Let's review Hollow Knight: Silksong, for real this time

 So here's a funny story about today's review. Hollow Knight: Silksong was a game that I and many other nerds on the Internet had waited almost 7 years for. This game's lengthy development cycle and infamous lack of marketing made this game borderline mythical in the eyes of the video game industry. I literally made an April Fool's post where I pretended the game was already out and was so good it brought world peace and solved all problems with society. When I wrote it, I basically gave up hope of seeing Silksong being released before 2030, if at all.

Official box art for Hollow Knight: Silksong, featuring main heroine Hornet front and center. Image found on wikipedia.org

But you'll never guess what got a surprise release on September 4th, 2025! That's right. Silksong is real. I am not joking this time. You CAN play it, on almost any modern system. And for just $20 USD. Which is a very generous price considering that this game can easily take 90-100 hours to complete. What's especially impressive is that the game went from having no marketing at all, to a surprise trailer suddenly announcing the game would be released officially by the end of the week.

 And let me tell you, the indie game industry collectively lost their minds at the surprise release date of Silksong. Some dev teams even delayed their own projects specifically so they wouldn't have to compete with Silksong. And when the game did release, there were so many people trying to buy the game at once that several digital game store websites (such as Steam and Playstation Store) crashed from the initial demand overload. It was a wild time.

For those unfamiliar with this blog or with Hollow Knight, you might wonder why this game was such a big deal. So to recap, Hollow Knight was an extremely popular Souls Like/Metroidvania platformer developed and published by Team Cherry. It took place in a dark fantasy world populated by anthropomorphic bugs who write poetry and fight horrifying monsters. Think A Bug's Life meets Dark Souls and you got the vibe that Hollow Knight for. Thanks to its hauntingly beautiful art and music, challenging boss battles and tragic but intriguing lore, this game is considered a modern classic by anyone with good taste. If you like platformers or Souls Likes, you owe it to yourself to play Hollow Knight. 

Silksong is the long awaited sequel to Hollow Knight, also developed and published by Team Cherry. This game focuses on the adventures of Hornet, a fan-favorite boss who served as a rival to the Knight, who was the protagonist from the first game. I had spent two months playing this game, because of course I would. In fact,  the reason why I didn't do another Halloween horror game review this year was because this game ate up all my free time. And the reason I didn't publish any reviews in November was entirely because of computer problems on my part. So consider this review a sort of late Christmas present.

But do you need to play Hollow Knight to understand Silksong's story? Well, not really, but I would recommend that you play Hollow Knight first anyway. While Silksong is more or less a standalone adventure (save for the occasional callback), its challenging difficulty makes it clear that this game was made for people who already completed Hollow Knight. Thus, the first game helps you build up the skill level necessary for the second game. Also, just as a heads up, I will be comparing Silksong to its predecessor when applicable. It's rather difficult not to compare a sequel to what came before, after all.

To summarize Hollow Knight lore briefly is to do it a disservice. But like I said earlier, Silksong is mostly self-contained with only the occasional callback to the first game. All you really need to know going into this game is that every character you meet is some kind of bug, and that despite her name, Hornet is a spider. She's also the former princess of a kingdom called Hallownest, which was wiped out by a supernatural plague. The reason she's out adventuring is because her homeland is now an inhospitable wasteland.

Silksong begins with a poem, just like the original Hollow Knight. Unlike the first game's poem, which described a great king that built a utopian paradise for his people, this game's poem describes a beautiful yet cruel tyrant who hides their true nature behind a veil of civility. This poem is very obviously describing the main villain of this game, but at this point we do not know who said villain even is.

After the poem, we get a beautifully animated cinematic of Hornet being kidnapped by a mysterious group of veiled bugs. Hornet manages to escape her captors with the help of a mysterious pale butterfly. Unfortunately, she was left in a weakened state by her time in captivity, which means that most of her abilities are initially disabled. This is the in-universe explanation for why Hornet doesn't use any of the fancy weapons or spells she used in her boss fight back in the first game, though she can eventually regain her old abilities as well as several new ones.

Once that intro sequence is over, our journey into Silksong begins. Like the first game, the tutorial is fairly minimalistic, as Hornet's move set is self-explanatory. She can run and jump. She has a blade called the Needle that she can swing either vertically or horizontally. She has a midair dive attack that allows her to bounce off of any enemies or objects hit by said dive. And she can cast magic spells using Silk, which can be gained by hitting enemies with the Needle. Starting out, the only spell Hornet can cast is Bind, which is a simple healing ability. She can learn other spells as the game progresses, but all spells draw power from Silk. A big part of Silksong's combat is figuring out when to use Silk for an extra strong attack and when to use Silk to heal.

Just like literally every single Souls Like in existence, Silksong has a universal currency acquired by slaying regular enemies. This currency, called Rosaries in this game, is dropped if Hornet dies. But you can recollect any lost Rosaries by trekking back to where you died and smashing open a cocoon that marks the place of Hornet's most recent death. Rosaries are used to buy items from various merchants and to unlock benches (which serve as this game's checkpoint system). However, Rosaries are surprisingly rare, as only certain enemy types will drop them. For lore reasons that will make sense later, not all enemies will drop Rosaries when defeated. Only "pious" enemy types will drop Rosaries. 

Non-pious enemies drop a less valuable resource called Shell Shards, which don't seem to serve a purpose at first. However, Hornet will eventually unlock additional weapons called Tools, which consist mostly of projectiles and traps such as boomerangs and caltrops. Tools have limited ammunition, but Hornet can use Shell Shards to craft more ammo as long as she is resting at a bench.

After climbing and fighting her way out of the starting area, Hornet meets a group of peaceful bugs called the Pilgrims. One of the elder Pilgrims, the Chapel Maiden, explains to Hornet that she has been brought to the kingdom of Pharloom. This land is a mountain with a heavenly Citadel crowned upon its peak, and the Pilgrims are all on a spiritual journey to prove their faith by climbing up the mountain. The Pilgrims are the reason why Rosaries (a kind of prayer bead) are the main currency, as they literally "trade in faith." This setting's economy does carry the sinister implication that "rich" Pilgrims are measurably more faithful and "pure" than their poorer counterparts, but I'm *totally* sure that this doesn't foreshadow the Pilgrims' religion being more malicious than it first appears.

The veiled bugs from earlier are also confirmed by the Chapel Maiden to be holy servants from the Citadel. So Hornet decides to climb up Pharloom herself, both because she wants to know why the Citadel bugs kidnapped her in the first place, and because she wants to beat the snot out of whoever is in charge. But standing between her and this goal is a horde of monsters possessed by haunted Silk. From here, Hornet is free to explore Pharloom while gradually making her way to the Citadel itself.

One thing that Silksong does better than Hollow Knight is that it gives you an objective to work towards right away. The early game of Hollow Knight is mostly aimless wandering while you piece together whatever tragedy befell Hallownest prior to your arrival. But Silksong says, "Here's a tall, mountainous kingdom. Climb to the top and kill anything that stands in your way. Have Fun!" 

The biggest difference between the Knight and Hornet is that the latter has an actual personality. I know that sounds like an insult towards the Knight, but its whole deal is that it is both incapable of speech and devoid of any emotion. It was literally designed by the Pale King (Hornet's father and former ruler of Hallownest) to be a silent and emotionless warrior, as the Knight being Hollow (term for emotionless beings) was vital for its mission. Meanwhile, Hornet does have emotions and speaks somewhat frequently, because she is not Hollow. I was initially taken aback by Hornet actually talking to the various bugs she meets on her travels, because I was so used to the Knight's perpetual silence.

Hornet explores a rainy region called Greymoor. Image found on Silksong's Steam page. 

Speaking of her, Hornet is a highly enjoyable protagonist. Her dialogue manages to sound both diplomatic and assertive. You can tell she was raised by royalty just from the way she speaks. She calls everyone she meets "good sir/madam" and she acts respectful until you give her a reason to stop respecting you, at which point she becomes blunt and brutally honest. Despite her stoic demeanor, she also has a soft side, as she grows to genuinely care about Pharloom and its people as her adventure progresses.

The best look into Hornet's personality is in the Hunter's Journal, a bestiary documenting every enemy type and boss that Hornet encounters. In addition to a "professional" description detailing the enemy's behavior, she often adds her personal thoughts on the enemy in question. Most of the game's levity comes from seeing this stoic warrior princess privately confess to wanting to pet all the "fluffy" enemies she encounters, as well as bemoaning the fact that she can't fly like other bug species due to a lack of wings. One of the Journal entries even reveals that Hornet had multiple lovers throughout her life, though she sadly outlived all of her previous partners. As it turns out, being a child of the Pale King (who is literally a god) gave Hornet an extended lifespan, causing her to live much longer than a normal spider should. And that information is just casually put into the Journal. Hornet never mentions her previous lovers or her heritage in conversation, both because she doesn't need to and because that is "private" information.

Hornet is not the only bug travelling through Pharloom, as she can meet new friends and foes who have all come to Pharloom for their own reasons. Such as Sherma, a sweet and idealistic Pilgrim boy who just wants to play music and reach the Citadel. There's also Shakra, a warrior-scout from a foreign tribe who is on a quest to track down her missing mentor. Shakra will also sell maps of recently discovered areas, which makes said areas easier to navigate. Then there's the Flea Caravan, a group of traveling fleas who will reward Hornet if she can rescue any lost fleas hidden throughout the world. And of course, there's Lace, a childish yet maniacal fencer who serves as a rival to Hornet. Which is somewhat ironic, as Hornet herself was meant to be a rival to the Knight.

I really like the new supporting characters. I'm not sure if I like them more than their counterparts from the first game, but I'd say they are about equal in terms of writing quality and character designs. My favorite new character is Shakra, both because her design is really cool, and because the sound of her singing is enchanting. And her singing is important, as it's an indicator that she set up shop somewhere nearby. 

I also like Sherma for his wholesome vibes, even if I spent most of my playthrough worried he was going to get killed off. Not only is he similar in mannerisms to Myla (a character from the first game infamous for her tragic death), but this is a dark fantasy game, and this genre usually isn't kind to wide-eyed idealists. But not only does Sherma survive the journey to the Citadel in one piece, he even survives all the spoiler-filled nonsense that happens in the game's final Act.

A new feature in Silksong are Wishes, which are literally just side quests in all but name. Sometimes you might meet a friendly bug who will give you a rare item in exchange for completing a specific task. These tasks can range from fighting a secret boss, to collecting a certain number of items, or donating Rosaries to one of the three towns in Pharloom (Bone Bottom, Bellhart and Songclave). In case you can't meet the quest-giver in person, each town has a Wish-board where everyone puts their Wish on display publicly. 

Generally speaking, I like the Wishes. They're easy to keep track of and provide clear instructions on what you need to do to complete them. There are some that can be rather obnoxious because of a difficulty spike, but I never found myself having to look up a guide for any Wish. Well, aside from the Courier's Rasher Wish. This Wish is infamously difficult, as it requires you to carry a delicate food item from Bellhart all the way to a diner in the Citadel within five minutes or less. You cannot use elevators or Hornet's Bell Beast companion to fast travel there, by the way. You have to make the journey on foot. And every time Hornet takes damage, the timer speeds up. It can be done, but just barely. 

Speaking of difficulty, let's address the elephant in the room here. Silksong is a really hard game. I'd say that it's harder on average than Hollow Knight ever was. While it is true that there are specific things in Hollow Knight that are clearly more difficult than anything Silksong has to offer, such as the Path of Pain and the Pantheon battles, those are rather extreme outliers. If we're talking just the average, moment to moment gameplay, Silksong is harder. Like, the average Silksong enemy will take more effort to defeat than the average Hollow Knight enemy. And that is going to either make or break the game for you. You will either bounce off the game because of its high difficulty or tolerate its difficulty as you work your way to the "fun" parts of the game. 

Hornet prepares to fight a giant robot called the Fourth Chorus. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

To give you an example of how janky the difficulty can be, look no further than the boss and enemy design. Enemies in Silksong come in two types, duelists that are similar in size to Hornet herself and giants. Giant-sized enemies deal twice as much damage as "normal" sized enemies. And most of the game's bosses count as giants. And on top of the increased damage, all bosses have contact damage, where simply walking into them will hurt Hornet. Which, when combined with the double damage, means there's some nonsense in the early game that definitely feels unfair. 

The worst example of the boss design is the Savage Beastfly, an optional boss that is without a shadow of a doubt the most annoying boss fight in the entire game. Or rather, the rematch against Savage Beastfly. You see, you can fight this boss twice. The first fight is simple enough, as the boss only has two attacks (a vertical slam and a horizontal charge). The only hard part is that regular enemies will join in to assist the Beastfly, but it can be tricked into squishing its own allies with some clever maneuvering. 

The second Beastfly fight, however, doesn't really let you do that anymore as the minions now fly *just* out of reach. Also, the second fight happens directly above a lava lake, and the minions that the Beastfly summons can spit out a lingering fire that temporarily removes one of the few platforms that Hornet can safely stand on. This rematch, despite its seeming simplicity, was by far the most difficult boss in the game. Not even the final boss took as much effort as the Savage Beastfly rematch. Was it a fun boss to fight? No. Not at all. I found the whole fight frustrating and obnoxious. And the worst part of all this is the fact that the Savage Beastfly is just a bigger version of a regular enemy from the starting area. So it's not even a cool looking or lore-significant boss. 

What's especially crazy is despite being one of the most annoying boss fights in recent memory, Savage Beastfly exists in the same game as the First Sinner, who is by far the best boss not just in this game, but in the entire series. The First Sinner has fast but reasonable attack patterns, as she uses her own version of Silk magic to fight. She can heal herself using her own version of Bind, but she can't attack and heal at the same time, so Hornet is free to strike the First Sinner whenever she tries to heal. And the best part of the First Sinner is that even though she is initially hidden behind a secret room in an already secret area, it takes only a few seconds to challenge her to a rematch because of how close the nearby bench is.

Other bosses I liked include Skarrsinger Karmelita, Shrine Guardian Seth, the Cogwork Dancers and Phantom. I don't like them as much as I like First Sinner, but all of them are fun duelist style bosses with cool designs and intriguing lore.

Believe it or not, I found myself liking the platforming and exploration parts of the game more than the boss battles. Which feels bizarre, as I generally enjoy the boss battles most in games like this. But where Silksong truly shines is in its world. The kingdom of Pharloom is not only beautiful to behold, but is filled to the brim with secret collectibles and a rich history. And Hornet is just really fun to play as. She's graceful and acrobatic, especially once you unlock the Dash and Wall Jump abilities.

Hornet is also a lot more customizable than expected, thanks to the Crest system. Crests are essentially alternative fighting styles that Hornet can learn throughout her adventure. They change the shape and size of her Needle swings, and some Crests can even alter Bind, either by giving it additional effects or by replacing it with an alternative healing method. Crests also determine how many Tools Hornet can bring into battle, if any.

Hornet starts with the Hunter Crest, which is her default move set. It's a generalist style that doesn't specialize in one specific strategy, which makes it good for beginners. There's also the Reaper Crest, which has slow, wide slashes for a more patient fighter. The Wanderer Crest is the Reaper's total opposite, shortened range in exchange for quick stabs. The Beast Crest replaces Bind with a Fury Mode that allows Hornet to steal health with claw swipes. The Witch Crest turns the Needle into a bladed whip, and it replaces Bind with a life-stealing tentacle attack. And the Shaman Crest is greatly improves your Silk spells, and lets Hornet shoot waves of magical energy with each swing of the Needle. 

My favorite Crest is the Architect, which turns the Needle into a drill and allows Hornet to instantly craft ammo for her Tools anywhere at any time. This Crest is so good that it gets its own section in the review. It is laughably strong. Not only do the drill attacks hit multiple times (thus racking up damage and Silk quickly), but the fact that you can craft extra ammo for your Tools mid-battle means you can be a lot more reckless with your Tool usage. In fact, I was able to beat the final boss simply by using the Architect Crest to spam Tools with careless abandon. I tried to do the final boss fight with other Crests, but none were as effective. The only downside of the Architect Crest is that it still needs Shell Shards to craft ammo, so prolonged use of it can get expensive very quickly. That, and the only Silk spell you can use is Bind. The Architect is meant to be an "anti-magic" fighting style.

Hornet fights the warrior bugs of the Citadel. Image found on Silksong's Steam page

So now I want to talk about the lore and story of Silksong. Keep in mind that just like Hollow Knight (and Souls Likes in general), parts of the lore are left vague and up to interpretation. So while there are some objective truths, there are also parts of the story that I will not be able to describe perfectly. Also, spoilers abound from this point on. If you must know my thoughts on the game, I'd give it either a 4 star rating or a 5 star rating, depending on your tolerance for difficult games. The only thing I can say bad about Silksong is that the difficulty can feel borderline sadistic in some parts of the game. But aside from that, this is easily Game of the Year material that was well worth the wait. But without further adieu, let's talk about the lore. 

You know those friendly Pilgrims I mentioned? The ones climbing up Pharloom so they can prove their faith and be allowed to join the heavenly Citadel? Turns out their religion is built upon a lie. Most Pilgrims die long before they reach the Citadel's gates, either killed by beasts or possessed by haunted silk. And the lucky few that survive are immediately enslaved and cast down into the Underworks, a mechanical region that serves both as a prison and as a factory. This facility was designed to keep the Citadel above running for eternity, by any means necessary. In case you haven't realized it, the beautiful yet cruel tyrant that the poem warned us about at the start of the game was referring to the Citadel itself.

In addition to all the usual dangers you might expect, like powerful enemies and tricky platforming, the Underworks does something rather unique. Everything in the Underworks is designed to scam you out of your hard-won Rosaries. The benches and beds are pay-per-use and retract into the walls and floor if you don't have enough money. There is a confession booth where you get to pay for the "privilege" of confessing your sins. And the confession booth only responds with a pre-recorded message that tells you that your only chance for "redemption" is to work an additional 24 hours without resting or eating. And because the Citadel's religiously charged propaganda is so effective, the Pilgrims are too indoctrinated to realize that they're being exploited. And on top of all that, the enemies here only drop 3-4 Rosaries each on death, while every other Citadel enemy drops 30 or more. The implication being that they don't get paid well for their efforts, if at all.

The Underworks is genuinely my favorite area in the game, because the environmental storytelling is immaculate. Everything about the Underworks, from the scarcity of Rosaries to the overpriced pay-per-use services, is meant to force you to see the harsh reality of the Citadel's tyranny. It's not my favorite aesthetically, as I feel that there are other areas that look "prettier" like Greymoor and Shellwood, but the Underworks is the area I enjoy from a narrative perspective the most.

But who exactly rules over the Citadel? The answer is a little complicated, but bear with me. The Kingdom of Pharloom in its current form was established by a spider goddess known as Grand Mother Silk, who is the progenitor of all spiders. Even Hornet is related to her, albeit distantly. Grand Mother Silk (who I will call GMS for short) was a tyrant who destroyed any nation that refused to join Pharloom, and she created the haunted silk that's been possessing all the enemies specifically to make her subjects easier to control. After untold centuries of conquest and warfare, Grand Mother Silk was eventually betrayed by her daughters, the Weavers.

The Weavers created the Citadel to produce a magic song (one might call it a "Silksong"), which would keep Grand Mother Silk asleep for eternity. But after the Weavers left Pharloom and migrated to Hallownest, the remaining Citadel bugs started a cult dedicated to keeping the Citadel running for eternity. That haunted silk I mentioned earlier is the result of GMS's influence slowly leaking out of the Citadel and spreading to the rest of the world. So the Citadel isn't exactly doing a good job containing her. Thus, Hornet decides that the best thing to do is to slay GMS herself, which would destroy the haunted silk and shut down the Citadel for good.

Grand Mother Silk is the final boss of this game's second Act. She's actually a pretty fun boss to fight. She doesn't feel outrageously hard, but she's certainly no push over. She uses similar attack patterns to the Radiance, the final boss of Hollow Knight, with her throwing floating blades around and conjuring spikes from the ground. But this time you have a character with a lot more mobility and combat options, so GMS feels "easier" to fight than the Radiance did. 

But like I said earlier, Act 3 is completely optional and it is entirely possible to beat the game without ever seeing it. And just like Hollow Knight, there are multiple endings based on what preparations you made prior to defeating the final boss. At the time of writing, I've done three out of four of the game's main endings. However, one of those "endings" is just the intro to Act 3, so it feels weird to call it an ending.

The first ending, called Weaver Queen, is what happens if you fight Grand Mother Silk without making any additional preparations. Hornet kills GMS and absorbs her power. This causes Hornet to transform into a goddess herself, but the implication is that she is doomed to be repeat GMS's mistakes and become just as tyrannical as the goddess she just overthrew. Especially since earlier in the game, Hornet herself said that her heritage gives her an instinctual desire to rule over civilizations, even at the expense of others. 

The second ending is called Twisted Child and this is the only one I have not done. Nor do I expect to do it any time soon, as the requirements are a little... extreme. Additionally, this is generally agreed to be the game's "bad" ending, so outside of 100% completion there's not much reason to go for it. So back in Act 1 Hornet can meet a witch named Greyroot, who says some cryptic nonsense about the "time of rebirth." If you give her an item called the Twisted Bud, Greyroot will forcibly infect Hornet with a parasite which prevents her from being able to use Silk spells (including Bind!). 

Normally, this side story would end with Hornet visiting a surgeon named Yarnaby, who would remove the parasite and give Hornet the Witch Crest for her trouble. But if you carry the parasite with you all the way to the final boss, you get the Twisted Child ending. In this ending, the parasite within Hornet is "birthed" into an eldritch tree monster that absorbs both Hornet and Grand Mother Silk into itself. This tree monster is a newborn god, but given how shady Greyroot is and how violent its creation was, the chances of the newborn god being nice are pretty slim.

Then there is the Snared Silk ending, which is the aforementioned Act 3 intro. To get this ending, Hornet needs to grant at least 17 Wishes and rescue enough Fleas to get the Flea Caravan to move from the starting area all the way to the Citadel. Because she's helped so many bugs this time, she has grown to care about the citizens of Pharloom and can resist her instinctual desire to become a goddess. This leads to Hornet researching alternative methods to defeat Grand Mother Silk. And conveniently enough, a family of magicians called the Snail Shamans claim to know of a ritual that can banish the gods from Pharloom. One of the Snail Shamans is actually the Chapel Maiden from the start of the game. The ritual would in theory defeat GMS, shut down the Citadel and allow Hornet to continue life as a "regular" spider. So it's a win-win for everyone. At least it would be, except that the Snail Shamans neglected to mention where exactly GMS would be banished to.

Hornet uses her dive attack during a duel with Lace, her main rival. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

As it turns out, the banishment ritual sent Grand Mother Silk to the Void, a realm of darkness that consumes the souls any bug exposed to it. GMS tried to drag Hornet down with her, but the latter is saved by Lace. Not because Lace likes Hornet or anything, but because she she hates GMS and is acting entirely out of petty spite. Why does Lace hate GMS? To make a long story short, Lace is GMS's magnum opus; an artificial bug made of enchanted silk. Lace resents her creator, for her body is flawed and fragile, and has decided to interfere with GMS's plans for no other reason than petty revenge. In fact, that pale butterfly from the intro is implied to have been sent by Lace. But GMS still has access to her haunted silk, which is made with the souls of her enslaved subjects. And the ritual opened a portal to realm that literally eats souls. So it doesn't turn out well. 

Act 3 begins with the haunted silk combining with the Void, which transforms the entire game world. Shortcuts get blocked off and have to be reopened, enemies get replaced with Void-Touched variants that are twice as strong as before, and multiple friendly bugs get either killed off or corrupted by the Void. No one is having a good time now. 

Hornet manages to fight her way out of the Citadel and back down to Bone Bottom, the town at the start of the game. There, she confronts the Snail Shamans for lying about their usage of Void magic. This scene is one of the few times where Hornet loses her temper, which should give you an idea of how dire the situation is. The Snail Shamans make up for their blunder by revealing the existence of a special flower that can counter the Void; the Everbloom. But there are no such flowers in Pharloom, as it only grew in Hallownest, which is currently a dead kingdom with no life in it at all. 

All hope to save Pharloom seems lost. But the Snail Shamans have one last ritual they can try, one that does not draw power from the Void. This second ritual could send someone into the memories of the past, and pull a physical object out of that memory and into the real world. It's not quite time travel (as the past is always set in stone), as it's more like a magical copy-paste feature. Anyway, the Snail Shamans teach Hornet a song that can be played to enter the memories of other bugs, which Hornet must use to collect the hearts of three monarchs. 

You see, Grand Mother Silk was not the first ruler of Pharloom, she was just the most recent one. There were four monarchs before her, those being Crust King Khann, Nyleth, Skarrsinger Karmelita and the Green Prince. Hornet only needs to collect three out of four hearts, so you could choose to skip one of these monarchs for your playthrough. None of the monarchs will give up their hearts willingly, so Hornet has to fight them in extra tough boss battles. 

Side note, but Crust King Khann is my second least favorite boss in the game. The first is the Savage Beastfly, for reasons I already explained. But the reason I dislike Khann is not because he's hard or annoying to fight. The reason I don't like him is because you have to fight through the longest gauntlet of regular enemies in the entire game. It's an arduous and tiresome process that involves fighting through 30 waves of enemies, with each wave consisting of 2-4 enemies each. On top of that, coral starts growing out of the walls and floor to restrict Hornet's movement. If you die at any point during the gauntlet, you have to do the whole thing all over again. So if you're going to skip one of the monarchs, let it be Crust King Khann. The other monarchs are much more fun to fight because you don't have to go through a small army every time you want to fight the boss. 

Funnily enough, Skarrsinger Karmelita also has a gauntlet battle beforehand, but it's nowhere near as long as the Khann gauntlet, so it doesn't feel as bad to fight through. Karmelita is my favorite of the four Monarchs, both because I enjoy her character concept and I enjoy her boss fight. She's an ant queen salsa dancer with boomerangs, and that right there is peak Hollow Knight character design.

Once Hornet has enough hearts, the Snail Shamans can perform the ritual to send Hornet into her own memories and retrieve the Everbloom flower. And this is the best look at Hornet's backstory we get, at least for anyone who hasn't played the first game. It's kind of weird that almost all of the references to Hollow Knight are in Act 3, which is the tail end of the adventure, but here we are. That being said, I do like this scene. The music and artwork here is hauntingly nostalgic, and seeing all the old Hallownest rulers again did make me smile. 

Anyway, Hornet gets the Everbloom and dives into the Void to confront Lace and Grand Mother Silk one last time. The only way to stop the Void from devouring all of Pharloom is to dive into its core and beat it into submission. And Hornet is absolutely determined to save Pharloom by this point. Her homeland is a dead kingdom, and she cannot live with the guilt of seeing another civilization fall to ruin. So we get the true final boss of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Lost Lace. 

While I like the idea of Lost Lace's concept, as its a Void-touched rematch against Hornet's main rival, I didn't really care that strongly for the battle itself. You see, the main problem with Lost Lace is not that she's hard (though she is), the problem is that it's difficult to see what's going on because of the coloring of this area. Lost Lace's body is oily black, the background is oily black, and her Void magic spells are oily black. This fight would be so much better if it was easier to see what Lost Lace is doing.

Upon defeating Lost Lace, we get Silksong's best possible ending, Sister of the Void. In this ending, Hornet literally beats the Void corruption out of Lace and saves her life. Grand Mother Silk bestows the last of her power to give Hornet enough strength to literally super jump out of the Void with Lace in tow. Does this redeem GMS? Not really. But I understand why she did this. Because Lace is still her magnum opus, her perfect "daughter." Ensuring that Lace survives means that GMS's legacy is secure. Unfortunately, the Everbloom flower's protection wears off mid-jump, leaving Hornet and Lace vulnerable to the Void. 

But before they can be consumed by the Void, Hornet and Lace are saved by a surprise appearance from the Knight. Yes, the same Knight from the original Hollow Knight. Since the events of the first game, the Knight has become a god of the Void itself, but it couldn't interfere with Hornet's adventure because the haunted silk prevented it from entering Pharloom. And with no more haunted silk holding it back, the Knight is able to carry Hornet and Lace back to the living world. Despite supposedly being a Hollow being, the Knight does care to some extent about Hornet. After all, the Knight is technically a child of the Pale King, which would make Hornet its sister. In fact, that's why this ending is called "Sister" of the Void. The game ends there, with Hornet and Lace thankful to be alive and with the promise to rebuild Pharloom into a better nation.

For obvious reasons, the Sister of the Void ending is my favorite of the bunch. It's the ending that is most narratively satisfying, and getting to see the Knight again is absolute cinema. I can see this ending being confusing for anyone who hasn't played the original Hollow Knight, as the game introduces a new character seemingly out of nowhere specifically to save Hornet from the Void. But despite that, this ending is still beautiful.

After getting any of the endings I just described, you unlock Steel Soul Mode, which is this game's equivalent to hard mode. Yeah, a game already infamous for its high difficulty has a secret hard mode that is unlocked after beating it for the first time. But the only change between regular mode and Steel Soul is that in the latter mode, your save file is deleted upon death. Which means that you have to beat the entire game in one try. I already know that I do not have the skill level necessary to attempt this, but I have nothing but respect for anyone brave enough to try this challenge. Hollow Knight also had a Steel Soul Mode. 

Hornet fights three enemies at once in the Coral Tower. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Okay. We're done talking about the lore. Now let's talk presentation. Silksong is, much like Hollow Knight, an absolutely gorgeous game. I mean, have you seen the screenshots on this very review? It's literal art. This game's aesthetic has quite a lot going on, but simply put, it's using cel-shaded art on three separate layers (the foreground, the background, and the actual levels). Silksong moves away somewhat from the medieval gothic vibes of the original game for something more akin to a fusion of steampunk and vaguely Catholic imagery, especially once you reach the Citadel. And once again, all the characters are supposed to be different kinds of bugs, but the game heavily anthropomorphizes its insects to make them "cuter" and more aesthetically pleasing.

The music and sound design is also just as incredible as the original. Silksong does not have traditional voice acting, as all the voice actors speak in a fictional nonsense language. The text boxes are supposed to be an in-universe "translation" of what the characters are actually saying. I personally like the made up nonsense language, as I consider it a part of the Hollow Knight charm. But if you want full voice acting for every line of dialogue, you will not find it here. 

The official soundtrack (composed once again by Christopher Larkin) is so good that it sounds like a gift from the Heavens. One of my favorite songs from this game is Red Maiden, which is a triumphant reprise of Hornet's theme from the first game. It only plays once in the entire game, which is during a completely optional side-story in which Hornet is kidnapped and stripped "naked" of all her gear, and must sneak around a prison called the Slab to get her stuff back. Once she has done so, she massacres the prison guards while Red Maiden blares heroically in the background. The whole scene is a great sequence, but it can be missed entirely if you don't die to a specific enemy encountered once in the entire game. 

Other standout songs include Skarrsinger Karmelita's theme, which has an almost angelic vocal performance that in-universe is performed by Karmelita herself. The First Sinner and Widow share a boss theme, and the little violin strings during the second phase make the battle sound like an intense, life-or-death struggle. 

And of course, there's Shrine Guardian Seth's theme. It's oddly sad and melancholic for an otherwise fast-paced duel, but it makes sense when you learn the real life story of why this particular boss was created. To make a long story short, Shrine Guardian Seth was originally a fan-made boss created by Seth Goldman, a fairly prominent Hollow Knight fan who contracted a terminal illness. As a last request, he was allowed to visit Team Cherry's headquarters and design one boss, which he chose to name after himself. Goldman passed away before Silksong released, but now his legacy is forever immortalized as the Shrine Guardian Seth.

Hornet rests on a bench while visiting Bellhart, one of the three towns in the game. She is surrounded by various peaceful villagers. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Overall, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a fantastic, but intimidatingly difficult game. I personally consider it my Game of the Year, mostly because I haven't played the other Game of the Year candidates enough to form a definitive opinion on them. And despite loving deltarune's new Chapters (which came out this year as well), it feels wrong to give what is essentially an unfinished game any kind of award. Like I said earlier, depending on your tolerance for difficulty, this is either a 4 star game or a 5 star game. If you liked Hollow Knight, you'll probably like Silksong.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the property of Team Cherry. None of the images used were created by me. Please support the original creators.

Elden Ring, the game that got me to love the Souls Borne series. A very maidenless review.

 This is my third review of a Souls Borne game. I have already reviewed Sekiro and Bloodborne before this game, and I plan to one day review the entire franchise. But here's a funny story you might not know. None of these games were my first Souls Borne game. That "honor" goes to Dark Souls II. And in hindsight, starting with II was probably a mistake, since that game is needlessly oppressive and counterintuitive. As such, I never finished it, but I might replay it again for the purpose of reviewing the whole franchise. But anyway, I bounced off the series for years after trying and failing to complete Dark Souls II. Then I picked up Elden Ring, and that game was so good that not only did I replay the game again as soon as the credits rolled, but it won me over and converted me into a "real" Souls Borne fan. I started tracking down the other games because I liked Elden Ring so much and wanted more games in that style. So here's a heavily biased review of a game that I will openly admit is one of my favorite pieces of media ever. Quick content warning. Elden Ring is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and thus is intended for audiences 17 years old or older. Mostly because of violence. And freaky monster designs. And a subplot where the protagonist gets married to a weird witch lady.

Image found on Wikipedia.org

So what exactly is Elden Ring? It's a medieval fantasy action roleplaying game inspired by Norse and Celtic Mythology that was developed by From Software and published by Bandai Namco, with the story and lore being co-written by Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of the Souls Borne series) and George R.R. Martin, of Game of Thrones fame. The game would release on February 24th, 2022 and became an overnight success. Not only was it the best selling Bandai Namco-published game ever made, it was the second best selling game of that year, being second only to Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare. Which is impressive, since From Software have spent much of their history being a fairly niche developer. It also has a DLC expansion pack planned for release this coming June (at the time of writing), titled The Shadow of the Erdtree. 

And now I have to tell you about the story in this game. Something you need to understand about From Software is that they don't tell their stories with traditional cinematics. Sure, cinematics exist, but mostly to hype up certain bosses and show how much of a threat they are. Most of the story is told through details in the environment, optional conversations with the few friendly faces you'll meet on your adventure, and reading the descriptions of collectible items. This vagueness was deliberate by design. One of Miyazaki's quirks as a writer is that he loves seeing people come up with theories and pool their knowledge together into a cohesive narrative, and his stories are meant to be vague and mysterious for this exact reason. And even though Martin's involvement was a big part of the prerelease marketing, the game feels less like a 50/50 split between his style and Miyazaki's style, and more like a 70/30 split in Miyazaki's favor. Granted, Elden Ring is somewhat more straightforward in its narrative than previous Souls Borne games. I didn't do any additional research on the lore during my first playthrough and felt like I had a good enough understanding of what was going on.

So here's a basic summary of the lore. In the world of Elden Ring, there is an island nation called the Lands Between. The Lands Between were ruled by a Goddess named Marika the Eternal, who was given divine power by an artefact called the Elden Ring. The Elden Ring was a gift from an even more powerful god called the Greater Will, in exchange for Marika's loyalty and servitude. Marika birthed several children who, while not gods in and of themselves, are still incredibly powerful and have the potential to ascend to godhood in certain circumstances. These kids are called the Demigods. Eventually Marika got tired of being the Greater Will's poster girl so she smashed the Elden Ring and faked her death. And then her kids started a civil war to fill the power vacuum. Fast forward five thousand years later, and the Lands Between are a post-apocalyptic shell of their former glory. Monstrous dragons burn down villages, undead zombies and skeletons attack roaming travelers and a supernatural disease called the Scarlet Rot is spreading through the land like a plague.

You play as a Foul Tarnished, an undead super soldier brought back to life by Marika's Grace and given a task. Track down the scattered remains of the Elden Ring, repair it and claim the throne of the Next Elden Lord. You are not the only Tarnished on this quest, however. In fact there are potentially hundreds of Tarnished running around. But only one of them can be Elden Lord. So any alliance between Tarnished is temporary at best. And in typical From Software fashion, not even ten minutes after waking up your Tarnished gets thrown into a boss fight that you are supposed to lose. Though you do get a cool sword if you beat it on your first try. After that scripted loss, you wake up in a cave and can go through an optional tutorial that teaches you the controls and basic game mechanics. Said tutorial ends with a boss fight against the Soldier of Godrick, which is a much more reasonable "first boss" than the actual first boss. Granted, the Soldier of Godrick is just a slightly buffed version of the basic undead wretches you've been fighting in the tutorial, so he isn't meant to be too hard.

Image found on RPGFan.com

Elden Ring has a pretty robust character creator, and I am a sucker for a good character creator. You can customize the hair, facial features, body type, gender and more. But more importantly, the game has a bunch of Classes. One thing I love about this game is that there are a ton of different ways to customize your fighting style. Do you want to swing the biggest and heaviest swords imaginable? You can do that. Do you want to run in and unleash a flurry of lightning fast stabs and slices with a pair of daggers? You can do that. Do you want to cast magic spells and shoot laser beams? You can do that. But keep in mind that nothing in this game is class-locked. As long as you meet the minimal stat requirements to use a weapon or cast a spell, you can use it. Even if you start the game as a Hero (a bulky juggernaut who excels with Strength focused weapons but struggles with spellcasting), you can learn magic spells if you put a few upgrades into Intelligence. 

The stats all do more or less what you expect them to. Strength makes the big heavy weapons better, Dexterity makes the fast smaller weapons better. Vigor gives you more health and defense, Endurance gives you more stamina (letting you jump and dodge more frequently) and carry heavier items on you. Intelligence and Faith are both your "magical" stats, with the former making star-themed sorcery better and the latter improving holy incantations. Mind gives you a bigger Focus meter, thus letting you cast more spells before needing to recharge. And finally, Arcane is a weird stat. It makes enemies drop items upon defeating them more frequently, and boosts the power of status effects like Poison, Frostbite and Bleeding. Practically speaking, Arcane is a stat that can be safely ignored if you don't plan on using status effects, since it offers no other benefits to combat. But status effect builds are comically strong. During my second run of the game, I played a Faith/Arcane hybrid character that tore through the game far faster than my original sorcery character did.

The classes mostly exist as a foundation to build off of instead of a railroad you must follow for the whole game. That being said, they do determine what kind of weapons and armor you start the game with, if anything. And it's generally better to specialize than to generalize. A pure Strength build will generally outperform a Strength/Dexterity hybrid. There are exceptions of course. The aforementioned Faith/Arcane build I made was almost comically strong. And the only reason I made that build was because I wanted to make a "dragon" themed character and all the "dragon" themed spells are designed to work with both Faith and Arcane equally. And also in typical From Software tradition, one of the classes, simply called the Wretch, starts with literally nothing more than a wooden stick and a loincloth. The Wretch's only redeeming quality is that it starts with a 10 in every stat, meaning if you can't make up your mind on what to play, the Wretch offers a perfect blank slate that can be easily molded into any play style you want once you find some real weapons and armor. Miyazaki himself has gone on record saying that playing as the Wretch is the closest thing the game has to a hard mode, so maybe don't play Wretch during your first playthrough unless you are very confident in your skills or you don't mind a rougher start.

Elden Ring controls more or less how you expect a Souls Borne to play. I played the game on PS4 and will be using that console's controller as a frame of reference. But anyway, you use the right and left bumper/trigger buttons to attack with whatever weapon is held in your character's left hand and right hand, respectively. The circle button is your dodge, the square button lets you use consumable items like potions or throwing knives. If you have a shield in hand, you can use it to block and parry enemy attacks. You collect a universal currency called Runes that can be used to purchase upgrades for your character, such as increased stats or better quality weapons and armor. All unspent Runes are dropped if you die and must be manually recollected on your next life. All of this is standard stuff. What's new to this game is the ability to JUMP. No, really, this is the first Souls Borne game with an actual jump button. While there was technically a jump in the previous games, it was clumsy, awkward and only worked if you had enough room for a running start. Now, the jump action is tied to a single button and feels actually good to use. You can also attack while jumping. And jump attacks are surprisingly strong. In fact, speed runners who are better at this game than I am discovered that the fastest way for Strength builds to defeat enemies is by doing jump attacks repeatedly. But back on the subject of new mechanics, there's a new technique called a Guard Counter. Basically, if you hit the heavy attack button right after blocking, it charges the normally slow heavy attack instantly.  You can also ride around on a magical steed called Torrent, who is not only much faster than the Tarnished but can also double jump. Torrent cannot be brought indoors, sadly, but he does make navigating the outdoors much easier. And the final new thing are Spirit Ashes. Spirit Ashes are magic spells can be cast once per boss battle that summons a ghostly version of certain monsters and warriors, who will assist you in battle automatically. Spirit Ashes are a nice option to have if you've been struggling against a boss and need just that extra bit of Jolly Cooperation to finish it off. Of course, regular multiplayer co-op is still a thing.

After the tutorial ends you are dumped into the Lands Between properly. You are free to explore wherever and however you want. The amount of freedom and exploration in Elden Ring is simply staggering. A lot of people say that Elden Ring is the most "beginner friendly" Souls Borne game. That is technically true. Not because From Software added an "easy mode" or toned down the enemies and bosses. In fact even the basic enemies can obliterate you if you're not careful. But because there's so much freedom in the open world, if you ever get stuck on a boss, all you have to do is go somewhere else and come back later once you get some upgrades under your belt. The previous games were a lot more linear in their level design, meaning if you got stuck on a boss, you had no real choice besides trying to brute force your way to victory. And if you know where to look, you can find some really powerful weapons long before the first "real" boss.

Image found on RPGFan.com

Speaking of bosses, this game has a lot of bosses. In fact, at 168 named boss monsters, it has the most number of bosses of any Souls Borne game ever. Funnily enough, out of those bosses, only 12 of them are required to actually finish the game. The rest are optional, but usually reward you with a powerful weapon or spell upon defeat. The only thing I can say negatively about is that most of the non-plot-relevant bosses are recycled at multiple points in the game (meaning you fight them more than once). Some more than others. But considering that Elden Ring is supposed to be From Software's "biggest" game, the world being so huge and packed with details means that the only real way to fill out the game world would be to recycle content. But the good news is that all of the Demigods (sans Godrick) are unique and only fought once. And honestly, the Demigods feel like they have the most amount of polish and effort put into them. They all get an intro cinematic hyping them up. They all are fully voiced and surprisingly chatty, with some of them taunting the Tarnished mid-battle. And of course, they are (generally speaking) the most challenging bosses in the game. 

On the subject of challenge, Elden Ring's difficulty is a little bit all over the place. Back when the game first came out, no one could agree if it was the easiest Souls Borne, or if it was the hardest. The answer is yes. Yes, it is the hardest. But also yes, it is the easiest. That sounds like an obtuse non answer and well, it is, but hear me out. You remember when I said that the game offers tons of different options for developing a unique fighting style? Not all builds are created equally. Elden Ring has 308 different weapons to collect and 171 different magic spells to learn. And generally speaking, 10% of those weapons and spells are so weak that using them is for all intents and purposes, handicapping yourself. 50% are just good enough to get you through the game, though you might struggle against certain enemies. And the rest are so comically powerful that they turn even the toughest battles into a cakewalk. And those comically powerful weapons can potentially be accessed as soon as you leave the tutorial area. The only thing consistent about the game's difficulty is that there is a huge spike in enemy damage in the final two regions of the game, the Mountaintop of the Giants and Crumbling Farum Azula. The enemies and bosses here do so much damage that you need at least 40 points into Vigor just to survive more than one attack. To put that into perspective, the previous games in the series could be beaten with 25 Vigor or less, and any more than that was the defensive equivalent of overkill. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The most offensive example of Elden Ring's weird difficulty balancing is a boss called Malenia, the Blade of Miquella. She is by far the hardest boss in the game, putting up more of a fight than even the final boss. Her attack patterns and movement are so fast they push Elden Ring's combat to the absolute limit. She honestly feels like she belongs in a different, much faster game than Elden Ring. This is on top of being able to "steal" health from you with every successful slash from her katana. This is a boss that essentially forces you to go the whole fight without getting hit once, because that's the only way to stop her from healing. Even blocked attacks will still heal her. And that's not even mentioning how she has two full health bars AND she adds a poisonous Scarlet Rot effect to her attacks once her first health bar is emptied. Before you jump to conclusions and assume I'm singling her out because I have a "skill issue" or need to "git gud" let me just say this. Malenia took me 13 tries to beat. Every other boss took 2 or 3 tries each. This was with a sorcery build I had planned ahead of time specifically to counter her. My criticisms of Malenia aren't because she's a hard fight. It's that she runs counter to the rest of the game's design, punishing defensive melee builds that rely on blocks and parries for defense and demanding that the player plays this one specific duel to absolute perfection, because anything less than perfect will result in failure. Thankfully, Malenia is an optional boss and the only rewards for beating her are the bragging rights and a replica of her katana. I think my opinion of Elden Ring would sour if she was mandatory.

Ironically, the hardest challenge in the whole game doesn't even come from its bosses or from its exploration. It comes from the side quests. All throughout the Lands Between you can meet various characters that are also traveling on their own adventures. You can choose to help them with their problems, but a lot of the side quests are so cryptic and obscure that you need a walkthrough on hand just to do them properly. And not helping matters is that if you defeat certain bosses before starting the side quests, the characters associated with might just peace out and move to a different location or even leave the game world entirely, thus preventing you from finishing that character's quest. To add insult to injury, there is no way to check which side quests you've found or finished within the game itself. You just have to hope your memory is good enough to revisit past areas. And even if you find the right characters in the right spot, the solution to their problem can be borderline esoteric. Take Boc the Seamster for example. Towards the end of his side quest, he expresses concern for his unsightly appearance and asks the Tarnished if they know of any way to "make him beautiful." There are two ways to end this quest. The simplest solution is to tell him to go visit a sorceress named Rennala of the Full Moon, who possesses the power of rebirth. Only problem is that Rennala still hasn't perfected her rebirth spell yet, so Boc's "beautiful" new body dies just a few minutes afterword. You would think that simply telling Boc that he's beautiful enough as is would persuade him to stay where he is, but no. You need to travel to a completely different region, grab an item called a Prattling Pate, come back to Boc and use that item to tell him that he's beautiful. There is no indication that such an item even exists, much less where to find it. The other side quests work similarly to Boc's. The simple solution will nine times out of ten get the character killed off (or worse) and the only way to save them is to try something weird and out of the box. There is only one side quest that breaks this rule.

Image found on Wikipedia.org

Oh boy, it's time to talk about Ranni the Witch. This character is quite the fan favorite, thanks to a memorable design, distinct Welsh accent and being the only "friendly" demigod. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a Ranni fan, myself. She also has the only quest where doing things out of the "intended" order won't ruin it. In fact, the only real way to fail Ranni's quest is to attack her deliberately. The best thing about Ranni is that she straight up tells you where you need to go and what you need to do to complete the quest. Ranni wants to find a special dagger in an underground city and tells you where to go to find said dagger. Ranni wants the demigod Radahn destroyed as part of her plans, and she tells you to go find Radahn and kill him. Her quest is the only one that is this straightforward. Of course, the beautiful simplicity of her quest isn't the only reason why I like Ranni. The other reason is that her lore is fascinating. She was one of the demigods responsible for turning the Lands Between into a nightmare hellscape. Despite being responsible for many of the horrors that the Tarnished encounters, she has a genuine desire to overthrow the gods and give humanity true, absolute freedom. The third reason I like Ranni is the simple fact that her quest ends with her and the Tarnished getting married. And there's a whole alternate ending, heavily implied to be the best ending, that is rewarded for going through with said marriage. Ranni even gives you the Moonlight Greatsword, which is literally From Software's mascot that they put in every game they work on, as a wedding gift. Out of all the games I have played in my life, Elden Ring is the only one to have an actual marriage in it. Granted, it's a political marriage and Ranni makes it clear her main reason for marrying the Tarnished is because she needs a loyal spouse in order to ascend to godhood. Because marriages in this setting aren't just a romantic ceremony. They are a ritual meant to unlock the true power of the divine. But without context, the idea that Elden Ring's best ending requires you to get married is oddly amusing.

In terms of presentation, Elden Ring is by far the most colorful Souls Borne game. This isn't to say that it's all sunshine and rainbows. Just that it leans more into the "fantasy" side of the phrase "dark fantasy." The monster designs are about what you expect from From Software. Lots of horrifying monstrosities with limbs coming out of places they do not belong. In fact, there's a general motif of hands and arms in the character designs. A lot of characters either have more arms than a normal human, or they have something weird going on with the arms they do have. Just to give a few examples, Ranni has four arms tucked into her robe, Godrick the Golden has two dozen arms erupting out of his back, and Rykard fights with a sword made of bloodied arms. And of course, the main mascot boss of this game, Malenia the Blade of Miquella, has only one natural arm. Her right arm has been replaced with a golden prosthetic that has a retractable sword attached to the wrist. The only bad thing about Elden Ring's aesthetic is that it can at times look a bit too similar to the Dark Souls trilogy. I kind of wish it leaned harder into the Nordic Viking/Celtic Mythology vibes, which are present in things like the Erdtree being modeled after Yggdrasil the World Tree and Malenia's helmet resembling those worn by Valkyries, but the Nordic/Celtic influence is nowhere near as obvious as say, Bloodborne's Victorian vibe or Sekiro's Feudal Japanese aesthetic.

But on a more positive note, we got Legacy Dungeons. Legacy Dungeons are special locations scattered around the open world. These areas are designed to resemble the level design from older Souls Borne games. Not only are they gorgeous to look at, the Legacy Dungeons are by far the most complex areas to navigate, with lots of winding paths that loop back in on themselves, hidden shortcuts and traps. The Legacy Dungeons are a true highlight of Elden Ring's art style, with a personal favorite of mine being Raya Lucaria Academy. It's a giant school for witchcraft and wizardry magic users that rests underneath the pale blue light of an magically conjured night sky, complete with a full moon looming overhead. You work your way up the schoolrooms and past a debate parlor, fighting and/or running past scholarly sorcerers and living puppet soldiers. You eventually reach the tallest point in the school, the Grand Library, where Rennala resides. 

Another Legacy Dungeon I love is Leyndell the Golden Capital. It is exactly what it sounds like; The capital city of the Lands Between. It is far fancier and more upkept than the rest of the world, looking almost serene compared to the hellscape outside its fortified walls. The roofs of the buildings are golden, the streets are lined with golden bricks, even the enemies here fight with golden weaponry. Also, there's a petrified corpse of a dragon so large that it functions as a platform/bridge you can walk on. And some people who are much smarter than me did some measurements and found this corpse dragon (named in the lore as Gransax) is more then 4 times the size of the Dragon God, a boss from the very first Souls Borne game, Demon's Souls. Keep in mind that the Dragon God was the biggest monster From Software ever created and they have yet to make a living  monster that large ever again. One shudders to think what kind of boss battle a dragon of that size could be like. Maybe that's one of the DLC bosses; a dragon as large as Gransax, but actually alive.

Image found on RPGFan.com

In terms of sound design, music and voice acting, it's all good. The monstrous roars of the various beasts in the Lands Between are disturbing, and the sound of clashing blades is crisp. The music is about what you expect from From Software. Lots of intimidating orchestra with vaguely Latin sounding lyrics. The music only really kicks in when you discover a boss, though there is some ambience in safe zones like the Roundtable Hold or the Volcano Manor. My personal favorite in the whole soundtrack is the Godskin Nobles' theme. It can best be described as "evil Catholic choir music." Which, considering that the Godskin Nobles are a cult that collects the skin of demigods and fashions clothes out of said skin, is weirdly fitting in a morbid way. And since the Godskin Nobles are fought multiple times, you get to hear their theme music more than once. The Ancestor Spirit is another boss with a good theme. It has really pretty and tranquil music, which sounds almost out of place for a battle with an otherworldly animal spirit.

The voice acting is some of the best in the series. One detail I like about the game is that all of the demigods are ancient (being 5,000 years old or older), and as such they all speak in old-timey Shakespearean English (with a lot of "thee" and "thou" and "thy") to show just how old they are compared to the regular mortals, who speak in modern English. Elden Ring is probably the most quotable game in From Software's catalogue. There's a lot of good quotes in this game. You have funny quotes like the White Masked Varre saying "Unfortunately, it appears you are maidenless" at the start of the game. But then you have incredible one-liners like Godfrey saying "I have given thee courtesy enough!" or Malenia saying "You will witness true horror..." I think my favorite piece of voice acting is when you confront Morgott, the Last of all Kings. The scene starts with him walking down a flight of stairs while listing off each and every demigod responsible for the millennia of warfare and violence that has plagued the Lands Between. With each name, the anger in his tired old voice grows and grows. Eventually he explodes with this line; "Willful traitors, all! Thy kind art all of a piece! War lords, emboldened by the flames of ambition! So have it writ upon thy meagre grave... Felled, by King Morgott! The Last of All Kings!" It's a beautifully written and voice-acted speech that conveys all the pent up rage and frustration Morgott feels about his fellow demigods, and how he believes that the Tarnished will become just as bad as Marika if they become Elden Lord. Morgott isn't an antagonist because he's evil. He's an antagonist because he's scared that the Tarnished will repeat his mother's mistakes and has taken great effort to prevent such a scenario from occurring. Morgott's my favorite boss in this whole game, both because he is fun to fight and because I enjoy the lore and narrative surrounding him.

My only complaint on the voice acting has less to do with acting itself and more to do with the translation. You see, From Software is a Japanese company. That means that Japanese is their native language. Obviously. But there's a bit of translation error. And normally, translation errors do happen in From Software games, but they are usually minor and inconsequential details that don't affect the experience. This game's translation error completely changes Ranni's speech at the end of the game, should you go through with her marriage and allow her to become the Goddess of the Full Moon. In English she says that she plans to "bring forth a chill night, of fear and loneliness, without the need to feel ever again." In Japanese she says that plans to "take the chill night far away from here, as I walk the path of fear and loneliness." The former sounds like she is causing another doomsday. The latter sounds like she is sacrificing herself for the betterment of humanity. This is not the fault of Ranni's voice actress, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, but is a little "whoopsies" in the translation. Side note, I really love the sound of Ranni's voice. She could read a phone book out loud and make it sound interesting.

Image found on RPGFan.com

Overall, Elden Ring is a great jumping on point for anyone new to the Souls Borne series. Is it perfect? No. I still wish that side quests were easier to keep track of, and the game is a bit too similar to Dark Souls aesthetically for my liking. But it's by far the most beginner friendly game in the franchise. And I'm thankful that this game showed me how fun Souls Borne games could be. If you have heard of From Software's work but were scared off by their infamous difficulty, this game, while not being easy per se, is far more accessible than its predecessors. It's definitely one of the better "open world" games out there. I give Elden Ring five stars out of five.

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Devil May Cry 5 is the most bonkers game I've ever played. A very stylish review.

 So here's a funny story. Once upon a time, while browsing the strange and terrifying depths of the Internet, I found a song. A really good power metal song that's almost 10 minutes long. A song so good that still to this day, I listen to it while working on this very blog. Heck, by the time you read this post I have probably listened to this song an additional ten billion times. This song was called Bury the Light, and I wanted to know the story behind the song, because it didn't sound like something that you would stumble across on the radio. After a bit of Googling, I learned that this song was the official theme song of the main antagonist of a game called Devil May Cry 5. Which naturally lead me down a rabbit hole of wacky wahoo pizza man hijinks. And now I'm here to tell you about this game because it is absolutely insane in the best way possible. Quick content warning. Devil May Cry 5 is rated M for Mature and is intended for audiences 17 years old or older. Because of violence. And profanity. And an uncensored Michael Jackson dance. All of this is to say that reader discretion is advised.

Image from Wikipedia.org

So what is Devil May Cry 5? It is the fifth game in Capcom's Devil May Cry series. Obviously. But there's a funny reason why this franchise exists. Back in 2004, Capcom was brainstorming ideas for a new Resident Evil game. So their dev team made four game demos, one of which would become Resident Evil 4. But Capcom didn't want to waste the other three demos, so they filed off the "resident evil demo" label and repurposed those demos for different games entirely. This was how the first Devil May Cry was made. Though it is weird that the demo that became Devil May Cry was even considered to be a template for a Resident Evil game, considering that RE is a horror franchise and Devil May Cry is a bombastic, over the top action series. Then again, Hideki Kamiya was the main creative director behind the demo and all subsequent games in the series, and that man is notorious for his love of larger than life action scenes. And we all love him for it, because no matter what is trendy or popular in the video game industry, Kamiya will ignore it and just do his own thing. 

Released in 2019, Devil May Cry 5 is the newest game in the franchise and makes frequent reference to the events of previous games. While this does mean that a newcomer jumping in for the first time will lose some context, the game is kind enough to come with a 30 minute mini-movie that quickly recaps the events of the series to get you up to speed. But I'm going to do my own recap, speaking as someone who has never played a single game prior to 5. So basically, Devil May Cry follows the adventures of a boastful demon hunter named Dante, who alongside his friends Lady, Trish and Nero, runs a company called Devil May Cry. Devil May Cry is a demon hunting company, because demon attacks are so common in this universe that demon hunting is a profitable business. Think of Devil May Cry as the Ghost Busters, but instead of fighting ghosts, they fight demons. Dante is also the son of this demon dude called Sparda the Black Knight. Sparda was a demon who decided that being evil was cringe, actually, so he betrayed all the other demons and saved the world. He then fell in love with a human woman named Eva and had two kids, one of which was Dante. Because of his demonic heritage, Dante is leaps and bounds more powerful than a normal human. He has super strength, super speed, teleporting, rapid healing and the ability to master any weapon with only a few seconds of practice. Also, Nero is Dante's nephew and has almost the exact same powers.

In addition to demon hunting, the Devil May Cry crew have to keep an eye out for Vergil, who is Dante's "evil" twin brother. Vergil was the second child of Sparda and naturally has the same powers and Dante and Nero, but became obsessed with power following the death of his mother, Eva. The descendants of Sparda are the guys you play as in the all the games. And as hinted at in the opening section of this review, Dante himself is a very silly guy. He spouts cheesy one liners and taunts in every other fight, he uses weapons that don't make any sense but look REALLY COOL, and he feels the need to show off with everything he does. Dante believes that it isn't enough to *just* beat the bad guys. He turns every fight into a theatrical performance, just to add further humiliation to his enemies. And Nero is following very closely in his uncle's footsteps, since he is also a bit of a show-off himself. Not as much as Dante, but still.

This game's story begins with the crew fighting a mysterious new demon king called Urizen, who has stolen Nero's right arm. As you do. Urizen immediately wipes the floor with everyone, including Dante and Nero. All without even standing up from his throne. And this isn't even a cinematic. The tutorial ends with a boss fight against Urizen that you are supposed to lose. Though you do get a funny joke ending if you manage to beat him earlier than intended. But anyway, following the advice of a mysterious poet named V (yes, the character's name is literally just the letter "V"), Dante stalls for time while the rest of the crew escape. One month later, and local gunsmith Nico builds Nero a prosthetic arm called the Devil Breaker. Lady and Trish have gone MIA in the meantime. So now it's up to Nero, Nico and V to save everyone else from Urizen's clutches.

Image from trueachievements.com

So let's talk gameplay really fast because SWEET MOTHER OF NEPTUNE IS THE COMBAT IN Devil May Cry 5 AMAZING. This game has three (four if you are playing the Special Edition) playable characters. But generally speaking, the main challenge of a Devil May Cry game doesn't come from the enemies and bosses, though they can pose a threat on higher difficulty settings. But the main challenge is getting a good rank. At the end of every combat encounter you are ranked on how stylish you were in battle. This does not equal to how fast you were or how much damage you did with a single move, but it equals to variety. Sure, you can beat the whole game using the same basic three-hit sword swing combo over and over, but you won't get a good rank from doing so. You have to mix and match different weapons and combos together to take down those pesky demons IN STYLE. And getting better ranks gives you more Red Orbs, the main currency of the game, which can be used to buy upgrades for the crew. And each character has an extensive move set that once mastered, let's you do some incredibly cool stunts. So let's go over each character.

Nero is unlocked right from the start. He is the guy you play as in the tutorial, and he is by far the simplest character in the game. Which isn't saying a lot, since even Nero has a complex toolkit that allows a skilled player to do some wild stuff once you learn how he works. He always has a sword called the Red Queen and a revolver called the Blue Rose. The Blue Rose has infinite ammo, so feel free to blast enemies as much as you want. But holding the button down makes Nero load up explosive bullets, which deal more damage and can stun enemies. The Red Queen is a reliable melee weapon that Nero swings around with reckless abandon. But the Red Queen isn't a normal sword. It has a motorcycle engine attached, and Nero can literally Rev Up his sword to add blazing fire to his combos. And finally, Nero has Devil Breakers, prosthetic arms that grant additional abilities. These can range from a electric pulses, whip attacks and homing rockets, among others. My favorite Devil Breaker is called the Punchline. It's a fist-shaped rocket that Nero can ride on like a skateboard. He can even do tricks on it that improve his rank! But Devil Breakers aren't exactly durable, and they will break if Nero gets hit while using one. Or you can manually choose to make your Devil Breaker self-destruct, which doubles as a counter attack. The only thing I don't like about Nero's kit is that the only way to switch Devil Breakers is to destroy the one you got active. But other than that, he's a fun character who serves as a good introduction to the game's overall vibe.

V is the second character unlocked and he is a little bit weird. V never attacks anything himself. Instead, he summons two shadow monsters named Griffon and Shadow that do all the fighting for him. The only time V actually hits anything himself is during his finishing move. You see, V's summons can't actually destroy demons, they can only weaken demons. It's up to V to actually finish them off. He can also teleport to weakened enemies to make getting closer easier. V has the weirdest fighting style and he is very much a "gimmick" character. Despite this, I personally found it easier to get good ranks with V than with Nero. Mostly because V's summons getting hit does not deal damage to V himself. And taking damage not only brings you closer to failure, but it reduces your rank. And when V is chilling on the other side of a room while his summons do all the work, the result is easy A and S ranks on missions. He gets the fewest amount of levels where you can actually play as him, unfortunately. Of the game's 20 main missions, V is playable in only 8 of them. But on a more positive note, he looks like a skinny, tatted up version of Kylo Ren from Star Wars. So he gets bonus points just for that.

Next up is Dante, who is the final character unlocked in the main game and he is by far the most complex. Dante can carry up to eight weapons with him at any time (four guns and four melee weapons), and he can switch between those weapons at any time. On top of that, Dante has four Styles that he can switch between that radically alters his abilities. Trickster Style gives Dante better mobility and speed. Sword Master Style gives him better melee attacks. Gunslinger Style gives him better long range attacks. And Royal Guard Style let's Dante block any attack. Yes. Any attack, no matter how strong, can be blocked with a well timed Royal Guard. And every successful Royal Guard block charges up a special punch called the Royal Release, and this is one of the strongest attacks in the game. The actual weapons tend to be wacky and ridiculous. Like one of Dante's weapons, the Cavaliere, is literally a motorcycle that can transform into a pair of giant buzz saws. Let me repeat that. Dante can beat the bad guys over the head with a MOTORCYCLE THAT TRANSFORMS INTO BUZZ SAWS. Another weapon, Dr. Faust, is a magic cowboy hat that turns Red Orbs into bullets. It's very expensive to use, but you eventually get so many Red Orbs you kind of stop caring about the money. But I think my favorite weapon is King Cerberus, a bo staff/nun chucks hybrid weapon that can be used to control ice, fire, and lightning. Of course, playing Dante effectively requires you to learn the ins and outs of every tool at his disposal. While he is my favorite to play as, I understand why he takes so long to unlock in the main story.  

And finally we have Vergil, who is only playable in the Special Edition or if you buy a 5 dollar DLC pack for the base game. Vergil is basically Dante on steroids. He only has three weapons, his Yamato sword, a pair of gauntlets and boots for hand-to-hand combat collectively called Beowulf, and a second sword made of magic called Mirage Edge. Instead of having guns like Dante, Vergil just creates mini Mirage Edges that he psychically launches at far away targets. He can also perform super moves with deliciously edgy names like "Judgement Cut End" and "Hell On Earth" to clear out entire rooms of enemies. Playing as Vergil is less like playing a reasonably balanced action game character and is more like if you played the game as the final boss. And well, spoiler alert, but that's exactly what Vergil is. He's the final boss, and if you unlock him you have all the crazy, overpowered final boss tricks at your disposal. Also, Vergil's theme song is the aforementioned Bury the Light, so without Vergil having an amazing theme song I wouldn't know this franchise even existed. Thanks, Vergil.

Image from trueachivements.com

All playable characters eventually unlock a transformation ability called Devil Trigger. While transformed, every character does more damage to enemies, takes less damage from enemy attacks, and any damage they do take will automatically heal over time. The only exception to this rule is V, who simply summons a third shadow monster called Nightmare instead of transforming. You can only use Devil Trigger when the Trigger Gauge is full, and it fills up with every successful attack. Again, the only exception to this rule is V, because he can literally read poetry books to speed up the charge of his Trigger Gauge in addition to charging it the normal way. Dante has a unique variant of the Devil Trigger called Sin Devil Trigger, where he can choose to convert his Trigger Gauge into energy for an even stronger transformation that completely overhauls his move set. Vergil's Devil Trigger let's him create copies of himself that mimic his movements with a slight delay, so with some planning, you can set up a Devil Trigger doppelganger and launch enemies between the real Vergil and his copy like the world's most dangerous game of Ping Pong. One last thing about all the characters. For the handful of levels where multiple characters are available, if you are playing online, you can see in the background other players playing as whoever you didn't select fighting through their own version of that level. It's not quite a co-op feature, since you can't interact with those other players directly. But it is a nice attention to detail since the these characters are supposed to be heading towards the same goal. It ties the gameplay in with the story, and that's neat.

Devil May Cry 5 is a fairly linear game. Almost all of its 20 missions are straight and narrow paths with rooms full of enemies standing between you and the goal, with only occasional branching paths sprinkled in here and there. There are Secret missions, which are bonus levels found by lining the camera up with spooky sigils hidden in each main mission. And almost every level ends with a boss battle. There's barely any exploration, but that doesn't really matter because the game's combat is so polished that having a straight shot to every fight with the occasional secret mission is not that big a deal. But if you are looking for something with exploration or puzzles, well... I don't know what to tell you. The game is laser focused on having the best dang combat in any video game ever, and in that regards, it succeeds. I know it's an overdone cliché to compare something to Dark Souls but I will say this. Devil May Cry is the polar opposite of Dark Souls, at least in terms of combat philosophy. Dark Souls is precise, weighty and cautious. Devil May Cry is bombastic, over the top and stylish. So if you play a lot of Souls games (like I do), you do have to unlearn that series' lessons to get the most out of Devil May Cry's combat. Normally I wouldn't make such a comparison, but I played this game while doing a playthrough of Dark Souls III at the same time, and bouncing between two games with almost exact opposite philosophies is certainly an experience. One thing I will say about DMC 5 is that the way lock-on works is weird. Instead of toggling it on, you have to press and hold a button to remain locked on your intended target. And switching targets while locked on something requires you to press down on the center of the right analog stick without letting go of the aforementioned "lock on" button. It feels bizarre at first because it doesn't work at all like a "modern" lock-on. But you get used to it after a while.

On the subject of difficulty, Devil May Cry 5 is surprisingly beginner friendly. You start off with two difficulty options, Human Mode and Devil Hunter Mode. Human being the equivalent of easy, while Devil Hunter is intended for intermediate players. Beating the game once unlocks a third difficulty option that's a little bit harder than the previous options, called Son of Sparda mode. Beat that mode and you unlock a fourth difficulty option called Dante Must Die mode, which is the hardest challenge the game has outside of "gimmick" difficulty settings. I actually like that the harder difficulties are locked off by beating the game, because by the time the player has unlocked them, they should be competent enough to actually handle those difficulty settings. The punishment for getting defeated is also surprisingly tame. Or maybe it's standard practice and I'm just used to Souls games harshly punishing you for failure. Anyway, Whenever your character's health hits zero, you can choose to either restart the level, or spend some of your Red Orbs on a revive to keep on fighting. Doing so will let you continue the fight right where you left off, but it will hurt your rank if you do so. There's also an auto assist option in the settings that simplifies the move sets and automates certain abilities, such as changing Dante's Styles automatically. The assist option is basically training wheels. Do you need it to learn the combat? No. Does it make the game easier? Yes. But turning auto assist on hurts your rank, so sooner or later those training wheels are going to have to come off. Almost every level ends with a boss fight, and the bosses are generally pretty tough. I had to restart/revive at least once per boss. Also unlocked upon beating the game is a new game mode called Bloody Palace. Bloody Palace is a gauntlet where you fight every enemy and boss in the game, with no chance to heal between fights. The idea is that it's like a survival mode, meant to test your endurance and skill. I haven't messed around with it too much. But I have seen players who are significantly better at the game than I am do some absolutely absurd things in the Bloody Palace. It's probably the best, spoiler-free way to see what end-game combat is like. 

Image from trueachievements.com

Okay, enough gameplay. How's the story? Well... I have to make a few confessions. As previously mentioned, I never played a Devil May Cry game before. That said, because of pop culture references and memes, I accidentally spoiled some rather important plot details for myself. Spoiler warning for the remainder of the post. I already knew that Vergil was the final boss, and I already knew that Vergil was Nero's dad (they play it up as a Darth Vader style plot twist). Granted, I didn't know the entire plot. Somehow, playing the game made the memes both make more sense and less sense. The simplest way to describe the plot of Devil May Cry 5 is that it's like an interactive Shonen battle anime. A menacing villain shows up, defeats the heaviest hitters in the series with minimal effort, and forces the younger heroes to step up and finish what their predecessors started. Meanwhile, said veteran hero goes off for a brief solo adventure to get a big enough power boost to fight said villain on even footing and help out the younger hero. The only thing missing is a martial arts tournament that takes up half a season's worth of episodes.

None of this is a bad thing, by the way. There's a charm to the antics of Dante and his friends. And while the plot is simple (by anime standards), the characterization and character interactions more than make up for it. Half the fun of this game comes from things like seeing Dante's next cheesy one liner, or Nero and Nico's constant teasing and banter with each other, or hearing one of V's silky smooth poems. The only real criticism I have of the story, at least from the perspective of someone who is looking at the series from the perspective of a newcomer, is that they don't really do much with Lady and Trish. From what I understand, those two women were super prominent in previous Devil May Cry games, even being playable in DMC 4. But Lady and Trish spend most of this game being mind controlled by Urizen, and once they are free from said mind control, they kind of just spend the rest of the game chilling in Nico's van. The result is that they can, at times, feel like they are glorified cheerleaders.

One thing that took me by surprise was the relationship between V and Urizen. Spoilers, again. But you know how I said that most of this game's plot was spoiled for me by memes? There's barely any memes about V, so he was the character I knew the least about. And as it turns out, V is actually Vergil. Sort of. Vergil used a magic samurai sword called the Yamato to split his soul in half. The "good" half of his soul became V, the "evil" half became Urizen. V hired the Devil May Cry crew to fight Urizen because V wants to recombine with Urizen and become Vergil again. And the revelation that V and Vergil are (technically) the same person was honestly more surprising than the "Vergil is Nero's dad" reveal. Even if that reveal hadn't been spoiled for me, it is so obvious that Nero is related to Vergil that I am left wondering how only Dante put two and two together. Like, Nero wears almost the same colors as Vergil. Urizen used the arm he stole from Nero to (re)make the Yamato, which is Vergil's signature weapon. Nero has all the same powers that Dante and Vergil have, and I'm not so sure about you, but Dante gives me "goofy uncle who never got married" vibes. This is the man whose first reaction to seeing a cowboy hat is to put it on and do a Michael Jackson dance. There is no way that Dante of all people could sire a child.

Also, speaking of Nero, I actually really like him as a character as well. He's cocky and a bit of a punk, but he is somehow the only person in this franchise that can behave like a functional adult. Mild spoilers here, but it's ultimately Nero that convinces the Sons of Sparda to put their differences aside and settle their rivalry in a nonviolent manner. Despite, you know, smacking them both around in a cool boss fight, because this is an action game and beating things up is how you interact with the world of action games. But funnily enough he takes the whole "Urizen stole my arm" thing surprisingly well. Like, he gets more upset at Dante calling him "dead weight" once than he does at the fact that a literal demon king broke into his house and stole his arm. For context of the "dead weight" thing, Dante wasn't trying to insult Nero. He was trying to protect Nero with some well meaning, but perhaps misguided brutal honesty.

Anyway, the game ends with a two part boss battle against the newly reformed Vergil. And speaking as a newcomer to the franchise, the final boss is really cool. I love that age old trope of "the boss is a human sized duelist with similar moves to your own." And Vergil is, as previously stated, like Dante but cranked up to eleven. At least in terms of fighting style and combat prowess. In terms of personality, Vergil is the exact opposite of Dante. While Dante is silly and flamboyant, Vergil is stoic and reserved. And Vergil is just a really cool antagonist in general. His boss fight was also surprisingly difficult. I first played the game on Devil Hunter mode (I am too prideful to play on the lowest possible difficulty setting) and it took me a good 45 minutes to figure out how to beat him. But during the second part of the fight, the player switches over to Nero, who has literally just unlocked his Devil Trigger form. And for this fight only, Nero's Trigger gauge fills automatically. And even though nothing else about the Vergil fight changes in the second round, it's somehow easier with Nero thanks to him being able to effectively spam Devil Trigger transformations for the whole fight. But within the context of the story, this is Nero hitting the newest peak of his power, and him being able to beat Vergil so easily in the gameplay reinforces the idea that Nero is now much stronger than he was at the start of the game. And I think that's really cool.

Image from trueachievements.com

In terms of presentation, DMC 5 is a really pretty game. It has some of the best looking facial animations in any video game that I have played. The game uses the same graphics engine as the Resident Evil games (at least, from Resident Evil 7 onward). And any game using the RE Engine is going to have good looking faces. The main characters look incredibly stylish in general. Which is the whole point of the franchise. Devil May Cry is all about looking cool in everything you do. And the animations on the weapons look cool too. Everything is highly impractical and not realistic in the slightest, but that doesn't matter because the weapons are REALLY COOL. Honestly, that's the whole vibe of the franchise. None of it is practical or realistic, but everything and everyone is REALLY COOL. This also applies to the voice acting and sound effects. The English voices are surprisingly good. You can tell that everyone involved in the voice acting were having the times of their lives with their given roles. And in what might be the biggest and funniest coincidence ever, Dante (Reuben Langdon), Nero (Johnny Yong Bosch) and Vergil (Daniel Southworth) are all voiced by former Power Rangers. And considering that Power Rangers is another franchise built around the "Rule of Cool" it honestly makes sense why actors from there would show up here. After all, Devil May Cry is as close as we're gonna get to R rated Power Rangers. Or maybe Power Rangers is as close a we're gonna get to family friendly Devil May Cry.

Oh, boy. It's time to talk about the music. DMC 5 has an outrageously good soundtrack. I've already mentioned that the entire reason I sought this game out was because Bury the Light was a fantastic song. All four of the main playable characters get a song associated with them. Nero gets Devil Trigger, V gets Crimson Cloud, Dante gets Subhuman and Vergil obviously gets Bury the Light. And a unique feature of the game is that the music is dynamic. The better you do in any given fight, the more instruments join in. Do well enough and the lyrics kick in. And all four of these songs are bangers. The music in general is like a mix of punk rock and heavy metal. There is some playful irony in the fact that the most aggressive and "angry" sounding song is Subhuman, which is Dante's theme, despite Dante being by far the most cheerful and "jolly" of the four main boys. Crimson Cloud is the most "down to Earth" of the songs (at least in comparison), which fits for the calm, manipulative V. Devil Trigger meanwhile is an absolute ear worm that sets the tone for the whole game well. And Bury the Light is just one of the best songs to come from any video game ever. It is the kind of intense power metal anthem that you listen to while working out or doing chores. It makes you feel MOTIVATED. My compliments go to Casey Edwards, the music composer for this game. Also, fun fact about Nero's song! The female vocals in Devil Trigger were performed by Casey Edwards' sister. That's oddly wholesome for a song called "Devil Trigger." There are other songs in the soundtrack, obviously, but these four are the standouts.

Image from trueachievements.com

Overall, Devil May Cry 5 is somehow both a love letter to everything that came before it while also being a relatively good jumping on point for newcomers. It's got cool combat, cool music, cool characters, cool graphics and is just a cool game in general. Do I think it's for everyone? No. It's cheesy and bombastic like a Shonen anime and the controls take a while to get used to. I like the cheese, but that's because I normally play very dark and serious games. DMC 5's over the top shenanigans are a breath of fresh air for me. And now I want to play the other DMC games. And that's the main thing about this game. If you like Devil May Cry, you will like this game. If you like DMC 5, you'll like the rest of the franchise. But if this game doesn't win you over, nothing else will. I give Devil May Cry 5 a grand total of 5 stars out of 5. "Jackpot!"

Devil May Cry 5 is the property of Capcom. None of the images used here were created by me. Please support the official release.