Actually, Red Mages in general have consistently had crap HP in the series. This holds true in FF1 Dawn of Souls too. I believe FF3o White Mages had better HP Growth than Red Mages, and FF5 White Mages beat Red Mages on HP as well. In general, Red Mage has often had less HP than White Mages <_<
DMC4: Completed!
Ok, the last Dante mission...well...
Yamato = yay! New style! One that makes you let Dante pretend he's Vergil! That part was cool...
what wasn't cool was the entire mission being a STUPID GIMMICK FIGHT. Look, DMC, you're good at straight up fights; they don't all have to be Dante vs. Vergil like sword duels, but the general "Big scary monster tries to eat you, just dodge, fire, slash, etc." style is what you're good at. Gimmick Bosses ARE NOT. Its a really boring "Sit back, fire E&I until all the orbs shatter, move on!" fight , and nothing interesting. Also makes Yamato a waste, and a pure replay thing ._.
Nero COMES BACK! Time to buy stuff for him! Still can't seem to get the timing on Red Queen's Excession stuff, and I often forget to charge it when I have free time, but that's an aside! Took a bit of getting use to again after playing as Dante, such like "Oh, right, he had an Aerial Combo WITHOUT Swordmaster, and his Helm Splitter clone was a skill!"
Boss Rush = Cool! I didn't expect it since you fought all those bosses twice already, but yeah, makes up for the stupid STATUE!!! of idiocy.
The Final Boss...well, ok, he had the same gimmick as before, but this was the sort of gimmick that works with the system, rather than restricts it, so that's fine. What was annoying was at low health, everytime you break his shield, he goes into massive sword mode, and small window where you can actually knock him into hurt mode. I ultimately had to resort to Devil Trigger -> Smite to get it in fast enough...at low enough health so the following plot fight actually killed me (that was embarrassing...)
But all this is made up for cause DMC4 lets you DEMONIC FALCON PUNCH THE POPE!
Overall...game was what I said it was at first: Does a lot of what DMC3 did right, only not quite as good, so overall inferior. Dante's section was a blast, mind; yeah, less weapons, but the ability to use all 3 at once *AND* Swap between styles made up for it, so never really felt bad.
Nero, though...there was definitely more they could have done with him. One Devil Arm, style, *AND* Gun? Mrf. Ok, so Red Queen was a neat weapon, but still, would it have hurt to give him one extra weapon? Really don't understand why they didn't just make him have Yamato as a second Devil Arm, one which covered more gimmicky purposes, just to add some variety. Didn't help that Nero had actual puzzles to some degree, though thankfully they weren't as much as I feared they would be given the Gyro nonsense.
This isn't to say Nero was bad, mind; just compared to Dante, his fights were repetitive, though after you play as Dante and go back to Nero, its not as bad since you HAVEN'T been playing as him for a while, if that makes sense.
Nero definitely has potential in terms of being turned into a fun, interesting character and staying unique to Dante, in the same vain Vergil did (...just Vergil they got right on the first try...did I mention DMC3 is awesome?), but there's definitely some kinks they need to work out with him. Main one is just compared to Dante (and Vergil for that matter), his options are too limited. One more Weapon, and he'd probably be fine!
Wouldn't shock me if he comes back in DMC5, whenever that comes out; game ended in such a way that it almost seemed like they were implying they wanted to use Nero again (I more than expect Dante to make an appearance again, naturally), which could be neat if they can flesh out his fighting style some.
...I know, I'm trashing Nero a lot. He's not totally boring or horrible, I'm just saying he's clearly the most boring of the DMC PCs to date (shut up about anything DMC2 related), but he definitely has potential! Especially since Red Queen is probably the coolest of the DMC Swords to date.
Oh, game was generally easier than DMC1 and DMC3, which...I guess is a bad thing. Both games were hard, but not frustratingly so, so DMC4 being easier felt like it took something away? Not that the game was a cake walk, but bosses in DMC1/3 tend to kick your ass once or twice before you get the hang of them. DMC4, Berial and Echidna were both bosses I had no problems beating on my first try...all three times...
Nongameplay things?
Well, the Nero side of the plot was interesting by the series standards. I'm aware this doesn't say much of anything, which is why I can say it! Dante's side...didn't really have plot. Its just Dante running around beating up demons, destroying Gates, and being totally awesome at the same time, as in, DMC3 style awesome. Not that this is bad; its clear the writers realized they couldn't make remotely worthwhile plot from that point on (since Nero and Kyrie are kind of too central...), so why not just give the fans what they want, which is Dante being pure win...and even be creative about it sometimes! *points to the link he posted earlier*
Nero as a character can be summed up as "DMC1 Dante with better writing." As in, he lacks Modern Dante's ham value, but he's still not totally serious and not afraid to wise crack in front of big evil villains, and is still fairly stylish.
So in the end, fun game! Good follow up to DMC3, if inferior, but expecting them to redo DMC3 perfectly (let alone improve upon it) is asking for a bit much, so I'll take what I can get.
