Shinobi, DTR, and Kunoichi actually started out easy, in contrast to DMC3, in which I literally couldn't get through the first 15 minutes of gameplay for several days.
I say it straight up in the video review, but this is a game that I certainly would have stopped playing were it not for having to write a review. Of course, having played through it, I'm glad I did. For what it's worth.
Wow, if it's to that degree, I wonder how DMC3's difficulty will affect sales? With such a brutal opening, I can imagine many quick returns/trade-ins and bad word of mouth spreading among more casual fans of the series.
I'd wait to buy this one used, near-mint copies will probably show up at stores within a few days.
You can make Dante automatically attack nearby foes using his guns or his sword, or you can hold down R1 to lock onto a specific enemy. When you're locked onto and facing a foe, you can execute lateral rolls to get out of harm's way...but you must do so by pressing to Dante's left or right on the analog stick rather than to yours, which takes a while to get used to in the context of this game's hectic battles. If you don't perform the move correctly, you'll make Dante jump up instead of roll to the side, and you'll probably get hit. By default, Dante has no other defensive maneuvers to speak of, so any natural inclinations you might have either to retreat from attacks or try to guard against them will be brutally rebuffed.
but this is a game that I certainly would have stopped playing were it not for having to write a review. Of course, having played through it, I'm glad I did. For what it's worth.
The only way to defend yourself in the DMC series is to dodge roll attacks and jumping out. But in DMC3, there's two styles that allow you to either move with agility or allows you to block attacks (I think). Trickster and Royalguard styles
I've played through all of normal, and over half of hard mode, and I never thought it was *that* hard, outside of a few frustrating bosses. Though this was the japanese version, if my understanding of the US version changes are correct, that sounds like a right bitch, while i almost never had any problems plowing through the normal levels, not being able to restart before a boss is a real, real bitch. Outside of that it sounds managable, I didn't find the normal difficulty over the top at all, i thought Gaiden was considerably harder.
The standard enemies in DMC3 just seemed alot easier to manage to me, compared to Gaidens. Alot of the enemies in gaiden were complete bastards to your health and could completely slaughter you very quickly without you giving them your full attention, I thought they were far more intelligent, and risks to your health then DMC3's. Even at the end of the game i was pretty much plowing through enemies without much or any concern for my health, as they didn't pose much risk to Dante even if i wasn't trying hard, the same can't be said of Gaidens lategame zombie things and the ninjas.
The bosses were pretty much equally hard though, i thought NG had alot of cheap bosses. I HATED Alma, and finally managed to beat her via item abuse mostly, most of DMC battles are also very hard, and require alot of practise, but from what i remember, they seemed alot more rewarding and less cheap. Although you can pretty much abuse items in DMC3 aswell, the mission system lends itself to alot of orb abuse, and you can just buy whatever you need for whichever boss really.
As far as i'm concerned, the difficulty in Gaidens far more of an issue then DMC3, atleast the japanese DMC3. The easy mode, the ability to replay old missions easily, easier to come by items, pretty much negates much frustration with the game if done right, and the game doesn't start out THAT hard, its the second boss i thought it shot up abit, while NG pretty much is hard from the getgo, and even the first boss can be very hard if you're new to it.
As far as quality goes, i'd also give the edge to NG, but DMC3 is also a very good game. Its a set up from DMC3, and far more along the lines of the first game. I still have some general issues with it, while i think Dante has alot of moves, in the level 1 forms of the styles hes pretty limited, and it takes more then one playthrough to max 3 styles. The level 3 styles are pretty cool, but I still sort of wish they managed to merge all the styles into one rather then seperate, though i'd imagine there being control issues, a Dante with access to almost all the moves from Trickster, Swordmaster and Gunslinger would be excellent, and make the game feel alot less simple early on. For the earlier part of the game I felt like the DMC2 dante was more manuverable and had more moves in general. Its only when i started to purchase alot of new moves and get to level 3 swordmaster that i really thought the combat stood out.
I have issues with the style too, while its a giant stepup from the horrid DMC2, i still think its significantly worse then DMC1 as far as enemy designs, bosses, and locales go, and while the graphics are good, alot of the locations look drab and crap to me. While others disagree, the other types of style the game has also just annoys me. The complete soundtrack ranges from boring to horrid, the plot is painfully dumb, and amazingly non sensical at first. The handling of Lady (one of the coolest looking female characters from an action game) was poor, turning her from the strong looking char early in the game to the generic action games worthless fogettable female in trouble,
and a pathetic easy boss too
. I'm sure alot of people liked the cutscenes too, which while some did look good they went far beyond "cool" and just into a really stupid place for me, some of them just seemed painfully stupid
running down a building like sonic, riding UP same building on a bike? Surfing a rocket?
.
Oh well, a rather long post that started as just a comment on the difficulty, might have come across negative, but I always do, still good game though. While i don't rate it amazingly i did really enjoy it, similar to Onimusha 3, i think both games are in a similar position, both quality games, but seemed to get stupidly good early press and reviews, but Oni 3 isn't remembered as favourably now, and i doubt DMC3 will be either, happens alot on this forum, and even more on alot with alot of website scores. No doubt they're good games though, capcoms gotten quite abit better recently.
The only way to defend yourself in the DMC series is to dodge roll attacks and jumping out. But in DMC3, there's two styles that allow you to either move with agility or allows you to block attacks (I think). Trickster and Royalguard styles
"Devil May Cry 3 is a great action game that seems to go out of its way to limit its audience. Let's be clear: There's nothing wrong with a challenging game. On the contrary, many game players these days seem nostalgic for "old-school" games in which having to play through tough levels over and over again was to be expected before yielding the sorts of hard-fought thrills you don't get from breezing through most of today's relatively forgiving games. The thing is, Devil May Cry 3 is much more complicated to play than the old action games from which it seems to draw inspiration, and its difficulty is out of whack, since the game starts off much harder than it ends up, mostly due to certain design decisions that exacerbate the early going. So it comes down to this: Would Devil May Cry 3 have been a better game if its level of challenge were tuned better to make the experience less frustrating to get into? Yes, it would have. With that said, is Devil May Cry 3 an absolutely great action game once you get the hang of it? You bet."
Yeah, you are. One of the four initial styles, the royal guard, has the ability to block, but you take damage even when you block...unless you block at the last second, kind of like parrying in Street Fighter 3, so the Royal Guard is difficult to play. It's hard for me to imagine someone gravitating to that style first.
The trickster, which should have been called "acrobat" or something other than trickster, can execute a quick, invincible dodge, making it by far the most versatile of the four styles. It's the default choice, but I expect most everyone will do what I did at first, which is go straight for the cooler-sounding "swordmaster" or "gunslinger" styles, and then get beaten down real bad. The four styles probably should have been ranked in terms of recommended level of expertise or something, i.e. trickster is relatively well suited for novices, while the other options are not.
Again, if I knew last week what I know now about some of the nuances of the gameplay, the early going wouldn't have been nearly as difficult (though it's still a hard game by any measure and at any difficulty level). I don't think reviews should be strategy guides, but in my review I was compelled to mention those specific things that I think the game should have made much more apparent about the gameplay.
Somewhere right now, someone out there thinks that's a spoiler.
In DMC1, you had to press R1, Triangle, and a direction to dodge roll around attacks. In DMC2, dodging was mapped to the Circle button. But in DMC3, the Circle button controls your special moves for each style now. The Royal Guard style allows you to block by pressing Circle, and you can charge up for counter attacks. As I understand it:
Obviously a whole lot of you here disagree, but I really wish publishers/developers would stop messing with games for their U.S. release. Isn't the whole purpose of having multiple difficulty settings to allow for a more varied audience? If you play on normal and find it too easy when there's a hard mode available, then it's your own fault. Then there's the Dante Must Die mode, and the Heaven Or Hell mode - there's plenty of challenge available for those who want it.
Plus, these kinds of tacked-on changes can really screw up the balance of a game. DMC3 was designed with checkpoints in mind. Taking them out and replacing them with an orb system, while changing nothing else is just bad design.
Not everyone is incredibly skilled at games - and sure, those who aren't up to the challenge can just avoid DMC3 - but it just doesn't make any damn sense. It seems like DMC3 originally catered to a wide range of gamers, satisfying everyone. Why did they insist on limiting their audience?
And for the record, I've beaten Dead To Rights(Xbox), Ninja Gaiden, and quite a few other titles that are generally considered "hard". They may be a breeze to some of you, but they were pretty hard-earned and satifying victories for me. But the fact that DMC3 was screwed with for no good reason really irritates me.
Obviously a whole lot of you here disagree, but I really wish publishers/developers would stop messing with games for their U.S. release. Isn't the whole purpose of having multiple difficulty settings to allow for a more varied audience? If you play on normal and find it too easy when there's a hard mode available, then it's your own fault. Then there's the Dante Must Die mode, and the Heaven Or Hell mode - there's plenty of challenge available for those who want it.
Plus, these kinds of tacked-on changes can really screw up the balance of a game. DMC3 was designed with checkpoints in mind. Taking them out and replacing them with an orb system, while changing nothing else is just bad design.
Not everyone is incredibly skilled at games - and sure, those who aren't up to the challenge can just avoid DMC3 - but it just doesn't make any damn sense. It seems like DMC3 originally catered to a wide range of gamers, satisfying everyone. Why did they insist on limiting their audience?
And for the record, I've beaten Dead To Rights(Xbox), Ninja Gaiden, and quite a few other titles that are generally considered "hard". They may be a breeze to some of you, but they were pretty hard-earned and satifying victories for me. But the fact that DMC3 was screwed with for no good reason really irritates me.
From what I heard, most games released in Japan get a slight difficulty change when they come to the west. I've heard this rumor many times before, and now it seems to be true. Not really sure, haven't been comparing really. But when companies like Konami add an extra difficulty level called European Extreme you kind of start to think don't you?
Perhaps now we can call the Japanese gamers weaksauce??
Anyway, nice review done by Greg. It certainly doesn't stop me from getting it... It did quite the opposite, can't wait for it to be released later this month (March)!
Yeah, 2-player... sort of. This comes from one of the guides on GameFAQs:
TEMPORARILY 2 PLAYER MODE
Another player can use the controller inserted in the 2nd controller port to control the After-image of the "Doppelganger" style, and
Vergil in Mission 19.
Here are the moves:
Triangle, Triangle, Triangle = Combo move
Square, Square, Square = Combo move
Up + Triangle or Up + Square = Thrust
Down + Triangle or Down + Square = High Time
Jump + Triangle or Square = Killer Bee
O = Move to Dante
Yeah, you are. One of the four initial styles, the royal guard, has the ability to block, but you take damage even when you block...unless you block at the last second, kind of like parrying in Street Fighter 3, so the Royal Guard is difficult to play. It's hard for me to imagine someone gravitating to that style first.
In the japanese version, when you die, you can continue in the level a-la-RE4 or if you have yellow crystals, you get a prompt asking you to use it or not, has this been changed in the US version? I keep hearing that you need to start over if you don't have yellow crystals.
Looks like I'll be skipping this one. I hate playing through hard games unless they give you one really thorough training mode at the start and don't immediately punish you for making mistakes in the beginning
The "easy" difficulty in the US release is the "normal" difficulty in the JPN release, and the "normal" difficulty in the US release is the "hard" difficulty in the JPN release? And apparently you can't continue the same way as in the JPN release?
Man, I'm at the boss at the end of Mission 5 of the JPN release and I'm close to switching over to easy mode. If this is the case for the American release.... we're all screwed!
The "easy" difficulty in the US release is the "normal" difficulty in the JPN release, and the "normal" difficulty in the US release is the "hard" difficulty in the JPN release? And apparently you can't continue the same way as in the JPN release?
Man, I'm at the boss at the end of Mission 5 of the JPN release and I'm close to switching over to easy mode. If this is the case for the American release.... we're all screwed!
heh, Mission 5 boss is the hardest in the game. Once you get past there on normal you shouldn't be frustratingly stuck at another boss again [though they still remain tough]
wait, wait, wait. if you get beat by a boss, you cant restart from that point? you have to play the whole level through??
WHAT THE SHIT????
DMC3 sounds like they turned it into a wait and see game. this isnt supposed to be DMC...what the hell. i dont wanna wait and strategize, i wanna run through and slice and dice.
wait, wait, wait. if you get beat by a boss, you cant restart from that point? you have to play the whole level through??
WHAT THE SHIT????
DMC3 sounds like they turned it into a wait and see game. this isnt supposed to be DMC...what the hell. i dont wanna wait and strategize, i wanna run through and slice and dice.
In the Japanese version you can continue right outside the boss's room if you die. Apparently it seems as if they've changed that for the American release.
wait, wait, wait. if you get beat by a boss, you cant restart from that point? you have to play the whole level through??
WHAT THE SHIT????
DMC3 sounds like they turned it into a wait and see game. this isnt supposed to be DMC...what the hell. i dont wanna wait and strategize, i wanna run through and slice and dice.
I thought you restart before the boss...except that in the US version, you have a number of lives (yellow orbs) before you have to completely restart from the beginning of the level?
In the Japanese version you can continue right outside the boss's room if you die. Apparently it seems as if they've changed that for the American release.
I have access to the Jap version, do i need to know Japanese to understand the game? If not, then i may go ahead and pick up that version.
If so, then i am going to just have to skip out on this game. If i understand what everyone is saying, and i fight through a long ass level just to get to the boss and then have my ass handed to me and then have to begin at the very begining of the level.
It usually takes me 5 or 6 times fighting a boss before i start to figure out patterns and such. So that means i will have to play a level all the way through 5 or 6 times before i even begin to start to have a chance against the boss. So in reality that could mean playing some of the harder levels 12 - 15 times.
And i can get all this complete monotonous frustration for the bargain basement price of $50? Woo hoo! please, where do i sign up for that?
Please someone tell me that i am reading this stuff wrong.
meh, i dont personally get this sort of reviews. everyone mentioned how hard shinobi is, and i breezed through it. everyone mentioned how hard DMC is, and i breezed through that as well. only thing annoying about DMC was powering up was too expensive, so you had to go back and forth between rooms, kill a bunch of respawning enemies and collect orbs.
i say bring this on.
edit: damn, just read the review...i see how it could get difficult (control issues). why didnt they just include a block move?
No way... I've often wondered how reviewers plow through some of the more hardcore games in time for release, I figured they either played for hours on end, the gaming was a staff effort, or they were just that damn good. Are there any other games you're familiar with where developers have enclosed a little memory card love to ease things along?
It's actually extremely rare. We didn't even get the memory card for DMC3. It seems to be most common with small Japanese publishers like Bandai in my experience.
If you're a normal player (i hesistate using weaksauce, because DMC3 is that hard), then just play through on easy, when some missions and bosses get too hard, play through the old missions again in order to get more orbs. Eventually you'll beat the game, then move onto hard with the same dante you finished easy in, and go through that...
then there'll be hard (devil must die JP), and devil must die (Heaven or Hell JP) mode to go through.
I imagine the last mode is a bit like 1 hit kills... I mean 1 hit kills to dante, really forcing the play heavenly, or goto hell.
sounded to me like his complaint was not that it was just too hard, but that the progression of difficulty was backwards. instead of: 'normal > more difficult' as the game progresses, it was Uber Hard > Easy.
Please. I dont consider myself super gamer, but I had enough skills to breeze through DMC and Shinobi w/o any problems.
The combat system must always flow, be it with a nice blocking mechanism or kinetic movement (DMC/Shinobi). There is nothing weaksauce about about a nicely balance battle system. If you're so hardcore then I hope you never used the double jump technique in the first DMC.
If you are constantly surrounded by 5/6 enemies who strike at the same time, and your character isnt fluid enough to jump away, there better be a nice blocking mechanism.
Umm, There is a save point, but no shop.. it would be nice to be able to stock up before a boss like alma. I stupidly saved, not knowing she was comming, and then had to try and figher her with one devil elixer, and nothing else. Talk about damn near impossible. Needless to say, i haven't touched the game in months. Too many new games to go back and retry that one.
Count me in. I had 2 health potions before the last 3 bosses.
Thats right. 3. With 2 health potions. It took me 6 hours of trying before the fuckers went down.
Havent touched Ninja Gaiden since then , but im just happy i actually completed it. I suck at hard games.
Please. I dont consider myself super gamer, but I had enough skills to breeze through DMC and Shinobi w/o any problems.
The combat system must always flow, be it with a nice blocking mechanism or kinetic movement (DMC/Shinobi). There is nothing weaksauce about about a nicely balance battle system. If you're so hardcore then I hope you never used the double jump technique in the first DMC.
If you are constantly surrounded by 5/6 enemies who strike at the same time, and your character isnt fluid enough to jump away, there better be a nice blocking mechanism.
I never said I was hardcore or that you werent. I just think blocking in an action game is screwed up and pointless. That was one of my biggest complants about NG... you have to block everything. I would rather evade attacks instead of blocking them. my 2 cents
I never said I was hardcore or that you werent. I just think blocking in an action game if screwed up and pointless. That was one of my biggest complants about NG... you have to block everything. I would rather evade attacks instead of blocking them. my 2 cents
