Devil May Cry 5 is something special
With Devil May Cry 5 rebuilt for PS5, we speak to Special Edition producer Matt Walker about bringing back the gang
Already one of PS4’s most visually arresting games, Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition is taking everything we love about Capcom’s hack’n ’slash adventure and powering it up with the tech inside PS5. That means from the day you get your new console you can experience Dante in 4K at 60fps, with ray tracing, 3D audio, and more. If you really want to go rock’n’roll then play in 120fps mode for the most astonishing DMC ever. We ask producer Matt Walker what makes it special.
OPM: Why does Vergil always appear in the special editions of the Devil May Cry games?
Matt Walker: I can tell you for DMC5 in particular, the dev team had their heads down and their hands full trying to create all of the original content. At the time we had no plans to create any DLC. After we released the game, in addition to all of the warm comments about the final game, the one thing that fans kept coming back to was the request for us to create Vergil DLC. We knew if we ever had the opportunity to revisit DMC5, Vergil would have to be the first thing we took a look at. Finally, last year, after DMC5 was released, my boss, Jun Takeuchi, suggested we make a next-gen SKU for DMC5 to release with PS5.
It’s really thanks to the new hardware that we have a DMC5 SE at all. As soon as he mentioned that I knew we’d have our chance to give fans what they’ve been wanting, so I took the proposal to Itsuno-san (the director), and we began firming up Vergil’s gameplay details. After getting so many requests to play as Vergil, however, I knew that fans who weren’t looking to pick up a next-gen console would want to join in as well. That’s why we chose to also offer the Vergil content as DLC for PS4. We also wanted to make sure that those fans who supported us felt we appreciated them, which is why we chose a price that gives as many players as possible the opportunity to get their hands on all of the new Vergil action.
OPM: What exactly is Vergil mode? What’s its special attraction?
MW: The main draw of Vergil mode is getting to enjoy Vergil’s gameplay, so you can expect to be able to play
as him in the DMC5 scenario mode and Bloody Palace.
OPM: Vergil stabs himself and seems to transform himself into V – is that related to his gameplay mechanics? Can he switch between the two forms whenever he wants?
MW: What you saw there with Vergil and V was something that Itsuno-san suggested in one of our first meetings when we discussed how Vergil would play in DMC5 SE.
OPM: With DMC5 SE the RE Engine arrives on a next-gen console. In what ways has the next-gen tech allowed the engine to flourish?
MW: Ever since they had dev kits in their hands, the engine team have been working hard to make sure that RE Engine takes full advantage of the next-gen hardware. Thanks to a combination of their hard work and the first-party SDKs, RE Engine can now take advantage of things like ray tracing and the upgraded 3D audio, in addition to the blazing-fast hard drives that the next-gen hardware offers. It may seem innocuous at first, but I can’t wait to see how these hard drives will eliminate loading on next gen, and what that means for the experience for the gamer. Imagine losing to a tough boss, but thanks to the hard drive not having to worry about that frustrating wait to respawn and challenge it again – as gamers we’ve never even considered use cases like these, but I think they’re going to change gaming as we’ve come to know it.
OPM: Can you give us any details on how 3D audio works in the middle of chaotic fights?
MW: The 3D audio gives you more positional resolution thanks to impressive audio science, and it can totally be experienced with a normal set of headphones. One of the joys of Devil May Cry is racking up highscoring, stylish combos – and one of the tricks to doing that is avoiding enemy attacks. Imagine a scenario where there’s a character coming at you from off camera in the middle of one of those combos – the 3D audio does a better job of portraying sounds above and behind you, so you’ll be able to hear an enemy that may be coming at you from off camera!
OPM: Legendary Dark Knight mode seems to be an obvious example of using the better technology to allow more enemies on screen at once. Was returning to LDK mode something the team were excited to be able to accomplish?
MW: Definitely! LDK was another thing that fans were constantly asking me about after we announced DMC5. Frankly, we maxed out PS4 and Xbox One with the enemy counts and asset resolution we had back then. LDK seemed like a great way to give fans something they want, while clearly taking advantage of the new hardware’s higher RAM, CPU, and GPU specs.
OPM: There’s now a 120fps option, which is a lot of frames! In what ways does that extra push benefit the player over something like 60fps? MW: Ask any Devil May Cry fan, and I think more often than not you’ll find that they consider framerates an important part of the game. High framerate mode is for those who believe every frame counts – and then some. We also felt it was important to give players choice, so they can run the game with ray tracing at 4K, 30fps; 1080p, 60fps; or turn off the ray tracing and turn on the high framerate mode, which displays at up to 120fps.
OPM: A character action game like DMC is perfect for showcasing the type of fluidity you can achieve on
the newer hardware. What specific things did the team find most important to address in enhancing the game?
MW: The most important thing was making sure that we were making enhancements and creating content that clearly adds to the experience, and at a quality bar that meets the expectations set by DMC5. The team had to work incredibly hard to achieve this goal, but we knew that we were on the right track when Itsuno-san gave us feedback saying that he was impressed by the final result. We really hope that players will be just as satisfied when they finally get the game in their own hands.
OPM: Have you made any changes to photo mode to make use of PS5’s graphical capabilities?
MW: Photo mode was something that I personally wanted to expand upon when we first set out to create the game, since taking your own pictures of next-gen graphics is such a great way to capture how beautiful and detailed the game is. It’s going to be really cool to be able to run photo mode with the ray tracing on, since the lighting and reflections really enhance DMC5’s already fantastic visuals.
OPM: How do you balance the detail in the visuals and special effects with making sure the fast-paced combat remains readable?
MW: That is a really interesting question! So interesting in fact, that I chose to reach out to two of my friends on the dev team for insight… Tsuyoshi Fujisawa (lead animator): For DMC5 and DMC5 SE the graphical style we went for was photorealistic, so the animation started with motion capture as a base. We paid attention to ensure that we left in believable human movements, postures, and gestures. For action, in particular, we owe a lot to the mocap actors who are experts at their craft, but there are a lot of super-human motions that can’t be performed by actors so we have to painstakingly craft them by hand.
Specifically, in terms of animation, we pay a lot of attention to characters’ tempo and the ebb and flow of their actions and performances, in addition to how the poses should appear so that they are easily understandable for the effects artists and sound team. Finally, for the animations we added to DMC5 SE we paid attention to ensure that the actions and performances Vergil made didn’t feel out of place to the user.
Toshihiro Yokota (lead effects artist): We consider effects to be a natural extension of the models and motions of the characters, so the colours of the effects, the size, the vectors – they’re all informed by the characters. It’s vital that they exhibit a oneness with each other – like a baton being handed off in a relay. When we do it right, effects that would be impossible in the real world feel right at home in the game world.
Then it comes down to how cool it looks – do the effects look badass and make you really feel like the character is powered up? We always push the hardware to its very limits with the effects to fill that gap between what’s real and what’s impossible.
I mean, how amazing is it when you see an effect in a game that makes you want to push the button one more time and see it again because it was so cool?
OPM: Finally, of the devil hunters in Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (Dante, Nero, V, and Vergil), who would you rather go out for a drink with and why?
MW: If we’re limiting ourselves to the heroes it would be Dante, hands down – he definitely seems like he knows how to have a good time. And he’s a huge fan of strawberry sundaes, and I love desserts, so I could see us pigging out as well. If I get to include the heroines as well, I’d definitely want to get a drink with Nico and Lady.
Nico and I would probably share tattoo stories, and Lady’s just such a badass I’d take any chance to hang with her. How about you?
OPM: We like them all!
“WE ALWAYS PUSH THE HARDWARE TO ITS VERY LIMITS WITH THE EFFECTS.”