It all began seven years ago. It all began in the lowest, darkest dungeons of Konami, as game developer Shinji Mikami sat over his boiling pot of stew. A pen and paper sat in his lap as he weaves the story that would soon come to be known as Devil May Cry. Seven years ago we stepped into the shoes of the bonified badass named Dante and opened a can of delicious whoop ass on hundreds upon thousands of unlucky demon bastards. Now, seven years later, for a fourth time, Devil May Cry enters the households of millions of gamers everywhere. Once again, we're cast into the familiar shoes of Nante.....Dante....wait a sec. Who the hell is this kid? Nero?
Yes, Nero. A young boy by Dante's standards, but his demonic arm and fighting skills are no laughing matter. Even Dante has to give the kid some credit. Anyway, with a change in protagonist, many people are no doubt left unhappy. I was even a little skeptical at first. Though it seems that throughout the game, as the series of events are carried out and you become more into the story and what's going on, Nero really grows on you. He's a big change from the casual, laid back badass approach of Dante, but you'll find that he's lacking nothing that would make him a "badass" like Dante. Not to mention his right arm brings a whole new style of combat previously left unexplored in past Devil May Cry titles. Nero is change, and change is good, especially in this case. Furthermore, you're not only fighting to save the world, you're fighting to save Nero's love interest, a red headed vixen named Kyrie. Granted, she doesn't talk much, but hey, if Nero really loves the chick, he loves the chick. That's good enough for the majority of gamers that just want to kick some demon ass but like a little story on the side.
Which leads us into the combat. As stated above, Nero brings a type of combat never seen before in any Devil May Cry game. His demonic arm, called the Devil Bringer, can extend and pull in any demons unfortunate enough to be grasped by it. Once you've got them close and off balance, you can begin hacking away with the Red Queen, Nero's big ass blade that he seems to have customized to fit his own demon slaying needs. The Devil Bringer also brings into light several strategic moves you can make in a battle. You have choices when you use the devil bringer, a lot of choices. You can either slam the opponent to the ground with it, or pull them in and open up on that raw demon meat with a plethora of combos that would make Mars Incorporated shake with envy. Boss battles have grown much more interesting as well. Usually once the said boss you are fighting gets off balance or is dazed from your attacks, you can hit them with the Devil Bringer and pull off some crazy combo move that Nero does on his own, and most of the time turns out to be worthy of some serious posterization. The Devil Bringer can do much more than that, if you've become practiced at using it. Blocking an attack from that boss you just can't beat and putting him off balance instead of taking the hit yourself is one of those great gaming feelings you'll have. Nero's personality is reminiscent of Dante in Devil May Cry 3. In other words, he's a more angst filled, impulsive personality as compared to Dante's more laid back appearance in this installment. He's Dante DMC3 version cocky, but his urge to save the love of his life gives him more emotion as well. This actually turned out to work in his favor, making him a more interesting and likable character.
Now before you cream your pants in disappointment at not being able to play Dante, don't fret, because you can actually play him. In fact, you play him quite a bit, though not as much as Nero. They've amped him up a bit in this game. In fact, when it comes to Dante, the combat was improved more by him than by the addition of Nero. The system allows you to switch in between all four of his styles from Devil May Cry 3 as you play. So you could be hacking away with Swordmaster, pulling some orgasmically vicious combos, and suddenly have to dodge and change to Trickster in the block of an eye. It's delicious, and a great improvement from the previous games. Anyone can safely say that this is the way Dante is supposed to be played. That's not all though. You still have the usual variety of weapons that the legendary demon hunter picks up from defeated bosses. Every single one of them is unique (with the exception of one: see Beowulf in DMC3) and can be used in different situations to give you the advantage. Also, depending on which style you're using, you can use these obtained weapons in different ways. This adds even more variety. Apart from the weapons you eventually attain, Dante wouldn't be caught dead without his trusty sword Rebellion and his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. As opposed to Nero's singular revolver, the Blue Rose, Ebony and Ivory shoot much faster and are overall more effective as weapons. It also seems that since you put emphasis on Rebellion while using the style, Swordmaster, you can deal damage much faster with some of the combos than you can with Nero's Red Queen. Overall, the only thing Dante lacks in comparison to Nero is the Devil Bringer, which really isn't that big of a loss if you're practiced at using Dante. Unfortunately, you don't play Dante as much as you play Nero, and Dante's two business partners, Lady and Trish, seem to be added in out of the blue, as if Konami just wanted to get them in there somehow. Overall, Dante's part seems a bit....I don't want to say half assed, but it's definitely not as thought out as Nero's role in the game. I felt as if this was a downside, and it deducted a bit from the overall awesomeness of the game. Still, the moments you have with Dante seem to make it up at least a little. The cut scenes are simply beautiful.
For a recap on the combat, all that needs to be said is that Capcom brought in a new formula and it turned out better than a lot have anticipated. It's probably up there with a lot of the action/adventure greats in terms of a pure fighting system, just because it has so much to offer, and you'll have loads of fun with either Nero or Dante. The only slight problem is the adjustments you have to make when you switch from playing as Nero to playing as Dante. I can't tell you how many times I ran straight into an enemy while in Trickster with Dante, and asked where in the hell my extending demon arm was. This is like a slight mar on the head of the Statue of Liberty. Therefore, it's barely noticeable after about the first mission with Dante. Unless you have terrible muscle memory, then you just need to try harder.
The storyline of Devil May Cry 4 isn't as altered as the combat. Our main protagonist Nero is a member of some Order that worships Dante's famous dad, Sparda. The Order is led by some old, wrinkly douchebag named Sanctus who like many before him is after the power of Sparda. As you can imagine, Dante can't let that happen, and neither can Nero, who really just wants to save Kyrie from all this bullshit with the world coming second. Not much different from the objective of some other ugly bastard in the third game, but that's to be expected. The addition of Nero is enough to say that the storyline is much different, but in the gist of things, it's not really changed at all. If you want to throw out all the details and look at the main concept, it's safe to say that Devil May Cry 4 is about as original in storyline as your generic online FPS is in combat. It doesn't really take that much luster away, since the way the game is presented is much different from the previous titles. The presentation and the way the story is carried out are new to the Devil May Cry franchise. The overall story is not, and that about sums up the plot.
Level design in Devil May Cry 4 is one of the best that has been seen in a long time. The locations the game drags you to barely ever get repetitive unless you're running around like some lost kid in a super market with a stain gradually growing in the crotch section of your overalls. Some areas can make you feel a flurry of emotions at once. While encountering the first Mephistos, a floating phantom like enemy that can float through objects, in a blizzard like environment adorned with elegant victorian statues and monotonous tombstones brings exhilaration, fright, and ecstacy into a mind that had already been blown by awesomeness from the previous level. A contributing factor to the praise of the level design is the variety of environments you fight in. At one time you'll be doing battle on a frigid plane, in a dark castle, an ancient forest, or a white stone plateau with only sky stretched in every direction. Whether Dante or Nero, the locations often offer a fitting place to do battle, and often add to the feeling of the game. If you developers were trying to bring another element to the game with its variety of locations, they accomplished their objective, and they did it very well.
This excellent level design brings to light the biggest and ugliest issue of this title, backtracking. Yes, I know, backtracking is basically inherent to the Devil May Cry series, but Devil May Cry 4 makes it seem like what the backtracking in DMC3 would have been if it actually sucked ass. Without including any plot spoilers, as soon as you switch to Dante, you'll be playing back through very familiar locations with little to no changes at all. Add this to the overall non-emphasis on Dante's role in the storyline and you have a final part of the game that feels like Konami decided to run out of budget as soon as they finished designing Dante, and had to bring in past parts of the game to finish it up. This really highlights Nero's role in the game, which only gets repetitive once. Trust me, when you experience it on multiple occasions, you'll be yelling at a huge ass dice and demanding for yellow.
Repetitive backtracking aside, after you've beaten Devil May Cry 4, there's plenty to stick around for. I'm sure many can attest to beating the previous installments about ten times over. I know I can, and I certainly know playing through earlier levels and toying with the enemies with newfound abilities you couldn't have gotten that early if you hadn't beaten it at least once is pretty fun. Also, you unlock new difficulties and even new levels to try out. If you thought Dante Must Die on Devil May Cry 3 was difficult, you're in for a rough surprise when playing the mode on Devil May Cry 4. Another game mode, Bloody Palace, puts you on a plateau that you continually have to battle many enemies on, while moving up and trying not to die or run out of time. Being combat oriented, and since combat is the specialty of Devil May Cry 4, this is one of the more fun game modes.
Overall, Devil May Cry 4 is something new for the series, something fresh and overall, rivaling the famous Devil May Cry greatness. You can never get back that old Devil May Cry 3 feel that the title brought, how it seemed to breathe new life into the Devil May Cry series, but you can bring in a new formula and try to surpass that. If you ask me, it doesn't pack quite the punch of its predecessor, so overall the goal was not fulfilled, but Devil May Cry 4 is still a must buy for DMC fans, and anyone looking to come in and clean house, devil slayer style. It has it all, the replayability, the amazing picturesque combat, and an experience that can make your skin crawl and cause you to sit back at the end of the game and feel an abnormal amount of epic overcome you.
Yes, Nero. A young boy by Dante's standards, but his demonic arm and fighting skills are no laughing matter. Even Dante has to give the kid some credit. Anyway, with a change in protagonist, many people are no doubt left unhappy. I was even a little skeptical at first. Though it seems that throughout the game, as the series of events are carried out and you become more into the story and what's going on, Nero really grows on you. He's a big change from the casual, laid back badass approach of Dante, but you'll find that he's lacking nothing that would make him a "badass" like Dante. Not to mention his right arm brings a whole new style of combat previously left unexplored in past Devil May Cry titles. Nero is change, and change is good, especially in this case. Furthermore, you're not only fighting to save the world, you're fighting to save Nero's love interest, a red headed vixen named Kyrie. Granted, she doesn't talk much, but hey, if Nero really loves the chick, he loves the chick. That's good enough for the majority of gamers that just want to kick some demon ass but like a little story on the side.
Which leads us into the combat. As stated above, Nero brings a type of combat never seen before in any Devil May Cry game. His demonic arm, called the Devil Bringer, can extend and pull in any demons unfortunate enough to be grasped by it. Once you've got them close and off balance, you can begin hacking away with the Red Queen, Nero's big ass blade that he seems to have customized to fit his own demon slaying needs. The Devil Bringer also brings into light several strategic moves you can make in a battle. You have choices when you use the devil bringer, a lot of choices. You can either slam the opponent to the ground with it, or pull them in and open up on that raw demon meat with a plethora of combos that would make Mars Incorporated shake with envy. Boss battles have grown much more interesting as well. Usually once the said boss you are fighting gets off balance or is dazed from your attacks, you can hit them with the Devil Bringer and pull off some crazy combo move that Nero does on his own, and most of the time turns out to be worthy of some serious posterization. The Devil Bringer can do much more than that, if you've become practiced at using it. Blocking an attack from that boss you just can't beat and putting him off balance instead of taking the hit yourself is one of those great gaming feelings you'll have. Nero's personality is reminiscent of Dante in Devil May Cry 3. In other words, he's a more angst filled, impulsive personality as compared to Dante's more laid back appearance in this installment. He's Dante DMC3 version cocky, but his urge to save the love of his life gives him more emotion as well. This actually turned out to work in his favor, making him a more interesting and likable character.
Now before you cream your pants in disappointment at not being able to play Dante, don't fret, because you can actually play him. In fact, you play him quite a bit, though not as much as Nero. They've amped him up a bit in this game. In fact, when it comes to Dante, the combat was improved more by him than by the addition of Nero. The system allows you to switch in between all four of his styles from Devil May Cry 3 as you play. So you could be hacking away with Swordmaster, pulling some orgasmically vicious combos, and suddenly have to dodge and change to Trickster in the block of an eye. It's delicious, and a great improvement from the previous games. Anyone can safely say that this is the way Dante is supposed to be played. That's not all though. You still have the usual variety of weapons that the legendary demon hunter picks up from defeated bosses. Every single one of them is unique (with the exception of one: see Beowulf in DMC3) and can be used in different situations to give you the advantage. Also, depending on which style you're using, you can use these obtained weapons in different ways. This adds even more variety. Apart from the weapons you eventually attain, Dante wouldn't be caught dead without his trusty sword Rebellion and his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory. As opposed to Nero's singular revolver, the Blue Rose, Ebony and Ivory shoot much faster and are overall more effective as weapons. It also seems that since you put emphasis on Rebellion while using the style, Swordmaster, you can deal damage much faster with some of the combos than you can with Nero's Red Queen. Overall, the only thing Dante lacks in comparison to Nero is the Devil Bringer, which really isn't that big of a loss if you're practiced at using Dante. Unfortunately, you don't play Dante as much as you play Nero, and Dante's two business partners, Lady and Trish, seem to be added in out of the blue, as if Konami just wanted to get them in there somehow. Overall, Dante's part seems a bit....I don't want to say half assed, but it's definitely not as thought out as Nero's role in the game. I felt as if this was a downside, and it deducted a bit from the overall awesomeness of the game. Still, the moments you have with Dante seem to make it up at least a little. The cut scenes are simply beautiful.
For a recap on the combat, all that needs to be said is that Capcom brought in a new formula and it turned out better than a lot have anticipated. It's probably up there with a lot of the action/adventure greats in terms of a pure fighting system, just because it has so much to offer, and you'll have loads of fun with either Nero or Dante. The only slight problem is the adjustments you have to make when you switch from playing as Nero to playing as Dante. I can't tell you how many times I ran straight into an enemy while in Trickster with Dante, and asked where in the hell my extending demon arm was. This is like a slight mar on the head of the Statue of Liberty. Therefore, it's barely noticeable after about the first mission with Dante. Unless you have terrible muscle memory, then you just need to try harder.
The storyline of Devil May Cry 4 isn't as altered as the combat. Our main protagonist Nero is a member of some Order that worships Dante's famous dad, Sparda. The Order is led by some old, wrinkly douchebag named Sanctus who like many before him is after the power of Sparda. As you can imagine, Dante can't let that happen, and neither can Nero, who really just wants to save Kyrie from all this bullshit with the world coming second. Not much different from the objective of some other ugly bastard in the third game, but that's to be expected. The addition of Nero is enough to say that the storyline is much different, but in the gist of things, it's not really changed at all. If you want to throw out all the details and look at the main concept, it's safe to say that Devil May Cry 4 is about as original in storyline as your generic online FPS is in combat. It doesn't really take that much luster away, since the way the game is presented is much different from the previous titles. The presentation and the way the story is carried out are new to the Devil May Cry franchise. The overall story is not, and that about sums up the plot.
Level design in Devil May Cry 4 is one of the best that has been seen in a long time. The locations the game drags you to barely ever get repetitive unless you're running around like some lost kid in a super market with a stain gradually growing in the crotch section of your overalls. Some areas can make you feel a flurry of emotions at once. While encountering the first Mephistos, a floating phantom like enemy that can float through objects, in a blizzard like environment adorned with elegant victorian statues and monotonous tombstones brings exhilaration, fright, and ecstacy into a mind that had already been blown by awesomeness from the previous level. A contributing factor to the praise of the level design is the variety of environments you fight in. At one time you'll be doing battle on a frigid plane, in a dark castle, an ancient forest, or a white stone plateau with only sky stretched in every direction. Whether Dante or Nero, the locations often offer a fitting place to do battle, and often add to the feeling of the game. If you developers were trying to bring another element to the game with its variety of locations, they accomplished their objective, and they did it very well.
This excellent level design brings to light the biggest and ugliest issue of this title, backtracking. Yes, I know, backtracking is basically inherent to the Devil May Cry series, but Devil May Cry 4 makes it seem like what the backtracking in DMC3 would have been if it actually sucked ass. Without including any plot spoilers, as soon as you switch to Dante, you'll be playing back through very familiar locations with little to no changes at all. Add this to the overall non-emphasis on Dante's role in the storyline and you have a final part of the game that feels like Konami decided to run out of budget as soon as they finished designing Dante, and had to bring in past parts of the game to finish it up. This really highlights Nero's role in the game, which only gets repetitive once. Trust me, when you experience it on multiple occasions, you'll be yelling at a huge ass dice and demanding for yellow.
Repetitive backtracking aside, after you've beaten Devil May Cry 4, there's plenty to stick around for. I'm sure many can attest to beating the previous installments about ten times over. I know I can, and I certainly know playing through earlier levels and toying with the enemies with newfound abilities you couldn't have gotten that early if you hadn't beaten it at least once is pretty fun. Also, you unlock new difficulties and even new levels to try out. If you thought Dante Must Die on Devil May Cry 3 was difficult, you're in for a rough surprise when playing the mode on Devil May Cry 4. Another game mode, Bloody Palace, puts you on a plateau that you continually have to battle many enemies on, while moving up and trying not to die or run out of time. Being combat oriented, and since combat is the specialty of Devil May Cry 4, this is one of the more fun game modes.
Overall, Devil May Cry 4 is something new for the series, something fresh and overall, rivaling the famous Devil May Cry greatness. You can never get back that old Devil May Cry 3 feel that the title brought, how it seemed to breathe new life into the Devil May Cry series, but you can bring in a new formula and try to surpass that. If you ask me, it doesn't pack quite the punch of its predecessor, so overall the goal was not fulfilled, but Devil May Cry 4 is still a must buy for DMC fans, and anyone looking to come in and clean house, devil slayer style. It has it all, the replayability, the amazing picturesque combat, and an experience that can make your skin crawl and cause you to sit back at the end of the game and feel an abnormal amount of epic overcome you.
