Devil May Cry 5
is a hack and slash third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the sixth installment in the franchise not counting mobile games and the fifth installment of the mainline Devil May Cry series. Capcom released it for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 8 March 2019. The game takes place five years after Devil May Cry 4 and follows a trio of warriors with demonic powers: the returning Dante, Nero and a new protagonist named V as they attempt to stop the Demon King Urizen from destroying the human world. Across the game, the player can use these characters in different missions. Each of them has their own way of fighting and becoming stronger. As this happens, the mystery behind V is revealed along with his connection with Urizen.
Devil May Cry 5 was directed by Hideaki Itsuno whose goal was for this installment to be his best work. He aimed to make the game balanced for both newcomers and returning gamers by providing adequate, difficult and new enemies. Capcom also wanted to bring a more realistic design inspired by the "RE Engine" used in their previous work, . As a result, models were used to make the character's faces. The plot was written by returning writer Bingo Morihashi while the setting was based on various locations in London. Multiple composers worked together to produce the game's audio, creating three main themes centered around the playable characters.
Devil May Cry 5 received positive reviews from critics, praising the variety of techniques the three characters bring, while also liking the handling of the narrative. The game won multiple game awards in both 2019 and 2020, sold over two million copies less than two weeks after its release, and surpassed three million in a year, becoming the top-selling game in the franchise. A light novel and manga related to the game by Morihashi have also been released.
Gameplay
The gameplay features the return of Dante and Nero as playable characters, along with a new character, named "V". The gameplay is similar to that of the other titles in the Devil May Cry series, focusing on fast-paced "stylish action"; The player fights off hordes of demons with a variety of attacks and weapons. They receive a style-rating for combat based on a number of factors, such as move variety, the length of a combo and dodging attacks. The game's music changes based on the player's performance in combat. Every time the player interacts with the mechanic Nico or finds a statue, he can buy new abilities for each character. While there are three playable characters, the game forces the player to use only one per mission. Like previous games, this title has a Bloody Palace mode where the player can face multiple types of demons in a single area.The first character is Nero who was introduced in Devil May Cry 4. He retains his Red Queen sword for melee combat, and the Blue Rose double-barreled revolver. However, he does not have his demonic arm from the previous game but has an assortment of new robotic arms called Devil Breakers instead. These have a variety of functions like grabbing enemies from a distance or stopping time to freeze an enemy in place. Nero can also find Devil Breakers during stages. Devil Breakers are powerful but fragile, and can be destroyed if used incorrectly. Late in the story, Nero has access to the Devil Trigger move which expands his combat skills.
Dante plays like his Devil May Cry 4 persona as he can change between four styles to create new techniques or parry enemy attacks. Along with his signature blade Rebellion and the demonic sword Sparda, Dante uses two new Devil Arms, a pair of buzzsaw-like weapons that combine into a motorcycle called Cavaliere, and a set of fiery gauntlets and boots called Balrog. Dante also wields a stronger version of the Cerberus nunchaku introduced in Devil May Cry 3. He also wears the Dr. Faust, a hat that requires red orbs to attack; it is a risk/reward weapon depending on the player's actions. Dante can use both Kalina Ann from Devil May Cry 3 and the new enhanced Kalina Ann 2 as substitutes for the guns, as well as both versions at the same time.
The third playable character, V, who wields a book and a silver cane, uses three demons based on enemies from the first game to fight. These include Griffon, an eagle that uses ranged lightning-based attacks, Shadow, a panther that forms blades, spikes and portals out of its body and Nightmare, a large golem. V enters a Devil Trigger-like state, which turns his hair white, to summon the golem, which uses a combination of melee attacks and laser beams. Once the enemy's health turns light purple, V uses his cane to finish the battle.
Plot
On 16 May, devil hunter Nero hunts a demon named Urizen who took his demonic arm and the sword Yamato. Traveling to Red Grave City, he finds a demonic tree called Qliphoth planted in the city, which is killing people for their blood. Dante's group confronts Urizen but, empowered by the Qliphoth, he incapacitates them and overpowers Nero when he intervenes. Dante stops Urizen from capturing Nero, but is defeated and ejected from the Qliphoth with his sword Rebellion shattered. His allies Lady and Trish are captured to use as demon-cores while a client of Dante, V, convinces the weakened Nero to escape. On 15 June, Nero returns to Red Grave outfitted with the "Devil Breaker" prosthetic arm, made by his friend and gunsmith, Nico. Nero meets up with V, who is seeking Qliphoth for its fruit—born of condensed human blood—which makes whoever consumes it the king of the Underworld. As the pair destroy the Qliphoth's roots while searching for Dante, Nero rescues Lady while V splits off to discover the Devil Sword Sparda - along with a hibernating Dante, whose presence was hidden by the sword.After awakening from his coma, Dante frees Trish and begins fighting his way to Urizen. Trish learns from V that Urizen is actually the demon-side of Dante's brother Vergil, who used Yamato's power to separate his demon and human halves - the latter manifesting as V, whose body is reaching its limit. RealizIng Rebellion can merge forms together, Dante uses it to absorb the Sparda into himself, unlocking his full demonic power and creating a new weapon, the "Devil Sword Dante." Nero attempts to confront Urizen again and is overpowered once more, but Dante rescues him and gains the upper hand with his new powers. Urizen takes his leave when the Qliphoth bears fruit and consumes it to empower himself further. While Dante arrives first to face Urizen, Nero rescues V from the demon Malphas and learns of Dante's history with Vergil. Nero and V reach Dante just as he defeats Urizen, but a dying V intervenes and merges with Urizen before Dante can finish him, reviving Vergil.
Vergil returns to the Qliphoth tree, telling Dante to recover his full strength before they battle again. Nero insists on going after Vergil himself, but Dante reveals Nero is Vergil's son, proven by how the Yamato reacted to him during the Fortuna incident where they first met, and refuses to let Nero kill his own father. Dante then faces V's familiars - revealed as the embodied memories of Vergil's time as Nelo Angelo - and they elect to die by Dante's hand to lessen Vergil's trauma. Dante and Vergil fight again, where Vergil learns Nero is his son. Nero settles his emotions in a call to Kyrie and resolves not to let his father and uncle die, fully awakening his demonic powers and regrowing his arm. Intervening in their fight and forcing Dante out, Nero vows to end the pair's sibling rivalry and defeats Vergil, who gives Nero V's book to remember him by. Vergil joins Dante in a one-way trip to the Underworld to cut the Qliphoth down and seal the portal before it rips Red Grave City apart, with Nero departing as the Qliphoth falls. Weeks later, Trish and Lady are hired for a new job by Morrison, whom Dante left in charge of his office. In the Underworld, Dante and Vergil continue sparring while demons attack them, now friendly rivals instead of enemies.
Development
In 2013, Hideaki Itsuno, director of the Devil May Cry games since the second game, showed an interest in continuing the original Devil May Cry series by developing a fifth installment. It was originally thought the series might go on hiatus or end for good if Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition was not a commercial success. However, in an interview with GameSpot, Itsuno confirmed this was not the case. He alleviated these fears by confirming that Capcom was ultimately satisfied with the final sales figures of Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition and '. In January 2016, Itsuno tweeted that he was working on a project well in development which could not yet be announced. In March, Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch, who had done voice acting and motion capture for Dante and Nero respectively in Devil May Cry 4, took pictures of themselves in motion capture gear, leading to speculation that a new Devil May Cry game was in development. In a response on Twitter about these speculations, Capcom Vancouver stated: "It's not a game that we've announced that we're working on at this studio." On 17 May 2018, the domain name "DevilMayCry5.com" was registered by an unknown entity under Capcom's Onamae domain register. Devil May Cry 5 was confirmed at E3 2018 for a release the following year. Capcom confirmed a release date of March 2019 and a demo was playable in August 2018 at Gamescom. It was later made available on PlayStation Store and Xbox Live.The game was originally planned to be announced in 2017. However, the idea to announce it along with the Resident Evil 2 remake led to a change. The game was being developed by Capcom Dev Studio 1 and many staff members worked on the Dragon's Dogma and the Devil May Cry series. The team aimed to make it the best action game from the Heisei period. A secret message was left in the first trailer for series' fans. The game was created by a studio from Osaka, Japan. It runs on the RE Engine, first used in '. Most of the team had originally worked on the recently released Resident Evil 7 and were experienced with the engine. Itsuno was also influenced by his work in Monster Hunter World to provide content that would appeal to new gamers. However, because of the need to have a good balance in the gameplay, Itsuno felt making it challenging would also appeal to long-time fans. Other members of the staff previously worked in the reboot game , but the Osaka team was more willing to make a sequel to the fourth installment of the main series. The team listened to the fans' opinions of previous games to ensure the game appealed to them. An example is giving the players an "auto" mode that provides easier ways to produce combos.
Itsuno claims the original Devil May Cry 4 was unsuitable for consoles of its generation which resulted in certain issues with its design. As a result, he aimed to make this sequel far more enjoyable with a budget that would allow more content and thus appeal to a larger audience, including Devil May Cry 4 players. However, because the game's narrative was focused on Dante, Nero and V, Lady and Trish could not appear as playable characters again. The game difficulty of "Sons of Sparda" was retouched from a previous game to provide players with new challenges like the way characters have to parry enemy attacks and then be able to defeat them in one counterattack while also enhancing the boss fights such as Goliath's fight scene. Another of Itsuno's objectives was making more responsive controls to generate better productions while making the characters move like humans. A big influence on Itsuno and the game was a movie where three robots combined into one giant bot and overcame their foe, moving him to tears. He wanted to create similar moments. Itsuno also wanted to give players the style of a Hollywood movie, most notably Marvel's Avengers series.
Dante and Nero's respective actors, Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch, have expressed pleasure with the game. It features Cameo System, an online multiplayer mode for up to three players, that can be triggered depending on the mission being played. In April 2019, Capcom's Matt Walker claimed Vergil would not be a playable character in the game, leaving "a bitter taste" in fans mouths.
Players who purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game had access to several pieces of additional content. These included the Cavaliere R weapon for Dante, new cutscenes and announcer options, battle music from the first four Devil May Cry titles, and four Devil Breaker weapons for Nero, including a Mega Buster based on Mega Man 11. They were available as Downloadable content within weeks of the game's release. The Blood Palace area where players fight multiple enemies at the same time was released free as downloadable content. There was no additional material for the game made available as DLC. In Japan, there were limited releases of the game that included a jacket based on Dante's and Nero's. A "Classic Work Shirt" bundle was also released.
Scenario and cast
The story main's theme is "love" which is something Capcom aimed to introduce into Devil May Cry since the first installment. Itsuno explained the development team aimed for a "photo-realistic" graphics style. The game targets 60 frames per second on each release platform. The developers scanned various models to give the characters a realistic look, and actual clothes were created in London and scanned in Serbia. Using the "RE engine", the Capcom staff aimed for a more realistic story than previous games in the franchise rather than making it look like low-budget plot. The game's main location was modeled after London. The team made multiple research trips to generate better stages. Locations include Midhurst in West Sussex, Rochester, Kent, Canterbury and Leeds Castle in Kent. Art director Koki Kinoshita stated that thanks to the new technology provided by the engine. The characters' designs of the returning ones involved slight alterations to their Devil May Cry 4 in order to fit their personalities. However, while Dante and Nero had few scrapped ideas, V underwent nearly twenty appearances. The designs were also inspired by Carol Christian Poell as well as Daniel Craig and Benedict Cumberbatch.Nero's gameplay is designed to emphasize his anger over the way Dante treats him in the beginning. The game's climactic event, where Nero awakens his demonic powers and stops the struggle between Dante and Vergil, is meant to give the story a deeper form. The idea behind making Nero's new powers available near the game's ending is not only to give the title replay value, but to emphasize the power Nero needs to use to face Vergil. This contrasts with the beginning of the game when he can not defeat his alter-ego Urizen. His redesign for Devil May Cry 5 is intended to contrast with Dante's older look. Capcom used an older incarnation of Nero, so he would be "at the top of his game in body and mind". Because the game's graphics are meant to be as realistic as possible, each character is modeled after an actor. The staff wanted to generate a major emotional scene when Vergil reappears in the climax confronting his brother. As a result, Nero stops the brothers' feud and awakens his demonic powers to face his father.
According to the company, Dante "hasn't gone wild for no reason". In terms of his moves, Itsuno said he would be more like his Devil May Cry 3 persona. Nevertheless, he stated Dante has a more mature personality and still wishes to protect humanity and honor the legacy of his father, Sparda. The new antagonist, Urizen, was meant to remind players of the original Demon King from the 2001 Devil May Cry game. Itsuno said, "Urizen is definitely the strongest enemy of the entire Devil May Cry saga... the most powerful. You've seen it: every time he appears, he sits on his throne and, maybe sometimes, he moves a little, but that's it. We want to make people understand how a fight against him can be completely crazy."
Newcomer V was created to be the exact opposite of Nero and Dante. He does not wield weapons, giving him a sense of mystery. Itsuno was pleased he was well-received as a character by fans, despite his traits which he felt would make him divisive. Nico was created to be a contrasting heroine to Nero's girlfriend, Kyrie; Nico is more used to fighting. In developing Nero's Devil Breaker abilities, Itsuno pointed out that Punch Line, which involves Nero shooting his mechanical arm, was made to attract teenagers.
Bingo Morihashi, the game's writer, wrote a prequel novel that takes places before Devil May Cry 5 and leads up to the beginning of the game. It was released on March 1, 2019, in Japan, days before Devil May Cry 5 was released. A spin-off manga about V was also released. It is written by Tomio Ogata and published in the LINE Manga app.
Music
Kota Suzuki, Yoshiya Terayama, Hiromitsu Maeba, Steven McNair, John R. Graham, Casey Edwards, Cody Matthew Johnson and Jeff Rona composed the game's soundtrack. Johnson and Rona had worked together on multiple projects before Devil May Cry 5 including the fighting game where both worked on a remix of Dante's theme "Devils Never Cry". The success of their work led to the duo to being chosen to work on Devil May Cry 5. While not a composer, Johnson played the games so knew the series. Edwards was a fan of the series since the original 2001 game. He took a liking to Nero's theme from Devil May Cry 4 which attracted him mostly because of the lyric "I'll endure the exile". According to Johnson, the general idea for the music was "grittier, heavier, and more experimental". The fact the game uses three characters allowed them to use different types of music. Sony Japan released the game's original soundtrack in Japan on 12 April 2019. on five disks.Nero's battle themes are "Devil Trigger" and its final boss remix "Silver Bullet", both performed by Ali Edwards. "Devil Trigger" was released on 11 June 2018, as a soundtrack single to promote the game. Edwards was given multiple images of Nero facing his enemies to give him an idea of how his theme song should sound. Edwards met Bosch who gave him a better understanding of the character. This included his young and reckless traits despite being older when he is introduced. The massive positive response to "Devil Trigger" surprised Edwards. On Spotify the song has 7.2 million streams. At one point on YouTube, it had over 30 million views. "Devil Trigger" was also the first song revealed to the audience because older members of the staff enjoyed the composers' work on that track.
In September 2018, Dante's battle theme "Subhuman", composed by Johnson and performed by Suicide Silence, was released. It was originally sung by the band's lead vocalist Eddie Hermida, but following sexual misconduct allegations against him he was replaced by then-former Volumes vocalist Michael Barr. The idea for this theme was to explore the dark and goofy sides of Dante's personality through the instruments being played. The staff was careful the song accurately reflected the character.
In December 2018, new franchise character V's original battle theme "Crimson Cloud", composed by Rona was released. Because V's real identity was not revealed until later in the story, the composers avoided giving him themes related to his origins. The final trailer presented the game's ending theme "Legacy", composed by Kota Suzuki and sung by Ali Edwards. Edwards worked as both vocalist and lyricist. A theme of this song is "family" as well as the idea of people supporting each other. The Japanese version of the game includes the song "Mad Qualia" by Hyde.
Reception
Following 2018's Tokyo Game Show, Devil May Cry 5 won the Future Division award from the Japan Game Awards. Some concern arose in the gaming community regarding the decision to include optional in-game purchases where the player can purchase red orbs used to upgrade their character. Capcom confirmed this in no way alters the game's designed progression system, and it is similar to that of Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, which also allowed for similar in-game purchases.Critical response
Devil May Cry 5 received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The gameplay and characters were praised. PC Gamer UK referred to it as "one of the best games about hitting demons ever made". The reviewer enjoyed the characters' fightstyles and how performing different techniques rewards the player for their originality in combat. USgamer found it one of the series' strongest installments. They noted that while the reboot by Ninja Theory was enjoyable, Devil May Cry 5 remained true to the series' core when it came to gameplay mechanics and the handling of the characters. VideoGamer.com praised its gameplay and world building style—particularly its handling of the setting based on London. Similarly, The Guardian gave it a perfect score. The reviewer liked how newcomers can easily learn how to score the stylish system in a short time, noting they must also understand the enemies' tactics to beat them and the bosses. GameSpot appreciated the depth Capcom offered players, most notably the change in Nero's gameplay to allow different styles of Devil Breaker techniques. Destructoid enjoyed the multiple types of enemies and boss fights and noted Capcom had responded to criticism of Devil May Cry 4 by providing the player with more stages.Several critics focused on the increased number of moves available to the three protagonists. While giving it a perfect score, The Daily Telegraph praised the characters' mechanics, most notably V's for how differently he plays in contrast to Nero and Dante while still remaining entertaining. GamesRadar enjoyed the great variety each of the three playable characters possess in combat while retaining their own style—this, despite Dante playing similarly to his Devil May Cry 4 persona. GameSpot noted how engaging Nero is to newcomers thanks to his gameplay. They also felt the techniques V presents and how differently he plays from Dante and Nero is impressive. IGN liked Nero's new techniques provided by his mechanical arms—most notably the one he shoots to attack enemies. While IGN felt Dante was similar to his presentation in previous games, they noted the new weapons he presents were much more enjoyable. V was also well-received for his interactions with the demons he commands to fight enemies. Due to some difficulties in handling Nero's Devil Breakers mechanics, Destructoid felt that Dante and V were the most polished characters to play. Despite enjoying the gameplay, the swapping between characters who need to earn new powers was criticized by Game Informer.
The game's narrative and concept was also the subject of praise by IGN for its characters and elements of the story, despite the reviewer not finding it very entertaining overall. IGNs Mitchell Saltzman said "its mysterious story keeps things interesting along the way." GameSpot praised the storyline for concluding the crisis the protagonists have across the game, praising their character arcs even though they are not deep. The Guardian liked the plot despite finding it simple and noted it took elements from the reboot that were also well-received. Dante's characterization as older than in previous games while retaining his juvenile personality was also praised by The Guardian. PCGamer enjoyed the story for the portrayal of its characters. The reviewer felt let down by some cutscenes and was critical of Nico. While liking how integral the narrative became in the gameplay mechanics, GamesRadar felt newcomers might not understand the game's full plot and that the ending was rushed. VideoGamer.com was more critical of the plot, believing the narrative, and villain were "dull" despite some interesting interactions in the storyline.
At its launch, the PlayStation 4 version of the game released in western countries included the use of a lens flare which reduced the visibility of brief nudity. Several gaming journalists referred to it as an act of censorship and reported the change came about as part of a patch for the game. IGN also noted that another character was similarly censored in all western versions regardless of the platform. In April 2019, Push Square reported the lens flare had been removed in the game's North American version, yet remained in Europe.