So I'm back to talking about DMC again. What is it about this series that keeps me coming back to it? I suppose one could say that it's because they have such high replay value with multiple playthroughs in mind. As such, if you're going to be experiencing the story over and over, you had better make sure that it's a good one.
I've heard a lot of people dismiss DMC's story, calling it very surface level that you “aren't meant” to relate to the characters and you're just supposed to turn your brain off and enjoy the over-the-top action scenes.
I disagree with this sentiment entirely. Just because the series is known for being cheesy or irreverent at times doesn't mean it can't also have emotional story beats, character arcs, and themes.
This is unfortunately a recurring idea for video games in general. Mario is only seen as that happy guy that jumps and runs to the right, despite the fact he has entire story-based games and RPGs where he is given a wide range of emotion and story dynamics. Samus is just that hot blonde that shoots stuff and has no emotions, even though actively choosing not to display emotions is a personality trait, and doesn't mean that you don't have them. I feel it's reductive to consider video games in such a way, they are a legitimate medium to convey messages and art just as valid as any other form of media.
DMC is no stranger to literary devices. In fact, the name Dante is a deliberate choice, because the character has a close relationship with Hell (see the Divine Comedy, Inferno in particular). The lore pulls from Western Judeo-Christian literature, while also having a noticeably heavy Eastern influence in its style and presentation.
Western culture, particularly Christianity, posits that there is Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons, good and evil. (One can argue that Judaism and Old Testament era scripture held such nuanced beliefs; old Hebrew texts mentioned demons that served God, though such Apocryphal texts have been removed from the canon by the Catholic Church)
From a holistic perspective Western culture has a very “black and white” approach to its philosophy.
This juxtaposes with Eastern cultural ideas and stories like Ne Zha, the prince son of a god who as an infant was raised under a Demon Bead, thus having to learn to be good in spite of having demonic traits. This is just one example, case in point Eastern media often criticizes religious Dogma like Catholicism for not being accepting of any nuanced ideas like this, instead seeing them as blasphemous and promoting Paganism. This is why in many JRPGs you often fight an allegory for God as the final boss.
Keep in mind I am not outright saying any of these views are correct or incorrect, and is not meant to be disrespectful in any way, this is simply a metatextual observation.
As such, it's refreshing to see these “East meets West” ideas recontextualized together and compliment each other this way. More on that as I discuss these games individually.
I've already gone over each game in order of release before, so this time I want to do something different here by instead sharing my personal experiences with the series, in the order that I played them.
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DMC4
So this may come as a surprise, but DMC4 was actually the first in the series I played.
I appreciate how it was designed with that in mind as well. As Stan Lee once said, “Every comic book is someone's first”, which applies to any real form of media. To an extent, every installment of a series should be designed with the intent that someone will experience the franchise for the first time through that installment.
The controls are very accessible to series newcomers. Having each of the face buttons dedicated to a specific action is very easy to grasp, especially the placement of them. Nero shoots with his left hand, so you use X/Square to shoot, the button on the left side of the pad. Nero's demonic arm is his right one, so you use B/Circle to use it. He reaches up to grab his sword on his back, so you hit Y/Triangle for the sword (maybe a stretch but it's how I remember). To rev up his sword like he does in the cutscenes, you pull the trigger button similarly to how you would throttle a motorcycle, or press down a gas pedal on a car. This simplified, contextual character control is a really smart design choice, and immediately had me hooked.
The main special abilities that Nero will have will be centered around his Demonic right arm. Locking onto an enemy and hitting the arm button will cast a spectral hand that will bring them towards you. Just pressing the button itself near an enemy will perform a Buster, a grapple move that is different for every enemy. You are encouraged to Snatch enemies in so you can Buster them, and you do this in the air as well, which also has unique animations.
This “every game is someone's first” design philosophy extends to the story as well. Starting out, I was just as clueless as Nero was. I didn't know what demons were in the context of this universe, how they showed up, what was really going on, or even who Dante was.
Introducing him as a rival was very interesting, and from a retrospective standpoint it flips the dynamic between Dante and Vergil on its head. To Nero, Dante is the villain, and it gives us motivation as a player to go after him. However, those familiar with the other games know that Dante is not a bad guy and would never kill a human, so things are clearly not as they seem, which peaks our interest in how the plot will develop.
It's a really clever use of expectation subversion, playing with what we know or think we know about these characters and their roles, while not changing anything about them fundamentally at their core.
Also, notice how in the fight Dante isn't actively trying to hurt Nero, he's play-fighting with him the same way a father would wrestle with their child. It's cute and sweet in that context that Dante really enjoys his role as the fun uncle immediately after meeting Nero, but the dramatic irony is that Nero thinks this is a murderous villain who is now further pouring salt on the wound by mocking him.
It's also really cool how the game integrates this into the story, making the tutorial of the game a mock boss battle against Dante. Dante is literally teaching us how to fight.
If you pay attention in Nero's previous introductory cutscenes, you'd even see Dante in the background of a few shots, suggesting Dante has actually been watching over him for a long time. Now, one could ask the obvious; “Why doesn't Dante just explain everything to Nero? That would instantly resolve a lot of the conflict here.” To his credit, Dante does try, but Nero still dismisses him as the villain and doesn't take anything he says as fact. He is still too set in his initial beliefs, this is a personal conflict that Nero has to get through.
This is also the first time I heard Johnny Young Bosch voice a character. He has great range, but it seems he always gets typecast as young “punky” characters, and he fits that character archetype really well here.
I also really like Nero as a character. He's cocky, brash, and a bit of a punk, but his heart is in the right place, and his compassion and love for others comes first.
In this scene here, even though Nero can sense demons, he still doesn't assume the worst of the Bianco Angelo that approaches him. Despite being a reckless hothead, he still gives him the benefit of the doubt and doesn't attack him until he can confirm he's an enemy. That's a really nuanced approach to an action game character, and shows more depth than what we see on the surface.
On our way to track down Dante, we encounter demons and consequently our first proper combat encounters.
I really like the Scarecrow enemies in this game. They fit the aesthetic of the series incredibly well, and are reminiscent of the Puppet enemies from DMC 1.
After hearing that music which was very much “of the times”, -which can affect your enjoyment of it either way (I personally really like it)- the first thing you'll notice when fighting the enemies is that instead of a combo or hit counter that most action games have, what sets DMC apart is its focus on Style. This isn't one of those games where you stand there and block waiting for your turn to attack, you learn quickly that this game wants you to be constantly moving and doing cool stuff.
DMC games teach you that being in control of the fight is its own form of defense.
You're jumping, shooting, slashing, Snatching and Buster-ing, and looking very stylish while doing it.
The cooler you look, the higher your Style meter, which letter-grades you on how well you're doing.
The more Stylish you are, the more you are rewarded, each letter grade of the Style meter making it incrementally more likely that enemies will drop Red Orbs (the currency of these games) or health. Style will also reward DT when you unlock it later in the game. The characters will also have unique Taunts for each level of Style, which also increase the Style meter faster, and are really fun and add a lot of character to these fights. For example there's one where Nero pretends to play a guitar, and it actually changes the in-game music while he's “playing” it. You lose Style if you get hit and these Taunts leave you vulnerable, encouraging you to use them only after you've knocked back or stunned an enemy.
At the end of each mission, you are also graded for your average Style grade throughout the level, which also rewards you with additional Orbs and a collectible called Proud Souls, which are used to unlock more moves and abilities. This is a well-designed gameplay loop that shows you to be cool, so that you can get more stuff and be even more cool. After all, isn't that what we really want from these games?
Later on we encounter our first real boss fight in the form of Berial. At first I thought that only the standard enemies could be affected by Nero's Buster move. So imagine my surprise when I accidentally picked up Berial and tossed him like a ragdoll. I imagine that was surprising for him too, imagine returning to the human world after 2000 years, and then some kid the size of a chihuahua picks you up and suplexes you.
You don't get it for free though, you have to stun him with your sword and gun attacks first, and pulling it off feels incredibly cool and satisfying. It encourages you try it against the other bosses in the game, who each have their own specific Buster interactions when getting grabbed.
I also really like the cool aesthetic of the screen being shot away when a mission is complete. If the mission ends during a cutscene, you can control when this happens by pressing Start. It doesn't add much in terms of gameplay or story, it's just a neat little detail that adds personality to the game (While proofreading I noticed that I say this a lot, and there's a reason for that).
It's this particular scene that I felt the game really elevated, not just in terms of story but also in gameplay. We get some more insight into Nero's character, how much he is willing to sacrifice for others, and how that empowers him. Through this we gain Nero's Devil Trigger, a recurring mechanic in these games that allows you to transform into a more powerful state that enhances your attacks and recovers your health. When you use DT as Dante, you'll notice it actually transforms his body, as opposed to Nero who gains a Stand-like spectral figure that attacks in tandem with him. Long-time fans will notice this figure looks similar to Vergil's Devil Trigger from DMC3, and attacks with his sword from that game, Yamato.
After progressing far enough, you unlock Dante as a playable character. The first thing you'll notice is that controlling him is different from Nero, though the main moves like jumping, shooting, and using the sword are all mapped to the same buttons. But what sets Dante apart from Nero's simplified playstyle is Dante has more variety. He can switch between different weapons and has different movesets called Styles mapped to the directional pad: Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, and Royal guard.
Each of these will change Dante's Style Actions, which replace Nero's Buster in terms of control scheme. Swordmaster and Gunslinger are your offensive options, for melee and long range respectively, and Trickster and Royal Guard are defensive, the former giving you evasion moves and air dashes, and Royal Guard being much more technical and difficult to master, with specific timing for parries and counter-attacks.
Dante also has Devil Trigger right away, and when he transforms you'll notice he has the same sort of design pattern as Nero's arm, only Dante's color is red, and he is able to transform his whole body that way. We also see a brief glimpse of Dante's Devil Trigger in his initial fight with Nero, which activates as a defense mechanism. This suggests that when Nero's arm changed in his backstory it was a sort of incomplete, partial Devil Trigger and it got “stuck” that way, further cementing the uniqueness of Nero and that he isn't experienced or as powerful as Dante, which in my opinion makes him more interesting as a protagonist.
All these extra moves may be a bit overwhelming to new players, so they gave you a big arena to test them out. There is also an Automatic mode where Dante will automatically weapon switch and Style switch while you mash buttons, but I can never use this. Not because of any elitist reasons, but because I just enjoy having full control of my characters.
A recurring complaint of the game is that you go through the same levels and fight the same bosses you already beat, but now as Dante. But I actually really like this concept.
It doesn't feel like backtracking to me, because I like interacting with the environment and enemies with a different character and mechanics, it adds another layer to the experience.
For example, these ice lizard enemies take extra damage against Nero's flame-based attacks like when he revs up his sword, and like other enemies they have a unique grapple animation when Nero's arm is used. Dante doesn't really have any fire-based attacks, nor does he have grappling moves, so he has to use different tactics to deal with them, and this extends to other demons as well.
He also doesn't have a means to bring enemies close to him like Nero's Snatch move, so Dante instead has to use Trickster or Stinger to get in close to enemies, or use Gunslinger to deal with them at long range.
I also really like the concept of Boss Rushes in games. Challenging an enemy you've fought before with new weapons and upgrades and completely stomping them after they gave you trouble before is just a really satisfying experience to me, and applying that concept fighting them as a different character is a cool way to mix it up.
Also, Dante gets his own cutscenes, character moments, and interactions with all these bosses, which is more than we ever got with Vergil or Trish as a playable character in previous games, so it's weird to me that people complain how Dante was handled in this game, but not that.
People also seem to complain about Dante's design and moveset, which is really strange to me. Apparently he “looks like a cowboy” but I really don't see it other than the boots. I personally prefer this look vastly over DMC3, where he is shirtless with a jacket and has a belt covering his nipples. His weapon loadout is also unique and varied, and weird unconventional weapons like Lucifer and Pandora are very on brand for the franchise.
I also like the dice game. Fight me.
I hate to throw these accusations around, but the situation seems very similar to Metal Gear Solid 2, where the main character was also replaced by a younger character in a “soft reboot”, and the chief complaint was that you don't get to play as the old protagonist for most of the game, looking at the previous game with rose-tinted glasses and actively looking for things to complain about out of that frustration rather than enjoying the game for its own merits.
I feel like there will always be that particular group of fans you can't please who just want every game to be exactly the same as the one they played when they were 10 and game companies trying to innovate or try anything new whatsoever is an affront to their childhood personally.
HOWEVER, I concede that I may be the biased one here, because this is the perspective of die-hard fans who played all the previous games first. This is my first exposure to the series, so of course I'd naturally use it as a metric to judge all others.
That being said, I consider it the third-best game in the series, putting it above 1 and WAAAAAAY above 2, but below 3 and 5. So there you go, 3 and 5 are at the top, which is considered the “normal” opinion, so you don't have to kill me now.
One reason I found myself returning to this game in particular is it had other difficulties that feel like other game “modes” that actually changed aspects of the game. For example, whereas most harder difficulties increase enemy health and damage output and call it a day, DMC will actually change enemy behavior and have you face enemies you don't see until later, appear much earlier in the game.
For example, some of the higher difficulties will have you face off against a Super Scarecrow or a Blitz in the early game, enemies you don't normally encounter until halfway through the game.
Heaven and Hell mode is a very fun feature for these games, where everything dies in a single hit. I'd use this mode a lot for farming orbs. You unlock this after the Hard mode, Son of Sparda, so it feels like a fun victory lap.
In Dante Must Die, the final “Super Hard” mode, all enemies can Devil Trigger after a certain period of time. The first time I saw that, I thought “Oh wow, this overpowered thing I've been using to do more damage and regain health… now the enemies can do it!”
And I just always think that's a neat concept in games, like the first time you see an enemy drink a healing item in Dark Souls. It's just little things like that that make games feel like they have more depth and personality.
In terms of post-game content, DMC4's Special Edition featured new costumes for Nero and the playable characters Lady and Trish. They didn't get much of their own story, you just play through the game as them without cutscenes except for the beginning and end, kind of making it feel like a fighting game Arcade Mode, and you can also play through Bloody Palace with them. Like Dante and Nero, they also have their own Taunts and special animations against certain enemies. I also just really like Lady, she's in my top DMC characters up there with Nero and Vergil.
Speaking of Vergil, he also gets his own cutscenes and playable features. We don't get a whole lot of him outside of gameplay, but it is established that he was in Fortuna before the events of DMC3, setting up the conception of Nero.
DmC: Devil May Cry
Oh, DMC reboot, I can't even be mad at you anymore. Complaining about it now almost feels quaint.
So yes, some time after DMC4 I remember seeing an article in a gaming magazine for a new Devil May Cry game, which caught my attention. I thought it was a little weird that Dante looked different. The article explained that this was a more “grounded and realistic” Devil May Cry. They wanted this Dante to look more like someone you would actually see on the street. Grounded and realistic are two last things I would ever think of when it comes to DMC, and I felt the change was unnecessary, part of the reason I liked Dante was because he stood out, the white hair with the red and black clothing is a visually appealing color combination.
But whatever, I had an open mind and was willing to give this the benefit of the doubt.
Keep this in mind as I discuss this game's downsides, of which there are many, because there are still people out there that will have you believe that people only hated this game because Dante didn't have white hair, and his character and the story were all basically the same as before. Yes, these people actually exist.
I'm just going to get this all out of the way so I can get back to the games I actually like so I don't have to be too negative here.
If you were to tell me that a 14-year-old who just learned what capitalism was wrote this script, and was VERY proud of themselves for their clever and nuanced observation, I would find that more believable than the fact that an actual creative direction team with a high budget wrote and directed this.
Yes, it is true that people in a position of mayoral or governmental power use their ties to corporations and the media to influence and manipulate the common people, controlling what we see, hear, where we go, and what we consume.
But DmC presents this concept in a very ham-fisted manner, like if you're going to bring up topics like this and try to make us feel they are important to the real world, maybe don't present them in a way that no one can take them seriously. Sure, you could point to DMC4 using imagery of the Catholic Church and showing them as the villains, but that's pretty much where the similarities end, the only time the original DMC ever “got political”, it used the fictional setting of Fortuna City, and the fictional organization The Order of the Sword, it didn't draw too many real-world parallels to actual concepts or people, thus dating the media. DMC 1-4's (Well, minus 2 but we'll get there) messages were evergreen. It also added to Nero and Dante as characters.
And now we get to the core issue: How does this add to Dante's character at all? What even is his arc? Dante in this game very blatantly doesn't care about anything or anyone, he even says as much. Which raises the question: “If Dante doesn't care what's going on, then why should we?”
Are we supposed to relate to him?
The first time we see this version of Dante, he's drinking, smoking, and being fellated by sex workers. These are the strawman arguments this game depicts; You think the old Dante was cool? He never even got laid!
Well, even with my limited knowledge of only playing 4 before this, I could see the problems with this. Like, yes, Lady and Trish hanging out with Dante in 4 had very “showy” outfits and he never really ogled at them or treated them in a sexual manner. He was fine with just being friends and colleagues. That doesn't make him a “loser”, if anything it makes him more admirable, and I really enjoyed their non-romantic chemistry. To imply that female characters like Lady and Trish only have value if they put out for Dante is just all kinds of disrespectful.
Plus, not to shame these types of activities or sex work, but if this Dante has to pay for sex, doesn't that just mean women will never want him otherwise?
It's takes like this that are indicative of something present throughout the game: immaturity. This could be used as a good writing device to develop characters over time, see below when I discuss DMC3, but the immaturity here is metatextual.
It's one of those pieces of media that feels the need to constantly bring up mature subject matter such as sex, smoking, violence, and course language to come off as more mature, when ironically it just comes off as obnoxiously immature. The common term for it now is “Vivziepop dialogue”, but the concept has existed as far back as the Simpsons and every “adult” cartoon afterwards trying to emulate the themes that were considered edgy at the time, and shows like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are far from the most egregious cases of this. It reads like someone who watched South Park and only liked it for the cursing and “offensive” humor, but didn't see or appreciate the social commentary or meta-narrative, taking completely the wrong lessons away for why it's popular and well-liked.
And it brings up these socio-political topics and is very self-congratulatory of that, yet doesn't take this any further with any sort of things to add, suggestions, solutions or call to action, just “We live in a society” and leaves it at that.
And I know I'm beating a horse that's not only dead but has been retconned out of existence, BUT there is also that one scene that gaslit everyone into thinking Dante's hair was the ONLY reason fans didn't like this game:
So it has that double whammy of having two of my least favorite tropes in fiction: It's a reboot that strawmans the audience in saying they're wrong for liking the things they like in the original thing, and it's obnoxiously edgy while thinking it's cleverly provocative and mature for it.
I've seen people argue that I would like this game if it weren't called Devil May Cry and the main character wasn't Dante, but I disagree. Those two facts of the matter are exactly my issue: If it weren't a Devil May Cry game, I wouldn't be talking about it at all. And it knows this. The creative team behind it is using the recognizable and marketable name of Devil May Cry as a vehicle to push their own ideas and agenda, rather than adding to or furthering the original franchise.
So now let's talk about the things that I actually do like.
I actually enjoy this game's aesthetic, the entire city being in its own evil entity is a neat twist, and the parts where you are pulled into Limbo and have to fight in a sort of mirrored world is really creative and admittedly satisfying.
The combat is also nice. I like the way Dante animates, it's very fluid and pleasing to watch. He even has a grapple move that emulates Nero's arm, and before DMC5 I would have been mad that this was all that remained of Nero's legacy, but now that's kind of a moot point.
And while it brings up a sort of political commentary, using demons and hell as a framing device to point out the flaws of capitalism, well… they aren't wrong about those things conceptually. It's just executed in a very ham-fisted way.
At least it doesn't do anything vile or abhorrent like, say, allegorically comparing the demons to actual, real-world ethnic groups and refugees who are fleeing from war and terrorism, while also actively calling for their extermination. THAT would just be irresponsible. If there were a series that used DMC to push these objectively dangerous and harmful views on a popular streaming service like Netflix or something, I sure would be actively angry about it and my complaints about DmC would certainly feel like small potatoes compared to something as awful as that.
DMC1
Where it all began.
You probably know the story by now. If not, 2000 years prior to the events of the DMC games, a Demon named Sparda opposed the demon emperor Mundus and spared the human world from Mundus’ wrath. Sparda eventually had offspring with the human Eva; two sons, Dante and Vergil.
Mundus attacked their home in revenge, presumably leaving only Dante alive.
A woman named Trish one day appears to Dante, who is now a professional demon hunter, to warn him of Mundus's return in a place called Mallet Island.
Devil May Cry began as a prototype for Resident Evil 4 (Biohazard if you're across the pond), hence the level progression of going through a Gothic castle and acquiring keys to open locked areas, not to mention Dante himself essentially being a heavily modified Leon and Vergil even having the same facial model as Wesker. It even shares an engine with the PS2 RE games.
I'm not sure what the inciting incident was to turn the game into a different franchise entirely, but I'm glad that it happened and it gave us this blessing of a game series, and the genre of character action games. Or hack and slash. Or 1-player action. Or spectacle fighter. (In the same vein as Metroidvanias, can we all agree to call them “God of May Crys”? “Devil May Wars”?)
I'm not all that well-versed in game development or programming, so forgive me if I get a couple things wrong or use the wrong terminology here, but from my understanding a bug was discovered during development where enemies could be launched into the air, allowing them to be juggled by consecutive attacks. This inspired them to make a game that was more centered around action and combat rather than survival horror.
Resident Evil with free movement and juggle combos sounds like a weird combination, but that's precisely why I think it works so well. Even today it has a unique charm to it, which is a considerable achievement taking into account how many games of its genre it spawned that tried to imitate it.
So yes, I actually played the other installments of the series after I played the reboot. This is because after its release, Capcom made the Devil May Cry HD Collection, which included the original PS2 trilogy. It seemed they wanted to test the waters, whether they should move forward with the reboot as a series, or continue to market the old series. In retrospect, I'm happy with the decision they ultimately made.
Hideki Kamiya during the conception of the game wanted to create a character who could be cool without doing things like smoking or cursing, inspired by characters like Vash the Stampede. That idea would become the mission statement for Dante's characterization. He is seen making quips and is fearless against demons, while also having emotionally vulnerable moments.
DMC1 has a reputation for being cheesy and schlocky, but it's also very earnest and sincere, and I appreciate it for that.
People talk about DMC1 almost exclusively just about “fill your dark soul with light” and other unintentionally goofy moments, but I feel like fans often overlook a very important moment here. (2:50)
When Trish cries after Dante decides to spare her life, and then defeats Mundus thus freeing her from his control, Dante says this: “Devils never cry. Tears are a gift that only humans have.”
This would go on to become the main theme of the series; Humanity is not your origin, it is your ability to care and feel.
“Devil Trigger” was also a staple for the DMC games and action games in general, having a powered-up form of the character as a limited resource to use in combat. A neat little detail is that Dante's demon form will actually change visually and have different affects based on what weapon he's holding while he DTs. For example, the lightning sword Alistor gives him electric effects, and grants him a lightning move called Air Raid.
I also really like how each of the bosses also have their own charming personalities that play off of Dante's. It's part of what made the series so fun moving forward.
One of these bosses is your rival throughout the game, Nelo Angelo, the Blackened Angel. Unlike the other demons who would try to get the drop on Dante or catch him off guard, Nelo instead waits patiently for Dante in wide open areas, preferring Dante to approach him and never actively chasing him down. Despite having no speaking lines, I appreciate how much character he conveys in simply his design and body language.
And later, you discover after you knock his helmet off and get his amulet that he's actually been Vergil the whole time, making him even more interesting as the two share the same familial tragedy.
The main villain, Mundus, has a quote that I find very interesting: “Mother? That useless being? If you need it, I can create as many as you like.” (2:40)
Mundus actually tries to reach across the aisle here and offer a resolution to their conflict, but the fact that Mundus doesn't understand the concept of a mother or family or why someone would have a “use” for one is precisely why Dante opposes him.
The heroes of DMC are the ones who stand for humanity, and the villains are the ones who lack or don't understand it. A simple concept, and by no means saying anything new, but is still a compelling narrative.
Kamiya would go on to create the Bayonetta series, which features a good witch who fights evil angels. This is true to his roots as this is often the inverse of how these things are depicted in Western culture, staying true to the “East meets West” aesthetics. And the first boss of this game, Phantom, would actually switch franchises over to Bayo, one of the few characters he got to keep after moving to Sega. So yes, a DMC character actually “hitchhiked” with Bayo over to her games.
I also appreciate the Neo-gothic aesthetics of this game, it adds so much to the atmosphere and is one reason I periodically return to DMC1.
DMC2
When the HD Collection came out, I remember reading a review for it that said something like “40 dollars isn't a bad deal for two great games”, and I was like “Wait, weren't there three previous games?”
And after a little while of playing DMC2 I started to understand what they meant by that.
Starting out, it doesn't seem like a bad game. Dante looks cool, his weapons are easy to use, you can even do cool flips and run on the walls. You can jump while shooting and Dante will flip in the air and propel himself with his guns, doing cool acrobatics while shooting.
The issue becomes clear after facing some of the bosses. You'll notice that your guns are very powerful in this game, so you'll mostly be using them. You can try to use all your other moves, but enemies will have AOE attacks that blast you back and keep you out of melee range, and a majority of them will fly far away from Dante. The game wants you to shoot and actively discourages you from doing anything else. You can pretty much leave and do something else with the controller in your hand while holding the gun button and you'll beat most of the combat encounters in this game.
As for the story, even though I've played it and watched the cutscenes several times for research purposes, I struggle to remember what happens or what the game is even about. I still don't know what the villain's deal is or what he even does. The characters are outright boring, even Dante, which is kind of your first red flag to indicate they failed the assignment.
A popular fan theory for why Dante is like this is because he's depressed after being forced to kill Vergil, but this is more of a headcanon and sort of retroactive continuity semi-confirmed in 5, this was likely not the intent when the game was made.
The game does have a few positives though. There are amulets that you can equip to gain certain special abilities while in Devil Trigger, such as flight, increased health regeneration, and upped attack speed. It could have been a good idea for the series moving forward if it was just executed a little better.
It was also the first game to introduce Bloody Palace mode, where players go through a series of combat challenges within an arena. However, as established before, the Combat in DMC2 is not great, so while I'm thankful for the creation of this series staple, I will never play it in this game.
You can also play as the character Lucia, but she doesn't offer much variety in terms of gameplay, though her Devil Trigger looks neat.
I am still glad that DMC2 exists, though. It was considered such an embarrassment for Capcom that the director, Hideaki Itsuno, immediately started working on DMC3 as a much more high effort passion project because he didn't want to be remembered as “That guy who made DMC2”.
DMC3
So this is the game where the series really found its footing and discovered its very definable identity. The Mission Statement of Dante being a cool guy who doesn't smoke, drink or swear really shines through here. He is young and rebellious, but doesn't do anything outwardly disrespectful or harmful from the perspective of the audience. People often point to DMC3 as the heart of Devil May Cry, it is the core of the series distilled in a bottle, it's where the franchise and by extension Dante really cemented their personality. If I were to describe Dante in this game in one short phrase, it'd be “Honorary fifth Ninja Turtle”.
DMC3 is a prequel, hence the subtitle “Dante's Awakening”. This is fitting for the series both story-wise and metatextually at its roots, so if you were interested in DMC and wanted to experience the games chronologically, this would be the one to play first.
DMC1 had great music, but DMC3 would be the first to have lyrics that that incorporate themselves in the story. The growling vocals and-for lack of a better term- “edgy” lyrics represent Dante's exterior, at the surface he seems like your typical male adolescent, he's always trying to act cool and tough when others are around. It's the cocky and fun-loving front he puts on.
The softer, echoing lyrics are Dante's true self that he hides from others.
Bless me with the
Leaf off of the tree
Tears inside me
Calm me down
Praise to my father
Blessed by the water
Black Knight, dark sky
The Devil's cry
Dante hides his true feelings, he pretends like he doesn't care about his family and doesn't cry because he doesn't want to appear as emotionally vulnerable. This is a timeless character trait that many young people playing this game, young boys especially, can relate to, and is the reason behind Vergil's actions, which is why he works perfectly as Dante's foil.
The first time I saw Vergil, I immediately liked him. Before we only saw him as Nelo Angelo, a silent rival character who we only see the face of towards the end of the game. Now, we see him as Dante knew him. I like how “nerdy” and reserved he is, we see him doing things like reading books and has a nasally high pitched voice while also having a low, rough timbre. The game doesn't play it for laughs either, he's still a serious villain who is a legitimate threat, it's just a personality quirk that he has.
This game is also my favorite look for Vergil. I like the feathered, angular “Phoenix Wright” pattern to his hair (I guess more accurately Phoenix Wright has Vergil hair). This would be less and less accentuated in each installment as graphical improvements to hardware were made, opting to have more detail and physics in each strand of hair, ironically having less and less style as visual fidelity improved. Having those sharp, angular features of the PS2 polygon graphics really complimented his design philosophy as the Blue Oni archetype. But I am literally splitting hairs here so let's move on.
DMC3 also has a neat detail where the number of the mission you're on will be incorporated into the cutscenes, which is a unique way of showing your progress within the game's story. For example, in Mission 3, Lady kills some demons and they fall in the shape of a number 3. I remember searching for all of them as some were well-hidden, I think even some wikis had trouble finding them and didn't have them all listed until a few years ago.
I like the Chess-themed enemies in this game. At first, you only encounter the Pawns throughout the tower. They can only attack diagonally and have a long, telegraphed attack animation, basically teaching you to watch the directions that demons can attack in, and sort of serve as combat training dummies in the early game. Later on you'll see Knights/Horses which are the only pieces that can jump, and Bishops that have long ranged attacks. Eventually you'll fight them all on a chess board, and you effectively have to “break the rules” of Chess since they can only move and attack as chess pieces do, while you can freely do both. It works really well with Dante's character, and it's kind of funny that his solution for winning Chess is to just smash all the pieces.
Jester is a lot of fun. It's always great when a DMC character is so over-the-top it forces Dante to play the straight man. In the Special Edition, Jester is an optional boss fight where you have to shoot at his feet to make him dance so he'll get tired and stop dodging, so that you can actually hit him. Though for me having an “optional” encounter is more like an illusion of choice, because I am an orb-hoarding goblin and must get them all.
The bosses are all interesting too. A majority of them will not actively attack Dante until he oversteps his boundaries in the Tower, some even being cordial until he wants to move past them.
They seem to serve a “might makes right” rule of law, where they respect and even aid Dante on his quest if he proves himself, which fits right in with Vergil being the main antagonist of this game.
I actually really like Nevan a lot. And it's not just for “horny” reasons. Yes, she is a sexy nude woman, but her summoning demon bats to cover herself and forming it into a dress is a really cool stylistic choice. You have to attack the bats to remove her armor, effectively undressing her, then getting in close to finish her off. Nevan herself realizes the over-the-top sensual nature of the situation, and uses it to play off of Dante's cocky attitude in a really fun way, with her being one of very few demons who can actually quip right back to Dante and keep up with him in the style and presentation department. (This moment is what actually spawned the “Dante doesn't know what sex is” meme)
Now, this could easily be my least favorite part in the series. It could have played it as embarrassing and cringe-inducingly crass. But Devil May Cry is better than that.
It's stylish and classy.
Now hold on, before you think it's toxic to be promoting sexual violence or sexism, DMC is far from those things, especially with Lady being not sexual at all, just as badass as Dante, and Dante literally gets shot when he jokes about making a move on Lady, and stops doing it when it's clear it makes her uncomfortable.
Dante isn't literally ripping a woman's clothes off and attacking her with swords and guns to beat her into submitting to him. Demons are metaphysical beings that can take many forms, the boss fights are a battle of will against their physical form, as seen with Cerberus taking the form of a weapon as it's the best way to aid Dante in that moment, and we're seeing the same thing here.
Also, while the game could do the cliché thing and make her a succubus, as if that's the only seductive creature in mythical folklore that exists, she is actually a Celtic Fey being known as a Leanan Sidhe, otherworldly fairy-like creatures who attract lovers and enjoy music, but can also transform into witches with destructive magic when provoked. I actually really like that unique spin on the “sexy demon” tropes we're used to seeing, and most Fey in folklore we normally see in media are the ones popularized by Tolkien (elves, goblins, etc).
My only real complaint of this section is that when Nevan turns into a guitar, the animation of Dante playing her does not match the notes in the music at all, making it feel very stilted and awkward. Nevan, after turning into a guitar, is definitely one of the weirder and unconventional weapons in the series and I love it for that. The melee button you would expect to do a melee attack instead shoots out her bats, which can be altered with directional inputs. She also grants Dante the great move Air Raid which was previously given by Alistor. So having a returning move you also get from another boss/weapon with lightning attacks is a nice attention to detail.
And yes I am totally aware I sound like this guy right now:
Lady is fantastic. Not only is she badass in her own way that sets her apart from Dante, her involvement also makes you interested to learn about her. Her heterochromia in having one red eye and one blue eye, while a bit “on the nose”, hits with the story beats of her being the narrator for the opening cutscene, describing the story of the Sons of Sparda.
She's probably one of the most important characters in the series, since she's effectively the reason that Devil May Cry, as an in-universe concept exists.
When Dante cries over the loss of Vergil, she remarks “Maybe somewhere out there even a Devil may cry over the loss of a loved one.”, giving him the idea of the name for his shop, a fitting end for a prequel. This also recontextualizes the “Devils Never Cry” saying from DMC1, reinforcing that Dante is still human at heart.
This one scene in my opinion is the greatest in the game. Lady confronting her father is the most intense and emotionally cathartic cutscene in probably the whole series, at least until 5. When Lady screams at Arkham that he's the reason, she no longer has a mother, he responds “What have I done wrong!?” which is a shockingly despicable thing to say, and is bafflingly ignorant of the suffering he caused to his own wife and daughter, let alone the people of the city with the awakening of Temen-ni-gru. The recurring theme returns here, in that the heroes are always the most human and emotionally vulnerable, while the villains display no compassion or love.
The way he yells out “NO-” before getting cut off by the gunshot is incredibly chilling. The fact that one word can carry so much speaks to the stellar production quality and cinematic skill of the team. Lady's following emotional breakdown hits just as hard.
It baffles me to this day that, despite Lady being such a breakout character, she never appeared in the Capcom crossover fighting games and was only playable in ONE GAME in the main series. Yet we got Trish as a DMC rep? I mean, I don't mind Trish, she was molded in the image of Dante's mother, so her discovering her own humanity was important to that story, but like… I doubt most fighting game players really care about the lore of that, and it's bizarre how she was chosen when she has the least interesting and varied moveset out of the characters when Lady and Nero are RIGHT THERE.
Anyway, the ending is a very satisfying note to end the game on, with you also having a fight during the credits with Devils Never Cry playing. You and Lady must kill 100 demons or more in order to unlock a secret ending where Vergil faces off against Mundus in Hell, setting up DMC1.
The Switch version of DMC3 introduces a lot of new innovations, such as Freestyle mode with free Style-switching and a weapon wheel, and a local 2-player co-op mode. The original sort of has those things. During the Arkham boss fight when Vergil jumps in to help you, a second player can actually pick up a controller and play as him. With the Doppelganger ability, Dante can summon a demon clone that Player 2 can also control, I have some fond memories where my cousin and I would play through the game together like that. However, before it was sort of a fun little secret, now it's actually a fully realized game mode that's properly implemented. This now makes the Switch version of DMC3 the best way to play the game, and it was already great on its own.
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DMC5
It's still genuinely a miracle this game even exists. The reboot established a new status quo, making us all think the old character and Nero were gone forever. Financially, DMC4 and even the reboot didn't do particularly well (the reboot actually did relatively well but not enough to garner much more than a passing glance from most audiences). It seemed like Capcom didn't really value DMC as an IP anymore. Devil May Cry was effectively dead in the water.
Then, not only do we get a trailer for DMC5, but surprisingly we see NERO in the trailer, the thing is almost entirely dedicated to his cutscenes and gameplay.
I was FLABBERGASTED. Remember, almost no one I knew in my social groups even played DMC, let alone DMC4. Most people weren't around for the paradigm shift of Nero becoming the new main character, it was something I only saw hard-core fans of the series on the internet talk about in very niche groups. I felt like I was losing my mind. I'm actually being validated for liking that game? I'm not just a weirdo with dumb opinions???
The back of the box even reads “The Devil you know is back”. They knew exactly what they were doing with that.
It also uses the same engine as the Resident Evil reboots, bringing the series full circle by having the first and last game made in an RE Engine.
It's not often that a franchise gets rebooted, then re-retconned back to its previous state after a new status quo had been established. That type of thing is usually only done with comic book characters
To put this into perspective, this would be like if after the Disney Star Wars sequels, a new movie came out with the Expanded Universe Luke Skywalker, with his retconned wife and kids, and also bringing back HK-47 and Kyle Kataarn as his companions. It's THAT nuts.
When I walk by my video game cabinet, sometimes I still check and make sure my copy of DMC5 is real and it wasn't just some insane collective fantasy fever dream we all had.
I'm not even worried about overhyping this game and causing newcomers to be disappointed after I propped it up so much, because that's kind of the point of this game.
Shortly after the first reveal trailer at E3, Itsuno announced “Devil May Cry 5 will exceed your expectations.”
It's not often that a developer will boast a game like that, and then actually deliver.
I don't even think it's my personal biases with the series causing me to look at this with rose-tinted glasses, I've seen plenty of streamers and let's-players who were unfamiliar with the franchise play this game and were thoroughly impressed, declaring DMC5 their personal game of the year.
This is kind of surprising to me, since Nero was kind of a niche character at the time, and the story is very much a love letter and celebration to everything that came before. I thought all of these factors would make it confusing and inaccessible to newcomers, but I'm glad to be wrong in this instance and I'm overjoyed that it brought in a new generation of DMC fans.
Eagle-eyed series veterans would have noticed that in the trailer, Nero is seen briefly with his arm from DMC4, before a figure with Vergil's obscured features is seen taking it. Throughout the rest of the trailer we see Nero with a mechanical arm, and towards the end he's holding his phantom limb and says “I've got a score to settle with that son of a bitch.” From that it seemed clear that this game was going to be about Nero confronting Vergil, which was an exciting prospect and a natural progression of his character arc from 4.
Nico is also a great addition to the cast. She's basically if Sandy Cheeks from SpongeBob were put into the the Devil May Cry universe, and somehow it just works.
She's the daughter of the character Agnus from DMC4, the Order of the Sword member who had a research lab and created some of the creatures you fight in that game. She is also the granddaughter of the gunsmith who made Dante's Ebony and Ivory, which is a bit of a strange set of circumstances, but cements her as part of series’ legacy. Her van is also the mobile operation for Nero's own branch of Devil May Cry, with the game started with him as his own Devil Hunter.
Nico is responsible for the Devil Breakers, robotic prosthetics enhanced with demon parts to replace Nero's right arm.
You start out with Overture and Gerbera, the former of which sends out an electrical shockwave, and the latter allowing an evasive dodge move that propels Nero through the air. All of them are good, but my personal favorite is Punch Line, which gives you a rocket punch that can fly around and punch enemies from a distance, and you can also ride it like a skateboard as a callback to DMC3.
If you pre-ordered the game or bought the Special Edition, you get the three DLC Devils Breakers. Sweet Surrender is a utility arm that heals Nero over time. You also get the Mega Buster, literally Megaman's arm cannon. And of course, the most powerful weapon of all, the Pasta Breaker.
Dante's character is an amalgamation of all of his past appearances. You get the cool yet sentimental DMC1 Dante, the fun-loving and carefree DMC3 Dante, the more mature and responsible “cool uncle” DMC4 Dante, and even the cold and somber DMC2 Dante, each reserved for their own story beats, used together seamlessly for the right moments.
Gameplay wise, DMC5 Dante is possibly the most unique and varied character action game character of all time. Every time you think he has everything and he couldn't possibly be given more, you get a new weapon or ability that expands his gameplay. No two players will control Dante the same way. On top of weapon switching and Style switching, he has two weapons that have different “stance changes”, in addition to a couple secret weapons, and a new sword that adds effects to all of his other weapons. And then there is Faust, possibly the most innovative weapon I've seen in one of these games. It's a “gambling” weapon, where you can spend some of the in-game currency as ammunition to earn more back. Also, after you've unlocked everything in a DMC game, you're often left with little reason to collect more as you already have a superfluous amount in the post-game. Faust allows you to weaponize all your surplus resources that are otherwise just sitting there, and insentivizes you to keep playing and fuel the weapon long after the game's completion. I've never seen the inclusion of one weapon offer so much game longevity before.
On top of all this, he has a new DT form called Sin Devil Trigger, in which you hold the DT button to drain from your normal DT gauge into your Sin Gauge, and then release once the Sin Gauge is full.
Not only is Sin Devil Trigger amazing from a gameplay standpoint, it's also incredible what it means symbolically. The Sparda sword is a manifestation of Sparda's will, hence the name. By absorbing it, Dante is finally fully accepting his father as part of himself, which works perfectly within DMC's themes of family and self-acceptance. It's a beautiful completion of Dante's character arc from past games, while also invoking Sparda rebelling against Mundus two millennia ago, with Urizen filling Mundus's role in this game.
V is also really interesting as a new playable character. How he works is even more uniquely different than Nero is to Dante. Instead, he summons demonic familiars that are assigned to the different attack buttons. Shadow is a short-range melee attacker, while Griffin attacks similar to other characters’ guns. V's Devil Trigger will summon the third demon, Nightmare. As the three damage enemies, V will have to finish them off with his cane since the familiars can't kill other demons. V can keep his distance while staying far from enemies, which is ideal as V himself is not a fighter.
You never feel helpless or too underpowered playing as V, on the contrary having the familiars to protect him makes the game easier since with Dante and Nero you're facing them directly, with V you're giving the demons multiple targets and can easily overwhelm them. It's a delicate gameplay balance, working in V's frailness while also feeling powerful while controlling his demons. I found it a little overwhelming at first controlling multiple characters, but grew to love it over time and I'm impressed with how well they were able to make such a unique concept work.
The concept behind V and Urizen is really interesting because it recontextualizes everything about Vergil. It kind of reminds me of that one episode of Teen Titans where the characters go inside Raven's mind and see the other versions of herself. Whenever we see her meditating in other episodes, she's keeping these other facets of herself in check. It's the same thing here.
V, Urizen, and the demonic familiars are all compartmentalized aspects of Vergil's mind that are now externalized, forcing the rest of the world and especially Dante and Nero to face this.
The scene that most breaks down V, and by extension Vergil as a character is where V is telling Trish about his past. “The truth is, I wanted to be protected and loved”. This resonates with us because it's what we all want as humans, and is the driving force behind Vergil's motivation. What makes V so great as a character is how human he is.
In past games we've been living vicariously through through these absurdly powerful superhuman characters, and now we are playing as an “actual person” who must rely on others for help and runs away when things get too dangerous. He isn't shamed for it either, the characters often tell him this is the correct thing to do. He barely has any power of his own, but still wants to change the state of the world despite lacking the power as an individual to do so. Not only is this an incredibly subversive take on a character action game, but is especially fitting for a character who is meant to represent humanity.
Vergil's whole character arc is that he doesn't want to feel helpless like he did in his past, so he seeks more power but is never truly satisfied. The inciting incident that begins the story is when Vergil takes Nero's right arm, the source of his power, leaving him helpless. Vergil recreates his own tragedy through Nero.
This makes it all the more heartbreaking when Nero discovers Vergil is his father. For context, Nero was raised in a foster home, so family is the most important thing to him. As such, he wasn't able to fathom the rivalry between Dante and Vergil as brothers, it clashes with his core belief that family is meant to protect one another.
In an absolutely breathtaking scene that actually brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it, Nero's desire to preserve his family is what awakens his fully realized Devil Trigger. As he does, we hear his second theme song: Legacy. I believe the meaning is that Nero is the one who restores Sparda's family legacy. He is the only one who can heal Vergil's trauma and the relationship between the two brothers. Rather than do something cliché and predictable like Nero's desire for revenge or rage awakening his true power, it's his genuine love for his father and uncle, and not wanting to let them die, despite everything that Vergil put him through.
My words can't even put to justice how this scene makes me feel. It's so beautifully well done.
Also, if they wanted to do the fanservice thing, they could have just had Dante kill Vergil again and then do a rehash of the DMC3 ending. But instead of doing the expected thing with the popular character, they did instead what better served Nero's character development. It brings me joy that, no matter how cynical or shallow media may get, people are still willing to make art for art's sake regardless of what some out of touch board meeting suit would think is successful. They served the characters and the work itself rather than “the product”, and the genuine passion and love for their work shines through in the end result.
I spoiled a lot, but I didn't give the full context for these moments, I feel like anyone experiencing them for themselves wouldn't have them “ruined” with me talking about them. Knowing where they appear and the full context for them should only enhance the overall enjoyment, evident with how the trailers spoiled a lot about the story but didn't take away any of its impact.
DMC5 also has a Special Edition, though sadly doesn't include a Lady's Night DLC like in 4, one of my few complaints about the game.
And like before, Vergil gets his own playable story which also has his own cutscenes at the beginning and end.
Bury the Light is incredible. It invokes the tragic and Gothic themes of Nelo Angelo while also being empowering and triumphant. Like Devil Trigger, it also tells the character’s story. The lyrics that stick out the most for me are:
The beacon holds, I won't surrender
The truth revealed in eyes of ember
We fight through fire and ice forever
Two souls, once lost, but now they remember
In a metaphorical sense it describes Dante and Vergil's relationship, while in a more literal sense it mirrors Urizen and V, and how Vergil is now reborn with the knowledge and experiences of both.
I don't like giving anyone “homework” to consume the media I like, but if you do like action games at all or are interested in these characters or the story in any way, you are really missing out if you don't play DMC5 at least once, it's truly one of the greats. You don't need to play the other games first, but comparing it to my experiences, if you do play it first then play the others, it will enhance your appreciation of it.
I hope you all enjoyed this trip through all the DMC games entries with me. It was a fun time, even with the bad ones.
I wish you all an S-rank, rockin’ party.
Not you Alex Larsen and Adi Shankar. Hope you guys get swallowed by a flying whale.
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