"Devil May Cry 5" Review - Fun *cutscene* as *cutscene* he*cutscene*ll

Available for: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Reviewed for: Playstation 4

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to the second edition of the "Broken Leg Review Saga." That's right! I broke my leg recently and, having now been confined to a chair, a bed, and an old man walker, I find that I'm likely to go insane if I don't do something, so why not get caught up on my reviews?
Anyway, when it comes to Devil May Cry, the game saga that came to define the genre Yahtzee Croshaw would eventually label the "spectacle fighter," you can go ahead and label me as a noobie. Back when I was subscribed to PSNow, I tried my hand at the original game, but it just didn't click with me. After hearing good things about this latest entry and upon hearing that I didn't need infinite knowledge of the somewhat convoluted plot of the previous entries in order to understand the basics, I decided I'd give Devil May Cry 5 a shot.
And boy, dear reader, am I glad I did. Simply put, Devil May Cry 5 (hereafter referred to as DMC5) is a rip-roarin' good time with only a few faults to hold it back from true greatness. Less simply put...well, let's get right to it.

Normally I start these things off with a note about the story, but the story in DMC5 is...well, not exactly nonexistant, but it doesn't exactly take center stage. Essentially, the story begins in the middle of a gigantic battle between the game's 3 principle characters and a demon king named Urizen. The battle goes south and the three split up for a couple months in the hopes of defeating the demon king in a second attempt. There's obviously more to the story than just that, but that's about all I'm going to cover because story really isn't the point here. In spite of that, however, I do have to say that the characters in this game are quite enjoyable. Take our 3 aforementioned principle characters, for example. Nero (arguably the main character of this installment) is a cocky young demon hunter who spouts lines so ridiculous (for example: "I hope you brought marshmallows...'cuz I'm bringin' the fire!) that you can't help but enjoy having him around. Dante (protagonist of the games leading up to this one) simply radiates charm in everything he does, whether it's weapon animations, one-liners, or taunts. Finally, V (a new character introduced in this game) comes off as an edgy little emo boy, and his writing is so aware of that fact that it makes him even edgier and, by extension, even more entertaining. If your story isn't going to be Shakespeare, then the characters you're along for the ride with should at least be fun to be around, and DMC5 nails this.

But before I move on to gameplay, there is one character that I'd like to take some time to point out individually. DMC5 introduces another new character to the mix in Nico, the tomboy inventor with the ridiculous Texas accent. Nico is, in my mind, one of the most flawlessly amusing characters I've come across in a game in years. Jokes that simply wouldn't ever land with me landed simply because of actress Faye Kingslee's purposefully overacted performance. There was a point early on in the game where Nico asked Nero to hand her a demon piece that had fallen to the ground after a boss fight. To this, Nero hands it to her and responds, "Ew, don't you have any clue where that's been?" Nico then waits just long enough for her response to be awkward no matter what before, in the flattest southern drawl ever, replying, "up yer' buuuutt?" That is objectively not funny, but Nico's personality in this interaction shines through so forcefully that I couldn't help but at least chuckle. Furthermore, when Nico begins to serve as a traveling upgrade shop hailed through pay phones, she becomes even more amusing. Every time you (as any of the principle characters) hail Nico via a pay phone, you're treated to one of several unique cutscenes in which Nico drives her van into your area from a seemingly impossible angle. This is usually accompanied by a "watch ouuuuut!" as the van narrowly avoids crushing you and crashes and rolls across the area. Even though I hardly ever found myself in need of upgrades, I'd always call on the pay phone just to see what ridiculous way Nico would enter the area this time. I tell you what, I enjoyed Nico's dialogue and personality almost as much as the cameramen for this game seem to enjoy the small of her back. You'll know what I mean if you play the game.

But enough about characters and story and wimpy things like that, let's talk about gameplay!!.....
oh...God...it's time to talk about gameplay....
Ok. This is kind of an odd game in that there are three separate gameplay styles that you'll switch between as you switch characters. That's right, each principle character has their own gameplay style and control scheme, so expect a lot of variety.
First, I suppose an overview of gameplay as a whole is warranted. Being a "spectacle fighter," DMC5 isn't about killing all the enemies in the room...it's about killing all the enemies in the room in as over-the-top and stylish a manner as you possibly can. You can go into this game and play it like an average hack-and-slash affair, but if you want higher scores and a more fulfilling experience, you're going to want to consistently vary up your combos and attacks so that you're hitting as many enemies as possible with as many different kinds of attacks as possible. This looks a little different for each character, but that's the overall concept.
I suppose the character to delve into first would be Nero. Nero uses a sword, a pistol, and robotic arms called "devil breakers." Each devil breaker has a different use case, and it's worthwhile to experiment with each one. For instance, the Gerbora (or as I like to call it, "the Bakugo") can be used to blast Nero headfirst into groups of enemies, and when used efficiently, it can be used to juggle enemies in the air. For another example, the Tomboy simply acts as an amplifier to Nero's weapons. Nero can store a number of devil breakers at a time, and when one breaks, he immediately switches to the next one in line. At any time, Nero can also manually detonate the devil breaker he's using to deal damage to all surrounding enemies. You may be wondering what use that would be, but in a pinch, a sudden explosion that affects multiple enemies counts for a lot of style points.
The next character I'd like to cover is Dante. His gameplay is a bit more tried-and-true hack and slash than the other characters, but the variety in his style comes in the form of a freaking ridiculous amount of weapons to choose from. In terms of melee weapons, he has a sword, gauntlets, a pair of nunchucks that turns into a spear and a staff, and a motorcycle cut in half (though I'm sure I'm forgetting some). In terms of ranged weapons, he has a set of two pistols, a shotgun, a Michael Jackson hat (complete with dance moves), and a rocket launcher (though again, I'm sure I'm forgetting some). Each and every one of these weapons plays a little differently and has their own special attacks and combos, so it's a lot to memorize, but if you put in the work, you can pull off some incredibly stylish battles.
The final character to touch on is the one with the combat style that constitutes my biggest issue with the game. V's combat is...well, you can't argue that it isn't unique. Essentially, you don't actually fight with V. Instead, V controls two familiars: a bird and a jungle cat. They attack indiscriminately, and when an enemy's health runs low, V closes in to kill them with his cane. Each familiar has their own health bar, and if they're "killed," they go into a recharge mode, and V will be left without them until they heal. Ultimately, the V sections just amount to button mashing the short and long ranged attack buttons as much as possible. Do this, and you'll end up with a triple-S ranking in no time. I personally never had fun in this mode. The combat feels incredibly disconnected, and as such, no combos or special attacks feel like they have any impact behind them. When I realized that all I had to do was button mash, it was an improvement in that I at least had a way to get through these sections quickly, but that's hardly a point in the game's favor. All-in-all, V's combat is an A+ for effort and inventiveness, but it just isn't very good. In fact...it's the reason why I haven't been able to play DMC5 a second time. I got to V's first level and found myself so bored that I couldn't keep going (the broken leg demands exciting action).

So now that we've discussed gameplay itself, let's discuss some aspects surrounding the gameplay. DMC5 boasts quite a variety of demonic enemies to kill, and this ensures that enemy "loadouts" never get repeated and you won't end up in the exact same types of encounters more than once. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the game's uninspired level design. The entirety of the game takes place in a ruined city and a demonic tree, and the aesthetics within the two have absolutely no variety in them whatsoever. It would've been forgivable if the environments were at least decent to look at, but the city environments are just ugly and the demon tree environments are just bog standard demonic. Sure, you have a lot of different enemies to fight, but you'll be fighting them in uninteresting, just-short-of-repeated areas.

With that, we come to the technical side of things. All-in-all, DMC5 is a solid technical package with a smooth 60fps throughout, no texture pop-in, no audio or visual glitches, and no short or hard crashes. There is...one thing that bothered me about the game that sort of falls into the technical side of things, and it's hinted at in the subtitle. This game breaks into cutscenes WAY too frequently and with no good reason. You'll literally get out of a mission start cutscene, take two steps forward, and then the camera will be wrestled away from you to show you another small cutscenes where combat starts or something like that. This happens constantly, and it left me wondering, because there are points in the game where combat starts without the camera having to move away. Why is it that 95% of the time we have to be grabbed by the hand and railroaded to where we need to go? I know it's a small complaint, but first impressions of DMC5 were not good because I was getting so annoyed by the constant two-steps-and-a-cutscene gameplay formula. But beyond that complaint, the soundtrack is a killer mix of death metal and church choir, and it manages to be such a mix without actually blending the two together the way that a JRPG would. This allows DMC5 to choose its tone at any particular moment, and it goes a long way.

What you've heard is true, dear reader. Devil May Cry 5 is a great time to be had, but it isn't without its issues. About 1/3 of the combat is inventive, but unexciting. The environments are ugly and unvaried. There are way too many useless cutscene breaks that destroy the immersion. That isn't even to mention the useless microtransactions, which are currently harmless, but which present a bad omen for the future of gaming when they're implemented as uselessly as this. However, these negatives aside, DMC5 truly is a great time. The combat that is good is insanely varied, and racking up a high style rank is immensely satisfying. The characters, while not normally the kinds I like, are all fun to be around (even V). If you're able to overlook a couple of undeniable issues, then I can guarantee that you won't regret spending $60 to pull the devil trigger.

Let us review:
V's combat isn't fun - 8.0
Boring, uninspired levels - 0.5
Too many freaking useless cutscenes - 0.3

The final score for Devil May Cry 5 is...



8.4/10 - Good
Good work, Capcom, good work.