Devil May Cry 4 Related content
Devil May Cry 4 game info
Order before 5.30pm and receive your order the next working day!
Devil May Cry 4 Interview
PC
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Interview
by
Keza MacDonald
Hiroyuki Kobayashi is a producer of many talents, having worked on everything from Resident Evil 4 to the original Devil May Cry to, er, Blinx 2. We managed to catch a few minutes with the man in Leipzig as Devil May Cry 4 finally nears release after recent delays, and talk about his approach to taking the series forward.
Eurogamer: Was moving away from Dante for Devil May Cry 4 a big creative decision, or did it come fairly naturally?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Frankly it was a big decision, but having said that, on reflection, we have used Dante three times. We wanted to consider new players for Devil May Cry 4, to create an environment that would be easily accessible for them as well as satisfying for those who are already fans of the franchise; in bringing Devil May Cry 4 to a new generation of platforms, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce a new character at the same time.
This new character Nero, who starts the game, is characteristically wild, quite immature, young, and very passionate. At the same time he is kind of a rebel. Dante is not completely abandoned - he becomes playable around the middle of the game.
Eurogamer: With both characters playable, was it difficult to balance the old and the new?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: It was quite easy to decide on the new elements, such as the new main character, and the new style of action he will bring to the game. We're also going back to old favourites, guns and swords - that was OK too, but when to introduce Dante, the timing of it, that was quite difficult.
Eurogamer: DMC3 was one of the last generation's definitive action games. Who do you feel is your competition within the genre, this time around?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Obviously there are many competing games coming out around the same time, but when you think about this type of action, Devil May Cry 4 is quite unique. I can't think of any real competitors.
As far as inspiration is concerned, personally I was looking back to the original Devil May Cry. It was the title to introduce the genre and the franchise, so I wanted to focus upon making something better than that. Much as Resident Evil 4 came up with a complete new type of game within the context of the franchise, if I can do that again within the Devil May Cry franchise, I will be happy.
Eurogamer: Are the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions really identical?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: The actual contents are exactly the same, but having said that, the feel of the controller may cause a slight difference.
Eurogamer: And what about the PC version? How are you ensuring that it won't have the same problems as Devil May Cry 3 did?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Yeah, well, the PC version will be great because the same team is working on both [console and PC versions]. So it shouldn't be a problem.
Eurogamer: Devil May Cry 3 was absolutely infamous for its insane difficulty - how are you approaching that for DMC4? Are you ramping up the punishment, or making it more accessible?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: [Laughs] It's interesting to know that someone would think we could create a game that would be more difficult than Devil May Cry 3! We had to learn a lesson there, actually, because DMC3 was really difficult. What we found was that people sometimes lost interest within the first two hours because the game just wasn't giving them any chance whatsoever. So DMC4 will be about same difficulty level, but we thought that we would be a little bit kinder to the player, so we're going to give a step-by-step guide on how to use the weapons and skills so that you should naturally progress to a better skill level a little more easily than in DMC3.
Anyone who hadn't played the DMC franchise could start off with number 4. There have actually been people who aren't all that familiar with the series who've played DMC4 and thought that Nero was Dante. Another interesting thing is that if you start off with DMC4, you'll obviously encounter Dante, and if you want to know more about him you could go back and play the previous titles.
Eurogamer: How are you keeping up the series' reputation for incredible cinematics?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Well, we're still using [Yuji] Shimomura-san, who is a proper film director anyway, and he is in charge of cinematics. What we do is lengthy process, but quite effective. He actually hires actors to act out the scene first, and then taking that footage, if it's effective, they use motion capture equipment on those actors. From there, the motion capture is worked into the cinematics. So it takes a lot of time, but it works well.
Eurogamer: How close is Devil May Cry 4 to completion, now?
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Well, time is quite tight, to be honest. We're working frantically hard. But we've gone over the hill now, if you like, and we're finishing up. Hopefully we can deliver it on time.
Devil May Cry 4 will (finally) be out in March 2008 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC - unless it's delayed again, in which case we shall join in the inevitable worldwide tantrum.
Are you excited about Devil May Cry 4 on PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/PC?
View Eurogamer readers most anticipated games
Related Games
Devil May Cry 4
Latest Features
-
Devil May Cry 4 Review [192]
-
Devil May Cry 4 First Impressions [144]
-
Devil May Cry 4 First Impressions [48]
-
Devil May Cry 4 First Impressions [70]
-
Devil May Cry 4 Review [45]
Latest Videos
Devil May Cry 4 - TV spot [2] 14 February, 2008
Latest News
-
Capcom reveals X360 triple bundle [11]
-
DMC series has shipped 10 million [11]
-
Resi, Devil May Cry comics in the works [16]
-
Devil May Cry 4 PC details, demo pledge [6]
-
Demo Roundup - 28th Jan to 4th Feb [12]
Latest Screenshots
16 January, 2008 [27]
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
Comments: 1-22 of 22 in total
|
Vice.Destroyer
05/09/07 @ 06:59
0
Homoerotic? Keep that sort of talk down. Last thing we want is for the Daily Mail to get Devil May Cry 4 banned because it is corrupting our youth.
|
|
squarejawhero
05/09/07 @ 07:44
0
Using a proper film director? Well done. Devs take note - get people in who understand their niche in development, even if they're in other media.
|
|
0
"We had to learn a lesson there, actually, because DMC3 was really difficult. What we found was that people sometimes lost interest within the first two hours because the game just wasn't giving them any chance whatsoever."
Too bad they didn't learn this lesson during playtesting as they should have, but only after I spent 50 Euros on this pointless waste of a game. |
|
AlvySinger
05/09/07 @ 08:28
0
Forget all this training nonsense, just introduce a decent checkpoint system.
As the man says, I gave up after about two hours because I was sick of replaying the same endless section (it was like Groundhog Day but without Bill Murray's wit). Mind you, Capcom is the undisputed king of ultra harsh gameplay so maybe it just doesn't want to lose its crown. /goes back to Bioshock's ultra generous spawning system |
|
0
If anything, I want DMC4 to be harder.
DMC3 on Dante Must Die mode was disappointingly straight forward once you understand the mechanics of the devil trigger (charged) and using Royal Guard = a fully charged ultimate attack will pretty much kill anything. For those who found DMC3 hard should learn the system rather than thinking it is a hack 'n' slash game when it clearly isn't. The four styles are there for a reason for Christ sake. Still, the original remains the best as it was the hardest and had the best bosses. |
|
Chaote-Imagicka
05/09/07 @ 09:04
0
You lot are just embarrassed about giving Space Giraffe a low score right? Worried Jeff Minter will publish your score on the leaderboards and say you suck as well?
|
|
retr0gamer
05/09/07 @ 12:09
0
The main problem with DMC3 was that it was a real baptism of fire. It threw you in right at the deep end from the start. The first proper boss Cerberus was by far the hardest part of the whole game. After you got through that ordeal and understood the mechanics then it wasn't too rough from then on. Love the DMC 1 and 3, the fighting system is a lot deeper than hack and slashers like GoW.
|
|
0
Bionick, DMC3's combat shits on Ninja Gaiden from the highest peak on this planet.
The four styles (and two other bonus styles as you progress through the game) in DMC3 gives the player so much choice and never gets boring whereas Ninja Gaiden is just built on one combat system with each weapon doing a slightly different move from the rest. The fact that DMC4 will allow the players to change styles REAL-TIME is so absurb and wrong; hundreds of combos and moves all down to mixing style - that's fine by me. |
|
ExplodingClown
05/09/07 @ 18:30
0
Wired_protocol: +1
... I'm told Cho Eniki is the most homoerotic (well, in the full-on greased-naked-men sense of the word) series of games in existence, but I've never played it, so yup, Dante and his bishie pals take the pink rosette on that score. DMC 3 in particular was just dripping with barely-suppressed man-love :-p |
|
0
"If you couldn't handle DMC 3 on Easy, especially the PAL version, then you just aren't very good at action games and should never have bought it."
I actually played the NTSC version on Normal. As far as I remember, Easy is a pointless dumbed-down mode where you don't even have the full range of controls. And DMC 1 was definitely less hard than DMC 3. |
|
freedomplanet
08/09/09 @ 10:07
0
Tuvimos una lección que, en realidad, ya que DMC3 era realmente difícil. Lo que hemos encontrado que algunas veces la gente ha perdido interés en las primeras dos horas, porque el juego simplemente sin darles ninguna oportunidad
domain |
Comments: 1-22 of 22 in total
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
