Devil May Cry 4 announcement coming Friday?

Though it will allegedly be playable on the floor of the 2006 Tokyo Game Show later this month, Devil May Cry 4 remains shrouded in secrecy. Little has been heard about and nothing has been seen of the game since a trailer was shown at last year's TGS. Its absence was most conspicuous at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this past May.

Now, though, it appears that fans of the series may learn more about the game even before TGS 2006 kicks off. Over the Labor Day weekend, the official Japanese Web site for the game began a countdown that will end sometime this Friday--presumably during the day, Japan time.

Prior to the countdown appearing, a flash animation shows a sentence in both Japanese and English. It appears to be a typically cryptic teaser about DMC4's plot, and reads: "From that day forth my arm changed...and a voice echoed...'Power...Give me more power!'" The animations then end with a picture of what could be either series hero Dante or his half-brother Vergil, sporting what looks like a sword grafted to his right arm.