Keep The Home Fires Burning

This mobile strap comes with first edition copies of Devil May Cry 3 JP Edition

The Devil and Bayo series shares this weird symbiotic relationship. They obviously have the same fanbase (me being one) but coincidentally the games never competed head on. 

The Devil series did their thing and faded away for a bit then the Bayo games came and kept the fires burning. I don't think it would be too far to say that if it wasn't for Bayonetta, DMC4SE would never have happened. 

One man that has a hand on both series is action director Yuji Shimomura. He crafted the cutscenes in both the series, making the games just as fun to watch as it is to play. Yuji started in this genre with DMC3 which is probably still his best work if you asked me. His work on the Bayonetta series has been less impressive perhaps because the Devil work were so outstanding.

I can't pick out a single impressive scene from Bayonetta 2. That creative energy that I expect from Yuji just isn't there, not sure if the story and characters just didn't suit his strengths. Bayonetta 2 felt like a lower budget game to me and considering how hard Platinum fought to make that game, I believe that to be the case. The cutscenes felt just as long as the first Bayo but less impactful, there isn't much scenes of showing off that you come to expect. 

DMC4SE new scenes looked very promising, I can't wait to see what Yuji has cooked up as it certainly looked like he found his vigor again. 

The inside of the strap has a different color depending on which character

This is for Vergil. There is also one for Dante and Lady

Jumping The Gun

I have a set of 5 figures but I keep coming back to these two

What's the first button you instinctively reach for when you want the character to jump?

It's usually the lowest button on the controller regardless of what system or generation, that's how buttons are normally mapped to by default. You don't go against the system especially if it's a technical action game like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta.

The first Devil May Cry game mapped the jump action to the Triangle button. That's right, it's on the highest button on the gamepad for reasons I failed to understand. The buttons also cannot be re-configured so you are basically stuck with unlearning what you learnt through years of playing these games.

Thankfully as I tend to have multiple copies of these games, I discovered that the Japanese version of Devil May Cry doesn't have this type of insane button mapping. Jump is actually mapped to the X button like how it usually is. For once, owning multiple copies of the same game actually paid off and I can put this import copy to use despite have to start all over. Or if you are not the nostalgic type, you can always pick up the HD collection as it's seems they have fixed this problem on the HD reissue.

This anniversary re-issue is actually pretty sweet, it comes with a bonus soundtrack disc and a nice new cover art. When I first bought it, I even got a bonus DVD of the wesker report and trailers for other Capcom games. Those were good times, too bad it never lasts as with all good thing.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Boy am I having a hard time on Bayonetta, earning an Enzo Stone rank at almost every level. I'm sure I'll get better eventually with enough practise but right now I'm really getting my rear whipped. Luckily the cinematics are cool and the game is littered with Easter eggs to make things bearable and interesting.

Of course, most Devil May Cry fans would know that Enzo's name first appeared in the openning pages of the first Devil May Cry manual where he writes a brief account of his first meeting with Dante. Then Bayonetta utters Dante's famous words when she too tells one of the bosses in the game to flock off, feather-face.

The highlight for me is when pretty boy Luka talks about his past girlfriends after sharing an intimate moment with Bayonetta. Each one of them happens to be a leading lady from past Kamiya games! There's Claire from Resident Evil 2, Trish from Devil May Cry, Silvia from Viewtiful Joe and finally Ammy from Okami. At that point I totally geeked out and wonder if there are any more surprises in store?

The Great Mistake

My first experience with Sony Greatest Hits label was not a pleasant one so since then i have swore off against all things Greatest Hits but rest assured this biased is not unfound. You see i got my sister and mum to pick up a copy of the first Devil May Cry when they were visiting in Singapore. What they came back with was a Greatest Hits label as the game has been out for some time now but what was worse was the manual inside had a copy of pages missing! I kid you not, ok the number of pages were correct but in place of the correct pages were misprint of some other pages. Sure it could all be a bad coincidence but it just reaffirms my belief about how subpar these Greatest Hits can be.

Now i'm about to embark into that territory again as i have just ordered a copy of Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I couldn't resist the offered price and on top of that, i need something to make up the order.

Pandora Box

On my second run through Devil May Cry 4, i don't think i have ever been so thorough before in trying to accomplish every task the game throws at me. As you probably know, i have a habit of leaving things unfinished during my first play-through a game so i will eventually go back to it again assuming this is game that i would want to replay again.

It all started with my friend who told me i didn't know what he went through until i tried the DEVIL mode, having finished the game rather easily on HUMAN mode. When all i wanna to do was to finish the game again to view the extended ending, i certainly didn't expect to be playing the game this thoroughly. Little by little i come to realise i barely scratch the surface of the game when i first played it. In trying to acquire the blue orbs from my unfinished secret missions, i had to learn up every intricate move in Dante and Nero fighting style as the game is so highly customistable that you could actually finish the game without having to learn the fighting style or weapon that you don't fancy. Though some of the tactics are highly questionable such as engaging the Pandora missile pod to fly over a stream of laser beams you are supposed to jump and avoid, i don't think it necessary counts as cheating as the game never really tells how you are suppose to accomplish your goals. I come to learn and appreciated Dante's Pandora box and Gilgamesh and even Nero's hold with the devil bringer.

Devil May Cry 4 carried over the scoring system from DMC3 which you actually save all your high scores on one common scoreboard, making it easy to compare your previous runs. In the end, i probably enjoyed replaying DMC4 now than i did when i first played it, which is rare when it comes to most games. Production Studio 1 who are responsible for both DMC3&4 has managed to achieve what kamiya set out to do with the first Devil May Cry. A game that not everyone will like but for those who do, like will be a bit of an understatement.

It's a Mad Mad World

It took the guys at Clover studios a while to realise but eventually they finally got around to realising the cold hard truth, sex and violence sells even more so in video games. Developers are still very cautious when it comes to pushing the envelope for sex in video games but they are certainly not shy of pushing the level of violence in video games. While everyone applaud and sing praises for Viewtiful Joe and Okami, there is no denying that the lack of violence in those games was what led to the lack of interest among the general gaming community and ultimately, their poor sales.

Now the newly reformed Platinum Games seems to have abandon their previous approach and have decided to follow the trend of the market by doing exactly what the public wants, more violence action games. The first two up are Madworld and Bayonetta, with the latter being a return to the action genre for hideki kamiya since his last foray being the first Devil May Cry. I personally am pretty excited to see Bayonetta though it would have been nicer if it came out before Bulletwitch because the early concept of the lead female character looks awfully lot like her. It remains to be seen if these games will go down well with the critics but one thing's for sure, better or worse, these games look to sell bucketloads more than Okami or Viewtiful Joe.

Kinda sad when you really think about it don't you think?

Omoi about Okami

You gotta take your hat off to Hideki Kamiya, what a guy he is! When news of Okami Wii missing it's ending credits got around to the creator/visionary (albeit a little late seeing the port is only US-bound and has no plans for a Japan release), you can bet he wasn't very pleased.However, instead of being mad about not getting the credit he and his team deserve, as you would expect, he was actually more concerned about how this will affect the player ! You see, he has this philosophy of this special omoi (don't ask me what it is i'm just as clueless as you guys) that brings a sense of closure to the game and rewards the player with a sense of accomplishment. Basically the harder or longer the game is, the greater the reward and he also goes on to talk about what was the theme and message that went into each of his previous games (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe).

Oh in the end, Hideki is also aware that many have not finished Okami and choose not to reveal it for the benefit of those, despite being aware that the game is actually two years old now. Hideki-san, you rock!

Devil May Care

To called myself Devil May Cry fan is a bit of an understatement as i absolutely loved everything about the original Devil May Cry game, it's still my favourite Playstation2 game of all time. Devil May Cry was probably Capcom best spin-off from the Resident Evil franchise back then when they were still experimenting with the formula to see how far they can deviate from it. The game made a big impression with it's gothic atmosphere and character design, but more importantly how fluid controlling the main protagonist Dante was. A testament to how good an action game should be is when any enemies, even the ordinary ones are able to kill you if you are not careful, something which the original Devil May Cry possess and no other action games, even it's sequel is able to replicate.It firmly cemented Hideki Kamiya as my favourite game developer as he would go on to craved up more hits like Viewtiful Joe and Okami. Anyways going back to Devil May Cry, i lost interested with the series through the years and sequels though the prequel Devil May Cry 3 managed to win me over again, the fact that the series may never being the hands of Hideki or even surpass the original remains a concern for me.

The final straw was when Capcom decided it's high time to replace Dante as the main protagonist of the series and later announced that the fourth installment will be going cross-platform to Microsoft XBOX360.With the release of Devil May Cry 4, the development team for DMC2 and DMC3 attempts once again to take the series further to new heights but this jaded fan will not be able to learn first-hand how good this installment will be since i don't have a Playstation3 as of yet. Then again, would i want to subject my brand new sixaxis/dualshock3 controller to the mercy of Devil May Cry 4 infamous difficulty?