Devil May Cry A Casual Retrospective Part 3

Ok before we get into this, I want to apologise for some of the things I didn’t cover in the previous parts. I forgot to mention that both Devil May Cry 1 and 2 both have secret missions that can be done that reward you with more orbs and health upgrades.

I legit did not know these existed because, well, I didn’t find any. As far as I’m aware, nothing in the games tell you they exist, so I had no clue they were even there. Nor did I find them by accident since they’re very well hidden.

I also didn’t mention that Devil May Cry 2 had a Super Devil Trigger you could activate at low health. Mainly because, again, I didn’t know it existed and the game was so piss easy I never needed it anyway.

There’s actually a lot I didn’t talk about or got wrong in the Devil My Cry 2 review. Apparently, there are different combo moves by tilting the analogue stick in different directions. So that was why I was doing different moves; it wasn’t random it was just the games confusing control scheme.

And that lock on I ranted about last time, turns out you can disable it with the right trigger button. It’s still a shitty lock on system and I don’t regret tearing into it, but it isn’t as bad as I let on. That was my bad.

In general, I’m disappointed with the Devil May Cry 2 review. It was pretty sloppy of me to not do basic research on the mechanics and features of the game. Though in my defence the game itself didn’t exactly explain anything either, and given I’m playing it digitally I didn’t have a manual on hand either. So part of that is on the game, but I know that’s no excuse for sloppy work.

How sloppy? I didn’t even finish it, that’s how sloppy. I made it halfway through Lucia’s campaign before calling it quits. The game was so monotonous and boring that I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t even get to try Bloody Palace since you need to beat the game with both characters to unlock it. I just couldn’t do it; I couldn’t force myself to finish the game. And really, can you fucking blame me.

Devil May Cry 2 was not a good game. Everybody hated it, the critics, the players, even the creators. Hideaki Itsuno was not happy with how the game turned out. Now most of that wasn’t Itsuno’s fault. As we went over, the development for Devil May Cry 2 was a nightmare, and Itsuno was brought in at the eleventh hour to fix the project.

Because of this Itsuno never really felt like the project was truly his. This combined with the general unsatisfaction with the game’s quality led to Itsuno asking Capcom to let him and the Devil May Cry 2 team to develop the third entry in the series. To hopefully redeem themselves and make the sequel the fans deserved.

To that end it was decided to make it a prequel. Both to expand on the series story as well as to give it a youthful energy its predecessor sorely lacked. Everyone was on board with the new direction and development thankfully went smoothly this time.

Releasing in 2005, Devil May Cry 3 Dante’s Awakening was a much better received title. Many players and critics thought it was a big return to form for the series while introducing a ton of new features to the combat system that made it a deeper, more rewarding experience, with the one major criticism being the games difficulty, particularly in the western release.

See Devil May Cry 2 was made as easy as it was so as to better appeal to Japanese gamers, which didn’t sit well with western fans. So, to make it up to them, the western release of Devil May Cry 3 was made much harder. Switching the difficulties around so that Easy was the Japanese Normal difficulty, Normal was the Japanese Hard, and Hard was something else entirely.

Despite this being done to appeal to western fans, it didn’t go over well with them. Many criticised it for being too difficult to the point of being frustrating. Fortunately, a year later Capcom released a special edition of Devil May Cry 3 that came with new gameplay features and a rebalanced difficulty more in line with the original Japanese. Though the western versions Hard mode was still there as the Dante Must Die difficulty, which should be a good indication for how brutal it is.

This is the version we’ll be looking at. Not only because it’s the most complete version, but also because it’s the one featured in the Devil May Cry HD Collection. There is another version of the game that was released much more recently, but I didn’t play that one since I don’t own it, but we will be talking about it later because it’s a very unique port of the game. But let’s finally dig into this beast shall we.

Set a few years before the events of the first game, Devil May Cry 3 follows a younger Dante as he opens his shop for the first time. While sitting around trying to think of a name for the place, he’s approached by a man named Arkham on behalf of his brother Vergil.

Sending a bunch of demons after Dante as a form of “invitation”, Dante quickly dispatches the cannon fodder when a huge tower erupts from the ground destroying the nearby city. Realising Vergil is sending him a challenge, Dante heads up the tower for a little family reunion.

As for why Vergil is doing this, well it’s all for power. He and Arkham are trying to open a portal to the demon world to get the power of Sparda. This is why they want Dante as they need the amulets both received from their mother to open the gateway.

You know I’m beginning to realise Sparda is a pretty shit father. Not only is he a deadbeat who left his family, but he also gave them an item that guaranteed they would be attacked by demons. I know you’re meant to be a great hero and all Sparda but you kind of suck at this whole parenting thing, just saying.

Anyway, As Dante works his way up the tower, he runs into a woman named Lady. She’s a fellow demon hunter who is after Arkham for killing her mother. Which is awkward since he also happens to be her father. And from there, shenanigans ensue.

The story itself is pretty nothing. Which is typical for this series at this point. It’s becoming abundantly clear this is not a series you play for the plot. I mean the story in this game basically boils down to climbing up a big tower to stop an evil asshole from taking over the world. It’s nothing special.

That said, it is the most enjoyable story so far. Part of this is that, despite how simplistic the story is, there is a strong theme of familial bonds. I mean it’s not hard to see, you’ve got Dante and Vergil who are brothers fighting each other in a kind of sibling rivalry, and then you’ve got Lady trying to kill her own father for killing her mother.

All this adds a little extra spice to the proceedings. Though it would have added a lot more if the character motivations were a little bit more defined. I never got what Vergil’s deal was. I get what they’re trying to do, they want him to be Dante’s opposite. Dante is outgoing and cocky, Vergil is introverted

and collected. Dante rejects his demonic half, Vergil embraces it.

They were clearly setting him up as Dantes rival. The Vegeta to his Goku, the Sasuke to his Naruto, the Bakugo to his Deku, you get the idea. The problem is they never really explain Vergil’s backstory or why he does what he does. They hint that it’s because he lost his mother, and he wants power to protect those he cares about. Ok that makes sense, but then why is he trying to kill his brother. Wouldn’t he want to protect him since he’s family?

That’s the thing, I buy Dante and Vergil as rivals but not as brothers. Maybe if we got a sense of what their relationship was like prior to the game it would have hit a little bit deeper. As is, it feels underdeveloped.

Granted we did get a brief glimpse of that in the first game, but this is a prequel. This is where you should go more in depth with this stuff. Maybe one of the light novels or manga’s go into this, but I shouldn’t have to read ancillary material just to get the full picture of what’s going on here.

Lady and Arkham are handled a bit better though. Granted Arkham is a lame villain, he’s just a creepy evil guy who wants power for reasons, but at least I fully understand why Lady hates him. He’s a prick who killed her mom, that’s it. it’s simple but sometimes simplicity is key.

So the character relationships could have been developed more, but I did end up liking most of them. Arkham aside, they all had fun personalities and worked off each other very well.

Dante is much better here than he was last time. He’s back to being the cocky lovable asshole we all know and love. This is really where Dante’s sillier nature started to creep in. He’s much more of a goofball, skating n missile or kicking batteries into place like a football.

It’s all very over the top but that’s part of why it works. He’s clearly having fun doing it all and it makes him a much more likable character. I’ll take this over the charisma black hole that was DMC2 Dante that’s for sure.

Vergil by contrast is more subdued. He’s more of a no-nonsense kind of badass. He’ll still do cool shit, but he’s more direct and less showy than Dante is. Granted we don’t see as much, but even then, you still get a good idea of the differences between the two brothers.

Dante’s the kind of guy who will act like a jackass because he thinks it’s funny it pisses you off, Vergil will just say you suck and then straight up kill you. It serves as a good contrast and Vergil ended up being an interesting character. He could have been another edgy rival character which were everywhere back then, but they managed to give him just enough of his own cool personality to offset this. I can see why he has the strong fan base that he does.

Finally, there’s Lady who is by far the best female character in the series. She’s more interesting than Trish and she has a more defined personality than Lucia. She’s also a bit more antagonistic towards Dante from the outset which makes their relationship a little more interesting to see develop. Not to mention being a little less rushed.

It’s also nice to finally to have an actual human in the game. Most of the characters have either been demons, half-demons, or constructs created by demons. Having a human gives us a bit more variety and it helps make Lady be a bigger badass since she has to rely on her wits and weaponry to get by. Makes her more interesting that way.

The character interactions are some of the more entertaining parts of the story. Especially the boss interactions. I like the banter Dante has with each of them as it helps give each a lot more personality. And that’s what this game has in spades, personality.

There’s so much youthful energy to everything. There’s a lot more cutscenes this time around and while a lot of them are just characters talking, a lot more of them feature characters doing the most insane, flippy dippy action shit you can imagine. It’s like if John Woo snorted coke, then binge watched a ton of anime, it’s awesome.

It can be a little self-indulgent. A lot of it is pointless and doesn’t add to the plot, but who gives a shit, it’s fun. And at the end of the day that’s all I really want out of an action game. I’m not after a deep Shakespearean tragedy, I just want something fun and light-hearted while having just enough character development to care for what’s going on.

And despite some parts lagging, I do think Devil May Cry 3 succeeds at this. Which is helped by the excellent presentation. The voice acting is really good. A big step up from the previous entries. This is the first game to feature Reuben Langdon as Dante who went on to be the main voice actor for the character going forward.

He does a great job of capturing Dante’s cocky attitude while also giving him enough range in some of the more serious moments to give the character more depth. Another stand out performance is Daniel Southworth as Vergil. He’s got such a smooth voice that makes Vergil sound suitably cold and menacing while also exerting how cool the character is.

Both actors would also do a lot of the motion capture for the characters. So, they literally put everything into these performances. The animation itself is also very well done. It was done well in the previous games, but it’s better here I feel. Much smoother and energetic. Again, it all just adds to the game’s youthful personalities.

The actual graphics are pretty good for a PlayStation 2 game. The character models are expressive, the environments are nicely detailed; it is showing its age a bit, I mean it is nearly 20 years old, but it’s still a good-looking game.

The environmental design goes back to the more gothic style of the first game and it’s all the better for it. It’s not as dull looking as Devil May Cry 2. It’s still a bit drab in places, but it has a bit more colour and the later levels get creative with their level design, so things stay visually interesting throughout the game.

It’s also got a great creepy atmosphere which is aided by the music. When exploring its very ambient sounding, but when you get into the action the music kicks into high gear which adds to the intensity of the fight. It’s a good soundtrack.

So the story and presentation is a big step up from the last game, but what about the gameplay. That was where Devil May Cry 2 screwed up the most. Does Devil May Cry 3 rectify that? Well the short answer is, hell yeah it does. It’s a huge improvement not just from the last game, but for the series as a whole.

The core of the game is still mostly the same. You’ll spend most of your time battling waves of enemies, while in between those fights you’ll explore to find items to help you upgrade yourself, solve basic puzzles and do the odd bit of platforming.

They haven’t changed the formula much, but they have refined everything to near perfection. Well almost everything. The puzzle solving is still very basic. It’s just finding items and using them in the right place. I don’t know if you can really call them puzzles. There are some light puzzles that are a little more engaging, but there’s only two of them in the entire game.

And the platforming is terrible. This is the weakest part of the game for me. The jumping is very stiff and awkward and never feels good to do. It makes some of the trickier jumps incredibly frustrating to pull off.

You do get a double jump which makes things easier, but it doesn’t make it any more enjoyable. Also, the double jump is locked to weapons, meaning you have to unlock it for every weapon if you want to use it which is just bizarre. And it isn’t cheap to, it’s one of the more expensive upgrades. No idea why they thought this was a good idea.

Everything else about the game though is a massive upgrade. Let’s start with the level design first. This was an area the last two games struggled with. The first games levels were too constricting, while the second games were too open and empty.

The third game, thankfully, finds a happy middle ground between the two. While there are still tight hallways to deal with, there are more open combat arena’s that give you more freedom of movement. Though they never get so big that your constantly chasing enemies down to combo them like they were in Devil May Cry 2. It feels more focused in that regard.

The game is still generally linear but there are still plenty of secrets to find. Hidden Red Orbs stashes or Blue Orb pieces to boost health, and yes even secret missions.

Which are thankfully much easier to find this time around. Still not that easy, I only found 4 of them though admittedly I wasn’t exploring that much, but still easier than last time. All you do is find the right door or object and interact with it.

So the game has reasons to explore each level, though it keeps things linear enough to keep the pace going. There is some backtracking involved, but the levels are designed in a way where you’ll loop back around anyway to make backtracking painless, and it does a good enough job of showing you where to go next so you never get lost. Unless you don’t pay attention like me and backtrack through the entire game like a goddamn idiot.

So the level design is pretty good for what it is. They do reuse areas in the latter half of the game, though they do change them up just enough to not make it so bad. And there’s plenty of variety in the various challenges the game presents that prevents things from getting too repetitive. Not to mention that some of these levels can get pretty creative.

But now we get to the meat of the experience, the combat. This is the thing you play Devil May Cry for and the most important thing to get right in any kind of action game. While Devil May Cry 2’s modus operandi was to simplify the combat by taking options away, Devil May Cry 3’s is the complete opposite.

Devil May Cry 3 was hell bent on giving you more options. More combo moves, more weapons, more styles of play. Unlike its predecessor where combat was so limited it quickly became monotonous, Devil May Cry 3 gives you so many options for player expression it can be overwhelming. And by God is it glorious.

The core of the combat and the control scheme is like it was in the first Devil May Cry. They thankfully got rid of that stupid analogue crap for performing different combos. Now it’s back to using delayed button presses to get different combos which feels much better.

Though its core may be similar to the first game, everything feels more refined. While there is still occasional stiffness here and there, for the most part everything feels a lot smoother to play. The game just feels good to play and it makes styling on enemies much more satisfying.

And style you will, because this games combo ranking system outright requires it. This was the first game to introduce the combo meter. How it works is that the meter will go up as you attack enemies and when it fills up you get a higher ranking.

But there’s a catch, if you use the same moves repeatedly, the meter stops increasing and steadily goes down and when depleted your rank goes down a level. The only way to prevent is to mix up your attacks to keep the meter.

It incentivises you to get creative with the combo system. You can’t just use the same moves and get a good rank like in the previous games, you have to actually learn the moves. And I really like this idea. There’s a lot of action games that I’ve played where you get a ton of options that you never use.

Let’s be honest, once players find an option that works, they will just use that. That was how I felt about Devil May Cry 1, but Devil May Cry 3 gives you a reason to vary your approach. You need to try new moves and approaches because that’s how you get higher ranks. And you want those higher ranks because doing so gives you more Red Orbs that can be spent on upgrades and items.

So, not only does the combat system require you to experiment, it rewards you for it. It ends up creating this combo system that’s incredibly deep and satisfying because of all the options it gives you and how many of them you end up using.

There’s also just enough leeway in getting higher rankings to prevent it from being a “git gud” kind of game. Though the meter will decrease at faster rates the higher the rank. So, getting those SSS ranks will still require a ton of skill. And obviously getting hit also will drop your combo, but if your fast enough you won’t have to start from the beginning.

Another way you can keep your combo going is by using guns, which are no where near as broken as they were in the last game, or by switching weapons mid combo. The ability to switch weapons on the fly was introduced in Devil May Cry 2, one of the very few things that game introduced that worked, but there it only applied to the guns. Now you have a toggle for the guns and your Devil Arms, which are what the melee weapons are called.

You can start a combo with one weapon, then switch to another to finish it. Once you get to grips with this it’s a lot of fun, and the fact that there’s way more variety in the different weapons you can get gives you a lot of options in how you approach combat.

There’s ten different weapons to pick from, five guns and five Devil Arms, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Starting with the guns, you have your standard pistols and the shotgun which were in the last two games. They work exactly as they did there and at this point it’s safe to say they’re going to be standards in Dante’s arsenal going forward.

In terms of new guns, you first have the Artemis. A high-powered gun that can lock on to multiple enemies at once but has a slow rate of fire. The Spiral, a rifle which is has an even slower rate of fire and is linear in its usage but deals massive damage. And finally, you have the Kalina Ann which is just a fucking rocket launcher.

While these new guns are fine additions, I still found myself using the pistols, Ebony and Ivory, the most during my playthrough. I prefer their faster fire rate over the others, and I really only ever used guns to extend combos anyway. Though I did use Artemis a lot for its lock on, and the rocket launcher for crowd control later on.

The melee weapons are where things get more interesting. The Rebellion is your standard sword weapon. Nothing spectacular, but a nice reliable weapon with good combo potential. Also, it has the Stinger which is as useful as always.

Then there’s the Cerberus, a three-pronged ice nunchaku that lacks in range and power but is super fast and lets you do some cool flippy dippy shit. Then there’s Agni and Rudra, twin swords of wind and fire that are a little stronger than Rebellion and have a wider range. These are great for crowd control.

Next is Nevan and this is a weird one. it’s an electric guitar whose main form of attack is firing electric bats at enemies. It’s tricky to use, but if you put the time into learning it you can create some bonkers combos with it. At least that’s what the combo videos I saw online told me.

Then there’s Beowulf, which are similar to the fire gauntlets from the first game. They’re slow and lack range, but they’re incredible power more than makes up for it. You can also charge the attacks for even more damage.

Personally, I mainly stuck to Rebellion. A boring option I realise, but it was a reliable weapon for any situation and having access to Stinger was never a bad thing. I also really enjoyed Cerberus for its speed and combos, and I did occasionally use Agni and Rudra if I wanted a little extra power.

I didn’t use Nevan or Beowulf much though. The former was a bit too unwieldly, and the latter was too slow for my tastes. The only time I busted these out was when I needed them for the combat adjudicator statues, which requires getting a good combo rank with a specific weapon to break.

You can equip two guns and two Devil Arms to switch between in combat. Unlike the previous games you can’t equip weapons from the menu. You can only do this in between missions or at golden statues, which is also where you can cash in Red Orbs.

You won’t need to switch that often though. Once you find weapon’s you’re comfortable with you’ll probably just stick with them. And once you do, it doesn’t take long before you’re styling over the enemies. It’s a ballet of unholy destruction. Gracefully switching between weapons as you gleefully tear through foes with the serenity of an anime serial killer.

It makes you feel like a badass. Devil May Cry was always meant to be a game where you were meant to style over your enemies, but this is the first game where that vision finally came into being. Even at a basic level you will feel stylish while playing this game.

But all this talk of style and I haven’t even talked about the major addition Devil May Cry 3, the combat styles. Dante has four different combat styles that he can change into that changes the way he fights, with two additional styles being unlockable.

The styles don’t change that much. It’s not like they change how combos work or anything like that, but they do give access to new tools that can change how you approach combat.

The Trickster style gives access to a dodge move, allowing you to avoid attacks more easily or get in close to continue a combo. It’s a speedy style that’s easy to learn and can be great in boss fights.

The Sword Master style is all about the Devil Arms. This one gives each Devil Arm new moves as well as air combos. Thank God we finally have actual air combos. This is the style for the combo fiends out there and ended up being the one I used the most.

The Gunslinger style is the opposite. This is all about maximising the guns. Giving those new moves as well as tools that let them target multiple enemies at once. This one is more for those who like to keep their distance.

Royal Guard gives you a block that, if timed correctly, can parry attacks and leave enemies open for attack. It’s a hard style to master since certain attacks can’t be blocked, but it can be devastating when mastered.

And finally, there’s the unlockable styles, Quicksilver and Doppelganger. The former lets you stop time at the cost of Devil Trigger while the former lets you create a duplicate of Dante that copies your movements, again at the cost of Devil Trigger.

These are more gimmicky styles centred entirely around combos. You probably won’t use these much as they aren’t as versatile as the others, and Doppelganger doesn’t show up until the very end of the game so you don’t even get time to play around with it, but they are interesting to try out to see what they can do.

These styles add a lot of player expression to the combat. While there are certain missions and fights where one style is clearly a better choice, there’s just enough leeway that can just pick one style and use that through the whole game.

Maybe you’re a more defensive player and want to use Royal Guard exclusively. Well, you can do that, there’s nothing stopping you. The style system gives you enough options to play around and experiment with to find the best playstyle for you. Each style will also level up and learn new abilities. Rewarding players for putting the time in to learning them.

All of this, the new weapons, styles, combo system, smoother controls, makes the combat the best in the series so far. The amount of freedom it allows for player expression is impressive for a game of this time period, and I had fun playing around with all the various tools to get the coolest looking combo’s I could.

And the fact the game offers a good challenge keeps the combat engaging. Though I suppose now I have to address the elephant in the room, the difficulty. I already mentioned how the original release was made much harder in the west which has led to the game having an infamous reputation as a ridiculously hard game.

Even the Special Edition is noteworthy among players for how difficult it can be. But after playing it myself, the difficulty isn’t that bad. Oh it’s tough don’t get I me wrong, and certain parts of the game can be a nightmare, but it’s not some super hard monstrosity that made me want to rage quit. It’s a tough but fair challenge.

To be honest, getting through the game isn’t even the difficult part. You can find or purchase healing items that make getting through things a little easier, and the Special Edition added a mode that gives you infinite continues so you don’t have to start over from the beginning upon death.

The real challenge comes from getting a higher rank. Though let’s be honest, most of you probably won’t care about the ranking system. I certainly didn’t, I just did the best I could and was happy with what I got. And even then I still got mostly B’s, so I think I did ok for the most part.

As I said earlier, you do get more Red Orbs for a higher ranking, but you get plenty in the game through combat and exploration that you should be able to get what you need. So, unless you’re a player who likes to get the best ranking and mastering every system, don’t worry about it. Although if you are that kind of player, the difficulty won’t be an issue for you in the first place.

So no, it’s not THAT hard, but it can be a tough bastard at times especially with the bosses. These really put your skills to the test. The Vergil fights in particular were a real challenge. You fight him three times throughout the game with each one introducing a new element that ramped up the intensity. It really felt like you were fighting an equal which is exactly what you want out of a rival battle.

Most of the bosses were fun challenges, but not all of them were. Cerberus dragged a bit since you had to constantly remove his ice armour, on top of it being an early boss so you don’t have many upgrades yet.

I also didn’t care for the doppelganger fight because it was way too easy and I didn’t think the gimmick was that interesting. And the giant centipede fight was just annoying due to relying on platforming, which need I remind you is terrible, and the awkward camera.

Yeah, the camera is a bit of a problem, again. You’d think by this point they would have figured it out, but it still suffers from awkward angles and camera shifts. To be honest, most of the difficulty I had came from the camera. There were many instances where I got hit by an attack I couldn’t see. So some of the difficulty is due more to awkward design anything else.

But aside from that the games difficulty is well balanced. It never felt too easy or too frustrating and I constantly felt like my skills were being tested which made conquering the games challenges all the more satisfying.

That said it takes a little bit for the game to click. The combat is fun but there is a learning curve to everything. Learning the enemies and the optimal combo routes isn’t going to be something you’re going to know right away.

In fact this game has a weird difficulty curve where it feels like it gets easier as it goes on. The earlier parts of the game are actually the hardest because you don’t have access to everything. You don’t even get Devil Trigger until Mission 8 so you can’t rely on spamming that to heal like you could in the first game.

But once you start unlocking the weapons, moves and the Devil Trigger, the combat not only opens up, but it also gets a bit easier since you have more options. And getting to that point doesn’t take too long, most missions can be beaten in about 10-20 minutes depending on how good you are, and I’d say once you get past the Agni and Rudra fight is when the game starts to hit its stride.

And when it does, it’s some of the most satisfying combat I’ve ever played. But it isn’t perfect. I do have one major complaint and it’s with the style system. Specifically, in how you switch between them.

Like with the weapons, you can only swap between them in between missions and at golden statues. This was a mistake in my opinion because it means you can’t really experiment with them as much as you would like. I mainly stuck to Sword Master and Trickster because they were the easiest to learn, and since I could only have one at a time, I just stuck with what I was used to.

I wanted to get good at Royal Guard, but I never had it equipped in areas where it would have been great to practice with it, and Gunslinger I think I only used once. If I could swap between them at will, it would have allowed more opportunities to get good at them.

I know this because that’s exactly what Devil May Cry 4 did. Yeah, getting ahead of myself a bit, but Devil May Cry 4 does give you the ability to swap styles freely on the fly and it’s a much better system because of it. So much better that they retroactively added it to Devil May Cry 3.

Remember when I mentioned there was another version of this game? Well, that would be the Switch port, which is a mostly straight forward port of the Special Edition with one major difference. It has a new mode that, you guessed it, lets you switch Styles on the fly like in Devil May Cry 4.

This one change makes the Switch version the unquestionable best one. It takes the one major gripe I had with the combat and fixes it. I wish more ports did something like this. Suffice to say if you’re going to get this, get the Switch version. There’s no reason to play the original version.

I didn’t do this because I wanted to play the game as it was released originally, at least in regard to the special edition version since the OG DMC3 isn’t on modern platforms, but I digress. If I ever do go back to this, it will be on the Switch. It makes the game as close to perfect as possible.

It isn’t perfect obviously. The platforming and weak puzzles do hold it back ever so slightly, but as an action game this is one of the best ever made. On a basic level it’s a fun and engaging experience, but there is so much depth to the combat that the skill ceiling for high level players is in outer space.

I have seen the crazy shit people can do with this game, there’s even a video in game of this stuff, and is mind boggling. I will never be able to do half the kind of stuff these people do, but the fact you can shows just how good the combat truly is. Like, look at this…

And you can do all of that, it just takes practice, a lot of practice. But even if you don’t have the patience or skill for that, the game is so fun on a basic level that anyone can enjoy it. it’s a great action game, and we’ve only covered the base game so far. Let’s talk about all the extra stuff.

Devil May Cry 3 has a bunch of additional content after the main campaign. There are new difficulties to unlock, including an Easy mode if Normal is too much for you, unlockable costumes, gallery pieces, there’s Bloody Palace which is a giant battle gauntlet, that also has co-op in the Switch version by the by, as if that wasn't already the best one, and an unlockable mode where you play as Vergil.

Vergil’s mode is basically just him going through the same levels as Dante. There’s some different cutscenes, but it’s mainly just there for fun. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like the Meta Knightmare mode in Kirby games. You know where you play through a Kirby game as Meta Knight with his own move set.

Yeah, it’s like that. Vergil has a very different move set than Dante. He has three weapons he can swap between, ethereal swords he can fire as projectiles or spin around him like a shield and a unique Style that lets him dash between enemies.

He’s a more technical fighter than Dante. You’re going to need some really ambidextrous fingers if you want to get good with him. But he is fun to play, and like Dante you can do some utter nonsense with him that’s super cool.

All of this gives Devil May Cry 3 a shit ton of replay value. That’s part of why the skill ceiling being so high is a good thing. The game wants you to replay it as much as possible so you can get better rankings and discover new things to do in the combo system. It’s a game that gets better every time you play it, which isn’t something you can say for a lot of games.

Devil May Cry 3 is an easy recommendation. It’s one of the most refined, deep, rich action games I’ve ever played. And the fact that we’re only halfway through the series makes me wonder, how much better is it going to get?

Now as for whether it’s a good jumping on point for the series, I’d say it is. So far, it’s the best place to jump into it. I can now see why people say skip the first two games because everything that makes Devil May Cry what it is started in the third game.

The team did it. They not only proved they could make a good Devil May Cry; they proved they could make the best Devil May Cry. But now that they had done so, could they keep it up. The new generation of consoles was on the horizon and Capcom were looking to take advantage of it.

So, the team got to work on the fourth entry for the HD era of consoles. And this time they would not only try to further expand on the series combat system, while also introducing new elements to make the game more accessible to newcomers. And we’ll see if they succeeded at that next time when we look at Devil May Cry 4.