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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
