See this shit should be on the back of the box.
All I want from this game are more lines to match the classic “Flock off, featherface!”
I’m hoping an Xbox Live Hurricane Pack update will eventually allow Ryu to supercharge his ultimate technique so you can finish off combos by wailing on a guitar or porking a hot babe.
Giving this a little bump, but I just returned my rental copy. Overall I must say that it really impressed me. There’s plenty of unlockables and while the game is difficult you can take easy way outs if your really getting kicked around (health stars, holy water, buy more health etc.).
The camera is not much of an issue, you can somewhat manuever it with the right stick and you can hear enemies and lock onto them, also most enemies can’t shoot at you so no getting hit off screen.
It is a hard game, normal difficulty is the japanese hard mode, there is no dumbed down control screen either (though there is something called “easy automatic” I don’t know what it does). If you are killed by the boss, it’s not normally a big deal as after you do a level the first time it’s pretty basic to go through it again.
After going through on Eady Normal isn’t too hard. In only a little time I quickly got to level 9 with my powered up character.
Overall I really enjoy this, and I hope to pick up God of War as well.
Sorry for the double post and the bump, but this is inasne:
I was playing this in the local EB, and got to Cerberus. He killed me. I had to go all the way back to the beginning and contort my fingers into knotted masses of bone and sinew yet again, just so I could get to Cerberus, try a different tactic, and try again.
I hate games that punish you with shit that you’ve already figured out. It’s not gameplay if you keep sending me back and hope that I get bored or frustrated enough that I give up before I finish the encounter that was actually challenging me. It’s just shitty design.
(I have the exact same problem with Japanese RPGs too. If I can get to the boss, and I’ve done so without using all of my extra resources or anything like that, then it’s your fault as a game designer if I hate the game because I suddenly find I have to go back out and earn 5 more levels before I can actually beat the boss. That’s not gameplay, it’s lazy, half-assed design.)
Yeah it can be frustating if you’re not prepared. The other change in the Jaoanese game, besides the dificulty is that you could continue from the boss IIRC, like a yellow orb.
I hope it’s as hard as Ninja Gaiden. To be honest, I enjoyed the controls of DMC1 much more than NG. Of course I couldn’t run on walls or do any of that stuff, but the controls always seemed tighter and more “instant.” The interaction of sword and gunplay was flawlessly executed, in my opinion.
Playing on “easy” mode would be a disservice. I guess my fingers are more nimble than some of you older folks (I do so dread the day…), so DMC1 on Normal mode was not too challenging. On “easy” mode you really lost the tactical aspect of locking onto your own targets, which I couldn’t accept.
Great review Kitsune, I agree with most of that post.
As for lack of save-anywhere, it was sometimes frustrating, but the levels in DMC1 were always so short that it never seemed to take too long to get back at the boss. Are they longer in DMC3?
I hope it’s as hard as Ninja Gaiden. To be honest, I enjoyed the controls of DMC1 much more than NG. Of course I couldn’t run on walls or do any of that stuff, but the controls always seemed tighter and more “instant.” The interaction of sword and gunplay was flawlessly executed, in my opinion.
Playing on “easy” mode would be a disservice. I guess my fingers are more nimble than some of you older folks (I do so dread the day…), so DMC1 on Normal mode was not too challenging. On “easy” mode you really lost the tactical aspect of locking onto your own targets, which I couldn’t accept.
Great review Kitsune, I agree with most of that post.
As for lack of save-anywhere, it was sometimes frustrating, but the levels in DMC1 were always so short that it never seemed to take too long to get back at the boss. Are they longer in DMC3?
I was playing this in the local EB, and got to Cerberus. He killed me. I had to go all the way back to the beginning and contort my fingers into knotted masses of bone and sinew yet again, just so I could get to Cerberus, try a different tactic, and try again.
I hate games that punish you with shit that you’ve already figured out. It’s not gameplay if you keep sending me back and hope that I get bored or frustrated enough that I give up before I finish the encounter that was actually challenging me. It’s just shitty design.
(I have the exact same problem with Japanese RPGs too. If I can get to the boss, and I’ve done so without using all of my extra resources or anything like that, then it’s your fault as a game designer if I hate the game because I suddenly find I have to go back out and earn 5 more levels before I can actually beat the boss. That’s not gameplay, it’s lazy, half-assed design.)[/quote]
No it’s not. They put the yellow orbs in the game for a reason. They don’t cost a lot and when used they send you back to the room just before the one you got killed in. The bosses’ rooms usually have item statues right outside, so it’s always a good idea to buy at least a few yellow orbs before going in. In fact, it’s a good idea to always have yellow orbs at all times. It’s not the game designer’s fault you don’t use the tools available to you. :)
My initial problem with DMC3’s difficulty stemmed from how I played DMC1. I kid you not, I never had to purchase things like the green healing stars or yellow orbs, even on DMC1’s Hard difficulty. I could make do with what I found in mid-game, and I only purchased things that gave me a permanent bonus (such as the items that extended the length of your devil trigger and health bar).
It was one of those stupid little gamer points of pride, no different from those who like to brag that they can beat Baldur’s Gate 2 with a party of only one character or whatever. The very idea of having to resort to buying healing items repulsed me because I was better than that.
But yeah, I can’t play DMC3 that way at all. It took some time to acept that. Maybe I just suck, or maybe it’s really that much more difficult, but I find myself hoarding at least five healing stars and one yellow orb at all times. The first time I rented the game, both my friends and I tried getting past just the very first boss about twenty times without success, and not one of us thought that maybe it’d be a good idea to buy additional green stars before taking it on. We’ve learned our lesson.
This might also be why I never beat DMC1’s Dante Must Die! mode. “Surely the problem isn’t that the game is simply too difficult for me and I need more healing items… I just need better concentration!” I should retry that game with my new mindset.
My ego wouldn’t let me abuse Healing Stars either in the DMC games. I was able to finish DMC3(US normal) pretty easilly without ever using them though. Often I would face bosses up to a dozen times before learning all their little tricks and counter opportunities before killing them with nary a scratch. That minus to ranking just hung over my head like the sword of Damocles, and with the exception of the boss you fight inside the flying whale thing, I never used em. Probably coulda beaten the game in about half the logged time however if I did.
Just a warning about DMC1 DMD mode though.
-You are only allotted a single healing item at any time in your inventory, no more stacking multiples. Replenishing them are uber-expensive, but by then you are pretty much only putting orbs towards that anyway. (Yellow orbs shouldn’t be a problem, I had around 60+ on average moving throughout DMD mode)
-Besides the subtle enemy re-arrangements(it shares a lot of the scripting changes in hard mode) certain rooms now become danger zones where a timer pops up and gives you say…30 sec to kill everything in sight, or they all go Devil Trigger and invulnerable to attacks except when you yourself is DT’d. (Gets gruesome in rooms with multiple shadow cats)
-Because you really need your A-game in this mode to survive, the satisfaction of even finishing certain levels and bosses is exemplified by the S-ranks you will likely earn automatically. Feels amazing knowing how hard you just owned that mission. It’s also really surprising how many subtleties you discover such as the R. Launcher/Dodge roll/taunt combo to quickly recharge the Devil gauge…something you need to abuse a lot in this difficulty.
Despite all of this, the challenge is inherently doable if you were able to beat Hard mode. The lategame bosses are incredibly annoying though(Nightmare and Mundus 2 I never want to face again) but the Griffin bouts and Nero Angelo duels are some of my favorite encounters in action gaming in this mode.
Good luck!