ye i play it emulated and alot of other games its actually insane how good they look. but sadly there are minor bugs that have fixes sure but if ye dont ever ever want to have to do any effort for peak gameing like emulation can be annoying. setting up controls is a skill you learn.
@@chris_vp once you gotten good at it it's not so hard. Steam offers great tools for rebinding quickly. Its not hard to set up shortcuts through with custom binding for each game you want, emulated or native
@@RhizometricReality why would you involve steam? im talken about emulateing dantes inferno on the rpc3 emulator it has its own profiles and controler set ups. each game has a new control scheme one doesnt fit all. playing armored core and metel gear solid 4need different control scheme that take a few mins to do each time nothing massive but iknow people who would just ugh at such a thing. i suppose you could just get a controler
Steam is an easy way to make your PC even detect the PS3 and PS4 controller. Add RPSC3 as a non-Steam game and just plug it in and you won't need to install DS3 or other external software to detect the controller. It's pretty neat.
On why Cerberus was depicted like that in the game. If I remember correctly, the way Dante describes it in The Divine Comedy is as "Il Gran Vermo" or something similar, which translates to "The Great Worm", which I guess Visceral took literally.
I wonder too if brutalizing a giant hell dog might have been a bit too much even for this game. Regardless I love this design. I've never seen a Cerberus that looks anything like this. Its really cool and gross.
I do like how visually it was the closest thing to something you'd see in a Hieronymus Bosch painting portrayal of hell (at least at first when you view it's large bloated & putrid appearance form above, almost like on of those blob fish out of water before the worm heads popped out).
Just throwing in the fun fact that Dante reeeeally hated the pope at the time, so he threw him into the 9th circle of hell. To make the insult more scathing, and to get around the fact the dude was still ALIVE at the time, Virgil mentions that the pope was in fact SO evil and beyond redemption, he had his soul prematurely removed and has his body puppeted around on Earth by demons. The 👏 Heckin' 👏 Pope 👏 Even better, he knew the work would get him excommunicated, so he had the audacity to have explicit mention that the excommunicated do get redeemed in purgatory. Half the story is bible and classic lit wish-fulfillment and the other half is just the cattiest Fuck-Yous ever written in Italian prose.
Note that Dante was a part of a pro Pope faction that had expelled the pro Emperor (and against the Pope) faction from Florence, only to then be expelled by the even more radical pro Pope faction, whereby thenthe moderate pro papists allied with the anti papists. In this context Dante wrote his political treaty De Monarchia where he argues for a single universal Emperor to rule over the world in God's image and for the Pope to stick to religious stuff. He lost his home to the Pope's political intrigue so he would despise him.
Boniface VIII is in the third bolgia of the eighth circle of hell, the one dedicated to simony. Since he died in 1303 (and Dante sets the Divine Comedy in 1300), Dante just mentions that there's already a spot dedicated to him. It's friar Alberigo (tolomea, third part of the ninth circle) whose soul is already in hell despite being still alive, for his sin of betrayal of a guest.
The final battle against lucifer where he is literally raging against his Father, God, in a Paradise Lost style, is a truly great final fight. Underrated game and not a guilty pleasure for me.
Ah, a Divine Crusader who paved his path through blood and destruction commenting on a video about a Divine Crusader who paved his path much the same, poetic.
I have to agree. I would have loved to see how they would have handled his journeys through Purgatory and Heaven...oh well, at least we still got Bayonetta.
23:18 Hold up, Virgil is very well known here in Italy for a sentence he said to Charon. "Caron non ti crucciare, vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole e più non dimandare" which translates roughly into "Charon don't get mad, it is so willed where you can do whatever you will, ask no more" aka "Shut the hell up, God wants it, take us across" Virgil acting like he owns the place when he's not even baptized :^)
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention that the whole thing was a plot by Lucifer to get Dante to free him from hell. Also physically defeating Lucifer in combat had no effect and was part of the trick. It was the souls that Dante absolved along the way that re-imprisoned Lucifer and absolved Dante himself
Pretty chilling to know there were others he counted on, yet failed. Achilles, Marc Anthony, Samson, Atilla, even Ghengis Khan, all failed along the way. Who knows how far each had made it before being ripped apart by hells denizens...
@@icepic21 I guess that also means Hell's Denizens don't actually serve him...because you think he could have order them to NOT kill his only hopes of escape.
23:13 When Auguste Rodin sculped "The Gates of Hell" his main inspiration was the "Abandon every hope, who enter here" quote. So perhaps the developer thought that, considering that the Gate itself is the quote but as a monument, to put a sign on it would felt redundant.
Yup, I wasn't aware of the Rodin sculpture being the blueprint for the gates, so every single syllable of my criticism there is taken back with a sincere apology towards the designers, this is actually an extremely awesome detail to learn.
this. nice to see people that know art lol. I’m actually surprised i remember rodins name lol.. the gates tho.. taht design is so iconic.. the developers would not miss the one opportunity to put sometihng that iconic in a game.
On the lust part there's something that made me think: why is it that we have to have a discussion about "tasteful" and "tasteless" sexual content, even in a game with extreme gore being used basically for funsies? This is not really aimed at you, but rather at how the discussion is generally conveyed: violence is rarely ever really questioned, no matter how extreme, but the slightest amount of suggestive stuff will lead to complaints and arguments about whether it's "justified", if it's in "good taste" or "bad taste", and so on and on? If immature, gratuitous violence is admittedly fun and okay in video games (especially when self-aware, otherwise it'd fall into stupid), why does immature, gratuitous sexuality deserves instead immediate condemnation? My opinion is that, like you said later in the video, we have been raised by questionable dogmas that really don't make a lot of sense. As far as I'm concerned the distinction between "tasteful" and "tasteless" sexual content is entirely personal and meaningless: some conservatives would find even the most modest stuff vulgar, while more open-minded people would find niche fetishes to be completely normal. I think that portraying violence as fundamentally normal but making demands for sexuality to be tasteful we're really just reiterating backward stances.
Yeah, you can make games where you run people over with cars, beat them with crowbars, and shoot them in the testicles, but you show even the slightest bit of side-boob and people just go ape-sh1t. 🐵💩
Fundamentally violence in games is treated like a play fight (no one is actually hurt) because it's not delved into realistically (like the emotions people would experience from such massive amounts of violence, for example no one in the cod games ever get PTSD.) Sex in general is much more constrained so that when it is discussed it's done with purpose, and when its not you have to explicitly seek it out. I think anything is excusable when done artistically.
Well, this is only an american problem, in no European country sexual content is that difficult. Violence is though (which is absolutely the correct order and proves the diametrically perception americans have on those topics - not meant in an offensive way mind you).
I like to say Dante's Inferno is the best "7/10" of all time. I've been singing its praises since the day it came out and I'm so glad to see people finally reevaluating it on its own terms. "Guilty pleasures" don't exist, anyway. If you like something, you like it for a reason.
I mean..you can enjoy things for no reason? Also guilty pleasure means "yeah on an objective level this isin't great, but i love it anyway", it's not a shaming tactic. While i understand the word having that connotation (guilty = shame) that's not quite how it's used; atleast in my observations
Underrated gem, inspired me to study Dante and pursue my literary career. The hell depicted in the game may not be entirely accurate yet it conveys the sense of dread and solitude of the original work. Also, the theme of sin is so complex in Dante's circles system it really makes you question your own virtues and sins more apprehensively. Tonight I'll watch this video, surely It'll be great as with every RagnaRox video
there is no accuracy, nor should it be condemned for being inaccurate. it is a product of its creator and the ideology of his time. the fact we disagree is proof that we've evolved, if only somewhat.
If there's one thing that instantly brightens my day, it's Ragnar uploading an hour + long video on a game I'd forgotten existed, but I remember being weirdly obsessed with when it came out. Thanks for your hard work!
58:30 Technically "sodomy" historically referred to rape, not homosexuality. That's a very modern interpretation and change to the word. So, in this case, the "Mentor to young Dante" you absolve/condemn either raped HIM as a young man, or someone else, and thus was in fact a violent act. Even the Spanish Inquisition, as bad as they were, only have accounts of Adult-on-Child rape being convicted as sodomy, not just two dudes being gay. While it was likely they weren't looked upon well, none were executed for it.
@@desmond931 yeah ill check it out, im just in general skeptical because theres a lot of dishonest conservative church historians with a clear religious bias trying to whitewash the history of the church
Back then I had the choice between Bayonetta and Dantes Inferno and even tho Bayo later turned out to become a cult classic, I definitely did not regret to have gone for DI. I absolutely loved the world and enemy design and it was actually a lot of fun too! Thanks Ragnar! 😊
Honestly you and me friend shared the same dilemma. However I chose Bayonetta and later to Dante. Dante’s inferno was amazing and how they broke down the actually story from the book is amazing. Bayonetta is my all time favorite game however Dante is part of my top 15 favorites. I really did wish they continued it to Purgatorio and Paradiso, especially Purgatorio. The second novel was about how Dante goes up a Mountain to absolve his sins and it’s a literal trial.
I really like the art direction of some of the areas. I would totally play a game where you walk around hell with Vergil talking about poetry and random historical figures.
If you want to read something about the historical figure of Dante Alighieri, I recommend the book "Dante" by the historian Alessandro Barbero, now also in English.
I actually played this game for the first time last year, and while there were some segments that got under my skin, I still had a really fun time. In fact, I'd say if you're interested in the character action genre, this is a great first game to start with. Its gameplay is pretty satisfying and the difficulty isn't too up there. I'd also like to say it's a shame the devs couldn't make the sequel they wanted. I've seen plenty say this game was bad because it copied God of War, but you know what else did that the same year? Darksiders, and its sequel, Darksiders 2, is one of my all time favorite games of its generation. So who's to say they couldn't have improved on it with a proper sequel or even given it its own unique identity? Such a shame.
Italian lit major here 👋 tbh even back then the game never "angered" me; it was just always hilarious to see a man that I know as a pedantic nerd who spenti his time writing passive aggressive poetry about his former hometown being turned into a buff demon slayer 🤷
Hearing you talk about the "Lust" segment really makes me want to hear your take on the game "Agony". I mean, that game is so goddamn over-the-top explicit and, coincidentally, also takes place in hell.
@@beyoudee687 Do you ever think, about not making your Facebook page public? So everyone can see you're a try hard, past her prime, single Mother(seriously where's the Dad?) who uses filters, excess makeup and clevage shots to make herself look better?
Rag sounds like a puritan discussing "over the top taking advantage" how is the depiction of a naked body taking advantage? This is a horror game of course they're going to "take advantage" and distort the depictions of sex and the naked body. Although EA perverted the art, I 100% never ever got the impression that visceral was doing fan service. It was just an adult take on the subject without any holds barred, also I appreciated the giant satan dick. We're such a puritan society that the literal devil can't even have a penis when he's depicted 100% naked. It never makes sense to me that demons and the devil are genderless beings who are supposedly the most perverted evil things on the face of universe and yet are censored like crazy.
I never played this because of the marketing campaign from when the game was new, but this looks really interesting. Dantes Inferno also makes for a fascinating comparison to the first Lords of Shadow, which was also dismissed as a God of War clone, as it hits a lot of the same notes in its criticism of religion and the crusader mentality.
first off - great video. Second - In all fairness to Dante's inferno (the text) Wendigoon's coverage of it does bring a more comprehensive light onto what Dante wrote, including the fact that he is self aware that it is fanfiction I do recommend it
I absolutely lost it at the beginning of the epilog. After such a riveting, insightful speech about Dante finally accepting his sins and how Beatrice was the catalyst and had this in the bag the whole game, and then... "Jupiter's co*squawk*"!
I remember renting Dante's Inferno at Blockbuster in Grade 8; I adored the game so much, I had begged my folks to buy the copy from Blockbuster(it was only $7/preowned) and loved that game since then. Great memories of playing the game in 1 night!
I cant believe Dantes voice actor isnt in so much more recognizable stuff. His voice is so distinct and gritty. His screams are CRAZY. Amazing voice acting.
23:13 That gate is clearly a reproduction, or at least is inspired by Agust Rodin' Gates of Hell, that is basically an illustration of hell from Dante's inferno, which I find less on the nose and yet saving the same purpose. Plus it shows the developers done their homework quite a bit and it's so meta I love it even more.
I would love a sequel & was a Focus tester on this game, it was an interesting experience watching it develop but I will say some of the worse aspects of the final game technical issues were in some of the builds I played over a year before
As a fan of the original poem that still haunts me to this day, I absolutely adore this game. The designs of hell and its minions are creative and (for lack of a better term) visceral and horrifying. While I could have done without the overt sexualization of Beatrice and all the other women in the game, I loved how creative the art, characters, and backgrounds were. I also adored the little asides and details from the poem that they added. While I feel like Dante himself would have despised it, it's clear to me that the developers loved the poem and wanted to do it justice.
I agree. But the oversexualizating bit I disagree with. Considering for the most part 95% of paintings back then was birds with their knockers out. And also yknow. It's hell?
plus im pretty in the games version of dante's inferno, he was r3ped by his mentor when he was a child, stuff like this especially with the games themes of the 9 circle of hell including the sin of 'sodomy' benefits the games story and Dante himself
Interestingly alot of the atrocities weren't committed by the soldiers but many opportunists and scavengers who joined the groups traveling to the holy land. Museum in Bouillon Belgium had some good info on it.
Great video, and great commentary on the poem itself by Rag. I'd like to add that, although the hierarchy of the sins is arbitrary, it isn't really based on what would be the most morally reprehensible acts to people, but sin, in all its forms, is seen as an erosion of divinely created possibilities. For example the circles of Lust, Gluttony and Greed are motivated by carnal desires as opposed to more deliberate "intellectually" motivated sins like Fraud, so the "worst" sins in Dante are intentional rejections of virtue and God. It's definitely based on Dante's own values, but it's not as simple as what are the worst crimes. It is God's judgement, not like the earthly courts of man, but the depictions of eternal punishment do kind of conflict with this idea, as they feel like a kind of perverted wish fulfillment for Dante, like the part where he pushes Filippo Argenti back into the river Styx to be torn apart by the other damned souls.
1:00:39 the Catholic Church has unfortunately not always made decisions that would adhere to Christs teachings, however that does not mean the Catholic faith in of itself is bs, and it’s much better than some of the debauchery you can see now a days.
I never knew there were plans for a sequel. I always find myself coming back to this game. Now knowing there could have been more leaves my disappointed.
This game reminds me of a simpler time, before I knew what was "good" and what was "bad" in games and movies. I genuinely enjoyed it. I agree with you saying it started off really strong and then seemed to kind of lose steam toward the end. And it also broke my heart when Visceral was shut down. That meant no more Dead Space and no sequel to Dante's Inferno. I was bummed.
I'm just making my way through your content now (thank goodness that the rabbit hole of RUclips still contains interesting finds the deeper you burrow) and I have limitless respect for your borderline-exhortation to emulate the game. Mad props for having the balls to say out loud what virtually no other RUclipsr, even ones I love, is willing to do anything more than coyly talk around!
My mum plays Dante’s Inferno every year as her own little Christmas tradition so thank you Ragnar for this perfectly timed video. She’s also a huge Diskworld, Stalker and Solaris fan so this video was basically made for her
Ah...yes Dante´s Inferno was that game that I saw my brother beat the hell out in three days because we were moving from the city... The fun part is that this is the only game where we can´t play infront of my little cousins because "lust level awkardness"
Incredible video as always! The quality has always been great, but I'm not gonna lie, they're getting better and better! I particularly am loving all the tiny editing and jokes put into the videos as well, such as the "The megaman soundtrack will make sense in a 5 seconds" bit. I might need to look into finding the game myself. My last console game was a PS2, so I sadly never got the chance to try these awesome games.
Speaking of Van Helsing; the 2000's movie and tie-in game were some of my greatest guilty pleasures as a child. As was the Minority Report tie-in game. I'd love to get your opinion on those and other tie-in games from when we had a thriving B game industry.
I'm not going to lie to you, but I believe I still have my old PS3 and physical copy of Dante's Inferno in my storage unit. I'll need to dig it up and revisit it after this video. Need to give it another chance and let it be...itself.
I honestly loved the game back in the day, I still own it to this day and I'm proud of that. Just a fun game plus I'm Italian so I must love this game due to sheer patriotism of seeing an (originally) Italian creation
While I'm going to wait until I get home to watch this, I will say that the existance of this game makes me wish that there was a decent Divine Comedy game adaptation.
Im surprised you didn't at least mention the clever foreshadowing with the chain links we break throughout the game. I was pleasantly shocked when I realized what we were doing.
Hell yeah, it's great to see this game getting some love. Sure it's a god of war clone, gameplay wise, but the art and the music is so fucking good. The visual variations between each circle being one of my favorite parts. It's not accurate to the source material obviously, but as a kid, it inspired me to seek out the Divine Comedy and familiarize myself with it and the differences between both.
This was a wonderful watch! I played some of it back when it came out (I think Greed kicked my butt and I never finished it). It's wonderful to see it given the attention it deserves. I personally loved the absolution feature exactly because I could use it on those who didn't deserve their fates - like the poor unbaptised. Screw you Dante.
I've been following your updates around this on twitter so safe to say there is some excitement to watch it. Definitely one of those "always though it looked interesting - never played it games". Can't wait to watch!
I love how Dante’s Inferno is Visceral’s answer to the question of “What if Kratos had to fight through Christian mythology after destroying Greece and climb his way out of the Nine Circles of Hell?” Think about it, beyond even the games being similarly designed, Dante legit just destroys everything in his path and the whole system of Hell much like Kratos destroyed Hades and Greek Mythologies whole system of Death. Fucking love it
@@cyncynshop not to be a douche but Kratos does reflect on his sins in the Greek God of War games. That kinda the whole crux of why he even went against Ares in the first place, as well as why he pledges himself to Athena in the hopes he would no longer be haunted by his sins and what he had done. It wasn’t until Athena broke her vow, and crushed any possible hope of him ever excising his memories which haunted him, that he began on the Warpath against the gods. It’s not directly stated, but the subtext is weaved ALL THROUGHOUT the Narrative of every game and the over arching narrative of the series as a whole, including God of War(2018). (There’s a cool visual nod in Kratos’s design that hints at there being something different about this older Kratos. It’s also a bit of character development via subtext and visual story telling that we constantly see but if you’re not looking for it you’ll completely miss it and will being missing a very important piece of Kratos’s character development and arch that happened between the end of God of War 3 and God of War 2018). Sorry that was quite the tangent… …Anyway… In Chains of Olympus he constantly sees an apparition of his daughter and is guided to Elysium where he has to choose between preventing Atlas from dropping the world into the Underworld thus destroying the world AND Elysium wiping his daughter from existence, or allowing Atlas to drop the world staying in Elysium with his daughter and both of them and the whole world being wiped from existence. Kratos finds comfort in the fact that his daughter is safe in Elysium and will be safe from the other horrors that lurk within the Realm of Hades. This leads him to an understanding that if he allows his grief and wish to remain with his Daughter, as she begs him to do crying and pleading for him to not leave her(the pain in Kratos’s face is kind of heartbreaking honestly)- to cloud his judgement of what must be done and stays with her; he’d just be killing her all over again. For a second time. Only this time she wouldn’t be safe in Elysium for all eternity. Rather she would be cast into the black hole that is the endless void of oblivion along with the rest of the world. If he were to allow himself to falter, despite how much it destroyed him as a Father, then everything he had done after he killed his family leading up that moment would all be for nothing. He realize this and just to make sure Atlas will never drop the World onto the Underworld- chains the world to Atlas’s back In God of War 3 the second half of the game Kratos views Pandora as being his second chance at being a Father and that finding and protecting her will be his long awaited chance at redemption where he had failed to protect his real family. In all of Kratos and Pandora’s interactions Kratos talks to her in a calm manner like a father would to a daughter, and genuinely wants to protect her from anything and everything. So much so that he’s 100% willing to throw away his only chance at getting revenge on Zeus so long as Pandora wouldn’t need to be sacrificed to achieve that revenge. That directly stems from his tremendous burden of guilt and grief. This also proved that Kratos had really been seeking and valued most was redemption rather than revenge but in the absence of any way to achieve that redemption, he opted for revenge. If he couldn’t redeem himself then he’d just have to kill everyone that set into motion the tragedy of Kratos’s greatest sin.
31:04 the text that flashes on the screen says "I didn't have footage of Orpheus getting Punished, because I could not bring myself to murder him, as he just futzed up real bad, so you just gotta extrapolate from the execution of Attila" honestly Rag, can't blame you for it either. Also that Project Diva bit right after was brilliantly timed and I'm giggling to myself, imagining RagnarRox painstakingly looking through different songs to find one that matches up with the button prompts lol
I pretty much punish/absolve the same people every playthrough, some people you really can't blame and forgive for simply f**king up...others were just flat out terrible people
I almost bought this game when it came out. The demo got me excited for it. Then I saw in a review how much platforming there was. I decided not to get it. I hate platforming, but I did love the combat. The EA, Ever Avaricious, mini videos on the different levels were very interesting. Too bad about this game and others like Hellgate: London.
@@DarkPrject The game came out half or quarter baked. There were so many bugs and things that could've been done better for that time. Someone needs to take the idea and redo it with more skill and care. There were things I liked about the game and I spent hours playing it. Which version did you play? There's an original version and some folks got the source code or something and they did some stuff. I don't remember the details. I'm not going back to the original. Once you get down to Hell, you can see they lost interest in making interesting levels.
23:12 Fun fact! These gates of hell are modelled after a sculpture titled "The Gates of Hell" by Auguste Rodin, which also lack the famous quote despite being based on the Divine Comedy.
Hey Ragnar, thanks for all your work. I am one of those literacy nerds you spoke about, but luckily I am also a videogame player and enjoyer. I can assure you that like you I totally understand some of the changes Visceral made to the original plot (e.g. we couldn't have simply waltzed and chatted through Hell, or it would've been made by Dontnod, while leaving Vergil all the fun there can be in saying "F**k off" to various demons), while I don't understand many others (e.g. why not keeping the engraving on Hell's Gates? It was cool! - Why does Charon quote part of the Hell's Gates inscription? - Where the hell is Vergil gone to at the end? He's supposed to escort Dante at least until Heaven's Gates!). What was important was to maintain the same mood and message of the original work, and they did it. For example, at first in the poem Dante wasn't very happy to go through Hell, and even stopped walking; but Vergil told him he was sent by Beatrice herself, and that made the poet willing to go on his journey; in this sense, reaching Beatrice is still Dante's main objective. Vergil's quotes throughout Hell are more or less the same as the original, shortened for obvious reasons; the major sins that Dante had to face against in the poem (wrath, lust and pride, symbolized by three beasts) are well-depicted and even his non-awareness goes in line with the poem, where Vergil (along with St. Benedict and Beatrice in Paradise) need to costantly explain him the things he sees, things that are far beyond mere human comprehension. The game, as much as the poem, it ultimately unravels as a redemption journey for Dante and his readers/players... I wouldn't say it was all part of Beatrice's plan, but it certainly turns out this way. On the binary system of either condemning or absolving notorious historical figures, it's just as you said: while Dante in the Comedy is not granted with this power, as a writer he DID gave us his point of view and either condemns or absolves the poor souls he finds during his journey (Dante was incredibly prideful, he himself admits it in the poem, hence all that blowing smoke up his butt and throwing his still-alive-at-that-time political enemies in Hellfire, but you know, he was "on a mission from God", so who could ever reply him anything? Just love him.), so no, it's not that uncalled for, it actually makes it more similar to the poem, in his own gameplay way of course and giving YOU the choice. Not bad for a "children's hobby", as someone still says. The Divine Comedy was a masterpiece of its time and we study and talk about it still to this day; the italian rapper Caparezza wrote a song called "Argenti vive" (a wordplay on "argento vivo", that would be "quicksilver", and "Argenti still lives on"), where he impersonates Filippo Argenti and proceeds to reply to Dante, stating the hipocrisy of his and our society (like despite criticizing violence Dante actually used it to paint his masterpiece more vividly, and on more general terms, our society can't seem to get past it and often prefers to rely on it rather than on art and diplomacy)... in what sounds somehow like a dissing; I am madly in love with that song. A little note on pronunciation, if you want to say those name correctly: "Charon" it's [kà-ron], not Karen or Sharon or whatever; and "Malebolgie" is [mah-ley-ball-djey]. Of course, Violence is the Hell circle that awaits us videogame players, according to the generalist press anyway, whereas EA is probably going to be split up between Greed and Treachery. Meet y'all there!
I appreciate that you understood how seriously this game took the lore and turned it into video game content that was shy of gold. The creative liberties were entirely original and made it a game that stands out so loud against the background of other games I've played or watched be played. this is a solid gem and I am still holding my breath it will generate a "cult classic" fervor that results in our sorely missed second game that continues such an epic journey.
It’s a fine game. Everyone got bit up in arms about this (yourself included apparently). The first half is great but you tell the kinda ran out of steam towards the end. Edit: Also Kratos was justified. Or did you forget Ares send him to kills his own family… also the greed gods are assholes
I remember my dad playing and replaying this game several times when I was young and it was an adventure everytime. I wish the sequel couldve been made I bet it would've been beautiful
Coming from the Darkwood video which was so good that it felt like 5 min long, I really love the fact that Dante's Inferno gets the "love to the lore" it deserves. I already know I'm gonna love this one. Congratulations RagnarRox.
I think part of it is that fraud (of any kind) involves twisting and perverting the very concept of truth. Just as the sins outside of Dis are "less bad" due to being more bestial in nature, so the more rational and more spiritual sins are considered worse.
Man, I've been watching for a couple years now and you always bring something new and cool to my attention. Thanks Ragnarox! You've inspired quite a few of my writing processes with these videos
I admire you wanting to keep things positive, but skewing the idea that the sexualization depicted in this game is an artistic nod to how Dante's own work was sensational is too far. The whole look of this game was obviously driven by GoW's popularity along with other "mature" games that dominated this era.
I don't think punishment was ever an instrument of fostering redemption. The utility of punishment is more deeply entrenched in getting the masses of people who already engage in desirable behaviours according to the powers that be, to accept the rule of the powerful. I think the church knew this, and I kind of think it applies today as well. People have an innate desire to see evildoers to get their just desserts. So, any organisation, be it religious or secular that demonstrates it's ability and willingness to ensure that it happens will inevitably earn the trust and admiration of the general populace. Conversely, an organisation that habitually fails or is unwilling to punish the guilty ends up being seen as impotent, apathetic and even corrupt. If you've ever been subjected to a crime by someone else, and the authorities fail to punish the criminal or just turn a blind eye to what the criminal did to you, then you tend to become more and more distrustful of authorities. But if you see the rulebreakers get punished, the reaction is inverted. I think this explains why people in ancient and medieval times wanted to gather and watch public executions taking place. Especially when the condemned were generally disliked and considered to be villanous people. Today, societies that fancy themselves as "enlightened" and seek to "reform" criminals instead of punishing them are experiencing unprecedented levels of polarization and internal conflicts. It's not one of the more noble attributes of humanity, but it's regardless a part of human nature that I don't think anyone can truly escape from.
I’m not sure your summary of slaughtering underfed brown people fully contextualizes the first scene. However, you nailed the cluelessness of Dante as being the driving force of this plot.
Will edit this comment probably after I'm done watching it but the only thing I remember about this game is the opening. I used to work at a game store that had a huge screen and we would put the latest game on to advertise it. We popped this on and there's boobs on the screen. I laughed so hard that I couldn't help my manager as he ran to cover them up with his hands, yelling at me to find the remote 😂 there was no on in the store thank God but jfc that was so fucking funny.
One thing I found neat about the Absolve/Punish system is that both choices have mild differences which are thematically consistent while nudging the player in certain directions. Absolving is always more intricate; Absolving enemies involves button mashing and absolving souls involves the rhythm minigame, while damning souls is instant and damning enemies is either instant or a single simple input. Thus absolving can become physically tiring, while damning is quick and easy. However, damning a soul gives you a flat amount of "Evil" points, while the absolution minigame gives far more "Good" points if you do well at it. Thus the optimum way to build up both types of currency is to rapid-fire damn demon mooks for their quick and flat-rate "Evil" points, then absolve every soul with care to net the highest amount of bonus "Good" points. Turn the exploration of Hell into a giant prison escape montage, freeing all the prisoners and throwing all the wardens into the now empty cells.
The dictionary definition of glutton is an excessively greedy eater. Shouldn't come as a shock if that makes someone fat or is depicted in HELL as such
Incredible video, great intro to your channel, thanks for it all AND CLOSED CAPTIONS gosh I wish there were more of these especially on such long videos. Very interesting views all through also.
I like most of this video, but calling the gluttony beasts fatohobic and forgetting that Sodomy at the time also meant rape... the word always meant Homosexual Intercourse too, but it had multiple meanings. You rightfully accuse Dante of projecting his own issues into his works, but your here doing it too...
Another classical parallel that you can make with the Divine Comedy more generally is that Inferno is essentially a much longer version of Book 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s a sequence in the poem where an Apollon Sybil (an oracle) leads Aeneas into the Underworld and even though Aeneas is generally pretty scared of what he sees - he is a visitor - the Sybil constantly protects him from the Underworld’s denizens. During the trip too, Aeneas meets several characters from earlier in the poem - like Dido and his father Anchises - before meeting the literal future of the Roman people waiting to return to the surface. In this way, it becomes very overt and intentional as to why it’s Virgil leading Dante through Inferno.
i remember getting this back when i was 15 (using the classic DOOM argument of demon slaying) and it being one of the first pieces of media that had even slightly challenged the ideas of my faith... didnt leave the church officially for another half decade, but this game certainly helped get the ball rolling... for that i owe it a debt... and it holds a big nostalgic place in my heart
Rag's attitude towards "Fuck it, just play it on an emulator. The developers wouldn't get a dime if you bought it anyway" is refreshing as hell
ye i play it emulated and alot of other games its actually insane how good they look. but sadly there are minor bugs that have fixes sure but if ye dont ever ever want to have to do any effort for peak gameing like emulation can be annoying. setting up controls is a skill you learn.
@@chris_vp once you gotten good at it it's not so hard. Steam offers great tools for rebinding quickly. Its not hard to set up shortcuts through with custom binding for each game you want, emulated or native
@@RhizometricReality why would you involve steam? im talken about emulateing dantes inferno on the rpc3 emulator it has its own profiles and controler set ups. each game has a new control scheme one doesnt fit all. playing armored core and metel gear solid 4need different control scheme that take a few mins to do each time nothing massive but iknow people who would just ugh at such a thing. i suppose you could just get a controler
It’s very “ steal this book “ idea
Steam is an easy way to make your PC even detect the PS3 and PS4 controller. Add RPSC3 as a non-Steam game and just plug it in and you won't need to install DS3 or other external software to detect the controller. It's pretty neat.
On why Cerberus was depicted like that in the game. If I remember correctly, the way Dante describes it in The Divine Comedy is as "Il Gran Vermo" or something similar, which translates to "The Great Worm", which I guess Visceral took literally.
In hell the worm dyeth not.
As gross as that thing is, Wayne Barlowe's concept art is even grosser.
I wonder too if brutalizing a giant hell dog might have been a bit too much even for this game.
Regardless I love this design. I've never seen a Cerberus that looks anything like this. Its really cool and gross.
I do like how visually it was the closest thing to something you'd see in a Hieronymus Bosch painting portrayal of hell (at least at first when you view it's large bloated & putrid appearance form above, almost like on of those blob fish out of water before the worm heads popped out).
but also killing puppers in video games is not to be taken lightly. I say thinking of Greatwolf Sif
“Abandon all hope, ye who I tossed in here”
This is the best summary of the Divine Comedy I’ve ever read.
Wouldn't it be hilarious if Dante (the author) end up in Hell just for the utter hubris of writing his self-indulgent fan-fiction? 😆
Just throwing in the fun fact that Dante reeeeally hated the pope at the time, so he threw him into the 9th circle of hell. To make the insult more scathing, and to get around the fact the dude was still ALIVE at the time, Virgil mentions that the pope was in fact SO evil and beyond redemption, he had his soul prematurely removed and has his body puppeted around on Earth by demons. The 👏 Heckin' 👏 Pope 👏
Even better, he knew the work would get him excommunicated, so he had the audacity to have explicit mention that the excommunicated do get redeemed in purgatory.
Half the story is bible and classic lit wish-fulfillment and the other half is just the cattiest Fuck-Yous ever written in Italian prose.
OMG,what a pro gamer move.
haha based
Note that Dante was a part of a pro Pope faction that had expelled the pro Emperor (and against the Pope) faction from Florence, only to then be expelled by the even more radical pro Pope faction, whereby thenthe moderate pro papists allied with the anti papists. In this context Dante wrote his political treaty De Monarchia where he argues for a single universal Emperor to rule over the world in God's image and for the Pope to stick to religious stuff.
He lost his home to the Pope's political intrigue so he would despise him.
Boniface VIII is in the third bolgia of the eighth circle of hell, the one dedicated to simony. Since he died in 1303 (and Dante sets the Divine Comedy in 1300), Dante just mentions that there's already a spot dedicated to him. It's friar Alberigo (tolomea, third part of the ninth circle) whose soul is already in hell despite being still alive, for his sin of betrayal of a guest.
That's like how it is in real life, the pope being puppeted by demons
The final battle against lucifer where he is literally raging against his Father, God, in a Paradise Lost style, is a truly great final fight. Underrated game and not a guilty pleasure for me.
That first phase was one hell of a spectacle
@Ai7A there is no IRL.
Sir whitestrake whats your opinion on. Thicc argonian booty?
Ah, a Divine Crusader who paved his path through blood and destruction commenting on a video about a Divine Crusader who paved his path much the same, poetic.
@Ai7A nah...
Dante's Inferno will forever be a masterpiece in my eyes. "to be continued" still hurts till this day. Fucking EA.
It’s a shame Visceral is gone
I have to agree. I would have loved to see how they would have handled his journeys through Purgatory and Heaven...oh well, at least we still got Bayonetta.
love you lucas , I will fight for you to get out the cage , unless you like it - sometimes it feels wanted
Getting some popcorn for this one. I too, have a strange fascination with Dante's Hellish weekend.
I too, has a strange fascination with your channel
I watched your entire playthrough. Was a great watch
Yooo
23:18
Hold up, Virgil is very well known here in Italy for a sentence he said to Charon.
"Caron non ti crucciare, vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole e più non dimandare"
which translates roughly into
"Charon don't get mad, it is so willed where you can do whatever you will, ask no more"
aka
"Shut the hell up, God wants it, take us across"
Virgil acting like he owns the place when he's not even baptized :^)
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention that the whole thing was a plot by Lucifer to get Dante to free him from hell. Also physically defeating Lucifer in combat had no effect and was part of the trick. It was the souls that Dante absolved along the way that re-imprisoned Lucifer and absolved Dante himself
Maybe the divine comedy was the the souls we absolved along the way
Pretty chilling to know there were others he counted on, yet failed. Achilles, Marc Anthony, Samson, Atilla, even Ghengis Khan, all failed along the way.
Who knows how far each had made it before being ripped apart by hells denizens...
Does that mean we would get a different ending if you went through the whole game without absolving anyone?
@@icepic21 I guess that also means Hell's Denizens don't actually serve him...because you think he could have order them to NOT kill his only hopes of escape.
@@cartooncritique6625 They're all just prisoners, and he's just at the top of the food chain in the bottom of the pit.
23:13 When Auguste Rodin sculped "The Gates of Hell" his main inspiration was the "Abandon every hope, who enter here" quote. So perhaps the developer thought that, considering that the Gate itself is the quote but as a monument, to put a sign on it would felt redundant.
Yup, I wasn't aware of the Rodin sculpture being the blueprint for the gates, so every single syllable of my criticism there is taken back with a sincere apology towards the designers, this is actually an extremely awesome detail to learn.
this. nice to see people that know art lol. I’m actually surprised i remember rodins name lol.. the gates tho.. taht design is so iconic.. the developers would not miss the one opportunity to put sometihng that iconic in a game.
@@RagnarRoxShow good lol.
On the lust part there's something that made me think: why is it that we have to have a discussion about "tasteful" and "tasteless" sexual content, even in a game with extreme gore being used basically for funsies? This is not really aimed at you, but rather at how the discussion is generally conveyed: violence is rarely ever really questioned, no matter how extreme, but the slightest amount of suggestive stuff will lead to complaints and arguments about whether it's "justified", if it's in "good taste" or "bad taste", and so on and on?
If immature, gratuitous violence is admittedly fun and okay in video games (especially when self-aware, otherwise it'd fall into stupid), why does immature, gratuitous sexuality deserves instead immediate condemnation?
My opinion is that, like you said later in the video, we have been raised by questionable dogmas that really don't make a lot of sense. As far as I'm concerned the distinction between "tasteful" and "tasteless" sexual content is entirely personal and meaningless: some conservatives would find even the most modest stuff vulgar, while more open-minded people would find niche fetishes to be completely normal. I think that portraying violence as fundamentally normal but making demands for sexuality to be tasteful we're really just reiterating backward stances.
Yeah, you can make games where you run people over with cars, beat them with crowbars, and shoot them in the testicles, but you show even the slightest bit of side-boob and people just go ape-sh1t. 🐵💩
you want me to rasise fatherless kids right
Fundamentally violence in games is treated like a play fight (no one is actually hurt) because it's not delved into realistically (like the emotions people would experience from such massive amounts of violence, for example no one in the cod games ever get PTSD.)
Sex in general is much more constrained so that when it is discussed it's done with purpose, and when its not you have to explicitly seek it out.
I think anything is excusable when done artistically.
Well, this is only an american problem, in no European country sexual content is that difficult. Violence is though (which is absolutely the correct order and proves the diametrically perception americans have on those topics - not meant in an offensive way mind you).
I like to say Dante's Inferno is the best "7/10" of all time. I've been singing its praises since the day it came out and I'm so glad to see people finally reevaluating it on its own terms. "Guilty pleasures" don't exist, anyway. If you like something, you like it for a reason.
I mean..you can enjoy things for no reason? Also guilty pleasure means "yeah on an objective level this isin't great, but i love it anyway", it's not a shaming tactic. While i understand the word having that connotation (guilty = shame) that's not quite how it's used; atleast in my observations
@@Noperare Congratulations, that’s got to be the stupidest comment I’ve ever had the displeasure to read.
Aw damn this is a WILD one!
Aha! Found you! Enjoy your Christmas.
This is the colab I need! Love you Ryan and Rox!
why watch this channel if you hate silent hill ???CHUMP
Underrated gem, inspired me to study Dante and pursue my literary career. The hell depicted in the game may not be entirely accurate yet it conveys the sense of dread and solitude of the original work. Also, the theme of sin is so complex in Dante's circles system it really makes you question your own virtues and sins more apprehensively. Tonight I'll watch this video, surely It'll be great as with every RagnaRox video
there is no accuracy, nor should it be condemned for being inaccurate. it is a product of its creator and the ideology of his time. the fact we disagree is proof that we've evolved, if only somewhat.
Honestly it should make you question the church and its principles more.
The work actually made me completely reject Christ, view religion as nothing but self-righteous egoism, and see the author as another Mary Sue.
@@onetruesavior69 epic, but no epic Reddit upboats for you here ;^)
@@vietnamsemonky4082 I am not an r/atheist, but I refuse to believe in a God as evil as the Abrahamic God.
If there's one thing that instantly brightens my day, it's Ragnar uploading an hour + long video on a game I'd forgotten existed, but I remember being weirdly obsessed with when it came out. Thanks for your hard work!
58:30 Technically "sodomy" historically referred to rape, not homosexuality. That's a very modern interpretation and change to the word.
So, in this case, the "Mentor to young Dante" you absolve/condemn either raped HIM as a young man, or someone else, and thus was in fact a violent act.
Even the Spanish Inquisition, as bad as they were, only have accounts of Adult-on-Child rape being convicted as sodomy, not just two dudes being gay. While it was likely they weren't looked upon well, none were executed for it.
interesting, do you know a place to read about this?
im a bit skeptical of the claim that no one was executed by the church simply for homosexulaity
@@chriss780 The raven Report
“From Rape to Reason”, an interesting read. Doesn’t really support the OP’s comment thoigh
@@desmond931 yeah ill check it out, im just in general skeptical because theres a lot of dishonest conservative church historians with a clear religious bias trying to whitewash the history of the church
@@chriss780 "whitewash"
Really...?
@@grafphal5103 yes
Back then I had the choice between Bayonetta and Dantes Inferno and even tho Bayo later turned out to become a cult classic, I definitely did not regret to have gone for DI. I absolutely loved the world and enemy design and it was actually a lot of fun too! Thanks Ragnar! 😊
Honestly you and me friend shared the same dilemma. However I chose Bayonetta and later to Dante. Dante’s inferno was amazing and how they broke down the actually story from the book is amazing. Bayonetta is my all time favorite game however Dante is part of my top 15 favorites. I really did wish they continued it to Purgatorio and Paradiso, especially Purgatorio. The second novel was about how Dante goes up a Mountain to absolve his sins and it’s a literal trial.
Geez I was utterly disspointed in Bayonetta, not my stuff, and I bought the double disc on Wii U. :P
@@ZoidbergForPresident Congrats, you’re the one person in the world who didn’t like Bayonetta 😂 cretin
I really like the art direction of some of the areas.
I would totally play a game where you walk around hell with Vergil talking about poetry and random historical figures.
same. i would be to scared tho hahha.. so i’ll watch a gameplay lol
If you want to read something about the historical figure of Dante Alighieri, I recommend the book "Dante" by the historian Alessandro Barbero, now also in English.
I actually played this game for the first time last year, and while there were some segments that got under my skin, I still had a really fun time. In fact, I'd say if you're interested in the character action genre, this is a great first game to start with. Its gameplay is pretty satisfying and the difficulty isn't too up there. I'd also like to say it's a shame the devs couldn't make the sequel they wanted. I've seen plenty say this game was bad because it copied God of War, but you know what else did that the same year? Darksiders, and its sequel, Darksiders 2, is one of my all time favorite games of its generation. So who's to say they couldn't have improved on it with a proper sequel or even given it its own unique identity? Such a shame.
god of war was cool cause the father played it with me and let me play when he lost he let it be my turn but I do not try to take over his game .
Darksiders was Zelda. Darksiders 2 was DmC with some Diablo elements.
Personally, I would’ve loved to see a Purgatory game. I’d be really interested to see how that would’ve looked.
Italian lit major here 👋 tbh even back then the game never "angered" me; it was just always hilarious to see a man that I know as a pedantic nerd who spenti his time writing passive aggressive poetry about his former hometown being turned into a buff demon slayer 🤷
Hearing you talk about the "Lust" segment really makes me want to hear your take on the game "Agony". I mean, that game is so goddamn over-the-top explicit and, coincidentally, also takes place in hell.
do you even think about what actually pleases her ever
@@beyoudee687 Do you ever think, about not making your Facebook page public?
So everyone can see you're a try hard, past her prime, single Mother(seriously where's the Dad?) who uses filters, excess makeup and clevage shots to make herself look better?
Rag sounds like a puritan discussing "over the top taking advantage" how is the depiction of a naked body taking advantage? This is a horror game of course they're going to "take advantage" and distort the depictions of sex and the naked body. Although EA perverted the art, I 100% never ever got the impression that visceral was doing fan service.
It was just an adult take on the subject without any holds barred, also I appreciated the giant satan dick. We're such a puritan society that the literal devil can't even have a penis when he's depicted 100% naked. It never makes sense to me that demons and the devil are genderless beings who are supposedly the most perverted evil things on the face of universe and yet are censored like crazy.
1h of goodness to watch after work. Yesss
You've been teasing this a lot for a while now. So congrats on finally releasing this behemoth!
Thank you Mura!
@@RagnarRoxShow what is a womans job? and why do you want to do everything and make him useless ?
I never played this because of the marketing campaign from when the game was new, but this looks really interesting. Dantes Inferno also makes for a fascinating comparison to the first Lords of Shadow, which was also dismissed as a God of War clone, as it hits a lot of the same notes in its criticism of religion and the crusader mentality.
first off - great video. Second - In all fairness to Dante's inferno (the text) Wendigoon's coverage of it does bring a more comprehensive light onto what Dante wrote, including the fact that he is self aware that it is fanfiction I do recommend it
I absolutely lost it at the beginning of the epilog. After such a riveting, insightful speech about Dante finally accepting his sins and how Beatrice was the catalyst and had this in the bag the whole game, and then... "Jupiter's co*squawk*"!
I remember renting Dante's Inferno at Blockbuster in Grade 8; I adored the game so much, I had begged my folks to buy the copy from Blockbuster(it was only $7/preowned) and loved that game since then. Great memories of playing the game in 1 night!
I cant believe Dantes voice actor isnt in so much more recognizable stuff. His voice is so distinct and gritty. His screams are CRAZY. Amazing voice acting.
23:13 That gate is clearly a reproduction, or at least is inspired by Agust Rodin' Gates of Hell, that is basically an illustration of hell from Dante's inferno, which I find less on the nose and yet saving the same purpose. Plus it shows the developers done their homework quite a bit and it's so meta I love it even more.
Thank you for the discworld reference. I rarely encounter them so every time I hear someone acknowledge it, I smile!
I would love a sequel & was a Focus tester on this game, it was an interesting experience watching it develop but I will say some of the worse aspects of the final game technical issues were in some of the builds I played over a year before
As a fan of the original poem that still haunts me to this day, I absolutely adore this game. The designs of hell and its minions are creative and (for lack of a better term) visceral and horrifying. While I could have done without the overt sexualization of Beatrice and all the other women in the game, I loved how creative the art, characters, and backgrounds were. I also adored the little asides and details from the poem that they added. While I feel like Dante himself would have despised it, it's clear to me that the developers loved the poem and wanted to do it justice.
I agree. But the oversexualizating bit I disagree with. Considering for the most part 95% of paintings back then was birds with their knockers out. And also yknow. It's hell?
dante smiles thru hell to meet your insane expectations
sex is part of this game and life which this game portrays perfectly considering how fucked up humanity can be... the same case goes to berserk etc.
plus im pretty in the games version of dante's inferno, he was r3ped by his mentor when he was a child, stuff like this especially with the games themes of the 9 circle of hell including the sin of 'sodomy' benefits the games story and Dante himself
“Fight our way atop the poop deck”
The accent makes this phrase even better
Interestingly alot of the atrocities weren't committed by the soldiers but many opportunists and scavengers who joined the groups traveling to the holy land. Museum in Bouillon Belgium had some good info on it.
Great video, really appreciated the crash course on the literary version of Inferno since I've never had the patience for it
Still going through the video, but absolutely lost my shit at the rhythm game section and the resulting Miku footage. Love it.
I can't stop laughing when I think about Dante and Virgil as the Blues Brothers traversing through hell
Remember when Virgil and Dante drove their police car through a mall?
@@p.d.l7023 Yeah! That was the coolest interpretation of Greed I've ever seen.
give it back hi men
Great video, and great commentary on the poem itself by Rag. I'd like to add that, although the hierarchy of the sins is arbitrary, it isn't really based on what would be the most morally reprehensible acts to people, but sin, in all its forms, is seen as an erosion of divinely created possibilities. For example the circles of Lust, Gluttony and Greed are motivated by carnal desires as opposed to more deliberate "intellectually" motivated sins like Fraud, so the "worst" sins in Dante are intentional rejections of virtue and God. It's definitely based on Dante's own values, but it's not as simple as what are the worst crimes. It is God's judgement, not like the earthly courts of man, but the depictions of eternal punishment do kind of conflict with this idea, as they feel like a kind of perverted wish fulfillment for Dante, like the part where he pushes Filippo Argenti back into the river Styx to be torn apart by the other damned souls.
Another phenomenal video. Loved the "It's a Sin" feature - one of my favorite songs.
Fantastic video essay and editing. Your work is inspiring!
Kudos from Brazil!
Dante's drip was insane. Characters design was totally dope
"I DONT UNDERSTAND" is my new sms tone, so funny! +great vid!
I'm really happy they had Wayne Barlowe do the designs for the game. An awesome artist.
1:00:39 the Catholic Church has unfortunately not always made decisions that would adhere to Christs teachings, however that does not mean the Catholic faith in of itself is bs, and it’s much better than some of the debauchery you can see now a days.
I never knew there were plans for a sequel. I always find myself coming back to this game. Now knowing there could have been more leaves my disappointed.
same. never played this, just watched gameplays.. but i want to see this story continue even as a cartoon :(
As someone very influenced by Stalker, I actually love when you talk about it. Its like referencing exactly what my brain loves.
This game reminds me of a simpler time, before I knew what was "good" and what was "bad" in games and movies. I genuinely enjoyed it. I agree with you saying it started off really strong and then seemed to kind of lose steam toward the end. And it also broke my heart when Visceral was shut down. That meant no more Dead Space and no sequel to Dante's Inferno. I was bummed.
I'm just making my way through your content now (thank goodness that the rabbit hole of RUclips still contains interesting finds the deeper you burrow) and I have limitless respect for your borderline-exhortation to emulate the game. Mad props for having the balls to say out loud what virtually no other RUclipsr, even ones I love, is willing to do anything more than coyly talk around!
Dude I frickin love this game. It gets so tiresome hearing people just write it off as a GoW rip off. So glad you covered this game 🍻
My mum plays Dante’s Inferno every year as her own little Christmas tradition so thank you Ragnar for this perfectly timed video. She’s also a huge Diskworld, Stalker and Solaris fan so this video was basically made for her
Bless your mum for her great taste!
Ah...yes Dante´s Inferno was that game that I saw my brother beat the hell out in three days because we were moving from the city...
The fun part is that this is the only game where we can´t play infront of my little cousins because "lust level awkardness"
Its the game where you need a 100 hit combo to continue which my brother just said fuck it and gave up.
Incredible video as always! The quality has always been great, but I'm not gonna lie, they're getting better and better! I particularly am loving all the tiny editing and jokes put into the videos as well, such as the "The megaman soundtrack will make sense in a 5 seconds" bit.
I might need to look into finding the game myself. My last console game was a PS2, so I sadly never got the chance to try these awesome games.
Speaking of Van Helsing; the 2000's movie and tie-in game were some of my greatest guilty pleasures as a child. As was the Minority Report tie-in game. I'd love to get your opinion on those and other tie-in games from when we had a thriving B game industry.
I'm not going to lie to you, but I believe I still have my old PS3 and physical copy of Dante's Inferno in my storage unit. I'll need to dig it up and revisit it after this video. Need to give it another chance and let it be...itself.
I honestly loved the game back in the day, I still own it to this day and I'm proud of that.
Just a fun game plus I'm Italian so I must love this game due to sheer patriotism of seeing an (originally) Italian creation
Niiiice, this game definitely deserved way more recognition.
While I'm going to wait until I get home to watch this, I will say that the existance of this game makes me wish that there was a decent Divine Comedy game adaptation.
Im surprised you didn't at least mention the clever foreshadowing with the chain links we break throughout the game. I was pleasantly shocked when I realized what we were doing.
Dante's outfit in this game so equally badass and stupid, I honestly can't tell if I hate it or love it.
I love how absurd it is when taking a step back
i mean
HE'S GOT SHIRTLESS SLEEVES
46:00 in original italian, cerberus is described as a worm, not dog
Hell yeah, it's great to see this game getting some love. Sure it's a god of war clone, gameplay wise, but the art and the music is so fucking good. The visual variations between each circle being one of my favorite parts. It's not accurate to the source material obviously, but as a kid, it inspired me to seek out the Divine Comedy and familiarize myself with it and the differences between both.
Nice video but wasn't Dante also 9 when he first met Beatrice?
This was a wonderful watch! I played some of it back when it came out (I think Greed kicked my butt and I never finished it). It's wonderful to see it given the attention it deserves. I personally loved the absolution feature exactly because I could use it on those who didn't deserve their fates - like the poor unbaptised. Screw you Dante.
I've been following your updates around this on twitter so safe to say there is some excitement to watch it. Definitely one of those "always though it looked interesting - never played it games". Can't wait to watch!
I love how Dante’s Inferno is Visceral’s answer to the question of “What if Kratos had to fight through Christian mythology after destroying Greece and climb his way out of the Nine Circles of Hell?”
Think about it, beyond even the games being similarly designed, Dante legit just destroys everything in his path and the whole system of Hell much like Kratos destroyed Hades and Greek Mythologies whole system of Death. Fucking love it
"And what if Kratos doesn't fight his representations of problems and actually reflects on his sin?" (early Kratos)
@@cyncynshop not to be a douche but Kratos does reflect on his sins in the Greek God of War games. That kinda the whole crux of why he even went against Ares in the first place, as well as why he pledges himself to Athena in the hopes he would no longer be haunted by his sins and what he had done. It wasn’t until Athena broke her vow, and crushed any possible hope of him ever excising his memories which haunted him, that he began on the Warpath against the gods. It’s not directly stated, but the subtext is weaved ALL THROUGHOUT the Narrative of every game and the over arching narrative of the series as a whole, including God of War(2018). (There’s a cool visual nod in Kratos’s design that hints at there being something different about this older Kratos. It’s also a bit of character development via subtext and visual story telling that we constantly see but if you’re not looking for it you’ll completely miss it and will being missing a very important piece of Kratos’s character development and arch that happened between the end of God of War 3 and God of War 2018). Sorry that was quite the tangent…
…Anyway…
In Chains of Olympus he constantly sees an apparition of his daughter and is guided to Elysium where he has to choose between preventing Atlas from dropping the world into the Underworld thus destroying the world AND Elysium wiping his daughter from existence, or allowing Atlas to drop the world staying in Elysium with his daughter and both of them and the whole world being wiped from existence.
Kratos finds comfort in the fact that his daughter is safe in Elysium and will be safe from the other horrors that lurk within the Realm of Hades. This leads him to an understanding that if he allows his grief and wish to remain with his Daughter, as she begs him to do crying and pleading for him to not leave her(the pain in Kratos’s face is kind of heartbreaking honestly)- to cloud his judgement of what must be done and stays with her; he’d just be killing her all over again. For a second time. Only this time she wouldn’t be safe in Elysium for all eternity. Rather she would be cast into the black hole that is the endless void of oblivion along with the rest of the world. If he were to allow himself to falter, despite how much it destroyed him as a Father, then everything he had done after he killed his family leading up that moment would all be for nothing. He realize this and just to make sure Atlas will never drop the World onto the Underworld- chains the world to Atlas’s back
In God of War 3 the second half of the game Kratos views Pandora as being his second chance at being a Father and that finding and protecting her will be his long awaited chance at redemption where he had failed to protect his real family. In all of Kratos and Pandora’s interactions Kratos talks to her in a calm manner like a father would to a daughter, and genuinely wants to protect her from anything and everything. So much so that he’s 100% willing to throw away his only chance at getting revenge on Zeus so long as Pandora wouldn’t need to be sacrificed to achieve that revenge. That directly stems from his tremendous burden of guilt and grief.
This also proved that Kratos had really been seeking and valued most was redemption rather than revenge but in the absence of any way to achieve that redemption, he opted for revenge. If he couldn’t redeem himself then he’d just have to kill everyone that set into motion the tragedy of Kratos’s greatest sin.
@@SirBlackReeds but it is
31:04 the text that flashes on the screen says "I didn't have footage of Orpheus getting Punished, because I could not bring myself to murder him, as he just futzed up real bad, so you just gotta extrapolate from the execution of Attila" honestly Rag, can't blame you for it either.
Also that Project Diva bit right after was brilliantly timed and I'm giggling to myself, imagining RagnarRox painstakingly looking through different songs to find one that matches up with the button prompts lol
I pretty much punish/absolve the same people every playthrough, some people you really can't blame and forgive for simply f**king up...others were just flat out terrible people
I almost bought this game when it came out. The demo got me excited for it. Then I saw in a review how much platforming there was. I decided not to get it. I hate platforming, but I did love the combat. The EA, Ever Avaricious, mini videos on the different levels were very interesting.
Too bad about this game and others like Hellgate: London.
Holy shit thank you for dropping that fact about Hellgate London. Such an underrated game.
I don't get hellgate. I liked it as a kid, but when I played it again a while ago, I just found it incredibly dull.
@@DarkPrject The game came out half or quarter baked. There were so many bugs and things that could've been done better for that time. Someone needs to take the idea and redo it with more skill and care.
There were things I liked about the game and I spent hours playing it.
Which version did you play?
There's an original version and some folks got the source code or something and they did some stuff. I don't remember the details.
I'm not going back to the original. Once you get down to Hell, you can see they lost interest in making interesting levels.
@@aaronwe9850 Probably the original. In any case, looter shooters aren't my cup of tea.
That flickering tangent at 59:23 scared the shit out of me because the way it's mixed in the audio made it was something clanging behind me.
23:12 Fun fact! These gates of hell are modelled after a sculpture titled "The Gates of Hell" by Auguste Rodin, which also lack the famous quote despite being based on the Divine Comedy.
... and now I get the Bayonetta character
Hey Ragnar, thanks for all your work. I am one of those literacy nerds you spoke about, but luckily I am also a videogame player and enjoyer. I can assure you that like you I totally understand some of the changes Visceral made to the original plot (e.g. we couldn't have simply waltzed and chatted through Hell, or it would've been made by Dontnod, while leaving Vergil all the fun there can be in saying "F**k off" to various demons), while I don't understand many others (e.g. why not keeping the engraving on Hell's Gates? It was cool! - Why does Charon quote part of the Hell's Gates inscription? - Where the hell is Vergil gone to at the end? He's supposed to escort Dante at least until Heaven's Gates!). What was important was to maintain the same mood and message of the original work, and they did it. For example, at first in the poem Dante wasn't very happy to go through Hell, and even stopped walking; but Vergil told him he was sent by Beatrice herself, and that made the poet willing to go on his journey; in this sense, reaching Beatrice is still Dante's main objective. Vergil's quotes throughout Hell are more or less the same as the original, shortened for obvious reasons; the major sins that Dante had to face against in the poem (wrath, lust and pride, symbolized by three beasts) are well-depicted and even his non-awareness goes in line with the poem, where Vergil (along with St. Benedict and Beatrice in Paradise) need to costantly explain him the things he sees, things that are far beyond mere human comprehension. The game, as much as the poem, it ultimately unravels as a redemption journey for Dante and his readers/players... I wouldn't say it was all part of Beatrice's plan, but it certainly turns out this way.
On the binary system of either condemning or absolving notorious historical figures, it's just as you said: while Dante in the Comedy is not granted with this power, as a writer he DID gave us his point of view and either condemns or absolves the poor souls he finds during his journey (Dante was incredibly prideful, he himself admits it in the poem, hence all that blowing smoke up his butt and throwing his still-alive-at-that-time political enemies in Hellfire, but you know, he was "on a mission from God", so who could ever reply him anything? Just love him.), so no, it's not that uncalled for, it actually makes it more similar to the poem, in his own gameplay way of course and giving YOU the choice. Not bad for a "children's hobby", as someone still says.
The Divine Comedy was a masterpiece of its time and we study and talk about it still to this day; the italian rapper Caparezza wrote a song called "Argenti vive" (a wordplay on "argento vivo", that would be "quicksilver", and "Argenti still lives on"), where he impersonates Filippo Argenti and proceeds to reply to Dante, stating the hipocrisy of his and our society (like despite criticizing violence Dante actually used it to paint his masterpiece more vividly, and on more general terms, our society can't seem to get past it and often prefers to rely on it rather than on art and diplomacy)... in what sounds somehow like a dissing; I am madly in love with that song.
A little note on pronunciation, if you want to say those name correctly: "Charon" it's [kà-ron], not Karen or Sharon or whatever; and "Malebolgie" is [mah-ley-ball-djey].
Of course, Violence is the Hell circle that awaits us videogame players, according to the generalist press anyway, whereas EA is probably going to be split up between Greed and Treachery. Meet y'all there!
Oh yeah, time to finish up today’s client project, make a jug of coffee, sitdown on a sofa and dive into a new Ragnar video!
In the book, Dante didn’t saw Beatrice personally until he reached at the top of the purgatory.
It is so so funny to me that Ragnar's audience is so old that a hair loss prevention company decided to sponsor this. Video is really great, btw!
Apparently being in your thirties is so old. RIP.
@@alexwatson4421 For the internet, it used to be so back when I was a teenager! How long has it been again? I guess 30 is young now
Or a bunch of betas that destroy their health on Doritos and gfuel
I cleaned out my whole Xbox 360 collection last years... Dante's Inferno is still on the shelf.
This was a great watch, now I really wanna play this.
I appreciate that you understood how seriously this game took the lore and turned it into video game content that was shy of gold. The creative liberties were entirely original and made it a game that stands out so loud against the background of other games I've played or watched be played. this is a solid gem and I am still holding my breath it will generate a "cult classic" fervor that results in our sorely missed second game that continues such an epic journey.
It’s a fine game. Everyone got bit up in arms about this (yourself included apparently). The first half is great but you tell the kinda ran out of steam towards the end.
Edit: Also Kratos was justified. Or did you forget Ares send him to kills his own family… also the greed gods are assholes
I remember my dad playing and replaying this game several times when I was young and it was an adventure everytime. I wish the sequel couldve been made I bet it would've been beautiful
It saddens me that there aren't many games like this anymore, at least on PC. Or maybe I'm just unaware :(
Bayonetta, all dmc, nier automata, metal gear rising , the new god of war, all of them are on steam
Play the Darksiders series!
Coming from the Darkwood video which was so good that it felt like 5 min long, I really love the fact that Dante's Inferno gets the "love to the lore" it deserves. I already know I'm gonna love this one.
Congratulations RagnarRox.
Kind of strange how murder isn't as bad as fraud. That Dante was a strange guy.
Just guessing here, maybe he thought murder only affects one person (minus loved ones) and fraud can ruin the lives of many more.
more like a xenophobe...
Even culture today still looks down as hard on burglary than murder. Moral relativism is strange in general.
I think part of it is that fraud (of any kind) involves twisting and perverting the very concept of truth. Just as the sins outside of Dis are "less bad" due to being more bestial in nature, so the more rational and more spiritual sins are considered worse.
Man, I've been watching for a couple years now and you always bring something new and cool to my attention.
Thanks Ragnarox!
You've inspired quite a few of my writing processes with these videos
I disagree with Gluttony monsters being, "fatphobic". That is all.
What do you expect from a guy who uses pronouns in his Twitter bio?
An understanding of nuance and allegory? Pffft!
Thank you for making this video, it's nice to see this game being remembered after so many years
I admire you wanting to keep things positive, but skewing the idea that the sexualization depicted in this game is an artistic nod to how Dante's own work was sensational is too far. The whole look of this game was obviously driven by GoW's popularity along with other "mature" games that dominated this era.
That's why I called it a very lukewarm defense
I was very happy to hear Terry Pratchett mentioned. Those books don’t mereley get enough appreciation.
I don't think punishment was ever an instrument of fostering redemption.
The utility of punishment is more deeply entrenched in getting the masses of people who already engage in desirable behaviours according to the powers that be, to accept the rule of the powerful.
I think the church knew this, and I kind of think it applies today as well.
People have an innate desire to see evildoers to get their just desserts. So, any organisation, be it religious or secular that demonstrates it's ability and willingness to ensure that it happens will inevitably earn the trust and admiration of the general populace.
Conversely, an organisation that habitually fails or is unwilling to punish the guilty ends up being seen as impotent, apathetic and even corrupt.
If you've ever been subjected to a crime by someone else, and the authorities fail to punish the criminal or just turn a blind eye to what the criminal did to you, then you tend to become more and more distrustful of authorities.
But if you see the rulebreakers get punished, the reaction is inverted. I think this explains why people in ancient and medieval times wanted to gather and watch public executions taking place. Especially when the condemned were generally disliked and considered to be villanous people.
Today, societies that fancy themselves as "enlightened" and seek to "reform" criminals instead of punishing them are experiencing unprecedented levels of polarization and internal conflicts.
It's not one of the more noble attributes of humanity, but it's regardless a part of human nature that I don't think anyone can truly escape from.
Man all the associated tangents surrounding the Punish/Absolve mechanic, absolute chef's kiss.
I’m not sure your summary of slaughtering underfed brown people fully contextualizes the first scene. However, you nailed the cluelessness of Dante as being the driving force of this plot.
The ai kotoba cracked me up, anyway, your efforts are so appreciated!
Will edit this comment probably after I'm done watching it but the only thing I remember about this game is the opening. I used to work at a game store that had a huge screen and we would put the latest game on to advertise it. We popped this on and there's boobs on the screen. I laughed so hard that I couldn't help my manager as he ran to cover them up with his hands, yelling at me to find the remote 😂 there was no on in the store thank God but jfc that was so fucking funny.
amazing
The fact that you played smt nocturne music in the background cements your channel as one of my favourite video essay channels
Oh I remember this game, one could say this was a Hell of a good time 😏
One thing I found neat about the Absolve/Punish system is that both choices have mild differences which are thematically consistent while nudging the player in certain directions.
Absolving is always more intricate; Absolving enemies involves button mashing and absolving souls involves the rhythm minigame, while damning souls is instant and damning enemies is either instant or a single simple input. Thus absolving can become physically tiring, while damning is quick and easy.
However, damning a soul gives you a flat amount of "Evil" points, while the absolution minigame gives far more "Good" points if you do well at it. Thus the optimum way to build up both types of currency is to rapid-fire damn demon mooks for their quick and flat-rate "Evil" points, then absolve every soul with care to net the highest amount of bonus "Good" points. Turn the exploration of Hell into a giant prison escape montage, freeing all the prisoners and throwing all the wardens into the now empty cells.
The dictionary definition of glutton is an excessively greedy eater. Shouldn't come as a shock if that makes someone fat or is depicted in HELL as such
I mean, if you have a fast enough metabolism, you can eat a lot without gaining weight... Those people are blessed
Incredible video, great intro to your channel, thanks for it all AND CLOSED CAPTIONS gosh I wish there were more of these especially on such long videos. Very interesting views all through also.
I like most of this video, but calling the gluttony beasts fatohobic and forgetting that Sodomy at the time also meant rape... the word always meant Homosexual Intercourse too, but it had multiple meanings. You rightfully accuse Dante of projecting his own issues into his works, but your here doing it too...
The second I get a notification that Rag dropped some new shit I'm here for it.
Another classical parallel that you can make with the Divine Comedy more generally is that Inferno is essentially a much longer version of Book 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s a sequence in the poem where an Apollon Sybil (an oracle) leads Aeneas into the Underworld and even though Aeneas is generally pretty scared of what he sees - he is a visitor - the Sybil constantly protects him from the Underworld’s denizens. During the trip too, Aeneas meets several characters from earlier in the poem - like Dido and his father Anchises - before meeting the literal future of the Roman people waiting to return to the surface. In this way, it becomes very overt and intentional as to why it’s Virgil leading Dante through Inferno.
i remember getting this back when i was 15 (using the classic DOOM argument of demon slaying) and it being one of the first pieces of media that had even slightly challenged the ideas of my faith... didnt leave the church officially for another half decade, but this game certainly helped get the ball rolling... for that i owe it a debt... and it holds a big nostalgic place in my heart
@@SirBlackReeds eh? What part is off putting?
The edge-lordy persona or the trans flag?