For those that don't know, Devil May Cry 3 is actually set before the original. The game starts with a young Dante just opening up his new devil hunting business when he receives an invitation from a dark man known only as Arkham. This 'invitation' demands he meet up with his twin brother, Vergil, who it seems is trying to open a portal to the Demon World where their father, the fabled demon knight Sparda, locked away his power many years ago. Dante somehow is the key to unlocking this, but just how he's involved remains a mystery. Each of the missions are introduced and ended with cutscenes that furthers the plot and fills in the the story of each of the characters, but what players will really be pleased to see is the return of the cocksure, bad ass Dante we loved 4 years ago. Dante from Devil May Cry 2 is long gone and here Dante is immediately back to the wise-cracking demon slayer we all knew he is supposed to be.
The gameplay is an evolution of the original Devil May Cry. There are ideas and weapons from Devil May Cry 2 here too but now add to a proper gameplay system, unlike in DMC2 where alot was just cosmetics. The way Dante moves and fights and the degree of control you have over him make it obvious the game is designed around Dante as its focal point, not like Devil May Cry 2 where he was simply dropped into a world he didn't belong in. It's clear from the start that this is once again Dante's world and mastering complete control of him is essential for success.
Huzzah for the purple coat.
The controls are similar to both of the previous games, though they are totally customizable. By default Dante moves with the analog stick, jumps with the X button, shoots with Square and uses his melee weapon with the Triangle button. Locking on enemies and using your Devil Trigger move are assigned to the R1 and L1 buttons respectively while the other shoulder buttons are used for conveniently switching weapons and guns on the fly, something the first game really needed. The biggest addition to Devil May Cry 3 lies on the circle button which is used to perform moves associated with different styles.
Dante's fighting is split up into 4 main different styles. 'Swordmaster' gives you an extra melee attack button which massively increases the combo possibilities and potential of the melee weapons, plus he can use elemental magic which each weapon has. 'Gunslinger' powers up your guns via an extra gun shot button, with rapid fire and charged shot ability, and gives you gun specific moves like being able to shoot in two different directions at once. On top of this is another move which sees Dante holding the heads of enemies to the floor with his boot and popping caps into their heads. 'Trickster' focuses on evasion by giving you an extra evade button. With a single button press you can can make Dante run up or along walls or perform a fast dodge which is invincible. The fourth style is 'Royal Guard'. Here the Circle button gives you the ability to block. By holding the button Dante blocks as you'd expect him to, but tapping the button at the same time as an enemies attack will result in a parry and cause the enemy to get knocked off guard and is wide open to attack. In addition to this, each time you block or parry Dante will charge harmful energy which can be released on enemies nearby. There are two further styles to be acquired thoughout the game, too.
With use, you gain experience points for each of the styles which each can be powered up to a total of 3 levels of power. Each level reached gives you access to more moves. Lets take the 'Trickster' style for example, as it's closest to how the original played. With 'Trickster' you start off with a simple evade move that gives Dante the same invincibility as he did on his roll on DMC. Level it up to Level 2 and you can dodge twice and in mid air. When you've achieved Level 3 it allows for instant teleportation powers. Because levels are attained with actual use rather than simply buying them, the game constantly encourages you to explore all of what Dante is capable of so, unlike in DMC2, simply bashing the shoot button all the way through the game isn't going to beneficial to you in the long run. All of the styles are pretty well balanced, there doesn't seem to be one that's noticeably better than any of the others and there's no point in the game where you are forced to use a certain style. Some are probably more suited to experienced players to get the most out of them like the 'Royal Guard' style, but which you use is all down to personal preference.
The best way to level up your styles is to make the best use you can of Devil May Cry's famous combo system. The combo system remains similar to that of the past games. It rewards for hitting the enemies as fast as you can, as many times as you can, and in as many different ways as you can. The latter being arguably the most important, variety really is key in getting the high combo scores, as repeating the same moves over and over will actually result in the player losing points. Of course, with the ability to swap between 2 melee weapons and 2 shooting weapons via the shoulder button, mixing things up and experimenting in creating new combos is greater than ever. High combo's not only bring better scores, they also produce more orbs, the 'currency' of Devil May Cry. Guns can be made more powerful, new abilities can be learnt and items such as health refills and continues can be obtained by spending your orbs at the start of the mission or at hour-glass statues throughout the game.
As well as the different styles Dante has at his disposal, each weapon that Dante discovers provides the player with a whole new series of attacks with which to learn. Compared to the previous games, the difference between the weapons in [b]Devil May Cry 3[/i] is staggering. Not only do you have the sword and gauntlet-like weaponry from past titles, but you're also given new types of weapons such as nunchucks, dual-wielded blades and even a sword/guitar hybrid that's beyond explanation. Each weapon plays very differently from the next and has completely different button strikes and command sequences for the strings and combos giving the player even more depth and variety to play around with.
Nun-chucks, to the EXTREME!
The actual game is presented a little differently this time around. You can now play past levels at will, something that you'll probably find yourselves doing a lot as building up orbs and experience points can only help your quest in the long run. The gameplay itself however remains similar to that of the original. You control Dante through hordes of enemies, occasionally finding a certain key that fits in a certain lock before squaring up against a boss of some kind. Unfortunately things never go any further than that. There are a few puzzles here and there that incorporate the action-oriented game engine well, but not as much as we'd hoped, especially when you consider how much the likes of Resident Evil 4 benefited from having much less 'key carrying'. But it's not a major criticism, especially when Devil May Cry 3 is focused mainly on combat, something that this game does far better than its predecessors.
Each and every enemy gives out clues to signal when it's going to attack and what type of attack is coming. There are both visual and audio ques as to when an enemy will attack. For example, if you're in the middle of a combo and you hear that familiar laughing sound that means an enemy is just about to attack you. But simply pressing the dodge button straight away means you'll dodge in time to avoid getting hurt and and are able to instantly carry on fighting. With time it becomes automatic and everything just flows beautifully once you've memorized the sounds each enemy makes and what animation they do just before an attack. No other game allows you to fight like this, it looks choreographed when you're throwing out something special!
As well as dodging you can strike an attack with your sword to stop it if timed well. Boss fights are just the same. A boss will never just randomly attack, it will give clues when it's going to attack and how it will attack, it's up to you to work out what each clue means and then what to do when it happens. Bosses have been an important part of the Devil May Cry series so far and this game remains true to that. There's nearly a dozen main bosses throughout the game, all impressive in their own way. But it's the bosses that our first real problem with the game lies. In a game where its real strength is in melee combat, there just aren't enough smaller bosses to fight. Screen fillers are always impressive things to battle, but it's very hard sometimes to get up close and personal with them due to either their sheer size or to camera problems caused by their size, meaning you have to resort to shooting more than you would like to. Don't get me wrong, Devil May Cry has some fantastic boss fights, some of the best ever infact, but we just wish one or two more would test your melee abilities more than they do.
Devil May Cry 3's difficulty has been somewhat a cause for debate. The US version of the game had some big differences with the Japanese version. Firstly, the difficulty settings were different. Normal mode on the North American version was actually Hard mode on the Japanese version, easy was normal, etc. The bigger change is that of the checkpoint system. The Japanese version featured invisible checkpoints throughout the game. This meant if you died on a boss for example, you would restart just before the boss. In the North American version this was changed and dying meant going back to the start of the level each and every time. The PAL version is based on the Japanese settings, and is a better game. The default difficulty setting in the Japanese version was perfect - hard enough to offer a stiff challenge, but not too hard that you'll lose patience with it. The game also benefits from having a checkpoint system in place. The bosses in DMC3 are certainly no pushovers, and the option to jump straight back into the fight after failure is a highly welcome one.
DMC3 features 20 missions in total and on the default difficulty setting, including the time for deaths, the game is anything from 10-20hrs long. Of course, with so many different styles and weapons to master, you'll need to play through the game multiple times to experience everything. If that wasn't enough reason to come back, on completion of the game you'll unlock all sorts of things suck as new costumes and art galleries aswell as some expert gameplay movies.
Distinctly Capcom.
This is easily the best Devil May Cry game in regards to graphics. From the very first cutscene the game reeks of quality. In fact, it's the cutscenes that are arguably the biggest improvement to the game. I can quite easily say that in regards to choreography and camera direction, the cutscenes in DMC3 are the best in ANY game I have ever played. Yes, that includes the likes of Metal Gear Solid 3. Sure, many of the cutscenes verge on the impossible, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining seeing Dante running vertically down the side of a skyscraper or kicking up the back of a pool table, hitting the white ball with the edge of his sword, in turn hitting all of the other balls at 100mph into the faces of the oncoming horde of enemies. The overall visual quality may not be up to the levels of Resident Evil 4 or the smoothness of Metal Gear Solid 3, but it certainly surpasses them both in sheer quality and inventiveness. In game everything looks excellent. All the characters are animated excellently while the game moves at a very steady rate that slows down very rarely. The bosses are huge in many cases and are impressively animated. The very levels themselves are full of character and atmosphere. Gone are the bland generic urban settings of DMC2 thankfully. We still have some city levels, but these share more with the gothic theme of the first game.
Aurally the game is equally impressive. The sound effects are superbly done which each of the melee and ranged weapons having a distinctly powerful sound to them. Its heavy metal inspired music fits the game perfectly while the voice acting is also some of Capcom's better work. Dante sounds younger this time (which makes sense given this is a prequel to the first game) and has a cockier tone to his voice, while other characters such as Virgil are believably done. We only wish that there was more variety within the soundtrack. While we enjoy a main theme running throughout a game, DMC3 uses the same theme a little too often. The support of surround sound via DPLII makes up for things somewhat.
Devil May Cry 3 is an excellent game that does its problems here and there. The core gameplay outside of the combat is identical to the original game, the camera can still cause problems, enemies could have had a little more variety, some of the bosses are lacking in quality compared to others while the soundtrack is slightly limited. But none of these hinder the game in any major way. The combat engine is simply superb. With so much variety on offer and so much to learn as a result the game is a highly rewarding one. The cutscenes are pure brilliance while the story played out in them is pretty solid too. Devil May Cry 3 is a game we would recommend to any PS2 owner looking for something to get their teeth stuck into this Easter. With plenty of lifespan on offer as a result of the games difficulty you're getting plenty for your money here. For DMC fans still on the fence about this game, forget Devil May Cry 2. It doesn't exist anymore as far as we're concerned.
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