Why new Dante and new Lara are a problem.

[Halo Fanboy]

It's not just a matter of these new character designs and personalities are abysmal. Some people might even like them. Its just that the people who like these designs are the people who never enjoyed the character in the first place.

And that's the problem! These new characters are a betrayal to the original fans of the series. The developers basically threw their hands up and gave up on developing the existing characters but found themselves unable to relinquish the use of the intellectual property. Its a blatant cash in to ride on the coatails of the franchise as a vehicle for the writers to insert their egotistically created anime fanfiction character into the leading role.

This a the potential start of a terrible trend in games but we are lucky about one thing. These new characters are so pathetic that noone with taste could possibly accept them. And the games look shitty as a whole. Lets hope these game are as lame as they appear to be so that this trend can be nipped in the bud.

 

[SyphonX]

No.

Honestly, if the appearance of Lara or "Dante" are so important to the franchises, then you clearly didn't like the games to begin with.

I'm not going to touch any of the Devil May Cry reboots, because I'm not into it.. so I haven't much to say in the matter. Though it always did seem shallow and needlessly flashy..

Tomb Raider. I could care less what Lara looks like. Seen enough of her. I never spent much time admiring the character either. Not through the narrative and not through her appearance.. Never really cared. The plots were just enough to drive you through the interesting locales to the end, and I usually always enjoyed an entry in the series.

I'll play the new Tomb Raider, and won't care about Lara's changes.. in fact, I'll appreciate it. Maybe she'll actually be interesting this time around. Wouldn't that be pleasant.

So, apparently the franchises are not "ruined" as you put it, eh?

 

[SoulChaserJ]

They can redesign the look of the characters as much as they want, but both of these avatars have slightly less of a personality than wallpaper paste. A true overhaul would give them depth and the appearance of some recognizable human trait rather than shoot this, steal that. So rather than get pissed at the developers for changing the look, why not get pissed off at them for never making a true character rather than a 3D rendered cardboard cutout.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Oh my... they're redesigning characters to make them appeal to new audiences? What horror.

Come on. Character designs in games matter about as much as... erm... well, they don't matter much.

 

[scnj]

These new characters are so pathetic that noone with taste could possibly accept them. And the games look shitty as a whole. Lets hope these game are as lame as they appear to be so that this trend can be nipped in the bud.

Insulting people reading your thread is not a good way to put your point across. I understand that you might not like the character designs, but that doesn't mean that people who disagree with you have 'no taste'.

 

[Thaius]

I thought stuff like this didn't matter to you. Isn't the very act of caring about the character a betrayal of your "only gameplay" philosophy?

 

[JeanLuc761]

After reading the GameInformer cover story of the new Lara Croft, it's true that they're trying to re-invent the character, but I see this is a great thing. The old Lara was impossibly proportioned and her personality fell short in a lot of ways. Having realistic characters in games is becoming more and more important, and Lara needs a complete revamp to achieve that.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Words.

The problem is that for many characters, their appearance is a major, major part of their being as a game character. The new Dante might get a slight reprieve if at the end or middle of the new game he takes on a much closer look to the older Dante (which Capcom has hinted he will), but Lara Croft is another story.

Part of Lara Croft's entire being is the fact that she was an absurdly hot, non-realistically proportioned heroine who went everywhere and did everything. Taking away part of that is taking away part of what made her a character worth remembering.

Its like if Duke suddenly became some random, brown-haired average guy in DNF instead of the blond-haired, All-American ass-kicking machine he is supposed to be.

Or if they turned Chun-Li into some plain-clothes, average-bodied school girl.

Gaming is a highly visual medium; destroying a character's established look is often highly damaging (and damning).

 

[teutonicman]

Dude..... when you make an argument you can't just can't just fill it with statements. You need proof, examples, and comparison/contrasts to prove or at the very least explain your point.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

The new Lara is great, it's not like anyone had a real close connection to her before. Her entire character up until recently was built entirely on "OMG BOOBIEZ!!#$!1one!!".

As far Dante, I just think they want to take the series in a new direction. DMC has had a good long run, why not mix things up a bit? It worked great for Resident Evil -- until they messed it up again.

There's more to a game than a character's appearance -- though this might not be true for the Tomb Raider franchise.

Also what's so "pathetic" about the redesigns? The fact that they are more realistic and practical? I have no clue how people will accept that silly realism thing!

... Its just that the people who like these designs are the people who never enjoyed the character in the first place.

Did you enjoy Lara Croft often? This may be the source of your animosity.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Because I have nothing else to contribute to discussion that hasn't already been said.

Things change. Get over it.

 

[Sephychu]

Re-invented characters? Great.

Do you remember Devil May Cry 4? I thought it sucked. Too much of Dante can be a bad thing. I'm treating DmC as a new game with links to the old, and it looks promising in that regard.

 

[Calico93]

I liked both the original Dante and Lara aswell as I like the new Dante and Lara, and I think its a good idea to change things up in game franchise. Guess its just peoples opinions.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Honestly? Character designs matter very little.

New Lara? Big deal! The only real difference I can see between the 'new' Lara and the 'old' Lara is that she no longer looks like she's trying to smuggle some bowling balls into the ancient ruins down her shirt.

New Dante? Big deal! I love the new design for Dante, he looks awesome and badass in the upcoming reboot/prequel/whatever that thing is. Then again I've only played DMC4, which only really featured Dante in half of it.

In short: it doesn't matter much what characters look like. What matter in a game, surprisingly, is the GAME, not the appearance of the main character.

And tbh, if you get so hung up on what a main character looks like that your unable to play the game, then you have some weird issues right there my friend.

 

[mireko]

The new Tomb Raider is good though, it actually sounds interesting. Crystal Dynamics seem to actually know what they're doing. Besides, the character really isn't that different.

Devil May Cry, however. What the fuck. Part of what made DMC good in the first place was Hideki Kamiya's absurd, extremely over-the-top style. You really can't do a gritty reboot of that, because it won't make any sense as that kind of story. And the new Dante looks like an emo heroin addict. I'm not saying the game won't necessarily be good, it just seems like a stupid direction to take the series in.

It looks more like they took an original IP and wrote "DMC" on it with a magic marker.

 

[sageoftruth]

Well, putting aside Dante's appearance, DMC5 looks pretty much like a DMC game to me. My only problem was the trailer's music, but the DMC franchise has a knack for picking worse and worse music with each release.

 

[Stickfigure]

I'll be the first to accept that sometimes the dramatic alteration of a character can be subversive. You see it often enough in popular culture: wherein abandoning a beloved character for a reimagining results in a product that misses the mark completely. Just Look at Looney lTunes and their attempts to re-create themselves as badass action characters. Sometimes in re-imagination we abandon the very core concept of the character, and raises the question as to why the people doing this didn't simply conjure up a whole new character.

That being said, characters that endure for longer than a decade will need to adapt in order to survive. I mean, I liked DMC and Tomb Raider enough. You know, when I was 12. They appealed to my understanding of what defined badass and sexy, respectively.

A fair way from that time, though, I have the clarity to see that perhaps the old archetypes have become more than a little tired. Lara Croft became an utterly forgettable pair of tits with very little motivating her actions or behavior other than the need to find important relics and kill anything that gets close to them. Dante was a corny, smug character that still embodies what he always did: a 12-year-old's concept of what "cool" should be. Admittedly, in Dante's case that was sort of entirely the point, but even now one has to admit that the utter pandering obsession with having the "cool guy" character has left Dante more than a little shallow and has given him very little in terms of directions to head. Dante ultimately needed a shot in the arm because, well, he was otherwise pretty much done. There was nothing compelling about him, there was nothing that really needed to be learned about him at that point, and him and his belt collection had become so stale that he got replace with his whinier carbon copy.

Honestly, I don't know about the DMC re-creation. It could be a flop, but with Ninja Theory at the helm it will at least be an interesting flop. And who knows, this could be the Batman of video game re-imaginings. Take a campy goofball of a character that represents one gaming era and adapt him to a more serious and interesting design.

As for Lara, well she's been remade enough as is, but I love the concept of a pure survival game. I don't care about Lara much, and none of her sequels really endeared her as a character. This is a chance to make her a worthwhile and interesting character, even if they run this too into the ground.

 

[Savagezion]

Hell no I have been working on a post yesterday I plan to put up this evening about the new Lara and it is everything the franchise has needed. I don't know about Dante as I am not a DMC guy but I am a huge Tomb Raider fan and I got insanely excited that Lara was finally getting the makeover she has been long overdue for. I will expand on that when I post my thread this evening.

 

[2733]

take some solace in this, one of the first designs for dante in the new game had nothing but jeans and suspenders on.

on another note, why is every odd numbered devil may cry an earlier prequel? 3 comes before 1 and 5 comes before 3. by DMC7 we will be playing an infant Dante killing demons with a rattle.

 

[Kouen]

Because I have nothing else to contribute to discussion that hasn't already been said.

Things change. Get over it.[/QUOTE]

Ya Id go with this really, Times change so should some of the protagonists. especially in Lara's case she needs change badly.

Also lets not Condemn something before you have tried it as you know what they say in a way "Dont count yer chooks before they hatch"