Review: Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition

Real Dante returns

It wasn’t until I played the very first Devil May Cry game that I knew I was an action fan. I must have beaten it five times at launch, pouring through every facet over weeks, perfecting my frame-by-frame combat abilities — it was a true testament to how the series would come to slowly define the genre.

Devil May Cry 2 was a misstep for sure, but it’s a mistake I was willing to suffer through to get to the third iteration, which I consider the best action game to this day (sorry Bayonetta 2, I still love you). It was odd, then, that Devil May Cry 4 was such a downgrade in many respects three years later.

With a polarizing new hero and a campaign that featured a heavy amount of backtracking, it was a tough game to love, and after a few completions I just went back to the previous entry. But under that rough veneer was a very solid action game, and one that’s made even better with the newly minted Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition package.

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition (PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
MSRP: $24.99
Release Date: June 23, 2015

After booting it up, you’ll have the option to play the original campaign with Nero and Dante, solely as Vergil, or a joint story of Lady and Trish, mirroring the former pair’s split-story. Each character has their own customizable set of controls, and the Legendary Dark Knight mode (previously exclusive to the PC version) is open from the very start. I immediately sprung for Vergil and was not disappointed.

If you’re a newcomer, you’ll likely want to replay the base story for some background, as the new characters merely have a new intro and ending to cap things off. It’s essentially the exact same levels and bosses, but thanks to the fundamentally reworked movesets, the experiences feel nothing alike. Also for newcomers, the “automatic” control option returns for easier combos, as well as an automatic level-up function where the game chooses your upgrades for you.

Veterans will be pleased to find a turbo option (increasing the speed by 20%) as well as your typical lock-on tweaks. Those of you out there who never played the PC version are in for a treat, as Legendary Dark Knight is about as balls-to-the-wall as it gets. The entire screen in nearly every area is littered with enemies, and it even goes so far as to add in endgame foes in the second mission.

Despite the fact that there aren’t any other major new modes, this is not a lazy remake by any means, as the three aforementioned character additions spice things up considerably. Vergil is probably my personal favorite new playstyle; possibly my favorite of the entire series. His style is fast and flashy, as he can still “trick” teleport up, down (which can also be used to cancel attacks), and forward, but he has a major new mechanic to manage that makes him more unique. Vergil now has a “concentration” gauge, which increases when he is walking, taunting, or connecting with abilities, and lowers when he runs, whiffs attacks, or gets hit. Raising this gauge increases your statline and opens up some new powers that are reliant on a full meter.

It completely changes the way you play, as walking like a badass is now a priority, and missing attacks is more punishing. That’s not to say that the game is “impossible” if you don’t feel like mastering concentration on a normal or easy difficulty level, it just makes it more fun — though it will increase your chances of survival later on. Take one advanced tactic from Vergil: teleporting. By using a sword projectile, Vergil can “stick” an enemy for later. By using the forward trick, you can instantly teleport to that marked baddie. He’s extremely mobile, much like Dante’s trickster style in Devil May Cry 3 or his appearance herein. To me, Vergil is the main event.

Trish and Lady crash as well, starting with a small pizza party intro with Dante. Lady’s playstyle, like Vergil before her, completely changes the way one would approach Devil May Cry, mostly because of her reliance on guns. In previous games, guns could always be used with effectiveness, but weren’t really ideal. With Lady though, they’re front and center. She has her Kalina Ann rocket launcher (which doubles as a grappling hook to mirror Nero’s platforming abilities in the story), handguns, and a shotgun. While the latter two guns mesh with Dante’s gunslinger style, the Kalina Ann acts almost nothing like it did in Devil May Cry 3.

Her rocket sports a few melee abilities, a rocket-jump boost, and a throw, but the focus for her is ranged combat. Additionally, since Lady is human, she uses a super grenade blast instead of a Devil Trigger. It’s really hard to get a good style rating at first, but once you learn to start chaining throws and juggling with different guns and abilities, it gets real fun real fast. Classic bosses like Berial are seen in a whole new light when you’re trying to turtle and keep them at bay with rockets.

I didn’t expect much from Trish, but she’s come a long way since her appearance in the first game. Her entire style hinges on the fact that she can’t switch weapons, and instead just has a shit-ton of moves at her disposal. This sounds lame on paper. It’s anything but in practice, as said moves are a ton of fun. In addition to a smorgasbord of powers from the entire series, she also sports some movesets from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, as well as Round Trip, a boomerang of sorts that will continue to attack enemies while she’s doing her thing.

Dante himself though is still the king. He has access to his five styles (Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Royalguard, and Dark Slayer), which can be switched out at any time using the d-pad. If you haven’t seen the absolutely insane combos and possibilities that this system creates, take a look at this. Yes, with 1080p visuals and 60fps, you can still craft and employ advanced frame-specific mechanics, and beyond. With how deep the combat system is even to this day, I expect plenty of similar discoveries for the rest of the cast. That cast, by the way, is added in a way that feels like a natural continuation of Devil May Cry 3, which is a nice touch. I love little details like the fact that everyone has their own lock-on reticle.

Sadly, the bad news is that all of this extra content doesn’t necessarily fix the level design. The core problem hinges with the halfway point of the campaign, in which Dante (or Vergil/Trish) backtracks through the story, fighting the same exact bosses all over again. Not every level is exactly the same per se, but it’s enough to grate on most players, especially since the pacing slows down a bit near the end. To unlock Dante, you’ll have to play as Nero, and to unlock Trish, you’ll have to play as Lady for a while.

It’s not that this system is bad per se because of how strong the combat systems are, it’s just odd, as it feels like Capcom rushed its development a bit. The boss fights themselves are challenging and enjoyable, but having to do them all over again (or more, once you hit a gauntlet-like area at the end) is a bummer. The same goes for trekking through locales you’ve already seen at length.

Having said all that, the juice is worth the squeeze, even more-so than before because of the new playstyles. While Nero operated like a handicapped Dante in the original edition, Vergil, Trish, and Lady have all cemented their places into the pantheon of Devil May Cry, to the point where I would love to see at least one of them (if not all) return in a future iteration.

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition reaffirms the series’ status as the current king of the action genre. It may not fix some of the blemishes inherent to the game’s campaign, but the new characters and styles are fantastic, and will have players creating combo videos for years to come. With respect to DmC and everything it accomplished, this is the Devil May Cry I want to see in the future, Capcom.

_{[This review is based on a retail build provided by the publisher.]}