In an unexpected twist, Microsoft’s E3 presentation brought us our first look at Devil May Cry 5, and you guys, it looks freakin’ awesome. In an age where it’s more and more difficult to catch a media-savvy audience by surprise, I for one, sat with my hands in the air, at a loss as to what to even say as a much-missed Nero demolished a city block with the aid of some crazy robot arm, and an aged but still slick-looking Dante swooped in at the end with a sly grin and a sick-ass motorcycle.
After my nerves had recovered, I got to thinking about the road here. The development cycle for a lot of our most-loved IPs is so mired in troubles, and in a lot of cases, lined with the hopes and dreams of many a hopeful dev. For recent examples, look no further than the road to and through Destiny and Destiny 2. It was good to see this particular entry come to fruition with something like a happy ending for all parties involved, including the player. Let’s go on a short trip down memory lane, shall we?
It was early 2013, and British developer Ninja Theory somersaulted into the scene with DmC: Devil May Cry. A reboot, and a radical redesign of the series’ main characters, as a lot of us knew them. The mere sight of a dark-haired, less sardonic Dante set a thousand comment sections on fire, even if the gameplay was just as mechanically sound and explosive as ever. It was a contentious entry to the series from day one, and while it eventually became a critical success, the sales numbers told a less encouraging tale.
Fast forward to the 2018 E3 stage, and things have changed in some pretty interesting ways. For one, Ninja Theory has since graduated to making critical and commercial darling Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. They’ve also forced us to once again question whether AAA means high-quality, or just high budget. What’s more, they are now, as we learned earlier during Microsoft’s presentation, a first-party studio. Truly, the best possible scenario, if you ask me.
And as for Devil May Cry itself, well, it seems the change in art style back in 2013 was a good choice after all, because it’s here to stay, even if the story looks to be a direct continuation of Devil May Cry 4. If there was any doubt about the unanimous nature of the choice, Hideaki Itsuno was front and center: infecting us all with his excitement via translator, and clearly at the helm of this new chapter in the series.
While Devil May Cry 5 is still a few months away (release is slated for spring 2019 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC) it was good to see the culmination of nearly a decade of work turn out to splendidly for everyone, including us. Now, would somebody please tell me if that was indeed Virgil tearing Nero’s arm off about midway through the trailer? The suspense is killing me.
