- Support DMC5 as a game but don’t support microtransactions
- Support Hideaki Itsuno as a creator but don’t support Capcom’s greedy practices.
Seriously though; DMC5, by the looks of things, seems to be shaping up to be a fantastic game.
Jim Sterling, who I genuinely admire and respect, has made his views known via his Youtube channel and I really hope he reconsiders his stance a bit.
“It’s like Capcom is giving you the option to skip playing their game because they’re implying that it’s actually shit!”
That’s one paraphrased point he makes in his video and while I tend to agree with most other games, I don’t think this will be the case in DMC.
Again, we forget just how skill-based DMC is -- even if someone does give in and buys a bunch of Red Orbs to upgrade their character, all they will have is a bunch of moves and weapons that they will have no idea to use.
Red Orbs aren’t actually what you’re earning when you play DMC -- you’re earning experience, you are learning to GET GOOD and money is absolutely no substitute for that.
You aren’t buying moves that will instantly kill all enemies on-screen and earn you an S-ranking on every mission -- no, you still have to get those by putting in the time and get good at the game.
Even the “game-breaking” moves in DMC4 couldn’t be done by pressing a button or spamming an attack; you still very much needed to practice and spamming an attack in DMC is the very opposite of how they want you to play the game.
I do get the point that Jim is trying to make and he is very right in some aspects -- in a perfect world, Hideaki Itsuno could very well tell Capcom to go fuck themselves and release the game independently but I do think that this was a compromise on his part and one that he and Matt Walker have no choice but to be pragmatic about.
This is what they’re actually saying, Jim:
“Don’t worry, this game is going to be awesome. Our bosses wouldn’t get off our backs if we didn’t put what they wanted there, but what they don’t know is you can’t buy your way out of sucking at our game!”
Remember, Itsuno has been waiting to release this game for years, a game that isn’t even his actual passion project (that would be Dragon’s Dogma) but something that he felt personally responsible for. He, more than anyone probably, wants this to be something that fans will appreciate for years to come and if he has to give in even just the tiniest bit to the bloodsuckers at Capcom, then so be it.
In any case, if the game turns out to be as good as it looks like its going to be, this is going to be moot -- this looks to be a genre-defining entry into the “character action” subgenre. There is some clear passion and drive going into this and for once in my life, I will choose to wear a less cynical lens.
