I was thinking about Devil May Cry 4 because...well honestly because it was too late/early for the noise Rock Band makes and i wasn't sure if i could stay awake long enough to invest in Uncharted again (more on both games and why the drums are still loud after the mouse pad mod at a later date).
Jumping around to different topics aside (sorry) i'm beginning to get worried about this new "Nero" kid i hear so much about. Mostly i'm worried about how we haven't seen this guy before and now he could comprise roughly 60% of your playing time. See, it's been my experience that when a game forces a new main character on you like that, you're not going to be very happy with the new guy. See example: Metal Gear Solid 2. Of course, 60% isn't as bad as the complete Raiden overhaul that was MGS2 (or SoL if you prefer that humorous pun of an abbreviation). But even Hideo learned from that one.
Alright, so he kind of cheated in MGS3 with the "original" snake, but it was still Snake in pretty much every way -- minus an eye -- so it satisfied. Kojimasan cheated again with Raiden in DMC4 also, if you think about it. He took a hated character (Raiden) and recast him as one of the series favorites (the Ninja) in an attempt to cancel out whiny girly-man Raiden hatred with pure Ninja coolness, and we love him for it. It's kind of like taking Jar-Jar and turning him into Boba Fett ...ok maybe not that hated a character, but you get what i mean.
The way i see it, if you wanna try and switch up the main character on your players at all, you gotta start them as prominent NPCs*. If that works out you can test them out with a small playable part**, maybe even make it optional a la Ninja Gaiden: Sigma, or go for a full-on spin-off title of their own*** if you've got the balls and the character's got the popularity****. This way, you don't run in to players in their own 60/40 split. 60% annoyed that they're not getting as much time with the character they know and love, 40% annoyed that they don't really have time to get used to this new guy.
So that's why i'm worried about DMC4. The series may have survived it's just-sufficient-to-tie-together-ridiculous/awesome-battles storyline and the coming of Kratos, but this move could end up hurting the series reputation, again kind of like MGS. Maybe Capcom will manage to pull it off, they have been doing this longer than i have, after all. I'll keep the fingers on my (insert heavy metal sounding name) hand crossed just in case.
*see: Crash Bandicoot 2, Jak and Daxter
**see: Crash Bandicoot 3, Jak2, Jak3
***see: Daxter*****
****I should mention; i love Naughty Dog
*****I didn't actually play Daxter, but see ****
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