the main reason why devil may cry lives rent free in my mind is not because it has a very gay wacky woohoo demon slayer as a main character who doesn't know what sex is
it's not because the main antagonist of 3 and 5 is a certified weeb who fights his brother like they're two toddlers in a sandbox but it's to the death because they're demons and they can't really die
it's not because one of the other main characters is a punk emo boy who has a RED HOT REVVING MOTORCYLE SWORD and A GUN
it's not because in 3 there is a girl whose main weapon is a rocket launcher and she climbs the tower of hell to kill her dad because he killed her mom and left her to become a dumbass demon
it's because: these games have a style meter. a style meter, in my opinion is ESSENTIAL to incentivizing a player to not only play the game well, but also look cool while doing it. the better you do, the cooler and more badass you are in a fight, the more you're rewarded.
don't forget, in devil may cry 5, the intensity of the music depends on how well you're doing. if you're at D rank, you get like a base melody and simple drum beats, then you climb to S rank during the fight, and your brain implodes from dopamine overdose when the vocals kick in and you hear "BANG BANG BANG, PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER"
there's a first person shooter on steam called "bright memory infinite" that also incorporates a style meter, and to top it off, it works really well (i only played the demo version i haven't played the full game yet)
my main point is: put a style meter in more games. it activates neurons that aren't normally activated when you play combat games. combo meters aren't enough, like god of war and diablo, because woohoo, big deal, you hit the enemies a bunch. but did you do it like a cool guy? HMM?
thank you for listening
