(OLD) Devil May Cry 1, 2, & 3 Review

let's rock baby the playstation 2 is easily one of my favorite consoles of all time i mean without it i probably wouldn't be here today as of 2019 still remaining the most successful game console ever created with an unbelievably diverse library with most of my favorite games of all time originating on the thing seriously you have no idea how much i love this console i just had to get that out there since devil may cry is one of those iconic franchises born in the legendary machine although i never touched the series until last year crazy i know but like i said in a previous video i never even knew action games were my thing until i first played metal gear rising in 2017. i would just add a game stop looking for something new to try and i saw the then newly released devil may cry hd collection for the playstation 4 on the shelf so i picked it up alongside the remaster of resident evil 4. although i got so hooked on the dmc franchise that i now own multiple copies of like every game and can't put them down so i still haven't even played resident evil 4 but all in due time despite owning several different versions of those games i'll be reviewing all the games of the ps4 just so you know i mean as far as hd conversions go i think the dmc trilogy got treated pretty well i mean there might be a skybox issue here and there but that's pretty small potatoes since all three games look amazing in 1080p so a long time ago there was a great warrior the dark knight sparta as he defended the human world from the demon underworld time after time i mean literally every game focuses on something he did that was amazing but now the demon underworld is challenged by his son dante at his demon hunting shop called devil may cry suddenly a woman called trish appears out of the sky and rims a motorcycle through the door she has powers and shows us the first of many times where dante will just walk off getting stabbed through the chest so he has powers guns and swords and is personally out to kill demons since it's because of them he lost his mother and his brother trish looks strikingly like dante's mother which sets off some red flags for him but he takes her job anyway as they go to malay island to destroy mundus the demon responsible for dante's loss that sparta had once defeated before from there dante explores the castle top to bottom has memorable encounters with the creatures on the inside until reaching mundus and that's basically the summary dante himself is a joy to watch at dmc one despite not being nearly as off the wall as later games he's really relatable in this game in spite of that as he's here for personal motives and takes his mission seriously when it needs to be done but it's his wise cracks that make him so entertaining he just trolls the bosses what a big surprise i hope for your sake you got something inside that big body of yours this stinking hall was the last place i thought i'd [Music] the game does an excellent job building up to these encounters as well phantom for example shows up once but then chases you two more times before the climactic final boss with him [Music] you're right i'm his son dante sweet dreams and the same thing for griffin and when he gets defeated this is when the three eyes of moon disappear in the sky and punish him from above it's so simple but it's how you do build up and pay off we've been getting chased around by these bosses but only serve and worship mundus who can punish them from the sky it just makes you wonder like jeez what is mundus really like and how we gonna beat him if these bosses were already tough enough the rule of three also works with the mysterious nello angelo who has the exact same fighting style as dante but always has a strange reaction to getting beaten by dante anyway they reveal that he's actually dante's brother virgil who was defeated by and now serves mundus until destiny strengthens dante's motive to go face off against him and it does for the player as well but the game makes me excited when new enemies pop up each new type of enemy you fight is given a cool introduction cut scene to show off their powers as you then cut back to gameplay and tear them apart it's just so satisfying no matter how many times i play through devil may cry story's not perfect though i mean it's revealed that trish also works for mundus i mean who didn't see that coming when she betrays dante he turns on her and then at the end she saves him and now they're best friends trish doesn't really do that much in this game up to the very end which is where most of her character arc is so it's a bit poorly paced in that sense but i enjoyed everything else in the story well except the voice acting 2001 was the tail end of games having really corny voice acting and while devil may cry is nowhere near as bad as many 5th gen games i've covered on the show before however it's still not great by any stretch of the imagination really dante i really like the laid-back voice he has but his range of emotion is poor since the more dramatic lines sound really forced don't come any closer you devil i should have been the one to fill your dark soul with life [Music] not many characters are voiced as is before we do have i mean trish is just kind of there mundus sounds really evil and that's hard to screw up and the bosses sound alright but they're handy beyond belief the devil may cry series has never really grabbed me in regards to the soundtracks i mean there are some exceptions to this rule throughout the trilogy since there are numerous tracks in all three games i really like but in three and four especially a lot of the music tends to fade in the background when clashing swords with and firing your guns at the demon hordes but in the case of dmc one and a lot of dmc2 the music just checks off all the right boxes for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] devil may cry such a cohesive experience where every aspect of the game comes together to make the experience the soundtrack will be quiet and ambient but also really creepy as you explore the castle and more holy sounding in the cathedral uncanny sounding the battles nello angelo and just plain action-packed in any other encounter combined with the fantastic graphics for the standards of the time as every area feels rich in detail with a unique story to tell in every room and on that subject devil may cry 1 is one of the best atmospheres i have ever seen in a game i love how dante has his own monologues to read as he reacts to every aspect of the castle i love the timing of the music the camera work it's just so beautifully done and this really makes devil may cry 1 stand out in a way no other dmc game does dmc was quite the trendsetter i mean beat em ups were such a popular genre in 2d however the formula had a really rough time translating into 3d with devil may cry redefining how to handle combat in 3d where dmc 1 is of course about taking down enemies but also by exploring this castle finding keys and upgrades i wouldn't call this a full-on metroidvania since it's pretty linear but the design mentality is very similar as dante will have to run through the whole castle and when you find something either a need to find a use for it to progress further or maybe you already know the solution since places that need an item to progress will say so when you interact with them so when you do find what you need you'll have a satisfying aha moment and rush back to the place you need to use it in it's design that is inherently rewarding and makes the game go by faster if you know what you're doing at the same time areas are extremely boxed in so to increase exploration you get a lot of side rooms like a creepy bedroom or a room with a giant dinosaur cramped environments serve the game so well so you can focus on the enemies you're fighting all the while feeling like they're ganging up on you and multiple enemies arrive and also keeps the atmosphere really suspenseful since you never know what's going to be around the corner in this place and that's just so engaging to play with really cool set pieces as well like shooting fireballs back in the dinosaur skeleton or the pirate ship starting to move and so on as for the combat which makes up the majority of dmc the game throws new enemies your way left and right so when going into it dante's left with his sword force edge with a few basic combos activated by timing the button presses after attacking the first time like a basic three-hit combo a five-hit combo with a million stab as dante rapidly stabs his nearest opponent bonus points for doing this to more than one enemy at a time early on dante will find the demon-powered electric sword alistar which has all the same combos as force edgely with electricity and the devil trigger which will show dante in a demonic form as you can attack faster and with more ferocity the characters under your health will show how much devil trigger or dt for short you have left with you needing three to activate it it can be revealed through taking damage or if you're feeling bold you can get one bar of dt energy filled entirely if you taunt the enemy during a combo since this puts you in direct risk of being hit style is extremely important in devil may cry as the game was heavily marketed around that idea during combos you'll see a lot of words in the top of the screen going from dull to stylish and you of course want to keep that up as much as possible since you're graded for this by the end of every stage and this goes towards the total ranking at the end of the game by the end dante unlocks sparta the most powerful sword however while it does come with that benefit you might still want to use alistar from time to time since when using sparta you can't use your dt so it's a fair trade another weapon dante gets is ifrit gauntlets you can use to bash enemies with your bare hands you can switch between alistar and ifrit when you come to a full stop and press the r3 button which is very cumbersome but you really won't be switching that much since some enemies are better dealt with with a sword and some are better defeated by hand just a balanced system if it isn't as cool as it could be though i enjoy using it while on dt since you can unleash a devastating combo of fire kicks however otherwise the combos are a bit slow definitely something that gets improved on in later games although hand-to-hand combat that's just okay it's not the only thing i don't like about devil may cry though the controls work really well and feel really responsive for the most part there are some instances where i'm pressing all the right buttons but dante won't roll out of the way of an enemy attack or my guns just like freeze up and have to wait a second before they fire again which as far as i can tell isn't an intentional design mechanic it's just weak gameplay the minimal platforming is also kind of weak is dante's jump just doesn't feel right it works in combat however when jumping around just feels kind of awkward so getting back to the mechanics themselves dante always carries his twin pistols ebony and ivory which somehow have unlimited ammo you only really use these for chip damage when in between sword strikes so you definitely not want to rely on them too much throughout the game you unlock more guns that do more damage like the shotgun or the rocket launcher or the needle gun which can only be used in these baffling underwater sections using guns during this game is also limited because you can't switch through guns on the fly like the melee weapons which means you're gonna have to go through the menu to pick the one you want and use it really quickly yeah i'll just stick to the pistols in that case that's not me meaning to crap on the menu though since i think this game has one of the coolest item selection animations ever with the sound effects and the demonstration it just screams early 2000s style i just love it just switching through things takes too long in the heat of battle despite all the tiny issues i have with devil may cry 1 the game is just so addicting to play when i was talking about the atmosphere just now that was one of the things that kept me going the first time it's just so damn easy to get lost in this world as it's like no other game i also never got my ass kicked in a game as much as devil may cry my first time through this game will test you if you aren't already well versed in the modern day action genre i only had metal gear rising under my belt so obviously this game was tricky especially since the game runs on a live system lose them and you're going back to the save point which is why i advise you to save after every missions that's what i did however conquering most of the dmc series and going back to dmc one it wasn't that bad with the difficulty that's because my skills have just grown i mean geez i remember my first run of this game it felt like forever before i got to a boss fight but now is within a half hour or so of game time i also had a decent stock of yellow orbs for most of the game as well until the very end when i was basically hanging by a thread getting game over after game over on the final boss with mundus and if you want to stand a better chance then this is why you buy upgrades using the currency red orb you can take them to these statues and buy things you'd want like a blue orb which increases your maximum health or if you don't want to buy those you can alternatively look for blue orbs which will increase your health if you find four of the fragments much like heart pieces in the zelda games purple orbs increase your maximum dt yellow orbs for more lives or green stars for a health pickup but if you want more offense you can buy additional moves like this stinger allowing you to do a quick stab towards an enemy and this is where replay value really comes in for dmc from what i can tell without grinding you will not be able to buy every upgrade in this game in one playthrough but this is the beauty of it since beating the final boss will allow you to play through the whole game in hard mode with all your abilities and weapons carrying over as you continue to grow your funds and become the ultimate demon slayer as you'll see content is something the original dmc trilogy has in spades the boss fights themselves are also really good and very well spaced out the build-up i talked about in the story carries over since you battled phantom and griffin twice and nightmare three times but the repeat encounter is in a much different battleground which changes the way you attack but the boss itself also gains new abilities changing the way it fights you i didn't like any of the nightmare fights though just not a boss with a fun strategy to avoid or get hits in on with the camera during the final fight actually sucking the nello angelo fights working on the same philosophy and these are my favorite bosses there's always something great about a one-on-one boss against an equal and i'm glad dmc gets this right although i don't know why the first phase of mundus just turns into the shadow of the hedgehog final boss but the rest of the final boss is well done and a worthy challenge to send devil may cry off on jackpot in the end trish and dante save each other and escape malay island as partners in crime ready to battle whatever demons come their way despite the story not being anything mind-blowing this was a good ending okay let's get it over within 10 minutes can't let a single one of those suckers live five minutes more than enough but yeah that was devil may cry and upon revisiting it i had a blast playing through this game it's clearly shown its age in many ways however as the father of the modern day action genre it's impressive how good the game actually is for an early ps2 title it was clear right when the game came out this was an instant classic a worthwhile time for any gaming enthusiast and had a lot of potential as a franchise and i agree with all of that wholeheartedly i really appreciate this game we can't wait to keep coming back to it and gaining more and more experience so that means we can talk about the next game but this review may not be going in the direction you think this game in particular is often hailed as the single worst devil may cry game even surpassing dmc devil may cry the reboot gamespot even named as the most disappointing game of 2003 with every single outlet in the gaming industry holding similar opinions as someone who didn't even have the slightest interest in dmc till i just bought the dmc ps4 collection on a whim last year dmc 2 had me really intrigued since i was completely unaware of the game's infamous status until i beat and fell in love with the first game i've continued to come back to each and every devil may cry and that includes dmc too still fascinated with it since i could tell you what was wrong with it in many ways but i kept playing it because i thought it was fun at the same time but i wouldn't call this a defense nor is it a rant view i just wanted to say something about devil may cry 2. so let's begin the story in this game is a bit of a letdown and at its worst doesn't make any sense the opening establishes that the new girl lucia has called dante to the museum as she gets attacked by demons while trying to take one of the artifacts they leave a lot of blanks unfilled throughout like how when dante says she called she marks the map above the display case but the monsters attacking seem to be pretty spontaneous so i'm not sure the actual plan for dante was to begin with here this is of course just nitpicking however the story does this sort of thing all the time dante arrives the island of vita marley when meet with lucia and her mother figure matiere as they inform dante that an evil business owner named aryas is trying to collect the arcanas to awake the power of argo sacks the chaos a powerful demon that is just the basic summary the story just kind of stops after that since dante finds the artifacts and that's it no real development as dante is really detached from this conflict it's revealed that lucia was created by aryas which is fine i guess but this is also a repeat of what happened in the last game with trish but emotional investment is a big issue in this game overall so let's talk about it one of the biggest outliers about this game is the personality of dante himself personally i'm pretty split on it on the one hand i totally missed the confident wisecracker from dmc one and especially three and four it was because of this that we got really cool dialogue that made bosses feel memorable however dmc2 completely drops the ball on that one like how in mission 8 when dante attracts down arias he raises a giant fire monster out of the ground dante stares at it the thing makes monster noises and then it dies and dante just walks away this goes for every single boss if they even get a proper cutscene to introduce it to begin with i mean some of them don't even get that much with the worst example being phantom from dmc one just appearing at the end of mission 14. how dmc one could build up and make me look forward to seeing a magma spider seems like magic when you compare it to this this issue just makes the story feel like you're just flowing through the motions rather than riding a roller coaster with highs and lows you could say that by this point dante is just bored of combat he's been doing it for so long that it's too easy for him to care which i think sounds really cool but i should have made it a big part of the story like having it show in his dialogue but he barely has dialogue so we don't know but on the bright side i really like dante in the last few missions he has some great lines in the finale with arias is there a problem is that the medallion you switch them a false coin for a false god king yeah here's your crown but in mission 13 especially dante's lines to arias just kill me every freaking time because the delivery is just so funny i just can't even explain it that's just a piece of crap here's another three for you other than that the first 75 of the game is devoid of all that despite dante's character being really simple in this game that doesn't stop some people from overlooking cool details though like how dante now does a coin flip like two-face before making a decision which sounds kind of weird and pointless until you realize that actually isn't what dante's doing he gets to mess with people by making them unsure of what he's gonna do however he never relies on luck he makes his own since the coin is double-sided he chooses his own fate and puts himself on the line for other people which is a really nice trait for this older dante but yeah buildup and payoff is a massive area this story could have done pretty well but it's squandered in many areas as i'm hammered in dmc one made the rival and the main antagonist really memorable as you made your way to the final boss fight dmc2's equivalent is bulwark who had a great design but literally no character he sends his wolves after dante at the start of mission 5 attacks you would miss an 11 and makes his final assault mission 16. but it just appears he and dante exchange no lines we know nothing about him and it's just over in a flash which is just a waste aureus is also really bland for the most part of the game until he suddenly turns into a maniac in the second to last mission the problem with building up to him is the fact that the game is paced so poorly to the point where you just don't care about arya's this game sends dante all over the map and he's just going along for the ride like how dantes is a helicopter take off in mission 6 it lands on an offshore rig at the start of mission 7 and then dante is there with zero explanation for how he got there with numerous other examples throughout the game the concept art shows how arya's massive tower was supposed to loom over the game and that would have been amazing i mean think about it if they spent less energy on making the actual rooms you run in around huge and make more focused environments with aureus's tower getting closer and closer as you play that would have been great i mean i could keep going but this story obviously isn't very good and those are all the big points if dante made a bigger deal out of the bosses and the buildup of cohesion was much better than the game would have been improved instantly in the ending dante travels to the demon world and battles argo sax and its final form the despair embodied and wins the day [Applause] [Music] and ride through hell on his motorcycle [Music] yeah let's go all the way to hell and when the dante must die ending confirming that he did make it out of there when dmc 5 was confirmed to take place after dmc2 i got pretty hyped admittedly after all my very first point my dmc 5 wish list was to not waste the devil may cry 2 follow-up since this game was just ousted at the end of the timeline it's not have to deal with it i have respect for companies acknowledging works that were poorly received since it's not going away you might as well follow it up and i was happy to see the dmc 5 might finally be the one to do that originally this script was written a few months ago but i decided to put the video on the back burner for a bit and just recently it was confirmed that the devil may cry timeline received an update an update that arbitrarily decided that devil may cry 2 was now swapped with devil may cry 4 in the timeline placement so yeah dmc 5 is just a sequel to 4 and 2 can safely be ignored for the rest of history look dmc 5 is not out yet and so on march 8th i might be eating my foot and i hope that's the case however if what i just said is true then that's really disappointing since again i was hoping to see some cool things like dante getting out of hell and such but no most people including the staff hate the game and so it must be forgotten dmc 5 is still set up to be a great game but again that just bothers me anyway i mentioned the concept art just now and this need for the game to be bigger and better than what came before runs through the whole game at the developmental stage i mean just look at the trailer a lot of 6th gen games did this where a big selling point was how big your world could be or how many worlds you could fit into the disc but it doesn't hold up very well you just want to play the damn game the confined locations of dmc one made for a better atmosphere better set pieces and oddly enough more variety in the locations and lighting just about everything the atmosphere made dmc 1 stick out so much and 2 just lacks it at the start of the game it's instant downgrade from the last game with these unclear sword combos which makes the combat really alienating of players for the first game who are looking to scratch that itch with an even better game than dmc one but yeah looking at devil may cry 2 this slow combat makes players use the firearms instead because of a thing called the dominant strategy where a player will pick the path of least resistance even if met with several other options which is incredibly bad design i mean a few of the bosses like the infested chopper are actually made much quicker when using dt attacks but since the painless but terribly designed method is just standing there shooting most people are gonna do that which is 100 on the fault for the designers making that possible which dmc one and other games didn't do when it comes to the bosses especially the arenas are so huge the point we're just standing in the corner and shooting becomes such a no-brainer mission 5 needing no comma in that regard other bosses like tris maji are just the worst since you have nothing to do but stand there shooting for what seems like forever barely even getting a chance to put a dent in it although i really don't think sword combat is that bad in this game anymore but like i said the combos are so unclear to the point where a lot of folks just use one combo think it's terrible and call it a day however there were legitimate improvements but between games for example i think getting around is dante whether it be dodging attacks firing and locking on are all done much better and more smoothly than dmc one i love the addition of switching firearms in real time and on ps2 dmc2 improved the controls as well since the north american version of devil may cry 1 has this backwards control scheme or circle as jump and the sequel fixes this i also really like the amulet system and wish we saw more of that in later games what this does is allow you to customize your dt for differing properties like ice attacks or fire or electricity or flying versus being faster healing more dealing out more damage it's a really good system that encourages exploring to find them all and encourages customization you get three swords in this game but what really is disappointing about this is that instead of getting a couple of swords that scale on quality throughout the game and a hand-to-hand weapon we get three swords rebellion merciless and vendetta all three of these have the exact same attacks and properties which wouldn't be too bad but the lack of melee combat outside of trish is noticeable while the game tells you that rebellion is the basic default sword vendetta is the most powerful with the shortest range and merciless is the weakest with the longest range these are differences you would hardly ever notice when playing the game i often use merciless since my s-rank strategy relies heavily on stingers and if that supposedly gives me the best reach i'll use it the problem doesn't just stop with them all being the same weapon essentially it also sucks that dante has every single move he'll have by the end of the game at the beginning because of this there's just no progression with the swords in addition to that the game never explains the combo system where you press the attack button a certain amount of times and then push the analog stick and do initiate a different combo pressing triangle four times is the default pulling the analog stick after the first hit starts the three hit combo after the second initiates the six hit combo and after the third starts the five hit combo you can level up your swords but the game doesn't tell you what this actually does since it may increase damage but it's such a small degree that it's hardly ever noticeable so i don't use my red orbs on that i use them on blue orbs or purple orbs for more health and dt so up to this point i get that this review is just another bash of dmc 2 and of course most fans will have any objections to that however i just want to say that in spite of all that i really enjoy devil may cry 2 but how can i with that many flaws if i could compare it to anything else it would be like when i first played mega man x3 all those years ago the game is so universally disliked which obviously drew me to both of these games and learning as much as i could about both like i'm still trying to get jump cancelling right in dmc 4 but since dmc2 is so much simpler i thought there wouldn't be anything to truly master about this game either but that was false take for example abilities that would be greatly expanded upon a dmc3 like dodging enemy attacks or dante shooting at multiple enemies at once which be adapted for gunslinger or how dante and midair can fire bullets directly at the ground and what bothered me about that since my first playthrough of dmc2 was the fact that you can't see anything below you which often times can kill style but learning to use it effectively alongside this shoulder tap thing that dante does when pressing the attack button before landing is pretty fun and takes some time or how when locked down with a shotgun firing it in between sword slashes allows dante to fire the shotgun in different directions when using his devil trigger dante has different attacks for all the same combos you do when not in dt and these attacks can be strung together for increased variety by going in and out of your dt but with that comes the dt gauge of course you can't do these attacks forever what you can do is time the attacks well so that you only enter dt for the frames you would need for the different animations to be activated take this game's million stab for example this really drains dt energy so you swing your sword of choice twice and then while locked on enter dt hold up on the analog stick and press the attack button back out of dt as soon as possible and you just found a new combo all the while barely spending any energy my new favorite thing to try and do in this game is juggling enemies in the air send someone up in the air and dante will do two kicks and then slam the guy to the ground but if you time your kicks you can do this in rapid succession and do more damage than you would have if you'd done the standard 3-hit mid-air combo [Music] also s ranking this game is extremely difficult as i said earlier i rely on stingers to do damage roll closer shoot stinger repeat that is because the timing and keeping the style rating up mid combat is stingy as all hell in this game i know all these cool combos do but they fly in the face of this game's strict rating system since you get like three to five seconds to land another hit in or keep rolling before you can kiss that s goodbye which results in the strategy i've discussed before so that's why on previous playthroughs i would try not to take the chance of juggling enemies with the kick because if you miss one kick your rating is over the shotgun combos have low damage and more often than not don't hit anything and so on but more devoted playing time is rewarded as the more practice i have the more seamlessly i can integrate these combos into my s-rank combat it's going to take a long time but i will get an s in every stage of dmc 2 on every difficulty and you turn a game in a lot of instances is a cape lock into a really difficult affair as you're going to have to take no damage throughout any of the stages of the game and this creates a nerve-wracking experience since i gotta keep my style up i gotta always stay on the attack or else it's gonna fade away it's a lot of stuff to keep track of at once which is really difficult and recreates a lot of replay value even though this game is inherently flawed in a lot of ways i keep coming back to it because i really enjoyed the journey towards these conclusions myself i've beaten dante must die mode the hardest difficulty in the game and i played it by swapping between dante and trish since you can unlock her as a playable character by beating the game on hard mode and she plays very similarly to dante from dmc one i say similarly since it's the same move set but slower i mean it's dmc too what can you do but yeah and dante was dymo there were numerous close calls nothing compared to the other games i'm well aware but still i actually had a really memorable experience fighting the mission 6 boss and the mission 12 boss says trish really putting all of her abilities to good use like throwing the sword at the enemy as it does damage combined with shooting them or using melee attacks the closest thing to hand-in-hand combat in this game i spent an hour and a half on the final boss but i kept pushing since i wanted to beat and unlock that dmc one dante costume myself as i use it in the new bloody palace survival mode where you have to reach the top floor without dying which is extremely tense and fun i ended up using dante's majin form several times in multiple boss fights since i barely did it in normal mode but since i needed it more often and dante must die i learned how to play it it was just all around a really satisfying experience because of the fact that this was all me not a guide or anything like that of course dante must die has its own issues like how some enemies just become more resilient where others get new attacks which is much preferred but ones getting more resilient can last forever like the savage golem or some bosses being the same drags like tris maggio only with way more health and way more death on your end but overall this is what happens when you try a game out for yourself believe you me i'm not trying to say any of this magically makes this game super amazing and everyone else is wrong i'm saying that yes it is inherently flawed but there's still a lot of fun to be had if you try and mess around with it the whole attitude of telling newcomers to a series to skip that one nobody likes has always puzzled me i mean if someone came up to me and asked what megaman x games they should play since they've never tried the series before i would just say play all of them and in order including x6 and x7 since you just might like it you might see something no one else sees and share your experience or you might hate it like everyone else but in that case you can share your own experiences since you gave it a fair and honest shake i'm just somebody who tries to absorb as much as possible with a series i'm into and devil may cry was no different i advise that everyone else do the same devil may cry 2 was obviously received very poorly as i said before however like the first game devil may cry 2 sold incredibly well giving capcom the finances and the confidence for a complete course correction as the team directed by hideaki itsuno who was brought into the development of dmc 2 really late into the cycle as the unknown original developer was completely derailing the project i mean it says something about itsuno's direction skills when he can make devil may cry 2 as good as it was at launch to begin with the game didn't have any glitches and still was in my opinion a really decent game so needless to say he was ripe for the job of developing devil may cry 3 and saving this franchise's legacy how do i feel about devil may cry 3 well i know it's cliche but i can't help it this game is freaking fantastic and that actually starts with the story dmc one's story was decent and twos was a mess but 3 deserves to go down in history as one of the great video game story lines that takes advantage of the medium it's in so let's start there devil may cry 3 is a prequel set before dmc one as dante is far more inexperienced than we've ever seen before i mean the game opens at his shop but it doesn't even have a name yet a mysterious visitor called arkham informs dante that he's expected by his brother virgil as a large tower comes straight out of the ground with virgil and arkham pursed on top dante's building is destroyed with a demon attack and so he decides to go through the tower and take on his brother by climbing through the tower at the same time a mystery woman wielding numerous firearms and a motorcycle also gets in the girl's name is mary but dante calls her lady as it's revealed that arkham is her father that she wants to take vengeance on since ki killed her mother as a sacrifice to become a god of the demon world the tower itself has held the demons from going to the human world and this was because of sparta virgil's plan is to also open the portal to the demon world and possess the power of sparta but to get in he needs the two amulets that dante and virgil were given as kids it's why they want dante to be there that's the basic rundown and it's probably the simplest dmc story on paper but it's the most complex when giving it an in-depth look the structure of the story is so cohesive like the first game or this is much better presented and more interesting the game was divided into three clear acts with a boss fight with virgil ending each one with numerous twists and turns that keep you engaged when most people write off stories of games like these where the story gets most of its energy from is the fact that the cast of characters list is incredibly small in my metal gear solid 3 review from a while back i talked about plot driven stories versus character driven stories where the plot itself is pretty simple however in execution it's more complicated because of the fact that the characters are so well written and three-dimensional in the way they interact with each other devil may cry 3 has four characters in it and yet it can keep you interested for a several hour long campaign dante himself is back to his dmc one cockiness only ramped up to 1 million in this game he's brash confident in his abilities even when he shouldn't be and while these sound like traits for a character you wouldn't like this is just the point dante is at times the same badass we've come to know from previous games and has plenty of moments to show it off like the office scene at the beginning but he has way more fun with it as he takes genuine excitement in what he's doing in this game as he rides on enemies or rockets but he also gets moments where he's put in his place like when running down the side of the tower tearing through enemies he's then eaten by a giant demon dragon as we then have to play a level of him escaping the intestines as a previous boss fight chases us through the area which was actually foreshadowed several levels beforehand the back and forth between dante's victories and defeats in this game makes his wise cracks and attitudes really endearing especially since he's learning as the game goes on for example he goes after virgil for entirely petty reasons for the first battle i don't have a father i just don't like you that's all but then wants to settle the score in the second battle i'm sure you have time for one more game right after interacting more with lady against her relationship with arkham he knows that opening the gates to the demon world is an evil plan that must be stopped and that's where his head is at going into the final battle wasting time [Music] his blood but more importantly his soul and now my soul is saying it wants to stop you it's real character development something that the series has never really had for dante before and had really poorly done for trish and lucia and dmc one and two virgil is the complete opposite of dante as this portrayal of the character basically became the model for how to do an action game rival i mean this really isn't subtle stuff anyone could tell you this because it's obvious because that's the beauty of it it can be simple and effective at the same time virgil wears the opposite colored coat from dante where dante has baggy pants no shirt messy hair and a jacket virgil has a well-kept and elegant appearance as dante spouts wisecracks and one-liners with the bosses virgil stoically tears them apart as dante likes to look stylish when fighting said bosses virgil quickly disposes of them with quick and effective strikes they really are polar opposites but it's through these two in their feud that you keep playing since it's so entertaining this is a method of build up you can only get through video games since your ass will be kicked by bosses when you fight them as dante and you'll feel really accomplished when you beat them but then virgil in the next cutscene just beats them in five seconds this is an intentional move by the writers working with the game designers since you'll be like how on earth am i gonna beat this guy it's like dmc one only way better you're gonna keep trying and trying and dying and dying until you win but the game's not over yet as you have to work your way to virgil again but every time you do he gains more skills just like you did upping the stakes with each encounter ladies shares some of dante's flaws at the beginning of the story only she channels it through anger at all demons as shown by her expressions and attitudes toward dante but they both actually learn a lot through one another as he learns about the deeper value to be found in this fight as he fights for humanity in the ending but she also learns that like any human demons can also be good and they can be bad as well which is why they should work together since they have the same common goal this is what i live for i'm absolutely crazy about it which is why arkham makes for such a good villain he appears to be a worthless servant of virgil taking verbal abuse from the guy throughout the first two acts of the story but in a spoiler incredible twist it's revealed that he's the master manipulator behind everything out of seemingly nowhere dante receives aid from a magic clown called the jester who's incredibly entertaining to watch as dante just can't get rid of the guy no matter how hard he tries but the jester was really arkham also props to the voice actor for being able to pull off these two radically different performances by the way really all the voice actors as dante's character has finally been solidified with his actor reuben langdon playing the character in subsequent games with daniel south we're perfectly capturing virgil's demeanor now back to arkham's character he wanted virgil to get dante's amulet so that this part of sparta's seal be broken so to do that he helped virgil in regular form acting as a servant who could be worthlessly dispatched all while helping dante reach virgil so that they can take each other out so he can just take the demon world for himself he also needed his daughter since her blood would be the last sacrifice in order to accomplish his goal on a second playthrough a lot of his scenes are just a joy to watch like the big reveal at the end of act 2 but also during moments of foreshadowing like when dante and lady find his dead body on the way to virgil but in a completely different spot from the one we saw virgil kill him in as the body is gone after they both leave much like how the jester comes and goes when he wants so most of the build up for the end of act 3 is going through the tower one more time and stopping arkham as dante and virgil actually work together to defeat him in a scene that's an instant classic for game storylines jackpot but then that's when the brothers face each other for the final time when dante finally overcomes virgil and saves the human world but he fails to save virgil from his own desires of being in the demon world which makes dmc one more tragic retroactively since dante finding virgil's amulet would remind you of this scene here no one can have this dante it's mine it belongs to a son of sparta with a bonus and credit seed being moon dis finding virgil as they get in a fight and we know how that ends with the game ending on the note of dante and lady continuing to hunt down demons as dante's shop is finally rebuilt and named devil may cry what makes this story so emotionally resonant is because of the strong family theme two family feuds intersecting is what ties these four characters together and that's something most anyone can relate to although not on a fantasy scale but you know what i mean it's a basic story device that splits characters that otherwise would have worked well together but ideological differences stop this from happening the good guys learn from it the bad guys don't it is as simple as that another thing this story has going for it and this is a positive remark on the gameplay as well and that's ludonarrative synchronicity every crazy thing dante does in cutscenes is something you can do in the game run up walls check throw your sword check ride on enemies check dante gets new weapons from defeated bosses however this particular demon doesn't die by the hands of dante he dies by the hands of virgil in cutscene and then virgil gets his weapon and uses it against you in the second boss fight he then loses it in the cutscene and you take it from there stuff like that puts this game a cut above other games where the story and the gameplay can work together to make a great experience the graphics are the best the series has seen up to this point with great acting as i said and a well-made soundtrack although outside of the virgil boss themes is personally not my cup of tea for the reasons i mentioned in dmc one but upon a second listen the boss themes are actually really good but again amongst the grunts and the guns it fades a bit but the animation work is fantastic whether it be the pre-rendered cutscenes the real-time cutscenes or the gameplay animations it's all so fluid and fast because of the motion capture done to get these scenes done which makes the combat better than ever speaking of which devil may cry 3 was the promised return to form for the series and i don't think that's entirely fair i mean that would imply that this game abandons everything from two this game takes what worked in dmc one removes what didn't does the same for dmc2 and vastly improves the ideas that game introduced for starters our combos are back to being about timing not directional inputs which is great this just feels more natural for action games another returning element is the single location from dmc one i don't think dmc3 is nearly as atmospheric as the first game but you still get to know this location and the pacing feels so natural from mission to mission dmc 2 added a bunch of new moves for dante as i discussed like running up walls to evade attacks or shooting multiple enemies at once shotgun combos midair sword attacks and so on all these shared the same controller which was cumbersome dmc 3 doesn't just toss out these good ideas since they're just needed improvement this is where the style system comes into play and it is just beautiful so at the items vendor and in between stages you can change your style at the start of the game you only have access to four regardless of which you have you can do all the same things with the sword on triangle and all the same things with the guns on square but it's the circle button that changes between styles to highlight different attributes first is trickster which specializes in evasive maneuvers like a quick dash to get away from attacks and the ability to run up walls like devil may cry 2. second is swordmaster which places emphasis on your devil arm abilities like being able to toss your belly into enemies or sending enemies flying in the air with beowulf as a very offensive devil may cry player this was the style i went through for most of the game if only because i thought dodge rolling and jumping was enough for me to get away from enemy attacks and i only use guns for chip damage like i said in dmc one so i need to emphasize my swords the most gunslinger allows you to do more gun tricks like aiming at multiple enemies with ebony and ivory which comes so much more naturally in this game but you don't have to fiddle with the analog sticks to do it shotgun combos that are much more effective and a lot quicker on the draw as well royal guard emphasizes defense as you can block attacks with split second timing and then split through enemies it's a great style as you can do a lot of damage with it although i'm really bad at timing so royal guard is one you'd see me use the least the more you use these styles the more they grow in abilities as you can really become an absolute combo machine and it's just fun to watch fun to play and therefore incredibly well designed later you unlock quicksilver allowing you to slow down time for more combos and doppelganger where you can double yourself for twice the damage all really cool stuff however these two especially doppelganger came so much later in the game so i just focused on swordmaster but speaking of styles another absolutely phenomenal improvement made was the style meter in previous games the style rank was a bit messy since in dmc one i never know what i was actually doing right or wrong to get high and low marks and in dmc2 there was just next to no time before you had to land the next hit or else your style rating would just completely vanish the style meter is displayed beneath your rating and it's a massive help since it gives you a clear window of time to land the next hit but at the same time you can't just spam like you could in the last game since the variety of your combos is equally important to a high rating as actually hitting enemies with taunts greatly contributing to your dt gauge and the style rating keeping the variety high should be pretty easy since there are just so many combos for every weapon and every weapon is great in its own right i of course got plenty of use out of rebellion but cerberus provided great coverage for crowds of enemies up close with the fast strikes agnia and rudra being one of my go-to's since these blades just clean house with a majority of enemies there aren't many things you can't do with them i mean you have powerful swipes in the air less powerful but faster air strikes a dash attack for crowds of head a whirling tornado when enemies are up close it's just a great weapon nevin may seem obscure at first but this demon powered guitar is great for crowd control and really dishes out damage when you get the actual combos right with beowulf being the hand-to-hand combat i was looking for an ifrit from dmc one with numerous fast combos tearing through demon after demon now for the really cool stuff as my constant praise of metal gear solid 3 has shown i really love games where you can master crazy skills that a first-time player can't do but the game is still fun either way that is a high quality balance but yeah you will see dmc masters perform the art of jump cancelling a really cool technique where there will be a few frames after you hit an enemy in the air where you can then jump offset enemy and then your air combo will reset and you can land more hits in the air than possibly ever intended giving the game another layer of depth i myself have been practicing at it and i have gotten really good at it not 100 consistent but i am sure that by my next playthrough i'll be able to do it with ease this is real mechanical depth and that's what separates good games from great games firearms are of course back and there's a decent variety of these too however again i don't use many of the other options other than the pistols because i just use them for chip damage when i can't use my sword so as a result i never really upgraded my guns or used the alternative ones what i once thought was a setback in the dmc 5 wish list was how dante can only carry two devil arms and firearms at once i much prefer just having everything at your disposal like in dmc 4. but as i realized with dmc one's upgrades earlier in the video only times 10 was that dmc3 is a game where you physically can't get everything out of it in one playthrough i don't mean you won't be satisfied since you more than will however you can't maximize the power of every style you can't get every single combo unlocked for every weapon and that's what real replay value looks like i want to come back since this is a great game but in the process of coming back to a midi game i have weapons i still need to upgrade i have styles i need to get to level 3 and unlock even more abilities and it never gets old sure the tower's not as atmospheric as dmc one but since the only purpose of this structure is to house demons they get really creative with the environments as we're showing new and bizarre enemies around every corner that require you to give them a different strategy than the last room or else you're gonna get wrecked oh yeah this game is difficult even now after having beaten the game a couple of times i still die to regular enemies every now and again and also die to bosses i have mastered my strategy for since they hit hard hit frequently and always keep the pace going but the more you play the more tactics you can use against them like riding on enemies to get a few hits in and then send the guy slamming into the wall or throwing your sword to block boss projectiles and get health restores out of it like i was saying i've beaten this game a couple of times now and i still die to the first virgil boss i still died several times for the second virgil boss even though i know what to expect i died so many times to arc of my first playthrough that i had my strategy locked in and i didn't die at all for that one but the point is is just that the game will always be keeping you on your toes no matter how many times you've played and the fun doesn't have to stop there since you can also play the game as virgil and get more cutscenes out of the story as he interacts with arkham but then you also get to play as him using a lot of the moves he used during the boss fights and it's just a joy i mean it sucks it doesn't get original levels but still it's a fun novelty nonetheless also the higher difficulties come in for dante's campaigns and dante must die mode in this game is just brutal you die in like two hits and enemies are so strong it is just so much fun to play and so much fun to experiment with and i can only imagine how much longer it would take to s-rank this game than the praise i gave double may cry 2 s ranks just a few minutes ago this game is really just bursting at the seams with content this game is just so unbelievably good yeah it's not that i hate challenge folks my favorite game of all time is metal gear solid 3. and you know what games right up there next to it devil may cry 3 dante's awakening my second and now third playthrough of dmc3 has just given me everything i want in a video game balls to the wall action a great memorable story full of emotions satisfying simple to use difficult to master combat varied levels varied bosses varied weapons and techniques depth that goes through the roof to where you will still be learning things about this game well after shutting the console off and that's the hallmark of a fantastic game like i said at the start of dmc3 is this a cliche opinion now yes that's because dmc3 is just that good if you have any interest in the action genre you will be doing yourself a disservice to not play this game but that leads into the conclusion i think the devil may cry trilogy is really good i also really love devil may cry 4. such amazing games you can get so excessively now all 5 of the released devil may cry games are on ps4 xbox one steam ps3 and xbox 360. i would recommend playing all of them since like i said in dmc2 making your own conclusions is very important i gave dmc one a shot and really enjoyed it so i played two really found a lot to love in that package and that led me to playing three which is my new favorite games of all time with plenty of play time to come i'm sure but really though that's all i have to say for this dmc trilogy video again i absolutely love it and couldn't recommend it enough although if you guys want me to i can try to squeeze in a dmc 4 and dmc double make 5 video but for right now all i can say is that dmc is a great series and i think i finally got my feelings for this series off my chest and i think we should all show our support of it as we come close to the release of devil may cry 5 which is shaping up to be a fantastic game but on that note i thank you guys for watching and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: J's Reviews

Views: 172,581

Keywords: Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry Retrospective, Devil May Cry Series, Devil May Cry HD Collection, Devil May Cry PS4, Devil May Cry 1, Devil May Cry 2, Devil May Cry 3, Devil May Cry 5, Devil May Cry Trilogy, Devil May Cry 1 Review, DMC, DMC1, DMC1 Review, Devil May Cry 2 Review, DMC2, DMC2 Review, DMC3, DMC3 Review, Devil May Cry 3 Review, J's Reviews, J's Reviews Devil May Cry, DMC Series

Id: vzuR1MU1ni0

Length: 49min 15sec (2955 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 18 2019