Devil May Cry 5 - Pull My Devil Trigger

Six years after the release of DmC: Devil May Cry, an attempted reboot of the Devil May Cry continuity, Capcom released a proper fifth installment in the series, Devil May Cry 5. Boasting a return to the classic style of gameplay and featuring the return of director Hideaki Itsuno, who had been with the series since Devil May Cry 2, the game released to critical acclaim. Having played it myself, I find myself agreeing with the praise, though as I kept playing, through the Xbox One version, I noticed some minor issues that held it back from perfection.

Five years after Devil May Cry 4, a mysterious man named V approaches Devil May Cry with a mission to defeat a demon named Urizen, who has summoned a giant tree known as the Qliphoth within Red Grave City. Dante, Lady, Trish, Nero and V confront Urizen, but their mission doesn’t go as planned and the group becomes separated. Nero and V embark on a mission to rescue Dante, Lady and Trish to help fight Urizen and destroy the Qliphoth. However, they eventually find out that not all is as it seems.

The Qliphoth has taken root in Red Grave City.

Before I get into the execution of the story, I should note that before the release of this game, Capcom had revised the overall timeline of the franchise. While the original order of the series was previously established as Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening -> Devil May Cry -> Devil May Cry 4 -> Devil May Cry 2, the order is now Devil May Cry 3 -> Devil May Cry -> Devil May Cry: The Animated Series -> Devil May Cry 2 -> Devil May Cry 4 -> Devil May Cry 5. This rearrangement not only allows the series to finally stop dancing around Devil May Cry 2, which is near-universally considered the weakest of the Classic games, but also reconciles the jarring shift in Dante’s personality from cocky and confident to cold and stoic, allowing the stoicism to occur more realistically for him.

This is now canon.

As for Devil May Cry 5, it seems to have been written with more or less the entire continuity in mind. Going into exactly how would delve into spoiler territory, but I can say that it touches back on themes from Devil May Cry 3 and manages to continue story arcs from Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 4 in a rather meaningful way. Dante and Nero both go through some nice character development where they have to confront different aspects about themselves and move on as people. The story also includes a lot of callbacks to previous games, which ties into the overarching theme of confronting the past, a theme that’s also incorporated very well into the game design itself.

On the new characters, Nico has a rather enjoyable personality and attitude towards the rest of the cast and her reckless, yet impossibly powerful driving skills always provide a good laugh, as does her banter. V, the new playable character, is a very mysterious and intriguing man whose background and true nature are gradually revealed over the course of the game. His stoic personality and affinity for the poetry of William Blake are contrasted with those of his demonic pets, including the enjoyably snarky Griffon, who acts as a foil of sorts, and the loyal subservience of Shadow.

The gameplay of Devil May Cry 5 is a complete return to the familiarity of the Classic continuity, though with a balance of both evolution and experimentation with how the core elements are approached. Since all three of the playable characters, Dante, Nero and V, play very differently from each other, they will be discussed here individually for the sake of completeness.

Dante, portrayed by Reuben Langdon.

Dante’s gameplay is an evolution of his mechanics from Devil May Cry 4. Like in that game, he can switch between multiple weapons, four swords and four guns, and Styles with only a single button press, even mid-combo. The four Styles, Trickster, Gunslinger, Swordmaster and Royalguard, all alter Dante’s abilities in some way and can grant additional properties to different weapons. While Dante in Devil May Cry 4 had everything at his disposal at once, Devil May Cry 5 allows the player to completely customize his loadout of weapons, including how many weapons he can carry into a mission at one time and what order the weapons are in. This system can come in handy for people who either don’t like certain weapons or just simply want to challenge themselves.

Among Dante’s unique arsenal, two of them, Cavaliere and Dr. Faust, really stand out. Cavaliere is a motorcycle that you can wield like a sword, but not in the conventional sense. Here, the motorcycle can split into two swords, with the handlebars serving as handles to swing the bladed tires around. When either blade hits its target, it can be held while the tires spin in place to deal additional damage. By pressing the Style Button during Swordmaster Style, Dante can even ride the motorcycle into enemies to knock them in the air or even, with some practice, continuously perform donuts on the ground to juggle enemies in place; you can even swing the motorcycle in mid-air during the same Style. Incorporating such a weapon into the Devil May Cry universe is very fitting and memorable, though the only thing I didn’t like was that you can’t freely ride it to cover more ground.

Cavaliere is a very fun addition to Dante's arsenal.

The Dr. Faust weapon is also very unique, as it’s shaped like a hat that Dante wears when equipped. The most interesting property about Dr. Faust is that it uses Red Orbs, the in-game currency, as ammo. Expending Red Orbs for attacks is rather risky, as it’ll reduce the amount you can use to buy upgrades, but wearing the hat can also allow Dante to earn a greater number of Red Orbs in return. Gunslinger Style enables Dante to throw Dr. Faust at an enemy and make them wear a copy of it, which makes them bleed Red Orbs when hit, but also causes you to lose even more Red Orbs when you’re hit. This makes Dr. Faust a high risk, high reward weapon that’s very satisfying to master.

Nero, portrayed by Johnny Yong Bosch.

As with Dante, Nero’s gameplay is an evolution of mechanics introduced in Devil May Cry 4. His returning weapons, Blue Rose and Red Queen, are joined by the new Devil Breaker system, which is used through most of the game in lieu of his Devil Bringer arm. Devil Breakers, of which Nero can hold at least four, are mechanical arms which have special abilities that are activated by pressing B (on the Xbox version), ranging from a burst of electricity to extra maneuverability and even the ability to locally slow down time. Holding down B will also charge the current Devil Breaker and fire off a more powerful attack, but will destroy the Devil Breaker in the process and equip Nero with the next one in the magazine. The player can also intentionally detonate a Devil Breaker to escape harm and replace it with the next one in the magazine. Even with a mechanical arm, however, Nero can still access one of his Devil Bringer’s abilities in the form of Wire Snatch, which brings an enemy closer to him for a close-range attack.

Key art of the many Devil Breakers at Nero's disposal.

Of course, the Devil Breaker system does have its drawbacks, intentional or otherwise. An intentional drawback is that when Nero takes damage while using one, the Devil Breaker breaks and is replaced with the next one in the magazine, so thinking ahead is encouraged. However, I did find myself wanting to switch between Devil Breakers on the fly without having to destroy them, similarly to Dante’s arsenal. I can maybe see not allowing this for balance reasons, but there was also the issue of awkward button mapping, since the button to detonate Devil Breakers, LB (in the Xbox version), is the same used for Dante’s Devil Trigger and summoning one of V’s demons, so there were points where I accidentally destroyed Devil Breakers for basically no reason. On top of that, a later ability which should’ve been mapped to LB is instead mapped to the D-Pad.

Essentially, Devil Breakers provide a much-needed degree of complexity to Nero’s gameplay compared to Devil May Cry 4, but the execution could’ve been improved with better button mapping at the very least.

V, portrayed by Brian Hanford.

Rounding out the playable cast is V, who has a rather unique and unconventional gameplay style. V, who walks with a cane throughout the game, is too weak to fight enemies on his own. Instead, he can summon two demonic pets, Griffon and Shadow, to attack for him until he can deal the finishing blow. These pets can also grant V additional mobility both in and out of combat to help make up for his physical shortcomings. Of course, the pets aren’t invincible, as they have their own health bars. Should one of them fall, they’ll regenerate, but will revive faster if V is closer to them.

V summons demonic pets to fight for him. Shadow attacks from the ground...

...and Griffon attacks from the air.

V also has an unusual use of Devil Trigger, where he can summon the demon Nightmare or expend one bar of DT to power up his pets’ attacks. As a nod to V’s affinity for William Blake, he’s able to fill the DT gauge by reading a book, which has its own dedicated button (RT on the Xbox version). The closer V is to an enemy, the faster the book will fill the gauge, though as a tradeoff, he’s more prone to taking damage.

When taken together, V’s strengths and weaknesses force players to adopt a more control-oriented style where finding the right distance is the key to victory. While it doesn’t sound like it, he’s actually the easiest of the three characters to use, and the easiest to get S-SSS ranks with, but that doesn’t stop him from being surprisingly fun to play as. If I had only one complaint, however, I’d say that the way the buttons are mapped can easily lead to hand cramps during more intense fights. To elaborate, most of his major actions are placed on the right side of the controller (RB to lock onto enemies, RT to read the book, X to attack with Griffon and Y to attack with Shadow), which can put strain on that hand, especially if you’re mashing X and Y during combat. One other issue I had was that once you purchase the ability to ride Nightmare during combat, it’s possible that when you try to deal the killing blow to an enemy with RB+B, you’ll accidentally try to ride Nightmare instead.

Devil May Cry 5 also has an unusual variant of multiplayer in the form of the Cameo System. At certain points in the story, Dante, Nero and V can cross paths, which will trigger the system. Whenever another player character would be visible, they are represented with recorded data of the DMC Crew or another player going through that section. Though the identity of the other player is broadcast onscreen during this time, this feature helps to sell the idea that the characters are each fighting their own battles. There are other online features as well, including the ability to play alongside a real player in the same area and rate their performance at the end of a mission, but since I don't have an Xbox Live Gold subscription, I was unable to explore them.

The Cameo System in action (in this case, Nero and V are separated).

While the gameplay of Devil May Cry 5 is already good, it’s fortunately paired with the best-looking visuals in the series to date. Unlike past games, this installment is rendered with the RE Engine, which previously powered Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and the Resident Evil 2 remake. Not only does this allow a main Devil May Cry game to finally move on from the traditional fixed camera perspective, and give the game a more realistic feel, the flashy combat also shows off more of the true capabilities of the engine, with stunning lighting effects and complex graphical detail all rendered at a stable 60 FPS. The end result is so impressive that I honestly wouldn’t mind if a potential Devil May Cry 6 followed a similar path.

Devil May Cry 5 shows off more of the full capabilities of the RE Engine.

Following in the footsteps of DmC: Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 5 is the first game in the Classic continuity to feature dynamic music. The higher the player’s Style ranking increases, the more instrumentation and vocals they’ll hear during combat. While this idea isn’t unique to this series, as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance featured music that sounded fuller with each successive phase of a boss fight, Devil May Cry 5’s spin on it encourages players to improve their skills in order to hear the best sound. As a plus, the difference in style of music between DMC 5 and DmC makes the feature more noticeable this time around. Even outside of the combat, however, the music is very listenable. Two tracks which stand out to me as the most memorable are “Devil Trigger” and its remix, “Silver Bullet.”

The voice acting is also generally good, with returning voice actors Rueben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch putting in their best performances as Dante and Nero, respectively, to date. Brian Hanford is also great as V, as he has the right delivery to convey his more serious and stoic personality.

Since I had obtained the Deluxe Edition of the game, I also got a few unique bonuses. Among these were a set of additional Devil Breaker arms, including, but limited to, a stronger variant of Gerbera, the Mega Buster and Pasta Breaker. Equipping the Mega Buster alters Nero’s side roll and jump animations to more resemble those of Mega Man and the Pasta Breaker, while somewhat useful in combat, rotates the order of Devil Breaker arms in the magazine. Other Deluxe Edition bonuses include alternate voices for Style rankings and the opening credits, as well as alternate music tracks that the player can use in place of each character’s combat theme. For instance, you can replace Nero’s theme, “Devil Trigger”, with “The Time Has Come (Nero’s Combat)” from Devil May Cry 4.

Nero firing a powerful attack from the Mega Buster.

The most interesting bonus, however, is the ability to view pre-viz live action cutscenes in place of many of Devil May Cry 5’s cinematics. These can be viewed either on their own in the in-game Gallery or during the actual gameplay. Watching cutscenes in this early state is humorous at times due to the quality of the special effects, including the use of a Devil May Cry 4 Nero figure to represent the Devil May Cry 5 interpretation, as well some obvious chroma key effects in places, but also provides a greater insight into the creation process of in-game cinematics. I would say this feature alone justifies the purchase of the Deluxe Edition and is an experience that everyone should go through, but only after seeing the finished product of course.

Before I finish this review, I should mention the presence of microtransactions. Through digital storefronts, players are able to purchase additional Red Orbs or Blue Orbs, the latter of which increase health. However, the game doesn’t actually lean at all on microtransactions, since the game is actually fairly generous with Red Orbs and the prices of in-game abilities and upgrades aren’t designed with these in mind. In fact, Red Orbs are so plentiful that the Dr. Faust weapon is fueled by them and actually boosts the amount you can gain during a mission. In other words, the microtransactions are completely optional and are only for those who want earlier access to increased health or currency.

The microtransactions are unnecessary, but there is no real incentive to buy
them (Note: Pre-Orders of the the Deluxe Edition included 100,000 Red Orbs).

Devil May Cry 5 is a refreshing return to form for the series and, quite possibly, the best installment to date. The story is both easy to follow for newcomers and highly rewarding for longtime fans, with great interactions between old and new characters. Combat is easy to learn, but difficult to master once the player recognizes the potential depth and complexity of combos in a quest to improve their Style rankings, with exciting dynamic music to provide further motivation. There are some issues with button mapping, but this is only mitigated by the ability to remap buttons to something more comfortable. Veterans and newcomers alike will find something to enjoy out of Devil May Cry 5 and I highly recommend it. Just be careful, however, as once you play this game, you may find it hard to go back to the other ones.