my first experience with DMC as a game was actually with this, DMC4, it wasn't my first DMC experience overall because that was the anime which I loved, i found the anime also in this same HMV in a bargain bin on DVD and i grabbed it then because dante looked hot and i binged it all in one day, it was just so cool, i loved dante and the side chars and the animation style and the fun little monster of the week bits, i loved the music and how sincere dante and patty's friendship was and i loved how uwu edgy dante was, i know it's not a well liked anime but it means a lot to me, but for the games I remember being in a local HMV and looking at the anime to get with what allowance I had at the time, was maybe 2010 but I never found anything within my price range and I ended up wandering to the ps3 section to see if they had any games, they had some other consoles there too like a very small ps2 section made up of mostly games I owned (this ps2 section would be there for years until like 2013 when I remember getting a copy of silent hill 2: directors cut as my last ps2 game from the place, they kept their ps3 games until like 2015 too before they phased out games altogether in like 2018) and a 360 and wii section but I didn't own these consoles at the time, I ended up finding, buried among games a cheap £5 copy of DMC 4 and I was drawn in immediately by the cute silver haired guy on the cover, I could tell he wasn't the guy from the anime and this interested me, like who is this cuter guy with the cool arm, I ended up grabbing it (alongside a copy of battle fantasia, I got a lot of games from this place, it's also where I discovered el Shaddai and blazblue), I remember walking out and just staring at it, I remember reading the manual the whole trip home, which ended up being really long because my sister wanted KFC for dinner and that made things super awkward because KFC didn't do vegetarian options at the time so we had to go to *two* fast food places in a row, the wait was killer. when i did get home the first thing i did was just rush the install and binge the game in pretty much two sittings (i watched some episodes of vampire knight and FMA 2003 inbetween with some coffee, i was addicted to coffee as an early teen). i cherish this memory a lot, not necessarily even the binging of the game, which was a great time and it was pretty much my first action game, but just that experience of going and picking it up, getting food and being excited, browsing the shelves and picking random games i knew nothing about (battle fantasia also owned, though i never managed to beat the arcade mode), i do miss how much fun those experiences were, i do still browse local game stores for physical games and i buy a ton, but it just felt more fun back then, more mysterious, like i could find anything cool, i guess maybe a media hype cycle kind of killed the mystique, hard to say, it's still a point in physical media's favour either way, you can't have this kind of experience with a download bar and some PSN credit.

the gist of what makes this my favourite other than nostalgia is nero, for a start he's pretty, hotter than any version of dante was and his personality is just so cool, he's the coolest DMC character to me and thats a real feat, his actions and animations and just his vibe just, god i love him so much, him, and the game in general, just give off like, the best of mid 2Ks gaia online deviantart fujoshibait energy, you know what i mean, he was designed to be cool for someone like me and that's rad like he's made for AMV's and blingee's and husbando collages, he's even got his whole romance story and that's literally my favourite thing, he seems like he'd be a great BF, he's so perfect, god. it's also his playstyle, he's tied with lady from 4SE as my favourite caracter to play , red queen is such a fun sword to use, it's got a bunch of club and bat like attacks with wide sweeps, it has a cool groundpound attack and it has much more ariel capability than rebellion does since its normal triangle attack keeps enemies in the air instead of slamming them, he even has cool alt air attacks like a dash and a spin, plus it can be revved up with the L2 button to do extra fire damage! it's so cool! even his gun is great, its a duel barrel revolver that can be charged and also lights enemies on fire, finishing off downed monsters with this always looks cool. his main thing though is his devil bringer, the best part of this games combat system, this arm can grab enemies and pull them close, be used for cool environmental traversal and it works as a grab attack, slamming enemies, throwing them at each other, it can even be used to suplex enemies, throw back projectiles or do contextual attacks on bosses for huge damage like you can even do it on the final bosses final attack completely unprompted to get the coolest possible finish on him, it's the best way any game has ever implemented those! they turn him from a fun character, to one of the most fun characters and he feels super accessable for newcomers. the only issue i have with him is that it takes a long time for him to get his devil trigger, which is a shame since it's so fun! it feels like a necessary part of his kit and it's so useful, it summons a stand like lil guy who has his own contextual grabs and opens up some new attacks for you, plus he deals extra damage since any attack you do is followed up right after by him with his own sword, it's such a cool way to do a DT and it's just a shame it takes so long to give you it, but it's still better than 5's implementation.

dante's moveset is a lot more complex though but i don't think as fun as nero for me. For a start he has 4 weapons now which, while less than DMC3 is still a good amount and you can switch between all of them on the fly once they're unlocked, they're all solid too. you have the standard rebellion here which has it's same moves as before but now with some added DT attacks like stinger going through enemies, there's gauntlets with Gilgamesh which are far more fun than 3's Beowulf since they have a really fun combo string with foreword triangle and a DT attack that makes them feel more like Vergil's with a rising kick attack, though he still has the most fun gauntlets, the entirely new lucifer which is a series of spikes you leave in the air only to detonate by throwing a rose at them, this is the hardest weapon to use but its the most stylish by far and it's my favourite one available, they do super low damage and landing spikes lacks impact but when you weave around an enemy only to throw that rose and one shot them? nothing else feels like it, lastly you have Vergil's Yamato which you get via a style you can swap to, it's limited and basic but it has things like a judgement cut and dante's best air attack with the quick slash so it has its uses especially since you can combine it with other weapons without needing to switch! that's another thing! style switching is here and its on the fly, you have his basic 4 styles from 3, gunslinger, royal guard, swordmaster and trickster (sadly no quicksilver or doppelganger which is a shame) but being able to change these on the fly felt like a real gamechanger, it still does if you go from any ver of 3 not on switch to this, it makes things like gunslinger much more usable (which is good because it might be my favorite one) and it made me actually try and use royal guard, something i didn't dedicate time to at all when i first played 3 years ago. his guns are very standard also mostly, you got your handguns and your shotgun and i still mostly use that shotgun but you also have pandora now too which has so many forms and attacks that it might as well be a separate system, you have explosives and machineguns and a lazer beam and a whole turret all in the same weapon, it even has its own bar on the UI, it's a standout weapon in the game and one of the best additions! though i do have to say again i still find dante less fun than nero, but this is probably the most fun he's been in the whole series and the depth here is very impressive. both each have their own campaign with some unique bosses and slight level variations, with dante doing neros in reverse with a different route near the end and some level changes, like the castle now being frozen or the forest being more mazelike with teleports dotted around and this is a controversial thing about the game, you do only get a smaller set of levels, but i think this is made up for with just how good these levels are. those are the main things about the game delt with, there isn't much else new, you have your shops and orbs and secrets to find, there's now a system called proud souls that is just a different currency to spend on moves and is dependant on how well you do in levels to obtain, it's a decent system since it leaves you more red orbs for items but it does mean worse players won't progress as fast with the upgrades that would help them get better, mixed bag. secret missions are also a little better since they're much easier to find, they're found via notes pinned to walls and they glow a little red, but can still be difficult to find (though neros arm does glow and your controller vibrates when near so it's not that difficult)

the story is maybe not as immediately emotionally effecting as 3's was, i cried more there but 4 still gets me to tear up sometimes nero is my favourite main character the series has and his romance with kyrie is really cute, this kind of thing gets me bad and some of those final scenes with him just got me, he's perfect BF material, you really love to see it. it even handles his half-passing of the torch from dante to him really well, if they didn't apollo justice him like they did i could even have seem him being a better MC for the series, his punky bancho-lite attitude is genuinely cool and he's just cooler than dante can be, more immediately edgy and broody and cool but he's still able to insult bosses and get all cool angy, he's great and it was nice seeing dante get a lot happier again in this game after 2 and the anime after he found nero :) the rest of the cast just works too, the villains are fun like the liam o'brian voiced pope or the funny mad scientist and you have frank west in here playing a cool knight (with the best fight in the whole series, a real highlight) even trish and lady show up here a little bit long before their playable versions in SE and i just love seeing these characters in this world, the anime was also great for that, you're seeing them on the job just like in the anime, less personal than 3 and it sets up a really cool setting, the religious cult worshipping sparda and the Vatican city style environ, it's the best setting in the whole series and i wish we could have seen more of it, even the idea it sets up of dante as an assassin with more dubious morals at the start, while untrue, sets up a cool tone, even the marketing material went big on this because its a super good premise. even when dante does show up and does his thing he's still at some of his best, he has some funny lines and cool scenes and his passing of the torch to nero is really sweet, plus he gets an almost-musical opera scene with one boss that might be the games highlight, it's so good.

dmc4 feels much closer to 2 with its levels than 3 or 1, where those games were set in one environment that you go through and backtrack in, this is more of an adventure, you go from cities to frozen ruins, mines and caves and vallys and forests, it feels like a huge journey cross a land and all the levels feel and look super varied, they have unique enemies and gimmicks like the trap plants in the forest, the aforementioned Dante gimmicks, maze puzzles and hidden rooms and beyblades, you'll run away from huge bosses in vallies or deal with vanishing platforms or have to play a board game with enemies to progress, they're all so cool and even on a second run most of them still feel fresh because of the new gimmicks and enemies (like the electric enemies in dante's castle). despite being a smaller set of levels it manages to have much more variety in them than 5 did with over double the amount of them, its like a mix of 2's adventure with 3's more rollercoaster gimmick level design and it strikes a perfect balance, this is my favourite set of levels in the whole series and i love just being in these environments, the cities are cozy, the forests are striking and the snow level is one of the greats in any action game, the moonlit castle roof with the snow falling is a sight thats still impressive because of how good the effects and visual design are, it helps that this game still has fixed camera angles and the ones they choose are always amazing, but you can still control camera during combat when its needed, though in either case the game is beautiful and one of the best looking games of the systems earlier years, the game in general very much represents those years for me, it *is* the early ps3 in the same way something like FF13 represents the later years of the system or how a game like persona 4 very much *is* the ps2 for me, it captures the vibes and memories of the system in ways that feel perfectly representative of them, i can't separate the two, it's how it looks and how it plays, its tone and its vibe, forever tied to that point in time and the culture and memories therein.

the music owns too, the soundtrack is my favourite across the whole series and that says a lot considering how good the music is, with 2's ambient tracks and 5's vocal battle themes, but here it's just the best of both, the opening theme is amazing, the credits theme is the series best song and the shop theme is one of the best in any game, even the battle theme here owns just as much as anything in 5, it had a bunch of talented people on it so you would expect it so be this good. you had Tetsuya Shibata of babylons fall, gungrave gore, power stone, darkstalkers, auto modelista, MVC2, resident evil outbreak and even DMC2 and 3! also on staff was Shusaku Uchiyama who worked on megaman 8, resi 2, remake and 4, exoprimal, under the skin and PN.03. there was Kento Hasegawa from the resi outbreak games, maverick hunter x, fire emblem fates, el Shaddai and even DMC3. there was Akihiko Narita of lost planet, monster hunter freedom and its sequels, resident evil 5, 6 and umbrella corps and even tatsunoko vs capcom. lastly was Kota Suzuki who was the composer for the most recent game with 5 and also he worked on onimusha 3, shadow of rome, resi 5, 6 and umbrella corps, some of the most recent resi remakes and tatsunoko vs capcom. it's a killer list of composers and that talent shows in just how good this ost is. it's a decent length too, between 6-10 hours your first run but there's so much to do beyond that, like the returning bloody palace which is now linier, with only one path foreward but it's main difference now is a ticking timer that makes it much more like a time attack than a survival mode, it's super fun and I've sunk a ton of time into it over the years. there's also your usual alternate difficulty options with heven and hell mode and the PC and SE versions legendary dark knight being the best ones to try out

back at the helm again here was hidiaki itsuno, who had a hand in both 2 and 3 as well as a ton of other great capcom projects like the power stone series, JOJO, dragons dogma and auto modelista. capcom studio 1 also from the past few games, they also had a hand in some monster hunter projects, dead rising for wii, resident evil outbreak, onimusha dawn of dreams and auto modelista and this was one of their best projects, same with itsuno, i'd even argue for this being his best work. for ports there's a few interesting ones, you have the mobile only DMC4 refrain which is a mobile port that seems shockingly accurate! but i haven't played that, there's also the ps3 version which has sixaxis support for the camera which i used and it's actually pretty cool, maybe not useful but cool! sometimes it bugged out and started spinning and this looked so cool in the middle of a fight, even if it made it harder to play, there's also the (use chad warden link) version which is the same but without the sixaxis support or the very cool install loading screen that has series summaries! there is also 4 SE which is a port for ps4 that adds the turbo mode and legendary dark knight difficulty from the games PC port, the former speeding the game up by 20% and the latter turning the game into a sort of musou and it even adds 3 new playable characters with lady, trish and vergil and some costumes for all the characters, like the 3 ver of lady or the gloria outfit for trish, it's the version to go for but it's one you will need to import if you want a physical copy of and it has some icky MTX in it, though the physical copy isn't expensive or rare, same with the ps3 copy, the ps3 or 360 version will run you only a few pounds, with special being about £15 plus whatever import fees you incur. the series never quite hit this peak again for me with both it's ninja theory developed reboot and it's capcom developed sequel, the reboot was a lot of fun and i love it and it's dlc which I've covered here before, but it wasn't quite the same and DMC5 remains one of the most disappointing games I've played, which really hurts me to say because it's still a good game, but it's my least favourite game in the series despite some really great gameplay and music, i'll cover it someday since i still haven't played its special edition version and i would like to give it another chance to make a good impression.