Devil May Cry 5 (PS4): A B ranked combo

My mom knows practically nothing about video games. Usually when she buys me games she sticks to lists that I've made. But on occasion she'll take a shot in the dark and take a chance on something that looked interesting to her. This is how I discovered Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. A game I initially thought was stupid but ended up being an incredibly solid Legend of Zelda style of adventure that I flippin' loved.

She hit on it again in the PS2 era, when the first of this franchise came out. At the time I had only vaguely heard of it, but it featured a commercial of a dude sleepwalking and pulling a sword off his wall before cutting his room to ribbons. The game was a smash success and after multiple iterations and almost 6 years of disappearance this series finally comes back in.....

DEVIL MAY CRY 5: (PS4)

Five years after the events of Devil May Cry 4, we start off in medias res with longtime Devil May Cry protagonist Dante squaring off against a new demon in a massive tower and he is accompanied by a 90's Trent Reznor looking dude who goes by the name of V. The fight is not going well and just as he's about to be finished, Nero from Devil May Cry 4 makes his appearance to try to stop this new evil as well.

The battle does not go as well as he hoped. We flash back to the events that started this: Nero has started his own branch of Devil May Cry demon hunting with girlfriend Kyrie, and his engineer friend Nico. He is ambushed by a man in ragged clothes who cuts off his devil arm and teleports away using the Yamato sword.

Days later we see V enter Dante's Devil May Cry office to hire his crew to slay a returning demon called Urizen. He has planted a demonic tree in Red Grave City called Quiphoth that is basically ripping the blood from the denizens to produce fruit that the demon is collecting. This brings us to where we started the game, and we pick up the action a month from then.

Bringing the Edgelord since 1998

Leave it to Devil May Cry to keep things simple *cough*. So it's interesting to see that this installment of the game goes back to the established canon of the story as opposed to the rebooted version of the game. I guess because the backlash against it? I dunno, I thought it was fine. And honestly it was so early in the DMC timeline that it really could have served as a prequel without disrupting the established canon of the previous games. In any case, were are now back to the front end of the current timeline.

So Capcom has realized lately that if they just modernize the wheel, instead of reinvent it, fans will fall back into step. So what we have in DMC5 is a basically a celebration of the previous iterations with some splashes of new thrown in. The controls of the game stay fundamentally the same to every iteration you have come to know with this series with your light attack, heavy attack, pistols, jump dodge, aim control scheme.  But they do sightly differ depending on the character that you use.

There is some challenge in this one, but this is not the hardest DMC I've ever played.

When playing as Nero, you will find that the control scheme hearkens back to how they did in DMC4 where you have your series of sword and gun moves, but you have a dedicated button to using your arm. You don't have the Devil Arm in this one so instead you will use an interchangeable set of robot arms with various abilities. In addition to that, Nero's Sword, the Red Queen, has the ability to be rev'd up for additional fire damage.

Dante is DMC classic mode, or more accurately Dante is DMC3 mode. While swords are guns are his mainstay, Dante is able to switch between the 4 fighting styles he was able to use before in Trickster, Gunslinger, Swordmaster, and Royalguard. In addition to having these and the multiple weapons he can use, Dante still has access to the Devil Trigger which is what allows him to go full demon mode for high intensity damage and combos for a limited time.

Dante is easily the most versatile of the cast, and using him is like slipping into a well broken in pair of shoes. 

V is the newbie of the group and because of story line context he is significantly weaker than the other two, so he fights with a more ranged summoning style. Sure, you can get in range and swing your staff, but you will pretty much get iced. Instead, V can summon various types of familiars depending on your button inputs that range from a lithe and nimble panther, to a large hulking golem. Once an enemy is weak enough V can dish out a finishing blow with his cane to shatter an enemy. This is the only way to finish them. V also has his own variant of the Devil Trigger as well.

Combat once again is graded depending on how well you combo your abilities together while avoiding damage and affects your total score per fight, which I believe does result in some payoff of red orbs to unlock more abilities as well. So depending on your favored play style you will find a character that you fit into a groove with and score well, and one that you will not. In my case I managed to rank very high with V and always had shit ranks with Nero.

To Nero's credit, a lot of the Arms do give him a number of different abilities to use,
It just would have been nice to switch on the fly to really get the full potential of them.

Stages are broken down in a a somewhat hybrid mechanic of how they used to be in DMC4 and the DmC: Reboot. Each stage generally you flip to what character is going to be the focus and then you basically play through a predetermined path. I would almost venture to say that it is arcadey of sorts because it doesn't feel like there is a whole lot of room for exploration. There is the occasional secret here an there but not a whole lot of freedom to explore your surroundings it felt like. It's infinitely better than the narrow path/open void skyboxes from the reboot, but ultimately its not difficult to find out where you are going.

There apparently is also some strange online mechanic to the game as well. When you play certain chapters of the game apparently there are other events that take place with the other characters at this same time. During these chapters and online player actually takes control of the other character and then at the end of the level you are asked to grade their helpfulness. I am going to be 100% honest I have no idea if I ever actually saw another player. I can think of one level where I was playing as V where I had a Nero running around, but I had no idea if it was an AI or a Player. So whenever I got a prompt I just gave them a good rating. They weren't impeding me, so that seems like enough.

Motorcycle that turns into twin maces? Sure, why not. 

Music in this one was solid, although if at this point a little samey for the series. It's opening theme of "Devil Trigger" was pretty good, but then the game immediately shifts to the that mix of Hard Rock/Industrial you have combat moments and droning demonic ambiance for the exploration moments. Its pretty standard DMC fanfare. So far none of the OSTs have really captures that stellar magic of the first game, but its still pretty good. I'd throw it on in the background while I'm working.

Nico, is a fucking bizarre character. She annoys the hell out of me, and I kind of love her? She basically functions as your portable store for upgrades, saving, and getting Nero new robot arms to use. She's a wild child, but she talks with this nasally stuffiness that I'm not quite sure is supposed to be an nerdy accent or an inflection. She's a goofball, she's foul mouthed, and fearless. I think what makes me love her is compared to her concept art, they actually toned her down to be less sexually designed. She still is, but her looks seem more natural and realistic compared to the picturesque Lady and Trish, which honestly makes her look more appealing.

She's a ridiculous goof, and annoying as all hell. But I'll be damned if their isn't something charming about her.

My biggest complaint with this installment is the same one I had with the DmC: Reboot: The level design sucks. Sorry, ok yeah big demon castle and sprawling gooey walls and scary looking caves are fine and all. But does nobody remember that the first DMC game was kinda like Resident Evil? After the start of the story you would be dropped into a giant castle that you had to explore, fight, and find keys to advance. What has since happened is Final Fantasy 13 syndrome, where the level design feels more or less like a series of straight lines taking you from encounter to encounter. The exploration was part of the game, and I don't know why its shifted away from it.

I hate the Red Queen. One of the most fun aspects of this series is that combat is supposed to be fast, fluid, and exciting. With Dante and V this more or less holds true because you can constantly keep up the pace. But not with Nero, no you have halt your combo to try to get the timing of revving his stupid sword properly to get the best damage out of your combo. I was never able to properly figure it out, and you cant cycle through his robot arms either which is exceptionally annoying. You just have to use them in the order in which you placed them, so you can't adjust them situationally as the fight requires. I do not know why they thought this was a good idea.

Once you get into to a rhythm with the controls, combat is fun regardless of who you are playing with.
Just don't try to rev your stupid sword.

I'm going to spoil a bit of a story bit here so skip this paragraph if you want, but what the fuck was the point of putting Trish and Lady in the game? I'll tell you: To make the pretty girls naked. That's it. You never get to play as either of them, they a pretty much immediately taken out of the equation at the start of the story, and they essentially serve no purpose to advance to the plot. It's frustrating because these two characters are supposed to be sawed off demon hunters themselves. But no, they are relegated to being damsels in distress.

This is the only time I'd be happy for a DLC update because a "Ladies Night mode" would have been awesome since they fight so inherently different than the boys do. But no, Capcom has said they have closed the book on this one so there will be no coming DLC packs for DMC5. They literally put in these two bad ass characters in there to be damsels and stripped naked. Good job, very 2019.

Complaints aside, if not a little ridiculous the story does ultimately come together with a reasonably satisfying ending sequence that feels bad ass to play, if not for leaving open some pretty big plot holes in the conclusion I won't get into for those who having played it. But after hearing it, and then looking it up to learn there is not really a canonical answer for half of it was certainly surprising that they went that way with the story. It's not bad, but it does leave me with some questions I now can't get answered.

I found it very easy to S rank with V, because his bags of tricks lets you stay away from the close combat. 

Bruce Green of FunHaus has a great joke saying that this game was "designed to be cool in 2000". And that probably is one of the most fair opinions I've heard of the game because it certainly does feel like it would be right more at home a generation ago. Despite all my complaints about the game its still an incredibly solid play. I ripped through it and had my fun with it, but ultimately once I finished the game I was done with it. When my only rewards are harder difficulty or arbitrary points, the replability falters. Just another one of the pile of one and done's.

Devil May Cry V came out in march of this year and is already being sold for 20 bucks off of the standard 60 dollar retail. It's a solid play but its not a world beater. It feels like its trying to chase its linage as so many franchised games do. When it comes to spectacle fighters my heart lies with games like Bayonetta, but Devil May Cry V  is more of a return to form than previous iterations, and you could buy worse games for 40 bucks. It gets a lukewarm recommendation.

Seriously, Trish is has a massive ass sword and Lady a bazooka.
But sure, don't let us play as them. 

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3): Super Sony Brothers Brawl

My disconnection with Nintendo is pretty well documented at this point. Just after the SNES they really started to let me down on a pretty consistent basis. I'd get a few things I'd really like but for the most part I bought all that much. But one game that would sort of bring me back was Smash Brothers. I didn't own it or often play it, but I'll be fucking damned if my friends are going to be better than me at a game. So I got good with one or 2 characters and if a friend fired it up I wouldn't be totally lost.

So I had to laugh when Sony decided to throw their hat in the ring with, let's be honest, a complete knock off of the concept so long after Smash Brothers had already become the standard. Reviews were lukewarm, the price kept dropping, but I never bit on this one. I don't have friends over so it never seemed worth it. But it finally got marked as a PSN freebie so might as well download it to see what it has to offer.

PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE

As you might expect, this game doesn't have much of a story. Games that tend to be mash-ups usually don't and when they do they are typically pretty abysmal, (honestly Cross Edge still gives me nightmares). But to best summarize the stories of the game, you basically get a miniature telling of the story or something akin to it from the protagonist of that game. So when I first fired the game up I instantly gravitated to Nariko of Heavenly Sword.

She gives a small monologue and some stills of introspection about her and the power of the Heavenly Sword, much like she did in between the chapters of the actual game.  It runs for about a minute or two and then plunks you right into the game. You get an animated cutscene between her and another character near the end of the game (in my case, Dante from DmC: Devil May Cry {which confused me, Kratos would have made more sense.}). After which you fight some floating digital head things for a final boss, which rings a little familiar to Smash Brothers giant hand. The closing is a few more stills and another monologue. It's nothing flashy but I suppose it works.

Sorry longtime DMC fans. It's the skinny andro-prettyboy Dante.

I was curious to see if this was the norm for the game's standard, so I fired up a 2nd game this time picked Nathan Drake of Uncharted. Much like the previous playthough, I was treated to a handful of stills of Drake and Sully sitting at a table on a beach discussing a map that Drake has found, and that how a map this detailed has to lead to something. I'm curious how that will work for characters like the Big Daddy or Sackboy, but I guess to give the single player mode some substance it works.

I guess the first thing that I noted about the game is how......unpolished, it felt. The opening menu is just a flat background with some menu options. It's functional, but boring. The music that plays during the menu also just felt kind of uninspired and generic. I don't think I could hum the Smash Bros. menu to use, but I know it has a very boisterous and dramatic feel to it, and it's notable enough that I distinctly remember it. Even the character select menu has a boredom about it. Two lines of portraits with a bigger selected one on the bottom. Again, it's functional but lacking a bit of pizzazz.

Not a whole lot to it.

Then we have the actual game, and it functions in that same kind of platform fightery way you would come to expect. You are placed on some notable level from the of the character's respective games and you are to duke it out with one to three other characters on screen at any given time. The story mode seems to be the same each time so it usually opens up with Chop-Chop Master Onionhead's dojo from Parappa the Rapper. This will eventually fall apart to have I believe a metal gear firing rockets at you from the distance. 

This brought me to my next point of contention. The controls of the game felt very loose, nothing ever seem to react for me as immediately as I wanted it to. Now, this might be something that is kind of the norm for Smash Bros. players, but it never felt right to me. I assume the control schemes are similar: You have three attack buttons and jump button, each of them providing different attacks depending on the direction you are pressing when you attack, and item to pick up items, and your "super" button. 

How the game works differently to Smash Bros is in Playstation All-Stars is you don't have the running percentage of damage taken. In this, the more damaging your attacks are the faster it fills up your super gauge. You can still score kills for knocking somebody off the stage, but the fastest way to do so is to rack up specialty kills. Admittedly, this takes away some of the feeling of danger and might make you more likely to dive headfirst into combat because if nobody has a super charged, you are not in a lot of danger to be killed.

To give you context, I started playing my story mode with Nariko and much like her original game, the Heavenly Sword breaks apart for fast chain blade combos. So it was very easy to wailing on the square button and let her start to liquefy anything in her path. But these are light attacks so my little gauge would bump up in increments to 5 or 7. If I ventured over to the other buttons they would do slightly more damage depending on the move.

By concept alone, some characters are just more fun to play than others.

Once I would hit one full bar, I could trigger a special where Nariko summons Kai and blows up a barrel. If enemies are caught in the blast I am awarded a kill. At level 2, Nariko produces a cannon like on the castle battlements and can fire off shots at the other players. The aim is minimal but you get a few shots and any that connect score a kill. At level 3, gets that heavenly glow, and her chains extend to full range and enemies who are caught are quickly ended.

It was an interesting way to try to have the same feel of a Smash game but without directly copying the system. The problem I have with it is I don't feel that it really emphasizes the tension you get when the battle sways. When you see that percentage staring to climb, you really get the weight that you can be blasted of at any moment. In Playstation All-Stars I might have occasionally checked to see if some else had a charge up. I barely touched the dodge/block button because I never saw the need to. I never had some eminent feeling of being threatened.

The only time things really kicked up was a later stage matchup where I noticed one of the computer players actually ringing up a number of kills, and there was concern that it might take the round. Due to some last minute heroics on a level 3 special I managed to pull that one away, but it was the only time in the entire play though where I felt things got a little a tense.

Is there no truly notable villain to be the final boss of this mess? Is just random
geometric face the best they can do? It's pointless and stupid. 

I think one of the other drawbacks to this title (and probably why it took so long for it to be produced) is the overall roster. Some of these characters make sense to me, but some of them don't. If we are looking at legitimate stars exclusive to the console, then guys like Nathan Drake, Kratos, or Jak & Daxter make sense. But people like Raiden, the Big Daddy, or Dante don't make sense to me because their games cross platform. Sure some got their start on PlayStation but hell, Bioshock came to the PS systems last.

And then you have the reaches, Kat from Gravity Rush was in a single game on a console that didn't sell well. Fat Princess you play a character who is ultimately nonfunctional in her own series and is more or less offensive to an entire gender. I would argue that Cole McGrath from Infamous absolutely deserves to be in this lineup, but putting in both an evil and good version of him feels like you are padding out space because you just don't have enough "branded" characters to put in the game. Although in Sony's defense, Nintendo has pulled this shit too. (Looking at you Star Wolf and Lucas). The bottom line here that Sony doesn't really have enough independent notable properties to really flesh out a roster like this.

This roster forced me to give credit to Nintendo. They may just put out the same few
games every year, but they managed to flesh out a pretty meaty roster for Smash.

There are a smattering of other game modes such as a training mode, a challenge mode, and naturally a multiplayer mode. None of them are remarkable or interesting enough to even bother to comment on other than "hey look, there they are"

I'll give credit that the alternate costumes are kind of cool. I don't know why but I have always been a fan of alternate costumes in games and love to try to unlock them, but absolutely started to loathe it once they started putting DLC tags on them. They really should be rewards, not costly extras.

Ultimately, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale pretty much was exactly as I expected it to be: a flat, uninspired knock off of an immensely popular game that has been done already more competently in previous installments. I'd be hard pressed to say it's a bad game because it's at the very least functional, but I personally didn't have much fun with it. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I played it with friends but I honestly don't think it will be in my memory enough to even bother to try it.

The game is currently free on PSN for PS+ users and I've seen it for 20 bucks otherwise. If you need to get Smash out of your system without owning a Nintendo console this is probably a reasonable sub, but honestly I wouldn't blame you for skipping this one. Free was fine, I wouldn't pay 20 for this.

DmC Devil May Cry: Two giant steps sideways.

I've had this one on the shelf for maybe close to a year. I wasn't sure if I just sort of fell out with spectacle fighters, or maybe I just got tired with this franchise. I'm not really sure.  But when this game came out I didn't have the pressing need to pick it up at launch. LONG after its release I bought it on a buy 2 get 1 used special, it sat on the shelf turned sideways to let me know I hadn't finished it (or even started) but that still didn't press me.

To this day I don't know why I put it off so long but in the span before Watch Dogs came out I took that opportunity to just breeze through the game on easy mode so I can at least say that I completed the story mode. If anything it would give me a taste for the game and see the story. First game I've played on easy in a long while.

DmC: DEVIL MAY CRY

Explaining the story of these games is always a headache but I am going to give it a shot. The game takes place in modern day setting in a demon controlled city called Limbo City. It appears to be functioning just like a regular town does, but it is completely controlled and manipulated by a demon called Mundus, who's power reaches to control even the president. Using a drug laden soda (that might be a Futurama reference) or through the constant prattling of a political pundit (who should have just been Bill O'Reily playing himself for as thinly veiled it is) the denizens of the city live their lives in a semi brainwashed state, completely under his control.

Outside the skirts of the city lives a young delinquent named Dante. He's arrogant, brash, and is constantly being hassled by demons who rip him into a parallel plane of limbo and try to kill him. So needless to say he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Dante is rudely awoken one morning by a young girl named Kat. She warns him of danger and pleads for him to come with her, to meet her boss. She works for a group called "The order" and their sole purpose is wrench humanity free from demon control. Aggravated by the hassle of demons, Dante begrudgingly follows along.

So yeah. He's got a little teen pop douche in him. But after a level or two?
I didn't even notice it anymore. New Dante is alright in my book.

So let's get this out of way so you can start flaming me. At first, I didn't much care for his look, but you know what? I like the new Dante. Yeah, he sort of has that shitty popular pretty boy look are you see in movies these days but its a small trade off from the "Oh yeah! Party time bro! DUUUUDE!" doofball Dante we have had for the past few games (3 was specifically the worst). Part of the reason I liked Devil May Cry 4 so much is because a majority of the time you play the game as Nero, and not Dante. Sorry people, but Dante has always been a bit of "Bro-ish" douchehole.

So now we have skinny androgen Twilight version of Dante, and things were not off on the right foot because quite literally the first scene you see him he's completely naked. Thankfully they don't show anything, but come the fuck on. But outside of that intro and his look (which after a while I didn't even notice) he feels like a very different character. There is definitely an edge of youthful angst to the character, and he does have a bit of young adult fiction character growth to him. Angsty but reluctant hero. A bit of dick through the game but as he gets to know Kat, becomes more of a supportive team player. After a few levels I found it really hard not to like the guy.

Kat is a bit different to most of the girls in the DMC series. She is smart and  resourceful,
 but isn't the over sexualized bad ass fighter girl. She has her tricks but is still vulnerable.

What I thought was interesting was the portrayal of Dante's brother Virgil through the game. If you have played through the series in any capacity you know that Virgil is the primary antagonist to Dante. Not in this game, as he is Kat's boss. So while you never play as Virgil he is very much alongside you for the game and it provided an interesting new dynamic to the character.

So this version of Devil May Cry I would say is broken up into two different styles of play: Classic DMC, and Platformy DMC. When you are running along the map, villains and baddies will eventually pop up and all you need to do is wail on them till they drop. I find Devil May Cry to be the standard for good spectacle fighter combat and this installment is no exception. Everything moves quickly and at a smooth pace without feeling overwhelming and too difficult to follow. Bayonetta had this problem where the combat would start to move faster than you could react adding unnecessary difficulty.

Air juggling with pistols is still as satisfying as ever.

Combos are relatively easy to pull off so it accommodates the masher and those who know when to pause in the combo to switch up the move set. They added a very nice gesture in this for this very purpose actually, after a certain move Dante will hold and ending pose. When he does there is a faint but noticeable glimmer on his weapon, this is your timer for the break in the combo. Once I realized that It was easy to keep my timing every time.

I would actually say that it is improved in comparison to previous Devil May Cry games because of how the weapon system works. You get your pistols and sword to start the game, but as you play through you start to allocate Angel and Demon weapons. Typically you will only use one of them but you do have a few options. As you fight, you will find enemies with certain guards or weaknesses, and if you use the back triggers, you can flip to your angel or demon weapon on the fly. Typically the Angel weapons are fast moving, high combo/low damage weapons, and the Demon weapons are slow but heavy damaging weapons used to punch through guards. Switching between them is relatively easy and fun to do.

I quickly fell in love with using the scythe.

What I didn't like about this is these also function as your grappling hooks. These can be used to rip away an enemy shield, pull them enemy closer to you, or pull yourself up to the enemy. In combat these work fine, not as seamless as they should have felt but functional. However, they are also used on these incredibly arbitrary platforming sections you will have to do on each level. It works for the most part, but this is kind of a double edged sword.

When Dante is pulled into limbo, the level design will alter around him ripping apart the floor, buildings, and warping all the surfaces around him to random floating platforms that you will have to navigate. To do this, you need to grapple yourself onto ledges so you can use the other grapple to yank things in place. There are also sections of maps in the level where you have to do this to cross great chasms so you have to do them in midair quickly.  For a while, this was actually a pretty cool visual effect.

But then I started to notice that I am doing sometimes 2 or 3 times in a single level, and then again during the boss fight. Now, Bayonetta did something similar because that had boss fights where they were roughly the size of a planet, so you needed to fly around the enemy to get to its respective weak points. In DmC it feels like you are really only doing it to dodge one specific attack. Maybe this plays more of a factor when you are playing it on a different difficulty, but for what I played all the platforming seemed incredibly arbitrary and unnecessary. I find the floating platform to be shorthand for sloppy level design.

Which is a shame because the the level design for a number of stages is very very cool. There is one specific example where you need to breach an enemy stronghold, but its not actually the tower, its the tower's reflection in the lake. So Dante jumps in and hits limbo skyrocketing upwards into a inverse world. It was a very cool effect. There are handful of stages where they get lazy sending you through corridors, but for the most part all of the non-platformy sections are very cool.

I just felt like I was always having to do this. Stop it. I play these games
to wail on monsters and keep them in the air with guns. 

But aside from thinking it's sloppy level design, it just feels boring to do. There are occasional stretches where you have to make multiple jumps and pulls before you actually hit the ground. They are tedious and annoying, they aren't fun, and they just waste your time. You could easily make me run along a path with a jump here and there for the same effect. But instead it adds pointless trial and error game play forcing me to backtrack when I mess up.

I have always liked the music in this series. Always had a very kinda hard rock/industrial kind of vibe to it. Although when the game started, in the intro credits it straight up said "Music by Combichrist". Now, this initially gave me a bit of a negative reaction because all I know of their music is when their drummer did a "DJ set" before a Rammstein concert I attended. It sucked, because it was basically shitty dance and dumbstep mixes of actually good Rammstein songs while he played with his Ipod, and then occasionally threw his hands up in the air. It was fucking retarded, and so are "DJ sets". (So you dumbstep fans can eat all the boners.)

Thankfully from what I've heard, Combichrist as an actual band falls in line with what I have accepted to be a traditional Devil May Cry ambiance if you will. That hard, aggressive industrial tone in the background as you are wailing on an enemy with an over sized sword. I don't know if any of their "hits" were actually in the soundtrack, but it certainly felt right at home, and has got me thinking I should probably give Combichrist proper an actual chance.

And hey! Boss fights! What an crazy novelty this game has created! I play through a level and fight some baddies, then I fight a really big boss at the end where I have to learn an attack pattern and then wail on the enemy when his weakness is exposed. Instead of just fighting wave after wave of the same fodder enemies I have been wailing on for the entirety of the game.  This was really neat, maybe other games might pick up with wild and crazy idea at some point? It certainly feels right at home here and I would love to see more of it. (Seriously game devs, what the fuck is your problem with boss fights? Thank you DmC.)

I like that I didn't feel forced to use certain weapons during boss fights

So here is the deal. Ultimately, this game is still just another Devil May Cry. The story is familiar but still manages to feel new to an extent. Even though it's not, the game can feel a bit like a prequel to the entire franchise as a whole. The new Dante is an interesting bent to the character and if you are willing to look past the new look (or happen to like it), the game feels like a reasonable installment to the series. I had my fun with it but it didn't knock my socks off, which really is status quo for the series. I'd place it in the middle of the pack. Didn't love it as much as Devil May Cry 1 or 4, but it is certainly better than 2 and 3 were.

It's just another fun romp with Devil May Cry.  I am very much glad I didn't pay the full 60 dollars for it because it would have left me with a lukewarm experience. But at the preowned price of less than 20 bucks it was absolute worth the amount of entertainment it gave me. Honestly this is probably a great place to stop with this property, because even with the new look this old dog is running out of new tricks.

Game is at the perfect price for it right now if you've never played it, but aside from a new look doesn't bring much else to the table. It's worth a play.