A Newcomer’s Perspective of Devil May Cry — Part 1
Part 1 of this comprehensive review of every Devil May Cry game covers DMC 1, 2, and 3, and as such will contain spoilers for each game.
Platform played: PC (with controllers)
Playtime: approx. 50 hours combined with all games
Copy: Steam digital purchases
Price/Availability:
Devil May Cry 1–3: PlayStation 2 (original release), Playstation 3, 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Devil May Cry HD Collection) ($29.99 for HD Collection, original release prices may vary).
Devil May Cry 4: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, NVIDIA Shield, PC (original release), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Special Edition) ($24.99 for Special Edition, original release price prices may vary)
DMC: Devil May Cry: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC (original release), PlayStation 4, Xbox One (Definitive Edition) ($39.99 Definitive Edition, $29.99 original release)
Devil May Cry 5: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (original release), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Special Edition) ($39.99 Special Edition, $24.99 original release)
The “Spectacle Fighter” (or Character Action if you want to make these games sound boring) genre of games has always been an anomaly for me. Outside of God of War and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the Spectacle Fighter genre of games has been something I’ve admired from afar. I was always intrigued by the genre’s dedication to cinematic presentations mixed with arcade-like gameplay structures, yet the crushing difficulty of those games mostly steered me away.
It wasn’t until recently that I finally decided to actually get into Spectacle Fighters, and there is no better place to start than the series that started it all: Devil May Cry.
Starting all the way back in 2001, Devil May Cry has (mostly) been the premier series for everything to do with over-the-top action with high production values. Since Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition is out, and the series as a whole isn’t showing any signs of stopping, I figured there was no better time to go on a deep dive into the genre and see what all the fuss has been about for so long.
Devils Never Cry, But I Sure as Hell Do.
Released back in 2001, the original Devil May Cry was a really strange title for the PlayStation 2. Everybody knows by now that the very first DMC was first intended to be Resident Evil 4, but with the hard turn towards action during production, it was pitched as its own new intellectual property. Producer Hideki Kamiya was fresh off of Resident Evil 2, and while that game was a major success, he didn’t want to make another horror game; he wanted to make the kind of game he wanted to play. With so much work being done on the game by that point, it would’ve been stupid to not ship it and waste all that time and money, so Capcom gave Devil May Cry the greenlight to finish development and release, with Kamiya in the director’s chair from then on out.
After a wonky development cycle, Devil May Cry released to the world in 2001 to rave critical and commercial reception. Devil May Cry took full advantage of the newfound power of the PlayStation 2 to present a cinematic presentation with advanced 3D graphics, while also presenting fluid gameplay that still feels fantastic to play to this day.
While being a fantastic foundation for what was to come for the franchise (and action games as a whole), Devil May Cry feels a tad mechanically weak when compared to the games that came after. Advancements in genre are expected as games progress throughout the years, so saying that the original DMC is technically inferior to what came after is a given, but it isn’t a knock against the game’s achievements for the time.
Devil May Cry is the simplest entry of the entire series for a multitude of reasons. Since the original DMC was a retooling of Resident Evil 4 concepts, it easily shares the most DNA with that series, rather than being its full, original concept. Fixed camera perspectives, multi-layered level design chocked full of backtracking and occasional puzzles, and an overall darker atmosphere clearly make Devil May Cry feel like an offshoot of Resident Evil, yet it contains enough original ideas to separate itself from its predecessor in interesting ways.
The most noticeable difference between Resident Evil and Devil May Cry (at least for the time) was the large emphasis on action. While Resident Evil was still a mostly slow, methodical horror game all about resource management and surviving seemingly insurmountable odds. Devil May Cry switched up the pace to keep things feeling fast and fluid with a dedicated combo system, as well as rewards for finishing levels fast and without taking damage. Although the gameplay philosophies of Devil May Cry strayed far away from what Resident Evil was at the time, there was one fundamental gameplay element from RE that translated to DMC: crushing difficulty.
To make a short game feel longer, Devil May Cry presents the player with an extraordinarily harsh learning curve for players to master. Although later DMC games get a little easier to figure out, the first entry of the beloved series holds no punches, even on “normal difficulty.” Dante is extremely squishy, especially compared to the enemies and bosses he faces up against. One bad move will put Dante in his place fast, and the punishments are severe. If the player dies at any point in a level, they’re forced to start the level all over again from the start, but that’s contrasted with DMC’s rather short runtime. A skilled player could easily beat DMC within a couple of hours, but a first run might take your average player four to six hours, which gives ample time for anyone who decides to take on this beast of a game to master its mechanics.
What makes Devil May Cry a manageable game to play, is the arsenal at the player’s disposal. Alongside typical hack-and-slash combat mechanics comes a comprehensive upgrading system that allows players to unlock new moves vital to their survival. The sheer amount of move varieties present are bundled together via an effective control scheme that doesn’t ask players to chain button combinations together like a fighting game, but rather time their presses in accordance to what combos they’re unleashing. Devil May Cry is a bit easy to get the hang of in terms of the most simplistic of mechanics, but it raises the skill ceiling extraordinarily high for dedicated players to master everything it has to offer.
With combat mechanics so strong, it’s a shame that the only way they can be played around with is solely through the linear level progression of the game. No additional game modes are selectable, and levels can’t be re-completed on any order or any difficulty. Right as soon as Devil May Cry ends on normal mode, it immediately starts the player back on hard, just to do the same thing over again, but with higher damage numbers and different enemy placements.
With a crushing difficulty and surprising amount of gameplay tools paced before the player, Devil May Cry also presents a rather lackluster narrative. Understandably, Devil May Cry wouldn’t be the most story-rich entry in the series because of its weird development history, yet it’s still pretty simple and not all that well-written. All that really needs to be known about Devil May Cry is that it starts with Dante (the half-human, half-demon hybrid son of Sparda) sitting at his desk in his demon-hunting business, and has a mysterious woman bust into the place.
This mysterious woman begins to monologue and an eventual fight breaks out between the two. The woman — revealed to be named Trish — informs Dante that the evil demon emperor Mundus is planning his return. Being aware that Mundus was the one who killed Dante’s family, he’s immediately interested in the job and travels to a remote island fit with a spooky gothic castle. From there, Dante is set to explore the castle, kill demons, and destroy Mundus for good.
For the most part, the plot is pretty absent from Devil May Cry. Besides a few story beats involving a reveal that a recurring boss is actually Dante’s brother, Vergil (known as Nero Angelo in this game), and that Trish was actually a spawn of Mundus to trick Dante into coming to the castle so he can be killed, plot is largely an afterthought. As expected, Devil May Cry puts far more emphasis on its moment-to-moment gameplay, rather than telling a grandiose narrative.
Story may mark for one of the weakest aspects of Devil May Cry, but there’s another aspect that’s cause for concern: bosses. DMC has a few really good fights up its sleeves, each of which is a great test of strength and put your knowledge of the game’s combat mechanics to the test. Unfortunately, Devil May Cry recycles boss fights to an aggravating degree.
Devil May Cry has around four bosses (five if you want to include the final, and seven if you want to count the three fazes of said fight), and all four of those bosses are used at least three times throughout the game. The sheer lack of variety for the bosses leads to a begrudging feeling of monotony that sadly runs as a constant throughout the series, yet the fights themselves prove to be pretty good (at least the first go-around). Boss battles in Devil May Cry are still a good test of skill, yet their repetitive nature leads to a yearning for better, more original content.
By the end of Devil May Cry, Dante defeats Mundus, Trish has her dark soul filled with light, and similarly to Resident Evil, Dante and Trish flee from the island castle in a gloriously dumb vehicle section. As the credits roll, and the game preps you to play the game all over again on a harder setting, curiosity fills the mind on where Devil May Cry would go next.
You Were the Chosen One!
With a solid, yet flawed first entry for everyone to enjoy, Devil May Cry 2 had to up the stakes considerably to really capture what made the first game good, and expand on its original foundation. Anyone who knows anything about Devil May Cry knows that the follow-up to the acclaimed action title was nothing short of a disappointment. Calling Devil May Cry 2 a disappointment is a severe understatement, though…
It’s worth getting the good stuff out of the way first. Even though Devil May Cry 2 is an atrocity, it did standardize a few good features the series has seen since this game’s release. To start, Devil May Cry 2 brought us Bloody Palace: a survival mode that pits players into increasingly difficult fights as they progress a series of floors to reach some astronomical number that marks as the endpoint.
Devil May Cry 2 was also the very first game to introduce other playable characters besides Dante, which was also a series staple going forward. Lastly, Devil May Cry 2 presents a new combat movement system that feels rather nice to pull off. Along with the standard rolling and jumping out of the way, Dante can now wall-run and flip off of walls.
It’s rather sad that everything good about Devil May Cry 2 fits snugly under a single paragraph, because for every little, yet cool addition DMC 2 adds to the series, it strips back things tenfold.
Devil May Cry 2 feels lethargic compared to its predecessor. Instead of helming a fluid, fast, and enjoyable combat system that incentivizes creative and brutal play from the player, DMC 2 tries to lean on the spectacle in all the wrong ways. Gone is the extensive combo system of 1, with the detailed upgrading systems that allowed for players to experiment with different moves and tactics depending on the enemies, and here comes a game that can basically be completed by spamming gun attacks for a few hours straight.
Since most of the game can basically be completed by using Ebony & Ivory (Dante’s dual pistols), there’s less incentive to experiment with melee weapons. Sadly, even when trying to go out of your way to play with the swords on offer, they offer a staggeringly lesser game feel compared to the first. With a severe lack of gameplay features on offer right from the get-go, it’s additionally a shame that the ability to buy new combos to master is replaced by a barebones weapon upgrade system that just increases damage, rather than the ability to master new technical abilities.
Devil May Cry 2’s lacking weapon sandbox is paired with enemies that all feel the same. Instead of the punishing variety of enemies that offer up a unique combination of attacks, DMC 2 throws brain-dead enemies at the player with largely the same functionalities (that also have unbelievably stupid names). Devil May Cry 2 also isn’t helped by its lacking level design, which is often far too open, leading to frequent points of boring wandering in what’s supposed to be a highly-tense action experience.
So, even though the game is lacking in its most basic content, does it possibly lend itself to a decent sense of difficulty like before? No.
Unlike Devil May Cry’s crushing, yet oftentimes fair difficulty systems that required mastery of its mechanics, DMC 2’s sense of difficulty is purely a test of patience than skill. The player will likely never die, face seemingly insurmountable odds, or be presented with anything resembling challenge, but they will be tested based on how long they can last before they fall asleep.
Even the easiest of action games can still present rewarding gameplay as long as the gameplay offerings are interesting, but Devil May Cry 2 has nothing to keep the player interested in continuing beside the relief that they’ve finished it, and never have to play it again.
It’s rather obvious that there’s not much good about Devil May Cry 2, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the narrative is just as lacking. Instead of having the occasional wise-cracking, yet somewhat stoic Dante to mess around with, DMC 2’s Dante is strangely silent for a large majority of the game.
The lack of any outward personality for Dante may be a cheap excuse for the player to “insert themselves into Dante,” but that rings hollow when we already had a Dante with a personality in the previous game. Honestly, it appears as if the writer(s) for DMC 2 just had no idea on where to take the series, and that’s understandable considering the whole rest of the game feels that way as well.
There isn’t anything really worth mentioning in terms of the story, itself. Dante gets wrapped up with another mysterious woman figure, which leads him to take on some sort of job to take down an evil CEO demon guy, and all that’s being offered in return is knowledge about Dante’s father. Dante then heads out to kill this demon CEO guy, does so, and the game ends.
The only way the narrative gets any better is through the secondary campaign, where the player plays as the mysterious woman: Lucia (I definitely did not have to look up her name on the DMC wiki as I wrote that). Lucia gets a few extra stakes in the story as a few twists and turns reveal that her involvement with the story is far more relevant than anything Dante’s doing. It’s a shame, though that the story still isn’t good, and even though Lucia’s side of the game is slightly better, it’s still bad and doesn’t offer anywhere near enough original content to bother playing through.
Needless to say, Devil May Cry 2 was a disaster. There’s a lot more to talk about concerning Devil May Cry 2 (mainly its development cycle), so if you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into what went wrong with Devil May Cry 2, you can watch Matt McMuscles’ video on the game:
One Hell of a Party!
Like a phoenix from the ashes, Devil May Cry 3 sprung onto the scene, reinvigorating the franchise against all odds. Experiencing Devil May Cry 3 right after playing 2 is like being awoken from a years-long coma by having a shot of adrenaline shoved into your body, and fans couldn’t be happier. The stripped-back combat systems, terrible enemy AI, and boring levels were all shoved into the back burner to give the world an action game experience that would be the gold standard going forward.
Devil May Cry 3 saw Hideaki Itsuno behind the director’s chair from the start, which was a dramatic change from 2. Although Itsuno was put into the director role for 2, he was brought on late into development, and Itsuno could only fix the shambling game so much. To truly show that he knew how to capture Hideki Kamiya’s original visions from the first DMC, Capcom gave Itsuno a chance to bring the series back to its roots. Needless to say, Itsuno succeeded with flying colors.
Instead of trying to follow up Devil May Cry 2, Hideaki Itsuno felt it would be easier to craft Devil May Cry 3 as a prequel. Dante’s exploits in DMC 2 would take several more years to see a true follow-up, but for the time being, the path of exploring Dante’s past, as well as his relationship with twin brother Vergil felt to be the better call.
The differences between Devil May Cry 2 and 3 are apparent right from the start. While 2 begins with a mostly mopey opening cutscene, leading into a painful crawl of an opening level, 3 starts with a major bang by comparison. Just as Dante is getting his footing with his newly established business, he’s interrupted from his post-shower pizza by a mysterious man claiming to have a message from his brother.
After Dante gets ambushed, he's thrust into a climactic battle against a bunch of demons. Once Dante fends off the beasts, a decrepit tower springs forth from the earth, spawning many questions from Dante. Realizing this is the work of Vergil, Dante approaches the tower and begins to learn of Vergil’s plans.
As Devil May Cry 3 progresses, Dante comes into contact with many different characters. From a goofy, yet ominous jester, to a mysterious woman with no name (later named “Lady”), Dante tries to ascend the tower, learning that Vergil’s ultimate plan is to unleash the demon world onto Earth. Of course, Dante can’t let Vergil basically destroy the planet, so with his youthful energy, silly attitude, and impeccable demon-slaying skills, Dante successfully defeats Vergil before it’s too late. Unfortunately, Vergil’s partner Arkham is revealed to be the jester and attacks Dante, Vergil, and Lady.
Arkham reveals that the whole demon tower exploit was a ruse for him to obtain demonic abilities like Dante and Vergil’s deceased father: Sparda. With nowhere to go but up, Dante and Vergil briefly team up to take out Arkham. After a brief celebration of victory, Vergil and Dante seemingly can’t put their differences aside, and they face off in an epic duel, where Vergil is defeated and falls into the underworld.
Devil May Cry 3’s narrative is mostly straightforward, but it holds a few surprises up its sleeve besides the standard twists and turns you’d expect. Acting as a new quality standard for interactive stories, Devil May Cry 3 offers a unique story beat mid-way through the game. As Dante defeats a certain boss, it runs away from battle, meaning that the usual boss weapon that would be granted to the player is out of reach.
Later on, the boss encounters Vergil, where the beast is finally killed. Instead of the boss weapon being granted to Dante, Vergil wields it, and even uses it against the player during the second boss fight against Vergil. Cool bits of storytelling like this are what make a great rival character in action games.
It’s rather obvious at this point, but Devil May Cry 3 is the most story-heavy entry in the series up to this point. While the story takes up a larger piece of the action than previous entries, it’s the gameplay that still shines the most.
Devil May Cry 3 brought a phenomenal new wave of gameplay mechanics to Devil May Cry. Outside of acquiring new abilities and weapons like before, DMC 3 introduces a new “style” mechanic. Besides your standard weapon abilities in combat, styles offer up a new way to play the game. Depending on the style a player has selected, new moves are unlocked via the B button (or equivalent depending on the platform). Swordmaster will map the B button to perform extra sword moves, Gunslinger does the same for firearms, Trickster gives Dante an extra dodge, Royalguard gives Dante the ability to block and parry enemy attacks, and even more styles can be accessed as you play the game.
Adding on top of styles is the return of Devil Trigger from the previous games, which offers faster movement, an increased range of attacks, and greater damage outputs. Styles could only be switched in dedicated areas within missions or just before starting one, yet the series would evolve to offer on-the-fly style switching, and DMC 3 would even see this added with the newest Nintendo Switch port.
With up to six possible styles to use, each with new abilities to unlock as you use them, and five melee weapons and guns, Devil May Cry 3’s combat system is opened for the most bombastic experimentation the series had ever seen.
A sizeable arsenal at the player's disposal only goes so far if the levels and enemies are not up to the task. As expected, though, Devil May Cry 3 offers an assortment of interesting combat areas, bundled with a wide variety of enemies that constantly makes combat engaging. The enemy variety in Devil May Cry 3 is much more appreciated than the previous entries due to the increased length of this third installment.
While the two previous DMC games could easily be completed within a few hours, each, Devil May Cry 3’s main campaign runs for a solid six+ hours (nearly double the length from before). Thankfully, the increased length of Devil May Cry 3 — mostly — doesn’t lead to any significant padding, meaning that Devil May Cry 3 was simultaneously the longest and most fleshed-out entry of the series thus far.
It goes without saying, but Devil May Cry 3 is an amazing game. With all of its technological advancements to the action game formula, it standardized what action games continue to be to this day. Fantastic highs can sometimes lead to dizzying lows, though, and Devil May Cry 3 does have a few despite its consistently high-quality bar.
Besides some winding level design that can oftentimes feel too confusing for its own good, Devil May Cry 3 carries over an issue that the first game had: recycled boss fights. Every boss in Devil May Cry 3 is a fantastic challenge and offers unique situations requiring on-the-fly tactics to overcome, but they overstay their welcome with a mandatory boss rush at the tail end of the game.
Requiring the player to face off against bosses they’ve already beaten a single time over is annoying in many cases, but Devil May Cry 3 isn’t nearly as egregious as 1, since bosses only have to be beaten twice. Obviously, it would’ve been better if we didn’t have to fight the same bosses more than once, but twice isn't nearly as frustrating as three or even four (a problem we’ll encounter later).
All of this content of Devil May Cry 3 would only be expanded upon in the Special Edition rerelease (a series constant going forward). Devil May Cry 3 was already rich with the variety of modes to play out of the box, but the Special Edition switched things up a bit to further realize the Devil May Cry 3 vision. Characters like the jester are now available to fight as a boss battle, Bloody Palace from DMC 2 was added, and the now beloved Vergil was available to play as. With the addition of these new modes, the overall amount of gameplay added to Devil May Cry 3 was nearly doubled, further establishing it as the de facto action experience it remains to this day.
