The Devil May Cry games, and arguably action games as a whole, wouldn't be what they are today without DMC2. Everyone knows it's bad, but I think there's an unfortunate tendency to gloss over what an important piece of action game history it is. Few games are as absolutely brimming with legitimately really good and innovative ideas as DMC2 is, it's just that it didn't have anywhere near the development time it needed to realise them. Because of this, I think it's much more interesting to look at DMC2 in terms of what it did well & why it's ultimately much more influential than one would initially assume.
So, what did DMC2 bring to the table? Among other things, we've got:
- Instant weapon switching (albeit only for guns, but a paradigm-shifting precedent regardless).
- Prototypes of what would later become Styles; dodging & wallrunning were refined into Trickster, the air combo into Swordmaster, Rainstorm and Twosome Time into Gunslinger, etc.
- Bloody Palace, which pretty much every 3D action game worth its salt has a loose equivalent of.
- Majin Devil Trigger, which eventually led to Sin Devil Trigger (i.e. the coolest thing ever) in DMC5.
- A level select menu, which is probably taken for granted now.
- Multiple playable characters, which became enough of a series staple that it's effectively the main selling point of DMC3, 4 and 5's Special Editions.
- Customisation of your equipment in the form of amulets, which carried over into DMC3 and was eventually taken to an unparalleled extreme in DMC5.
Make no mistake: DMC2 is atrocious. But if not for its existence, both the DMC series itself & action games in general would be unrecognisable. For that reason, I think DMC2 is worth experiencing for yourself, even if you understandably don't finish it. You probably won't enjoy it, but you will inevitably gain a greater appreciation for why the games that came after this are as good as they are. Hideaki Itsuno and the rest of the developers under him probably deserve more credit for salvaging and expanding upon virtually every ounce of potential that this game had.
So, what did DMC2 bring to the table? Among other things, we've got:
- Instant weapon switching (albeit only for guns, but a paradigm-shifting precedent regardless).
- Prototypes of what would later become Styles; dodging & wallrunning were refined into Trickster, the air combo into Swordmaster, Rainstorm and Twosome Time into Gunslinger, etc.
- Bloody Palace, which pretty much every 3D action game worth its salt has a loose equivalent of.
- Majin Devil Trigger, which eventually led to Sin Devil Trigger (i.e. the coolest thing ever) in DMC5.
- A level select menu, which is probably taken for granted now.
- Multiple playable characters, which became enough of a series staple that it's effectively the main selling point of DMC3, 4 and 5's Special Editions.
- Customisation of your equipment in the form of amulets, which carried over into DMC3 and was eventually taken to an unparalleled extreme in DMC5.
Make no mistake: DMC2 is atrocious. But if not for its existence, both the DMC series itself & action games in general would be unrecognisable. For that reason, I think DMC2 is worth experiencing for yourself, even if you understandably don't finish it. You probably won't enjoy it, but you will inevitably gain a greater appreciation for why the games that came after this are as good as they are. Hideaki Itsuno and the rest of the developers under him probably deserve more credit for salvaging and expanding upon virtually every ounce of potential that this game had.
Reviewed on Nov 14, 2021
3 Comments
I mean these are minor improvements they would probably arrive at anyway. I mean, instant switching was there for weapons in DMC1, right? But Bloody Palace IS pretty huge ngl
Nah, DMC1 has in-game weapon switching via holding down R3 but it isn't instant. Dante goes through an animation when you do it unlike in DMC2 onwards. Granted, it's a relatively short animation, but it's also just long enough that it can't be utilised mid-combo as it can in the Itsuno-directed entries or other action games in which it works the same way (e.g. Bayonetta).
As far as these features being minor goes, I think that's only really fair to say specifically in the context of DMC2, which is busted in enough different ways that there's never any need to experiment with stuff like amulets or Majin form and just generally not good enough to make you want to play through it again via the level select or with different characters. I agree that the devs are talented enough that they probably would've come up with these eventually anyhow, but I doubt they would've been so immediately well implemented in DMC3 onwards if the wonky precedents that DMC2 set weren't there for them to learn from.
As far as these features being minor goes, I think that's only really fair to say specifically in the context of DMC2, which is busted in enough different ways that there's never any need to experiment with stuff like amulets or Majin form and just generally not good enough to make you want to play through it again via the level select or with different characters. I agree that the devs are talented enough that they probably would've come up with these eventually anyhow, but I doubt they would've been so immediately well implemented in DMC3 onwards if the wonky precedents that DMC2 set weren't there for them to learn from.
smhomg
2 years ago