So I Guess I'm A Masochist?
It makes me sad to see that hack'n slash games have become a dying breed. Some claim it's because gameplay has evolved into something so much more sophisticated over the years. Then I observe people playing Farmville or Angry Birds and realize how ridiculous that statement is. A game's addictive qualities can and often are manifested in more than just surface level game mechanics.
For me, it all boils down to remuneration. I need to see up front what a title is offering me in relation to the time I invest. In Devil May Cry 3, what I'm being offered as a reward for my investment is a plain and a good old fashioned ass beating. Wait what? Yes that's right, I'm being rewarding by failing over and over and over again. And why is this such as surprise to most people when success can be so damn boring? Back in the twitch gameplay era, people would spend months playing a single game and to this day have never beaten it, but that didn't stop them from dumping countless quarters into those bottomless rectangular pits called arcade machines.
Modern games are soft because designers feel that making experiences easier with auto saves and reduced difficulty settings will make their titles more marketable to a larger audience. As a result, there seem to be fewer and fewer memorable franchises coming out because you aren't going to generate a fan following with something that appeals to everyone.
Devil May Cry 3 was your average hack'n slash that beat me to a bloody pulp and to this day I can still remember that final boss fight. People don't want you to hand them something, they want to take it for themselves and in doing so, gain the feeling of pure joy because they accomplished what just about everyone perceives as hard. Dante and his hack'n slash adventures aren't dead, they've just been tamed by the mass marketing ideal.
