Interview: Devil May Cry 5’s Producer On The Game’s Development And Possible Future Projects

Devil May Cry has returned with its fifth installment in grand style and captivated critics and players alike. The game’s sales only confirmed that all the hard work put into its development paid off and after the release of Bloody Palace the dev team can enjoy some rest before working on another project. But with the success of Devil May Cry 5, many questions arose about future plans of its creators. We turned to Capcom to find some of the answers and one of the producers of DMC5, Matt Walker, took the time to tell us more about the development of the game and possible future of the series.

Since its release, Devil May Cry 5 has been a huge success both critically and commercially. But most importantly, it managed to enthrall a wide audience of both older fans and newcomers to the franchise. But the fans of the original series had to wait more than 10 years for this installment. Why was there such a long gap between DMC4 and DMC5 and how was the development different compared to the previous games which were being developed back-to-back?

After DMC3, Itsuno-san fully intended to start working on an idea he had for an action RPG, but then his boss asked him to start work on a new Devil May Cry for the new consoles that were coming out then. Once he was finished with DMC4, he had exhausted all of the ideas he had for a Devil May Cry game, and finally got the chance to work on his RPG, which came to be known as Dragon’s Dogma. After a few years, he started having ideas for Devil May Cry 5, and so with the CEO’s approval, he set out to make the game a reality.

When you first started working on DMC5, did you expect it would be such a hit or were you more skeptical, particularly after the series took a slight detour in the form of the reboot – DmC: Devil May Cry?

Whenever we work on something we hope that people will receive it well which validates the hard work that goes into making it. Before DMC5’s announcement, some of us were concerned with how fans would receive the more realistic look of the game – particularly now that we were scanning real people for the characters. Luckily as soon as we announced we found that people responded well to everything we had done with the game, which we’re very thankful for.

Are there any ideas that weren’t implemented in DMC5 and you would like to see them in future installments?

Although it took us more than 3 years, we had our hands full trying to create the best DMC5 we could within schedule and budget. We were so focused on making it the best it could be, that we didn’t really spend much time thinking up any ideas that wouldn’t be feasible within those constraints. Once the game was released, though, we had a lot of really passionate fans start asking us for what they would like to see further in the game, so I think that it would make sense to reference those wishes first and foremost if we get a chance to make more in the future.

After the much awaited update which included Bloody Palace, many players are asking, what’s next? Do you consider DMC5 a closed chapter and you’re ready to work on another project, or do you want to add new content to the game?

As much as we’d like to add more content to the game, we aren’t working on anything and don’t have any plans to. Itsuno-san has started work on a new project, so hopefully when the time is right we’ll hear about that. In the meantime we on the dev team look forward to jumping online and seeing how players are enjoying Bloody Palace, and seeing the other discoveries they make about the game.

Prior to the release of DMC5, there were talks that the game would include co-op multiplayer, however in the final game, we can only see other players in the background or their recorded gameplay and the game is primarily a singleplayer experience. Was there ever a possibility during development, that players would be able to fight together side-by-side in certain missions or perhaps even in Bloody Palace?

DMC5 was always meant to be the best single player experience that it can be, but with the Cameo System, players will find certain points in the game where they can see each other playing through ghost data or in real time, and there are even certain sections where players will indeed play together online if they’re available to match at the same point in the stage.

After five installments, the story of the series is somewhat complicated, especially for new players. There have been some changes to the story’s timeline over the years with DMC2 now taking place before DMC4 and DMC5. Why have you made these changes and could that bring more possibilities in terms of storytelling? Can we expect that you might fill some of the plot holes throughout the series or would you like to see the story progress more into the future?

When we started making DMC5 Itsuno-san had a vision for how the game would play out – particularly the end of the game. In order to see that vision come to fruition, we decided that it would make the most sense to change around the continuity a little. In addition to the games, there are a couple novels and manga that have been released under the Devil May Cry license, and Itsuno-san personally oversees the writing for these, so that we can consider them canon. The latest was a prologue to DMC5 called “Before the Nightmare”, and in that we’ve done our best to fill in most of the plot details, though it’s unfortunately not available in any language other than Japanese currently.

With every new Devil May Cry game, you’ve introduced a new playable character with a different playstyle and thanks to great character design, they all have their own fanbase. Do you plan to continue with this strategy of adding new characters to introduce new gameplay mechanics or would you like to focus more on some of the established characters? Vergil’s appearance in the DMC5 trailer was a huge selling point for many fans and there’s also a large portion of players, who would like see the ladies of Devil May Cry more in action. Would you consider making them all playable again, or are you more inclined to introduce a new character?

We don’t currently have any plans to create anything past what’s already out, so whether or not we ever add any new characters to the franchise is something that has yet to be seen. We have indeed seen lots of fans wish for Lady, Trish and Vergil to be playable, so I personally hope that if we ever make anything new – whether that’s additional content for DMC5 or a separate title, that we can address those wishes.

Hideaki Itsuno has mentioned in previous interviews, that he actually liked the reboot and wanted to make a sequel. Why was the idea scraped later on and has the mood changed after DMC5? Do you still think that DmC should get a sequel and if so, should it be another collaboration, or do you think it should be in the hands of a single studio?

As you mentioned, on the dev side we certainly wanted to and thought we would work with Ninja Theory again to create a sequel to DmC, but that unfortunately didn’t get off the ground. We’d still love to see a sequel, but we think it absolutely has to be made by Ninja Theory – so much of the amazing style and substance in that game was only possible because they have such a knack for what’s cool. It wouldn’t be DmC without Ninja Theory.

With so many Capcom titles coming to Nintendo Switch, do you plan to release any Devil May Cry games on the platform as well?

I’m the type that likes to play everything on the Switch, so I personally hope that we can put more titles on it, though I’m not currently working on any. I guess we’ll see what happens!

Not only are players expecting another Devil May Cry game, but many fans are waiting for a sequel to Dragon’s Dogma. If you could immediately start working on a sequel to either Devil May Cry or Dragon’s Dogma, which one would you choose?

I’d personally love to see another Itsuno IP resurrected – Rival Schools. I always thought the ideas and character designs in that series were top notch, and high school is such a perfect setting for a fighting game – with all kinds of different possibilities for characters and environments!

Thanks for the interview!

You can find the original version of this interview in Slovak at www.sector.sk.