DMC5 is probably, in my humble opinion, is as perfect as a game will ever be. Not that absolutely everything in this game is objectively groundbreaking but it all culminates in such a way that really struck me. The game play is better than ever, the visuals are groundbreaking, the music is amazing, the characters are awesome, the writing and voice acting are delightfully cheesy, the levels and combat encounters are fun to blast through and the story is simultaneously simple and batshit insane. And that's not even scratching the surface. DMC5 does away with dated mechanics of the past instead of holding onto them, a fate many franchises suffer. The omission of the consumables mechanic makes playing skillfully absolutely paramount on higher difficulties. I have played through the story roughly 6 or 7 times in the last month ever since getting my hands on the game and I'm still not sick of the scenarios, boss fights, characters and gamplay that this game brings to the table. Not to mention Special Editions inclusion of Turbo Mode and Vergil, even further increasing replay value. I look forward to even more playthroughs in the future and I hope to get the platinum trophy as well as pay a visit to the PS4 original and do the same there. This game sets a gold standard for the genre and videogames in general. My only regret is not playing it sooner.

DMC4 seems like a natural evolution of the Devil May Cry franchise in a lot of ways but it doesn't exactly serve to reinvent the franchise and in some cases actually takes a few steps back compared to it's near perfect predecessor. Starting with the negatives, the big one is obviously the sheer abundance of backtracking in the latter half of the game. It's not actually too bad to play through but it's disheartening to think about what could have been in terms of brand new stages and boss fights. Boss fights are repeated upon your return to these stages and a fair few of the boss fights are absolutely dreadful to sit through (Frozen Frog and Echidna come to mind.) DMC4 was rushed and it shows. However DMC4 shines in so many ways. The new protagonist, Nero is great! He's a blast to play as and I felt invested in his story every step of the way. His devil arm allows your to bring enemies to you or vice versa and you can perform a punishing move with it mid combo to keep the combo going. The exceed mechanic makes the gameplay so much more satisfying by allowing you to time a left trigger press perfectly after each swing to get a power boost. Dante controls better than ever too, with the introduction of style switching pushing the skill ceiling even higher than ever. His new weapons are rather hit or miss but other weapons like his new brawler weapon, Gilgamesh, are quite fun to use. I'm admittedly partial to Nero but Dante is no less fun to play as. Special edition introduces Trish, Lady and Vergil as playable characters in their own separate alebeit abridged campaigns. DMC4 isn't the hardest game in the world on it's standard difficulty but there as so many difficulties to choose from that you'll be sure to find your sweet spot eventually.

I'm extremely mixed on DMC. One one hand, it contains the DNA that makes subsequent entries (barring 2, allegedly) great! It's structured similarly to 3 and 4 in it's setting stage progression, the weapons are fun to use, the devil trigger system is satisfying and the game as a whole is challenging enough to keep you engaged from beginning to end. On the other hand, it features repetitive boss fights. Not just that you do the same thing over and over but also that you fight the bosses multiple times each in a game that isn't exactly abundant with missions. These boss revisits will take up a lot of your time and some bosses leave you wondering why they even bothered with the rematches in the first place. For example, the Nightmare boss is absolutely nothing to write home about. Yet you fight it three separate times. The fixed camera angle style is a product of it's time. I frequently found myself getting disorientated and the lock on system is truly dreadful as Dante will turn around to swing at the closest enemy automatically even if you're not targeting them. This can make certain instances like trying to hit switches on the wall (e.g; every Nightmare fight) an absolute chore. But even so, I cant help but be charmed by DMC's cheesy writing, cocky tone and it's bizarre atmospheric soundtrack that is unique to this first entry. It plants the seeds for what would later come and it's definitely worth playing if you're looking into DMC or if you're a fan of the series who has yet to play it.