Crazy Awesome games of last gen?

[Argentus]

DmC's gameplay felt horribly futile, since I never felt like I could cater or customize the experience to be unique for me as a player. Several elements contributed to this. Dante has all of his skills available at all times, including the whole "rope/chain" drags that have spiked in popularity after God of War. This made navigating and controlling crowds a bit too braindead at times, and the primary disruption to your flow was either annoying ranged enemies (which the lock-on feature did not let you properly prioritize, irritatingly) or colored enemies. I'm not fond of being told that I must kill blue enemies with these weapons and red enemies with other weapons arbitrarily. It limits my ability to approach the game in the way that I wish. Your pistols were also incredibly weak, and the Devil Trigger mechanic was just wretched (it was harder to combo enemies while in DT state; harder).

Now, I can imagine someone making an argument that some of these complaints could be shared with DMC4. And yes, some of them can. The Devil Bringer is more or less the chain/rope mechanic (albeit not as obviously uninspired or dynamic in function). Ebony and Ivory aren't incredibly powerful, and Dante has access to all of his skills at all times. I feel it fair to state that I do not enjoy DMC4 in the same way as DMC3, which I consider a vastly superior game gameplay-wise due to functional limitations, customization and various other choices. But, in DMC4, Dante still lets you customize your gameplay experience quite a bit. You can go through the whole thing using Rebellion, Swordmaster and Coyote-A; or you could change things up. No enemies feel like they force a certain strategy with Dante, including bosses (except the Blitz and Chimeras). Dante isn't forced to use certain weapons on certain enemies, and his styles allow a lot of freedom in how you want to approach fights. If you want to use more skills at his disposal more frequently, it takes a ton of skill to master that type of play. In DmC, switching between Dante's different colored weapons and ropes is pretty simplistic, and aside from that you're primarily just mashing out your BnB combos over and over again. I feel like most everyone played the game in the exact same fashion I did, whereas I don't get that feeling so much with DMC4 (and especially DMC3).

I'm not trying to argue that the gameplay was abysmal or anything like that. It was pretty standard action-game stuff, and I suppose that's fine. It just felt ultimately pointless and forgettable to me, so I wouldn't call it "freaking fantastic." It was "freaking mediocre" at best (for me), and as the only element of the game that met that level of quality, I found the experience pretty disappointing.

I just want to point something else out about DMC 4 that bugged me. All the enemies were designed to be grappled with the devil bringer, which Dante doesn't have, so his retread of the game was ridiculously tedious and generally not fun. The game wasn't designed for Dantes fighting style.

 

[Brute]

I just want to point something else out about DMC 4 that bugged me. All the enemies were designed to be grappled with the devil bringer, which Dante doesn't have, so his retread of the game was ridiculously tedious and generally not fun. The game wasn't designed for Dantes fighting style.

Well, let's look at a breakdown (assuming DMD behavior patterns/hitstun properties):
Scarecrows: Devil Bringer or no, you can do whatever you want. They hardly fight back.
Giant Chicken Scarecrows: Same thing, really.
Frost Demons: Generally dodge the pull grab unless stunned (where Dante can use Gilgamesh for far more damage). Throw is long and leaves you wide open.
Flying Cloak Guys: You can use the devil bringer to de-cloak them, but Bullet Rain is much faster (as is Blue Rose). Hate these guys with any character, though.
Flying Swords: Can be tugged with the Devil arm, but you can just blast them away with Dante. Don't see any discernible disadvantage here.
Bianco Angelo: Can't pull them unless their shield is broken. Can only throw from sides. Throw leaves you open. Best to avoid.
Bianco Angelo Commanders: Same thing as the normals except you can't skirt behind them/to the side for a free throw. Devil arm not very useful.
Lizards: They like to block your arm with their shield, and using the buster throw leaves you wide open. Not advised aside from style points.
Fire Dogs: Tend to dodge the pull. Throw leaves you exposed. Best to avoid.
Chimeras: Ugh! Devil Bringer is near useless on them. Best weapon is Blue Rose. Pain with Dante, but not due to lack of the Devil Bringer.
Blitz: Ugh x2. Devil Bringer isn't making or breaking the fight. You just use it for easier damage when exposed in place of Dante's combos.

Nero is definitely easier to use, but I don't think that Dante is lacking in capability not having the Devil Arm. Note that anywhere you can pull towards an enemy, Dante can simply Trick-teleport to them. Dante's sections feel tedious because:
1) You have to retrace your steps, backwards.
2) The enemy spawns are more annoying (Blitz, Chimeras, Flying Cloak guys everywhere)
3) Dante is a lot, lot, lot harder to use properly than Nero is.

That said, I enjoy his segments the most because fuck yeah, Dante!

 

[Argentus]

Well, let's look at a breakdown (assuming DMD behavior patterns/hitstun properties):
Scarecrows: Devil Bringer or no, you can do whatever you want. They hardly fight back.
Giant Chicken Scarecrows: Same thing, really.
Frost Demons: Generally dodge the pull grab unless stunned (where Dante can use Gilgamesh for far more damage). Throw is long and leaves you wide open.
Flying Cloak Guys: You can use the devil bringer to de-cloak them, but Bullet Rain is much faster (as is Blue Rose). Hate these guys with any character, though.
Flying Swords: Can be tugged with the Devil arm, but you can just blast them away with Dante. Don't see any discernible disadvantage here.
Bianco Angelo: Can't pull them unless their shield is broken. Can only throw from sides. Throw leaves you open. Best to avoid.
Bianco Angelo Commanders: Same thing as the normals except you can't skirt behind them/to the side for a free throw. Devil arm not very useful.
Lizards: They like to block your arm with their shield, and using the buster throw leaves you wide open. Not advised aside from style points.
Fire Dogs: Tend to dodge the pull. Throw leaves you exposed. Best to avoid.
Chimeras: Ugh! Devil Bringer is near useless on them. Best weapon is Blue Rose. Pain with Dante, but not due to lack of the Devil Bringer.
Blitz: Ugh x2. Devil Bringer isn't making or breaking the fight. You just use it for easier damage when exposed in place of Dante's combos.

Nero is definitely easier to use, but I don't think that Dante is lacking in capability not having the Devil Arm. Note that anywhere you can pull towards an enemy, Dante can simply Trick-teleport to them. Dante's sections feel tedious because:
1) You have to retrace your steps, backwards.
2) The enemy spawns are more annoying (Blitz, Chimeras, Flying Cloak guys everywhere)
3) Dante is a lot, lot, lot harder to use properly than Nero is.

That said, I enjoy his segments the most because fuck yeah, Dante!

much as I love Dante, I enjoyed Nero's half of the game more, just because of all that.

 

[Darkslay]

DmC's gameplay felt horribly futile, since I never felt like I could cater or customize the experience to be unique for me as a player. Several elements contributed to this. Dante has all of his skills available at all times, including the whole "rope/chain" drags that have spiked in popularity after God of War. This made navigating and controlling crowds a bit too braindead at times, and the primary disruption to your flow was either annoying ranged enemies (which the lock-on feature did not let you properly prioritize, irritatingly) or colored enemies. I'm not fond of being told that I must kill blue enemies with these weapons and red enemies with other weapons arbitrarily. It limits my ability to approach the game in the way that I wish. Your pistols were also incredibly weak, and the Devil Trigger mechanic was just wretched (it was harder to combo enemies while in DT state; harder).

Now, I can imagine someone making an argument that some of these complaints could be shared with DMC4. And yes, some of them can. The Devil Bringer is more or less the chain/rope mechanic (albeit not as obviously uninspired or dynamic in function). Ebony and Ivory aren't incredibly powerful, and Dante has access to all of his skills at all times. I feel it fair to state that I do not enjoy DMC4 in the same way as DMC3, which I consider a vastly superior game gameplay-wise due to functional limitations, customization and various other choices. But, in DMC4, Dante still lets you customize your gameplay experience quite a bit. You can go through the whole thing using Rebellion, Swordmaster and Coyote-A; or you could change things up. No enemies feel like they force a certain strategy with Dante, including bosses (except the Blitz and Chimeras). Dante isn't forced to use certain weapons on certain enemies, and his styles allow a lot of freedom in how you want to approach fights. If you want to use more skills at his disposal more frequently, it takes a ton of skill to master that type of play. In DmC, switching between Dante's different colored weapons and ropes is pretty simplistic, and aside from that you're primarily just mashing out your BnB combos over and over again. I feel like most everyone played the game in the exact same fashion I did, whereas I don't get that feeling so much with DMC4 (and especially DMC3).

I'm not trying to argue that the gameplay was abysmal or anything like that. It was pretty standard action-game stuff, and I suppose that's fine. It just felt ultimately pointless and forgettable to me, so I wouldn't call it "freaking fantastic." It was "freaking mediocre" at best (for me), and as the only element of the game that met that level of quality, I found the experience pretty disappointing.

I see all of your points and i actually agree with you on some (Colored enemies were super dumb lol) however i find some that, to my opinion, made the game a little more fun. The rope/chain mechanic made learning to jump cancel in this game harder than in 4, specially with some weapons (Showdown, i'm looking at you) and low damage on Ebony & Ivory made gun cancelling flashy as all hell, again, to my opinion.

And i understand Dante has a lot more variation when it comes to combat in 4, but still that was all Capcom's work, they're veterans when it comes to action games, NT is still young and i feel if they did such a great job gameplay-wise in their first attempt, they could make great things in the future. Imagine if you had as many weapon choices as you did in 3 with DmC's mechanics, that would be awesome. And for the record 3 IS my favourite DMC mainly again for the execution it required to be "good" at that game.