Devil May Cry V is one of the last of its kind. The traditional ‘score attack’ brawler should have died off along with the arcade back in the ‘90s, but has been kept alive largely thanks to this franchise spawned from Capcom’s frontrunner, Resident Evil. As every day brings us closer to another decade, it’s fair to question if there is a place for Devil May Cry in modern gaming? Or should it, like those change-consuming arcade machines, be condemned to exist only inside whatever the gaming equivalent of hipster bars and retro-themed pubs is?
From the word go, DMC V embraces the over-the-top nature the franchise has become known for in previous instalments, and unlike its angsty teen cousin DMC: Devil May Cry, actually gives us an experience that works as both a hack & slash brawler and an interesting narrative. Admittedly, I’m not judging said narrative on the same scale as I would a story-driven game like a Mass Effect or a Final Fantasy, but it does what it sets out to do well even if it is a bit derivative of… itself. On the whole, the story is very predictable. The Devil May Cry universe doesn’t have a plethora of characters from which to draw. This unfortunately leaves most of the revelations to be less ‘shocking’ than intended.
What I did like about the way the story was told was the contrast between the playable characters. Nero’s faltering humility in the wake of losing his arm plays off beautifully with Dante’s midlife crisis, which literally causes him to get a motorbike, and V’s unapologetic approach to being a casual rip off of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. It may sound like these character traits are all a bit… much. But it works because of the presentation. Not only are the personalities and temperaments of these characters told in cutscenes, but also through the gameplay itself. Nero now plays a little more reserved than in Devil May Cry 4. He was a hot-headed wildcard then where a flurry of aggressive attacks could overpower anything. Now, you have to think about him a little more, and it works for the better. The addition of the Devil Breaker mechanic really helps to give you those all-or-nothing moments where you can decimate an entire room of demons or lose a vital tool for survival. Dante, on the other hand, feels invincible, a good player can mow down enemies using him and effortlessly flick between the four styles of combat to string together all-out destruction. Understandably, Dante takes a bit longer to master than Nero. But still, each character is perfectly playable by a beginner and you can finish the game on Human and Demon Hunter difficulty without learning the ins and outs of each moveset. However, there’s no denying the ‘mysterious’ V is the easiest character with which to play. His combat relies less on switching styles and using mechanical arms, and more so on hovering a safe distance from the fight and summoning familiars with which to do battle.
Whether by design or not, V is also the easiest character with which to achieve high rankings on DMC’s D to SSS scale. Perhaps this is as a result of him being a new character, or just the level design. However, I found him a difficult avatar to master. The style of combat he uses, fighting with familiars, provides a level of dissociation from the action that the series hasn’t given the player before. With Dante and Nero, I can fight more on reflex and reactions because you are controlling the character directly and the button inputs reflect that. However, V has a delay on some of his actions using Griffon and Shadow and his position as ‘director’ rather than participant for most of the battles mean that you have to take your eye off the enemy to be able to dodge attacks which are coming from another direction. By direct contrast, the focal point of both Dante and Nero’s combat is the demon hunter themself.
Characters and combat are undoubtedly the most important thing in a game like this. If you like the protagonists and hacking things up, the game has already done enough to secure itself a place in your standard fan’s videogame cabinet. What comes next for a game such as this – which is the fifth ‘proper’ instalment in the series – is accessibility. How easy is it for a new gamer to pick this up and enjoy? Well, quite easy. The game feels like it has been designed as an introduction point, with a handy recap movie available on the start menu as soon as you load up. There’s also the new engineer/handywoman in Nico, who provides little fact files and intel on each character and enemy you run across. These are done exceptionally well if you’re new to the franchise. If you’ve played a previous instalment, then you see just how little Nico knows, particularly with regards to Dante and his past.
Despite this, the traditional Devil May Cry framework, including missions and the overall feel of the game have been retained, while some new additions and a bump in the graphics bring a game that wouldn’t feel out of place in 2004 into 2019. There are more bosses in this DMC, or at least, more boss battles than any other I can remember in the series, and no characters are flat or boring. Some are less relevant than they perhaps ought to be, but you sort of get the feeling that at least Capcom know which direction they want the franchise to head in – and that says a lot.
The only ‘normal’ DMC thing that is missing from the game is the Bloody Palace. For those of you that don’t know, it’s a tiered fighting arena in which you start at the bottom floor and fight your way up to the top. Yes, this is coming in an update in April, but I do wish it had been in the game from the start, as it isn’t a particularly long story or campaign and Bloody Palace is a great place to farm red orbs as well as an extra reward for finishing the game.
Another thing I didn’t really like is that you can now buy red orbs using real money. In my opinion, doing so limits the amount of content and replayability in the game, but the fact that it’s here is something that is on my radar. Whether or not the next instalment of the DMC franchise will feature this more prominently and this is just the litmus test, we’ll have to wait and see.
I also really appreciated that the game was actually ‘release ready’ when it came out. While this is the bare minimum a player should be able to expect when spending £40 on a product, it would have been naive of me to expect that this was the case in 2019. That said, there were no bugs or broken parts of the game. The version on the disc actually worked as advertised. If nothing else DMC kept all the good parts of gaming in the ‘90s as well as its arcade mentality.
A new feature for this instalment was ‘network play’ which felt a little… irrelevant. Occasionally you’ll see other players off in the background killing enemies on a level you’ve already done or are yet to do. This really served very little purpose as there’s no option to team up with friends and gain benefits from doing so. The other players also can’t affect anything in your game, positively or negativity. If anything, these bits probably elongated the loading times for each level. As is the case at this point in the PS4’s life cycle, I feel more and more like the regular PS4 I own is coming to the end of its days. Games are playable, and the FPS here is no issue, but loading times and graphics aren’t quite holding their own against even budget PCs anymore. It’s not bad enough to make me go out and get a PS4 Pro, but I do feel like there’s very little doubt that the next DMC game won’t be for this generation of consoles.
Despite all I loved about the latest instalment in one of my favourite franchises, there are a few niggles under the surface that are likely to bug long-time fans.
Compared to previous instalments, this is a very easy game. Human difficulty feels entirely irrelevant and the auto-assist function (if enabled) drains what little difficulty there is. Son of Sparda difficulty, which unlocks after finishing the game, was a welcome reward after my initial completion. It was in this mode that I first started to die and lose to bosses at a rate that made me feel like I was actually getting better at the game. It’s tradition to unlock a new difficulty each time you finish the previous one, but I do think that this game would have benefited from Son of Sparda being one of the initial options.
The game also gives you ‘login bonuses’ each time you load up the game. So far these have all been gold orbs which are used to revive in game (but offer a score penalty.) Trust me when I say these are unnecessary. You get enough Red and Gold Orbs playing the game as is and I’m struggling to see what the point behind handing out beginner lollipops was.
There are also some characters that feel like they are just plain MIA from the story. Kyrie is mentioned frequently but never seen. I found myself going through the whole game wondering if she was just going to pop up at the end, but sadly, Nero’s love interest is never seen. Lady and Trish briefly appear in cutscenes and some gameplay sections but have very minor roles in a game which seems to promote newbie Nico like she’s the second coming of Christ. Even Nero, the franchise’s chosen successor to long-time protagonist Dante is forced to the back of almost every cinematic Nico could be shoehorned into.
Nico’s actual role is to make Nero’s Devil Breakers, which are essentially brittle mechanical toys that give Dante’s apprentice versatility on the battlefield. However, once broken, they can’t be used again and there’s no way to switch between the one you’ve got equipped and the one you have in your inventory without breaking the active one. It’s by no means a bad mechanic, but surely switching between them would have been something at least discussed by the Quality Assurance testers at Capcom. I’d be interested to see what their reasoning for not having this function is. I can’t imagine it’s to add a scale of difficulty to the game, as they seemingly already made this the easiest DMC to date.
My final note, needs a small spoiler warning, so here it is.
The ending was far too predictable. I mean, there is literally only one character on the limited roster whose name starts with a V. I can safely say that I’m not alone in assuming who was responsible for all of the events in the game about 90 seconds into the opening cutscene – but what a cutscene it was. What I hope this leads to, is that very same character becomes playable in a free update, or even a DLC. Perhaps he’ll even be a Bloody Palace-only character, as that would certainly fit with where the game left off.
Overall, Devil May Cry V is an strong addition to the franchise, and helps confirm what we hoped all along – the angsty emo DMC: Devil May Cry was a blip. However, it’s by no means perfect, and although this game is obviously the one I’m reviewing, I can’t help but thing that where Capcom takes this franchise next is much more important than what they’ve done here.
Fatelighter 