Before Devil May Cry 4, I had only played two hours of Devil May Cry 2. It was fun and all, but I recall being far too busy oogling at Yuna’s new gear in Final Fantasy X-2. (And of course trying to get a 100% completion.) I skipped Devil May Cry 3, even though I had a slight interest in it. But according to reviews and friends’ opinions, it was just brutally hard. I’m not one to be intimidated by supposedly hard games or hard modes, but I play games mostly for the art and storytelling. If it’s too tedious to plow through because the gameplay is a hurdle, then I guess I’d be better off reading a story summary. Does this mean I’m not up for challenges or that I’m a crappy gamer? I don’t believe I am for enjoying different aspects of games. I don’t care about extreme achievements at all. Games are made for fun.

And that’s what DEVIL MAY CRY 4 was. Fun. My buddy Steven was turned off by the fact that at the middle point of the game, you basically just backtrack with another character. For not having played with Dante before in the previous games, I welcomed this. It was refreshing to me to continue the story with a totally different point of view. (something I expect from The Last Remnant as well, which also has two different protagonists.) And not having to replay everything with Dante from beginning to end saved me a lot of time, because I did not intend to replay the game at all. Spoilers ahead, people.

Story: Predictable and over the top.

When all you really have to do this game is mash buttons, I would feel over-rewarded if I got intricate plots à la Final Fantasy X or Metal Gear Solid for just button mashing. Which makes DMC fun to play through. From beginning to end, it’s pretty much a no-brainer action flick. And every once in a while, that’s just fun. I found the highlights to be after unlocking Dante. Things got lighthearted after that. Nero’s story was just a typical “I GOTTA RESCUE HER >.<!!!!” plot.

– 4 out fo 6. It made it into my positive range for being entertaining. But as I mentioned, it’s no epic at a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars scale; just enough for no-brainer entertainment.

Characters: The ones that matter are amusing.

Nero is cool. Kinda one-dimensional, but really…don’t most guys who want to rescue their girlfriends have a one-track mind? His Devilbringer arm is fun and incredibly handy in combos, but I have to wonder about his sword. He can rev up his sword for additional damage. Nice concept. But I think I recall that the protagonist from Final Fantasy Versus 13 is also supposed to have a sword that can be revved up…Hmm. Either way, it was a trip to hear the Black Power Ranger voice a videogame lead. Go you, Johnny!

Kyrie is the lousiest girl I ever had to save in a videogame. She isn’t just a damsel in distress. She rarely talks, is whiny and doesn’t really serve any other purpose than sing the intro song and get kidnapped so Nero can get all angsty over saving her. At least Rinoa and Aerith were useful. In tradition to Capcom characters, however, she has a huge rack. I don’t know if that’s a good thing on such a terrible character with a terrible, terrible voice.

Dante is so much fun. But that’s what you get when a character is so established already. There’s no need to introduce him or let him evolve in character. You want background information on the dude? Get the PS3 version and eat a sandwhich while the game installs and recaps DMC1-3 for you. I didn’t really use his 4 fighting styles that much at all, nor did I switch between weapons as much. There really wasn’t a need for it on this difficulty, really. But I guess it’s nice to have options in asskicking.

Credo is Kyrie’s brother. He’s actually two-dimensional, compared to Nero. He cares for Kyrie…but he’s also a duty dude. Which always means that you end up fighting him. It’s cool, though. His voice actor was decent and the actual fight was a lot of fun. I gotta say that it was more challenging than fighting the final boss. Props to Credo for that.

Agnus. W-w-w-w-where the h-h-h-h-hell did they find this guy? I hated him. Fighting him was stupid as well. His only redeeming moment is when he and Dante briefly perform a Shakespearian play. Though it was more a shining moment for Dante, brightening things up in the game whenever you play with him. Oh, right. This portion was supposed to be about Agnus.

Sanctus is a a joke. Even Seymour wasn’t this bad. I’m skipping Sanctus. Because he’s that boring and uninspirational to fight against. And the final fight is an even bigger joke. It’s sort of reminiscent of the fight with the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus, or God of War 2, but done badly.

The other characters, Trish and Lady, are a lot cooler (and equally hotter?) than the newly introduced characters for this game. Even though Lady appears incredibly brief, it’s worth every minute. And Trish had great chemistry with Dante, which made for amusing cutscenes.

– 3 out of 6. Unfortunately, Dante and the ladies don’t really stand out enough to make you forget about Kyrie and Sanctus. While those two are more involved in Nero’s storyline, I just couldn’t forget about how bad they were as characters.

Gameplay: Easy enough to pick up.

DMC4 was my first Devil May Cry playthrough, and I was afraid it was supposedly as brutal as DMC3 was. But I trusted various reviews and my past experience with DMC2. If you’re into pretty graphics like I am, you can pretty much just play through this game with no difficulty. It does not use the event-action-trigger-press-a-button-crap that was introduced in God of War and then recycled into every other actiongame after that, which I was happy about. The upgrading system was easy enough, and one could just opt to automatically distribute the points to whatever ability the game offers. So if you want, the gameplay can be just as much of a no-brainer, like the plot. The bosses are generally easy and fun to fight. Of course, you get to fight them twice, first as Nero and then as Dante. So you’re not really fighting the same fight.

The difference in the two heroes’ fighting style may throw you off at first, but their physical abilities are generally the same and you still wield a big-ass sword to cut through bosses and enemies. The concept stays the same. Deal with it. Dante gets a wide variety of weapons/fighting styles, which should be familiar to veteran DMC players. For me, it was completely new so I stuck to Swordmaster style since it was the most similar to Nero’s melee style.

– 4 out of 6. I’ve said it all, really. Pick up and play.

Graphics: Some of the best to date.

For an early Next-gen game, the graphics are great. I can only expect videogame graphics to be even better in the future, but nothing really bothered me in this game. From character design to the special effects, it’s all pleasing to the eye. Cinematically, Capcom did a good job engaging the player with whatever story there was. It’s heavily animé-inspired though, making everything incredibly over the top. But why restrict everything to the laws of physics? Games aren’t fun if they don’t tickle your imagination.

– 6 out of 6! Of all the games I’ve played on my PS3 so far, this one is without a doubt the best looking in my own collection. Heavenly Sword was gorgeous, but DMC4 was way more consistent in quality than HS was.

Conclusion

I really sat down for this game for about three sessions. With each session, I breezed through the missions because it engaged me so well. The only downtime I really had was dying to those sharkfins-whatever. But it was like playing through a movie, which I like a lot. I hate it when games are extremely short, but DMC kept me busy long enough before I got bored with it, mostly because after you spent all the time getting to where Nero needed to be, you backtrack everything with Dante. If anything, it would build up the expectation that things are different now. Which they are. Kind of.

I’d say “Rent it” if you just want to play through it for story sake, but since that’s not really an option here in the Netherlands, wait for the price to drop instead. I know I’m not going to bother with the harder modes, but that’s just me. If you’ve enjoyed the DMC series before, then I’m sure you will like this one too. But besides updated graphics and being easier, I don’t think the game strays from the original concept all that much. Up to you to decide whether it’s bad or not. But regardless of that… Who could possibly say “No” to Dante?

Oh. And maybe Nero too. They’re both pretty. But pretty can’t always save personality. Or lack thereof.

Right, Kyrie?

Final score: 60%

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