Devil May Cry 5’s Red Orb upgrades will be balanced just like “all the other DMCs”

Devil May Cry 5 will feature microtransactions that can be used to level up your characters. In a new build of the game, playable at the Tokyo Game Show, fans found that they were able to purchase Red Orbs – which have featured throughout the series as in-game currency – as use their earnings to upgrade their characters. The news has generated unsurprising controversy, but Capcom says there’s no reason to worry.

If you’re not up-to-date with DMC lore, Red Orbs are red stones made up of the crystallised blood of demons, and the amount of them you pick up during a level factors into your final grade. However, while in previous iterations Red Orbs were cashed in at the game’s Divinity Statues, those same statues are now the go-to for players wishing to speed up their in-game progression.

DMC 5 isn’t the first time these microtransactions have featured in the series – a similar system existed in Devil May Cry 4’s Special Edition. The original DMC4 was released without those purchase options, though. The fear, then, is that DMC5 wouldn’t be balanced so generously.

But producer Matt Walker says “people will be reassured when they play the game and find that it’s balanced the way all the other DMCs have been.”

The folks at DualShockers have done the math as well, and based on the Tokyo Game Show build it seems there’s little reason to worry. All the abilities on display seem to be priced in line with the rate Red Orbs are earned, with one notable, incredibly expensive exception – that you can’t actually use in combat. Everything else, pending adjusted rates in the final game, seems to be priced appropriately.

This all started with an interview by Gamespot, where the game’s director, Hideaki Itsuno, said that the microtransactions are intended to offer the player more choice. He stated that “with giving people the ability to purchase Red Orbs, it’s something we want to give people as an option.

“If they want to save time and just want to get all the stuff at once, those people can do that. But on the other hand I don’t feel you have to get all the moves. You should be able to play it the way you want to play it.”

Exactly how important those microtransactions will prove to be to player progression is yet to be seen – I don’t imagine we’ll get a full idea from the demo available at TGS. The DMC 5 release date is March 8, however, so I guess you’ll get a far better idea of their impact in a few months’ time.