Devil May Cry (PS2) Review

Near the beginning of my senior year in high school, I picked up this game at a flea market because I wanted to try out different games and I’ve heard a lot about the Devil May Cry series, so I thought I should give it a try. I beat the game a while ago and now it’s time for my full opinion on the first installment in the series.

I guess a little background information is necessary. The game was directed by Hideki Kamiya, who, at the time, was known for his work on Resident Evil 2, and after this game, he would also be known for games like Viewtiful Joe, Ōkami, and Bayonetta. This game was also meant to be Resident Evil 4, but it was so focused on action that the designers couldn’t consider it a Resident Evil game; instead it became a new Capcom IP and the rest is history.

Story and Characters



Dante

A half-demon, half human mercenary named Dante was relaxing in his office when a beautiful, mysterious woman named Trish crashes his place and fights him. After the fight subsides, she tells Dante that the demon emperor, Mundus, is returning. Dante accepts the job, as Mundus was responsible for the death of his mother and brother. They arrive at a castle on Mallet Island and the quest begins.

Dante is probably one of the coolest video game characters ever. His brooding is very minimal, and he is very wise-cracking and confident.  Heck, nothing can stand in his way; not even a sword to the heart. In contrast, there really isn’t that much to say about Trish since she doesn’t appear a lot throughout the game. Though near the end, you start to warm up to her.

The story is not the game’s biggest strength, but what about the gameplay?

Gameplay

Devil May Cry is a mission-based hack n’ slash game. For each mission you have a different objective, ranging from finding an item, defeating bosses, or solving basic puzzles. At the end of each mission, you are given a grade A, B, C, D, and S (the highest one). The grade depends on the enemies you fought, collecting Red Orbs, how “stylish” your performance was (I’ll get to that) and how much time you took in completing a mission. There are also secret missions that end up in various places as you progress throughout the game and completing those secret missions will award you some power-ups.

The in-game HUD contains a Vitality (health) meter, Devil Trigger gauge, style performance and amount of Red Orbs collected.

Devil Trigger is where Dante becomes more powerful for a short time, giving him stronger attacks and slowly regenerating his health.

When fighting enemies, a “style” meter appears, judging your performance, grading you D, C, B, A, and S. If you continue fighting the wave of enemies, the “style” meter increases. If you stop fighting enemies or get hit, the meter will reset.

There are various collectables in the game. Red Orbs are the main currency in the game, used for entering passageways, buying new abilities and items, or upgrading your abilities and weapons. You earn them by defeating enemies or by simply finding them scattered throughout the game. You can purchase stuff before beginning a mission or finding a Divinity Statue that serves as a shop. The next set of collectables are the Blue Orb fragments. Collecting four each time will increase your health. And lastly, there are Purple Orbs which increase your Devil Trigger gauge. There are also Yellow Orbs which serve as extra lives. Once you run out of Yellow Orbs, the game is over and you have to reset from the last save point.

There are weapons ranging from swords and guns. Dante has his default sword, Force Edge, and his signature pistols, Ebony and Ivory (really cool names, for some odd reason). The swords you acquire as you progress in the game can be enhanced by buying new abilities. There are a wide variety of guns you obtain, each of them having their own ups and downs. For example, Ebony and Ivory do not take much damage, while the shotgun takes a lot of damage. Best of all, you have unlimited ammo for every gun you obtain.


Phantom just won't go away...

There are various boss fights that require a lot of strategy and are also very difficult to beat, so there will be a lot of trial and error. The boss fights are… okay. Just… okay. Well, now that I’ve mentioned it, I absolutely hate it when you have to fight the same bosses one or two missions later after you already fought it. I fight Phantom once, then one mission later, he pops out of nowhere and starts chasing me and shooting fireballs. Nightmare is probably the most irritating boss in the game. When the lights are out, it will turn into a puddle of goo and if you land on that puddle, you will fight a somewhat easier version of one of the previous bosses. And due to the fixed camera angles and stiff controls, I died so many times and got really frustrated.

And that’s another thing. The controls are stiff and the button layout is questionable. WHAT KIND OF GAME MAKES YOU JUMP WITH THE TRIANGLE BUTTON?!!? Games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus that made you jump with triangle AT LEAST had a button configuration so you can jump with, say, the X button; but not this game. There is no button configuration. Rolling and dodging require you to hold R1, then press jump button in any direction to do a somersault or backflip. Gosh! Never have I raged about controls before.

Graphics, Design, Music, and Sound

I have to say that for a PS2 game released in 2001, it’s visually great and has some great architecture. It makes you feel like you’re all alone in a supposedly empty castle, but you never know what to expect.

The score is not bad either. The music can go from calm and quiet, to action-packed that makes your blood pump. The same can’t be said about the voice-acting, though. It can be fine at times, but then there’s this:

Final Verdict

I don’t think this game is as great as everyone says and it certainly hasn’t aged well. I think the Autarch of Flame said this best: “Revolution does not mean perfection.” The game may have introduced new elements for the beat ‘em up genre and inspired other hack ‘n slash games like God of War, Heavenly Sword and No More Heroes, but there are things that hold it back from being great. To me, personally, the controls and fixed camera angles prevent me from loving this game more. Plus, the boss fights really irritated me because they are brought back on another mission just to annoy me even more.

But with that said, I did like a lot of other things. Dante is a great character; the music is awesome; the level design is fantastic. I also praise the difficulty. Never have I let such a hard game keep me coming back on trying to beat it. There were times when I just rage quit and don’t play the game for a while, only to come back and make a little more progress the more I play it. I’ve complained about the controls and boss fights, but I have never felt this satisfied after beating such a difficult game.  It felt so rewarding in the end.

You might be saying “You’re a n00b. You’re just not good at this game.” Granted, I am new to the hack ‘n’ slash genre and I sometimes used video walkthroughs to help me, but these are my first impressions and I’ve played through the game once. Also, when the game asked me to change to the easy difficulty, I declined and remained on the Normal difficulty.

While it’s not a game I would often go back to, I do appreciate this game for a lot of reasons. I’ll be reviewing the rest of the Devil May Cry series in the near future (maybe the reboot as well, I don’t know).

*Devil May Cry is also available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 under the Devil May Cry HD Collection.