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What did you get in the end, Fly?
Paleface> Re: DMC3, you'd be surprised how much difference a simple change to the system of continues can make. I don't know if you remember, but you and I were talking about this in relation to this game back when I first bought it in its original format. I hated it with a passion - I could see that there was a brilliant game in there, but felt that it was deeply unfair and possibly the single most frustrating thing ever. Was fairly sure at the time that it was the continue system in the UK/US release that was causing the problems, as everybody who was getting into the game in a big way seemed to be playing the Japanese version.
The Special Edition was just confirmation of that, for me. In the UK/US original release, die at any point in a level and you're left with no real choice other than to go right back to the beginning of that level and start it over again. You can buy continues, but they cost money that you need to be saving for new moves and fighting styles to have any chance on later levels, or you can use a free one, which actually just chucks you right back to the beginning of the level anyway, but lets you keep any cash that you've built up during your failed attempt. So it's a non-choice - you just reset the console and reload from your last save, try again.
And what happens, apart from the frustration, is that it makes you play in a conservative manner. It's like a particularly nasty form of negative reinforcement - fuck this up and I'm going to make you do it all over again from the beginning, so you'd better not fuck it up, eh?
Conservatism is the antithesis of everything that DMC3 is about. I totally believe that the revisions to the UK/US releases were put in place by people who'd never actually sat down and played the bloody game. It's supposed to be about experimentation, about exploration of and self-expression within all of Dante's fighting styles, and forced, conservative play is everything that it stands against.
I detested the original release as I felt it took the fundamentals of an amazing title and used them to kick the player in the teeth. I couldn't face a boss without my blood pressure going through the roof and I couldn't beat one without spending hours in failed attempts.
In contrast, when I bought the Special Edition and flicked it straight into the Japanese continue style, I flew through it and had an absolute ball in the process. Die on a boss and you just go straight back into fighting it, no fucking around having to traipse through the entire level again and solve all the same puzzles again in order to get to the same place where you died and then die again. You've not wasted any time, like you do with the US/UK style - instead, you actively find yourself pissing around with the bosses and trying stuff out on them, even if you're fairly sure it won't have any effect, because you know that you can just go straight back in and try again if it doesn't work.
Seriously, pick the SE up. I think you'd enjoy it - with the Japanese settings, the game is actually easier than both Viewtiful Joe and Ninja Gaiden, both of which I remember you getting along with fine in the past. |
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