How a haircut changed the path of DmC: Devil May Cry

GR:

"Rarely can there ever have been such a great fuss over a hairdo. It all began in late 2010 at the Tokyo Game Show, where Capcom unveiled DmC: Devil May Cry with a short trailer showing off the new-look Dante. Younger, grumpier and a good deal darker on top, this angsty smoker was nothing like the cocksure, silver-bobbed protagonist fans knew. The reaction was far from pleasant. Ninja Theory creative chief Tameem Antoniades puts it bluntly: “The vitriol was immediate, aggressive and relentless for the next two years. Without a second of gameplay being shown, it had been written off as a disaster in the making.” Looking back at forum threads from the time, you can see his point. “Kill it with fire.” “Is Dante emo and gay now?” “Ninja Theory is on crack.”"

[AudioEppa]

I remember all the uproar over this character design and I never asked anyone but I guess I can ask it here, for any fans of the older Devil May Cry games why do you like that look so much? Imo the newer one has a better style because the whole silver look never clicked with me, I even think It looks stupid in animes.

I shall not fear for my bubbles.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

The problem with DMC was more than just the haircut. Many people just like to hide all the real problems that caused DMC to flop.

First, Ninja Theory were assholes with the long time fans that complained about the reboot. I've seen more uproar toward other reboots and yet the devs have explained and justified the changes. Devs know that changes like this one bring a lot of criticism and doubts. But, Ninja Theory with their attitude just made things worse. They even included a joke with the white wig in the beggining of the game. That was like a middle finger to us letting us know, "this is our game and we do want we want. Eat our shit."

2nd, Devil Mah cry used to have lots of humor. That's why we loved Dante. He was a badass pizza lover, demon Slayer with some of the best one liners. And this Emo Dante was just annoying and bad written. He was just an immature douche that went outside naked to like saying, "hey, I got laid yesterday night. I'm a badass." i mean why Ninja Theory?

Characterizarion was a big part in the DMC series and humor too. The reboot didn't do much in that regard. At least the gameplay was solid, but the character just made it impossible to stick with it to the end

[bouzebbal]

still an excellent game..
People judging games for the haircut of the character, the ugly main menu, resolution... are obviously trolls and didn't get what gaming is about.
You loved previous DMC games, you'll love this one.. You are only in love with Dante then you should do cosplaying instead and quit gaming cause you got it all wrong.

[fei-hung]

Not excellent, just another average game like DMC2 & 4. Best parts were ripped off from Lollipop Chainsaw and Shadows of the Damned.

It may not have had back tracking like DMC2 & 4 but it had the most linear and repetitive level design - linear corridor slashing, linear platforming, rinse repeat and boss.

[breakpad]

DMC was a mediocre game with a terrible remake of the character, story , art and lore ...they remade Dante as an idiotic fully-cringe duchebag character ...completely disconnected from what Dante really is ...basically is the clear below-0 artistic quality of western devs in comparison to the japanese which are artisans in game making ...

[Big_Game_Hunters]

@ abzdiine
its not an excellent game though.

[freshslicepizza]

the reviews for this game were in the mid 80's far from average. some people are way too wrapped up in nostalgia and want to be part of all the drama. i don't care if the people at ninja theory are asses or not, what difference does that make to me? it's not like the community itself is rational and understanding all the time. my guess is the people at ninja theory grew tired of all the backlash to the changes. this is a major problem with forums, you have people out there who are not rational.

[Bimkoblerutso]

@moldybread

After defending the game before it's release, I actually did have to admit that I did NOT like the direction they took Dante after I played it. I didn't mind them changing him, personally, but they ended up making him into a sniveling, unlike-able little dick.

I think in general you're right, though. A lot of the backlash was just from nostalgic "fans" unwilling to accept any kind of change. It wouldn't really have mattered what they did to the franchise. It would not be just another DMC like the fans wanted coming from a completely different developer.

[MrSwankSinatra]

First off whomever thinks that the reason why DmC got negative reaction from gamers because of a haircut is sadly misinformed. In the reveal trailer sure people got upset over the entire "LOOK & MANNERISMS" of dante, but you also got to remember is that that trailer had "ZERO" gameplay so we really had nothing more to go off of. Then more info started coming out about how it wasn't going to run a 60 FPS, how it had no lock-on, how the combo system paled in comparison to the original DMC titles, etc. Then you have Ninja Theory coming out and insulting the OG fans of the series, so that just pissed them off even more.

The fact that people like you are still around thinking that it was over a hair color change shows that you really weren't paying attention during that time. Same thing goes for whomever wrote this stupid article.

[ThanatosDMC]

He must have been playing DmC without watching the tv while using a broken controller and still somehow managed to get an SSS.

Easy Automatic.

[Kane22]

i hated the new direction of the series. especially when they changed the background story of dante and virgil...plus them mocking the original dante also pissed me off. the new dante was catering towards the western crowd and that sucked i think....

[Elda]

The game was awesome!

[Gazondaily]

Yeah I enjoyed it

[Nicaragua]

I agree.

I thinks it is way better than the originals, especially in the level design with the shifts into limbo, and the nightclub level is superb.

The main thing i dont understand is why people think the character and mannerisms are so different between the old games and DMC.

old dante - arrogant wisecracking douchebag.
new dante - arrogant wisecracking douchebag

am i missing something?

As for the haircut - lets be real, old dante looks frikkin absurd.

[Kane22]

no, the original dantes vs. the new are completely different from each other. plus the original didn't need to cuss over and over and didn't need to use sex to sell the game. the original had humor the new one didn't have that at all. it tried to too hard to be more serious than it should've been. plus the gameplay was toned down like hell on top of that DMC was never 30fps until the new one......

[Nicaragua]

Completely different??? - lol, get real.

New Dante uses sex to "sell the game" - are you kidding me? I am willing to bet my ass that nobody bought this game on the promise of it containing sex, nor was sex a prominent part of the advertising or gameplay - so WTF are you on about?

DMC is serious? - did you miss the bit where you had a fight in a supernatural disco, or fought a giant parody of fox news?

Honestly don't bother replying, its clear im not going to change your mind but i do enjoy pointing out how dumb some of your arguments are.

[Elda]

Agreed!

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Ahh I love this.

Fans : WTF the combat is so dumbed down. The heck?!

Everyone else : y u h8 haur?!

People should really learn to listen. Then again, this is the generation of ego-trips.

[forgetmenot]

click bait article

on topic: Their where issue going on behind the scenes that rub fans the wrong way had nothing to do with donte new hair cut or color.

[Summons75]

Finally someone gets it!

The issues wasn't about the haircut. On top of the bad character design ACROSS ALL CHARACTERS, there was also the issue of...the press pointing out bugs and flaws in the demo, Ninja Theory insulting them. Fans pointing out that there was a ton a backstory pre-DMC3 which they were ignoring, Ninja Theory insulted us. The demo went public and fans and press pointed out how dumbed down the combat was and how it was mash 1 button to win vs the heavy combo centric combat of the previous 4 where mashing 1 button would get you poor results, Ninja Theory insulted us and them AGAIN...then turned around and insulted not only the original developers but all Japanese devs in general. They claimed the demo they released was the old E3 build but the game was released and had the same exact issues as the demo, and people pointed out the writing was terrible, the combat was dull, and everything about it was mediocre. Ninja Theory proceeded to insult everyone, because they can't take criticism, threw a fit about the low sales, and blamed everyone but themselves for making a bad game.

This isn't the first time they insulted gamers either about low sales or getting criticism. They threw a fit about both when Enslaved and Heaven Sword were released claiming gamers didn't know anything and they would never make a sequel.

This game was handled poorly and the devs are completely unprofessional. Had they not been so unprofessional I would have given the game a fair shot but their actions and the awful demo turned me off.

[fsdgf]

Can we stop pretending that it was just the haircut?
DmC was an average beat'em'up that was made to replace what is essentially the gold standard of the genre.

Complaints were never about the hair colour, it was about the awful tone, writing, story, characters and the flawed combat that didn't have a tenth of the depth of DMC 3, let alone 4.

DmC DE was a decent enough game once Ninja Theory addressed some of the issues people had with it, but even then it was just a decent game and didn't hold a candle to the main series.

I'm not even sure if the author played the older DMC games.
"The core input set – a jump, gunshot, and light and heavy attacks – remained" is completely wrong. DMC has never had a light and heavy attack system like Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising. Guns were mapped to square, melee attacks were on triangle and style specific attacks were on circle. DmC was more in line with Heavenly Sword in terms of combat, with the trigger stuff that it had while Devil May Cry had you execute different attacks by locking on, using the analog stick or varying the speed which you mashed the attack button at. I'm not trying to nitpick here, this is a fundamental part of both games and the differences are glaring obvious within 10 minutes of playing them.

[Master-H]

Played the definitive edition. It was decently entertaining. I'd give it about a 7.5-8/10. Haven't played the original DMCs before so I don't have something to compare it to (aside from playing maybe half way through DMC4 way back on pc). The thing that was lacking the most in my opinion aside from the weak characters/story is the enemies' art design. The levels' art design however was pretty cool.

[Forum_Pirate]

The haircut wasn't the problem, it was the indication of the problem. In general, character designs can tell you a lot about the tone of the game.

DMC isn't a terrible game, but it is a terrible DMC game (even DMC 2 knew to keep all the campy humor.) When you're a reboot of a genre defining game, merely being good isn't enough. You get graded on a curve and OK may as well be dog ****.

As it happens, the creators of the original DMC still make great (if somewhat more combat heavy/exploration light) games, and as it turns out Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 are much better than the new DMC, assuming you don't mind that all the campy humor is also sexual humor. (with pop culture references here and there.)

[Shinox]

Instead of fixing the problem you put more oil to the fire ?
I wish there was a "DELETE" button to erase try-hards like this

[Kratos0289]

Are you kidding me they still think it was about the bloody haircut!?! It was a reboot literally nobody asked for, it was a mediocre hack n slash in which the developers head tameem insulted fans of the series yes there was a lot of vitriol thrown at them but a majority just gave some constructive criticism after the demo came out like the lack of a lock on, the awful music, terrible writing and horrendous dialogue(yes I know the other DMC games weren't exactly Shakespeare but it at east knew what it was and rolled with it with tongue and cheek where as the reboot took itself way to seriously and fell flat on its face), crappy boss fights and to this day I believe a lot of those reviews were positive because the game was blasted by fans from day 1 and where showing the developer some pity theres a reason the game tanked Gamesradar it wasn't because of "da hurcutt" its because nobody asked for a reboot and it just wasn't a good game

[Roccetarius]

As soon as the music started in the reboot, it was just an instant mute, honestly. The originals had music that may not have everyone's cup of tea, but it was at least quality.

[Enigma_2099]

"Ninja Theory creative chief Tameem Antoniades puts it bluntly: “The vitriol was immediate, aggressive and relentless for the next two years. Without a second of gameplay being shown, it had been written off as a disaster in the making.”"

.. and kinda YOUR fault. With gems like this as your justification...

https://www.vg247.com/2010/...

But THIS is what you considered cool..
http://ol.tgbus.com/yxq/Upl...

Hell NO I haven't forgotten, and it's funny you want to pretend that you have.

[Roccetarius]

Just like so many other peoople are pointing out, the author of this probably never played the games, nor researched why this game flopped (and it deserved to do so).

It's not that surprising though, because people never research anymore, nor look at how incredibly different the influences are between original and new age Dante. Original is clearly made by a Japanese developer, while the new age one screams western influence, and he was even smoking in the first trailer.