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
‘Her Private Hell’ Review: Nicolas Winding Refn Returns With a Hypnotic, Inscrutable Neon Fever Dream
Nicolas Winding Refn considers his first feature film in ten years, Her Private Hell, a resurrection. At the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the filmmaker revealed that his return was inspired, in large part, by his own mortality. His need to create art kicked into overdrive after beating death in 2023, when his heart stopped for 25 minutes.
Her Private Hell is pure art, too, bearing the filmmaker’s neon and synth signatures, as well as a deep disinterest in scrutable storytelling. Much like The Neon Demon, Refn’s latest demands you bend to its wavelength: an expressionistic vision more interested in the artistic process than the narrative.
That’s not to say that Her Private Hell lacks plot; this sci-fi horror noir features two central overlapping plots. At the forefront is actress Elle (Sophie Thatcher), who lives in the penthouse suite overlooking a hazy neon metropolis with her father, Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott), and young stepmom Dominique (Havana Rose Liu), who happens to be Elle’s former best friend before marriage got in the way.
To say that Elle has daddy issues would be an understatement, made worse by insecurities, the arrival of a new acting ingenue (Kristine Froseth), and a vicious killer prowling the city: the Leather Man.
The secondary plot follows the enigmatic Private K (Charles Melton), an American soldier in Japan with resolute vengeance on his mind. Whereas Elle’s world exists in a space of glamour and opulence, Private K pummels his way bare-knuckled through the sweaty backstreets ruled by local crime syndicates down below.
Refn, who co-writes with Esti Giordani, manages to corral a variety of seemingly disparate genres and influences into a clinically cold and cryptic whole. The filmmaker infuses his signature style with everything from ’60s sci-fi to Golden Age Hollywood melodrama to Japanese folklore, hung on the framework of a Dario Argento-style Giallo. There’s a prominent psychosexual edge to both Elle and Private K’s separate journeys, one that dials up to zany excess when it comes to the former character.
There’s an overarching sense of mystic mythmaking to Her Private Hell, with elusive seamstresses, played by Shioli Kutsuna and Aoi Yamada, dipping in and out like folkloric, omnipotent kitsune as they seemingly preside over the increasing chaos that entails brutal knife fights, Freudian melodrama, and a supernatural killer that brutally rips his victims apart. All of it told with Refn’s detached, sterile style.
It’s less a conventional movie and more a stream of consciousness, a collection of inspirations and personal thoughts and themes. Nothing is really explained in this nonsensical fairy tale fever dream. Thatcher gives herself fully to the spoiled Elle, whose affluent privilege makes her a bundle of raw, primal emotions that erodes her sense of identity and reality. It makes her the tonal and visual opposite of the elusive Private K., and much credit goes to Refn, Melton, and Thatcher for wringing compelling performances out of such nebulous, vague characters.
As with most of Refn’s work, you’re either on his frequency or not. Her Private Hell is wholly uninterested in explanation or convention. It’s also heavily disjointed and unhurried in its eclectic, sparse amalgamation of genre inspirations. Still, it’s tough not to fall sway to the magnetic allure of its exquisite, pulse-pounding sights and sounds, complete with an incredible score by legendary composer Pino Donaggio.
While it never fully pulls you into its tangled web of artistic musings, there’s a lot to admire in a technically stunning feature this fearless in its incomprehensibility and ambition.
Her Private Hell releases in theaters on July 24.
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