Devil May Cry 5 brought the long dormant action series back in a big way. The game was a return to the stylish action that helped basically create the genre many years ago, and looked darn good while doing so. Utilizing the new internal Capcom RE Engine, it brought a new slickness to the already stylish action series. Where did that style come from? Well, Capcom went high end on that one.
In an interview with Highsnobiety, Art Director Koki Kinoshita talked about various aspects of the character designs, as well as the ease of scanning in materials with Capcom’s new engine. When it came to influences, Kinoshita pointed to some high end fashion designers, particularly those that used leather and metal in a unique way, and adapting that to the character’s personalities and style.
“For DMC5 we worked with our character designer, Tatsuya Yoshikawa, then worked with an experienced costumier, Madeleine Jenkins, to bring the costumes to life,” he said.
“We started by theorizing what kind of materials each character would utilize based on their personalities and how they would behave. So, for Nero for instance – he’s the type that has a rambunctious personality and dives straight in to situations. With that in mind, we thought he’d use non-flammable materials like leather. Something like what a fire fighter would wear, and it would probably be coated in oil so it wouldn’t be damaged when wet. Then when it came time to actually create the real life costume, Maddy gave her advice, which helped us tune what portions should provide mobility, where the stitching should go, how much material would be required, etc. She then created all of the costumes from scratch.
“The first designer that came to mind for us was Carol Christian Poell, and that image stayed with us even while we were deciding on what materials we would use and the kind of aging the costumes would exhibit. Carol Christian Poell is very adventurous with the kind of materials she uses, and they have these beautiful creases. She’s also very unique with how she utilizes metals – it’s all very stimulating. The way she hides the metals with leather for instance. It’s this perfect balance of futuristic looks that really tickle the heart of the Japanese otaku.”
It’s a pretty interesting look at an aspect of games we don’t see too much, and you can’t deny Devil May Cry 5 looked great all around. The game exceeded all of the company’s expectations, so hopefully it won’t be another decade or so before we see the series return. For now, the game is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with it recently being announced for Game Pass.
