Thoughts on Devil May Cry 5? (will include spoilers)

So now that the game has had some time to breathe, think it's a good time to pull the devil trigger on Devil May Cry 5.

How good the game is, what you thought_ both the good, and the 'meh'.

Have a few notes myself. Don't mind if they're skipped over, but feel free to add your own impressions

• Just going to start before I come across as cynical. DMC5 is a fantastic game that honors the legacy of the series, ditches a lot of known baggage and reputation from previous instalments. And the combat is superb.
• Now for me personally the game had pacing issues. Three characters is pretty awesome but the way the chapters are managed is a jumbled mess. Think the game would have done better just setting up three campaigns. Each character was good, even V was a surprise (got Sorcerer vibes from Dragon's Dogma) but having to backflip from each other was kind-of annoying. Just let me have '8-10 Missions as Nero from the start'.
• The above goes hand in hand with the 'story' why are we jumping back and forward through events? For the mystery. . I think the game was trying to make the plot more confusing than it really is. Story was never Hideaki Itsuno san teams speciality.
• While they can be removed entirely cut scenes are unbearably long at times and far too frequent. Quite a few are fun and stylish, though dragged on. As mentioned above, not something I found interesting.
• Got the secret ending from the get-go. . Which honestly made me take a pause and "sigh". While I get DMC5 was trying to replicate the Doku encounter from Ninja Gaiden Black, it was flawed. The patterns are easy to understand and situation wasn't really that hopeless. Nero while lacking the Devil Breakers had the tools for the job, with ease. Especially if someone played the previous mainline DMC game.
• My last complaint is majority of areas lacked distinction. I commonly ran in circles wondering if I went the right way.

Currently playing it on PC as we speak.

If I did have to nitpick I would have liked to see more red and less orange regarding Dante’s transformations, different design for the balrog, more distinct locations, and unlockable skins like DMC 1/3 Dante and DMC4 Nero. That’s if I really try to have an issue. Anytime I wasn't playing as Nero, I was counting down the time until I would be again. I'm not really a Devil May Cry veteran player (played DMC 1/3/4 and DmC), but I've played enough to say I don't like the way Dante feels in this game. For the first couple missions, his arsenal is really limited. It might be better a 2nd time but on the first run, you start to get better weapons right before major boss fights which don't give you room to learn them.

V-Needs additional familiars that can be switched in the Divinity Statue/Nico's van. For example, he can switch Shadow with Frost DMC 1 as the melee familiar, switch Griffin with Plasma DMC 1 as the ranged familiar, and switch Nightmare with Nelo Angelo as the D.T. familiar.

The music is vastly inferior to the previous games. Devil Trigger song was good, and maybe 1 or 2 others, but overall, the weakest part of the game, loading screens are too long and they're just super excessive. To be honest I didn't like very much Vergil being the villain again. As someone who really liked V, I wanted to him to be somehow able to coexist with Vergil. He brought a fresh breath of air in the series. The level design could be better, but it's fine for what the game is and finally, DMC5 is alot of fun and despite the flaws, I think Capcom did okay here. It's a 7/10.

I’m currently playing through the game a second time, this time on Son of Sparda difficulty and absolutely love this game. The combat feels fantastic with cool enemies and bosses to fight. I really dig how they implement the online functionality in that while there is the odd time that you do fight with others the very odd time it’s mostly just seeing others play in different sections of certain stages. V is a very cool addition with his fighting style and Nico is hilarious and a pretty cool character. The game looks fantastic and the soundtrack is quite good especially Devil Trigger. I enjoyed the cutscenes and story as well.

The few minor complaints I have are the levels are a bit too samey. It would have been nice to have a little more variety with the environments. I think Lady looked better in DMC3 and DMC4.

Anyway I would say that this is my favourite game in the series.

@davillain-: Despite the clear slowed down pace of the combat compared to DMC4/3; I actually really liked how Dante controlled in DMC5. Easily my favorite of the three characters.

I think Dante heavily treads on familiar ground though, while Nero and V have taken the series somewhere different. Managing Neros Breakers has an interesting inventory management similar to Resi, and V plays like he could fit smoothly in Dragon's Dogma.

V has the easiest levels. That I found a bit odd, wonder how he'll fare in Bloody Palace.

I completed Devil May Cry 5 last Sunday (rented at Redbox) & thought it was great. One question, what do you mean by "baggage and reputation in previous games"? But, there are some things bugged me: story isn't the series' strong point, let me play three characters in separate chapters instead of jumping back & fourth, ran into an bug that I couldn't advance to the next stage/chapter (mission 13), "shocking revelation" with certain characters was throw in without explanation & facing the same boss character 4 to 5 times. Like I said, DMC 5 is an great game & I don't mind playing it again in the future.

I bought the game, played for a while and am struggling to get back to it.

First person water sections, and rail gun shooter boss in DMC.

Cube platform and bounce mat rooms in DMC3.

Pinwheel puzzles and dice game in DMC4.

Take your pick lol.

While DMC3 is still my favorite, DMC5 gameplay keeps consistent to its core; combat. Also think the level design is excellent in DMC5, the areas are just visually uninspiring and same'y.

Sadly this aspect is common in the series. It's clearly padding to make these games longer.

@marilynbhedrick said: I will say it is a cash grab of sorts though. They could easily just put enough orbs in the damn thing... or give us the moves then we upgrade said moves ourselves, so it's for sure an evil scam.

The game offers plenty of orbs, I never had an issue wondering if the game was being stingy for in-game currency. I maxed out Dante on a first playthrough, Devil Breakers are also just lying around so no point spending on them on normal difficulty.

Truth is Itsuno sans past three games have had similar micro-transactions.

In DMC4SE you could purchase multiple kinds of orbs, and in Dragon's Dogma could purchase rift crystals. I never bought any of these but all offer the 'feature'.

@RSM-HQ:

I thought the use of V and Nero added a good amount of depth. To make a long story short, DMC 5 is every bit of what made the series popular. If that's what you were hoping for then your prayers have been answered. To me though, it kinda felt "meh."

Devil May Cry 5 follows the exact same format we've been playing for years but offers very little of anything new. It's a safe installment. And the story comes off as casual and nonchalant. Nobody is ever in a hurry and nobody ever takes the situation they find themselves in seriously. It's like, the characters themselves have become self aware of the series' storytelling style. And that's why they're never scared or surprised of what happens next. The ending felt abrupt too.

7/10 from me. Not totally dissatisfied but not taken aback either. DMC 5 is basically a brand new, old game. Take that as you will.

@nepu7supastar7:

Nobody is ever in a hurry and nobody ever takes the situation they find themselves in seriously. It's like, the characters themselves have become self aware of the series' storytelling style. And that's why they're never scared or surprised of what happens next. The ending felt abrupt too.

7/10 from me. Not totally dissatisfied but not taken aback either.

It's your view point dood I have nothing against it, in fact agree with a large portion of it. Part of the reason I really like DMC5 is its footing in older traditions of gameplay. Sometimes that's a breath of fresh air in a time majority of Hn'S games are mimicking the Soulsborne formula_

Personally I think every main DMC game has that style of. . Let's call it 'storytelling', it's just felt more exhausting here because each cutscene is substantially longer. DMC characters gasp, but they're never in real shock or express fear. Well except Agnus. . He's a (ΦωΦ)

The character model looks good to me. I think we've been spoilt since she started wearing sunglasses

My main issue with Lady in DMC5 is her jacket looks two sizes too big for her. Which seems to be addressing her jacket in DMC4 being two sizes too small, I dunno. .

Biggest crime was how both Lady and Trish are treated like newbies in DMC5. They're freakin' veteran Demon Hunters, and previously established far more skill and perseverance.

@RSM-HQ: Oh don’t get me wrong I think she still looks good but there was just something I found more appealing about her in the other games.

Lady eyes stood out more in previous games, in DMC5 lacks a lot of contrast. Her whole visual gimmick was she doesn't look natural despite being human. Hair previously had a blue tint in it as well. Otherwise I think Lady just offered more skin.

DMC3 had my favorite costume, fit her 'don't give a %¥^$' character. Casual outfit seeming she was more focused on grabbing every gun she could carry, over how she looked. The other two she's trying to be stylish, I got the impression Dante influenced her fashion taste. I do miss the sunglasses. The goggles are not a good replacement.

@RSM-HQ: Don't get me started on Pinwheel puzzles and dice game in DMC4, lol! I still like the game alot. Two more things I didn't like about DMC5: unnecessary controversy (Red Orbs & Lady facial shape), how Trish & Lady were treated. Shoot, Rico was more useful than the two of them.

Devil May Cry 5 is a awesome game but DMC 2013 has better level design and bosses.

@RSM-HQ: What do you rate it out of 100?

@worlds_apart: For my user review I've been debating either a 7 or 8. Leaning towards the eight due to level design and combat mechanics for three characters being excellent.

But on a 100 point system, probably 75.

Because despite the praise, the campaign is in shambles structurally and that can be off putting.

If someone liked Devil May Cry 3 and 4 I think this is a perfect game to jump in and play. Or like myself all year long and maybe past that.

I do not however think it's a great game for someone diving in the series for the first time.

I came back to the game and am enjoying it. Still take Bayo2 over it. I know it's more casual and all.

@phbz: Bayonetta 2 is fantastic but I'll always take a game with no QTE over games with QTEs. That's the main reason I prefer DMC personally.

@RSM-HQ: I been meaning to ask you this question. I assume you played it on PS4? I was curious, did Capcom/Sony really censor Lady's booty? I only heard from media but haven't look into that since I did pick up the PC version and did it bother you with the whole Sony's censoring crap?

I'll get used to Dante's playstyle on my next replay soon enough. I hope I wasn't being too nippicking on the game?

@davillain-:

assume you played it on PS4? I was curious, did Capcom/Sony really censorLady's booty? I only heard from media but haven't look into that since I did pick up the PC version and did it bother you with the whole Sony's censoring crap?

. . .

I'm on both! Not to burst your bubble but P.C. version also has the Lady censorship. This is disheartening/ hate to throw accusations but Dav. . you clearly have not played the game at this point-of-time, or at least as far as you claim. Please be more honest in future, zero chance you could have played Dante and not notice the Lady censorship with any version of DMC5 *without altering files

It's factual on all platforms including Xbox has Lady censored, this apparently because you can slightly see Ladies vagina. Oh the horror. .

Censorship always bothers me, and had a similar conversation on 4Gamer. I'm a strong believer of creators intent, and against vocal_entitled_talentless_rejects with restrictive morals getting in the way of the artistic industry (that's a whole other debate however, so won't continue it here)

.

The Trish lighting is exclusive to North America and Europe on PS4, I do not have this issue and it sucks for those that do. However North America and Europe also got the bug fixes for the score system three days before I did, which would take over two seconds of Trish ass anyday.

It's good. Not as good as Devil May Cry 3. I appreciated that DMC3 didn't throw cutscenes at me every couple of minutes. They usually only appeared at the beginning and end of a level, if even that, with brief introductory ones before bosses if there was a boss. I could enjoy the world more, which I felt had a better sense of progression. I liked how most of the story took place in and around the tower and how the map got all twisted up after it rotated. It's obvious Capcom wanted to appeal to a wider audience with this game, the younger people who value cinematic stories and photorealism far too much. For a story that isn't even that good. Felt like fanservice for a particular character. The art is blander. I preferred the stylized gothic look over this photorealism. I also would have preferred the multiple characters in DMC4 and 5 to be handled more like in Resident Evil and RE2, meaning let the player play through the same campaign as two or three different characters but give each story some key differences and a few unique scenarios. Juggling between the three of them doesn't make for very good progression. You don't spend enough of the game as any of them. Devil May Cry 3 also didn't have so many crappy songs. But, as I said, DMC5 is good. It plays well. it has neat bosses and environments, and I like the cheese. I'll take it over western alternatives like the depressing, tedious God of War reboot. I'm waiting for Bloody Palace.

@ezekiel43: Believe I'm in agreement with everything you stated.

Even with GoW. While I had some fun with GoWIV that camera was very annoying and served no purpose in a 3D Hn'S game. GoWIV feels like it's restricting its potential to cater towards a different audience. Also suffered heavily from 'haven't I done this fifty times?' syndrome.

Thank you very much

Level pacing seemed off for the first majority of the game. The fights weren't big enough, and the game kept taking away control from you every couple seconds with cutscenes and such. Part of it is definitely the default difficulty being too easy and enemies dying when you look at them. It definitely gets better as it goes, and the subsequent difficulties help improve the pace of the early levels.

I don't really care for V. Nice concept, but I feel the controls make the experience a bit of a tug of war. For example, I'm trying charge up the lightning bolt with griffin and then suddenly I need to back up with V real quick, and instead of the lightning bolt I get the lightning AoE. V was more of a 9s moment for me...just get me back in control of the fun characters.

I think it's all a mistake the series still hasn't recovered from dD DMC2 IMO.