Reviews
[Review] ‘Devil May Cry 5’ Revitalizes the Demon-Slaying Series Whilst Retaining its Signature Style
Better the devil you know? In Bloody Disgusting’s Devil May Cry 5 review, find out why Capcom has kept up its recent winning streak.
Devil May Cry 5 is a warm glass of nostalgia served after a heady shot of fresh ideas. It isn’t always a good thing, but it works really well most of the time, and is at least a welcome change from just more of the same.
While I loved Ninja Theory’s attempted 2013 reboot of the series, it is admittedly rather nice to see the original Dante return alongside much of the team that created previous Devil May Cry titles. Yes, Nu-Dante had a more nuanced story and character arc, but this Dante, this Dante is so deliciously indulgent in his absurdity. He and his games (apart from the dry toast Devil May Cry 2) are fantastically over the top demon-slaying, quip-flinging extravaganzas. It also helps that they’re generally bloody good games too.
This Dante is now a seasoned pro, and ably assisted by Devil May Cry 4‘s Nero, and enigmatic new character V as they face off against yet another potentially world-ending threat. The magic here is, the already cocky Dante gains a whole new level of cheesy bullshit to his repertoire, and the youthful quipping is left to Nero, who has seemingly absorbed much of the swagger, look, and attitude of Ninja Theory’s Dante in a much-needed redesign. Here, the pair are much further apart in style and appearance, but that bit closer in terms of personality traits.
V, meanwhile, brings the newest stuff to the table, and it’s fair to say he’s set to be an acquired taste, but we’ll come back to that in a while.
The story sees the action pick up several years after Devil May Cry 4‘s end and initially focuses on a battle between a powerful demon named Urizen and our plucky band of demon hunters (Trish and Lady briefly join Dante and Nero during this time). Unfortunately, things don’t turn out well for the gang and Nero has to return at a later date to find one of his number.
It’s a slick opening too. Capcom’s RE Engine has provided some grimly beautiful visuals for Resident Evil 7 and the remake of RE2, but in Devil May Cry 5, the first non-Resident Evil game to use the engine, it dazzles with its detail, vibrancy, and animation. This is an unbelievably good-looking game, and the level of character detail really helps to connect you to this loveable bunch of goofy badass demon slayers (new assistant Nico is utterly charming even when she does go on yet another excitable ramble).
As noted earlier, the possible exception is V. He’s so different from the other two, especially in terms of playstyle and personality. He’s quieter, more mysterious with his words, and can come across as a bit boring compared to the in your face nature of Dante and Nero. His combat is interesting as he himself does not attack the enemy, rather he summons two beasts to do the fighting for him, with his raven essentially acting as his gun, and his panther as his sword/melee stand-in. It all feels a bit unnatural when seen next tot he more intimate hack n’ slash styles of the other two, and the camera initially draws your eye towards the wrong point. It takes some getting used to, but dare I say that as the game went on, I warmed to V more and more. There’s just something refreshing about his style, and it prevents Devil May Cry 5 from being a simple, straight sequel by offering up something new.
As for the others, Dante has the odd new trick, but feels comfortably familiar and somewhat limited in his moveset. He’s great to play still, but he doesn’t bring a lot new to the table. While Nero has been greatly revised thanks to his new cybernetic ‘Devil Breaker’ arm that he can use as a missile, a rocketboard, and more (you can find lots of different ones). His overall movement and moveset make for a more exciting character to play this time around. There’s something to like about all three, but personally, Nero proved to be the most satisfying overall.
The main takeaway from all fighting styles is that they’re weightier than you may be used to from the original series. It’s something of a halfway house between DmC: Devil May Cry‘s slower, more diverse combat, and Devil May Cry 4‘s sleeker, faster, and lighter feel. That it still manages to be largely comfortable and familiar is a testament to the work done by this Capcom team.
It’s well-complimented by a stonking soundtrack that, while not the series’ best, is a wonderful thematical continuation of previous scores. Devil May Cry is always at its best when the combos are flowing and the music is in full force, and Devil May Cry 5 certainly provides plenty of that.
It’s not all sunshine and demonic rainbows though. The chopping and changing between characters in each chapter doesn’t always gel. Given the movesets, and button prompts being a bit different in each character, it can get pretty jarring going from one to the next. Most of the time though, it works well enough. Plus, you do get a choice sometimes.
Elsewhere, the environments start out well, but disappointingly, the game goes through a spell of drab, predictable locales such as sewers before returning to more interesting and varied fare. In fairness, even brown sewers look pretty great in Devil May Cry 5, but a bit more inspiration when choosing locations wouldn’t go amiss next time.
At least the game goes at a good pace so you don’t spend too long gazing upon pretty sewage. The 20 or so missions fly by, and the combat is generally good enough to mask the dour (but sparkly) scenery when it does crop up. The creature design is also top-notch in Devil May Cry 5, with a wide selection of delightfully repugnant monsters to shoot, slash, and punch into oblivion. The bosses, in particular, are some of the best-looking beasties in the entire series, and almost without exception, they are a joy to battle.
With Devil May Cry 5, Capcom tweaks the winning formula here and there to not only freshen up the most famous action hack n’ slash series around, but actually push it back to the top of the pile once again. Yes, it stumbles occasionally, and perhaps replay value isn’t quite as high as it could have been, but Devil May Cry 5 once again embraces the kinetic madness that made so many fall in love with Dante and his blood-spattered adventures in demon-slaying in the first place, and that’s truly what makes this a great game.
Devil May Cry 5 review copy purchased by the author.
Devil May Cry 5 is out now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Reviews
“AHS: Delicate” Review – “Little Gold Man” Mixes Oscar Fever & Baby Fever into the Perfect Product
‘AHS: Delicate’ enters early labor with a fun, frenzied episode that finds the perfect tone and goes for broke as its water breaks.
“I’ll figure it out. Women always do.”
American Horror Story is no stranger to remixing real-life history with ludicrous, heightened Murphy-isms, whether it’s AHS: 1984’s incorporation of Richard Ramirez, AHS: Cult’s use of Valerie Solanas, or AHS: Coven’s prominent role for the Axeman of New Orleans. Accordingly, it’s very much par for the course for AHS: Delicate to riff on other pop culture touchstones and infinitely warp them to its wicked whims. That being said, it takes real guts to do a postmodern feminist version of Rosemary’s Baby and then actually put Mia Farrow – while she’s filming Rosemary’s Baby, no less – into the narrative. This is the type of gonzo bullshit that I want out of American Horror Story! Sharon Tate even shows up for a minute because why the hell not? Make no mistake, this is completely absurd, but the right kind of campy absurdity that’s consistently been in American Horror Story’s wheelhouse since its inception. It’s a wild introduction that sets up an Oscar-centric AHS: Delicate episode for success. “Little Gold Man” is a chaotic episode that’s worth its weight in gold and starts to bring this contentious season home.
It’d be one thing if “Little Gold Man” just featured a brief detour to 1967 so that this season of pregnancy horror could cross off Rosemary’s Baby from its checklist. AHS: Delicate gets more ambitious with its revisionist history and goes so far as to say that Mia Farrow and Anna Victoria Alcott are similarly plagued. “Little Gold Man” intentionally gives Frank Sinatra dialogue that’s basically verbatim from Dex Harding Sr., which indicates that this demonic curse has been ruffling Hollywood’s feathers for the better part of a century. Anna Victoria Alcott’s Oscar-nominated feature film, The Auteur, is evidently no different than Rosemary’s Baby. It’s merely Satanic forces’ latest attempt to cultivate the “perfect product.” “Little Gold Man” even implies that the only reason that Mia Farrow didn’t go on to make waves at the 1969 Academy Awards and ends up with her twisted lot in life is because she couldn’t properly commit to Siobhan’s scheme, unlike Anna.
This is easily one of American Horror Story’s more ridiculous cold opens, but there’s a lot of love for the horror genre and Hollywood that pumps through its veins. If Hollywood needs to be a part of AHS: Delicate’s story then this is actually the perfect connective tissue. On that note, Claire DeJean plays Sharon Tate in “Little Gold Man” and does fine work with the brief scene. However, it would have been a nice, subtle nod of continuity if AHS: Delicate brought back Rachel Roberts who previously portrayed Tate in AHS: Cult. “Little Gold Man” still makes its point and to echo a famous line from Jennifer Lynch’s father’s television masterpiece: “It is happening again.”
“Little Gold Man” is rich in sequences where Anna just rides the waves of success and enjoys her blossoming fame. She feels empowered and begins to finally take control of her life, rather than let it push her around and get under her skin like a gestating fetus. Anna’s success coincides with a colossal exposition dump from Tavi Gevinson’s Cora, a character who’s been absent for so long that we were all seemingly meant to forget that she was ever someone who was supposed to be significant. Cora has apparently been the one pulling many of Anna’s strings all along as she goes Single White Female, rather than Anna having a case of Repulsion. It’s an explanation that oddly works and feeds into the episode’s more general message of dreams becoming nightmares. Cora continuing to stay aligned with Dr. Hill because she has student loans is also somehow, tragically the perfect explanation for her abhorrent behavior. It’s not the most outlandish series of events in an episode that also briefly gives Anna alligator legs and makes Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian kiss.
“Little Gold Man” often feels like it hits the fast-forward button as it delivers more answers, much in the same vein as last week’s “Ava Hestia.” These episodes are two sides of the same coin and it’s surely no coincidence that they’re both directed by Jennifer Lynch. This season has benefitted from being entirely written by Halley Feiffer – a first for the series – but it’s unfortunate that Lynch couldn’t direct every episode of AHS: Delicate instead of just four out of nine entries. That’s not to say that a version of this season that was unilaterally directed by Lynch would have been without its issues. However, it’s likely that there’d be a better sense of synergy across the season with fewer redundancies. She’s responsible for the best episodes of AHS: Delicate and it’s a disappointment that she won’t be the one who closes the season out in next week’s finale.
To this point, “Little Gold Man” utilizes immaculate pacing that helps this episode breeze by. Anna’s Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony are in the same episode, whereas it feels like “Part 1” of the season would have spaced these events out over four or five episodes. This frenzied tempo works in “Little Gold Man’s” favor as AHS: Delicate speed-runs to its finish instead of getting lost in laborious plotting and unnecessary storytelling. This is how the entire season should have been. Although it’s also worth pointing out that this is by far the shortest episode of American Horror Story to date at only 34 minutes. It’s a shame that the season’s strongest entries have also been the ones with the least amount of content. There could have been a whole other act to “Little Gold Man,” or at the least, a substantially longer cold open that got more out of its Mia Farrow mayhem.
“Little Gold Man” is an American Horror Story episode that does everything right, but is still forced to contend with three-quarters of a subpar season. “Part 2” of AHS: Delicate actually helps the season’s first five episodes shine brighter in retrospect and this will definitely be a season that benefits from one long binge that doesn’t have a six-month break in the middle. Unfortunately, anyone who’s already watched it once will likely not feel compelled to experience these labor pains a second time over. With one episode to go and Anna’s potential demon offspring ready to greet the world, AHS: Delicate is poised to deliver one hell of a finale.
Although, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “How do you expect to be a good conclusion if this is what you’re chasing?”
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