Time for another round of sword swinging and one liners because Devil May Cry has returned.
Story:
Devil May Cry isn't really known for telling a compelling story with it's hammy dialogue and way too out there ending, but this one and the one in Devil May Cry 3 were pretty good. Devil May Cry 4 introduces a new character called Nero. He's got a pretty large crush on a church singer named Kyrie. Nero tends to get really bored during sermons, but he always pays attention and shows up for Kyrie's singing. For the most part it's his typical "I'm here for you, but this church thing is trying my patience" day until Dante comes crashing through the ceiling Batman style.
Well since I have a rather long sheet of paper saying that I can't spoil anything I won't. I don't remember the exact specifics, but to be on the safe side I'll say that it's pretty entertaining and more or less dramatic and over the top. Dante is chewing up the scenery buffet style and it's hilarious. There are no actual breakout characters this time and since there is no Vergil it kind of lacks that dark bad ass vibe that Devil May Cry 3 had, but it's definitely serviceable and I wanted to learn a little bit more about a couple of side characters. Speaking of side characters after her introductory cutscene Gloria will be seared into your memory. It's one of the most provocative scenes I've seen in a while, but my only question is where did she pull out that knife? I say this because with the camera angle they give us I can only assume that she pulled it out of her…favors.
Gameplay:
There are those that like Devil May Cry and those that don't, so if you're in the latter category then there is nothing I can say that will make you change your mind. I personally love the franchise and with the exception of a couple of quirks I've enjoyed this game. For most of the game you play as Nero and he is actually a really cool character. He controls a lot differently from Dante. Part of this is because his weapon set is quite limited, but he has a lot of potential. What makes Nero unique is his Devil Bringer arm. It's quite common to just spam the hell out of your enemies with it and not even allow them to get a chance to attack, which is what I did. Pretty early into the game you get access to the Snatch ability with the Devil Bringer. It allows you to grab an opponent and bring him over to you. This works even if you're in the air, but certain enemies like the Angelos will bring you over to them. It actually helps with dodging their attacks and it helps to make sure that you are always within striking distance.
Another thing that gives Nero an actual advantage over Dante is the Buster moves of the Devil Bringer. They are very powerful smash and grab moves that affect many enemies differently. There are times when Nero will smash them into the ground or take the enemy by the tail and swing it around and then hurl it a couple of yards away or injure it with its own weapon. Depending on the enemy my basic strategy was just to do a ground sword combo, finish that with an upward sword swing, hammer away at it in the air and then the ground sword swing that sends them crashing back to earth. Then I'll jump up and do a Buster move. Also for more damage you can do these moves while in Devil Trigger. It changes the attack completely; it also works great for bosses. This always kept a lot of enemies off of me and the one I'm attacking is left defenseless. Of course you can't employ the same strategy because every enemy attacks differently and...dies at a different level of abuse.
Nero also has the Exceed feature on his sword. For some inexplicable reason Nero has a motorcycle handle on his sword (who dreams up this crap?), which allows him to increase the power by revving it up (once again who dreams up this crap?). There are two different ways to do it. The standard way is to press the L2 button to do it, but you wind up walking slowly while doing it. The other way is to press the L2 button during an attack, but it's based on timing which allows one powered up attack in an instant. It's tough to master, but it's definitely well worth it.
Towards the middle actually past the middle you make the character switch and start to play as Dante. Just like in DMC 3 Dante has access to four different styles and has the ability to switch weapons on the fly. The great part is that you're not just limited to one style and two weapons anymore. You have access to all four through the D-pad and all of his weapons. For the first stage it's a little bit of a pain and a hassle to play as Dante because you're kind of not used to playing as him. But after the first two stages it becomes a lot more manageable. What really helps is the Gilgamesh Gauntlets. They control like the Beowulf Gauntlets from DMC 3, but they're a lot faster. I use them pretty much as my "tear through a boss weapon," but they are superb for pretty much everything in the game. This here actually leads me to difficulty.
This game is a lot easier than DMC 3 even the toned down Special Edition is harder than this game. They actually made an improvement by adding save points. No more dying and having to redo a stage. But this luxury comes at a price because they will deduct points for it. I played on the second difficulty setting called "Devil Hunter" and it didn't have that much of a challenge until I got to around mission seven. I never found myself actually antsy during battle and I didn't even do that much dying in the game. I'm going to excuse a couple of boss battles, but the main enemies don't instill fear in me. There's nothing on the level of The Fallen or Hell Vanguards from the previous game. After you fight them a couple of times you'll realize the work around for the enemies and just own them. The bosses are easier too and for some odd reason you're able to just wail on them longer; it's either that or I got really good with my comboing. There are some challenging ones, but they are only a challenge once (except two for me). You'll fight them, die, get their attack pattern and just dodge and wail on them afterwards. Actually you won't get hung up for too long on one until you get to the last boss; and he didn't get challenging until he was practically on life support.
The game also handles bosses like DMC 1 and by that I mean you fight most of them multiple times (the main ones three times). So as cool as they are and look from a diversity stand point it's no DMC 3. For the most part when I beat a boss I didn't get that sick sense of satisfaction. I didn't do victory dance, I didn't taunt them I just beat them. This might have been because I beat the original Devil May Cry 3 and survived that controller throwing hell and I'm also close to beating that on hard as well and I know when I'm truly being tested and Devil May Cry 4 didn't test me. And if you're playing on Human, which for me I'm referring to as the "noob setting" you're doing yourself a disservice. I personally can't wait to play it on hard (or very hard or whatever Sons of Sparda technically is) so I can get an actual thrill for the combat and battles. Because DMC 3 on Hard is insanity at it's purest.
The only thing I don't like is the antiquated camera system and the puzzles. There are these things that Nero has to push around called Gyro Blades to smash objects. It really obstructs the flow of the game and it simply isn't fun. Luckily you don't deal with it for too long, but puzzles were always in this game and once you figure them out you're no longer pissed during later playthroughs. There are a lot of times when the camera will switch to an angle that just isn't in your favor. This doesn't happen during battle that much...it actually only seemed to happen once, but platforming wise it's a pain at times. Other then this I thought the game was the best thing since sliced ham.
Graphics:
Graphically the game isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's still no slouch in the graphics department. The enemy and character design is phenomenal and is some of the best in the franchise. I love the detail on Dante's red coat and red boots and seeing the different skin textures on Nero's Devil Bringer arm is great. I'm still trying to figure out what my favorite looking enemy is. It might be the Angelos because they remind me of Gundam GP 02 from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: The Stardust Memory. I also like the lizard creatures because their animation is pretty fluid.
The attacks are silky smooth and painful looking especially from Nero's Red Queen. The flame effects from his Exceed combos are pretty vibrant. The only thing that I didn't like about the graphics was the really weird shadow effect. It was really blurry and blocky and looked a little unprofessional. Another slight problem came from the lighting in one specific instance. In one of the missions you have to read the dialogue to a rather vital puzzle. The problem is that with the camera shift you can't read half of the words because the lettering blends into the lighting. Aside from these minor grievances it was nice to look at.
Sound:
Well there's the prerequisite DMC death metal bone crunching guttural groan fest that we've all come to love or hate. It's actually gotten to the point where I barely notice the music anymore so I'm not really fazed by it. Also another thing that people could complain about is the shouting of "Slam Dunk" and whatever else that Nero says while sword slashing and slamming an enemy to the ground. It's another one of those DMC traits that I've slowly grown accustomed to.
The voice acting has come a long way from the first DMC. The most notable actor seems to be Johnny "Vash The Stampede" Bosch. Depending on how far back your memory goes you'll also remember him as being a Power Ranger (God I feel old). Given the fact that he was Vash The Stampede it would've been really funny if Nero had a red coat as well, that and his gun the Blue Rose could double for Vash's a little bit. Bosch does a good job of voicing Nero and plays a good foil to Dante's over the top and entertaining (It's hilarious at times) cheese fest performance (I still enjoyed it though).
The enemies sound terrific and there are still the nice audio cues to alert you to what you fight. The only thing is that the intro sound to the fire dogs and the Angelo's sound the same.
Replay:
There's always a huge and rewarding challenge to playing on the harder difficulty settings. It makes you appreciate the game better and I love seeing if they change up the enemy types or throw harder ones earlier because it throws a little bit of unpredictability into the mix. There's also Bloody Palace, which returns from DMC 3's special edition. They changed it around though. Instead of fighting and surviving through a crap load of levels you also have a time limit. You're allotted a certain amount of time and in order to get more time you have to achieve a decent Stylish ranking. It's adds a lot of challenge to the game.
Overall:
Well DMC 4 is a lot more approachable to newcomers than DMC 3 was. Veterans might shun (well should) the easier setting and do their best to work their way to something more challenging. Even though it's easier it didn't turn out to be a sore spot on the franchise like DMC 2 was. Aside from the back tracking that you have to deal with as Dante the game is a blast from beginning to end. For DMC 5 (you know it's coming Capcom will sequel a franchise to death (or re-release it like Street Fighter)) they better include Vergil and give him an actual storyline.