Devil May Cry's hardest of hardcore fans would like to tell you that Ninja Theory is throwing up a middle finger at Capcom (and fellow fans) with the radically different look of Dante in the Devil May Cry reboot. But it turns out that the original creators are the ones urging Ninja Theory to push the creative bar.
In an interview with Develop, Ninja Theory's Nina Kristensen says Capcom Japan gave the studio full artistic freedom with the redesign. It even had to, at one point, tell the studio to "go crazy" with the character, after Ninja Theory submitted concepts that were deemed too conservative.
"The concepts for Dante went through a lot of different iterations," Kristensen said in the interview. "They went all over the place. We went really far out with some. The first time we sent our initial concepts to Capcom Japan, they said 'no, no you need to push it way further.'
"Because, obviously, Dante is a big character for Capcom, we stuck fairly close to the original design template. But Japan said we needed to go much further, go crazy with it, and so we did."
== TEASER ==The new-look Dante hasn't thrilled fans of the iconic character. A glance at the threads about the redesign in Ninja Theory's official DMC message board reveals the fervor of DMC fans and the disgust for the new slimmer, younger, and more industrial Dante. Some members are even offering to redesign the character themselves, as if Ninja Theory needs the help. Also, there's a lot of talk of a Twilight connection, but I haven't seen any new DMC videos with the werewolves and teenagers yet.
In the Develop interview, Kristensen added that Ninja Theory hopes that, with time, people will begin to like the redesign, as the game is to remain respectful of the franchise and its hack-and-slash mechanics. But I think fans need to be willing to show some respect in the first place for this to happen.
By the way, here's a look at the old Dante in Devil May Cry 3 for comparison (and ridicule) purposes:
Devil May Cry's hardest of hardcore fans would like to tell you that Ninja Theory is throwing up a middle finger at Capcom (and fellow fans) with the radically different look of Dante in the Devil May Cry reboot. But it turns out that the original creators are the ones urging Ninja Theory to push the creative bar.
In an interview with Develop, Ninja Theory's Nina Kristensen says Capcom Japan gave the studio full artistic freedom with the redesign. It even had to, at one point, tell the studio to "go crazy" with the character, after Ninja Theory submitted concepts that were deemed too conservative.
"The concepts for Dante went through a lot of different iterations," Kristensen said in the interview. "They went all over the place. We went really far out with some. The first time we sent our initial concepts to Capcom Japan, they said 'no, no you need to push it way further.'
"Because, obviously, Dante is a big character for Capcom, we stuck fairly close to the original design template. But Japan said we needed to go much further, go crazy with it, and so we did."
== TEASER ==The new-look Dante hasn't thrilled fans of the iconic character. A glance at the threads about the redesign in Ninja Theory's official DMC message board reveals the fervor of DMC fans and the disgust for the new slimmer, younger, and more industrial Dante. Some members are even offering to redesign the character themselves, as if Ninja Theory needs the help. Also, there's a lot of talk of a Twilight connection, but I haven't seen any new DMC videos with the werewolves and teenagers yet.
In the Develop interview, Kristensen added that Ninja Theory hopes that, with time, people will begin to like the redesign, as the game is to remain respectful of the franchise and its hack-and-slash mechanics. But I think fans need to be willing to show some respect in the first place for this to happen.
By the way, here's a look at the old Dante in Devil May Cry 3 for comparison (and ridicule) purposes:
I thought you could kind of notice what direction Capcom where going with Dante in DMC4. (cowboy boots, pants cough, cough) DMC1 and DMC3 where my favorite Dantes though in terms of design, I miss shirtless sexy Dante and his leather band bra.
I don't know if I would call Dante "iconic", really, but I guess the general expectation is silver hair+red coat. Eh they got like half of that right, that's enough.
The larger problem for me is between all these character action games, I'm kinda really burned out on the genre. I can handle fixed camera angles and button-mashing swathes of similar foes for only so long.
I consider myself a pretty big DMC fan but I have no problem with this redesign. You can be a fan and still realize they what they were doing was getting stale.
Eh, he went from stereotypical Japanese androgynous male, to emo/scene Western androgynous male. Haven't been following the series up until now, and this redesign doesn't make me any more interested.
so instead of going wild they make the character just like what a 15 year old japanese giggling school girl into Yaoi would think he would look like? Next up a gay scene with him and another androgynous dude in DMC5
Meh. I'm still cool with the new Dante, minus the face because modelled from lead developer yadda bladdy blarg. It's the gameplay I'm more interested in seeing how they handle. Maybe Ninja Theory will finally bring cooperative play to DMC.
I had zero problem with the redesign from the beginning. I still have zero problem with it. The trailer was rad. DMC fanboys need to chiiiiiill out. Old Dante, as cool as he was, was not the pinnacle of character design.
looks fine to me. I imagine if the new Dante were actually the original Dante design and the redesign were the white-haired version...everyone would be bitching as well. Let's be honest here, the original Dante design is ugly as hell.
" The fact that people are so hung up over the character design says a lot about the DMC franchise to be honest. All style, no substance. "
When people care more about one thing over another, its because that's all they care about. It has nothing to do with there not actually being any gameplay to comment on. Thanks for stopping in, some dude's alt.
I've been ok with this redesign since watching the first trailer a few times back when it was first released, so at this point I don't want to hear any more about this game until they show some gameplay. It'll be way more interesting to see where they take that..
I'm not a Devil May Cry fan, but in terms of design, I think the new one is an improvement over the old Pizza-kicking Dante. Dude was a total fop. This Dante looks grungier, and his look has WAY more personality.
And Twilight Connections? Really? He's more White Wolf than anything.
DMC sucks anyways. The old look is pretty feminine with the light hair and now he's a skinny emo white boy with dark hair who probably hated high school. Bring back manly characters! Look at Leon from Resident Evil. Totally emo. I bet Chris beat him up in high school.
Reading the endless bitching from DMC fans about the new look as been hilarious. Devil May Cry 4 proved that the franchise seriously needed new ideas and I think Ninja Theory could do a good job.
" I'm not a Devil May Cry fan, but in terms of design, I think the new one is an improvement over the old Pizza-kicking Dante. Dude was a total fop. This Dante looks grungier, and his look has WAY more personality. And Twilight Connections? Really? He's more White Wolf than anything. "
Agreed. Fanboys just need SOMEthing to gripe about and Twilght/emo are just two buzzwords that encapsulate things that are unpopular with the kinds of people who regularly visit the site. I wonder what they'll bitch about now that they've lost the ability to say Ninja Theory "ruined" the design.
I'm not as concerned with his look as I am with his attitude. Everything I've heard and seen about new Dante is that he's just kind of an angry guy and that's all there is to him; which doesn't really appeal to me. I liked 'overconfident', snarky, reckless, funny Dante. I just have this concern that if the only thing they want to focus on for new Dante is angst and anger, then he'll just feel like a teenage Kratos.
Man I like the dmc games n all and always had a soft spot for dante's particularly stupid personality, I mean when a guy is that arrogant and self obsessed you have to find it hilarious but seriously he was never a character I would have thought anyone would get very attached to either for his personality or his design. I mean what are his defining features? a red coat, white hair and a big sword, that's it. Its not like they took mario and made him a transvestite crocodile or some shit, just replaced one kind of dumb character with a different kind of dumb character.
All that matters is how the game plays and the dmc games never played that well, fun but shallow and very repetitive maybe but not anything special. Now if NT can do anything I hope its make a game that is god damn awesome to play.
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