Today Capcom released its annual report intended for analysts and shareholders, and that included a rather sizable report by Devil May Cry 5 Senior Producer Michiteru Okabe, explaining how the project was born, and its technology.
Okabe-san goes in depth in explaining how Director Hideaki Itsuno described the idea behind the game, and how the team is aiming to recreate the “good feeling” that is a distinctive factor in the Devil May Cry series. We also hear how and why Producer Matt Walker was brought onto the team, and how the announcement at the same time as Resident Evil 2 conveyed the momentum Capcom is enjoying.
Bringing Back the Devil Hunters to Appeal to the Global Market
“In the beginning, one of the main characters, Nero, loses his right hand. He attaches the Devil Breaker to where his right hand was and sets off to battle the demons!” Devil May Cry 5, the latest title in this series, starts with this scene, which was the idea of the Director, Hideaki Itsuno.
With the help of his new partner, weapons craftswoman Nico, Nero takes down demons one after the other in a way that is not only stylish, but feels good. This “good feeling” is a distinctive feature of
the Devil May Cry series. The exhilaration of using guns and swords to stylishly defeat demons, interwoven with the story of main characters Nero and Dante’s hidden pasts engrossed fans all over the world, leading the series to become a hit, with cumulative sales of 16 million units.As this series is immensely popular overseas, we’ve brought on Matt Walker as well. Matt, who initially began studying Japanese because of Street Fighter, is a producer who has absorbed the Capcom
DNA, and now works to push forward our strategy.This new title was announced at E3, one of the world’s largest game expos, held in June. The announcement coincided with that of Resident Evil 2, the latest Resident Evil title, which is the sister series to Devil May Cry. Both announcements received a standing ovation.
I think announcing both of these titles at E3 conveyed the momentum we have going at Capcom.
Okabe-san also taled about the technology powering the game, from the RE Engine to the facial tech developed by Serbian company 3Lateral.
Driving to the Apex of Action Games With the RE ENGINE
The stylishness of this game is what makes it appealing, so it goes without saying that it demands cutting-edge visuals and action. Our aim was to create a new Devil May Cry legend that satisfies users by
incorporating photorealism, which is mainstream overseas, and a sense of speed and exhilaration unlike previous titles.Capcom’s technical capabilities make this possible. Further striving for visual perfection, we cast models in England for the main characters and created real costumes from scratch. After makeup was applied, the fully costumed models were scanned as 3D objects.
For character expressions, we used the latest facial technologies developed by Serbian company 3Lateral. The exhilarating movement of the game uses motion capture, with each individual part combined using Capcom’s RE ENGINE to successfully express realistic details in the characters’ appearances, expressions and action. With facial expressions in particular, when voice actors later recorded the lines, they understood the emotions just by looking at the video, lending a realism that could be mistaken for live action. My sense is that we were able to achieve extremely fine quality by combining cutting-edge technology with the development expertise Capcom has accumulated over the years.
The release is scheduled for March 8, 2019. We want to deliver this to the world as the apex of action games—DMC is back! We hope you are excited!
Below you can check out a graph showcasing the progression of numbered Devil May Cry games, and their sales.
If you want to see more about Devil May Cry 5, you can enjoy some recent gameplay videos focusing on the Devil Arms, a video showing Dante in action on Xbox One X, another showcasing the Japanese voice cast, the latest screenshots, and the latest trailer. You can also read about the Deluxe Edition, the PC requirements for the game. If you want even more, we have Director Hideaki Itsuno’s comments on how Ninja Theory’s DmC influenced development, and on the sassy Nico.
Devil May Cry 5 releases on March 8th, 2019, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you’d like to reserve a copy, you can already pre-order it on Amazon.
Incidentally, the game won basically everything it could win, including both Game of Show prizes at our DualShockers’ Tokyo Game Show 2018 Awards.
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