DmC: Devil May Cry

Face your demons.

"Their truth is a lie… their city is an illusion… do not accept the world as it is."

DmC: Devil May Cry is a 2013 Beat'Em Up Action Game developed by Ninja Theory, notably known for Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. At first announced as a Continuity Reboot to the Devil May Cry series, it became a prequel, and now it is an Alternate Continuity in a parallel universe… or something.

Anyway, it seems it should be considered as an entirely different game from the original series. Along with his obvious aesthetic changes which drew a... rather lukewarm reaction from the fanbase, previews show a further emphasis on platforming and aerial combos; with the protagonist alternating between the real, gloomy-looking world and a distorted parallel world with extremely vivid colors where the city itself tries to kill him.

Not much is known of the story yet, we just know that Dante is half-demon and half-angel, that he is labelled as a "terrorist" and that he will be accompanied by a medium girl named Kat. As for the gameplay, he will be able to switch between demonic and angelic powers. He can use several weapons like a sword, an axe or a scythe, and he can temporarily freeze time to kick more ass.

DmC was released in the US and Europe on January 15th, 2013 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and was released on PC later that year.

This (otherwise unusual) game gives us examples of:

• Alternate Continuity / Continuity Reboot: To the Devil May Cry series. It's unclear which it is actually.
  • It was announced as the latter, but later changed to the former. Likely due to the extremely negative feedback the announcement recieved.
  • As of late, it's being pushed as a "Reboot-Prequel."
• An Axe to Grind: Dante's sword can transform into an axe called Arbiter in Devil mode.
• Bald of Evil: Mundus's human form.
• Bedlam House: Dante is seen in one in the very first trailer.
• Big Bad: Mundus, like in the first game.
• Bright Is Not Good: The real world is apparently gloom and somber while the demon world has extremely vivid colors.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The E3 2012 trailer and the Poison boss fight apply the f-bomb pretty liberally. In the final game, "fuck you Dante" is pratically a catchphrase for the demons that can talk.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: In Limbo, the demonic dimension, the environment literally tries to kill you.
• Eye Scream: In one demo, Dante opens a path by grabbing an organic "camera" with his Whip Sword and kicking it to a wall. All with an appropriate juicy sound. Ew.
• Fan Service: A trailer features Dante totally naked, and his lower regions are covered by random items, including pizza in midair.
• Fat Bastard: Both Mundus and Bob Barbas.
• Fingerless Gloves
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The latest trailer sees a newscast broadcasting of Dante's stunts, labeling it as "terrorism". In truth it just him battling in the parallel world and any damage cause by the environment is carried over to the real world with none of the humans able to see the monsters he fights. Instead thinking that Dante doing it intentionally.
• Ink Suit Actor: Dante looks A LOT like his voice actor Tim Phillipps.
• Insistent Terminology: The correct title of the game is DmC with a lower case m.
• Invisible to Normals: Limbo is basically this.
• I See Dead People: Kind of; Dante's sidekick Kat can see into Limbo, but unlike Dante, cannot physically interact with it.
• Malevolent Architecture: Sometimes the city tries to crush or bury Dante by moving, breaking, twisting, etc. It is never specified who exactly is doing that, but is clearly demonical influence.
• Mirror World: Limbo; an alternate and very colorful, demon-infested version of Dante's world.
• Morally-Bankrupt Banker: Mundus works as a banker in a human disguise. Not only for disguise, he uses the power of money as one of his ways of ruling over mankind.
• One-Winged Angel:Mundus transforms in a giant golem made of pieces of buildings for his boss battle.
• Real Is Brown: The real world is shown like this, by contrast with the disturbingly colourful demon world.
• Shout-Out: One trailer shows commercial signs reading "Consume, submit, obey" as the world shifts to Limbo.
  • The first trailer from 2012 shows Dante trash-talking a demon, taking a slightly familiar pose.
  • The pose Dante takes while using a charged shot with Ebony and Ivory looks a lot like that of another Alternate Universe Dante.
  • While fighting the giant larva Poison, Dante will sometimes hit her with Nero's signature two-legged kick to incapacitate her.
  • In a recent gameplay video, a car has a license plate that says "DMC5".
• Sinister Scythe: His sword transforms into a scythe called Osiris.
  • Somewhat subverted for the "sinister" part since it is the weapon you use in Angel mode.
• Smoking Is Cool: The impression the first trailer gives off, though Word of God says he's kicked the habit.
• Stance System: The Style system of Devil May Cry 3 and 4 was replaced by a system that allows you to activate an Angel or Devil mode by holding the triggers, changing the main weapon you use and the moves you can do.