You know what, I have spend most of the posts in this thread helping others, sharing info and generally discussing mechanics of DMC and the demo... but I haven't shared my thoughts here yet on the demo or rather DMC5.
I think the demo is quite excellent in terms of the core game play of DMC5 but it misses the mark on a few elements as a DEMO.
POSITIVES:
*Looks great, feels great (mostly feels great, talk about that later)
*Punchline is the best thing introduced to the DMC series since Nevan, the Electrical Guitar. There is so much you can do with it, so much depth and variety. It
greatly enhances the replayability of the demo.
*I like Gerbera a lot too, access to easy mobility and moves. Very powerful, feels satisfying to use.
*I honestly like Overture too as a powerful to use moves for new players even though it's basic. But I think the main issue with it as far as the demo goes is that, where as Punchline/Gerbera style on enemies, Overture just kills them. So there isn't a lot you can do with it against low HP enemies.
*I like the changes they have made to the dodge system, doing the step while attacking feels good and looks good especially when you chain it. This is not something you can really appreciate unless you have played the DMC games a lot. I also like how the character moves laterally after an Air Hike it feels more like an aerial dodge now if used for that purpose.
*They made stuff like Exceed and enemy step easier to execute along with the cancel window on Shuffle. Makes it easier to get into these higher level mechanics which IMO is good. Thank god they actually put enemy step into this version of the demo so the pros can go to work.
*Camera is way better than any DMC game BUT it requires fiddling in the options to get a good balance that works for you. I recommend pulling the camera back a bit and increase the sensitivity.
*Air taunting is excellent, it's like a dodge button in the air. I honestly recommend everyone to map Taunt to R2 if they can and use it in the air as a "dodge" button.
*I mostly like the changes to Charged Shots as you aren't required to be always holding it while in combat. However, I wish there were more types of charge shots in the game. Maybe there in the main game but right now its all we got. But still there are quite a lot of uses to the charged shots that may not seem apparently (used to instantly blow up Overture bomb, keep enemies in stun lock to prevent knock downs/knock backs etc., keep enemies afloat for new combo opportunities).
*Goliath fight is great and a good starter boss in terms of mechanics and spectacle. Very obvious cues on attacks, has enough attacks that you need to learn the fight. You can parry some of this stuff, I like all the environment destruction going on and stage transitions. Feels very organic and natural in terms of transition... no cutscene interruptions between phases. People will say it's too easy and it is easy for most but I think as a starter boss it's just right. New players will have to learn and get better against him where as old players can style on him to get their muscle memory back. And there is lots of replay value here as I want to try out different Breakers against him.
*Putting in the upgrade menu in the demo was a great idea because it enforces the inherit game play loop of DMC games. Kill enemies, get red orbs, spend red orbs to buy moves, try out moves, expand your repertoire and kit, do better on similar areas, get red orbs, buy more skills repeat. It's a build up of mechanics as opposed to just having everything altogether. IMO they should have even locked away basic Exceed to the shop so that when new players buy it for a high price, they actually pay attention to what they are buying similar to Enemy Step. This would be annoying for returning players who want to start jump cancelling and Exceed right off the bat but I think for new players it's better if they learn the fundamentals first before learning the Exceed system. Small gripe here and it's completely my personal take.
*I feel the balance and the way style ranking is structured is very well done in DMC5. No more do you have to find red orbs or any of that other stuff. You also can't over perform in one area and underperform in other areas to get S rank, you have to perform well in all mandatory combat areas as the final style ranking is based on an average than the cumulative sum of encounters. And you are rewarded for doing advanced mechanics but that also is not mandatory as you can get S rank without them (these give you extra red orbs, listed under Extra Bonus if you press [] in the menu). It feels difficult to maintain SSS rank as it should be. Moves give style gain on a per move basis and it's not "more damage = more style gain" which means you need to really do your research and experiment (like doing Calibur against mid air is very rewarding so doing that into jump cancel Calibur is like at least a letter grade upgrade). So in DMC5, if someone gets 18K style points in then demo then you know that they actually know what they are doing which was not the case in the past as people could "farm" style points using some easy methods.
NEGATIVES:
*Depending on your set up, console and TV/monitor, this game really amplifies input lag. What I mean is that there definitely seems to be some inherent input lag in the game on consoles that makes it feel different from DMC4 and if you are playing on like Xbox S on a TV without game mode on, it does not feel good at all because there is additional input lag. I have played the demo on multiple set ups/consoles and each time I felt off based off of how I normally play because it felt different on each. My guess is something similar is happening here to DMC4SE where they added more post processing effects that is adding to the input lag. I recommend people to get this on PC to not be concerned about framerate and to tone down some of the effects to get the least amount of input lag possible. Some of the more pro DMC players can fill me on this and maybe I am not crazy.
*The customization menu feels sluggish and a bit clunky to be honest especially when you are doing the Breaker load out. I blame it on having a fully rendered Nico and the Van in the background. This also makes loading kinda longer than it should be especially in the demo which isn't that long to begin with.
*No checkpoints in the demo is really bull shit. I know this was the same demo they used for show floors where they had to boot off people quickly after playing but come on now Capcom. And I know this is an "easy" demo by DMC standards but there are new players who can die on the boss and they have to restart the demo. This is NOT how the actual game works, you can respawn on the spot by giving up red orbs or gold orbs or you can respawn before the boss at the checkpoint, the days of starting missions over again in a DMC game are over. And no I didn't die in the demo if you are asking.
* I think the enemy encounters are entirely too easy even for a DMC game especially those Empusa enemies. IMO the baseline fodder enemies should have been the Hell Caina and everything should be harder after that. The Empusa enemies die fast, are really passive and have poor range and damage on attacks. I would be surprised if anyone even got close to dying against them. I think the boss is on the easy side as well but what makes him a bit challenging for new players is that he has a ton of HP so the fight goes on long enough where Goliath sneaks enough hits in on to the player where they can be in danger of dying. I am curious to see how this works on higher difficulties where he has even more HP and does way more damage but we are going to have 8 Breaker load outs in the full game.
*The Devil Breaker system is still lame IMO and is really the antithesis of what a DMC game is about. I know they want to differentiate Nero from Dante and I know Itsuno wants to instill the FEEL of "oh shit" into the player but all I felt was inconvenienced rather than planning out my play in advance. There is some planning involved before the boss though when you do a load out but I feel like the game would open up so much more if we were given a better system. My hope and guess is that Super Nero costume bypasses many of these restrictions as does the Void mode so pro players can more freely style on enemies.
