So as we’ve gone over the rushes in Devil May Cry, we’ve discussed knockback to a certain degree, but now I want to cover knockback in detail in regards to Devil May Cry 3 because Devil May Cry 3’s knockback has one extremely important feature that I believe anyone developing an action game should be aware of: consistency in the distances created by knockback and the moves that can cover the gap.
There are three distances for knockback in Devil May Cry 3. The first is the short distance.
Short knockback in Devil May Cry 3 corresponds to Dante’s dash distance. Dante dashes with two specific moves: the intro to Swordmaster’s Dance Macabre as well as Trickster’s Dash. Any of the game’s basic inherent combos (for example, Rebellion Combo I or Rebellion Combo II) that deal knockback deal knockback at this distance.
The second distance mid-length.
This is the rarest of knockback distances and off the top of my head, the only move to create this specific distance is Volcano (and potentially Spiral’s Normal Shot) – which makes it quite appropriate that Beowulf’s Straight is the move which corresponds to the distance traveled and allows the player to combo without knocking the enemy away again, as I will demonstrate.
The third distance I need to cover is the full knockback length.
This distance corresponds specifically to the distance traveled by Stinger and a few other rushes. It is the maximum distance which Dante can knock an enemy away while grounded, and it is also the maximum distance which Dante can close in a single move.
Finally, we have our special mentions. At the end of Aerial Rave, Dante knocks the enemy both away and towards the ground at roughly a 45° angle. Though in Devil May Cry 3 without the style switcher it is impossible to do so, with the functionality, the player can go from the ending of Aerial Rave into Sky Star to cover the distance the enemy just traveled.
I’d have a real combo for you guys, but I’m still kinda reeling from a fresh operating system install. When I’m back up to speed, I’ll get back to showing off how bored I get writing these.
