Dante is Too Complex

[Coraru]

I'm making this post partly as a vent, but also as a small discussion on Dante's complexity. I don't hate having complex elements or characters, however I feel there is a limit to how complex you can reasonably make something. Dante, in my opinion, goes past that limit.
Now I'm not going to say I'm amazing at the game and obviously I don't put too much time in to the game. I have 91 hours in the game over the past year or so, for the record. However I would like to think I'm decent at the game except with Dante. My big problem everytime I play the game is just how complex Dante is to use. The other four characters in the game are reasonably easy to understand and have complex elements to give them depth and feel satisfying to use and play. Dante, however, has far too much complexity in my opinion.
The learning floor for Dante is so much higher than the other characters that makes him feel less satisfying and fun to play until you have put in a lot more time and practice in to him compared to the other characters. He has on-the-fly style switching and 3 Melee and 3 Guns all to switch between and keep track of which you're using at one time, it get's a little too much to play at a reasonable level if you ask me.
It is also doesn't help that Datne doesn't feel like he can handle the enemies in the game too well until, once again, you have put in the time to practice even more than the others. Having to deal with the super armour on numerous enemies get's really annoying, keeping up with the Mephistos, Fausts and Gladious gets really annoying without excellent use of Trickster. It adds to his already high complexity which makes him less satisfying to play in the end.
In contrast to his DMC3 version where he had simple to understand gameplay, 1 style at a time, two Devil Arms and 2 guns, but had the depth to make him fun and satisfying to play at a reasonble level. Not only that, the enemies are designed around what Dante can do because he is the only character to play as in the game before DMC3SE.
Now most of my arguement comes down to not practicing and heck it might even be the salt of failing with him. However, I think that Devil May Cry games are games that you can pick up simple to learn but hard to master. Every character in DMC4SE feels like that, except for Dante. Dante is hard to learn, even harder to master. I don't hate complex games or elements, but I think that they overall made Dante too complex.
If I want to play Dante, I will most likely play DMC3. Anyone else, DMC4SE.
Would love to hear anyone else's thoughts and opinions.

[Coraru]

Getting through the game on normal is not the problem, it's more when you try to do Bloody Palace and the harder difficulties. Of course it is the higher difficulty and so it makes sense to be required to better at the game, but the game asks you to play Dante to such a high level compared to any of the other characters.

[Rhorn]

I have liked being able to switch stlyes on the fly, to enhance gameplay. But they really should have still incorporated DMC3 dante, in which you can do still do considerable damage with just one style

[Thembo Timbo]

Originally posted by Rhorn:

I have liked being able to switch stlyes on the fly, to enhance gameplay. But they really should have still incorporated DMC3 dante, in which you can do still do considerable damage with just one style

That and the styles themselves felt more fleshed out individually. Style switch mod is awesome for DMC 3 tho.

[Something Hank]

Dante's complexity is way more rewarding than it is troublesome for me. I've gotten used to him a long time ago, and you stop thinking about "oh god what style/gun/sword am I in" and you just start thinking of everything in terms of muscle memory pressed. If you WANt to do shotgun stinger, your muscles know to LT, Left, Forward + Y. I CAN'T play DMC3 without Style Switcher now, it's movelist becomes too small.

That being said, he's the WORST character to be given halfway through the game. DMC4 is like a 30% finished game, and it goes from piss-easy Nero to, the most complicated character in this entire genre in ONE mission.

[Broadsword]

Yeah, DMC4 was really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ because of that design/structure.

If you got Dante, and then you had to unlock the ability to use each style simultaneously, you could have been introduced to it piece meal. Instead you play as Nero who teaches you pretty much nothing you need to know about Dante and doesn't even a second set of weapons so you can't get used to the idea of weapon swapping either if you're getting into the series for the first time.

I wouldn't say Dante is too complex, never, but I would say he's a bit much for how you're introduced to him in the game and he shouldn't have access to more than four weapons at a time, but the latter is kind of a completely different problem, anyway...

The best suggestion I have to help with the complexity though is to pick one style and return to it after using most of the moves from another style. So basically, pick something like Swordmaster and get used to swapping to Gunslinger for Rainstorm in the air or Trickster for a quick dash etc and then swapping back to Swordmaster after you've done what you wanted to do.

[Something Hank]

You'll get there. Have a look at the Super Trainer if you really wanna hunker down on being able to use practice modes and shiz.

[Professor Knockers]

I've been a huge DMC fan since the 1st release in 2001, and I gotta say, S ranking every mission on difficulties above Devil Hunter is such an excruciating chore in this game. In DMC3, you had to work for it, but not so hard that it just felt impossible to achieve. I've read guides and watched videos on mastering guard flying and royal/just devil triggering during rising dragon, but I can't reproduce these techniques at all, even Vergil's judgement cut glitch has incredibly strict timing that I have yet to reproduce. I can't figure out how Dante is supposed to dominate any boss battles since his damage is so miniscule compared to Nero's Exceed and Buster techniques.

I love all the monster tactics used in DMC1, it had just the right amount of telegraphing and difficulty to have fun with it, but still have to work for it. The only battles that got absurdly hard were Nelo Angelo 3 and Nightmare 3 on DMD difficulty; except for those 2, I could get a little frustrated playing on difficulties above normal, but not to the point of pulling my hair out.

[Yu Ryujin]

Dante is not difficult lol, the problem is that his gameplay is actually more fun and cared than others.

In fact it is the only one that I feel I can enjoy the game over and over without getting too much bored.