I agree it's a shift from his previous appearances, but as far as I can tell each game takes place in a different universe and the current iteration of his character fits with his universe.
You know what? I hadn't considered that at all actually. I still dislike it but it's certainly food for thought. But I'll push back this far. I forget if it was his first appearance against Elsword or his second appearance against Castle Town, but he actually did say that he had encountered hundreds or thousands of Links (I say or because I forgot). The likely implication is that Palestra DDC, is at the end of a timeline and is the same character as Dreadlord Ascension DDC. I say this because it's the only way a lot of this makes sense and it keeps the world of Dreadlord Ascention reasonable considering it also deals with dimension hopping.
I never saw him as much of a pure uncaring sadist as you seem to have and more just a kinky dom devil. Yeah, he would get off on some extreme stuff, but only if the sub was also getting off on it even if it was only because of mind control.
As far as Palestra goes, I think it is interpretable. As far as Mugen goes, however? How do you explain the tentacle hell finishers or the vore finishers or even the Mind Throne finishers and especially the petrification finishers? The criteria of the sub's enjoyment seems to be a non-factor for him, and we have many instances of the sub getting condemned to orgasm hell they hate.
I personally don't think he would get off on a slave being beaten for no reason.
I don't know if I have a good argument against that actually, I'll just leave it as an unknown.
Also, in a side character/no story situation it makes sense that he's fairly one dimensional and only focusing on a single kink.
Fair but I must stress that being one dimensional when you are a side character is one thing, but it's quite another that when you have that one dimensionality and contradict it perhaps explicitly.
This is the first time he's been the main character in a story centering around him so of course he's going to have a much more established and complex personality and backstory that will tie into the universe as a whole. Redflash's storytelling never seemed to focus that much on sado-masochism before (and probably never will) so I'm not surprised that DDC's more sadistic personality traits we saw previously is reduced somewhat.
Not sure if I agree that this is a given and I wouldn't use the word of course but I'll agree that this is a natural development. I also agree that Sadism (because certainly not masochism) was not as important as milking as a focus, but I'd say we got a lot of content with heavy sadism implication. My main contention isn't just that the sadism was reduced, but that his ethics seem to have changed to him being the most moral demon around and not only that but also that he states his disaproval of harming slave in that way when he has done similar things and much worse. I don't see it as a complexity, I see it as a contradiction because it is diametrically opposed to what we had previously.
from what we've seen he still very much has those kinks (also see 3rd paragraph), but that being his primary/only character trait doesn't make for a very interesting main character.
I'll disagree quite strongly you can absolutely make that the main character trait and end up with an interesting story with an interesting main character. You just need to make him take his time (which admittedly is way more off character than the removal of Sadism because DDC takes shortcuts and will wait to build things but wants everything yesterday and is uber impulsive).
It gives him room for character growth and change as the story continues and his servants change around him. Otherwise, he's just an uncaring sadist from the start and there's no room for development there for him as a character.
But we haven't actually got character development except if it is off screen. DDC has the same static outlook and mindset that he has had since the start of the game. There isn't anything wrong with development or lack thereof in principle, but there hasn't been any yet and I don't think there will be any. The only thing he has actually been wrong about is trusting the servants. He has no reason to change his behavior yet. Now we could also get a responsibility character arc considering how much Fenris has been talking about it, but we aren't there yet, and I don't think it is going to happen.
He's still very much a kinky dom top demon in this game, just the first servant has a variety of kinks shown
Bar Palestra, he isn't actually a strict top he is very happy bottoming in this game and in Mugen. Now in Mugen that also involves pregnancy, but these are details.
But having beaten, tired, and run down slaves is not conducive to lusty sex, and more importantly, feeding on their cum.
Lusty sex? No. Feeding off their cum? Absolutely yes, go get a milking finisher or a mind throne finisher in Mugen, tired might be better
Being an incubus he survives on the cum of his servants so unless he has a harem full of complete masochists who will get off on that sort of stuff he's literally not going to survive.
Now here I'm going to hardcore disagree because this only works if the other incubi die frequently. He probably does need at least some to survive, but he is well in excess of that. The incubi who already exist would have to disagree with his methods considering how quick demons are to call him a deviant for his position on humans. If it was known to work, it would have been standard practice. As it stands, it is probably a very deficient way of conducting business at best.
I never played super far into palestra as I found all the minigames tedious and grindy but I remember that Link was a lot more of a sub than any of the other early characters that was into things like chastity/humiliation/milking and other things that the others only tolerated or didn't have happen to them at all.
First off, how did you find Palestra grindy but not this game? I find this game to be FAR grindier than Palestra and while I agree that you have to play minute long minigames over and over again to be more tedious than it should be (especially you Manami fuck your minigame in particular). And I found them technically annoying as well (cap the framerate when in combat), But every character in Palestra (except Ezreal and Natsu because they are new), engages in chastity and milking most of them get humiliated.