After playing E3's demo I managed to jot down the available amount of specials, weapon combinations and different changes/additions to the game play mechanic presented in this build.
Starting with Dante's move list:
- = Pause
Rebellion
Δ,Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y,Y,Y : Standard 4 hit Slash; it is possible to quickly cancel to another move after the first 3.
Δ,Δ - Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y - Y,Y,Y :
*Air* Δ,Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y,Y,Y : Similar to Nero's.
Δ,Δ - Δ,Δ : Third swipe resembles much to Nero's "Roulette", it carries the enemy back to the air.
Drive: Δ/Y charge(hold until glows) follow up with extra Δ,Δ or Y,Y(Optional) Similar to DMC4 where Dante can throw two extra sonicbooms. Cancel is possible after first sonicboom.
Stinger : Double tap foward on the joy stick and press Δ/Y. Mashing the button will follow-up a Million Stab but now called "Trillion Stab" and a final short-stinger. Cancel is possible after initial Stinger and Trillion Stab.
High Time: O/B : The classic launcher. Press once to execute a regular launch, hold to launch Dante into the air as well.
*Air*Helm Breaker: O/B : Classic Helmet Breaker.
Angel Mode Rebellion (Osiris)
To activate the Angel Mode, it is required to hold L2 or LT in order to execute the presented moves/specials.
Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y,Y : Osiris standard. Cancel possible anytime during combo.
Δ,Δ - Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y - Y,Y,Y : Third press executes a 2-hit animation where Dante swings it like nun-chucks from right arm to left. Fourth and fifth work like overhead propellers. Cancel possible after third press.
*Air* Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y,Y
Δ,Δ - Δ Δ
Streak: Double tap foward on the joy stick and press Δ/Y - similar to Nero's "Streak".
Prop: O/B then optional O/B follow-up: Classic Swordmaster Prop Shredder but includes a reverse counter-clockwise Prop Shredder. Cancel possible after first Prop.*Air* Rake : O/B : It allows Dante to drag the aerial target back in front of Dante - resetting the amount of possible combos.
Angel evade (not official name): Double tab the Evade button to trigger a teleport similar to Nero's Table Hopper except it teleports Dante behind the auto locked target. It resembles closer to Vergil's Air Trick except the distance of the teleport is much smaller and invincibility frames are granted when Dante disappears/after the white smoke appears. Executable in the air.
Air Dash: X/A : Grants Dante the ability to Dash in the air. This is nowhere similar to Trickster's Dash. There are no invincible frames and it is possible to quickly stop the dash by letting go.
Angel Lift : □/X optional □/X : Dante latches onto target then drags himself towards target and allows a extra follow up punch/uppercut.
Demon Mode Rebellion (Arbiter)
To activate the Devil Mode, it is required to hold R2 or RT in order to execute the presented moves/specials.
Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y,Y : Standard heavy and slow 3 hit combo. Cancel possible after first and second hit.
Δ,Δ - Δ or Y,Y - Y : Third hit is an over head lumberjack hit. It also sends a limited-distance shockwave towards the target. Cancel possible after first and second hit.
Flush : Double tap foward on the joy stick and press Δ/Y. Dante throws Arbiter's metal blade to his target. The sonicboom itself seems to have no distance limit.
Tremor: O/B: An overhead hit that launches the target up into the air.
*Air* Δ/Y : Works similarly to Flush except performed in the air.
O/B : An Arbiter version of Helmet Breaker except it contains armor breaking properties.
Demon Evade: Double tab the Evade button to trigger a teleport - away from the target's attack and slows down time for a second. This maneuver requires proper timing. It was said to be able to harm targets[Needs confirmation].
Demon Pull: □/X optional □/X : Dante grabs the traget towrds him and a follow up kick - similar to DMC3's "thrust kick". It can be used to tear an enemy's shield away.
General
Δ/Y - Attack
□/X - E&I: General shooting.
O/B - Special
X/A - Jump
L1/R1 LB/RB - Evade button; grants easy use if player needs an adjacent evade button and if added with a direction, Dante can evade in the air.
L2(Hold) - Angel Mode
R2(Hold) - Demon Mode
Left Analog - Movement
Right Analog - Camera
L3 + R3 Simultaneously- Devil Trigger
***Here are some FAQ's from this and the original Gameplay Discussion thread; Sparda_Zero, StuntXL, Michael's questions sum up mostly everything you need to know.
Are there any change with the Stylish Meter?
The Stylish Meter is much lenient this time around - sticking much closely to DMC4 but it does retain the DMC3 drop checkpoints. For example Dante gets hit with an S rank, it will drop to B rather completely down. The points seem to be rewarded for longer airtime as well and as you all know or should, there is no taunt!
How does Parrying work and how does it effect the gameplay?
Parrying requires absolute timing. It works almost like a perfect Royal Guard block only that you take no damage and it stuns your target. So far, it works on every demon but the amount of Stylish points aren't as great.
What you have to do is attack right at the moment of your target's attack - triggering a stun animation. It is possible to parry with all the Osiris/Arbiter but Rebellion is the best choice considering the first swipe is the quickest amongst the three. The best way to parry is attack towards the incoming danger so it often requires the use of the analog. Parrying with Arbiter is a challenge but possible. Air parrying works too.
How responsive are the controls?
From movement to attack, every input worked like a charm. A new feature added was the controller's vibrating notification that signal pause combos the green light. So if you couldn't ever, though I doubt, pull off Dante's classic Million Stab combo : O,O-O, the controller actually vibrates during a possible pause. It also vibrates whenever a charge attack reached its limit.
A major issue was the double directional taps for Stinger and the generic counterparts. If you plan to use Stinger like you use to dream again because chances are that you may miss the second analog input because of a worn stick. The speed of the execution is much slower as well. Since that was the only double analog input special, I would hate to imagine any other specials that would require me to constantly abuse the stick.
Did they really manage to nail 60 FPS feel through 30 instead?
Not exactly. Dominic did tell me that once you reached S+ rank, the gameplay will speed up approximately 10%. Although this is subject to change, I didn't feel any difficulty change nor rush when it did occur. The "Secret Ingredient" boss fight felt the same and it was pretty difficult trying to keep the demons alive - even using nothing but Rebellion and Osiris just to test out the speed change, so having 1 or 2 enemies on screen after getting to that rank wouldn't exactly allow me to give a proper judgement. Regardless, the easiness of the game in terms of FPS still stick closely to DMC4...
Was your experienced tarnished by the lack of a lock-on?
The auto lock on is terrible... I found myself killing off a Warrior Drone during a series of 2-hit animation combos with Osiris,(The final three) combo B Δ,Δ - Δ,Δ,Δ or Y,Y - Y,Y,Y, and I was a sitting duck while thinking I could move Dante towards another Drone behind me as he finishes the final hits. This auto lock on may still be in development but if it works anywhere like Arkham Asylum/City's auto mechanic, then that would be fantastic.
Another point to add is that there are also aerial demons that shoot projectiles, the Stingers - fetus looking fallen angels. Their crossbows have a laser that blink faster every second and once it begins to solidify, you dodge. It can be interrupted by attacking them so it is no doubt their a priority if S/SS/SSS ranks are your goal but when there's a hoard of demons I wasn't able to load them with E&I or a Stinger for a zoning distance. The Angel Pull/Demon Grab worked fine but when demons that tend to charge up a special, similarly to those with chainsaws in the "Public Enemy" demo, this will become a nuisance.
How do the aim with the guns work?
As far as I can tell, the E3 demo emphasizes only on Rebellion, Osiris and Arbiter but they respond complementary with the auto lock-on because he tends to shoot the one closest or the closest in the direction Dante is facing. E&I are practically useless in the presented build.
You say it was too easy due to the dodge, do you reckon if it was on a higher difficulty the dodge would still be as broken?
No joke the invincibility frames on the ground evade is perhaps the easiest form of evasion maneuver and places itself to be the most broken mechanic I've seen out of the entire franchise. Dante is completely invincible once you press the evade button and I have escaped through all of the given demons and boss' moves(except for the regurgitation).
It is much quicker and extends longer than Trickster's Dash or Bayonetta's evade... The recovery time is quicker than all forms of evade and air evade hardly has an invincibility frames so your better off jumping or ground evading than air evading. Evading doesn't reward anything other the chance to keep your rank but it works so well.
This makes Air Dash completely useless during combat other than escaping a hoard of enemies or getting to safe ground but what this does say is Demon evade is worthless when you can quickly ground evade behind the target to execute quicker attacks. So even if the difficulty is ramped up a bit it doesn't change the fact that the evade button will remain the same but that doesn't take account of increased enemy movement. If enemy speed increases, they have a greater chance of hitting after the recovery animation but as far as it goes the ground evade is the best way to dodge.
Are there any differences in Dante's DT this time around?
The noticeable changes does not include the hair but rather the speed rate of health regeneration, more damage, upon activation will launch every demon up into the air and a hige emphasis in staying airborne. The regeneration rate will prove more useful to players that love to take pain because Dante will recover the exact amount, almost if not all, of stored DT. So it can be basically treated as a spare health bar/pack.
The launched opponents up will stun them airborne/more vulnerable for continuous (air)combos as long as DT remains activated. Upon activation will not injure the demons/DT burst(not special).
DT has a huge set of invincibility frames so it cannot be interrupted and if activated at a precise moment, it can be used to evade attacks.
There's a weird characteristic about the DT this time and it does deplete much quicker as you are on the ground; Tameem confirmed in the Stream. So the idea is to, sadly, stay in the air.
The trade off is that your attacks become 2x stronger and combat speeds up.
It is not known if the change in difficulty will effect the recovery rate at this point of given build.
**Every gameplay mechanic is still subject to change but that doesn't mean it will drastically affect discussion. Please keep the thread free of trolling, flaming, roaming off topic, picture responses unless relating to the topic and especially negative posts that do not have a substantial backbone. This is to keep the easy flow of ideas and gameplay/movelist discussions.
