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One of the most exciting moments from the past E3 this year was the announcement of Devil May Cry V, the long awaited sequel to the series after a massively disappointing reboot. The excitement from fans as they saw a true sequel to their favorite series materialize was off the charts, and even onlookers couldn’t help but become enraptured by the over the top and energetic antics that the trailer proudly displayed to the audience.
The Devil May Cry series is not exactly conventional. Each game is full of eccentricities, quirks and other mischief that comes to fruition thanks to the series’ Japanese roots and its love for action. These aspects, alongside the technical prowess that goes into making these games as exciting as they are, are what make the core series so appealing to so many people. Devil May Cry is not really about the power trip or the violence, but instead about the stylishness of making that crazy action happen through gameplay.
As a whole, the Devil May Cry series defined the Action and Character Action genres, setting the standard and procedure of how these games would play for over a decade. These games have stood the test of time and continue to be highly enjoyable titles even today. So, by looking at the original trilogy of Devil May Cry games on the Playstation 2, we can see how to succeed, fail and absolutely excel at making a proper Devil May Cry action game.
Devil May Cry was released in 2001, 17 years ago, and with it came a new era of the Action genre. The game’s approach to action and its core philosophies of what makes a good Action game shaped an entire generation of the genre, inspiring new games such as the God of War series. What made DMC such a popular and influential title was the way it bridged the gap between the action game beat-em-ups of the 2D era into 3D without compromising on playability or control, solving many of the issues developers faced when making action games of its type.
One of the unique ways Devil May Cry approached action was putting the focus on the character to bring it into to fruition. The game is wholly focused on expanding and perfecting the moveset and capabilities of its main character. In terms of quantity and power, the player doesn’t have a vast number of ways to deal with enemies; however the few means of attack that they have are very robust and require practice, precision and even creativity to master. In doing this, the game gives the player a greater feeling of accomplishment by embracing and perfecting the playability of their own character.
This high gameplay skill ceiling is complemented by an equal level of challenge from the game. The player is encouraged to get better at the game because the game always gives them a greater and more difficult challenge that they must overcome in order to hone their own skills at the game. Even at its most challenging though, the game is never too frustrating or exhausting to play because the game paces its difficult moments with moments of respite to reward the player’s achievements.
Although this description makes the game sound very intimidating, it’s actually not when you start to play it. One of Devil May Cry’s greatest virtues is that it’s easy for anyone to pick up and play, but hard to master and gain dominion over. Each combo in the game is extremely simple to perform, only requiring a simple chain of continuous or combined button presses. The challenge however comes with trying to chain together all the different combo moves in creative ways that keep the player on the offensive at all times.
This gameplay style is made easier thanks to the game’s tight controls and precise movement. Dante controls just as the player wants him to, but his movements don’t give much room for errors or second-guessing from the part of the player. Because of this, the player must think about what moves they use in each combat situation, combining their precise movements with planning and strategy to truly succeed at playing the game and doing it well.
Dante, the game’s protagonist, is also responsible for making it so satisfying to play the game. He defines a new type of action game hero that is unconventional, but equally as admirable as the rest. As a protagonist, Dante is noble and heroic, but tends to hide those elements behind a layer of charisma that he uses to taunt his enemies. He doesn’t take the situation too seriously and talks his way into being the cooler one in any situation. The combination of these two aspects and the stylish way that he presents himself make him a character that you want to and like to play as, which is important to make players want to commit to the effort of learning the game.
Part of what makes action games compelling is the power trip fantasy element, which gives the player the opportunity to feel accomplished by showcasing their prowess to the game’s enemies. Devil May Cry rethinks this aspect of the action genre by refocusing the trip from making the player feel powerful, to making them feel stylish. This is achieved through the game’s combo ranks and mission rankings, which reward the player for not only playing well, but also playing stylishly by using their full moveset in interesting and creative ways.
Good combos and efficient gameplay are encouraged in the game by rewarding the player with more Red Orbs, which are a type of currency that the player can exchange for new abilities and power ups to improve their character and stand a better chance at the game. This feedback loop of gameplay and upgrades not only allows the player to expand their capabilities, but to do in a natural way that eases them into the skillset necessary for better play and the understanding of deeper and more complex mechanics.
Once the player feels like they have mastered one style of gameplay, they can move on and experiment with new and different styles by trying out other weapons. Each weapon in the game, which may be a Gun or Devil Arm, handles differently and offers certain advantages and disadvantages to the player. Some weapons, like the Ifrit have completely different movesets that require the player to adapt to and learn in order to take advantage of its more positive aspects.
Disappointingly however, the amount of variety between each of the four weapons in the game is very small. Most weapons have the exact same moveset with only small differences each, which are interesting to play around with, but don’t provide enough variety to really feel like you have a very expansive amount of choices to improve upon combat.
The action in Devil May Cry is stabilized thanks to the game’s dynamic camera angles that keep a constant and effective view of the action around the player as well as their 3D environment to not only create a pervading sense of atmosphere, but also a focused view of the action around the player. By allowing the game developer to carefully manage what the player can and cannot see, leading to a far more polished experience that works much better in 3D.
This ties in to the level design of the game, which is carefully built and presented to aid the pacing of the action and combat to provide more variety to the player’s gameplay experience. Each of the game’s levels incorporates exploration and puzzle solving to keep the player engaged in its downtime. Exploring the game’s environments also rewards the player with a sense of progression as they move from combat encounter to another, making every second of playing the game feel rewarding and interesting to play.
Enemies are also placed strategically in each level to best serve as an obstacle to the player’s moment to moment progression. Much akin to the Resident Evil series, enemies in Devil May Cry are placed in areas that the player is expected to constantly backtrack through, making sure that they are a momentary obstacle while the player is performing another task, thus keeping them on their toes while they are involved in the greater progression of the game.
All this pacing and downtime eventually culminates in each of the game’s boss fights, which are a summation and test of the player’s knowledge and skills. The player must learn each of the boss attack patterns and abilities while also comparing them to their own to come up with an efficient way to take them down while taking the least amount of damage. These bosses offer a great challenge to the player, and the satisfaction of beating each boss is worth the risks and sacrifices.
Each boss in the game is memorable and enjoyable as well. They have a sufficient and powerful presence throughout the game’s campaign to be fearsome and memorable. Memorable designs, attack patterns and dialogue make each boss stand out from each other. Encounters with these bosses also take advantage of their personalities and motivation to create entertaining banter with Dante’s own cocky and confident personality, which clashes with their more serious and threatening demeanor.
One of Devil May Cry’s greatest virtues is pacing, balancing moments of intensity, challenge and hair-pulling difficulty with calm, respite and atmosphere to provide enough variety to the player’s experience so it remains entertaining throughout. The first Devil May Cry is one of the kings of atmosphere, with foreboding gothic locations and enemies accompanied by long stretches of eerie silence and bell chimes that fit perfectly with that game’s often cryptic puzzle solving moments. Devil May Cry’s quiet time is so well done, that it’s almost on par with the game’s principal combat.
The combat however, also stands out perfectly from these moments of quiet, especially thanks to the game’s soundtrack. The eerie chimes of the game’s more reflective moments are contrasted by an energetic Drum and Bass score that matches perfectly with the kind of over the top and flashy actions of our main character’s moves.
As well as Devil May Cry holds up in every regard, it also does falter in small areas that become a larger issue with the game. For instance, the camera in the game isn’t polished completely in many areas, such as the abundance of times it makes a 180 or 90 degree turn that confuses the previously held direction of the player, necessitating that the player readjust their movement every time that the camera changes direction, thus leading to disorientation.
Besides that, another issue with the camera is that certain moves during combat are tied to the relative direction of the character, rather than the direction of the camera itself. This makes it so that in some situations the player might face confusion when performing certain moves because of how constantly their character changes direction during combos or because the camera changes its vantage point to focus on some other area, making it harder for them to become skilled at combat. This is especially excruciating with the game’s roll dodge move, which is essential to mastering combat but so tricky to pull off at the same time because of the ever changing relative direction of the character.
The game’s controls also fail to hold up during Devil May Cry’s platforming segments. Dante is simply too finicky and the camera too static to really give the player a sense of whether their jumps will land or not. Though used to break up the pace, the platforming in this game is entirely sub-par because the gameplay mechanics, controls and camera angles simply weren’t built to properly accommodate this type of gameplay, making them more of a nuisance than a welcome variety.
Another pace breaker that breaks the game and nothing else are Devil May Cry’s underwater first person segments. Though few and far between, these segments are disorienting, slow and just not very interesting to play through because of how limited the player’s moveset is when controlling Dante underwater. Their inclusion is so needless and adds so little to the overall experience that it becomes a noticeable blemish on an otherwise great game.
One final possible issue with Devil May Cry varies from person to person; however, I believe that the story of the game borders too heavily on simplicity to really deliver on its more dramatic scenes. It’s understandable that the game would choose not to concern itself too much with a story, considering that it’s not too much of a necessity for a game that concerns itself more with how it plays rather than telling a complex and emotional story. However, whenever Devi May Cry attempts to have drama, it comes off as a little bit melodramatic and downright silly, disconnecting the player from the experience and removing the contextual basis that would get them more involved with the gameplay.
Though it doesn’t really hold a candle in drama, Devil May Cry does make up for it with a lot of charm. The game’s simple but effective character arcs and witty dialogue have a certain self-aware charm to them that makes them entertaining to watch. Even at its most melodramatic, the story of Devil May Cry is delivered with such full-hearted conviction that the player can’t help but enjoy it. Despite all, it’s a memorable story with plenty of quotable lines of dialogue and memorable characters.
For being the game that started a whole series, Devil May Cry is still an excellent title that holds up really well against the test of time. The game is so revolutionary and well-designed that it continues to be compared to other games nowadays and doesn’t feel out of place to play alongside contemporary experiences. The fact that the game stands out when compared to not only its future sequels, but other games in the Action genre, means that it’s a title worth coming back to and appreciating. Not just for all its contributions to gaming, but for its charm and sleekness when it comes to making what is, and will continue to be, the quintessential 3D action game.
The original Devil May Cry was an instant success with critics and gamers alike, selling large numbers of copies and ushering in the expectation of an eventual sequel. Making a sequel to Devil May Cry would not have been an easy feat, since it had to live up to the high bar set by its predecessor as well as improve upon some of its other shortcomings. However, people expected the same kind of style, sleekness and exciting action of the original to return. A sequel would not come until 2003, when Devil May Cry 2 hit the market.
By this point, it’s widely known how troubled the development
of Devil May Cry 2 was before its release. Capcom decided to develop the game without the consent or help of Team Little Devils, the development team of the original, instead choosing to have its arcade team lead the development of the sequel. What this decision led to was a series of overambitious ideas and incompetent directing that would eventually have the project slow down to a near halt. Just four months before release, Devil May Cry 2 was nowhere near being complete, and only ever came to fruition because of the aid of new director Hideaki Itsuno, who took what little was made to make a semi-complete product.
And needless to say, people noticed that the game was a step down. To this day, Devil May Cry 2 is considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst Devil May Cry game as well as one of the most disappointing sequels ever released. Despite selling well, the game was trashed by fans and critics for a multitude of reasons, particularly for how much it changed the core formula, gameplay and style of the original.
So what went wrong with DMC 2? The first game left a very clear template of how best to make a 3D action game, yet the sequel seems to ignore most if not all of the lessons learned from the success of that. The issues of Devil May Cry 2 are not entirely exclusive to its troubled development, but also the fundamental decisions made during its inception that would make it a significantly different game from any other game in the DMC series. By analyzing what went wrong with DMC 2, we can earn a better understanding of not only how important the very specific design decisions of the original were to creating a polished experience, but also how not to make a Devil May Cry game.
First and foremost, Devil May Cry 2 is a boneless Devil May Cry. It may have the same name and the same basic ideas behind its combat, characters and setting, but it lacks all the charm, depth and competent design that made the original such an instant classic. DMC 2 is a pale imitation of the Devil May Cry formula that has plenty to bite, but nothing to chew, outstaying its welcome for anyone who plays it for any extended period of time.
The most noticeable difference from the first Devil May Cry is the sequel’s new edgy and adolescent tone. Devil May Cry was a game that would present its action with a self-aware smile that understood how ridiculous its own thrills were, yet the sequel takes them so seriously that the charm of these theatrics is all but gone. The new tone of the game is very unfitting of the kind of thrills that the overall gameplay presents, offering a style that is so full of itself that it lacks any substance.
Devil May Cry 2’s art direction also bleeds from this desire to be brooding, angsty and serious. The gothic architecture of the original is all gone, only to be replaced with the tall and imposing buildings of a nighttime modern European city. The world of DMC 2 is so dark and so gritty that it comes off as bland and uninteresting to explore.
Not that there’s anything to explore anyways. On the topic of uninteresting environments, the level design of Devil May Cry 2 is almost the complete opposite of the original. Instead of presenting corridors, hallways and plazas that were small, but condensed with details, items and enemies, the sequel introduces big and open areas with nothing to see or do in them. Exploring a level in DMC 2 often consists of long stretches of walking at an agonizingly slow speed until the player gets to where they want to be which is usually the next enemy encounter.
Unlike the original, Devil May Cry 2 is an excruciatingly linear game. Between combat encounters, all the player can do is walk from one room to the other, while trying to find hidden objects in each of those. The branching paths, backtracking and puzzle solving of the original have been either outright removed from the game, or simplified to the point where they barely entice the player to want to spend time with them. This makes the pacing of DMC 2 incredibly monotone and flat, since all they can do is wait until another combat sequence occurs in order to have fun.
Not only do they strip away any kind of atmosphere from the scene due to their uninteresting flat composition, but they outright obscure the action by zooming in the camera too much or outright focusing on a spot that runs contrary to what the player wants to see. Not only do they lack the flair of the original, but the functionality as well. They are by far the worst camera angles in a Devil May Cry game.
All of these issues wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the combat was as enjoyable as the original, but the sequel strips away most of the depth that made Devil May Cry such a challenging and investing game. Devil May Cry 2 is a much more streamlined game to a fault, since there’s not much that the player can do to experiment with their playstyle or even expand their skills at the game. How you play at the start will be how you play at the end, with hardly any variation.
The lowered difficulty of Devil May Cry 2 gives the player less reason to want to master and learn the combat mechanics of the game. Success is offered to the player on a silver platter in this game, and putting in the extra effort is a worthless endeavor since there’s not much effort to playing the game at all. With a lower difficulty, each success doesn’t feel as earned as it did on the original, and the experience of playing the game becomes a lot more boring and underwhelming as a result.
One way the developers altered combat to make it easier was making the controls a whole lot looser and much, MUCH slower. Dante moves at a snail’s pace compared to the original and attacks in a very weak fashion that in practice just doesn’t feel snappy and satisfying to play. Combat in this game is so slow and predictable that it becomes too uninteresting to be stylish, which was the main selling point of Devil May Cry’s combat.
Character progression has been stripped down for Devil May Cry 2 as well. Before, the player would spend their Red Orbs on unlocking abilities that would make their moveset more versatile and varied than before. Now, every one of the player’s abilities is unlocked right from the start, giving the player very little to discover or learn as they go through the game. This makes Devil May Cry 2 so much more monotone as a result, which discourages people from wanting to get good at the game.
What the game does to replace the upgrades of the first game is even more disappointing however. In DMC 2, the player can only spend their Red Orbs to buy either linear damage value increases to their weapons or simple items that raise their Health or Devil Trigger gauge. None of these upgrades diversify the way the game plays and barely entice the player at all, since the game is already so easy to play. They are worthless upgrades that don’t reward the player at all, making the gameplay feel emptier as a result.
Although the original Devil May Cry had a bit of a problem with weapon variety, the sequel takes it to a whole new level. Every weapon in Devil May Cry 2 is the same, or at the very least, has the exact same moveset with only small differences in damage or range. The player will barely notice that they’re using a different weapon in Devil May Cry 2, and will often feel no need to change weapons to better suit their tastes or gameplay situation. This non-existent weapon variety contributes to the generally uninteresting gameplay of the game by reducing the amount of styles that the player can learn, thus lowering the skill ceiling to a point where it barely even exists.
Even the player’s basic combo suffers from a severe lack of variation. In the original game, the timing of your button presses contributed to the combo that Dante pulled off, and each of these combos aided the player in creating wider and more stylish combo chains. Devil May Cry 2 removes this aspect and leaves the player with only the basic four button press combo, which leads to a lot of mindless button mashing and unstylish gameplay.
Devil May Cry 2 tries to improve the gameplay of the original in some areas, but its improvements are misguided and don’t understand what was appealing about the original to begin with. One of DMC 2’s biggest changes was a greater focus on gunplay, which runs contrary to the melee heavy gameplay of the series to begin with, because the gunplay mechanics in the game are just too simple to be satisfying and the added moves that supplement this mechanic don’t have any practical use during gameplay, rendering them useless.
Due to the reduced difficulty of the game, enemies no longer pose a threat and are therefore a lot less interesting to fight. The player is no longer required to learn their movesets, weaknesses and resistances to stylishly take them down. Instead, enemies in the game are simple sandbags for the player to style on with no consequence, threat or tension, which not only makes racking up combos a lot less rewarding, but a lot less stylish as well.
The game’s boss fights are also a massive step down from the original. Bosses in the game have no presence, personality or character that would make them memorable, nor any challenging tactics that would make them interesting to beat. Every encounter with these bosses feels forced into a specific area of the game just so there would be bosses at all. Bosses are either so easy to take down that they aren’t satisfying to beat, or frustrating to fight because they rely on mechanics that simply drag out the length of the fight to be artificially longer.
A lack of personality very well defines the plot of Devil May Cry 2, which attempts to increase the “coolness” factor of the original without retaining any of the charm. It is a stale, boring sequence of events that replaces the heart, character and likability of the story for brooding angst and a melodramatic need to take everything that happens so seriously. It is derivative and plain with nothing to get attached to and with no interesting ideas, characters or dialogue that are developed enough to stick with you after it’s over.
The biggest antithesis to the first game has to be this game’s portrayal of Dante. The first Devil May Cry understood that liking our protagonist was the key to making players relate to his experiences and want to play as him for the rest of the game. DMC 2’s Dante loses his endearing charm, and instead exists only to spout insipid lines of dialogue that make him sound more distant and mysterious than he actually is, instantly making him unappealing to an audience that wants to relate to him and join him throughout this adventure. Dante’s coolness is not earned in this game, because the player has no reason to care about who he is and what he is doing. If anything, Dante is inserted into the plot with no real motivation of his own, making him a shallow mannequin that only resembles the original in appearance.
It’s not just Dante however. Every character in Devil May Cry 2 is shallow and poorly developed, lacking sufficient motivation to make the player feel invested in any way with what’s going on. Devil May Cry 2 simply refuses to give these characters any qualities that make their actions and motivations relatable or even understandable to the player, which in turn makes them less interested in the gameplay as well, because they have no reason to care about what’s going to happen to our characters next.
At the same time, the story of DMC 2 has no themes and is presented in a borderline incomplete way, omitting explanations and rushing through any and all new developments to the point where it can barely even be considered a cohesive “plot”. For how simple the original was, it at least established the most important elements that would make the player connect to what was going on in the story. The sequel does none of this, and estranges the player from the action as a result.
There is nothing redeeming about the plot of Devil May Cry 2, and even as it stands, it barely has any relation to the rest of the series to make a returning player want to get invested in it. DMC 2 is a pointless side story that adds nothing to Dante’s character and fails to explain any of the new developments it makes to the world to make them any more interesting for the player.
But the game couldn’t just end once. To get the full experience of Devil May Cry 2, the player must face two different campaigns with two different characters. These dual campaigns outstay the player’s warm welcome and turn an otherwise short yet flawed experience into a long and uninteresting drag as they are forced to play through entire levels again with very little differentiation and hardly any motivation to continue.
Even in this poor, underdeveloped, insipid form however, Devil May Cry 2 is still DMC. The tried and true process of juggling enemies to build a stylish combo meter remains oddly entertaining to a certain degree. Although combos are a lot easier to pull off in this game, the player still has to put at least a little bit of creativity and strategic thinking to build and maintain a high enough combo. DMC 2 even adds new restrictions and conditions to the combo meter, making combat a little more entertaining than it should be.
As disappointingly bland as Devil May Cry 2 is, considering how troubled its development history is and how it was single-handedly saved by a single director in the span of just four months, I have an odd sense of respect for it. At worst, Devil May Cry 2 is just a mediocre game, yet I find it impressive how the game turned out the way it did just after four months of real development. Worse games have been made with far more resources and far more time.
And hey, at least the soundtrack is pretty good.
The Devil May Cry series would not die with a disappointment however, because two years later the series would come back in full force with Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening. DMC 3 promised to take the series back to its roots and learn from the shortcomings of Devil May Cry 2, creating a title that not only succeeded the original, but improved upon it as well. This is the swan’s song of the Devil May Cry series, the culmination of all the important qualities that would make not only a near perfect Devil May Cry game, but also one of the best action games ever made.
Hideaki Itsuno, the replacement director of Devil May Cry 2, deeply regretted the state in which he was forced to leave the game in. Because of this, he made it his mission statement to not only make Devil May Cry 3 a much better game than the last, but also the kind of action game that he would want to make. As a result of his creative synergy, we can see how in DMC 3 Hideaki Itsuno truly came into his own as an action game director by polishing the foundation left by the original Devil May Cry to a mirror shine.
Much in the same way Devil May Cry changed the face of action, Devil May Cry 3 redefined the foundation of the series and reworked the gameplay, aesthetics, story and of the original to be the new quintessential action game. The game understands and writes the book on how to make an excellent action game, and it’s deserving of its position as the most well regarded Devil May Cry game to date.
Before talking about the gameplay though, let’s take a moment to analyze one of the more underrated aspects of Devil May Cry 3 that thoroughly changes the face of the series for the better: the story. Devil May Cry 3’s approach to storytelling forms a symbiotic bond with the gameplay of the game, completely changing the feeling behind every one of your actions as a player, putting you in the forefront of the action and drama without taking away from the gameplay experience.
The writers of Devil May Cry 3 understand drama and the components that make up an entertaining story. Tragedy and Comedy are the defining elements of any good drama, and Devil May Cry 3 seamlessly balances the two to deliver exciting action and entertaining characters alongside complex themes and hard-hitting tragedy. The drama of the game is truly and actually involving for the player, and before long they’ll find themselves invested in the events of the game and the inner conflict of its cast of characters.
Being a prequel to the first Devil May Cry game, DMC 3 has more room to develop and enrich the established characters and universe of the first game. After the end of the first game, Dante has already overcome his prime motivation, so he doesn’t have many personal issues to resolve for a next installment. However, a younger Dante is someone who has yet to become the protector of humanity from the first game and still hasn’t found his own place in the world. This greatly expands the potential of character drama for the game, which the writers take great advantage of.
For all of its genuinely unpredictable and hilarious over-the-top directing and action, Devil May Cry 3 juggles more complex themes, interpersonal relationships and character drama in the background that makes the lighthearted moments hit and the dramatic moments fit even harder. It is a genuinely unpredictable game in the best way possible, since the player is always surprised by its craziness and its complexity. By far Devil May Cry 3 makes up for the lack of charm of the second game by becoming the most charming DMC game to date.
Even with all his silliness and charming antics, Dante is still a well-developed character that the player likes to play as and roots for in the end. He may be more inexperienced and cocky than his previous incarnations, but he still has his heart on the right place, and he learns throughout the course of the game to become a better person and find his place in this world. It is a joy to watch the inexperienced Dante become a full-fledged demon hunter by the end of the game.
And his growth as a character matches the growth of the player. As the player learns more abilities and masters old ones, Dante is becoming a more skilled demon hunter as well. The player personally relates to Dante in a level that goes much deeper than simple dramatic storytelling, truly putting themselves in his shoes in facing and overcoming the challenge of the game. Once the player grows to relate to Dante on such a level, the payoff of the story grows much greater as well.
As the player loves Dante, they also hate the villains at the same time and facing the challenge of the bossfights is more satisfying than ever. Devil May Cry 3 really makes a good job at presenting villains that are easy to dislike, making it much easier to root for Dante as a result. Thanks to the player’s own efforts in taking down the boss, the payoff of seeing such a spiteful villain being defeated is multiplied exponentially.
Ludonarrative is one of Devil May Cry 3’s strongest suits. The story of Devil May Cry 3 is deeply woven into the gameplay experience and vice versa. These two aspects of the game complement each other so near perfectly that they elevate all of its components into one emotionally exhilarating experience. It is one of the best examples of gameplay to narrative integration, which makes the already robust and exciting gameplay all the more emotionally impactful and rewarding to the player.
Devil May Cry 3 is a game that’s full of style that is perfectly conveyed through its soundtrack, which feels a whole lot more robust than its predecessors thanks to the variety of styles that it approaches as well as the incorporation of lyrics into its music. When DMC 3 needs to ramp up the drama, an orchestral score will accompany the feelings of the story, but when it needs to ramp up the action a heavy guitar and aggressive deep lyrics will follow along the player’s combos.
The gameplay of Devil May Cry 3 does not disappoint either, going back to the series’ roots and correcting what’s necessary while also keeping much stuff the same. It is a natural evolution of the gameplay of the first game that feels more robust and more varied than ever before thanks to the addition of new mechanics and gameplay styles than before.
Devil May Cry 3 controls in much the same way as the original, retaining controls that feel tight and responsive with little room for error. However, it expands the ways you can control Dante to make his fighting style more efficient and fluid than the first game. One thing the game does for instance is giving the player the ability to change direction in the middle of a combo to hit multiple enemies at once.
By far, Devil May Cry 3’s best addition to the player’s moment to moment repertoire of movements is the ability to instantly switch melee and ranged weapons during combat. With this feature, the player can get crazy with the amount of ways that they can combine two weapons to form one long string of combos, thus expanding the ways in which the player can get good at the game. Not only that, but it also encourages playstyles that master and utilize more than a single weapon during combat.
On that same note, Devil May Cry 3 improves upon the first game greatly by increasing the variety between each weapon that Dante unlocks in the game. Each weapon offers a completely different moveset and style that the player can fight with. Every weapon has its own advantages and disadvantages with each situation, and the best player can learn to switch between them for maximum effectiveness and style during combat.
Variety is the name of the game with Devil May Cry 3, especially with the addition of Styles, which are unique movesets that give the player especial abilities during combat unique to each style. These styles allow the player to try out and experiment with drastically different playstyles that can involve aggression, defense, strategy or any other crazy ability and style that the game can offer. The player can level up each Style and utilize them to complement their desired playstyle.
Once the player has found their own playstyle, they can use the extent of their abilities to rack up combos that are even higher than any of the previous games, giving them rewards that make gameplay effectiveness and style feel more satisfying than ever. Out of the three Devil May Cry games on the PlayStation 2, Devil May Cry 3 is by far the most stylish in terms of combos and abilities, which are expansive enough to give the player plenty of resources to get strategic and creative with.
Spending orbs on upgrades in Devil May Cry 3 is more rewarding than ever as well. This time, the player has plenty more options of what they can buy with their orbs, thus encouraging them to find a playstyle that suits them and evolving that playstyle as they play by purchasing abilities that would expand and improve upon the strengths of that playstyle. At the same time, the player can experiment with new playstyles and choose to spend on upgrades that would ease them into them.
Even with all this depth and complexity, the act of playing Devil May Cry 3 is still as simple as ever and anyone can play it and learn what it’s all about in a matter of minutes. However, the game does not let up its challenge, as it lies in mastering the game and its difficulty. Devil May Cry 3 is a difficult game, even more so than its predecessors at times, but it still keeps the player invested because the player wants to use those abilities that they learn to overcome that great challenge.
The bosses of Devil May Cry 3 are a great example of the ways that the game tests the player’s knowledge of the gameplay mechanics. Each boss requires that the player use the things they’ve learned throughout the game to their advantage in order to overcome the barrage of attacks and wildly distinct fighting styles that each of them have. At the same time, bosses in DMC 3 are far more memorable an unique than anything in Devil May Cry 2 while also greatly increasing the number and variety from the bosses in the first game.
Devil May Cry 3 may be intimidating in how difficult it can be for a new player, but the catharsis that the player reaches once they finish it is a great reward for their investment and accomplishments. But even with how difficult it is, the game never forgets to have exquisite pacing that funnels the player through puzzles and environments that have plenty of variety and secrets to uncover during the player’s respite and downtime.
The art direction of the game also goes back to the gothic charm of the first Devil May Cry, keeping things looking cool and stylishly dark while also surrounding them with cold, scary and foreboding imagery to make them tense and intimidating as well, keeping the player on their toes for any of the dangers that may come in the future. This is a very unique look for an action game, and Devil May Cry 3 embraces it to great effect.
Unlike the first game however, Devil May Cry 3 is a lot more linear. The player still backtracks and solves puzzles in almost labyrinthine environments, but they do so at a faster and more consistent pace. This consistent pace is great, since it means that no part of the game outstays its welcome or drags on for longer than it should. However, all of the backtracking in DMC 3 is focused on the second half of the game, meaning that the game loses a lot of steam after its first half and loses a lot of its stronger pacing.
Then again, that is just a minor issue with Devil May Cry 3. As a whole, this game is an excellent summation of all the lessons learned in the previous entries in the franchise, and what it leads to is one of the best and most polished action games of all time. It surpasses its predecessors and creates what is the undisputed quintessential Devil May Cry experience, with plenty of depth, charm and style to make everything work just right.
The power fantasy is an interesting and necessary component for any kind of action game, as the excitement of the action comes at the cost of the player’s thirst for excitement. The Devil May Cry series is very special and unique in this regard, because it places the catharsis of power completely into the hands of the player, whose ability for playing these games transcends whatever power the developers can give to them in the form of their player character.
For all its mechanics are worth, the Devil May Cry series can be more than just entertainment to the truly dedicated and turn the act of playing the game into something athletic or even artistic. It is truly impressive to see the extent of how well these games can be played, and players keep coming back to these games to push their limits even further and experience the thrill of action in their own hands.
This is a franchise that, for the most part, defines just how every action game should be like: mechanically impressive, meticulously paced, carefully designed and built around rewarding the player through story, gameplay and difficulty. Devil May Cry writes the book on action game development and for that reason I couldn’t be more excited for what this franchise has in store in the very near future.
Here’s to an even crazier party.
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