"Wanna know the name? Devil May Cry"

As someone who has always heard amazing things about this franchise - as someone who even owns the whole series including the reboot - honestly it's still pretty surprising to me that I can finally say I've beaten a Devil May Cry game.

Besides the fact that I have a never ending backlog I tend to gravitate towards games that aren't universally loved as nothing saddens me more than getting high expectations from everyone who swears by a game or not loving a game quite as much and not fitting in with everyone else. I also often don't even finish the games I really love anyways, maybe because I don't want them to be over. Beyond that, I'm not generally fond of playing games known for their difficulty. Even more so I have a hard time adjusting to and being able to play old classics (from the PS2 era especially) and usually that goes hand in hand with the first problem. I gave the first and second games a chance a few months ago and they did not leave very great impressions at all. I was worried that this series would be another beloved thing I "just don't get". So to say I beat DMC3 and really liked it is quite the relief! Now even saying that, DMC3 does fall into some of the trappings that drag it down and stop me from being able to say I love it as a whole, but there is still stuff about it that I love.

In gaming I am usually a story over gameplay kinda gal, and it often annoys me when plots are too vague, convoluted or confusing for me to figure out. I know DMC3 is a prequel but I definitely feel like the larger plot overall was lost on me. Strangely enough this really didnt bother me much this time around and I think a large part of that is the strong cast between Dante, Virgil and especially Lady. Another big factor is the cutscenes are all the perfect amount of cool as shit and utterly fucking ridiculous. The over the top action is by far the best part of the game and if it was strictly story and action this game honestly could of had a 5/5. But it's the stuff inbetween that sours the experience overall for me.

Whether it be fighting games, beat-em-ups, hack n slash games like this or hell even stuff like Sifu and Yakuza I am absolutely terrible at games with combos. I'm a tried and true button masher and Im just never gonna be great at them unless i put a lot of time and effort but I don't really want to do that lol. It's not a genre of combat I particularly care for. Obviously learning the combat and being rewarded for pulling off cool combos is a big part of this game so it was never gonna hit as well for me as others but I still had fun with this games combat. The Special edition blessed me with easy automatic difficulty and gave me the kind of experience I prefer. Blasting through shit and not having to lose more years off my life by stressing and getting angry is much more fun for me. And the combat is still great. A lot of the enemy designs are really cool, and to my surprise a lot of the boss fights felt really balanced and not unfair. Some enemies like the spinning shield dudes are very annoying to deal with, and theres a lot of stunlocking and knockback in later sections that wore my patience a bit. But the real great thing about the combat is there's multiple different weapons and movesets that all play differently. I usually stuck with Agni and Rudra the whole game while dabbling in the others. All the variety plus the scoring system for each mission (not to mention the new playable character in this edition) lends to a lot of replayability and even if its not something I'll take advantage of it is admirable. But, while for me the combat was very easy and fun I still got quite a bit of frustration about the other parts of the gameplay. If i tried to beat this on normal difficulty while dealing with everything else this would be like a 3/5 at best. For one, I really don't like the setting. There are some really cool locations outside of it near the beginning, middle and end but most of the game takes place in this really big tower. I just did not like it at all. It felt a bit boring. There's not really backtracking necessarily but the way the tower is all connected means you'll be going through some of the same locations more than once and it just really wasn't great. The game isnt very clear about where to go most of the time either, and so for me I was running around a bunch trying to find whatever the hell item i was supposed to place wherever the hell else. Idk, there isnt really many puzzles in this exactly but the amount of times I had to look up a guide because the game was being too obtuse was a constant pain in the ass from the beginning. It really doesn't help how so much of it is just the same "find blank and put in blank" stuff either.

So that's all my thoughts on Devil May Cry 3, basically. Too much of the gameplay dragged for me to put it up there with other Nancy Certified Hits but the rest was really amazing. If 5 really is just this but without PS2 jank I think I'll love it. I don't know if i care enough to go back to the original two but I just might.

Man, Lady is epic as hell. And just the way that line (that I quoted at the beginning of this review) is delivered is so raw.
I'm still working on my Balan Wonderland review but who knows what Ill randomly decide to burn through next. Thanks for reading <3

Nancymeter - 83/100
Trophy Completion - 21% (14/34)
Time Played - 10 hours 44 minutes
Game Completion #147 of 2022
Game Completion #1 of December