DMC devs wanted to make Dante a bit "harder" and less "fashionista"

Ninja Theory and Capcom has said it plans to win over the folks upset about the new direction it's taking with the Devil May Cry series.

Speaking with the US PS Blog in the video below, studio head Tameem Antoniades and lead producer Alex Jones from Capcom seemed a bit surprised and a bit worried over being given such an iconic franchise to play around with.

"It's terrifying when you're giving something as well known as DMC, and they say: 'We want to take this in a new direction and really go for it'," said Antoniades. "So, we were exploring different ideas for it and they were like 'No. Really go for it'.

"I don't think we are going to win over the hardcore until we've got something they can put in their hands. We know the full story of the game. It's not a total departure. It will fit in with most of what we know of it."

As far as redesigning Dante was concerned, Alex Jones, said he wanted to make Dante a bit more harder than the handsome fella seen in the previous titles.

"My thoughts were, we're going to make him less over-the-top fashionista, and more harder-edged," he said. "So, that was our first thought. My thoughts were, 'They're gonna let us do DMC? That's amazing.' Then my second thought was that we were gonna toughen him up a little bit.

"You can't keep things familiar yet totally different at the same time, but what you can do, is keep what is essentially recognizable about the title. So, with Dante, a long jacket is part of the character, and part of the character's silhouette. You don't want to change that."

The development team also decided to that while keeping what was "essentially recognizable", it would also add in an updated level design, and some more mechanics that were not just combat-based to give more depth and feel to the gameplay.

But as far as the uproar over the change in Dante's looks is concerned, the team is well aware of the outcry and is planning to win the naysayers over.

"People are very passionate about a character that has become anicon, so they have very strong feelings of what they think that character should be," said Jones. "The first time you encounter something new, well, change is scary, and we understand that.

"It's not an unanticipated response. We have however long we're developing the title to win these guys over, so the good thing is they're talking about it so that gives us the opportunity to change their minds."

Watch the video below. No date yet, but it will hit PS3 and 360.