I’ve spent absolutely hours looking for sources on various websites, I’ve been looking everywhere using all sorts of key words to try and get anything from anywhere.
The best I could get was loads of and loads of sales figures on how well the game sells and an article about the new up and coming Devil May Cry game on how to make a successful sequel.
I tried getting a copy of the game, but no where around where I live seems to sell it, it’s not even in the preowned section, it maybe because the game has been out since 2008. The Playstation network doesn’t even have a demo to download. So, turning up nothing but loose ends, the prospect of finding anything scholarly was looking grim.
So using some advise from David Dorrington, I have been looking at the following websites, including:
http://www.gametrailers.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/
http://uk.ign.com/
For all articles, trailers, reviews and video reviews; to try and get as much info from the websites as possible, about the feel, pace and atmosphere of the game. Below is all the information I found about Devil May Cry (DMC) with regards to the, feel, pace and atmosphere.
Introduction
A project at the University of East London has been set up called Project Blend. This project, still in development, it’s going through development, by a team of students using a software program called Unity. This project is currently in the research phase of the project and all kinds of information needs to be acquired to make the game as successful as it can be. This case study will look at Devil May Cry with regards to the pace, feel and atmosphere, then relate the findings back to the project it order for the information to be useful to the development team.
Devil May Cry
The Devil May Cry (DMC) series has always been set in a gothic super natural world, with up until the latest installment had Dante, as the protagonist, DMC 4 has a man named Nero; but Dante still plays a cameo role in the new game to keep the fan boys happy.
DMC is a third person, Beat em Up, Puzzler.
Since the first game, the games fundamental mechanics have remained the same, kill a relentless onslaught of undead enemies. As the player progresses through the game each section is locked until the player beats that areas group of enemies. As the player dispatches the undead enemies red orbs are collected, these can be used to buy other moves bigger and better weapons and upgrades for weapons.
While the player attacks the enemy, after the player makes a few consecutive hits to an enemy that connect, a style meter pops up, which grades the player from D to SSS.
 |
| Screen Shot of the character Dante |
The style meter measures the actions performed by the character
during combat and the amount of variety in attacks or other actions that are
performed in each battle. The player must perform attacks to increase the style meter gauge. The style meter will rise depending on the variety of attacks that are
unleashed or dodges that are performed.
| STYLE LEVEL | RANK |
|------------------------------------|
| Deadly! | --> D-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Carnage! | --> C-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Brutal! | --> B-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Atomic! | --> A-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Smokin'! | --> S-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Smokin' Style! | --> SS-rank |
|------------------------------------|
| Smokin' Sick Style | --> SSS-rank |
+------------------------------------+
www.GameFaqs.com
While looking extensively at DMC, a game called Bayonetta will be used to reinforce the points raised and made while looking at DMC.
Bayonetta is also a fast pace beat em up set in a gothic setting, while fighting off undead monsters, it’s basically DMC except with a woman as a main character instead of Dante.
Feel, Pace and Atmosphere for Devil May Cry (DMC)
There are many aspects that make up the feel, pace and atmosphere of a game too numerous to mention here.
So to keep it specific and to the point I will only use the following methods to help describe the feel, pace and atmosphere:
Sounds
Coming from character (PC and weapon)
Background music
Sound Effects
Level
Colours used in levels
Layout of level
Objects within the level
Flow
The amount of NPC’s
Combo moves
Obstacles in level
Sounds
In DMC there are many different sound effects and musical scores going on at the same time, the music most of all, segues perfectly. Take an empty house for example, there’ll be slow creepy music playing in the background, with noises reminiscent of ghosts, then once an enemy comes adjacent to the PC, heavy, fast paced, loud music plays, to go with the flow of the change in the PC and it’s actions. (www.Gamespot.com DMC Gameplay Movie 9)
This type of musical theme helps the player, by giving constant feedback about when it’s time to relax from the busy set action pieces. This is also the case for Bayonetta, if the main character attacks an NPC, the music dynamically changes track to fit the situation.
To reinforce the gothic vibe the levels have running through them, the PC makes noises when swinging his sword and shooting his gun, almost constantly.
It’s as if to let the player know that fighting these undead enemies isn’t exactly a piece of cake. This gives a sense of fear to the player as every blow that is swapped with the enemy, is met with a grunt or a swosh of a sword.
This all adds dramatic tension to the fights to make them more of an adrenaline rush to the player, which does help with the dark gothic theme. This is similar for Bayonetta, though there is less grunting and more killer moves which is Bayonetta's own way of giving the player a different kind of tension.
 |
| A giant spiked wheel that spins over the enemy until dead. |
When the PC picks up items theirs a loud almost bang noise, which has a church bell like quality to it. (www.Gamespot.com DMC Gameplay Movie 1)
This all adds to the gothic vibe to work together with the music, and sound effects from the PC to create a creepy, scary haunted mansion feel.
Level
For the colour pallet of the game theirs generally just dark grey’s, blues and red’s. These colours help to reinforce the dark gothic feel of the game as this makes things dark and erie looking. Nothing in the game, not even the interface is colourful all the colours are dark and gothic, all of which complement each other nicely.
 |
| A collection of Red's, Blue's and Grey's. |
Within the specific levels of the game there is a dark gothic theme that runs throughout to keep the tone and atmosphere throughout the game. To keep this theme running through the game the rooms are massive and are modeled to look like an old mansion.
This is backed up with loads of other objects that look like they should be in the level such as long tables and huge vases and statues of women that can be smashed so that the player can obtain points to progress through the game.
Flow
DMC has a very well structured system for pacing the gameplay. Throughout the game, as the PC enters a room red bars pop up across the door the PC needs to go through to continue the campaign. These bars will stay there until all NPC’s are dispatched, which will slow the progress of the player.
This is a clever technique to stop player running past enemies and continuing to the next room as this keeps the pace the developers intended for it.
 |
| Red bars prevent players from progressing until all enemies are dispatched. |
While dispatching enemies in a room the players style meter will increase, this will encourage the player to be inventive in each room; as more points are awarded for varying their approach to each NPC.
Devil May Cry has always offered the most hardcore action, and Devil May Cry is not different: it’s a game that’s aching for you to smash things up, whether that’s the scenery, or one of the inspired selection of evil demons - IGN.UK
This helps the feel of the game as the player will feel more investment is needed in each room rather then just having to dispatch enemy units.
Certain rooms contain boxes, which can be smashed by the player, some of these boxes have hidden items in them, which can be or good use at a later stage in the game.
These boxes and vases help set the mood as part of the feng shui and add a good pace to the game, they break up the combat for the player. Before they run into the next group of enemies they get to do some exploring and see what they can find, all this extra smashing helps reinforce the beat em up mechanics and the atmosphere of the level as it helps set the gothic mood.
In Closing
Devil May Cry 4 is a quality game that is a great addition to the Devil May Cry series, it’s got some great mechanics that really make it shine and stand out from the other games. Some of the stand out bits that would be worth while considering for Project Blend are:
Colour palette
The dark gothic colours wont be of any use to the project, but the strong use of only three colours primarily throughout the game, make for an interesting colour theme.
Blood
This was mainly in Bayonetta as DMC’s blood was dark red and blended in with all the other colours of the game, but with Bayonetta, the blood stood out and heavily contrasted form the background. The Blend project could benefit from something like this with all the types of bright vibrant colours of various fruits.
Style Meter
Both DMC and Bayonetta have style meter combo bars in their games, both standing out from the rest of the interface to bring this achievement to the players attention straight away, this is a positive reinforcement mechanic for the player giving them positive feedback will be a way of keeping the comedy and light heartedness that project blend is trying to incorporate into their game.
Music
Both games have good sound tracks and sound effects, they have a good way of segueing into one another, they carefully dyamicaly blend one song into another without any gap in the music.
Keeping this sort of attention to musical detail may prove to be vital to keeping the pace; which could in turn help to keep the pace in the game Project Blend are producing.
Maybe these core mechanics could be used in Project blend with a little tweaking they could be made for the game and hopefully add some quality moments to the game.
Bibliography
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/938686-devil-may-cry-4/faqs/51976
http://www.gametrailers.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/
http://uk.ign.com/
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/849/849615p1.html
http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/devilmaycry4/video/6186187/devil-may-cry-4-gameplay-movie-9
- > Devil May Cry Gameplay video No.9 - Change in level music.
http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/devilmaycry4/video/6169991/devil-may-cry-4-gameplay-movie-1?tag=videos;title;12
- > Devil May Cry Gameplay Video No.1
http://uk.ign.com/videos/2009/12/21/bayonetta-playstation-3-review-video-review?objectid=14253676
- - > Bayonetta video review IGN.UK
http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/action/bayonetta/video/6243576/bayonetta-gameplay-trailer-5?tag=videos;title;6
- > Bayonetta Gameplay Video No.6
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14253676/bayonetta/images/bayonetta-screens-20091027094303546.html
- - > Bayonetta Images IGN.UK
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/748464/devil-may-cry-4/images/devil-may-cry-4-20071018095400417.html
- - > Devil May Cry Images. IGN.UK
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