Devil May Cry is going to be an intense Capcom collaboration

There may be a new DMC game on the way, but instead of drawing cheers and giddy excitement from fans, the community has been rather cautious in their optimism, mostly due to the game being handled by developer Ninja Theory.

The new art style hasn’t been to well received, and many of the fans are fearful that the end product will be tarnished with emo themes and lacklustre combat. Not so, says Capcom, who have confirmed that the latest Devil May Cry is product born from both houses, and not just an independent development that was handed over.

Speaking on behalf of series producer Motohide Eshiro and himself, Capcom Japan’s David Chrissop explained that DMC is “not a collaboration in name only”.

“We really are working together, injecting as much Capcom know-how as we can”. Capcom US and DMC co-producer Alex Jones also added that it was “a fairly intense collaboration, particularly when you get down to the combat.”

“There are minute discussions about shaving frames, and ‘no no, have you tried hit stop this way?’ So it is very much like a symposium of Street Fighter-level combat stuff when we’re over there. The combat is at the heart of any stellar DMC experience”.

Ninja Theory’s creative director Tameem Antoniades then went on to add that “Combat is the foundation of Devil May Cry. Combat is what we’ve been putting most of our efforts in so far. When we into this game Capcom was very keen to impart that knowledge. (We have) to make sure we nail the combat, the timing, the fluidity of the controls and make it feel like a Capcom game”.

Jones also pointed out that Capcom chose Ninja Theory specifically for the collaboration, because the studio had particular strengths which they wanted to utilise for the game. “Having said that, (Ninja Theory is) amazing at story and mood and atmosphere, and we’ve given them full latitude to make the game they wanna make in that sphere”.

“So in a lot of ways it’s been a very productive two-way relationship with us leveraging our strengths and we’re pretty happy with where we are at this point”.

Hate or like them, there’s no doubt that Ninja Theory can craft a compelling story around some tight gameplay, as evidenced in last years Enslaved. Dodgy emo punk visuals aside, perhaps they can create a DMC game that sets a new benchmark for the franchise.

Source: VG247

Last Updated: August 26, 2011