With the DEVIL MAY CRY 4 site relaunch last week, fans like yours truly were curious as to who the heck this Nero dude is, and what exactly he’s doing in the game. For that matter, what about Dante?
According to DMC4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi and series veteran Hideaki Itsuno, Dante is stepping aside in favour of his look-alike, Nero. In an interview with Famitsu PS2, the duo revealed that one of the reasons for the move was that Dante peaked as a character in the last installment. As well, the introduction of the new protagonist levels the playing field for both veterans and new players to the series.
Kobayashi explained that Nero is a member of a religious group called the Kyoudan Kishi, or “Order of Knights.” Nero will also have some new powers, including the ability to pull enemies toward him or throw them. The awakening of these powers in Nero will apparently make up one of the plot elements in DMC4. Regarding Nero’s ability to pull or repel enemies, Kobayashi said, “Nero’s right arm uses a new system we’re calling the ‘Devil Bringer.’ This system could have been done on the current hardware, but due to problems with the PlayStation 2’s specs, it would have looked primitive. However, with the PlayStation 3 we were able to get the visual aspects right.” This explains the glowing hand Nero sports on the official site.
When asked about the possibility to play as Dante, Kobayashi replied, “Do you want to be able to play as Dante? In order to proceed through the story, the player’s point of view will change but…who knows?” As cryptic as that response is, Kobayashi stated that at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, fans should expect that not only will there be a real-time demo of the game, but also some surprise announcements. What are these announcements? Find out later this month.