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.
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.
PrincessWand
11 months ago