Best and Worst: Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry could easily be a contender for one of the most important franchises of all time. With its first entry, creator Hideki Kamiya helped usher in a new era of third person action titles, and eventually change many of the fundamental aspects of the hack and slash genre. The series was a success from the start, and would go on to spawn a number of sequels as well as its own TV show and a comic book series. However, like any franchise, DMC has its problematic entries. What’s the best and worst the DMC series has to offer? I’m glad you asked.

The Worst: Devil May Cry 2

Just gotta get that itch...on muh back...

Devil May Cry, released in 2001 infused elements of the Resident Evil franchise as well as a heavy helping of anime influence to kick off a series that would be as important to third person action as Street Fighter was to one on one fighters. The nonchalant attitude of Dante plus the creepy feel of the game's Gothic roots, made DMC feel wholly unique. Unfortunately, Capcom decided that rather than allow the team behind the first game to continue with the franchise, it would be better to hand the baton to another internal developer headed up by director Hideaki Itsuno. The sequel traded the claustrophobic castle of the initial installment for the wide open streets of generic town, the creepy marionette demons for tanks with eyeballs, and the intense challenges of the first game with bosses that could be beaten with the weakest weapons in the game. The developers tried to sweeten the pot by adding an extra playable character with her own campaign in Lucia, but this too turned out to be a disappointment as this additional mode was simply a slightly reworked version of the main story with less interesting weapons. The story was the most incomprehensible in the entire series (which is really saying something) replete with a final boss battle which was just a mash up of all of the boss fights in the game. DMC 2 did offer some good ideas with the expanded character upgrade options as well as hints at a deeper combat system that later entries would bring to fruition, but overall the experience was too simplified to allow for much enjoyment.

Not all of the enemies were poorly designed.

The final boss was a huge letdown.

The Best: Devil May Cry (2013)

The art direction is inarguably the strongest in DmC.

This may get a lot of flak from hardcore fans of the series, but it’s the truth. The reboot of the series did exactly what it needed to do in order to reinvigorate the franchise. With a new developer reworking the story as well as the director of DMC 2, 3, and 4 co-designing the combat, the relaunch of the series had everything going for it. The combat had never been as fluid and responsive as in this entry in the series. Being able to switch between every weapon in Dante’s arsenal without going through any kind of menu system was one of the key factors in the success of the combo system in DmC. Not only is the combat just about the deepest in the series, the acting and story are stronger than in any entry before it. The game does tend to be much more forgiving than it should be (even on modes designed to be insanely difficult), but for the most part, the game is a solid challenge. Unlike the previous games in the series, DmC rarely if ever recycles environments allowing for a much more interesting progression through the game that feels like an actual journey than a series of arenas. Sure the canon of the series was altered pretty drastically, but that’s what reboots are for, and it’s arguable that the game pays some pretty clever homages to many of the key elements from the original series. It’s the easiest jumping on point for any new fan, and there’s plenty for fans of the original franchise to enjoy, making it the easiest to recommend as the best representation of the series.

Swapping between weapons immediately was a gratifying experience.

Boss fights were a little too easy, but still awesome to look at.

Although DMC 2 is a definite low point in the franchise, director Hideaki Itsuno did redeem himself with the series defining Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening as well as the admirable, if flawed, DMC 4. However, Ninja Theory was had the benefit of being able to take the best that each entry offered and roll them all into the game that’s easiest to recommend to anyone interested in the series.