The Devil May Cry series has always piqued my interest. With everyone praising how tight the combat was, the very lovable characters, and the Capcom gods/ Capgods on its side, I couldn't help but want to play each and every game. After playing three of the five games, I can definitely say that this series holds up the clout it has, and really is a blast to play.
Since these games are pretty short, and to be frank, didn't have time to 100% all of them, I'm just condensing my thoughts on DLC 1-3 in this one page.
Devil May Cry
Starting things off with what started the franchise in the beginning, Devil May Cry follows Dante, a demon hunter who runs the shop "Devil May Cry." Abruptly, a woman named Trish attacks Dante in his shop, which was an order from her higher-up Mundus. Dante then follows Trish to an unknown castle, and hunts down this Mundus. That's pretty much it for the story without getting into any spoilers. Devil May Cry isn't really focused on the story department, which is fair, since the main appeal is its combat, which lives up to the legacy everyone gives it.
Now the combat of Devil May Cry, let me tell you, is definitely one of the best I've played in an action adventure/ hack-and-slash. At its core, Dante has his melee attack, and a gun attack, each with different buttons. Similar to other hack-and-slashes like Bayonetta and Dynasty Warriors, depending on the timing of the button presses, Dante will perform different attacks, and there are a lot of them. In addition, as you progress in the game, Dante will unlock more melee weapons and guns for more variety in his arsenal, and each weapon has different combos too. Basically, the game gives you so much to work with, and since the game can be beat in 5-6 hours, offers so much replay-ability. Trying to unlock all the melee weapons and guns, with secret missions scattered through the game as well, one can definitely put so many hours into Devil May Cry.
Now before I move on to Devil May Cry 2, I should address one complaint. This may be purely personal since I haven't researched it, but the game has this weird difficulty balancing issue. I started the game on normal, but got stuck on the first boss for so long, that I eventually switched to easy mode, and from there, it was a cakewalk. Now keep in mind that this was my first DMC game, so I'm not sure if it was me adjusting to early 2000's gameplay, or the game indeed does have this weird imbalance of difficulty, but once I got further into the game, the easier it got, so I can only assume that was just me getting better at the game. Maybe I'll replay the game on Dante must die mode. Who knows?
Devil May Cry 2
Imagine this: you decide to make a sequel to a game that everyone compliments on having near perfect combat, so what do you do to this sequel to improve the original? Well I'll tell you what Devil May Cry 2 didn't improve but in. The combat. Before I get into the bad of Devil May Cry 2, objectively the worst game of the three, I should shed some light on the good.
Devil May Cry 2 looks very good in comparison to Devil May Cry 1. We have, in my opinion, the best Dante design I've seen so far, and overall, a more engaging world that DMC1 kind of missed out on, since the whole game was in the castle. Also, I know I said earlier that DMC doesn't really focus on story, as that isn't the main appeal of the franchise, but I did find myself more engaged in the story of DMC2, and that may had to be the fact that there are more cutscenes, and an arguably better new character than Trish, Lucia. But that's really all DMC2 has going for it.
Now it's time for the complaints, and oh boy do I have some complaints. Let's start with the combat, if you even want to call it combat. What the combat boils down to is essentially Dante's gun. Sure, you can try to get an S rank combo, but where's the motivation in that when Dante's gun is fully automatic, where holding down Square can easily kill every enemy. And with his Devil Trigger, it's even easier! Now what makes DMC DCMC? The combat. Taking away the combat giving the player overpowered guns for long distance attacks means the player will want to feel more compelled to shoot the enemy, rather than attacking them.
Overall, this game just feels lazy compared to DMC1. Everything just feels downgraded from the first game, from the exploration, tone, combat, camera, difficulty, and design. And I have to admit, since the game didn't capture me like DMC1 did, I never felt compelled to do Lucia's missions once I completed Dante's, so this is technically an incomplete review, but as someone who only played Dante's missions, I can still say my complaints hold up.
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition
Now imagine this again: you somehow go from making Devil May Cry, critically acclaimed for its combat, to making Devil May Cry 2, critically acclaimed for nothing. Where do you go with Devil May Cry 3 then? ONLY UP BABY! I can definitely say that Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition is the peak in the DMC franchise so far (of at least what I've played). Since DMC3 is a prequel, the developers could technically get away with Dante doing all sorts of stuff, and explain it in the story. Speaking of, the story was very interesting, as it introduces one of the sickest characters in the series so far, Vergil, Dante's brother, who is also a demon. There's also Lady, who follows Dante around, but is only after what she wants: revenge (not explaining why to avoid spoilers). To sum things up, its safe to say that DMC3 has the best writing/ story out of them all. Also, I'll just shoehorn this in here since I don't have anywhere else to mention this, but the music actually stood out to me this time. This is the first time I'm mentioning the music of DMC, but all I have to say is that the heavy metal screamo music really fits the combat of DMC and Dante as a character as well.
Now time for the third combat review in this page. Combat is back to how it was in DMC1, with many variations of weapons and guns to pick from. To encourage the player to rack up the best combo possible, there are more rankings for the skillful players, SS and SSS ranks. These are great additions that helps drive the player to utilize as many weapons and guns as possible, and are a staple in the DMC series now.
Now there's no real complaints I have with this game, since it's literally the pinnacle of action-adventure hack-and-slashes, but if I had to comment on one thing, the game is REALLY HARD. I feel like this is just how the game is designed, but when I googled this game's difficulty, and see things like "this game is like Dark Souls on PS2," and "one of the hardest games on the PS2," I can see why now, and I feel good about beating the game :)