one of the best to ever do it. the goat. THE GOAT. i fucking love Devil May Cry 3. Every morning before i get ready i look in the mirror and say "foolishness dante... foolishness." because I am HER. This game is HIM. i fucking lvoe Devil May Cry 3. i love Devil May Cry 3 so much i dont even even pay other action games any attention. Mid Gear Rising? feels like knockoff Bayo. Bayomidda? Knock off DEVIL MAY CRY 3!!!! if they made a Devil May Cry 3 buttplug i would buy it and wear it constantly. i would seriously never take it out. i couldnt shove Devil May Cry 3's balls up my mouth any furher. If they made a Devil May Cry 3 dildo i would seriously never stop fucking myself with it. WE LOVE Devil May Cry 3!!!!

Wow, what an incredible game this is. Devil May Cry 3 is a super complex, satisfying, challenging, and overwhelmingly great experience. Capcom nailed literally everything in this game. The story, characters, combat, music, enemies, level design, everything. They perfectly walked the line between being badass but also being self-aware and not edgy. The cutscenes and story in this game are awesome, I loved all of it. Dante, Virgil, Lady, and Arkham are super well-written and have such cool character arcs. The cutscenes are also incredibly well done.

The combat is so wonderful and addicting, that I kept wanting to learn more and more on how to get better. There are so many options available, including all the guns, weapons, and styles, all of these mechanics work well and give you so much control over how you want to play, while giving so much variety in the gameplay. It's perfect. Not only that but there's so much depth in this game combat that I'm pretty sure veterans who've played this game for years still haven't found everything. It's simply that good.

DMC3 also has great replayability, with bloody palace for practice, getting better at the combat, and of course, getting to play as Virgil. I have no doubt in my mind I will be coming back to this game all the time.

Anyway, it goes without saying that DMC3 is one of the greatest games of all time, absolutely blowing its predecessors out of the water times 1000. Also being a sequel to DMC2, which is one of the worst games ever made, kinda makes this the best sequel ever made, considering how much it really improved, and this being one of the best games ever. Anyway, DMC3 is a perfect 10/10 and I can't imagine many people really disagree.

IT'S NOT MY FAVORITE GAME NO THIS ISN'T HAPPENING IT ISN'T A STUPID ASS RPG THAT'S LIKE 100 HOURS LONG THE STORY IS SIMPLE IT RUNS ON STUPID BUT THE PROBLEM IS I LIKE STUPID WHAT DID THIS GAME DO TO ME AFTER I BEAT IT I TRIED TO PLAY A JRPG MY FAVORITE PASTTIME BUT I PLAYED BRAVELY DEFAULT FOR A COUPLE HOURS AND THOUGHT "GOD DAMN THIS SUCKS ASS WHY AM I DOING THIS" THIS SHIT IS BRAINWASHING SOFTWARE DESIGNED AS A GAME IT FUCKING DERADICALIZED ME OFF OF JRPGS HELP
(I initially said that I would write a more coherent review of this later but no review I could ever write can capture my feelings better than this one)

You know you made a good ass game when it is hard as hell yet I'm still having a good time with it.

There are so many good things I want to say about it but idk what to start with so I'll just list some things that came to mind.

-I love the freedom in how you are able to play the game thanks to offering different styles of play, the various different weapons that offer different uses and feels, and the customization between the two makes it really fun to mess things around with on replays and makes the more fleshed out combo system that much greater.

-Dante and Vergil both feel great to use and got a kick out of each of their unique strengths, it's hard to tell who I like more just because of how much I enjoyed each of them.

-I was a lot more engaged in the story than I was expecting, not only in how over the top and entertaining it can be, but also how surprisingly good the voice acting and performances were, especially given this was an era where video game voice acting at this time still needed time to improve.

-The graphics and art style I was really impressed by. I was surprised at the improvements and details the game had compared to the previous two games, while still being on the same console as them. Some areas honestly looked like something out of an early PS3 title, which made me really impressed with it overall.

-The soundtrack is an absolute fucking banger, that's all.

Overall, I'm not sure if I would call this a perfect game mainly due to how hard it can be along with some of the enemies, I feel, need some proper tweaking, but god damn, I now get why this game helped DMC actually become something worthwhile for a lot of people compared to 1 and 2. I am now looking forward to what the rest of the series offers.

Devil May Cry 3 is the coolest game I've ever played and is packed to the brim with over the top charisma and coolness in every department from the presentation to the gameplay.

In terms of presentation, the game heavily emphasises on the coky personality of Dante from the first game and improves upon it. In this game my man is just too cool to give a fuck about anything, kills of hordes of demons in the most batshist crazy way he can, trash talks the menacing bosses and is in general endlessly entertaining to watch. The other characters are no slouch either with Vergil being one of the best rival characters and Lady's more grounded character and personal dynamic with Arkham making for a good arc. Teminigru with its gothic architecure is easily my favorite setting of the series yet and the industrial rock inspired soundtrack hits hard in combat segments.

The gameplay is the true successor to DMC1's more basic combat system fleshed out much more and captures the feel of the cutscenes effortlessly and player expression takes the center stage here. There's a variety of weapons you can unlock in the game and each of them is distinct enough to stand out on it's own. My personal favorites are Agni and Rudra, Rebellion and Beowulf. The guns are useful for extending combos but not overpowered enough to finish off enemies on their own like the previous entries thus incentivizing getting up close and kicking their asses. The ability to switch weapons on the go is my favorite new feature (you could also switch guns in dmc2 but that did not apply to weapons iirc) even above style system and helps a lot in creating combos. Neat little features like riding on enemies and swinging on poles help infuse the carefree Dante personality into the gameplay.

Most of the bosses here are excellent tho not every boss is equally good imo with the insect boss and the rider having some of the most uninteresting attack patterns and Arkham just being bad in every way possible something which even the game seems to be aware of from what I infer from Vergil's lines before the second phase starts. Though when the bosses are good they go hard af especially Beowulf, Nevan and all the three Vergil fights being some of the most difficult and memorable challenges.

I do have some nitpicks regarding the enemy and level designs, some of the enemies stand in direct contrast to the freeform combat and require a very specific approach which feels very restrictive in comparision to the more basic enemy types which allowed for more freedom of approach by the player. Those wheel-esque and squid-like enemies are the biggest offenders of this crime imo and were massively detrimental to the flow of combat.
Some of the missions have a puzzle or platforming segment too which at best are harmless break from the action but at their worst are annoying af especially the mission where you had to platform on dices and the mission where you had to find the three fragments.

Though, even with all the minor problems I had with it Devil May Cry 3 is still a masterpiece and the point where the series really found it's footing with its combat system and presentation being one of the best I've seen

Since I wasn't that crazy about the first game to begin with and thought that the second game was astoundingly terrible in ways where I could barely believe the franchise even kept going after its release, I was unsure if I even wanted to go ahead and play Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, and so I took a bit of a break from the series after playing the first two entries within two weeks of each other. As time went on, though, I heard quite a few people say that it was well worth it, and that made me decided to finally bite the bullet and play through the fan favorite of the franchise. Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening was one of those games that I really looked forward to jumping back into whenever I wasn't already playing it, because while it definitely isn't perfect in some outright frustrating ways, it was a massive improvement on Devil May Cry and especially Devil May Cry 2.

Before I even got the chance to control Dante, I had a feeling that I was going to like this game thanks to its cutscenes, because if there's one thing that Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening has in spades, it's a strong personality. Instead of being vessels for dull exposition, the cutscenes in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening are loaded with hyperactive camerawork and editing, blood-pumping music, campy dialogue, and some immensely over-the-top action that made my jaw drop multiple times, and I looked forward to every single cutscene to the point where they were my favorite element of the entire game. The stylized cutscenes were complimented by Dante's much more lovable personality, fleshed out characters, and a genuinely compelling story (a first for the series!), and seeing how Dante's relationship with Vergil evolved alongside Lady's relationship with her father Arkham was compelling from start to finish. The gameplay here got a much-needed revamp from the first game's barebones combat and the second game being entirely dedicated to having you spam the square button forever, as the twitchy, fast-paced combat is bolstered by a combo system that rewards speed and a whole slew of weapons and styles to choose from, the former of which you can switch on the fly. Not only did the variety of options to choose from alone make for a lot of experimentation, but the weapons and styles themselves being genuinely really cool made me excited to unlock new items and moves, and I got to try pretty much everything at least once while still clinging onto my favorite playstyle. The bosses are also loads of fun to fight with how hectic and varied they are, and while I do wish that they were spaced out a bit more and I especially wasn't a fan of the unnecessary repeated fights (looking at you, Mission 18), their Gothic designs made every encounter memorable.

Pretty much everyone who has played Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening talks about how difficult it is, and while it is pretty challenging, I don't think it would be half as hard to play as it is if it wasn't for the atrocious in-game camera. I don't know what it is about this series, but I haven't been able to play a single Devil May Cry game with a genuinely good camera system, as it constantly jerks around to the point where you can't even see what you're trying to kill, let alone avoid their attacks. This also ended up impacting the still-clunky platforming, barely functional enemy targeting system, the gimmick enemies that break the flow of combat with how they can only be killed in one or two ways, and practically every boss fight in the game, as attacks constantly come at you from off-screen in ways where you don't even get the chance to react to them to the point where it makes certain fights flat-out annoying to play. Although I wouldn't really call Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening the masterpiece that so many people have crowned it as over the years, it's still a great game that proved to be hugely influential to the character action genre, and while I'm not that interested in playing Devil May Cry 4 or DmC: Devil May Cry, I definitely do want to eventually check out Devil May Cry 5 when I come across a copy of it.

Sinto que aqui se encerra, por enquanto, minha jornada nessa épica familiar. Mas deixo essa aventura retida com ternura e expectativas, para que quando voltarmos a nos ver seja um desafio no meio de um momento em que, espero, seja mais simples a minha vida. Talvez lá, eu esteja feliz o suficiente para aproveitar tudo que me resta nessa franquia. Por hora, meu estado de espírito não me permitiu descansar sobre Devil May Cry 3 e, por estar exausto, Devil May Cry 3 me cansou.

Mas também, por estar exausto, Devil May Cry 3 me fez chorar.

Eu sempre fui uma pessoa muito ligada à família. Passei 12 anos como filho único, o que me deixou muito próximo aos meus pais. Depois de ver minha irmã nascer, entendi o amor. Apesar de meus pais trabalharem e passarem grande parte do dia fora, tive minha avó próxima a mim, assim como tios e tias com quem aprendi tanto. Nunca fui alguém com muitos amigos até chegar na adolescência, então durante a infância meus melhores amigos foram meus primos com quem estive praticamente toda semana por grande parte de minha vida. Eu fui moldado por minha família em vários aspectos e sou o que sou hoje por conta deles. Sou muito grato pela família que tenho e acredito que tive sorte. Mas então, por que me afastei?

Vivemos e tentamos seguir expectativas alienígenas, tentamos chegar o mais distante de tudo que nos criou, seja bom ou ruim. Eventualmente, estar longe da família se confunde com sucesso, sair do ninho é como finalmente ter alcançado o que queríamos, é um triunfo.

Durante o início da minha vida adulta me distanciei muito de minha família. Pessoas que eu amava e contava os dias para reencontrar, hoje eu sequer sei como estão seus rostos, quais histórias carregam, quais expressões os marcaram e como seus olhos se comportariam ao me ver? Vão franzir, sorrir ou ficar imóveis, indiferentes?

Depois de me distanciar eu tenho medo do reencontro, ao ponto de me mudar para outro continente com medo de pedir desculpa pela decisão de me afastar. Por muito tempo pensei que me detestavam. “Por que ele não vem mais?”

Família pode ser uma benção, mas pode também se tornar um peso que machuca a cada passo que damos, nossos joelhos doem e qualquer queda parece ser fatal. Mas no meu caso, eu cultivei esse peso. E eu precisei estar fisicamente distante para entender o mal que isso causa não só em mim, mas na família também. Não foi por mal, sequer foi por pensar. Fazemos escolhas inconscientes, e com isso, fazemos renúncias silenciosas. Família, no meu caso, foi uma renúncia constante e isso me machucou e machucou muita gente até então próxima. A distância machuca muito mais quando vem de uma escolha.

Eu estava com tudo isso em mente quando vejo um jovem Dante em seu recém-aberto escritório. Parecia uma adolescente brincando de adulto e isso foi cativante, afinal, é o Dante que eu conheci, só que mais jovem e imaturo em vários aspectos. Primeiro, Dante é jovem em sua prosa, com piadas constantes e um narcisismo digno de um adolescente do ensino médio que foi pela primeira vez à academia.

Também, Dante é imaturo em seu combate. No DMC2 e até no DMC1 vemos um Dante fatal, pouco esforço já basta para resolver o problema (isso principalmente no 2!). Aqui Dante faz malabarismos que não se justificam a não ser para se provar, seja para nós, interlocutores, ou para ele mesmo e suas expectativas. Ele parece ser forte o suficiente para lidar com inimigos com facilidade, mas claro que é mais legal fazer essas cenas mirabolantes de luta. E não reclamo, a cena da moto é uma das maiores dessa franquia e esse toque adorna a gameplay que é a mais espalhafatosa até então. Inimigos agora precisam de mais porrada e você precisa fazer combos mais bonitos para causar mais dano. É quase como se o objetivo aqui não fosse derrotar os inimigos por você ser mais forte, mas se provar mais forte ao derrotar os inimigos, e fazer bonito agregar muito nesse aspecto, apesar de não ser um fator que me apetece (inclusive me entedia).

Mas o sabor desse jogo está na superação substancial do maior ponto de imaturidade de Dante: Dante é imaturo ao se tratar de família.

Já sabemos o quão quebrado está Dante. No Devil May Cry tínhamos um Dante com um claro senso de compaixão, herdado pelo que parecia ser uma família amorosa, mas separada pelas circunstâncias da vida. Dante já possuía certa maturidade ao lidar com isso, e não tinha vergonha de demonstrar ternura quando se tratava de seu pai, irmão ou mãe. Em DMC2, Dante passa isso adiante, enfatizando a importância de uma família saudável, mesmo que não seja de sangue. Em DMC3, vemos um arco de crescimento de Dante e seu “coming-of-age” brilhantemente entregue com a sua relação familiar sendo colocada à prova pela contraposição de seu irmão gêmeo como antagonista do enredo, mas também como o inalcançável obstáculo ao ter abandonado seu laço familiar e o ter reduzido a “Poder” se tornando assim a figura do irmão mais velho que abandonou o ninho.

E aqui DMC3 brilha com seus personagens coadjuvantes, Virgil é essencial não apenas para DMC3, mas como a Franquia como um todo até então. Virgil é a forja do destino de Dante, e surge como uma provação, um trabalho que Dante deve enfrentar fisicamente e essencialmente.Virgil é mais forte do que Dante, e isso fica claro quando o vemos derrotar com apenas um golpe (ou nem isso) o primeiro chefe do jogo. Voltamos naquilo que mencionei mais cedo, é uma contraposição clara de demonstração de poder. Porém, a visão de família de Dante está nublada.

E é necessária a companhia de personagens excelentes como Virgil e Lady para Dante ressignificar o termo Família e decidir carregar novamente o peso da mesma. Se tornando ainda mais antagônico ao Virgil, que parece negligenciar sua criação, vendo-a apenas como um meio para o seu objetivo final.

Virgil nesse jogo parece ter passado pelo processo de emancipação, cortando qualquer laço familiar essencial. Enquanto Dante amadurece e percebe que não importa o quão distantes estamos, carregamos o peso da criação, do legado e do cuidado de quem nos cria, portanto, precisamos lutar para devolver e manter isso. Esse conflito se mostra atávico para os dois.

Ao final do jogo, temos o despertar de Dante, que em uma das cenas mais lindas da franquia, se encontra novamente em família com Virgil, mesmo que seja apenas por uma última afinação. A batalha em conjunto de Dante e Virgil é um daqueles momentos que só se pode traduzir em jogos.

Dante ter Virgil como aliado contra um inimigo que se apoderou do poder de Sparda, pai deles, é de um romantismo tremendo. Sem falar do simbolismo em não usar “devil trigger” e o intercâmbio de armas que acontece nessa cena. Naquele momento, eles cresceram. Infelizmente, o caminho de crescimento de Virgil é voltar ao ninho, mesmo que ele esteja vazio. Enquanto Dante precisa arcar com o peso de mais uma vez sair, se distanciar, mas dessa vez sabendo a importância que aqueles laços possuem na sua vida e o mais importante: O que significa Família. Tornando essa aventura ainda mais cruel e difícil. Sair por escolha machuca ainda mais quando a escolha é tomada conscientemente.

Quando Dante chora, eu estava ali. Durante esse caminho eu também cresci e adquiri uma habilidade fundamental para sobreviver. Eu aprendi a ressignificar Família e me amar nessa família. Uma família que escolhi ter, uma com quem posso dividir o peso da vida. Essa também é família, mas que só conseguimos enxergar de verdade quando caminhamos mais distante do ninho, quando nossos joelhos não aguentam mais e os braços de quem nos criou já mal conseguem nos alcançar para assistir, temos outras pessoas que surgem com um novo significado de família.

E por isso Devil May Cry 3 me marcou.

Não tiro seu mérito, no momento mental em que eu estava, poucos jogos fariam o que esse jogo fez. Ter tomado essa jornada me trouxe de volta para momentos familiares, esse jogo trouxe isso em mim. E eu entendo, assim como Dante, que o conceito de família muda. Eu tenho uma nova família agora, eu sei amar minha família e sei me amar nessa família sem esquecer de toda família que eu já tive e ainda tenho! De todo coração que cuidou de mim, toda alma que me protegeu, todo estranho que torceu por mim.

Eu amei, também, esse jogo.

Como pode um jogo ser tão improvável? Como pode em meio a tanto conflito, caos, incertezas e poluição, um jogo ter tanta ternura? Como pode uma franquia que causou tanto impacto, ser completamente diferente de tudo que a sucedeu?

Chorar em Devil May Cry é ser humano. É um tema que não poderia ser tão humano quanto o de família.

Estou muito feliz por ter jogado esse jogo.

god this game made playing the other 2 feel so fucking worth it. it owns so absurdly hard. before i get into the deep dive specifics i just had such a fun time. the 4.5 star is a little more preemptive than anything, i have like 3 more games i have played and i wanna see if any of them exceed this in a big way. it's a tall fuckin order but from what i've heard about V you never know!

the first thing that stands out about this game is the story and cutscenes compared to the other games. it's significantly more pronounced, and while the actual story isn't anything incredibly special the way it's presented is so fucking over the top action movie insane that it's a joy to get to any cutscene. the opening cutscene might be one of my favorite opening cutscenes in any game it's so fucking over the top and it rips so insanely hard. the whole game has that absurd feeling but the intro especially encapsulates it perfectly. dante is at his peak as a silly little dork with a ton of stupid one liners and trying way too hard to look cool... it works though he's so fucking cool LOL. virgil is a fun addition as like an actual character now, arkham/jester is the best villain of the 3 games i've played so far, and lady is a significant step up from trish and lucia. it isn't winning any awards for writing but god the cutscenes are just so insanely fun to watch that it was a big highlight for sure.

visually this game looks pretty great! i played the HD version, which is hard to judge how much of it looks good because of that but it seems really impressive this was on the ps2. the biggest visual aspect i appreciated was how varied the locations are. you revisit some areas briefly and some rooms are kinda reused but overall there's so much more variance in the locations and visuals of the areas that was a breath of fresh air. the way hell looks in this game is pretty breathtaking and super cool to run through.

controls and general gameplay systems are realistically at their best here. lock-on was fixed from 2, and most other moves are retained and are the best they've felt so far. the red orb system still isn't my favorite way of obtaining upgrades/items but it works the best here for me. you get a good amount of red orbs so you can spread it out a good bit but it still is limiting and discourages experimenting with upgrades to your weapons and such. the style system is overall solid, but because you can only swap at statues it's kinda hard to justify swapping around styles because you feel committed to one when you select it. i think it would be nicer if the EXP required to level up styles was significantly lower, i stuck with swordmaster almost the entire game and didn't fully level it up until like mission 17/18 of 20. otherwise the style system is really cool and i for sure wanna replay the new switch version that lets you swap styles/weapons anywhere with the dpad because that sounds like a massive improvement.

the last bit and obviously best part is the gameplay/combat. holy shit does this game feel phenomenal to play. it brings back the general combat style of devil may cry 1 but significantly faster and with way more variety. the very first thing i noticed was how instantly you can shoot out of combos and how seamlessly you can swap between weapons mid combo. the guns are very samey from the other 2 games, nothing super new or exciting really. the weapons are so much more fun and varied here though. each new weapon was unique and fun and it was super exciting to find a new one. my favorites by far being beowulf and agni/rudra. that's not to say the other weapons aren't fun but these just clicked the most for me, cerberus was super fun too though. just to gush a little bit beowulf especially with the swordmaster style is so fucking badass and satisfying to use it's genuinely one of my favorite beat em up weapons ever now. the simple combo of uppercutting an enemy into the air and then slamming an enemy to the ground with air raid is so insanely fun and never got tiring to me. the other big thing about the combat is the bosses and they're a massive step up here as well! there's a couple misses, arkham especially being pretty terrible but man when the bosses hit they absolutely fucking hit. agni and rudra was super fun and the second phase was so incredibly hype. the biggest standout by far are the vergil fights though. tons of games have tried the "mirror" boss idea, where there's a character that's incredibly similar to you and uses a similar moveset but usually i find they end up falling a bit short but the vergil fights in this game are the mirror match boss fight perfected. the first time he used devil trigger against me i was so hype, and him utilizing some of your moveset/showing you what you can do with some weapons (namely in the 2nd fight) is so smart and cool.

i'm very glad i finally got around to playing the devil may cry series! i knew i'd have a good time but i just kept putting it off for way too long. i promised a friend (hai alex) i'd finally give it a shot because she loves it dearly and it was a great time. i had an alright time with the first one but this is the one that truly made me understand why this series is so beloved.

My jaw is a little slack at this, lol.

DMC1 is unrivaled. It’s clunky and cute. It’s goofiness is tame. It’s story lies in the realm of unreality and unspecification that so many great budget-narratives are. But I thought all of that would prepare me for what came after it.

Absolutely NOT, somehow. DMC3 is the Game That Never Stops. Every scene is either total goofball antics, wacky demon mystery, or a tonal whiplash-inducing cacophony of asshole humor and Real As Fuck moments. I think the most interesting advancement we can recognize by observing DMC3 is how the technical advancements and higher story ambitions add all sorts of new aesthetic flavor to this gameplay format. DMC1’s comedy was mostly contained to Dante being wacky. There weren’t as many characters actively ‘there’ in that damn castle, so we weren’t exposed to so many varied reactions to this. DMC3 has so many more humorous flavors to it because of the new situation.

To name an example or four: Dante being pissed off at that freak, The Jester, brings me so much glee. If there’s one thing you’ll recognize from talking to me about any stories at all, you’ll know I inherently love to see protagonists annoyed, pissed off, or uncomfortable. This is not an inherent distaste for the point of view we see the story through, but rather an intense enjoyment of seeing someone who’s emotionally incapable of dealing with minor annoyances be subject to them. Bonus points if this annoyance is necessary for their larger quest.

That’s just the most important one, for me. This hilarity informs so many other aspects. For example- when Lady, someone more capable and fit to be the protagonist of this story by virtue of their olacement, reveals her tragic backstory to Dante, he keeps acting like a total fucking dick throughout it. Dante she just said her mom is dead! Not cool! And then, after this dispute, it all escalates in Dante no questions asked agreeing to help her. It’s so characterizin! It’s so weird! It’s so playful!

Hey- let’s stop talking about funny haha jokes for a moment. DMCheads hear me out. Doesn’t Lady as Dante’s rival kind of make more sense to you? I feel like everything about the plot is pushing me to see Virgil as Dante’s opposite. Ah! They’re as similar as they are different, though! AND they were BROTHERS! Of course they’r be rivals, right!?

That idea is not as compelling to me, though, as Lady being the rival is. The two wildly different personalities clashing despite their situation necessitating their allyship- not to mention their disagreements being entirely gut reactions to the other’s surface-level personality. I think there’s something to that.