Joystiq Discussion: When is it time to reboot?
Deeply excited about replaying Devil May Cry 4 and DmC: Devil May Cry on PlayStation 4, I embarked on a quest to finally fill a gaping hole in my gaming experience this week. Playing Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening for the first time elicited some distinct thoughts. First, this game lives up to its reputation. Not quite as amazing as descendants like Bayonetta 2, but its combo-driven action and melodramatic weirdness hold up marvelously.
Second: Why did Devil May Cry need a reboot at all? Make no mistake, I thought DmC was one of the best games made in 2013, but it's not like there was some complex story preventing people from getting into the series. Dante, no matter what the most vocal dissenters may say, is no more ridiculously designed in DmC than in Devil May Cry 3. He's still an absurd fop-goth prone to not wearing shirts and stabbing people. As far as I can tell, all the reboot did was alienate fans by telling them something they loved needed to change but little actually did.
Then again, some reboots just work. One of my favorite games of 2014 was Wolfenstein: The New Order, a game that found unexpectedly rich soil in a series barely on life support, sustained only on nostalgia. There's the difference, though. Wolfenstein needed to change in order to be relevant in today's gaming landscape, a very different scenario than with DmC.
When do you reboot? When a series isn't relevant? When a story becomes too dense? Never? Take the poll, discuss in the comments.
[Images: Capcom]
