Random videogame based rant is GO!
So I'm in Gamestop picking up my pre-ordered copy of "Assassins Creed 3" when a commercial for/interview with the creators of the new Devil May Cry game comes on. In the interview, among the Gameplay blurbs, the spokeswoman said: "Something new is that besides demonic powers, now Dante will have access to angelic powers because his mother was an angel!"
I literally stopped for a few seconds while checking out and said out loud "Really?...What the hell?"
Most times a nerd ranting about something boils down to "I love the old version! and they changed it now! so WAAAAHHH!!!" for further proof, see every rant about the StarWars prequels.
That is not the purpose of my rant. I recognize the DMC series as a group of okay games, but the only one I played with any consistency and liked was DMC 3 and that was mostly because of the musical score (heavy metal all the way baby)
My issue is not the canonical change, where the main hero goes from merely a half-demon to a half-demon half-angel (And still looks completely human....?) it's that they chose to double down on a cliche "Badass Spackle"
In books, comic or regular fiction, as well as videogames, movies, and numerous other sources, the idea of having a hero or villian who's half of some fantasy species (vampire/werewolf/demon/etc) can be done properly, giving the character some context, a backstory (99% of the time a tragic one) and a couple of weaknesses. But the keyword in the previous statement is "can".
You "can" use the half narrative to illustrate your character as any other writing device. But, far too often, writers will use the half context to cover up any semblance of the person's how's and why's. You can create a backstory showing how a he/she evolved and came into their own, eventually coming to grips with themselves and their place in the world, figuring out their gifts and how to use them.
OR you can skip that shit to the part where they suplex a pick-up truck off of a highway overpass onto a squad of evil (possesed/corporate/pmcs...pick any or all of the above) goons.
Using the "half-&&&&&" context is basically a cheap way for a Michael Bay styled fantasy writer ("Plot? Who gives a shit about plot! Here's a building being blown up!") to skip straight to the action scenes without any build-up/lead-in to how and why a person is able to achieve some sort of amazing feat.
That is my perception of the half-narrative anyway, and I believe (though I reserve the right to be wrong) that is what many in the fantasy community think of the half-narrative as well.
So the fact that the new DMC "Reboot" has decided to double-down on the half-narrative, in a way that makes it piling a cliche on TOP of a cliche, makes my jaw drop at the pants-on-head backwardness.
Though, to be fair, the new DMC game is in my Gamefly Queue and I'll play the crap out of it, and maybe even enjoy it. It's just that from something of a writing perspective that I say "What the actual F---?"
So I'm in Gamestop picking up my pre-ordered copy of "Assassins Creed 3" when a commercial for/interview with the creators of the new Devil May Cry game comes on. In the interview, among the Gameplay blurbs, the spokeswoman said: "Something new is that besides demonic powers, now Dante will have access to angelic powers because his mother was an angel!"
I literally stopped for a few seconds while checking out and said out loud "Really?...What the hell?"
Most times a nerd ranting about something boils down to "I love the old version! and they changed it now! so WAAAAHHH!!!" for further proof, see every rant about the StarWars prequels.
That is not the purpose of my rant. I recognize the DMC series as a group of okay games, but the only one I played with any consistency and liked was DMC 3 and that was mostly because of the musical score (heavy metal all the way baby)
My issue is not the canonical change, where the main hero goes from merely a half-demon to a half-demon half-angel (And still looks completely human....?) it's that they chose to double down on a cliche "Badass Spackle"
In books, comic or regular fiction, as well as videogames, movies, and numerous other sources, the idea of having a hero or villian who's half of some fantasy species (vampire/werewolf/demon/etc) can be done properly, giving the character some context, a backstory (99% of the time a tragic one) and a couple of weaknesses. But the keyword in the previous statement is "can".
You "can" use the half narrative to illustrate your character as any other writing device. But, far too often, writers will use the half context to cover up any semblance of the person's how's and why's. You can create a backstory showing how a he/she evolved and came into their own, eventually coming to grips with themselves and their place in the world, figuring out their gifts and how to use them.
OR you can skip that shit to the part where they suplex a pick-up truck off of a highway overpass onto a squad of evil (possesed/corporate/pmcs...pick any or all of the above) goons.
Using the "half-&&&&&" context is basically a cheap way for a Michael Bay styled fantasy writer ("Plot? Who gives a shit about plot! Here's a building being blown up!") to skip straight to the action scenes without any build-up/lead-in to how and why a person is able to achieve some sort of amazing feat.
That is my perception of the half-narrative anyway, and I believe (though I reserve the right to be wrong) that is what many in the fantasy community think of the half-narrative as well.
So the fact that the new DMC "Reboot" has decided to double-down on the half-narrative, in a way that makes it piling a cliche on TOP of a cliche, makes my jaw drop at the pants-on-head backwardness.
Though, to be fair, the new DMC game is in my Gamefly Queue and I'll play the crap out of it, and maybe even enjoy it. It's just that from something of a writing perspective that I say "What the actual F---?"
