Control Resonant Takes Aim at Devil May Cry–Style Beat'em Up

Remedy isn't playing it safe with this sequel. Control Resonant breaks from the first game's formula on a fundamental level: the focus shifts away from long-range telekinetic powers and levitating gunplay toward direct melee combat. The Finnish studio has confirmed drawing from Japanese action game references, with Devil May Cry explicitly named among them.

Japanese Action Game DNA Grafted Onto a Western Franchise

Devil May Cry—the series Capcom launched in 2001—has embodied the technical pinnacle of stylized beat'em ups for over two decades: extended combos, air control, precise enemy hitbox reading, and a scoring system that rewards creativity over raw survival. Bayonetta (PlatinumGames, 2009) extended that legacy with parry and tempo mechanics. These two references define the skill ceiling Control Resonant appears ready to reach.

Remedy isn't the first Western studio to look toward Tokyo for combat structure: Ninja Theory with DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013 and Santa Monica Studio with God of War in 2018 each digested those influences in their own way. But the exercise remains treacherous: melee combat depth is built over years of playtesting, and studios that botched it often shipped technically sound games that felt tactilely hollow.

What This Pivot Means for Players

In Control (2019), combat was layered: Jesse channeled objects from distance, floated to avoid attack angles, and used the Service Weapon as a secondary tool. Verticality and space were central parameters. Control Resonant moves that grammar to the ground. Melee becomes the primary tool, which demands different enemy positioning, a rethinking of combat spaces to enable direct approach, and likely a parry or counter system to replace aerial mobility as the main defensive resource.

It's a promise of different depth—not necessarily greater, but distinct. A player chasing the remote, near-godlike control sensation of the first game will need to reset expectations.

Control doesn't yet have an identity as crystallized as Resident Evil or Dark Souls. The first game convinced through its brutalist atmosphere, its oblique writing, and its progression system, not through combat precision. Radically changing the mechanical foundation for the sequel means betting that the audience follows without the brand being strong enough to absorb the shock.

The inverse risk also exists: staying too close to the original would have probably yielded something competent but editorially hollow. The acknowledged Devil May Cry inspiration gives the project at least a clear direction—and a precise evaluation criterion for players and press alike.

Remedy's Repositioning Rests on This Title

After Alan Wake 2 (2023) and its risky economic model, Remedy needs Control Resonant to perform. A beat'em up anchored in Japanese technique, if the studio delivers on its promise, can capture an audience indifferent to the first Control. But this isn't the same game, and the studio will have to own that in its messaging without alienating players who discovered the franchise for its atmosphere, not its combos. That dual positioning—attracting new players without losing the old—is the real test of the project, long before release.