Jinhee Lee; Looking Outwards 06

This is a very small example that very few people have commented on, but small details like this are what immerse me into games. In the Devil May Cry series, the game encourages the player to fight expressively and stylishly by grading their performance at the end of every mission.

An example of this can be seen here, in which the player receives an “S” rank and the screen is sliced many, many times and eventually breaks at the seams.

The number of slices/gunshots (depending on the played character) that appear on the screen before the displayed rank is random, specifically “pseudo-random”, in that it can actually be determined and reproducible depending on the player’s rank. The higher the rank, the more slices/gunshots.

I believe that the cutting angles are all predetermined, and that the game picks a fairly consistent amount to display depending on the rank, but randomizes the order in which each cut is executed. Additionally, when the screen breaks apart like glass, randomness seems to be utilized to a greater extent as the shards drop. Particularly, applying the physics engine to each shard and treating it as an object in free-fall. This is all speculation though, seeing as how neither player nor developer has really elaborated on such a minor feature.

What this produces is a nice visual that reflects the free-flowing rather than choreographed nature of the combat and feels empowering to players that take the time to refine their skill.