I’ve had pretty high expectations of DMC V. Capcom have been on a roll recently, initial looks at the game were promising, reviews from everyone into the series were praising the game and what I’ve seen of it played live looked very fun. But I wasn’t in the mood for Devil May Cry most of the year and have only gotten to playing it now. Perhaps I’m still not fully in the mood, perhaps I’m a tad disappointed, but while really good and fun, Devil May Cry V didn’t excite me as much as I expected it to.
This is still Devil May Cry as you remember it. If you don’t, because you haven’t played one before, the gameplay is pretty easy to explain. It’s a hack and slash action title with a huge emphasis on style – you’re ranked on how not just efficiently (quickly and without getting hit) but also stylishly (mixing combos and weapons) you dispatch crowds of enemies. It’s not pure action, between the places where the game spawns enemies for you to kill, often locking you into an arena with magic walls, the game plays as an platforming adventure, with occasional “puzzles” (often very simple), some light exploration, often not very complicated platforming. You find red orbs everywhere, which serve as currency to purchase helpful items and upgrading skills and occasionally get new abilities and weapons, often as a reward for killing massive bosses. This basic flow was pretty consistent with the series ever since its inception (and inception of this entire genre) in DMC, and it’s unchanged here in V.
The gameplay itself is pretty close to how DMC 4 played. The way the game feels, the way it controls, the way checkpointing is done is similar to the previous title, especially the Special Edition remaster. But there are differences. For one, the skills are once again bought by red orbs, so no separate “currency” for skills and items. The minimap is gone and the game went very minimalist in UI by default. Nero lost his demonic arm so he controls a bit differently with the new interchangeable Devil Breakers. Dante is mostly unchanged at first, but becomes different as the game goes on. V, the new character, plays very differently with indirect control over his “weapons”, which are living demons with their own health bars and attack patterns. And the game now technically has only unique levels with no retread over the already explored levels what was heavily criticized in 4 (but on that later).
And the similarities are expected – while flawed, DMC 3 and 4 were already some of the best examples of the stylish hack and slash titles out there. Improving what’s there would’ve been rather pointless, so the game evolves and tidies up what the series built up to, keeping everything familiar, but making it feel more fresh. Game also ditched a lot of elements that people often found boring, so there are barely any moments that would feel like puzzles, apart from some Secret Missions and a few sections that could remotely be considered as such. Platforming is rarely challenging, at least along the main path of the game. Checkpointing and upgrading/modifying the character mid-mission is more convenient than ever. Character barks aren’t heard as often as they used to be, so you don’t hear “SLAM DUNK” every single time you do a rather easy to pull combo or a move. And the flow of the game in general just feels more refined than ever before.
Yet… There’re things about DMC V that simply made it not as exciting as I expected it to be. Music was always one of the best things about the series and most good things people can say about the terrible DMC 2 are about the combat tracks which were genuinely good. Yet in V, the music is often mixed very much in the background and it doesn’t stick in your memory as much. Even the Devil Trigger, which was featured prominently in the promo materials, isn’t all that exciting when played in game and otherwise, the best reactions the music got from me was when it re-arranged the old themes from previous games. The levels too are just so… boring. Sure, you don’t really backtrack through half of them this time around, but when about half of them is a nondescript underworld and the rest are just “a city”, it really gets boring. DMC 1 and 3 were far more varied and DmC, for all its terrible decisions, was absolutely amazing in terms of locations and their visual design. DMC V looks great in terms of style and visuals, yet the locations are just really really plain most of the time.
The levels are, probably, one of the main reasons I don’t feel like going for proper replays right now. With previous titles (apart from 2, of course), I always felt inclined to replay the missions on harder difficulties, find more secrets, experiment with upgraded characters in earlier levels and enjoy the game way past the completion. But this time, I just feel exhausted. Sure, some of the enemy designs are good, especially the revisits of the old ones. Yes, the idea with the real player ghosts fighting in the background in the levels where characters cross is cool and is a nice revisit of a good idea tried by Capcom earlier in Resident Evil 6. But I don’t want to go through the same levels. Don’t want to question the reasoning for not being able to switch Devil Breakers on the fly. Or wondering why all the bosses, apart from the final one, were so boring this time around. I will get back to it, because it is really really good. Especially since it will probably get another Special Edition at some point, that’s a given by now, I guess. Not now though. And it’s a damn shame.
Devil May Cry V is a really really good game with tons of cool gameplay moments and in many ways it is the best in the series. Yet, it also feels like the safest entry, least exciting, least groundbreaking, least… well, stylish. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it far more when I revisit it some time later for replays, as games like these always tend to be when you have full moveset unlocked. But the first playthrough wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping it would be. Would still recommend it for all the fans of the genre and those who are fresh to the stylish hack and slash (or whatever you wanna call the genre). Yet, will still keep on thinking just how amazing DMC 3 was and still is.