A new leak hints that the long-awaited Devil May Cry 5 will be making its first appearance during Sony’s time on the stage at E3 2018.
The leaked image came from an anonymous poster on 4chan, which certainly doesn’t do anything for its credibility. Since its posting, it has been spread around to various sites and twitters, as many seem to be giving the rumor the benefit of the doubt. And if it is a fake, at least its a fairly good-looking one. There’s plenty of titles on this list that are almost confirmed to be at the Playstation Experience event, like Kingdom Hearts 3 and The Last of Us: Part II. But there’s also a few odd ones out: First, the obvious Bloodborne 2 and DMC 5, but there’s also Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds. While this game is nowhere near as unbelievable as something like Bloodborne 2, Battlegrounds has done much of its publicity through Microsoft in the past, so the switch to Sony at the Playstation conference does seem a bit off.
A DMC 5 doesn’t sound too far out of left field, however. Earlier, some other details about the game had been leaked via ResetEra user Son of Sparda. The user seems confident of the leak, and has accepted a full ban if the leak is discovered to be false, which gains slightly more credibility due to the prolific post history of the user.
A few of the leak’s details line up with the possibility of the game being shown at this year’s E3. For example, the leak suggests a release in early 2019, which would line up with a reveal at E3 this year. The leak also suggests a degree of Playstation exclusivity, which would explain why the title will be showing at a Playstation panel.
More information of the leak suggests that the game will show off a “new side” of Dante, and that he will be much more serious in this entry than how he was in Devil May Cry III or IV. The leak also suggests three playable characters: Dante, Trish, and one unconfirmed third who was only said to be “very powerful”. A later update has revealed that the stated Playstation 4 exclusivity will mean the game will launch first on PS4, then later on PC.
The game has also been revamped significantly, according to this very large and descriptive leak. Levels are said to be more open (while not open world or anything akin to the Souls series) and movement has been revamped and streamlined to fit inside of this new open setting. Dodging and evasion has also been re-worked to make the game smoother and more user-friendly, and level design has also been changed to incorporate more action set pieces, but without QTE’s.
The leak also states that players can expect to be facing more enemies at one time than they’ve come to expect from a DMC game, and that there will be some elements of dynamic terrain deformation present during gameplay. Boss fights are supposedly also more intense, with one boss moving through multiple different sections of the game during a single fight. The leaker warns users that they will be hearing the word “smoother” a lot during any conference talking about the upcoming game, which suggests that steps have been taken to make the game more user-friendly, perhaps taking inspiration from some Platinum Games titles like Bayonetta.
While these changes may upset a few hardcore fans, they must remember that the learning curve for previous DMC games have been very, VERY high. For the casual audience, it was near-impossible to perform any kind of interesting looking combos or attacks without intense timing and vigorous memorization. Hopefully, despite taking steps to appeal to a broader audience, DMC V will remember its roots as a more hardcore third-person action game and still feature plenty of difficulty for those seeking it.
