Keri Allan brings us the Devil May Cry anti-hero…
Trigger happy and action-addicted, the ‘Dante Experience’ is a fast and furious rollercoaster of action gaming. Appearing in all four of the Devil May Cry games to date, Dante, is young, ‘cool’ and simply put, loves to kick ass.
The son of the rebellious demon hero Spada and a human mother, he’s a freelance mercenary fighting underground demonic evil with a giant sword and duel-wielded Ebony and Ivory pistols. Oh, and he loves every second of it. This is probably thanks to his ability to destroy anything that stands in his way; as he gained supernatural powers from his demonic heritage.
A series frantic with combat, if you like hack ‘n’ slashing your way through hundreds of demons then Dante’s your man, and supposedly he was designed to epitomise Japanese cool, although personally I think he’s a bit too full of himself!
Creator Hideki Kamiya based Dante’s style around a manga character called Cobra. His long coat supposedly makes him ‘showy’ according to Kamiya-san, and he has the wit of a ‘British guy’ – are we really like that? His red clothing is to make him even more of a hero as this is the traditional colour for heroism in Japan. Interestingly, in manga, characters with silver or white hair, accompanied by red or blue eyes, suggests the presence of at least one supernatural power, and/or origins of either a heavenly or demonic nature, so its clear why he looks as he does.
Dante’s personality is a pretty strong one too, and it’s clear he’s a character who’s pretty damn confident in his skills, and a bit of a ladies’ man too. As different teams came on board however, Dante has changed with them, as such we saw him become more quiet and reserved, and then with the prequel, become an even cockier so-and-so.
Overall though, Dante is looked upon as a confident combat lover, cocky and cool all at once. Regularly cited in the top ten coolest videogame character lists, his popularity continues to go from strength to strength…
Dante was no way as cool in Dmc4, but he’s a classic bad ass in the 1st and 3rd.
Comment by E-ROLE — Jul 25, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
dante rocks my socks.
Comment by squid — Jul 25, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Chris Renfield’s next outing is going to prove he can kick-ass more than some dandy fop in a long coat
I have bought all the previous PS2 titles in the franchise, but have never found the opportunity to play them, but will probably not at all after the downloadable demo for “Devil May Cry 4″.
Rocking Socks?
Nope… sweaty stinking socks, I thought
I deleted the demo faster than those for “Clive Barker’s Jericho” & “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men”… and that’s saying something!
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Jul 25, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
wow if u think kane and lynch:dead men and clive barkers jericho are better then DMC:4 then thats no saying much bout your gaming knowledge
Comment by I no all — Jul 25, 2008 @ 5:24 pm
Agreed bu why use the DMC2 pic of our dear anti-hero? Kinda puts a bad taste in my mouth just thinking of that unfortunate time…
Comment by Jon — Jul 25, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
maybe because its a cool pic?
and even though the demo didnt get me to buy the game, it was just that much better than clive and lynch!
Comment by BlueViper — Jul 26, 2008 @ 7:45 pm
@4 [I no all]:
—
wow if u think kane and lynch:dead men and clive barkers jericho are better then DMC:4 then thats no saying much bout your gaming knowledge
—
You’re right it says nothing about my gaming knowledge. It does say that I was prepared to give “…Jericho” & “Kane & Lynch…” the benefit of the doubt, whereas “Devil May Cry 4″ was more of a “meh… I can’t see the point or why people like this” point of view. I didn’t say any of the titles very any ‘better’ than any of the others.
It did rate very highly at GameRankings [ gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928376.asp ], I don’t disagree with the fact that the series is very popular. It is just not for me, and hence not for everyone (see the other responses so far)… if I don’t like something I’m not afraid to say so. I won’t adopt an opinion based on the general consensus.
Is “Devil May Cry 4″ any better than the previous instalments, or is the series being diluted trying to appeal to a wider audience?
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Jul 28, 2008 @ 10:16 am
@7
Really liked first Devil May Cry, didn’t play 2 or 3 and hated 4. Offered nothing new except ermmmm button mashing & getting to explore the same environments over, and over and ovvvver.
Comment by Terry — Jul 28, 2008 @ 11:51 am
@8 [Terry]:
That does seem to be the way of some games these days… you neither need any skill nor timing, just the ability to hit buttons at the relevant point (and not necessary in a designated order).
Martial Arts/Fighting titles (”Tekken”, “Dead Or Alive”, “Virtua Fighter”, “Mortal Kombat”, and probably “Soul Calibur” [out this week!]) have come full circle in this respect. In the 80s & early 90s, the depth of gameplay meant it didn’t matter if you kicked then punched, or punched then kicked, whether it was a lead leg, or a rear leg, a hook punch, or an uppercut, as the in-game character was so small & so lacking in expression & movement so all that mattered was that you gained a strike on the opponent. When the first few iterations of the current genre leaders were released, they concentrated, to some extent, on the realism of the martial art styles, and the differences between the various methods of attack. And times were good. We had variation & personal choice. We had the ability to fight on our own terms, and each character was better than another in certain attributes (strength, speed, stamina, and so on).
Now, unfortunately, with every successive release more & more in-game characters are seen as ‘the way forward’ and the effectiveness of selecting a character with a distinct fighting style seems to come down to who has the fastest internet connection (slowest lag time), and who can remember 10-button combinations in the correct order. No skill is required at all. Somebody who appreciates the differences between fighting styles, and why one character should win a bout with another is beaten by an opponent who can mash buttons faster.
I am particularly looking forward to “Facebreaker”, now only for the cartoon-like humour that will not take itself too seriously, but because the range of punches on offer vary from just ‘jab’ & ‘cross’.
I will probably buy not just the PS3 version (following the demo on the ‘Store on 7 August 2008; a week later than original planned), but also the Wii version too (so that the Wiimote/Nunchuk controls can make up for the poor showing in the Wii Sports Boxing game). The current release date for the PS3 version is 5 September 2008.
Unfortunately, this week is particular busy for releases (”Golden Axe”, “Mercenaries 2: World In Flames”, “Monster Madness: Grave Danger” [that I did actually enjoy... my three kids & I played the demo several times over yesterday], and “TNA Impact!”), so I hope the “Facebreaker” release receives the attention it deserves.
Back to “Devil May Cry, though… should I go back to the first instalment & play from start to finish in the series, or just assume that the fourth title is what to expect from the other three?
I do have all but the last title in-hand (including the “Special Edition” version of “Devil May Cry 3″). But given what I saw in the demo for the last release, I just didn’t want four times the disappointment
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Jul 28, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Well I cannot comment on 2 & 3, but I could quite easily go find a copy of the original in some dusty bargain bin and probably enjoy it still. Number 4 does nothing in terms of evolution except put some more fancy graphics on top. I never finished 4, I lost the plot at the stupid giant frog who had lesiban things going on. Exactly.
Comment by Terry — Jul 28, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
@10 [Terry]:
I am presuming you are referring to a croaking device to hide one’s amphibian sexuality, rather than meaning that an entire race of people living in Europe are being depicted as lacking in intelligence.
Either way, if you wanted such characters in a game surely you could play “The Elder Scrolls IV” or some other sort of fantasy-theme role-playing massively-pointless adventure game?
Dante, in my opinion, has always come (across) as a gothic, if not, asexual, camp-style figure.
“Sex Appeal… 9″? Perhaps he just appeals to both sexes, and to frogs?
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Jul 28, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
[...] and simply put, loves to kick ass. The son of the rebellious demon hero Spada and [...] Source: Three Speech Top Trumps - Dante - at Threespeech (No Ratings Yet) Loading … RSS feed for comments on this post. Write a [...]
Pingback by Three Speech Top Trumps - Dante | GameBlews PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, PSP, DS News — Jul 31, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
whether u like the games or not (personally i think they epitomise console gaming cos theyre basic, fun and adrenaline fulled- what CONSOLE games should be imo! if u want anything else, bugger off and play PC games), Dante is the COOLEST game character ever.
his in-yer-face attitude, his witty one liners in the midst of battle, the grace of movement and being able to combine sword and gun moves so easily make him the perfect lead game character.
and as for all u lot above accusing the games of being button mashers, u all obviously have no style to ur game playing! i bet ur all rubbish at sex too lol
Comment by gareth — Aug 4, 2008 @ 10:16 am
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