Dante’s Design in DmC Devil May Cry Is Influenced by Western Culture

Ninja Theory, the UK-based studio behind the upcoming DmC Devil May Cry hack and slash title, went into further detail about the game’s development process, attributing the pretty big changes in design to influences from Western culture, not just Asian one.

The Devil May Cry series was originally created by Capcom, a Japanese company, many years ago. Now, after four great titles, the franchise has been given to Ninja Theory, so that the British studio can offer a fresh take on the popular series.

We’ve already seen some of the big changes made by the studio, like a completely overhauled version of its main character, Dante. Now the developer’s Creative Director, Tameem Antoniades, has talked with OXM about them and the overall design process.

According to Antoniades, the original Devil May Cry games wore their Japanese design tropes on their sleeve, while the new one tries to find meaning in every decision.

"Japanese style ethos does tend to involve making characters look cool for the sake of looking cool, adding odd accessories, crazy hairstyles and color, cowboy boots and so on simply because they look cool,” he said.

"We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Dante have white hair? I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices."

This doesn’t mean that the new DmC Devil May Cry title will be a completely different game, as Antoniades assures fans that Ninja Theory is trying to build upon the Japanese foundations of the series.

"We've not so much done away with any of the Japanese aspects of the series," Antoniades continued "But are more building on the foundations of the franchise to develop a game that has a different flavor. We grew up on US and European movies, comics, music and general culture. That's what we're tapping into. We're not pretending we are Japanese nor making apologies for that."

DmC Devil May Cry initially annoyed fans of the series with its first details, but recent videos and screenshots showed an experience closer to the older games in the franchise. As of yet, however, the game still doesn’t have a concrete release date.