nyara
2019
This review contains spoilers
to keep it as short as i can, i will write a full writeup later!!!
the level design is maybe the worst in the entire franchise.. its almost entirely comprised of linear hallways into combat arenas with absolutely no puzzles or interesting layouts to fight enemies save for the maybe second level of the game! theyre not even visually stunning anymore which i will get to later... dont even get me fucking started on the bosses. there are genuinely only a handful of them that are good anymore without straight up ripping from dmc3 like with the vergil fights. Cavaliere Angelo is maybe the best boss in the game and it still sits nowhere near the likes of Credo or Nevan in boss quality. you fucking fight... urizen/vergil a total of 5 times and 2 times each. and you fucking lose 3 of them. narratively that means you fight vergil 7 TIMES! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS GAME! AND AN ENTIRE LEVEL DEDICATED TO A SHITTY KAIJU fuck off itsuno
the story is flat out a complete rehash of devil may cry 3 with even less substance, as there is no value to be had, no lesson to be learned, and no further development of any character; just a blatant stagnation in storytelling that leaves nothing to be told except dante and vergil are buddy buddy now and nero gets a story because he believed in himself and not for any genuine humanity inspired character development or interesting previous theme that he now has to understand that other characters like lady have to deal with. he gets it done in one mission. -__- not even fucking mentioning that the two legacy women of the series are reduced to nothing but naked photoshoots for the entirety of the game, lady doesnt even get the decency of a real reaction to what seems to be a reenaction of the most traumatic moment of her life! its like she doesnt have any emotional scars from it anymore! and to top it all off... dante doesnt get anything. literally nothing. what the fuck in his feelings actually changes. he gets goofy then neutral then goofy then neutral he's been reduced to a stereotype of his dmc4 and dmc3 counterparts with nothing to sprinkle on top. absolutely just a bland variant with no importance...
combat has had no significant improvements in any meaningful forward direction, a slower (not literally) combat system with a lack of new weapons, mostly more rehashes of the same weapons from previous games except for the motorcycle and faust. except. the fact that the motorcycle's general concept is just ripped from devil may cry 3 with a rather lackluster half of a moveset, with the other half actually being somewhat substantial. its just more of the same its complete stagnation. no rebalancing of how guns work either so they almost all fall into combo filler category still since dmc3, but in that game juggling required guns to keep enemies up for long periods of time due to harsh gravity so theyre genuinely kind of meaningless now; i dont like V's gameplay because it is unbearable in DMD+ and nero is still kind of boring to me with the arms, even more than dmc4 somehow?! there are very clear identities and styles of play when you come to dmc4 and dmc3 respectively, but 5 is such a clean cut product that it feels very generic and fits a general idea of devil may cry is thought to be rather than being a progression or even representation of the series. the entire philosophy behind previous games about being as stylish as possible with so many unnecessary actions that exist just to look cool as if you were playing the cutscenes is entirely gone at this point. even as milquetoast as the cutscenes are in dmc5, you cant even do half of the actions that are shown such as with the motorcycle. it's absolutely deplorable how broad dmcv feels there is no defining style of play intended anymore it is a skeleton of a dmc game
the artstyle is so... artistically bankrupt... that original neogothic visuals and longrunning melancholic atmosphere have been replaced for what is essentially new york but in hell; half of the game you spend in a meat tower that visually is never broken up and is numbing to look at... theres no sense of progression, no significant markers of level progression outside of less than 2 levels in the entire game. victorian gothic architecture makes an appearance for maybe half of a level twice. it looks essentially like a REmake with less creative outfit choices. for fucks sake the game takes place only a year after dmc4 and dante/nero downgrade from gothic, layered, clean, beautiful outfits to what is essentially a t shirt jeans and a jacket covered in dirt stains and styled as if they threw it on after coming out of the restroom oh my god i want to die after playing this game
oh my fucking god i also hate all of the music and particularly the battle themes... they're all acceptable as songs i guess but outside of personal preference, they dont suit the pace of combat in traditional devil may cry... its all about flying across the screen, cutscene action, blitzing through enemies with an apm of 1000mph and we get shitty pop punk and even worse imitation screamo at a bpm that turns me into a geezer by the time it finishes; it is actually astounding to me the disconnect between optimal gameplay and the pace of music for the game
the level design is maybe the worst in the entire franchise.. its almost entirely comprised of linear hallways into combat arenas with absolutely no puzzles or interesting layouts to fight enemies save for the maybe second level of the game! theyre not even visually stunning anymore which i will get to later... dont even get me fucking started on the bosses. there are genuinely only a handful of them that are good anymore without straight up ripping from dmc3 like with the vergil fights. Cavaliere Angelo is maybe the best boss in the game and it still sits nowhere near the likes of Credo or Nevan in boss quality. you fucking fight... urizen/vergil a total of 5 times and 2 times each. and you fucking lose 3 of them. narratively that means you fight vergil 7 TIMES! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS GAME! AND AN ENTIRE LEVEL DEDICATED TO A SHITTY KAIJU fuck off itsuno
the story is flat out a complete rehash of devil may cry 3 with even less substance, as there is no value to be had, no lesson to be learned, and no further development of any character; just a blatant stagnation in storytelling that leaves nothing to be told except dante and vergil are buddy buddy now and nero gets a story because he believed in himself and not for any genuine humanity inspired character development or interesting previous theme that he now has to understand that other characters like lady have to deal with. he gets it done in one mission. -__- not even fucking mentioning that the two legacy women of the series are reduced to nothing but naked photoshoots for the entirety of the game, lady doesnt even get the decency of a real reaction to what seems to be a reenaction of the most traumatic moment of her life! its like she doesnt have any emotional scars from it anymore! and to top it all off... dante doesnt get anything. literally nothing. what the fuck in his feelings actually changes. he gets goofy then neutral then goofy then neutral he's been reduced to a stereotype of his dmc4 and dmc3 counterparts with nothing to sprinkle on top. absolutely just a bland variant with no importance...
combat has had no significant improvements in any meaningful forward direction, a slower (not literally) combat system with a lack of new weapons, mostly more rehashes of the same weapons from previous games except for the motorcycle and faust. except. the fact that the motorcycle's general concept is just ripped from devil may cry 3 with a rather lackluster half of a moveset, with the other half actually being somewhat substantial. its just more of the same its complete stagnation. no rebalancing of how guns work either so they almost all fall into combo filler category still since dmc3, but in that game juggling required guns to keep enemies up for long periods of time due to harsh gravity so theyre genuinely kind of meaningless now; i dont like V's gameplay because it is unbearable in DMD+ and nero is still kind of boring to me with the arms, even more than dmc4 somehow?! there are very clear identities and styles of play when you come to dmc4 and dmc3 respectively, but 5 is such a clean cut product that it feels very generic and fits a general idea of devil may cry is thought to be rather than being a progression or even representation of the series. the entire philosophy behind previous games about being as stylish as possible with so many unnecessary actions that exist just to look cool as if you were playing the cutscenes is entirely gone at this point. even as milquetoast as the cutscenes are in dmc5, you cant even do half of the actions that are shown such as with the motorcycle. it's absolutely deplorable how broad dmcv feels there is no defining style of play intended anymore it is a skeleton of a dmc game
the artstyle is so... artistically bankrupt... that original neogothic visuals and longrunning melancholic atmosphere have been replaced for what is essentially new york but in hell; half of the game you spend in a meat tower that visually is never broken up and is numbing to look at... theres no sense of progression, no significant markers of level progression outside of less than 2 levels in the entire game. victorian gothic architecture makes an appearance for maybe half of a level twice. it looks essentially like a REmake with less creative outfit choices. for fucks sake the game takes place only a year after dmc4 and dante/nero downgrade from gothic, layered, clean, beautiful outfits to what is essentially a t shirt jeans and a jacket covered in dirt stains and styled as if they threw it on after coming out of the restroom oh my god i want to die after playing this game
oh my fucking god i also hate all of the music and particularly the battle themes... they're all acceptable as songs i guess but outside of personal preference, they dont suit the pace of combat in traditional devil may cry... its all about flying across the screen, cutscene action, blitzing through enemies with an apm of 1000mph and we get shitty pop punk and even worse imitation screamo at a bpm that turns me into a geezer by the time it finishes; it is actually astounding to me the disconnect between optimal gameplay and the pace of music for the game
2019
will write a review for this later
2013
rating is before railjacks n stuff