I've tried to get into this game multiple times again and again and again but I can never play it for more than an hour before questioning why I'm even playing this game. No game in my life has been as polarizing as DMC 3. I may have been spoiled by playing DMC 5 first and also by the bad first impression I got playing this game years ago, as I picked yellow mode with no clue what it actually meant in the start menu and was completely baffled after dying, thinking that I would have to restart entire missions if I died.

DMC 3's combat, when it works, reaches such a high that it keeps bringing you back, thinking about mastering Royal Guard or learning how to jump cancel. Of all things, I feel speedruns are what really make me see the light, seeing how a player can crack this game in two and taught me that Royal Guard is used for much more than just parrying. Shout out to this sickass shit as well, the first time watching it leaving me shocked while my dog shit ass was struggling even beating basic fodder enemies in DMD. Even stacked up to 4 or 5, there are certain times where 3’s combat rules more than any other. But you already knew that.

The problem is that when you get past the first 7 levels, the game keeps introducing more enemies that completely throw everything good about the combat out the window, and slowly but surely the game keeps getting worse and worse. Enigmas in later levels and difficulties start running away, the only consistent strategies of which I have found to be either to throw rebellion at them and gun them down, or just spam with Nevan, the latter of which seeming to be the only viable way to keep an SSS rank consistently in higher difficulties. Soul Eaters, Dullahans, The Fallen all suffer from the same, allowing very little creative or stylish play. Even the spiders are pretty bad imo, practically forcing you to use Royal Guard perfectly or chase them down with Agni and Rudra after they run around like the bunch of pussies that they are. What I find most offensive is how the game INSISTS upon these enemies. Half of the game is spent fighting these miserable shits, and it becomes even worse when you try to S rank the levels. Even Bloody Palace, meant to cut the fat from the campaign, sucks ginormous balls with this. In my 2 hour run (where I promptly died to Vergil on his last pixel of health as I was stuck with Agni and Rudra and Swordmaster and sucked too much ass to do it without trickster or royal guard, thanks game), 3/4ths of the floors consisted of this horse shit combined. Seriously, watch a video of someone playing Bloody Palace and count how many times you see Scythe enemies. It reaches a point where the only consistent strategy to beat BP without having an aneurysm is to either be playing on a Switch or being able to perfectly Royal Guard everything, and as much as I praise that style, it sucks when it essentially becomes a bandaid applied over the broken leg that is the enemy design in this game.

Even further to this game’s detriment, there’s nothing outside of combat that particularly calls to me or that I like to make up for it. Dark Souls has an awful second half that is comparable to this game’s, but I keep going because I love the game’s world and RPG building. What even is there here? I don’t like the main battle themes and neither most boss themes, the only really good song being Devils Never Cry. I think the game looks kinda disgusting even compared to other games from the time. The story’s pretty good I guess, but to me these games are kinda just theme park rides, I see it once, enjoy it, then I kinda don’t care afterwards.

It all ends up resulting in a game that, in retrospect, I see no reason to play over other action games when the entertainment value goes out the window once you play for more than 10 minutes. It's unfair to compare DMC 5 to 3 considering the 14 year gap between both, but I can’t help but feel that I should be playing that game instead, where it keeps the spirit of DMC 3’s combat and while it may not reach as high, it does come close, and the lows are definitely much more tolerable. But I’d honestly go as far as to say I even prefer DMC 1. It's not a perfect game as it also has its annoyances, but enemies in the original are surprisingly fun across the board and work better for how that game measures performance. At the very least I feel that this game was a pretty solid foundation for not just the series but action games in general to follow, but it's weird that DMC 3 somehow fails to catch up to the standard that it itself established.

Elden Ring Apology Form
To: Hidetaka Myazaki
Reasons for behavior:
☑ The annoying fanboys convinced me it was overhyped
☑ I only played the game using shitty builds and spirit summons
☑ I was jealous of Hidetaka Miyazaki
𐄂 I didn't play the actual game
𐄂 I don't know Soulsborne
𐄂 Mercury was in retrograde

☑ I will hereby respect Elden Ring and I will NOT talk down on the future first-ballot Hall of Famer