Shouldn’t have skipped the first game.
Finally, I have played and completed this game. I remember
seeing its screenshots on a YouTube channel and thinking how great the graphics
looked. So realistic. I wanted to jump to DMC5 straightaway, but at the same
time felt guilty for skipping all the lore. Of course, I could watch cutscene
compilations of all the previous games, but it just isn’t the same as playing
the game and experiencing the story for yourself. Although admittedly, I did
skip on the first 2 games because of the outdated graphics, and regretted
skipping the first game whenever a reference to it was made in DMC5. I could
still get it, though, thanks to its cutscene compilation, but still, playing
the game would have been better. Oh well.
Major Overhaul
DMC5 introduces a lot of new stuff in the series while
leaving its soul intact. Other than Dante and Nero whom we’ve already met in
DMC4, this game introduces V, a new playable character with a completely
different combat mechanic than the other two. V does not wield a sword and does
not participate in fights except to deal the final blow. He has but a cane for
a weapon, and is fond of reciting poetry. However, he also has demons for pets
– a bird called Griffon, a panther called Shadow, and Nightmare, a giant demon
who looks like he’s made out of rocks.
These pets do all the dirty work for V at his command and leave the enemy wide open for him to finish off with his cane and a stylish, slo-mo move. Now this does bring a variety to the hacking and slashing that I had gotten used to while playing DMC, but it also ushers in a sense of detachment from the battle. Quite often, while playing as V, I found myself just hitting X and Y keys in different patterns as the demon pets attacked and I watched from a distance. I could have done the same with my eyes closed and it would have had little effect, because you can’t control the pets’ movements. You can’t make them dodge the enemy’s sword slash, or sidestep a fist slam. You can only command them to attack, and once their life gauge is depleted, they become dormant for some time, resurrecting faster when V is near them. Or you can summon Nightmare if your Devil Trigger gauge is full which will resurrect the other two pets instantly.
Personally, I found this instant resurrection to be the only advantage of Nightmare because he’s so big and so slow in his movements that by the time he trundled over close enough to an enemy to hit them, my DT gauge emptied away. It was an interesting experiment to introduce this sort of mechanic, but I still found myself choosing Dante or Nero over V whenever I was offered the choice. I’d rather be in the battle than watch it from afar, especially when I get to execute stylish combos with melee weapons. Not that V’s pets didn’t have any combos, but demolishing enemies with Dante and Nero’s moves felt far more satisfying and rewarding.
A re-casting
 |
| Yes, that's Nero |
Nero gets a complete makeover in this instalment, almost like he has been re-cast. No anime-like hair and heart-shaped face like in DMC4; this time around he gets a tougher look with a square jaw and grey, spiky hair. He retains his youthful appearance, though, and that makes Dante look much older and rugged in comparison. The stubble on Dante's face that debuted in the last entry grows white this time around, but that's the only sign of getting old that he shows. Or perhaps he just had it coloured? One can never know for sure with DMC characters. Other than the white stubble, Dante is as agile, stylish, and verbose as ever. Still, DMC3 Dante tops the list as far as over-the-top tomfoolery is concerned. I couldn't help but feel that through the 4th and 5th games our protagonist goes through an arc that suppresses his childishness and gives a dimension of maturity to his persona. We do get glimpses of the younger Dante from time to time. The introductory cutscene to one particular boss fight, for example, is hugely reminiscent of its counterpart in DMC3. Almost an exact replay, I would say.
Ladies, bring the heat
The
supporting characters from DMC 1 and 3, who would be Trish and Lady, return in
this game, much more detailed and realistic looking. That being said,
everything in this game is very detailed and it takes a huge leap forward in
terms of graphics, but Lady and Trish stand out because, well, this time around
they are given more screen time than DMC4 and are exposed way more to the
player than previous entries, and I mean 'exposed' in the literal sense.
The
skin show with these two fighter ladies is so much that at times they seem less
like fighters and more like pin-up girls whose only purpose is to bring in more
glamour to the series. It is, obviously, one of their purposes, judging from
the way they are portrayed, but it shouldn't feel like the only one considering
their roots and how they were introduced in the series. The Lady in this game,
especially, is as different from her debut in DMC3 as can be. Her character has
steadily lost her demure and vengeful demeanour in exchange for a more
glamourous and sassier one, starting with her neckline getting deeper in the
4th game and culminating in this game with her dropping her towel and standing
in all her bareness in front of another female character. This sudden paradigm
shift is a huge injustice to the character that was introduced to us as this
fierce gun-wielding girl who wouldn't let anyone come between her and her
vengeance, but in a span of two games has been reduced to nothing more than a
seductress who teases with her body more than she fights. At this rate, I won't
be surprised if the next entry ups the ante and treats nudity as effortlessly
and casually as it treats gravity-defying super stunts.
Arms for an Arm
The Story
DMC5’s
story is somewhat better than DMC4 in that it keeps every character and their
history involved and juggles well between the multiple parallel narratives of
Dante, Nero, and V. But it's not as good as DMC3 where character and plot
development are concerned. Meeting Nico and V just doesn't feel the same as it
did when I met Lady in the 3rd game. The conflicts and battles of
the characters are portrayed with much more emotions in DMC3 than in this one,
resulting in a stronger connection between the player and the characters. And I
don't think having multiple playable characters is a possible cause for this.
If anything, it's an opportunity to provide a multi-layered experience of the
story, but somewhere between entertainment and glamour, the story of DMC5 lost
that emotional connect. It's still an enjoyable tale, though, filled with
trademark DMC troupes and punchlines.
Hang on...this level looks familiar.
The
first few levels take us through a variety of environments - the city, the
sewers, the subway - but it becomes repetitive in the middle when we get inside
the Qliphoth - the tree from the demonic realm whose roots have appeared in the
human world. Roots, because the Qliphoth grows downward, from the surface into
the ground; and sitting inside it, waiting for its fruit to ripen is the
all-powerful demon Urizen who is the main antagonist of this game. We get to
face him thrice over the course of the whole game, and that is enough testimony
of how long the characters and subsequently, the player, have to spend inside
the Qliphoth.
This
repetition of levels was also an issue with DMC4, with most of the latter half
essentially being a reverse playthrough of the first half. Although we don't go
through the same levels again in DMC5, the repetition is still there as a bunch
of its missions are set in the interior of the same demonic tree, with the same
aesthetic, and thrice end in a showdown with the same demon boss.
An Anticlimactic Face-off
Each
boss in this game is more difficult to fight than the last. Well, no surprises
there, but while the last two games threw us into even tougher boss battles
just when we thought we'd defeated the main villain, DMC5 tries to do something
new here.
When
Urizen is finally defeated in a battle that, at the time, fittingly feels like
the hardest of the game, a sneaky plot twist tells us that there's more to
come. We battle a few more bosses until we reach the last stage which is a
vivid reminder of the final events of DMC3. That battle took every ounce of my
focus to beat and I shuddered at the thought of having to go through it once
again in this game. To my relief, and also disappointment, it never
happened.
The
last third of this battle showed some promise, though, and could have proved
challenging, but Dante's Sin Devil Trigger, a new ability introduced in the game,
eliminates even that possibility. It allows Dante to take on an even more
powerful Devil form than the original Devil Trigger and deal deadly, heavily
damaging blows. Timely and strategic use of this newfound power can cut battles
dramatically short, which is just what happened with me.
A Bad Design Decision
*Mild
spoilers for the final battle*
The
battle was far from over though. The cutscene that followed - which I would
term as almost nonsensical, extremely over-the-top, and too fantastical, even by
DMC standards - slowly revealed that I'd have to fight the same opponent again,
this time with Nero at my command. 'Ah,' I thought to myself, 'So Dante's fight
was just a prologue, I suppose. This has got to be the real one, the a**-kicking
that the game was planning for me all along.'
But precisely at the start of the battle, a dialogue pops up saying that Nero has acquired this crazy new ability, and subsequently I am able to beat this enemy - who appears right at the end after a 19-mission long build-up, who is supposed to be the hardest enemy in the game - in just my second try. Talk about anti-climactic. All thanks to this ability of Nero's that is unlocked right at the start of the final battle. It fits in with the plot, I'll give it that, but from a design perspective this is bad, bad timing. It's too convenient for the player to have a badass ability unlocked right when they're about to face the most powerful character in the series by reputation, and final battles are supposed to be anything but convenient. What use is it, even? It's the last battle, the player won't even be able to use the ability again unless they start a New Game Plus or something. Even if the objective was to reward the player for a New Game Plus, it would have made more sense to offer this reward after the game is beaten, not as a tool to beat the game itself.
Despite
its sporadic blemishes, Devil May Cry 5 is overall an enjoyable experience,
particularly for those who have played the earlier games and are familiar with
its history. New characters like Nico and V are given backstories that are in
some way linked with the existing characters, so it doesn't feel like they have
just been dropped into the series out of nowhere. Many titbits of interesting
trivia are also scattered throughout the game, either in the form of cutscene
dialogues or as a bunch of letters revealing some more of Dante's history. I
applaud this game for its courage to experiment and bring new stuff to the
table. Some of it works, some doesn't, but in the end, it manages to deliver a
high voltage, action-packed ride while remaining true to the franchise's
spirit.
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