I think bayonetta has ruined me since nothing can quite beat those games
It's incredibly pretty, and Dante is a gay cowboy, and hitting the revs with Nero feels amazing, but fuck, the pacing is not good. I can't go back after playing Bayonetta and Neon White.
DMC 5 is the fast paced hyper adrenaline fueled action orgy where your character moves SLOW AS FUCK. One of those games I pirated and uninstalled after 20 minutes.
The combat itself is fun and fast paced although it takes like half the game to even get to anything more than basic cannon fodder enemies.
The rest is running down a corridor hitting red bulbus mass and i feel like im doing it more than the actual fighting.
Bayonetta 2 had so much action that my fingers hurt after any session with that game.
this is something I'm noticing while replaying it. The game has a lot of dead time, and some of the combat encounters are pretty pointless. Also V kinda sucks to play. When it all clicks it's probably my favorite hack and slash combat though.
I'm sorry you don't like it. I love DMC5 a lot. I'm not sure what you mean by pacing. Pacing of the combat, or campaign?
If you play on PC, you can enable Turbo via community mod. If you play on PS5, then the LDK version has Turbo build in. I think DMC has faster pace than Bayonetta, especially at higher difficulties and higher bloody palace level, while Bayonetta is more of a spectacle fighter with fairly generous witch time timing compared to DMC5 jump cancel, perfect royal guard, and perfect judgement cuts timing. If you still play on Devil Hunter as the first campaign, the first run is meant to be mostly tutorial. Like the ending credits literally includes a tutorial as you gain more movesets as the credit rolls. Enemy layout is improved in Sons of Sparda and Dante Must Die difficulty. tldr; the pacing of the combat will improve at higher difficulty.
If you are a big DMC mark like me who waited 11 years since DMC4, seeing your franchise almost murdered by DmC, then I think the campaign is just a big payoff delicious fanservice that rewards fan loyalty. I really enjoy the campaign. Not to put Bayonetta down, but I find that the gimmick levels are fun the first time but a chore to do later on. Infamously, the best 1v1 fight in Bayonetta 1 against Jeanne is locked behind some Space Harrier gimmick shooter. DMC5 knows that its best content is combat, so everything else is just chill corridors and some mild exploration (for alternate paths to find orb fragments) between combat rooms. V is supposed to break the pacing and have you play an entirely different playstyle.
"the first run is meant to be mostly tutorial" I guess this is my problem, i've played a lot of these games i dont really need an entire campaigns worth of tutorial. I'll persist and see what happens after my first run though.
As for pacing the combat is fine im more moaning about the campaigns pacing with lots of dead time and running along very similar looking corridors to hit some red ball of goop which gets tiresome fast. And most secrets involve entering an area and turning my camera 180 degrees to see le hidden blue orb behind me.
I'd probably have more fun if the combat arenas had more enemies and different types in them, also the first half most of the enemies are completely passive. Atm im getting an S rank really fast with my eyes closed and its over in a flash then resume running along corridor again.
I feel like im doing something wrong but I dont know what.
Yeah that is fair. The empusas are just punching bags. The more dangerous (and annoying enemies) don't really drop until the later half of the game. The main bite for the first campaign is mostly story, and as I said if you are a big DMC mark then it is a very rewarding story. After seeing a lot of big franchises at the time fumbled their ending (Star Wars, Game of Thrones, etc.) DMC5 provides an amazing closure and conclusion to the Dante & Vergil (what they call "Sons of Sparda) arc spanning almost 17 years. Almost all the bosses and regular enemies contain homages to earlier games and DMC history. It is YMMV if that is a good bite for everyone else who are not as entrenched in DMC lore.
I'd say just punch through the main campaign, if you unlocked Dante experiment with his style switching. There is a level with respawning enemies and special weapon loadout where you look up on youtube to farm red orbs unlock all the expensive endgame moves.
Check out this video of Bloody Palace run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x-cf55-9-U see on floor 70 and above, they mix and match some really good enemy layout for really fun gameplay. You will get there eventually.
Speeds up you and the enemy. Requires a decent CPU if you are on PC or a PS5. On PC you can crank it to ridiculous speed with a mod, but "normal" turbo is 1.2x speed
I much prefer Platinum titles like Bayo, Nier, Metal Gear, and even their weirdo releases like Transformers. The combat in DMC feels chunky - everything is a step off. Like, Metal Gear is pretty much the pinnacle of hack and slash games - batshit insanity and combat that makes you feel like an unhinged tornado.
Yeah, Devastation. It was pulled not long after release due to licensing nonsense. It's available on The High Seas if you look for it.
...All seriousness I am not so much a true DMC fan as much as I am a Vergil fan. I've seen the story of the game but I actually didn't even finish DMC5 or get through all levels of bloody palace until Vergil came out as playable character DLC. The skill floor for his character is relatively low compared to the rest of the cast given how powerful his tool kit is so I don't want to over-hype myself but playing Vergil and not *completely * abusing the shit out of some of his more broken stuff is genuinely some of the most fun I've had in any game period.
Might give it a go when i finish the story. Just skip all the cutscenes and blast bury the light on loop.
