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Sonic GAMES positive blog

Sonic EVERYTHING ELSE negative blog

Also sometimes other stuff

I've played the Castlevania games but I wouldn't consider myself to have a very informed insight about that series. The Castlevania game I know the best is Harmony of Dissonance lol.

The theme of that game is definitely envy. Maxim is envious of Juste because he inherited the vampire killer. And there's an implication of Juste himself having some complex feelings about the fact that he is an "inbetween" Belmont. His theme song is called "Successor of Fate", i.e. he is the successor of Simon the metatextually original Belmont. And he is the grandfather of Richter, who will invest so much of his sense of personal identity into his purpose in defeating Dracula that he'll succumb to the temptations of evil as a result. Where did that feeling Richter had that he as a Belmont had no purpose without a Dracula to slay if not from his own family? The same darkness that cursed Maxim takes hold of Richter.

That's the only one I feel confident in speaking on in detail at least.

I feel like the reason the Devil May Cry fan community is having such a healthy rejection against the Netflix show is because of the DmC Devil May Cry reboot game

They've dealt with this infection before. Their antibodies are strong thanks to that experience.

Ian Flynn is the Adi Shankar is Sonic

Do you get it now?

DMC 3 DONE TIME FOR DMC 4 FUCKERSSSSSS

Did you know that Devil May Cry 3 teaches you how to count?

The mission number is hidden somewhere in the intro cutscene for every single level.

And tragically, just as Dante ends the game in the same position we found him in at the beginning of DMC 1, so too does Vergil.

It's a forgone conclusion. We already know how this fight ends. Vergil becomes Nelo Angelo and a mindless slave of Mundus. I will again assert that absolutely EVERYTHING this game did with Vergil was a shameless retcon, because in DMC1 it is overtly implied that Vergil was kidnapped and brainwashed by Mundus as a child and Dante thought he was dead. But this games ending for Vergil doesn't really step on any toes - it just recontextualizes some things. In the end, Vergil is in the same place he was in that game, as a slave to Mundus with his half of the amulet. The how was just shifted around.

Throughout the game we've seen Dante defeat his enemies and then they pledge loyalty to him by becoming his Devil Arms. Every single boss that DANTE defeats becomes his ally willingly, acknowledging his strength. Whereas Vergil defeated Beowulf, and claimed his devil arm against his will. Here in the final scene with Vergil, we can fill in the blanks and the picture painted in our minds is a grim one. Vergil loses this fight, because he is weak from his battle with Dante. And the demon culture of submission to the victor will be imposed upon him. Vergil will be forced to become a weapon for Mundus, and he will live a waking nightmare for an unknown amount of time until the battle with his brother on Mallet Island.

Goodbye, the greatest rival character in video games. See ya in fourteen years.

The game concludes with Dante in his DMC1 outfit, taking up the position he was in right when we found him at the beginning of the original game. Everything has come full circle.

What an amazing prequel. It does everything that it should have done, it revitalized the Devil May Cry franchise name and turned it into a legend among the action game genre. It respected everything that the original game innovated and established, while also striking out to forge its own identity. Devil May Cry as a series is the child of two fathers, Hideki Kamiya and Hideaki Itsuno. In many ways it feels like the original game was the clay harvested from the earth, and DMC3 is the end result after that clay was molded into a breathtaking and unique piece of art. I will always love and respect the original game for breaking the mold, but DMC3 is a masterpiece that truly allowed this intellectual property to flourish to its full potential.

when people ask you what the best action game of all time is, you can answer them with:

"Wanna know the name?"

Absolutely incredible ending scene. You can really see how much these two characters have grown compared to their interactions at the beginning of the game.

In DMC1, Dante tells Trish devils never cry to comfort her. Here, he's saying it to try and deny his own feelings and deny his tears, because the pain of loss is worse than thinking of himself as a demon. The same words from the same character, but the context is shifted to have a completely different meaning. And it tees up Lady for the most emotionally impactful title drop in the history of title drops.

When the leftover goomba demons show up to spoil the moment, Dante takes it as a relief. The complicated feelings of loss and grief suck. But fighting demons is easy and fun. Dante is running screaming away from his own feelings and retreating into the comforting embrace of being a wacky wahoo pizza man. It's a cope. Him shouting "this is what I live for! I'm absolutely crazy about it!" is the literal definition of a coping mechanism. He's trying to convince nobody more than himself that all of this is going to bounce off him like water off a ducks back, and he can just enjoy the thrills of hunting demons.

I have to think that Kamiya took inspiration from this game, with the whole fighting enemies during the credits thing. Because he would absolutely yoink that for Bayonetta and every game he's directed since then.

Vergil 3. The only level in the game that's just the boss fight and nothing else, no level leading up to it, no puzzles and generic enemies. Just you and Vergil, at the end of the world. This functions as the final test from the game to measure your mastery of the mechanics by putting you up against an opponent who has eclipsed you for the entire game. You start out with full health and full devil trigger. There are no excuses. And Vergil fights with Yamato and Force Edge, the sword that Dante used in the original game and functions identically to the Rebellion. So this is practically a mirror match, a fight against your equal but opposite. If this is not the greatest final battle of any video game, it's only because DMC5's final fight is its competition.

The first time I fought Vergil 3 is a very special memory for me in my adult gaming life. I played it on the DMC HD Collection on the PS3. I hadn't really used any items during my entire playthrough up until that point. In the final battle against Vergil I went through my entire inventory, every vital star, every gold orb, every purple star, clawing for every last pixel of health as beat against the brick wall that was Vergil. I got down to the last magic pixel of health. But I did it. I beat him on my very first try. It was an incredible feeling for me then. I almost feel bad that I don't have nearly as much trouble against him anymore. But it's also appropriate. Vergil starts out so far beyond Dante and you the player, that the Vergil 1 fight concludes with him definitively beating Dante. He's better than you. Vergil 2 ends in a draw. You're catching up. But here at the end, Dante has grown beyond him. You're SUPPOSED to be better than Vergil by now. It's a tough fight, but it is a fight Dante is destined to win.

Here at the end of the world, Vergil displays that he has not changed and grown at all. He's still a petulant immature child, having a sibling spat with Dante because he wants his brothers toy. He's still playing like this is all one big party, like in the cutscene for the Vergil 1 fight. But Dante has matured, he's grown up, and outgrown his brother. Dante isn't playing around anymore. He starts out trying to appeal to his brother on his own level, playing along with the banter "no way, you've got your own", trying to convince him that power alone isn't what made Sparda who he was. But Vergil won't be convinced, and Dante has to start taking this seriously. And he demonstrates exactly how much he's changed since the beginning of the game.

Dante started out denying he even had a father in the Vergil 1 concluding cutscene. Now Dante stands, bloody sword edge in hand, saying that they are the sons of Sparda and their fathers soul resonates inside them. He is his fathers legacy, and he must fulfill his fathers final responsibility of protecting the human world from the denizens of the underworld. Even if that includes his own brother. The persona of brotherly squabbling has been discarded, and Dante stands as a fully matured man who embraces the responsibilities of his lineage. While Vergil continues to selfishly cloy for his own power, rejecting his fathers legacy while still grasping for the strength that should come with it like an spoiled child.

In the end Dante proves superior, and Vergil can do nothing but indignantly reject him. He doesn't even admit that he lost. And he embraces his demonic side by resigning himself to remaining in the underworld, their fathers "home." Ignoring the fact that their father rebelled against it and reigned as a protector of the human world. This is the most shameless "you didn't win! you didn't win!" I've ever seen in my fucking life.

As Vergil falls away Dante reaches out for him. Reaches out for his brother. His only remaining family. And Vergil swats his hand away with his blade, just like he did after the end of the Vergil 1 fight when Dante was reaching out for the amulet.

In Vergil's mind, perhaps he thinks that's what Dante is doing again? In Vergil's mind, he thinks Dante is just reaching for his amulet, because he thinks Dante wants the power of Sparda just like he did. "give that to me/no way you've got your own/I want yours too" in Vergil's eyes the roles are simply reversed. Perhaps he cannot convince of the fact that Dante was not reaching for the amulet, but reaching for HIM. To try and save his twin brother. Because he loves him.

Dante is left alone. With only the hollow, powerless sword that his father left behind. The key that locked away the seal between the human world and the underworld. A sword that represents Dante's loss, because his brother chose to stay in the demon world that is now locked away forever. It's an egregious rewrite of what Force Edge seemed to represent to Dante in the original game, but it serves as a powerful final symbol for the story and themes this game wanted to tell. No matter how much you may want to, you cannot change your family. And you cannot escape the ties that bind. For better and for worse.

Very convenient that Lady just happened to walk up to the tower peak just as Arkham happened to survive the Jackpot blast and just happened to fall back down to earth as a human again for some reason.

Of course I'm just being a dick, the narrative needed this to happen for the sake of Lady's character. And the payoff is so worth it you don't even question how it was brought about. She started out shooting Dante in the head because he saved her from falling and she wanted to carry the weight of her fathers sins entirely on her shoulders and was willing to kill anyone and anything that stood inbetween her and Arkham. Her character arc culminated in her finding the strength to relinquish that burden and let Dante handle the resolution in her stead, even entrusting him with the spirit of her mother (the rocket launcher) to get the job done. She is rewarded for that character growth by giving her the catharsis she needed.

Arkham is truly laid low here. After spending the entire game in total control, manipulating absolutely everybody, forcing the three children to dance to his whims until he held the entire world in his hands. But Dante and Lady have grown up, matured beyond him. And now he is laid so low that he is crawling on his stomach and desperately begging for his life. I love the shot of him looking around while Lady says "my mother was the only one who could say my name." He's DESPERATELY trying to think of what he can say to get out of this. But he's so pathetic that all he can think to do is throw a temper tantrum, like a spoiled child who didn't get his way even though he wanted it and held his breath and everything. Suddenly his own daughter is miles beyond him. And he gets the ending he deserved.

Lady rejects the name of her father, and embraces the identity that Dante bestowed upon her. The two have left an inalienable mark upon each other. The way the fucking god damn Netflix show deadnames her by insisting on referring to her as Mary is legitimately offensive.

The moment of Lady going from crazed laughter to breaking down into sobbing tears is so incredible I almost don't even have words for it. The only thing keeping it from being the best moment in the entire game is because there's so many other incredible moments it's competing against. Lady gets her catharsis, she gets what she thought she wanted. Revenge for her mother, and for herself. Removing a Devil from this world who has killed countless innocents. It should be a happy moment. She should feel proud of herself. But as the adrenaline fades and reality sinks in, she cannot escape the fact that Arkham was her father. The man who named her, the man who cradled her as a baby and changed her diapers. And now he's dead and she killed him. She should be happy that she saved the world from an evil monster, but instead she is crushed by the weight of being an orphan who now needs to find out what she's even supposed to do with her life anymore.

We cannot escape the ties that bind. She breaks down into tears. An absolutely heartwrenching moment of humanity that chokes me up every single time.

This person is my mortal fucking enemy.

I've read his comics. I can recognize his authorial voice. I know what Ian Flynn writing sounds like.

Answering questions that nobody asked, explaining shit that didn't need to be explained. A weird obsession with his own self invented terminology and naming conventions that doesn't exist anywhere else in the series. Turns of phrase that keep popping up in different characters mouths, because he's incapable of writing for the character instead of as himself. SatAM/Archieisms.

I don't care if he denies it on a fucking podcast. Ian Flynn wrote every single fucking word of dialog in this DLC and nobody can convince me otherwise.

DMC1 had the fight against Nelo Angelo, then some finale levels, and concluded on a big slug out with a giant monster final villain. DMC3 learned from history and has the big leadup finale levels build to the giant monster final villain, then concludes with the Nelo Angelo fight. And it became a legend.

In the beginning cutscene we see Arkham attack Dante in the visage of Sparda, and the game might have been leading you to believe it was going to have a fight between Dante and Sparda-Arkham which might have been pretty cool! Then Arkham becomes a grotesque monstrosity, and the fight against the giant evil blob begins. You might think it's trying to imply that "a mere human" like Arkham can't handle Sparda's true demonic power. But I'm pretty sure it's more that this monstrous mass is the true form of Arkham's soul. This is what Arkham looks like on the inside. And trying to call upon Sparda's powers to their fullest extent just brings it out and makes it external.

Dante is actually right that you can tell what Sparda looked like by looking at him. In DMC1 beating the game on Dante Must Die mode unlocks the Legendary Dark Knight mode, where Dante is model swapped for Sparda. And he looks exactly like Dante but just with his hair swept back. (Probably why Vergil likes to style his hair that way).

Vergil shows up and the fight become a victory lap. I mean, it's supposed to be lol. Not having devil trigger kinda threw me off and I had to pussy out with holy water at the end there. But the vibe is still present, the brothers absolutely gang banging this loser.

I always love this kind of thing, because I've seen it done wrong so many times (usually by shitty western comic book authors who don't know how to shut the fuck up.) Vergil shows up to co-op the boss fight, and there's no trite overwrought discussion about it. There's no "how do I know I can trust you, Vergil!? >=o " from Dante. There's no "let's put aside our differences and focus on the mutual enemy!" argument from Vergil. The two brothers just banter in a playful way, like they've been doing throughout the entire game, and they just. Act as one. It's a glimpse at what COULD have been. The sons of Sparda, united as an unstoppable force. But it is a dream that cannot be.