DMC Special Edition Retrospective | Foolish Motivation

that day if our positions were switched would our fates be different would i have your life and you mine all right so i've recently been playing around with virgil in dmc 5 now that he was made available with the special edition re-release of the game and after months of analysis with my research team at the kamiya taro institute for pretentious action game critics i've finally arrived at my objectively correct opinion on the matter he fun hold up hold it hold up wait wait wait wait wait wait so that that's it you got nothing else to say about virgil oh right my job so virgil in five is everything he's been in past games just more rad new moves with unique effects updates how previous ones work smoothes butter mobility and his battle theme bury the light is a certified bop you can bury me to this song i don't think i'd be going too far to say he's not only my favorite rendition of virgil but my favorite character to play as in the entire series and i came to that conclusion after only playing him for about a day and a major reason i know for certain this is my favorite version of virgil is that since i have the pre-existing condition of not owning a next-gen console yet i had to wait for the dlc to release on ps4 a month after dmc 5se dropped so while i stood in my anticipation i felt motivated to play through all the other special editions to re-familiarize myself with his moveset so i got fairly accustomed to the various iterations of the character but it was while i was judgment cutting my way through dmc 4's legendary dark knight mode that it dawned on me that i've never really covered any of the special edition remasters of these games in great depth before which is a real shame revisiting these games reminded me how much this series has evolved incrementally through its special editions and how important they've been for its longevity especially because this is where virgil's gameplay exclusively resides despite being a fan favorite and iconic rival character playable virgil has always been relegated to being locked away to post-launch dlc or remastered re-releases even among non-dmc games that he guest stars in and that's disappointing while he isn't as flashy as his brother virgil has a style all his own and deserves his time in the spotlight so i figured it might be time to rectify one of my many many mistakes i made while making my older dmc content and finally take a look at what makes the special edition releases of the devil may cry game so exceptional and no the poetic irony of virgil's special edition appearances being relegated to a separate video on this channel as i decry that very thing isn't lost on me but hey i get to milk yet another dmc video out of them where i mostly just tack on my thoughts about an individual character so you could say i'm at least learning from capcom's example so now with our motivation at an all-time high let's dig into the complicated and special history of devil may cry's many remasters and examine how sparta's second favorite son has gradually evolved over the last 15 years welcome to my devil may cry special edition retrospective [Music] [Music] great [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] now i don't think you'd be going that far to say dmc3 was genre defining when it first came out in 2005 and violently carved out its place in the already massive ps2 library while dmc1 established the series by laying the groundwork for what devil may cry as a series would be known for three took it a step further and solidified it a complex and ny bottomless combat system endearing characters wacky cutscenes that masked an underlying depth dmc3 was the full package and even now sets the bar for what a stylish action game can be so when it was officially announced at tgs 2005 that capcom would be putting out a special edition re-release of dmc3 that would be adding in more content early the next year fans were pretty ecstatic keep in mind this was before dlc was an established thing so re-releasing an updated version of something less than a year after a game had been put out was sort of an average concept at the time especially coming from capcom i mean how many versions of street fighter 2 were there by 2005 plus 3 admittedly had things that needed fixing at least in the west as special edition was used to amend the decision to make the north american release of the game actively harder in every difficulty setting compared to the european and japanese versions because we heard you talking smack about how we made dmc2 too easy so we're gonna break your kneecaps but rather than just change it to be more in line with the other skus a new very hard mode was added to replace the west's hard mode meaning that se provided a wider variety of challenge that could be set for players across all regions among the list of other notable additions of the game three boss fights against jester were also included the first encounter being mandatory to progress through mission five and the other two being optional for extra red orbs and style points and there okay i don't find these fights as annoying as others seem to but they also don't sack up to the best bosses in the game and when 3 has collectively some of the strongest of the series that's a noticeable step down if i were to compare him to another boss fight it would be the gigapede as it's a lot of waiting around for the chance to wail on him avoiding a few flying orbs rinse and repeat meaning the fights lack any real dynamic engagement in comparison to battles against cerberus or agni and rudra 3se would also take the opportunity this re-release provided to take the bloody palace from dmz 2 and put it in a game that you'd actually want to grind through 10 000 levels with for those unfamiliar bloody palace is a game mode where you progressively work your way up floors through waves of enemies making it a great spot for red orb grinding and practicing the combat without any of those pesky puzzles or cutscenes getting in the way prior to the void from five there was never a good place to just sit and experiment with the various gameplay systems in active combat without going through an entire mission so bloody palace filled the role of practice mode for most the series and after this would become a staple of the franchise going forward but of course this is all preamble as we get to the actual main course of 3se since three was the game that introduced the world to the other sparta sun it makes sense players were super invested in seeing more virgil especially when three made such a point about making him this calm collected badass to contrast his wacky brother so while it might sound silly to shower a game with praise for adding in a single character and re-releasing it and trust me there's stuff to say about that one of the most standout aspects of dmc3 was the level of expression players could get through the combat with dante so providing you with an entirely separate character with their own gameplay style to explore was honestly a big enough deal for a lot of fans as it was now i'll be the first to say that coming back to virgil in 3 after playing all the future iterations he's gone through he's definitely lacking in depth by comparison like how every weapon only has one default combo since it was built off of his boss fights moveset but in terms of being the initial blueprint that would become the foundation for what every other virtual would be modeled off of this was a very solid first take and has plenty to delve into on a gameplay level virgil is perfect for any of the smooth brains like me out there that find dante's moveset a tad overwhelming with everything it has and finds a lot of it ends up going to waste because of that namely once you get to the later releases where you have access to all his styles and weapons at once a feeling i can only truly represent with this image inside contrast while virgil has fewer options overall than his brother when you boil it down this also works in his favor since his moveset ends up being as refined and streamlined as his hair from the very start rather than building up his arsenal as he progressively goes through the story he's immediately given three melee weapons to work with that carry him throughout the game firstly you have virgil's primary sword yamato which at its core acts as a clear parallel to rebellion's moveset dante's powerful thrust attack stinger is now replaced by rapid slash with virgil rushing past enemies while rapidly slashing them thus making it easier to blend into combos since it had such a wide area of effect and drive's charge attack is pushed aside for virgil's now iconic judgment cut a move scientifically designed in a lab to look as cool as possible what makes judgment cut even better is that it can be charged coming off of any of yamato's attacks thus allowing for fluid transitions between combos and can be repeated consecutively if timed right with enough practice perfectly suiting the character's air of polish control in order to go with virgil design as an akira karasawa fan though yamano has a few underlying benefits hidden underneath that are essential to using it effectively namely by taunting and finishing off achieving animations rather than immediately cancelling them to go into another attack as that boosts your style and fills up the dt gauge much quicker something that's important to make the most out of virgil's entire moveset then you have beowulf which is a more powered up version than when his brother uses it but lacks the charge mechanic the trade-off works however as virgil gets one of beowulf's best skills lunar phase which can be worked into either ground or air combos and is easily jump cancelled out of thus becoming an essential part of his kit and lastly there's force edge being nearly identical to how it is in dmc one in terms of what it can do but substituting extra combo strings for round trip yeah there's not much to say about this one altogether virgil's moveset isn't that mind-blowing if we're being blunt about it with two swords and some gauntlets each with about four or five moves and only a few of them being entirely unique compared to dante's arsenal on top of his four styles virgil is extremely lacking on the surface but there are two key elements that bring it all together and elevate it to the next level the first being virgil's unique style being exclusively for mobility in fights dark slayer is quite comparable to dante's trickster style though where his dashes were mostly limited to any direction on a 2d plane virgil's instead works on an axis as it moves up down and forward in relation to an enemy's position with the trade-off being that he has less control of directional inputs going left or right while it might sound like a significant flaw to restrict your style moves to what amounts to a fencing match dark slayer's moveset easily makes up for it by allowing you to quickly close and create distance with your target so you spend far less time running up on an enemy you've spiked across the map thus keeping you consistently engaged in the combat this ability to constantly flow in and out of fights as needed is a major reason why virgil ends up having an easy time with most bosses in the game as he has far more control of his space in relation to them than what was likely originally planned when they were designed i highly doubt capcom intended for us to trick down away from cerberus's swipes and not a moment later be all up in his grill but here i am and there's nothing you can do about it suno plus since the teleport has built-in invincibility frames where virgil isn't physically there it means it can be a useful mechanic for dodges if timed well even if you aren't technically moving anywhere however since virgil presents himself as a noble warrior who values precision he ends up not using any firearms like his dishonest brother which would put him at a major disadvantage with some enemies but this is covered instead by having him summon ethereal swords as a way to strike from a distance which brings us to his second key design element you see despite the lack of hedis packing summon swords actually end up being far better than pretty much any of dante's firearms could be for one simple fact they act independently of virgil's body instead of requiring a physical animation to shoot now that might sound like a very minor superficial detail for nerds but this means you can play with the variety of formations summon swords have in tandem with virgil's other attacks at the same time which is why virgil's playstyle is the first time in the series where remapping your controls wasn't just an option but essential this is because having summon swords on the face button near the melee attack as it is on the default controller means you have to choose between firing and attacking or you can move the shoot button over to a separate shoulder trigger and be able to do this and going forward this will be this standard assumption for all virgil gameplay on top of not interrupting other animations virgil summon swords also create a shield to surround him giving him extra hits mid combo or you can redirect them at a single distant enemy with either storm or blistering sword but it comes at the cost of some devil trigger meter which is where things like yamato sheath dt boost mentioned earlier come in extremely handy for building up consistent fuel thus creating a constant feedback loop between the mechanics as they naturally feed into each other or you can do it the easy way and taunt while juggling enemies with your spectral sword since they can't even interrupt that yeah this is an honorable way to fight virgil's playstyle is all about being stylish in a way that's unique to his personality in comparison to dante from yamato's emphasis on completing animation smoothly to dark slayer's mobility though with how it's put together it can be very easy automatic to spam moves in the same way that you would in the base game and be able to get away with it no problem making virgil feel like he isn't his own unique character in terms of gameplay quite yet but we'll put a pin in that for a moment plus if you can beat the game on hard mode you also unlock corrupt virgil who represents himself after losing to mundus after the events of dmc3 and changes his dt danello angelo from dmc 1 with a slightly modified moveset that's weightier than his base form which is a fun detail even if you only get brief moments to play around with it sadly however as much as i can praise virgil's combat the game doesn't make the most out of having a new character with its mission structure because like a kid whose mother doesn't love them as much as their other sibling virgil's campaign itself ends up sharing everything with dante level design music enemies bosses all the same as if you were playing as dante with nothing unique to highlight virgil's own style which as stated earlier was copy pasted from an already programmed boss fight the opening cutscene starts off implying that this campaign will be the events of three from his viewpoint beginning with his own ascension up the tenement grew but then you get tossed into dante's mission one at his then unnamed shah virgil doesn't even get his own battle theme and all the boss encounters against himself are simply recolored to look like dante honestly as much as i can appreciate the core enjoyment of virgil being added in for his gameplay it does feel like wasted potential for his character and the game itself that he wasn't better utilized here i mean credit where it's due this is something kingdom hearts did fantastically with its final mix re-releases as it used the chance to better flesh out the game both mechanically and narratively man when i started this i did not think i'd be complimenting nemura in relation doublemake cry but hey this is the first time that sununu and ko ever did a special edition so i'm certain this isn't gonna become a recurring issue or anything uh now i'm not one to give a mathematical value to an experience that isn't quantifiable but overall i'd score this eight virgils out of ten now i'm a little motivated before moving on to the next game however i do have to bring up a different but related elephant in the room first that being devil may cry 3 special edition for the switch for a bit of context starting mid mid-2019 capcom announced that they would begin re-releasing the dmc trilogy onto the nintendo switch as separate 20 releases which drew a bit of irritation from fans since the trilogy had become a package deal for the better part of a decade in a mild defense i can see porting to the switch likely taking a bit more work by comparison than getting it on to the newest version of hardware it already existed on which means more development costs but separating up the trilogy did feel slightly scummy since you could get them together on every other piece of hardware for significantly less also as a small addendum here props to the capcom marketing intern that was tasked with creating a trailer to make dmc2 look good because if i didn't know any better i'd be fooled into thinking this seemed kind of fun anyway after the one-to-one basic ports of one and two lowered everyone's expectations we got a curveball with the announce of dmc3 for the switch as devil may cry producer matt walker came out to say that there was going to be something extra added into 3 as a way to celebrate its legacy what was it going to be the fanbase collectively asked mario outfits dante and smash a humorous third hypothetical but after much anticipation from the comfort of the most luxurious broom closet in capcom hq matt walker finally revealed that it was the introduction of the style switching mechanic from dmc 4 and 5 which had never been part of 3 outside of mods the ability to freely switch between all weapons in combat like in 5 and a co-op bloody palace mode and while these might sound like minor changes these updates to the mechanics effectively make 3se into an almost entirely different game at least from a gameplay perspective now anyone who knows me knows that i hold dmc 3 in extremely high regard and i always like the idea of having to work within the ps2 game's original set weapons restrictions since it made a challenge out of experimenting with different loadouts yet easier to focus on the weapons you were exclusively using rather than getting overwhelmed with options but for a lot of players being restricted to two weapons and a single style at a time definitely felt like a hindrance especially coming back to it after later games did away with those restraints so seeing the game drop the rock lee weights and allowing you to fully maximize your combo potential is fantastic being able to freely swap between styles means gunslinger is now something you actually want to experiment with during fights since it's no longer something you're stuck with for an entire mission maybe take artemis and spiral out of the trash while you're at it the same thing could be said for quicksilver and doppelganger since it never really made sense to restrict your options for styles that consumed your dt gauge while also taking away your moment-to-moment moveset dmc3 was already a game with a wealth of combat depth but these two simple changes utterly shatter the skill ceiling so that it has even more potential for players to get at the combos then lastly there's the local co-op bloody palace where another player can join you as the other sparta brother to get to the top of the challenge mode since it appears to function off the already existing doppelganger feature where you can have a person use the second controller to take over there isn't a ton to say about this mode other than the fun novelty of destroying bosses with a friend especially when there hasn't been any real rebalancing to the game to flesh it out further than the base concept and it's limited solely to local co-op meaning i haven't gotten to really experiment with this setting much personally since i don't have any friends who are good enough to play with me at home so we're gonna move on now with all this praise some of you might be wondering why i brought this up as a touchy subject well it's that little addendum of four switch meaning these changes are exclusive for the nintendo console and no other previous releases so if you want any of these features on any of the non-switch versions you might have purchased well get to modding or eat dirt admittedly i'm not a developer or publisher so i can't speak to the exact mentality for why capcom decided to make these choices nor what factors go into these decisions my best guess is that the new features are a good way to upsell yet another re-release of a decades-old game that's on nearly everything already so you don't want to put them on other releases that would detract from those initial sales though it's implied that matt walker pushed for these changes specifically for the re-release on the switch when they started working on the port as a way to give fans something extra after all these years so it's not as if it's impossible that the updated version won't appear on other platforms in some way shape or form but considering the amount of time some players have bought the hd collection in the past already it does feel like a thumb to the eye that it's exclusive to one platform alone that some might not want or have anyway enough of this complicated controversial [ __ ] let's get back to talking about fun game experiences with no complications attached [ __ ] all right i get it reboot bad [ __ ] you to meme it shouldn't have been a dmc game blah blah blah we've done this dance before but dmc devil may cry especially the definitive edition released a couple years after in 2015 is an important point in looking at how devil may cries the series evolved through its extended versions so we really should talk about it and in its defense dmc's definitive edition is the most substantial re-release in the series in terms of improving on the base game rather than simply adding on more features granted it had the most to improve on but as an incredibly mild defender of the reboot i'll take the win for what it is obviously de was less of a here's more of that game you love like when three was re-released and more on the side of oh my god we hear your complaints please stop screaming at us sort of revision to things but the developers did try to improve the experience in ways without completely scrapping the entire thing altogether and i think that's worth some props to start off an unlocked 60 fps was enabled for the definitive edition as the 30 fps limit of the original release was a major sticking point for a lot of people despite the original having the feel of 60. a manual target lock-on was also finally added color-coded enemies will rework so they no longer cause you to bounce off them like a bumper car if you hit them with the wrong weapon and it just causes less damage with zero stun effect and then there's the simple things like the ability to disable the timer for bloody palace so players could go at their own pace and removing some of the more cringy dialogue that felt out of place even in this game the world is at last your [ __ ] as am i nothing left to grab it by the hair bend it over and on top of all the other changes hardcore mode was implemented as a way to rebalance the game so that it played closer to the original series meaning the devil trigger no longer caused enemies to rocket into the sky the style gauge raced slower and decayed faster after complaints it was too easy to abuse enemies hit harder and perry windows were trimmed down with dmc definitive capcom and ninja theory were attempting to make a compromise by bringing the game more in line with what fans of the original wanted but not completely disregarding those that liked what the reboot did which is a tough balancing act to try to walk since it's like trying to get people to agree on their stance on scub and that's why some of the updates were treated as a toggle feature rather than a forced change so players have the ability to cater the game to what they specifically want from it so while the game was extremely controversial with the dmc fanbase when it first came out which has now mostly turned into an indifferent shrug with the release of five i'd argue the fixes and design changes that definitive edition brought in cemented dmc as the best stylish action game coming from the west when it comes to its combat sure that bar is about knee-high as of right now but i've encountered anything that surpasses it in terms of raw depth yet some might still grimace and whine whenever dmc devil may cry is brought up but there's a reason why there was a niche combo video scene for the reboot as long as there was and in fact that community is a huge factor for how definitive edition was improved on in the extensive changelog slash design dock that was published with dmcde the combat designer for the game directly credits style videos and pc mods for the game for the changes that were implemented for example kublui's fire rate was specifically modified to be faster so that the average player would be more interested in using in battle since the long cooldown between shots in the original build tend to put them off from using it more as designers notice when going over videos of gameplay but this didn't take away from the cancelling text style players use to get the fastest shots out possible one of the most interesting notes to me though was the fact certain bugs were intentionally left in or just slightly tweaked because they were found to be fun mechanics that added to the ways players express their own style things like the double charge shot glitch that allows you to carry over multiple charges to different guns was an exploit that the devs themselves thought was cool so they chose to embrace it rather than make any changes that would remove it say what you will about the reboot but that's just good community support and probably the most strange decision however the definitive edition wasn't made available for the pc despite the fact it was largely built off at the back of the pc build by cue lock the studio who created the port itself meaning every change implemented is exclusive to console players and for the rub salt on the wound of the pc master ace many of the best mods that were originally created for the base game were lost due to the site that hosted them being scrapped with many of the better game changing ones not getting saved or re-uploaded thankfully though the most important one was salvaged while i'm obligated to talk about dmc devil may cry again it would be worth addressing the dlc that came with it since i never covered it before which seemed to be huge oversight in my previous videos according to fans despite it not fixing any of the points i made against the base game when i talked about it originally but that's besides the point now admittedly virgil's downfall did come out a couple months after the original release of the game meaning it isn't unique to the definitive edition and was simply added to the package deal along with some of its own fixes but considering its post-launch dlc nonetheless it's still worth covering here especially since it's a virgil centre campaign and it serves as an interesting contrast to the rest what i mean by this is that dlc and stylish action games always seem to be between here's a new character in the same campaign as before go nuts or we made this brief little campaign unique for this character for five bucks that you'll blow through in an afternoon and considering the time and cost that goes into making a fully fleshed out combat system this dichotomy does make sense however it means that these things are consistently caught between a length versus unique content for me personally i prefer the latter where i can since it's a great way to flesh out someone like jetstream sam who doesn't get the screen time and metal gear rising that he rightfully deserves so his dlc allows for his own personality to shine through in his own campaign in that same way virgil's downfall is used as a way to explore the other sparta brother after the events of the game in a way the base story couldn't doing the most with the character on a narrative level than any of the other iterations that we'll be getting into because the dlc was designed to be about him and considering the sniper rifle abortion of a character we were left with you can only really go up from there acting as an epilogue chapter to dmc virgil's downfall provides six missions that show the descent of dante's brother after he failed to defeat him and become ruler of humanity starting from his weakened state preceding the fight all the way to being at full power again and outright rejecting any sort of humanity he had left the way this is expressed in the campaign is through virgil repeatedly encountering apparitions of himself and others he knows throughout hell but warped by his own perception of them as they act as embodiments of some piece of himself hollow virgil represents his own self-doubt hollow cat represents his humanity becoming crueler after killing her and eva represents his origins as being half angel choosing to embrace only his demon side by the end when he abandons her you see he starts the campaign with messy hair but when he turns evil at the end he slicks it back like the old virgil y'all like so much please love us oh god please i mean yeah it's got all the teenage edge and subtlety of a zack snyder film and the animatic cutscenes feel more like a budgetary choice rather than an artistic one but credit words do this does a better job developing dmc's virgil as a character than even the base game did bridging the gap from a weakling with a poorly planned manipulative cause shown in the reboot to the power star villain that's been established in the original storyline setting up virgil as a recurring antagonist for future sequels to explore i wouldn't exactly hold my breath on that one though then we have the gameplay side of the campaign and while it conforms to the combat systems the reboot used a dedicated launcher button the angel demon modes a severe lack of a taunt virgil from three is still there mechanically if you wipe away all the grunge and prep aesthetic and would even go on to establish certain abilities that became part of his core moveset going forward into the mainline series even if it feels like these ideas were always there due to how well suited they are to the character's play style i'm certain this is going to rile some folks up but honestly i actually prefer playing dmc definitive edition virgil over his three counterpart at least when it comes to certain regards okay now before you start revving up to max act the dislike button allow me to elaborate and keep in mind i'm not a style player that's poured hundreds of hours into these characters and knows every minute detail to them because there's a lot below the surface i've not reached the upper skill ceiling on either this is purely from the base level mechanics along with some lower level tech they have immediately differentiating himself from every other iteration this virtual keeps using yamato exclusively doing away with force edge and beowulf in favor of the reboot's mechanic of swapping between neutral angel and demon mode for different movesets and strengths in the developer's defense though while no lunar phase makes me tempted to yield this character entirely they still were able to sneak in a number of his attacks from the previous game into his other modes and also introduced the perfect release mechanic which i have to give a begrudging nod to with each weapon there's a just frame attack upgrade that gives its charge a specific release window that increases its range and damage and when you have a character that's intended to be all about precision using an idle style to fight giving them charge attacks that do extra damage if the release is timed right is a genuinely clever idea that's what's frustrating about this dlc in a nutshell for everything you can complain about there's also interesting ideas here worth considering on that note there's also the major improvements made to how vergil summon swords work with dmc3 in order to use either blistering or storm swords on enemies both important for focused long-range damage you first need to prime them with spiral swords which would then deactivate once you use the other attacks or would just gradually come apart if you chose to fire off individual shots this balanced the character but it also meant you had to restrict how you use the mechanic so ninja theory instead chose to separate them into their own attacks that are instantly executed once you do the input which to me opens up his combat potential exponentially considering you no longer lose spiral if you want to use the other attacks and gives you better control of the other two in the moment however due to the original release of the game lacking a lock-on system the directional inputs for the attacks are a tad whack with blister having you hit jump with shoot and adding in a double forward motion to do storm swords requiring some practice to reliably use so one step forward one step back i guess admittedly while he doesn't have the same mechanical nuances to his weapons and has all the weight of a helium mallet this virtual strong point is all in his mobility and enemy control his trick was tweaked to more resemble dante's trickster style in the og series where it's no longer dependent on enemies and moves specifically in the direction you're pointing to along with its original vertical mobility this change was likely made because virgil and dmc incorporates the angel and demon pull mechanics from the base game so having trick do essentially the same thing but in a more limited capacity didn't entirely make much sense on the subject of the lift and pull system the mechanic doesn't have the aggressive chain grapple that dante has instead working into the way summon swords fire off independently of virgil so it has a more fluid feel to how it works into the flow of combat since you don't have to stop attacking to reposition anyone what further adds to this is that nearly every attack of his allows you to leave a sword embedded into an enemy when fully leveled essentially placing a marker on them so you can easily pull them back in a fight since you eliminate the need to even send out a sword to grab your dance partner for another round and since any move that causes virgil to teleport can cancel out of pretty much any move or combo he has incredible freedom of mobility in the moment which is important with how the game likes to cluster enemies together finally there's the last big mechanical change that's added in the final mission of the campaign after virgil overcomes and vores his hollow self he unlocks his doppelganger ability which acts as his devil trigger equivalent over donte's auto launcher color filter elaborating on dante's doppelganger in three where it imitates everything he does exactly this one is set to its own neutral demon or angel mode separate from the main body along with specifying its leg time between your attack and their follow up by giving you that extra body in combat this allows for even more dynamic combos while it's active since the delay and different modes can create some interesting setups so while transforming into a cool demon form is rad in itself i'd say doppelganger provides far more opportunities when it comes to interesting tech well at least in relation to three but we'll get to that later however mechanics only go so far if it's not in a game that allows them to be explored to their limit on a very basic level downfall's design isn't structurally different from dante's limbo missions in the base game a lot of floating platforms with the occasional angel pulling sequence the real difference that is worth noting is the enemies that were used in these sections as a way to work with vergil shifting gameplay both for better and for worse even before the definitive edition changes were made the lead designer of virgil's campaign had the foresight to remove color-coded enemies from the game as they wouldn't have clicked with his combat strengths compared to dante and just were seen as a problem for that same reason tyrants and butchers were heavily pushed out of the base difficulties too as they would have been even more of a pain to fight against until you have the right tools to handle them properly what is questionable though is also removing the dream runners as it feels like a missed opportunity to take away an enemy type entirely focused on dodging and countering when that would have perfectly fit into how virgil works instead downfall introduces wisps and the imprisoner into its roster of demons wisps are specifically used emphasized using his summon sword attacks to open them up before completely unloading on them and their berserker state keeps you from using the demon pull as a complete crutch conceptually they're an alright challenge even if the campaign overly relies on them the imprisoner on the other hand is a war crime on the genre being all about outright halting your mobility throwing up walls of debris that can't be moved through or destroyed which is entirely counterintuitive to what makes virgil fun to play here this is why you have to do everything you can to keep them up in the air using just frame attacks like atomic as that prevents them from creating more walls but this isn't so much about being efficient and styling on an enemy as much as desperately trying to avoid having to actually deal with them at all i'm not a game designer with a degree in [Music] gameology but that reads to something that should be tricked away from at all costs and on top of all of this we still can't get a proper dante boss fight there's ample setup for one with how the campaign set up but nope here's a little boop to the chest and then he's dead even in this dlc design for virgil it's still too costly or difficult to invest in making a unique boss fight where he fights his biggest motivation for wanting to get stronger instead he gets his own virtual fight where he fights his hollow self which similar to the imprisoned has its own issues with breaking the flow of combat despite being a mirror match holo virgil works pretty well for boss fight and is actually the highlight of the campaign when it comes to engaging with the combat to its fullest no gimmicks no tricks just pure combat though while hollow virgil is fun to fight against like any virgil fight rightfully should be it does a cardinal sin for any action game boss fight especially if it's extensive and repeated which is where they move to a place where they can't be hit and you just have to wait it out and avoid their attacks until they feel like coming back i get that this is meant to put you on the defensive and test your ability to dodge with precise timing but boss fights in these games are all about engaging with the enemy and finding openings in their attacks to getting your own so this sort of thing is always a pace killer and gets old very fast with how long it can go for so between the revamps to his moveset the new mechanics introduced and the incredibly hit or miss campaign i'd give this a score of seven virgils where's your motivation while it's easy to dismiss dmc and virgil's downfall especially with the other games in the series existing with less of their glaring flaws there definitely are ideas that ninja theory came up with regarding how virgil could play that really add to what makes that character something that series director hideaki atsuno seem to agree with which of course leads us to announced on december 15 2014 alongside the definitive edition of dmc devil may cry was the special edition of dmc 4 with both being scheduled to release in the early half of 2015 and this was a big deal at the time because dmz 4 getting a remastered re-release after the fallout of the reboot felt like capcom returning to acknowledge its roots due to some misinterpretations though the two being put out in such close proximity led to a misconception that the two were in direct competition with each other for the fate of the series which isn't too far off the mark but it is slightly skewed now i can't state this as an absolute fact so take it with a grain of salt but i have it on good authority due to some inside sources that dmc4 special edition and dmc definitive edition being released so close together was less a transparent fight for the direction the series would go and [ __ ] suno personally wanted to prove the classic series could still go forward after the reboot but capcom needed to make sure so before greenlighting a potential sequel wanted to test the waters with a re-release of 4 alongside the definitive edition of dmc that was in the works itself and while it's clear who the winner was between the two dmc definitive and dmc 4 special edition do present an interesting parallel with how each handled the concept of a re-release as we already went over dmc had a ton to fix and definitive edition used the opportunity to implement adjustments based on common criticisms and observations the devs made while watching gameplay videos in order to improve on the base experience on the flip side dmc 4se just piled on more characters and while that on its own is a lot considering how much their move sets can add to the game's replayability this is also where you can really see capcom's holding pattern come across with these re-releases dmc 4sc is again more of what you loved but not addressing design problems that were widely expressed or even taking the chance to really improve on what was already there this isn't a 3sc situation where there wasn't much to fix and any potential issues lie more in how additions were implemented 4se's expansions end up highlighting the glaring flaws that were already present what's being added is fantastic but putting a sick flaming decal on a car with a busted transmission isn't actually fixing what's underneath i'm getting a bit ahead of myself though so let's start with the major additions themselves the new characters yeah i wasn't kidding that's about all we got here to begin with we have 4se's iteration of virgil and frankly this is where they really figured out this character's kit now what makes virgil and 4sc so great isn't that it was an entire revamp of his playstyle by giving him a whole new set of moves or weapons while dante hawks all his devil arms the instant he's done with a mission for pizza money virgil is in a common law marriage with his weapons and strives to refine his skills with them and this comes across in how much his moveset was polished and improved on in subtle ways rather than massive sweeping changes and thus maximizing the player's sense of expression while doing so after both three and the reboot experimented with what could bring virgil into his own 4se is where was all brought together and solidified evolving on what three set the foundations for while cherry-picking aspects from dmc virgil here has an extremely deliberate style of gameplay as i said earlier an underlying problem with the previous iterations of the character was so much of his moveset and gameplay was piggybacking off dante's so it was a bit difficult to feel like virgil was that unique in his own right or at least in a way that wasn't an iteration on his brother i mean virgil isn't the type to wildly run around flailing his swords going wahoo he's suave and calculating and needs a playstyle that demonstrates that so was decided to factor this into his own mechanic that better incentivize playing that way which of course would become the concentration gauge and before anyone needs to point it out yes this should have been called the motivation gauge but hey we've all missed golden opportunities that were right in front of us put simply when you can calmly keep close to enemies the concentration gauge goes up which in turn makes virgil's weapons stronger either by giving them extra effects or increasing their range on the flip side the gauge goes down by running around missing attacks or getting hit basically anything that would be contradictory to virgil's clean composed image which is a clever way to sync up his gameplay with his personality without doing a complete page one rewrite to his existing moveset and still works with the previously established amato systems if you want to play like virgil you don't want to stain his brand by flailing around wildly of course nothing is stopping you from going monkey mode on the controller and spamming attacks if that's how you feel comfortable playing and that has its merits when you know how to do it right but you aren't getting the most out of virgil's wider moveset if you can't maintain his concentration with his strongest move in the game being locked to it when trying to execute virgil's massive screen clearing attack judgment cut end you not only have to have dt active but also have his concentration at max level making it a cathartic reward for handling virgil effectively along with this new concentration mechanic his trick ability also got a slight update on a fundamental level it works the same as it does in three being all about placing virgil close to his targets as fast as possible but with one key difference if you have any perception that itsuno didn't genuinely enjoy what the reboot did with its gameplay and just hyped it up because capcom told him to i'd point you to virgil's embedded sword mechanic in 4se his base trick now is directed to the summon swordsy sticks and enemies no longer being dependent on the targets themselves but removing any real range limitations while doing so and if there's no swords currently on the field he has to send one out before he teleports this means there's a slight lag before he starts moving if there's no embedded targets and tagging an enemy removes that lag making it easier to keep close to moving targets wherever they go for as long as the sword stays active between this and all his weapons now having their own mid-air attacks virgil's aerial control in 4 makes him an absolute beast but while i appreciated suno wanting to bring over game design elements he liked i don't think this was fully thought out with virgil's downfall virgil had an entire separate system for his trick mobility and the embedded sword mechanic was for the angel lift demon pull mechanics that were for enemy placement so it worked in that context in 4 however trick is his only mobility option and the embedded sword system easily complicates things between up trick not working at all when a demon is tagged despite having its own input thus restricting your ability to freely move during combos or it can get mixed up in a crowd if the wrong target's tagged making the mechanic come off as clumsy in certain situations i do love the idea of sheathing yamato detonating the swords for extra damage as a bonus for losing the embedded targets but like most post-modern architecture there are conflicting design elements here that don't work in practice while on that note whose idea was it to relegate trick down to being exclusive to when dt is active don't get me wrong giving the devil trigger form its own unique mechanics beyond a simple power up is a smart design choice and i assume this was done as a way to nerf trick down so that avoiding hits took more work from the player with virgil's already amped up moveset but this change makes it nigh unusable for how specific its limitations are because you basically have to plan out that movement ahead of time assuming you have the meter for it this is an action game not a wedding i need to rsvp for frankly we'd be here for a while if i went through all the my nude intricacies of virgil's playstyle for as that could easily make for its own video especially if we started to dig into all the advanced techie ads so i'll save that for someone better equipped than me to talk about it however i do want to elaborate on a bit of tech 4 brings in for him that being teleport cancels taking another leap from the reboot virgil can now do his trick teleports to cancel out of nearly all his moves mid-animation which is insanely useful both defensively and offensively in his vast tech library teleport cancels is easily at the bottom of the list being the first thing you learn when trying to get into more advanced play styles with a character but this is a big thing for what makes virgil so fun to tinker with and for since a vast majority of his moveset can be trick cancelled even if you're cancelling into the same move you were doing as a way to maximize its effectiveness this is what turns lunar phase from a single cool flip kick into virgil's spinning wheel of death as long as you can keep the rhythm of it honestly compared to his dmc 3 iteration where virgil has his strong points but is balanced decently within the existing game due to his own limitations virgil and 4 takes the game and breaks it over his knee the concentration gauge at max makes him deliberately overpowered judgment cut end is easy to spam if you know what you're doing teleport cancels are simple to execute and abuse and that's just the most obvious details but you know what that's what i love about him if i were playing virgil during my first playthrough completely destroying the balance of the game would obviously be a major problem but as someone who'd gone through dmz 4 a fair few times already by the time i really started digging into virgil systems i get a lot of enjoyment out of his playstyle it's like unlocking the final weapon in a game that completely melts enemies you know sometimes you get tired of playing nice and you just want to go ape [ __ ] all things accounted for i'd give this a 9 on the vergil scale don't get so cocky now if you want a more balanced breakfast there are the two other new characters in four don't be late for the party yes along with virgil both lady and trish were also added into dmc4sc which was a big deal when it was first announced because it was the first time the lady was playable in a game and trish's first time being playable in a functioning game am i too mean to dmc2 nah with lady her core design principle was basically what if you took dante's gunslinger style from three removed artemis spiral and every melee weapon from the equation and created an entire move set around what was left and for what it is it works well enough alright let's unpack that loaded statement to start off lady has three guns for various uses a shotgun for strong close range hits pistols for consistent long range shots and a rocket launcher for breaking the geneva conventions with her clenan bayonet giving her some rudimentary melee attacks because she has such a major firearm focused way of playing her this creates a perception that she's meant to be played at a distance but that is easily the most boring way to engage with her combat since her best attacks and combos are when you're close up instead i'd say it's about knowing what weapons are best for what distance and how to position enemies right to make use of that like using her handgun's two hand launcher to send a demon into the air before hitting them with trigger happy uninterrupted or getting a bit of space to charge up for a full powered shot from clean the core tenant of ladies playstyle remember is abc always b charging if you're using either the pistols or shotgun there's never reason to not be charging them up so you can use their level 3 shots for max damage since the charge does not interrupt her melee or style attack to make this easier in the moment lady does get her own gauge next to the health bar like nero or virgil which indicates both what level of charge a gun is at and how much charge is left to get to the next giving you consistent feedback on how much time you have before you hit level 3 or how much ammo is left in shotgun's bank also along with a shotgun stocking up multiple shots as it charges i wouldn't be doing my job if i didn't mention how unbelievably broken jump cancelling the shotgun is as jumping off an enemy during the animation lets you negate the recoil of the shot thus allowing you to rapidly fire a super powered shotgun as it utterly decimates any lesser demon which is just some good wholesome fun the downside of lady's playstyle however is that her moves can be slow and clunky with not much spread making her incredibly easy to punish which is a massive downside due to her having the durability of a kit kat in a tumble dryer the one saving grace of this however is her sole defensive option which also happens to be the replacement for her lack of a dt as the one pure human being in the cast that has to hang tough with hordes of demons she doesn't get any form of devil trigger and instead has to make do with what she's got a giant box of grenades replacing any type of super form lady instead does a screen clearing explosion with a handful of grenades the more dt you build the bigger the explosion the obvious benefit to this attack is that it acts as a massive super move to deal damage to everything surrounding her but the secondary benefit to burst is its defensive abilities as it's fantastic for interrupting enemy attacks mid combos since it triggers the instant you activate it no matter the situation so it's great as an emergency out when you're in a tight spot the caveat to this however is that aside from not having any healing benefits like a normal dt burst is an all or nothing sort of deal once you use it you use everything you've saved up so if you accidentally graze the button for it by accident well tough [ __ ] like v and dmc 5 lady has a lot of interesting mechanics going on that make her stand out from the rest of the cast and is still miles ahead of most action game characters in terms of combat depth however she does feel more like a proof of concept than a fully fleshed out idea highlighted most by the fact that the best strategy for every boss fight with her is waiting for them to get vulnerable so that you can start charging for a max burst shot she's just missing something to fully bring her together if i were to quote unquote fix her my easiest solution would be either to give every weapon including her bayonet an extra move in order to add to her repertoire or give her better mobility options to close gaps between her and the enemy as it feels difficult to move her around in snappy ways hell you could just give her a shotgun move similar to nero's gerbera m5 that gives her more mid-air mobility and that alone could do wonders for her ability to get around in a stylish way anyway enough about lady what about trish now this might be my personal preference for punch girl speaking but trish is honestly one of my personal favorite characters to play as in the series as she has a decently varied moveset that is all kept to a single set of weapons style button is for sparta attacks melee is for electric bare knuckle neutral shots are for loose and umbra and inputs on shoot pull out pandora thus completely removing the need to weapon switch mid-fight on the face of it this may sound like it extremely limits her moveset and it definitely does in a couple ways but it's how it all comes together that makes it so refreshing effectively throwing out sparta is the cornerstone of her moveset since sending it out is how you switch between the variant attack spare knuckle has at default holding back with bare knuckle does a rising dragon move that launches her up with anything in front of her but while round trip is active it changes to a charged volcano attack that does massive damage to the surrounding area so bouncing between electric wing god fists and helicopter spin kicks trish is a fast snappy playstyle that is balanced by giving her lengthier combos in order to get the max payoff at the end like her bare knuckle b combo concluding with her practicing her downswing however while i say trish is one of my favorites to play do not confuse that with me saying she's the best character to play of all the characters in 4 she's actually the weakest both in her attacks and how she's used while sparta is the sword of legends in the lore in trish's hands it has all the impact of a wiffle ball bat for how little damage it's actually doing once you get into the higher difficulties which means a large amount of remove said doesn't feel useful so it's nearly always better to just toss it literally speaking similarly pandora has its uses with revenge being a must use in specific situations as one of her most powerful moves if it makes full contact but because of its startup time along with a more nuanced input to them trish ends up extremely lacking options when it comes to her long range abilities though considering how much was put into her two melee weapons this was probably intentional making lady all about firearms and positioning while trish is all about up close crowd control however this limitation of their moveset does end up highlighting a key failing of how 4se handled these new characters when actually going through the game with any of these three it's transparent there wasn't a ton of consideration with how these characters were designed in relation to certain enemies or bosses that already existed in the game so they either completely break encounters or just make you want to snap your controller in half the best example being trish having about as many satisfactory answers for dealing with the blitz as i would compared to every other character making any fight with an already frustrating enemy into a no fun zone also i wouldn't be doing my job as a [ __ ] dmc fan that wants the best story told with its campaign if i didn't yet again reiterate the lack of actual narrative content in this special edition too as a clear example virgil's campaign appears to be framed as him visiting fortuna years before the main story and encountering the demons that were already there at least by what the cutscenes at the start and end imply but again you go through all the same story beats as the main campaign with all the cutscenes removed to be clear i'm completely fine with reusing assets and enemies for an expansion campaign i don't expect a next-gen remaster to create dozens of new enemy types in arenas because the budget would not likely allow for it but it continues to feel like virgil is underutilized when it comes to how these stories could better flesh him out his character or what he was even doing in fortune at the time which is actually important for the ongoing story for how nero got there the only unique story bit here is virgil being thirst over by this one woman in the opening cutscene instead of adding to or re-contextualizing the overall experience these extra campaigns not only remind you about the glaring flaws of dmc 4's level design and lack of narrative structure but put it under a massive madison square garden size spotlight as you end up doing both nero and dante's halves with zero real changes of substance at least with lady and trish you still get the excuse of oh playing through the first half again with minimal changes highlights the difference between these two playstyles but with virgil you play the entire thing as him so you fight nearly every major boss three times all in the same locations with the same attack patterns and to demonstrate my point i use the same exact footage of these boss fights for this bit but that's why i have to bring up the other noteworthy edition of dmc 4se legendary dark knight mode which was made solely to make the argument that musou and stylish action games are two different things that much more frustrating by mashing them together originally included in the pc port of the vanilla release to show off what the game could do with more power ldk mode is where the new characters of the game actually get to stretch their legs a bit as all of them have some form of aoe attacks that make it fun to blast through waves of enemies with the same gleeful viciousness as reddit destroying a hedge fund [Applause] with the difficulty being set somewhere between sons of sparta and dante must die by increasing the damage to lesser demons to balance out fights against larger groups while decreasing the damage to bosses to make the 101 fights tougher the challenge of ldk mode comes from having to handle massive hordes and tougher individuals don't take this as a huge gauntlet that will push you to your limits however because s ranks are nearly a given as long as you don't die too often or waste your time considering enemies pull together in a way that make them easy to hit collectively thus shooting your style meter through the roof in an instant but it does give you a chance to learn new ways of handling enemies since you have to shift your focus to wider attacks and not stay in one place for too long for fear of being grouped up on however while it's a great addition to dmc's formula ldk doesn't fix 4se's previously stated problems it's simply a band-aid that gives you a fun challenge mode to play around with every issue that exists in the base game experience with any character still exists here so if you aren't someone who already adores the combat and wants that remix to the game ldk mode is not designed to change your mind frankly it's genuinely tough for me to fairly judge this approach to a re-release because i don't know the cost or time the development had with rumors being that 4se was a low budget project for a game that famously itself had budget restrictions plus it's by far more than most bare bone remasters bothered doing considering it added three entire characters but it is frustrating seeing a game that had clear things to fix leaning exclusively on its strengths when it could have also polished up on its weaknesses that hold it back and that circles us right back around to where we originally started with the special edition release of devil may cry 5. now dmc 5se was something every fan knew was coming after three rounds of this it was simply a matter of when but that didn't stop fans from pestering any capcom or dmc related social media with the virgil when posts for over a year then in september 2020 we finally got a reveal trailer for dmc 5 special edition including virgil turbo mode and the legendary dark knight exclusively for the ps5 and xbox series x according to capcom this was done largely due to the fact that the older consoles wouldn't been able to handle the extra additions with their performance but fortunately virgil was put in as a 5 dlc add-on for previous installments so at least we're making progress however it wouldn't be a special edition release if there wasn't some ridiculous decision made along with it and in this case it was capcom relegating pcs to the last gen ghettos despite any computer that doesn't use a potato for a gpu having the potential power to handle any of the next-gen updates but hey that's what modders are for so a special shout out to hitchhiker dr penguin cyan littimi dante razer and everyone else involved in doing the extensive mod work to bring the special edition experience to pc along with adding in extra systems like co-op and pvp honestly going into any of these in detail would take a hot second with how much they can change what playing this game is like and we're already going past an hour here so instead i'll leave a list of links to mods worth checking out in the description with cyan's collaborative chi trainer specifically covering most bases by putting a majority of them into one place anyway what about the actual content provided by capcom themselves well after praising what the modders have done this is a tad awkward compared to even dmz 4se what 5 brings on the surface level is pretty paltry since it's one character in a game mode from a previous entry not to look down on the clear effort that has to go in at the aaa level of coding and programming but as the series has progressed over the years what we've been getting in these re-releases has gone down in direct correlation with how lavish game development has gone up and that's worth at least addressing but i'd be flat-out lying if i didn't own up to the fact that this is some of the most enjoyment i've gotten out of these games with how much work that's clearly put into refining this one character so i could bang on for a third time about the negatives of how it's a phoning campaign and missed potential yada yada or we can skip all that and go right to talking about why virgil is such an outstanding addition to the game now after dmz 4se it appears that it's suno and the rest of the development team saw the grievances of how virgil was a tad overpowered for the game so they clearly weighed their options on how to handle this and then went what if we did that again but more to put it in simple terms if virgil in 4 was his previous iteration on steroids five virgil is on crank on top of that giving him a new doppelganger dt a cindy t and even more ultimate moves along with judgment cut and for his other weapons because they were feeling left out it might be all the muscle memory i've developed playing through as various other forms but virgil in five felt broken the instant i picked him up as i was able to nonchalantly s rank all of devil hunter on my first run through after i had purchased all his skills despite not having touched the game for the better part of a year in a direct contrast to his human side v who's incredibly fragile and struggles the instant he loses one of his summons virgil is by far the most powerful character in the game even at a base level appropriately fitting the idea you're playing as the ultimate big bad at the end of this saga the sheer freedom of expression virgil has effectively shatters the limiters to the point that it also shatters any semblance of balance this game could have once you have all his tools at your disposal even furies who are infamous for being style blockers in the base game turn into an absolute joke against virgil which is certainly satisfying in its own way yeah it's not so fun when i can teleport wherever i want to huh according to matt walker hideaki atsuno had said he'd wanted to keep virgil feeling fresh in dmc 5. we'd like to make sure that the player's image of virgil stays intact so we added elements that will ideally emphasize his uniqueness while building on his uniqueness we also took care to ensure that the fun of virgil doesn't overlap with that of the other characters [ __ ] killed it so sick along with his polished dub moveset what makes virgil really stand out here compared to the rest of the cast is the extra fluid feel to his mobility with all his animations having this blurred chromatic aberration after image effect to them that gives the impression that the game is struggling to keep up with his movements as if he was ripped right out of a shonen battle anime on the topic of his movement virgil's trick abilities were retooled from four probably due to the overwhelming complaints about its controls keeping the embedded sword system trick up is finally usable while an enemy is tagged as long as you aren't locked on to anybody and trick down no longer requires you to be in his dt form but now uses a down up motion to pull off which again was likely done to cap his mobility at least a little bit this is relatively negligible though because he was also given a trick dodge for lateral moves on the ground for avoiding attacks it might not be as snappy as his other movement options and has more recovery frames compared to a dash but giving this character even more ways to move around dynamically in a fight basically makes him untouchable with just a bit of practice so it's a real challenge to even put a dent in his concentration if you're remotely paying attention and if virgil wasn't already putting the game into easy mode there's also his new ability world of v bringing forth his inner hot topic twink world of v allows you to eat up virgil's concentration gauge to call in v summons to carpet bomb the surrounding area which lasts longer and does more damage depending on how full the gauge was while also topping off your health when it activates the only real weakness that world of v has outside of eating up your concentration is that you can be knocked out of it during the startup but that's only a drawback if you're attempting to use it right as a powerful enemy is winding up since the stab itself causes a burst that stuns most weaker ones and then you're invulnerable for the rest of the attack i know that plenty of people felt that a potential dlc for virgil was a way for capcom to scam players due to the character being found in the source files back when the vanilla game was first released which is how modders got him into the game in the first place but as matt walker stated in an interview that was simply the model and animations used to design the boss fight and going by how much work obviously went into polishing up virgil into his best form here i'd say it's enough to warrant a fiver at least everything from the animations of attacks to the visual effects to the sound of his void slash warping the audio until it releases to the amount of cake on virgil cindy t is simply inspired and demonstrates that this isn't just a copy paste of virgil's boss files with no thought put in there was a clear attempt to flesh him out to the max here and nowhere does that come across more than in virgil's new battle theme bury the light [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] drifting in the [Music] yes after a decade of multiple game appearances where he's had to share dante or nero's musical hand-me-downs we were of at five and not only did virgil get his own specially made track that works within the game's dynamic music system that adds layers in as your style meter goes up it slaps so [ __ ] hard breathalyte is not only a banger to slice up demons to but it's one of the best of the franchise and i say this as a die-hard advocate of devil trigger which is why we're stopping to have a brief tangent about what makes burry the lights such a fantastic track because i haven't indulged myself enough here already to start what elevates bury the light so high is that like the rest of the battle themes of dmc 5 the music is intended to be representative of the character it's paired with but takes it to the next level by telling virgil story throughout the series from start to finish both in its lyrics and the musical motifs it incorporates somehow the song both references the dmc3 manga of all things and sneaks in the melody of nero's devil trigger into the instrumental breakdown at the end of the song and it all flows together perfectly going by the song's composer casey edwards this was the track that atsuno and ko really wanted to go all out with in terms of what it was bringing to the table which is why they gave him the specific request that he couldn't use any to store guitars except for in the chorus now this might sound like an insane idea when you're making a metal track in a devil may cry game but i think this heavily worked in bury the light's favor obviously distortion guitars have become a core tenet of all rock and metal music with the raw intensity and give off so the development team likely wanted to go in the other direction by giving virgil song a more polished refined sound to fit with his image and then unleash that power during the chorus to add in some extra punch virgil's all about that ido style in fights so you might as well have a theme that reflects that plus since casey was forced to get creative in composing within that limitation he ended up emphasizing the base of the track instead which gives it this distinctly powerful feel in comparison to the game's other battle themes but by far my favorite little detail of the song is actually right before the second chorus after the lyrics two souls once lost and now they remember at the end of the second verse alluding to v and urazin becoming one right before the climax of the game just before the next chorus of i am the storm that is approaching crashes in a violent solo sneaks into the mix the instrument that v uses during his taunts it's already impressive working a violin into a bombastic metal piece like this but it's done phenomenally not only in the composition but how it reflects the story of virgil's character being conveyed through the music casey edwards you goddamn genius from the lyrics to the composition you can feel how much love and attention went into making this track one that you could hear a hundred times and still feel just as hype as the first this is honestly what was missing from virgil's downfall on a presentation level breathalyte is dripping with that 2000s crush 40 butt rock but rather than pretending it's something to be taken super seriously it revels in that aspect which by the merits of the my chemical romance principle of cheese it circles right back around to being awesome breed the light wasn't just a this theme feels fitting for this character it's a genuine celebration of the character camp and all alright so with dmc 5 we got the ultimate form of virgil's gameplay and a unique battle theme to go with it that takes playing him to the next level but there's still one more depressed pizza eating elephant in the room now frankly if 5se concluded with yet another clash of vergils that would have been a huge disappointment and i think it's suno and team understood this so after years of waiting we finally got what dmc fans have been crying for years to get a proper dante boss fight as virgil not a tutorial fight or one recycled from nero's campaign and four this is a fight made for virgil at the climax of this story about two brothers clashing against each other after years of confrontations have blurred their ability to see each other as anything but enemies we can finally play both sides and go all out while doing it which legit couldn't be a better way to end it so despite the rest of the game being a repeat of the base campaign as per usual i'd say this one fight pretty easily makes up for it while i obviously prefer playing as virgil over dante if given the choice i enjoy fighting dante way more because his massive arsenal is a joy to trade blows with due to the sheer variety switching between four devil arms three firearms four styles and a cindy t form this fight tests your knowledge of his entire moveset and how to find openings within it i'd even go so far as to say that dantein 5 is one of the best boss fights in the series because contrary to his appearance in four where he only had rebellion and his two guns until you get into the higher difficulties he maintains his full move set from five on every level in the final fight if it were to complain about one thing though it would be that royal guard can [ __ ] right off i will say that this is a good mechanic that keeps players from ceaselessly spamming attacks during this fight really making it clear you can't go wild on dante like the rest of the bosses by fiercely wrapping you on the knuckles as soon as you try to the problem is that this isn't just a parry system it's his full royal release which along with doing massive damage on return has no limits to its range i'm totally fine with the system that keeps you on your toes but how royal guard punishes you because you didn't have the clear voice to know he was gonna switch can instantly take a fight from an amazing fun test of your skills all the way to and if not to prove that fans are never content with what they get and always want something else the dante fight is also undercut by the fact that five is now missing a boss fight with nero the moment in mission 20 where virgil's son arrives to knock his father around is instead replaced by a second tougher dante boss fight where he's more aggressive with his moves now there's absolutely no doubt that a nero boss fight was on the table when this was originally being planned out since the ending of mission 19 still has the setup for his arrival in his new dt form so i have to assume that there were complications in actually implementing it either having to do with cost or some restrictions involving nero himself if i were to hazard a guess my best assumption would be that creating a boss fight with this character would be frankly not impossible to balance if he had a majority of his kit from 5 along with his new devil trigger since plenty of his mechanics would be anti-fun to go up against as a player without making massive adjustments to them could you imagine trying to fight an ai controlled enemy that could hard grab you or send out homing rocket punches with minimal telegraphing but man even if i can understand the decision i'm still left thinking what if though maybe in another decade we'll finally get that father-son boss fight from the other side or someone will just mod it in all things considered my complaints here are pretty negligible because this vergil is everything i could reasonably ask for in a playable character by combining a crazy moveset a high skill ceiling incredible presentation and a classic battle theme capcom finally made me feel like i've truly stepped into the shoes of a final boss and for that i have to give this a virgil scale rating of 10. this is the power of sparta now i usually try to end these longer videos on some major theme that brings it all together something about artistic collaboration or letting things go and i could easily reach for some point about how nothing's perfect on its first attempt and progress is always messy but i honestly just wanted to talk about the design of a character i find cool what you thought there was some grander meaning to this no i just really like virgil i even tried to truncate this down to what i found to be the essential points but that still ended up fulfilling the requirements for documentary feature at the oscars it's honestly just fascinating seeing a single character evolve solely through their mechanics even when their core design has largely remained the same over 15 years at the heart of virgil and dmc5 is his original style from 3 which is a testament to how well designed he was when he was first conceived all the way back in the bush administration it's easy to complain that it's just copy and pasting his moveset across games but when the creators essentially nailed the character's ethos perfectly on their first go there's no real reason to fix what ain't broken don't you dare say it hmm you

Channel: Foxcade

Views: 159,634

Rating: 4.9487252 out of 5

Keywords: Devil May Cry, DMC, Foxcade, Retrospective, Video Essay, Analysis, Vergil, Special Edition, DMC4, DMC3, Switch, DmC Definitive Edition, DMC5, Casey Edwards, Hideaki Itsuno, Bury the Light, Dante, Nero, Woolie, Punk Duck, Urizen, Matt Walker, PS5, PS4, PC, DMC5 Special Edition, DmC Reboot, Trish, Lady, Legendary Dark Knight, Mods

Id: exKiuLyINHE

Length: 76min 40sec (4600 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Fasticles]

This DMC retrospective is made by Foxcade. He is a good creator and his videos are solid.

[u/gothamsteel]

Where's Woolie in this?

[u/Red-pop]

Isn't foxcade a known CSB/SBF collaborator and mark?