After the horrible effort that was Devil May Cry 2, I was very skeptical about the direction
of the series.
The first game was undeniably awesome, mostly because of the character of Dante.
He was just so cool, from his oversized swords to his arrogant personality.
Never before had I thought a character based on a Medieval Italian poet be as cool as the
person he was based upon.
But for the sequel, they decided to take everything cool about Dante and take it away, leaving
a final product that felt like what it was, a shell of the original.
So I was nervous for the third game.
If this one failed, the series and the character of Dante would probably die and we would never
get to be the great Dante we loved.
Thankfully the game takes everything great about the first game, and throws the second
game away.
All you have to do is play the first level, where Dante is killing demons while eating
pizza and playing air guitar, and you will know the series is back.
Doing everything it can to avoid the second game, the game is a prequel.
It focuses on the relationship between his brother Virgil and Dante.
Virgil is focused on taking over Earth and unleashes a tower and Dante must stop him.
The story is fairly decent but it’s not winning any awards.
But the story has always played second fiddle to the action.
The action itself has also gotten a major upgrade.
Of course it has the Devil May Cry combat you could expect.
Dante has a giant sword that he uses to cut up demons, and his dual pistols to finish
them off.
It all feels nice and smooth and that really is the point of Devil May Cry, being able
to pull off some awe inspiring moves with ease.
New though is the different combat styles.
Before each mission you can select what style you want to use.
These range from focusing on your sword, with another being all about guns.
There are even defencive and the “Trickster,” which increase your evasion.
Each of these have their own move set, which can be upgraded.
This makes you look forward to trying out new things in combat.
This also adds a lot of replay value to the game, having you want to try new areas with
a different style.
The combat is very intuitive and responsive, which is good because the game will definitely
challenge you.
One thing that has become forever linked with this game is the difficulty.
When the game was brought over to North America, the Japanese “Hard” mode was set as the
default difficulty.
This caused the game to be passed over by many people because they felt the game was
too hard.
I can understand this.
The game is pretty brutal and unforgiving.
There are plenty of times I turned off my system in a fit of anger but soon I was back
at it trying again.
I was not going to let the game win.
And that is a testament to how good this game really is.
While it will beat you up and steal your lunch money, you can’t get too angry with it because
everything else about it is so good.
Everything about this game is top.
The graphics are great, with a great dark atmosphere.
The combat system that is both simple and deep.
And the main character is just one of the coolest in the industry.
This is one of the highlights of the PS2, a deep and rewarding action game.
If you can get past the difficulty, there really is a great game here.