despite the complete overhaul done to right its wrongs, razors edge will forever be overshadowed by the disastrous status of its roots. which, is an absolute shame! because ng3:re is perhaps the most underappreciated action game from a beloved franchise. it is upright insane how only 15% of people owning the game have finished the "normal" difficulty alone, clearly people are extremely intolerant to give this game another chance, or move beyond the stigma that everyone constantly brings about the inferior version. like, okay, its definitely not as eloquent as the previous titles, it definitely plays into a lot of 7th gen tropes, but, it still stands out from the crowd for the way it implements it into the gameplay, especially when the quick time events are incorporated in such a way that it doesnt feel distracting during the combat definitely reminds me of god of war a lot. the steel on bone mechanic is such a satisfying, gnarly move to pull off during combat as the body splices in half really makes you quiver your feet like a little girl! eeeeek!
anyways, from all the pc ports weve got. this is the best one from the bunch, unfortunately we dont have clan battles, 1v1 and co-op arena because they decided to port these games without the multiplayer included. either way, its very much a serviceable effort for an underappreciated classic. by the way, this game is seriously the most ruthless one out of the trilogy when it comes to its combat, ive never struggled this much in my life, ninja gaiden 2 really comes off easier compared to this! and the way enemies constantly block really makes the game a tough nut to crack. . . dont listen to all the blind hate! give this one a go.
mask of the regent is one iconic character too!

"An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity, a physicist tries to make it simple, for an idiot anything the more complicated it is the more he will admire it, if you make something so clusterfucked he can't understand it he's gonna think you're a god cause you made it so complicated nobody can understand it"
-Terry A. Davis, RIP.

People weren't ready for this game, it didn't deserve this much critical panning. Sure, it went through development hell, having to change multiple publishers to settle down for an exclusivity deal with Nintendo at the end, but i'd argue that it delivered. Tomonobu Itagaki's main purpose for this game was its multiplayer (which unfortunately is dead) it actually did very well in Japan, even having the multiplayer filled with people so much that they made a "Devil's Third Online" on PC that was JP-Exclusive. Itagaki notes on his FB Account that he wanted to get as many people in its multiplayer mode. He also noted many things like how he was done with Ninja Gaiden & DOA but he wanted to continue Devil's Third. Its almost been 9 years since this game's release and with Wanted: Dead coming out this year and his heir Yoshifuru Okamoto doing a great job overall, its safe to say Itagaki will make a comeback sooner or later.

The reviews that note it down as a poorly made game with poor mechanics are absolutely clueless on how to play this game. It literally is simple, you've got your shooting, sliding, blocking, parrying, dodging, jumping, quick attacks and heavy attacks. However, despite all of this, in every goddamn video I've seen that pans this game as the absolute worst or shrugs it off as a "so bad its good" title, they always end up hiding behind covers and shooting with the gun... Yeah, let us just ignore the fact that this is a literal Gun-Fu game, where you're literally encouraged to use the melee as much as you're encouraged to use the gun. The game even throws you in a lot of different enemy types and bosses for you to switch up your playstyle. But nope, everyone is going to approach the combat with as much disinterest and disaffection as possible. Then later complain how much it sucked. These are the same people that play games in so-called "Journo" baby mode.
"Itagaki professes a liking for simplicity of inputs, he states too many inputs would result in the loss of the gaming experience."
-From Tomonobu Itagaki's Wikipedia page
Itagaki doesn't care for complexity, it has been apparent ever since DOA & Ninja Gaiden and that's where the beauty of his game design kicks in, the simplicity. There's no need to memorize movesets because all of it naturally gets revealed to you, you know exactly how to approach a threat, and to eliminate it. In Devil's Third especially, one of my favorite combat strategies was to slide towards the enemy while hip-firing, then cancelling it with a slash and getting that sweet glory kill. Another great mechanic was the ability to leap kills and being able to throw your melee weapon at the enemy, I was just so hooked to the gameplay and the endless combat scenarios, I couldn't stop at all. All of these abilities are presented to you by the man himself so you can play experimenting with different approaches as it was intended. Not just sticking to one method of gameplay like an absolute cretin. It genuinely infuriates me to see people refer to this as a "Gears of War" clone or a "TPS COD", when it has absolutely nothing in common.

Devil's Third's story felt like a riff on Metal Gear, which seemed to be the case for any Japanese game releasing during that era. It involves heavy on the nose Buddhist themes, as if the Sanskrit tattoos written all over our main protagonist, Ivan, wasn't an indication already. You have loading screens filled with Buddha statues, and not to mention a Buddhist take on a "revenge" story, with the main antagonist's ultimate masterplan literally being the concept of Nirvana in itself, is nothing short but one hell of a ride. The boss encounters are especially to live for, your final stand-off with Isaac Kumano is genuinely breathtaking sequence, that I feel a certain game company for sure took some artistic liberties in putting it in their own title. :)

Tomonobu Itagaki to this very day is still proud of what he's done. When asked about the hysterical criticism, his answer was: "The fans loved it." And that's what Itagaki truly cares for. As if these Metacritic obsessing, ratingheads would understand.

"To all my fellow gamers. No matter how the world changes or times pass, our love for games and our passion will never die. Thank you all for waiting so long for this moment."
-Tomonobu Itagaki, End Credits of Devil's Third.