you.

So obviously, I’m very well acquainted with Kingdom Hearts. After playing the second game, though, I dropped off because the spin-off sequels became overwhelming and stupid. I knew something was amiss when I booted up Kingdom Hearts II the first time, and didn’t know what the everloving fuck was happening (while the first game’s plot was more or less pretty straight forward). I’ll dig into Kingdom Hearts II in a later post though.

So when Kingdom Hearts III finally came out, I was ambivalent... but curious. I started to get that ol’ Kingdom Hearts itch. I didn’t want to go into the game completely ignorant of the lore, though. I want to give the game as fair a chance as I could WITHOUT having to play the umpteen games before it. So I got the HD remix for the PS4 and decided to start from the beginning.

I’m glad that I did, too, because replaying Kingdom Hearts was a nice revisit to simpler times. I forgot how well structured the game is and how well realized the Disney/Square amalgamation premise was. The two properties were surprisingly compatible, with Final Fantasy characters seamlessly coexisting alongside the likes of Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, and other iconic Disney characters. Speaking of Mickey, Kingdom Hearts is nothing if noteworthy of one amazing accomplishment - making Mickey Mouse BADASS! Who saw that coming?

The story still holds up - you play as Sora, a kid from the peaceful world of Destiny Isles, who dreams with his friends Riku and Kairi of someday leaving their humdrum existence and going off on an adventure. Naturally, they get more than they bargained for when their home is destroyed by an existential threat known as the Heartless, who have been ravaging worlds left and right. Sora only survives after being mysteriously given a magical weapon called a Keyblade, which is the only thing capable of defeating the Heartless and sealing off worlds from their attacks. Sora wakes up at a refugee world of sorts called Traverse Town, where survivors of the Heartless attack have gathered, and he teams up with Goofy and Donald Duck, both of whom are on their own quest to find King Mickey in order to hopefully beat back the Heartless threat.

As the trio of heroes, you travel from world to world, each one based on some Disney property or another, teaming up with the likes of Aladdin, Jack Skellington, or Ariel from The Little Mermaid to vanquish the Heartless. The gameplay is fast-paced hack n’ slash action, where you can only control Sora, leaving Goofy and Donald to the mercy of a questionable AI (which brings me to my first pro-tip: do not, except under the most extreme circumstances, give Donald or Goofy items because they will burn through them in a single battle or two). Like any other RPG, you eventually upgrade keyblades, buy and equip armor or stat boosting accessories. Kingdom Hearts is a pretty accessible game for even the most RPG illiterate, no doubt because Square suspected the Disneyification would attract younger than normal gamers. However, the game isn’t “baby’s first RPG” either, as it can get pretty difficult pretty quickly for the uninitiated.

Speaking of difficulty, since this was my third play through of the game, I wanted to really make it count, so I played on the hardest difficulty setting - Proud Mode. Phew, let me tell you, it kicked my ass for good long while before I acclimated to it. Even weaker enemies at the beginning of the game can kill you in 2-3 hits if you’re not careful, and with Sora having not yet learned useful combos or the Cure spell yet, this was an extremely trying way to begin a game I hadn’t played in more than 10 years. Eventually, as you level up, get better weapons, and spells the playing field evens up a bit more, but you’re going to need patience if you’re going to try this challenge.

I also decided to “platinum” the game since I was playing on PS4, which meant for this play through on “Proud Mode”, I needed to complete all the side quests (including the secrets bosses and all the Coliseum matches), obtaining all the weapons, completing nearly all the Gummi ship missions, never using a continue, and maxing out Sora at level 99. Then after beating the game, I’d have to play it again, this time on Easy (fuck it, I’ve earned it), and beat it under 15 hours while using only the default weapons and armor. So yeah, I really made it count this time around, and I’m happy to say I succeeded in getting the platinum trophy. For those playing at home, that means I beat all the secret bosses, including Sephiroth and the aforementioned Ice Titan, like total bitches on Hard Mode.

I’m a goddamn Kingdom Hearts Master!

And I had a ball doing it, even when things got frustrating or tedious. The game really holds up and I’m shocked that it be completed in under 15 hours (my speedrun clocked in around 10). So it’s a surprisingly short game as far as RPGs go, if you just stay on the main quest. If you’re a Disney fan and/or an RPG gamer, but haven’t play this game because you’re intimidated by the ridiculous lineup of sequels and spin-offs that it spawned, I say give it a try anyway. It’s one of the best games on the PS2 and probably one of the masterpieces crafted by Square before they dipped in quality.

But all that is about to change..... ohhhhh yess.... (Cue the first iconic notes of the intro cinematic to Final Fantasy VII)

#kingdom hearts #disney #rpg #squaresoft #square enix #sora #riku #goofy #donald duck #mickey mouse #playstation #ps4 #ps2 #sony

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casualarsonist · 6 years

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No Man’s Sky (PS4) review

A while back I posted a first impressions run-down of my initial thoughts on No Man’s Sky.

https://casualarsonist.tumblr.com/post/164330011115/no-mans-sky-in-2017-a-first-impressions-review

In it you can find the perspective of someone who was somewhere within the first fifty hours of having an amazing time, and I think it’s a good companion piece to the feelings expressed here. I bought the game for £10 on the Playstation store after a great deal of umm-ing and ah-ing and following the aftermath of the PR meltdown catalysed by Sean Murray and Hello Games’ numerous unfulfilled promises preceding the game’s launch, and upon loading it up I found the incredible size of the game, the beauty of its landscapes, and the utterly unique feeling of dropping down on the middle of a life-sized alien planet with nothing with the sound of the wind howling along a desolate landscape absolutely captivating. But, for some reason, after about fifty hours of engaging gameplay, I just kind of dropped it and never went back. If I recall correctly, it might have had something to do with a PS Store sale and a bunch of other shorter games that distracted me…

You know what it’s like…

But regardless of the reason, I didn’t go back to No Man’s Sky for months. It was only after coming home late one night last week and not feeling like I was ready to go to bed that I sat in the dark, booted the ol’ PS4 up and clicked ‘play’ on the game to remind myself of what was going on. The interesting thing is that after giving myself some time, space, and perspective, coming back to it after all that time away laid bare a fact about the game that had remained hidden to me right up until that moment. A fact that defines the end experience for the player as much as its ambition defines the beginning.

No Man’s Sky is a first-person space exploration game developed by the small 16-man studio, ‘Hello Games’. Having only ever released the side-scrolling racing/platformer ‘Joe Danger’ games, No Man’s Sky was a huge shift from the studio’s base of experience, and an incredible up-scale in scope from anything they had previously attempted. The player awakens on a planet next to the busted shell of their crashed ship. Beyond them lies an enormous, procedurally-generated expanse filled with alien plant and animal life, and rock and mineral deposits, all harvestable for the base resources required to get your ship up and running again. One may find bodies of water, underground caves, outposts both abandoned or inhabited by intelligent lifeforms belonging to one of three alien races, as well as totems that teach you the various languages of the galaxy word by word, and strange monoliths or temples that will offer rewards or punishments to the player for the way they choose to interact with them. Mysterious robots called Sentinels patrol about, sometimes passively, other times aggressively depending on the planet you’re on. The first experience is both incredible and overwhelming, and yet simple to engage with and amazing in scope. You’ll likely spend hours mining mineral deposits dry just for the sake of it. You can sit down with a partner and enjoy the exploration as much as a viewer as you can as a participant, and this to date the only game that my girlfriend is happy to play with me and I with her, which made it a satisfying and enjoyable social experience despite there being no formal multiplayer element.

Once you gather enough resources to repair your ship and regain the means with which to lift off, you can either fly around the planet exploring further and further afield, or take a seamless journey off-world and into the local system, traversing from planet to planet without loading screens, unlocking story missions, gathering more resources to trade or craft components for your ship, fight space pirates or becomes a space pirate yourself or even leave that system entirely and explore other planetary systems. The core feature of the gameplay here is exploration, and it’s important to understand this before you decide to buy, because those expecting to be allowed to blast their way across the galaxy are going to be sorely disappointed with No Man’s Sky’s relatively passive intentions.

Also the space combat is shit.

What can’t be understated is the scale of the game. No Man’s Sky is absolutely. fucking. enormous. There are literally quintillions of technically ‘unique’ planets to explore. Each has its own climate, colour palette, flora, fauna, quantity of life, size…one planet might be a tiny barren rock devoid of all organic life, but with great spires of pure gold jutting out from the ground; the next might be a verdant paradise brimming with creatures in every direction; another might be a radioactive water planet in which most of its bounty lies submerged beneath a purple sea; and yet another may be covered in snow and have floating islands of rock, and giant deposits of metal sinking deep into the ground. The diversity of the variables is impressive, but given the number of planets you’ll likely explore, you will start to see repetition in the different pieces sooner rather than later.

This is not aided by the fact that most of the intelligent creatures you come across will be, for all intents and purposes, the same in their functions. Some will give you small dialogue options in which you’re rewarded for saying or doing the right thing, others will offer to trade, and others still will have nothing to offer you at all. Any radiant quests you might encounter all come from a single quest vendor in each system, located at the same place in each system’s space station. And the radiant quests themselves are only ever of a handful of different types, meaning that, while they are useful for gathering credits, or perhaps eventually earning special rare items or weapons, they will never require any large degree of effort on the part of the player in order to complete them and quickly become activities that you perform by rote.

On the plus side, travel time = wank time.

But perhaps the most important thing that hinders No Man’s Sky’s diversity is the necessary homogenisation of its planets in order to maintain a sustainable gameplay environment. See, whilst the procedural generation allowed Hello Games to create a literal galaxy of planets with comparatively little effort, it also introduces an element of dangerous randomisation into the equation: for instance, say you use your last bit of fuel to travel to a planet that spawns without the materials that can be turned into more fuel, and you get stuck? Say you enter system after system, and every single planet spawns as a barren, uninteresting rock? Say a planet’s climate is so hostile that it kills the player as soon as they leave their ship? The size of the game’s galaxy and sheer number of planets within means that reducing the likelihood that a feature will appear by even 1% might mean that no players will ever see the feature because it ‘only’ appears in six trillion planets that will forever remain unexplored, and so Hello painted themselves into a corner in which they needed to ensure that each planet in the game fulfilled certain basic requirements so as not to render the experience unplayable for any user, whilst also ensuring that each player experienced enough diversity to stave off boredom for as long as possible. The end result is that while there might indeed be many distinct variations in the environments that one travels to, ultimately they are all going to fit within a rather narrow sliver of available options; no gas planets, no water planets, no ice balls, no planets with crushing gravity, and all, after a time, exhibiting fairly homogenised geometry. Looking at it from this perspective is the glass-half-empty approach, and a player coming in with lowered expectations and a positive outlook will find far more wonder in the experience than I’ve just described, but it still remains true that, for all the scope of the project, there are certainly some clear and present boundaries and restraints in the final product.

And this is what I found myself seeing clearly after coming back to the game following a months-long break: free from the momentum of the wave of wonder I rode for a good fifty hours after starting the game, the first planet I journeyed to was identical to the amalgamated image of all the other planets I’d been to that now existed in my memory. Whilst I had a distinct idea of the things I wanted to see and do in the game I was left innoculated against any overwhelming sense of repetition, but here I was having made my largest jump yet to a system nearly 200 light years away, and the first planet I land on is the epitome of the ‘average’ planet.

Which begs the question - how would one improve the situation? Because the current release of No Man’s Sky is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to developing the space exploration genre. Whereas a game like Elite Dangerous might have better performance, a more accurate diversity in planet types, and more engaging controls and combat mechanics, one is limited to a very sparse series of activities in space, and their execution of on-planet traversal is, in a word, tediousandawfulandshit. There is far less to be found in that game on foot than there is in the sky, and far less content overall than No Man’s Sky in total - a game both much cheaper, and easier to pick up and play. I honestly don’t think there is a better middle ground as of yet because the aforementioned randomisation conundrum inhibits too much variation, and to hand-craft a game of this size would literally be impossible. Perhaps we will never get the perfect space game, and perhaps expecting such a thing is folly; I suppose the only change that could have really improved things would have been a managing of expectations.

Incidentally, it’s nearly impossible to find gifs that aren’t from the ‘Queen Elizabeth II tearing Sean Murray a new asshole’ basket.

The release build of No Man’s Sky was lacking a lot of the narrative and mechanical content, as well as some of the diversity that is in the current release, but even then, had it come out of some dark corner from a little-known indie studio it would be seen as an utter triumph - a milestone in independent games development. Hello Games’ neurotic insistence that their game would be something more than it was killed not only their audience’s goodwill, but also any chance that their game would be seen for the incredible indie accomplishment that it is. Instead, it will only ever be seen as inferior to what they said it would be. And while I think the mainstream awakening that occurred as a result of the scandal is good for consumers and the industry at large, it’s a shame that it happened to a game that deserves much more praise that it gets.

But I suppose that that is the nature of the current industry climate - the people calling the shots have a dreadful distrust of the quality of their products, and so good games will disappear into the ether if their lucky or be ruined if they’re not, and all because the people controlling public perception can’t help but fuck things up for themselves. No Man’s Sky is the Betamax of video games - a quality product brought down by its parent company’s bungling business tactics. Hello Games told the public what they thought they wanted to hear, and once they’d popped that cork there was no chance of being able to put it back in. But for those that are untarnished by the backlash, I assure you that the game is a huge departure from almost any space exploration game you’ve played before, and any sense of purpose that it may have been missing in the beginning has been restored, at least somewhat. If you can ignore the negative rhetoric (despite the fact that it’s all I’ve talked about for the last two hundred words) then I think you’ll find something wonderful here. Its price tends to fluctuate, and it has gone back up to fifty pounds at the moment, which I feel is a bit steep. But as far as I know, they’re still working on large, free updates, so any discount on this is a steal.

8/10

Very Good

#no man's sky #hello games #review #video game #space #exploration #planets #space exploration #crafting #survival #casual #relaxing

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choiminhovevo · 7 years

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hehe

who’s messier? Paige, unfortunately. Artists are always messy, but once they gets a cleaning bug she can be neat as Minho

do they fight often? If an argument between the two gets out of hand Paige says “let’s settle this argument with Mortal Kombat” and Minho agrees. They’ve only argued maybe twice.

who’s the funnier drunk? Paige probably. Minho controls his alcohol well and Paige is a social drinker- one wine cooler and we’re done, but two wine coolers and they’re talking about electric forks and putting salt grains on spoons for shits and giggles and everything sounds stupid.

who’s uncomfortable with PDA and who loves it? Both hate pda don’t hold hands it makes you gay.

who texts more often? Minho texts a lot. Paige writes letters.

big spoon/little spoon? Minho wants to spoon Paige but Paige hates being touched, especially when they’re sleeping. They’d rather jetpack their tall princeling.

who made the 1st move? Minho, surprisingly. Paige didn’t hide their affections for Minho, but they were just affections, nothing more, did not want to act on them because rejection = instakill. When Minho reciprocated said feelings Paige freaked like any sensible shoujo manga protagonist would and it took two volumes for them to be like “okay my shortcomings compared to your flawlessness isn’t so bad so I guess we could date.”

any nicknames? Paige calls Minho “my sun and stars,” in Dothraki. It took Minho a good six months and three watches of Game of Thrones for him to realize that oh shit they’ve been calling me this all this time?!! And the boy heart-eyes at the thought. He calls them dearest and it takes all their willpower not to roll around on the floor and squeal.

the most embarrassing music on their phone? Minho has Top 40 on his phone and Paige has an amalgam of broadway hits, Asian pop, Bengali music and Techno music. Putting their music on shuffle during long road trips is a hoot. Minho can��t deal.

what’s “their song”? In their circle of friends Paige will insist “Amerikkaz Most Wanted” by Tupac and Snoop Dogg is their song, but truthfully it’s BoA’s “Romance”.

who reads more? Minho reads just as much as Paige, but Paige has the extensive book collection and always reads the longer, “difficult” books just for the hell of it.

who remembers anniversaries? They both do; Minho is sentimental and so is Paige (but they won’t admit it). Paige has a photographic memory and remembers everything.

who is better with kids? Minho; Paige is terrified of kids, but they like them for some reason so they are patient with them as they teach them languages and useless facts. (“hey did you know that kangaroos can’t jump backwards?”)

who tops/bottoms? Paige called bottom bunk (“but I gotta pee more at night!” Minho whines. “You get top bunk,” Paige growls, booting up Mortal Kombat X on the PS4)

what’s their favorite activity? Playing games together, traveling, playing soccer, swimming, having eating contests...

weirdest hobbies? Minho watches Ron Perlman montages on YouTube sometimes...

who would make a blanket fort? would the other help? Paige makes blanket forts (“I am a fearsome dragon and I am required a cave of my choosing.” “Paige there are no caves in Seoul.” “So this blanket fort will suffice, homie.”) Minho asks if he can come in and Paige cheerfully says yes you may, and thereby declares their dragon hoard as cute soccer boys named Minho.

who cooks? Paige. Minho can cook, but he’s busier than Paige and Paige is honestly better because if it were up to Minho it would be kimchi jjigae and ramyun mostly. Should Paige cook they don’t have the same recipe every week; sometimes they’ll do themed weeks. Just no Mexican (“but I like Mexican food!” Minho whines. “I’m sick of it, plus it gives you the Hershey squirts.” “Lies and slander!”)

how do they eat ice cream? what’s their favorite flavors? They put the ice cream in their mouth and they eat it…? Paige is allergic to ice cream and eats lime sorbet while Minho likes strawberry and vanilla.

who said “i love you” first? Believe it or not, Paige did. And Minho’s brain rebooted and he stumbled over the words as he said “hey I love you too champ.” and Paige’s brain is still short-circuiting to this day.

do they go on dates? what are they like? When Minho has free time and doesn’t want to play video games with Paige they go out to dinner, go to the aquarium, go book shopping to add to their burgeoning collection (“I just can’t help myself I need books!” Paige cries. “In a few short years we’re gonna be on Hoarders, aren’t we?”) They’re very quiet and don’t draw attention to themselves because there are fans about

Christmas traditions? They wear ugly Christmas sweaters and Paige speaks a lot of German, and they bake a lot of goodies from America that Minho hasn’t heard of.

do they go trick or treating? who stays home and hands out the candy? No one trick or treats in Seoul; kids don’t go wandering in the city like that, but they do go to costume parties. Paige brings in Halloween-themed treats and they engage in spooky tomfoolery with the other members of SHINee.

do they stargaze? Expand. Stargazing is difficult in Seoul, so when they go on their rare Jeju trip, they go to the most remote part of the island, where the only light is from the fishing boats. Paige didn’t major in astronomy and Minho isn’t familiar with constellations but they like to look up at the night sky and love the atmosphere. Almost always, Paige will start to sing the Discovery Channel’s “The World is Awesome” song and Minho always has to shut them up. Do they listen? Fuck no.

who’s the laziest? Paige! Shamelessly! Minho doesn’t complain because they pull their own weight and knows that their job requires that they do a lot and when they wants to do nothing, they will do nothing, Lord willing.

who complains more? Paige doesn’t like to complain; they internalizes their strife. Minho rarely complains.

who wakes up earlier? Paige naturally gets up at 6 am and hates it. If it were up to them they’d sleep in with Minho. Minho has to get up early for flights to other countries but he wants to sleep in with Paige.

who’s more protective? Minho is the feudal lord and Paige is the handmaiden.

who gets jealous easily? Minho. His middle name is Jealousy. Paige finds it amusing, but doesn’t purposefully get into situations where his jealousy may spike. Sometimes they call him “Eifersuchtig Honeypot” and he scowls at them.

how do they cuddle? when and where? They cuddle on the couch, under a snuggie, after a long day of dance practice and translation work and art and Minho is nursing a beer and Paige is watching Funhaus.

how did they meet? Christianmingles.com Paige was wandering around the restaurants by Konkuk and stumbled into a dumpling and ramyun shop. They were eating alone and Minho was there with Jinki and some friends from TV. Minho was lamenting about how he missed the food in America and how he would like to visit the other states (“I like Texas, it’s a shame I’m never there for more than 48 hours”) and Paige is like Texas? I’m from there! And them can’t help themselves and butts into the conversation, telling them about their family in Texas and all the pros and cons of America. Normally idols are tired and don’t want to engage in public, and Paige felt bad about that, but Minho and Jinki noticed that they didn’t act like a fan and didn’t invade their space like a fan, but as a person just casually overhearing their conversation. So they talk, and are happy that they know Korean. They both try to converse in English and Paige freaks and starts speaking in German (“I have no clue what you’re saying now????”) Jinki is flummoxed but Minho is intrigued and asks the ol’ “hey do you know kpop?” question and Paige deadpans “oh boy I do.” their dry and abrasive wit is enough to make Minho laugh and open up to them easily and offers to show them around Konkuk, since they are a teacher at the Konkuk middle school. And the rest is history.

what do they smell when they smell amorentia? The fuck is this.

what lockscreens do they have? Minho has a group selca of SHINee celebrating Paige’s birthday, and Paige has a photo of Minho napping and they put a bow on his head.

how many emojis do they use and which ones? Paige keeps forgetting that emojis are a thing and Minho uses emoticons like it’s 2011.

who throws ill-advised parties? Should Taemin visit Paige’s apartment for nefarious reasons he ropes them into throwing parties where it’s nothing but Achievement Hunter playing in the background and nonstop Cards Against Humanity and Million Dollars, But… and that they get to make snacks and regales the party in their wild stories of their travels. Also it devolves into a Minho roasting session. Paige is always down for it.

who sets the other’s ringtone to something loud and obnoxious behind their back? Minho because Paige never locks their phone. What he doesn’t know is that Paige always has their phone on vibrate. The joke backfires. (note: the phone is Ouran High School Host Club’s opening theme and when Paige finds out they’re pissed and go to put their phone on sound)

lick-claiming. who does it? is the other deterred? Minho, believe it or not. (“Choi we have kissed at least five times your cooties are now my cooties.” Paige takes the cookie, stares into Minho’s eyes, and bites into it with passion. Minho fumes)

who glitterizes everything? Paige! Loves glitter and would have it in every inch of the apartment if they could.

who is obsessed with HSM? Minho and Paige is like “love is dead”

who draws sharpie dicks on the other when they get blackout drunk? Minho was blackout drunk once and Paige didn’t put dicks on his face (“his face is perfect I’m not gonna mar it”) but they do take his phone and put the meatspin on all his phone tabs. Minho was displeased.

who uses chopsticks/can either of them use chopsticks? Both use chopsticks, but Paige is left-handed and holds chopsticks funny and Minho calls them out on it. (“How the fuck you expect me to eat these noodles, son?!”)

when they can’t sleep what do they do? Paige takes heavy amounts of melatonin to sleep, but it rarely works so they lie there talking about their desires to travel and what they’re gonna eat the next day.

what order do they wash themselves in the shower? They both wash anywhere and everywhere; showers are for cleaning you heathen.

who impulse buys? Paige, but mainly impulse buys food and snacks.

who’s clumsier? Paige is the Lad of Stubbed Toes and who the fuck put this banana peel here? Gotta step on it? Step on it? Why? You gotta.

what are their coffee orders? Minho likes Americano with a pump of vanilla syrup, Paige likes earl grey tea with inordinate amounts of sugar.

what apps do they have? Minho has the same apps as Paige except for Pinterest, Google Docs, Netflix, and Twitter. He has sports apps and an English vocabulary app for him to practice. Paige has translator apps and Google Docs.

what are their favorite TV shows? Both like watching old school anime and nature documentaries. Paige watches travel programs and Minho watches sports

#heheehehehehehe #don't let a sex-repulsed asexual person write romantic ships #they get real snarky

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terryblount · 5 years

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Devil May Cry 5 – Review

The darkest of night falls around your soul, and the hunter within loses control. After more than 10 years, the Devil May Cry series performs the rarest of video game industry feats- the elusive de-boot and returns to it un-rebooted universe with Devil May Cry.

For those not in the know, the Devil May Cry series posits the simple question: what if we added another layer to character action where the objective was more than simply “kill all the monsters”? The result is the thesis of the Devil May Cry series- “Can you kill all the monsters while looking cool as hell?”

The result is a series of some of the best character action games in the business. But the games industry has changed much since Devil May Cry 4’s release in 2008. Could the game’s tongue-in-cheek style and fast-paced action still be relevant in today’s videogame landscape? Short answer- a big ol’ Smokin’ Sexy Yes.

The facial work in the game looks amazing- combined with the amazing direction for the cutscenes, it leads to an actually enjoyable experience watching the cutscenes.

Presentation

Given the series ties to Resident Evil it’s no surprise Devil May Cry 5 is running on the new RE engine developed for the new wave of Resident Evil games. The result is a game that looks much grittier than its previous entries. Due to the engine originally being for a first-person horror game though, it gives DMC a variety of useful quirks, one of them being the faces in the game. They’re just stylised enough that they don’t look entirely anime, but steer off the uncanny valley.

Despite the gorgeous visuals of the game though, the game doesn’t suffer for it. The game runs at a solid 60 fps even on a regular PS4, and even has customizable field of view.

One thing older fans may notice is the sheer volume of long cutscenes in this game. While not Kojima-level, the game does a better job of mixing the plot and gameplay, and as a result it feels like every mission starts with a long cutscene explaining how we got from the end of the last mission to this one.

The one concrete net-flaw of this game would be its loading screens. Selecting a mission will give you at minimum two loading screens, bookending the introductory cutscene for the mission. Any attempts to customize your character (which in Nero’s case you will be doing for every mission) add another two, taking you back and from the customization menu. These screens aren’t short, either, and the amount of delay between wanting to start a mission and actually getting to play the game are a blemish on the game’s good streak.

Feats like Jump Canceling are much easier to do now, allowing more people to do complex moves as part of their big combos

Gameplay

If I could describe the combat in DMC 5, it would be as follows: Low barrier of entry, high skill ceiling. The game plays better than it looks, with a fluid and deep combat system that many action games could stand to learn from.

For newcomers, the Devil May Cry games have a “Style ranking”- a gauge that fills up as you do technically impressive and powerful moves. They give diminishing returns in score if you overuse them, though, so you’ll need to get creative with your combos.

Upping the ante from 4, you now get three playable characters, who each play differently: The veteran demon hunter Dante who changes his playstyle with his 4 “styles”, the young Nero, whose core moveset is more holistic but swaps out different tools to enhance that, and newcomer V- a unique keepaway character who controls demons to fight for him.

Unlike DMC 4 and many games with multiple heroes, you never really play one character for too long at once. The story jumps back and forth along a timeline, as you get to learn what the three characters were up to during key events in the game’s story. On one hand, this may seem disorienting as you forget your combos for V as you play a Nero stage.

On the other, however, it prevents a problem in DMC 4: what if you just didn’t like the other character? If I have to play as V after a Dante section, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of Dante, I can keep playing him a few missions later.

Aside from that, there’s the levels themselves- it feels so refreshing to say the words “level design” because the game actually has these- actual levels, with actual design put into them. Enemies present complex problems you need to solve, while also solving the game’s main problem (keeping up your style meter).

There’s an enemy that gains armor after taking too many hits- meaning you can’t flinch it out of its next attack, which means even the most offensive player is going to need to guard or dodge the next hit or hear the disappointed cry of the Style announcer calling you out for your mediocrity. There’s another that spins in a wheel and needs to be shot at to flinch it out before it hurls itself towards you to rob you of your health and style points. All of these are presented in sealed off kill-rooms, meaning you’re going to have to solve these problems before you’re free to progress.

In contrast to DMC 4, the combat feels a lot more streamlined in the sense that the levels aren’t built to waste your time. Gone are the elaborate platforming puzzles and dice games, which is more a sign of the series growth, knowing that its core gameplay loop- that of fighting enemies, has been trusted to carry you for the entirety of the game. There are still the occasional puzzles, but, save for one Nero stage, never are they so bad that you wish you could cut through it to get to the next fight.

The game has plenty of reasons to go back to older missions, not least of all the pursuit of higher style

Content

An astounding amount of content has been put into Devil May Cry 5, yet in such a way that it doesn’t take you from the main focus of the game. Rather than add countless minigames, puzzles et cetera the game gives you plenty of customization for the three playable characters.

Chief of customization is Nero, who uses a series of mechanical arms with all kinds of support abilities from stopping time to piercing the heavens with his drill. They range from “powerful attack” to “powerful tool”, letting you really play Nero the way you want to. You can swap out these loadouts before the mission starts or at select points in a mission, similar to the Goddess of Time statues from previous games.

Dante has his staple of collecting Devil Arms, too, gaining more weapons as he defeats more bosses. Unlike previous games, however, he now has the ability to simply not use certain weapons to downsize on how many he has to swap between to combo. He even has a secret gun- one unobtainable unless you actually seek it out, which leaves you with a good feeling knowing that not everything is simply being handed to you.

This brings me to the next big point- the levels, again. Despite DMC 5 being a linear game, they’ve packed the levels with plenty of secrets and collectibles, but not too many that it feels like busy work. All the usual staples are there- Blue Orb shards for health, Gold orbs for revives and Secret Missions- though those come with a neat twist that makes them easier to spot.

Speaking of Secret Missions, the game does carry over one thing the reboot did right- the ability to replay Secret Missions from a menu. This seems to go well with the game’s central mission- not to distract you from the action with pointless busywork.

The game also has a weird co-op mechanic- the Cameo System. How this works is that certain missions are linked to each other, as a result of the game’s tendency to hop along a timeline. For example, you could have one Nero mission and one V mission several missions apart, but in the context of the story, they’re happening simultaneously and not too far from each other. As a result, if you are playing the Nero part of that story, you can glance over and see V in the distance playing his own mission, and it would be controlled in real time by another player, which the game will inform you.

This all seems like a nice gimmick until you reach a certain point in the game that turns it up to eleven- during one mission in the game, you can choose which of the three heroes to play as. After selecting it, you now get to share three killrooms with other players, playing as the other characters. There are tools in the settings to pair you up with friends though they seem to work at their own discretion, but even the excitement of working together is just a whole other level of excitement, especially after always being blocked by walls and distance.

Verdict

Devil May Cry 5 is a game that values the player’s experience, having been lovingly crafted to ensure that no matter what you’re doing, you’re having fun. It has an astounding amount of replay value with harder difficulties and simply the pursuit of higher style leading you to keep playing the game.

If you don’t care much for story, I could totally recommend the game simply on the merit of “it’s just that bloody good”. For the more story conscious, though, I’d recommend at the very least picking up DMC 4 first as it is very much a continuation of Dante and Nero’s story rather than its own standalone thing. The game does come with a primer on the backstory of the previous games to bring you up to speed, however, and if you’re fine with looking to Wikipedia or spelunking through the game’s datalogs to get more answers, then, by all means, you’re going to have a great time with this game.

This is a game that knows it’s cool, but wants you to know it’s even cooler than that.

And you know what? Jackpot.

Game reviewed on PS4. Copy purchased by reviewer

Devil May Cry 5 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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