* This is a very nothing story and 70% of the reason is because we have seen/done this before! This is a complete retread of Devil May Cry 3 in its themes, similar demonic structure rising in the middle of the city, antagonist, hell! Dante even does the whole skit with Cerberus again. I have a question for Devil May Cry Diehards - Why is the reveal about Nero's father made to be something big? I could have sworn that Devil May Cry 4 already revealed that, or at least, heavily implied the identity of his father. What makes it even more strange is that several demon's refer to Nero as "Sparda's kin". Sparda only had 2 son's. If Dante is not his father then of course there is only one other. I don't think they thought about that. I don't think they though about anything actually. At the end of the day this story only manages to do one thing and that is to put a end to a decades old rivalry (decades in and outside game), but everything else? Exactly where Devil May Cry 4 left off. By the way, I am convinced 100% that there is a Inuyasha fan on the team. A lot of similarities.
* Characters do not fair much better. Nero, the titular character, spends 90% of the game butt hurt because Dante called him dead weight and then has the last portion of the game Goku-ed by said character as well. Trish and Lady amount to nothing(minus bad bodies). The main antagonist in both his forms is entirely one dimensional and has such a severe and sudden mood swing at the end of the game that it makes you think he thought this entire ordeal up while on toilet one day. The only characters of note are Nico and Newcomer (ha) V. I like them; that's all (first DMC characters to score that honor). I'll give some credit to Dante as well; for the first time, I warmed up to the character. Did not really find the appeal to him till this game. Bonus points for the scene after you get Hat weapon.
* The biggest, baddest enemy in this game is the control scheme. It feels overloaded, especially in light of progress that Platinum has made in simplifying said topic as a hurdle. Jumping is clunky as shit... just as it was in original Devil May Cry waaay back in 2001(?). Dodge button is only active when locking onto enemies and you better believe that took time to relearn. Game uses every button on the controller so it leads to some buttons changing function when locked on or not (Nero cant use Devil Arms when locked on) and it means that we get ridiculous directional inputs because they are running out buttons. This is exemplified because....
* All 3 characters are very complex. So many different layers upon layers that it makes it a struggle to "git good" with each of them. Nero is suppose to be the beginner friendly character. No. Nero has his own Sword and Gun trees, then on top of that he has the Devil Breaker mechanic, nifty Mega Man like power ups that have multiple functions depending on various factors (charging,ground, air, enemy against wall, so on). Then he has the Exceed system that has you pull the L2 trigger at the end of every attack animation to unleash powered up attacks and theeeeeeen he has his own Devil Trigger that has its own moves...ugh. Dante has 16 skills trees (vs 8 for Nero and 5 for V), 4 different weapons, 4 different guns, and 4 different styles and each of these styles slightly changes how he uses said weapons... with 2 different Devil Triggers because he doesn't have a enough * throws hands in the air*. V is my favorite character just because of how more palatable gameplay wise he is when compared to Dante and Nero. This is made even worst...
* Because some dummy thought that you should switch between characters between chapters. I get that they wanted to tell a cohesive story but I would much rather just had picked my character of choice so I can have time to get a grip on one character and spend less time re-adjusting between many. Also, this means those red orbs that are used to power up characters are shared. Unless you grind, you will not max any character out and somebody is falling behind.
* Correct me if I am wrong; didn't the previous Devil May Cry's have adventure/puzzle elements? Devil May Cry V is long corridors to the next fight with the only attempts at doing anything else being door is locked find key that is very close by or here is multiple paths.. take one, and do the same shit anyways. I am pretty positive OG Devil May Cry had missions with different objectives. While the big fights are fun everything between is a bore. You can try and find the secret missions which offer some fun challenges. that's it.
Devil May Cry V has the Shenmue 3 problem; Sequels to games that came out decades ago and in those decades the genres have advanced and those advancements are ignored by these sequels. I had a lot of fun with the game contrary to what my wall of complaints might imply but I don't see myself having any extended play time with this one. This is not a terrible, bad or even meh game but more a disappointing one; It's a great DMC that doesn't do anything except be a sequel to a game 10 years old. I'm sure CAP decided to play it safe after DmC, but I think it was too safe for its own good. DMC definitely needs a new direction.
8/10
