dmc5 is the most disappointing game I think I've ever played, one of them anyway, not that its a bad game at all, i'd still say that I love the game overall, I love parts of its story and it's gameplay is some of the best in the genre, I still love these characters even when the game wastes them or does things with them that make me actually upset and it has some amazing music, but it's also the most vibeless game in the series, it's a stylish action game lacking in style and it's story, while it has some high highs, has the lowest lows in the series and borders on misogynistic at times which is an issue I don't think the series ever outright had, it's a ton of small issues that add up and really drag down what could have been one of the series best games and leaves it near the bottom of the pile for me.

gameplay-wise there are big changes beyond just character stuff that i want to talk about first. Items are now wholley gone, replaced by just finding healing in levels or dropped by enemies and gold orbs are a little more plentiful, I found 13 my current run, you can also expend orbs to res if you really want to, this, sucks!! especially when you consider that the game has red orb MTX it makes the games difficulty, and it is pretty difficult above easy, seem very much like its pushing you towards at least a one time spend to get you a res mid fight, it feels a little sleazy and honestly I'd rather have just kept the item systems, this feels so much less skill oriented and gives you one less choice per fight, you either pay or you continue, that's not as fun as choosing to buy and use items last second for a hype comeback, now you need to die first to have that chance and that kills the flow much more than an item menu ever did. there's also new and better taunts, like air taunts, yeah, air taunts, this might be the best new feature period, they're so fun and actually decent for dodging when you don't have the right equips and the taunts themselves are just more useful in general now, like how one of Nero's will charge his sword an exceed or how dante has lucifers rose and that can damage enemies. new also is dynamic music, where as you get more stylish in a fight the music will go from instrumental to giving it lyrics and this is really cool, it's another incentive to be stylish and it helps give the fights a little more variety with audio, unless you can't hit a stylish combo, then this might be a downside for you, but on easier difficulties it's super easy to get an S rank so you should be fine. that's about all i noticed really, the shop is a car now, but in some stages it's just the usual idol but now that items are gone there isn't as much to buy, proud souls are also gone so its just red orbs now which ties into the death system again, not super a fan of this but i can see why they ditched proud souls, the enemy designs are also a little more simple here? there's less gimmicky ones like the electric guys or the weird ghosts from 4, which is a shame but this enemy roster isn't bad at all, just more simple, the bosses are amazing though and it has one of the better boss suites in the series, there was none here that i hated fighting unlike 2 or 3 and some of them are even on par with the series best, like the library boss, cavelier or the end bosses, all super fun to fight. one last thing to note before i get into the characters themselves is that bloody palace was not in this game at launch, so i won't really talk about it here since to me that makes it an SE addition, so i'll leave it for there when i cover that version down the line.

nero has a few big changes here that I think make this the lesser of his 2 main appearances, his arm, the crux of his moveset and the most fun part of his kit is gone and replaced with everyones favourite thing in action games, consumable movessssssssss, this kind of sucks as a replacement, as a system on its own it's fine, it works, you have some good variety and as an option they do add to the combat system in fun and unique ways, but it's no replacement and it just means that for your whole first run you're playing with a much less fun version of him, he doesn't even have his cool stand DT anymore, sure he does get the arm back and while it's not as fun and it doesn't have anywhere near the amount of interactions (but in fairness he does now have a mechanic where he can mix buster moves into normal combos which is pretty cool) which makes this is just a much less fun overall nero. to be fair to it again, the devil breakers are fun, a pain to cycle through since they'll need to either be broken during combat or broken via using either its burst or an AOE break attack but some of them do add very well to his moveset, like gerberas increased moveset with its gunshot that pushes you and enemies into the air, rawhides cool whip combo, tomboy changing up your moveset massively and pretty much giving you infinite exceed while it's active, there is a consumable that does give you back his arm but it's very expensive, never found in the world and breaks super quickly, making it very bad as a replacement, there's also more one use arms like overture which does a electric attack or the rocket fist one, though this one can keep enemies airborne, plus you can even ride it if you want plus the arms still let you bring enemies closer to you, though the lack of a grab for most of the game means that it lacks impact and isn't as useful. there's some DLC ones as well like a reskinned gerbera, a mega buster that I just found too difficult to use (though it does turn neros jump into rockmans which is really cute but it does throw off my timing for air attacks massively), the pastabreaker that seems to just work like the helter skelter piercing attack and a very crass vibrator hand that heals you :/ this game goes far harder on the horny than pretty much any other DMC game, and 4 had gloria so that's really saying something. his sword does have some useful new moves though, exceed is much easier to pull off so you'll end up using it a lot more and he has a new divekick style attack that i found really good to use, his gun is also mostly the same but its charge attack works a little differently, being a DOT rather than a shotgun-like burst, this is a lot less fun but you can unlock the old one as an option, the fact so much of his old kit is there unlockable does make me wonder if they knew he was less fun like this, but i don't know for sure. credit to his new DT though, it's really cute, makes up for how he's otherwise only a % as cute as he was in 4 :( it isn't much but it makes up a little for how much worse his visual look is.......

so the newcomer is V and his playstyle is the most unique, maybe even the most unique in the series, he is, much like lady in 4, very much a ranged centric character, he can't damage enemies directly so he relies on his summons to do the damage for him, a bird for ranged attacks that can swoop in, shoot electric shocks, do some aoe's and even some cool delayed lazer attacks, you have a panther than claws and morphs his body like liquid to do various slashes and uppercuts and tentacle slashy dashes and even a spikey hedgehog move that's his main AOE and then you have a third summon with nightmare, he's only available during your DT and comes in via a meteor, he's a huge rock monster you can ride and directly control but otherwise works automatically and does huge damage if he manages to hit, but he's very slow. these can't kill enemies though, just get them into a weakened state so V can deliver the final blow with his cane, it's a really cool playstyle and he's one of the easier characters to look stylish with since you can taunt or read your book to fill DT while still attacking, it's so cool and fun to do! he plays a lot like what I imagine a more action focused take on folklore or raidou would be, like a less musou'y nights of azure and it works really well, sure it's the worst of the games 3 styles, but it's something wholly unique to this game and very few game characters play like him, he gives this game a lot of identity.

dante is also changed a little here, though i'd say many of his changes are directly better and this could very well be the best he's played, though it'd be a close call, I do miss pandora and lucifers spikes a lot, but his new and returning weapons do make up for a lot, plus his new mechanics. the biggest change to him is the new DT form he has, sin devil trigger, you get this a little into his stages and it's a different form of DT that you sacrifice normal DT to charge (though you can have both stored at once) and it's closer to just being a gimmicky super form rather than a different way to do combat, he has a whole different combo chain here and plays almost like what a boss would play like, it's cool and so fun to use and it's really useful for less skilled players because of how much damage it does, though the trade off is that it won't regen health like regular DT does. his weapons all get nice upgrades too, nothing Is exactly the same as their older versions, his main sword now has summoned swords he can shoot out and some new moves like how shredder is mixed into normal combos, his gauntlets now have two modes he can switch between with kicks and punches that make it into two weapons in one and it's maybe the coolest thing about his moveset, more should have this feature! Cerberus now has a fire staff and a lightning weapon in addition to its original nunchucks, though it does lose a few useful attacks, the new ones are so cool that its okay. his one new weapon is cavalere, a BIKE that splits into two chainswords, which is just, the coolest thing, it's so DMC and so dumb and its amazing, it helps that its just super fun to use, especially on SE's turbo mode where it stops being so slow to use, you can even use it as a bike and drive towards enemies or do tricks with it in the air!! the DLC version R also has an extra swordmaster move where it's like a bike airdash towards enemies, so use that version if you want that and have the dlc. he also has his guns which are mostly old, again, ebony and ivory are the same as usual, though I do find their gunslinger form less fun than 4 was, the shotgun is still great here and now it reminds me a little of how lady's played in 4SE, but less fun, was still my go-to though! he gets the kalina ann again like in 3 and it's closer to how it was in that game vs 4SE, which means it's also much less fun than it was with lady, you can duel wild them though if you find the hidden one and that is *very* cool to do, powerful too! his one new gun is a hat, dr faust, it uses red orbs to attack and can rack them up at a crazy rate if you're good enough with it, but I never found it super useful personally, but it's a unique addition for sure, really charming! his styles are also back and they're all the same from 4, swordmaster was my main and I used gunslinger a lot too, with trickster for bosses and I still don't use royal guard a lot, my skills just aren't up to it......

the area's that keep dmc5 from being a favourite lie outside of its gameplay, the game's aesthetics for one. the levels here are by far the most boring in the series, while you do get some variety with some really nice streets and subways and a cool bridge level (though this game doesn't have the same use of fun level gimmicks prior games did) and sometimes the game even has good use of colours within these levels like the sky during some of the final tree levels, but so much of the game takes place in nondescript ruins and just as many take place in the demon tree and they blend in a lot, the tree really feels identicle level to level, even when its not intentionally repeating, sure they might be different locations in terms of the level design so you do get more than say 2 or 4 but they feel so similar that both of those games feel like they have so much more variety in locales, even with the repeated levels in both and the colour pallet too is so toned down here with a palet of greys and blacks that for the most part gets worse as the game goes on, a consequence of the RE engine possibly which I just don't think is suited to this kind of game. the start is the best part for it since the less ruined city segments do look a lot better and even have some real variety like the aformentioned subway and the market and a cool flooded city segment but after the first batch of levels this all dries up, some of those demon tree levels i genuinely could not tell you which is which. it's an issue the prior games never had because locales were super varied and interesting, even in games like 3 or 1, even DMCDMC didn't have this issue, it leads to the setting just being super boring overall and contributing to the games general lack of style, for as much hate as 4 gets for its levels, they have variety, you go from a town to a snowy tundra, a spooky castle, an underground lab and a huge forest in just a few chapters, that's more variation in its first chunk than 5 had for the whole game, it's especially egregious during dante's missions which almost entirely take place in the boring demon tree and some of the games least interesting ruins, he barely gets a chance to have any relly cool locations. to give the game one more bit of credit here it does use time well in a few missions to make them a little more interesting, like the hotel mission is a really fun example, you start it at night, just after a very dark bridge level and as you go along it showly becomes morning by the time you reach the church and its boss, it is actually neat

what is much less neat is the use of real models which is a staple of the RE engine like in the resi games just hurts the game so much, it results in characters having to be reigned in a lot and you don't get any of them looking as stylish as they did in basically any prior game, the visual kei stylings are almost wholley gone and the game goes from a cool gothic vkei edgy (in the vincent valentine way) prettyboy vibe that carries the series and instead has the vibe of an edgy (in the horror movie gore MV way) bad metal album, sure it's a vibe on its own but it's not one i like and i don't think it fits with the rest of the series at all, tonally i think it's a lot more in line with the reboot moreso than anything. I think the worst for this is nero, he just looks so boring now, like if he didn't have the silver hair he would just look like some guy and not even a hugely good looking one like he was in 4, he doesn't have any of the fujobait blingee vibes at all anymore, honestly he doesn't have a *vibe* anymore at all, twink death nero as I nicknamed him this playthrough (which was mean i'm sorry). other characters like lady don't fare the best either, while her and trish do look a lot better than the male cast, she does lose a lot of distinctive features in the transition like her scar and heterochromia being toned down to the point that neither one is really noticeable at all outside of very select cutscenes and renders, honestly i'm still not sure if the eyes are a mod or not because some screenshots don't have them at all, another consequence I assume of using real people as the basis for the characters rather than the render focused designs of the prior games. trish is fine, she hasn't changed much but dante has and he also looks pretty bad, maybe its just that he looks a lot like my dad, i don't know, but i just don't like how he seems like an old homeless guy, the style and flashyness just aren't here anymore, he looks boring now, the silver hair doesn't stand out because he just looks like a normal older guy and that's a little boring, even vergil looks a lot more toned down and bland here, he never had my favourite design but his blue coat always did make him stand out a lot and it was such a cool look with his swords, but now he just has a fairly bland black coat and he looks like a weird uncle. it's a stylish action game cast just, without the style. the only area it stays somewhat good in is in the fashion design (outside of vergil) and how the weapons look, presumably because they didn't need to stay as true to real life, though the 4 designs for the cast all still are better looking with the clothes, bar dante, his best is 2 still, always will be.

the story is a huge mixed bag, which is such a shame to me, i love this series characters and world but this one just mishandles so many of them so much. i'll say some positives first, the references to the anime and the books were great! the Morrison and patty cameo's especially are something I've always wanted to see acknowledged more and hearing patty's cameo and seeing Morrison take a real role is so cool! beyond that i do like V, he has a distinct style from the rest of the cast and he's really cool, i'd love for him to make another appearance down the road if they can somehow write that in, the cool scholar/schemer thing is a really great vibe and he has probably the best design of the cast here. lady and trish are here and that's cool, the story mishandles them in the most offensive way possible but like, their inclusion counts for something. the themes of legacy are really emotional and there's some really good scenes in there, dante's home and as much as i dislike his inclusion: the vergil reveal was handled very well with the setting and the final hour or so story wise was amazing, one of the better ending sequences in the series, Nero's conclusion even had me crying, for as mishandled as i also think chunks of his story was, him talking to kyrie on the phone and rushing to save the cast was such a good moment and felt more like the kind of story he deserves to have, rather than the one he's given for so much of the game and i do love how he ends the dante vergil conflict, something that at this point was feeling kind of stale with just how much the series focused in on it to the detrement to the series as the whole, i just don't find vergil that cool or interesting I'm sorry. Dante, for the issues i also have with his story, is also great here and it was a welcome return, he's got some great lines and scenes but i do wish he stuck more with that mentor role for nero he was going to have from 4, he doesn't have that vibe anymore with how much he just insults the guy, it feels more like they're using him as a way to assure series fans that they won't go in directions the fans won't like, he feels flanderised at times. nico is also really cool, she's a fun character and i love all the cutscenes when you get her van to come to you, they're always really funny and she's a great addition.

okay so that's the good (and some bad) out of the way, what really bugged me about the story. for a start the game mishandles its female cast massively, nico is the best handled here but even then the camerawork when she presents Nero's arms just feels a little icky and the way the camera is with her is just gross, it's a bad vibe, but it's really only as bad as the worst of 4, what's *really* bad is how it handles trish and lady. they're damsels now, ones that need to be saved naked by the male cast in boss battles, there's plenty of male gaze camerawork too of them nude, some equally gross shower scenes and it was bad enough it even had to be censored in a patch, something i think is totally warranted. they don't get any cool scenes here and just exist to be accessories to the cast, if they were just on the sidelines like the basegame or 4 i don't think i'd have been mad, but it's how it goes every step it can to remove their agency (not to forget how dante just gets their weapons as if to say "leave the fighting to the men!") that really leaves an awful taste, it was almost enough to ruin the game for me wholesale and it's so uneeded, sure it's not the only sexist DMC, the reboot also was it's the fact this team has a record of not being like that, DMC2 had multiple playable women and lucia was cool as hell, lady in 3 is still super competent and has tons of time to show off her skills, she even had that cool boss fight, 4 showed trish being cool and had both characters playable and with cool fight scenes in SE, but here you get none of that, even 5SE didn't think to give either anything extra so it could instead focus exclusively on vergil, even kyrie doesn't come out unscathed, with how one of her very few mentions in the game, naturally she's never shown :/ being the game talking about her liking Nero's vibrator arm, it's disappointing and sometimes gross on a level i'd barely even seen until now and it really hurts the game for me since this team should know better, but that's not all i have issue with. Nero's story here is also mishandled pretty badly, it almost feels like its meant to be an apology to the people who hated nero, rather than a pushing foreward of his character, the story pushing him into having to prove his strength again in the first half feels so pointless since that was already what 4 was, it's just a needless rehash and it feels so unnecessarily mean and edgy towards the guy as a way of pushing foreward dante and vergil and i don't get this direction at all, they just decided to throw away his development as an excuse to bring vergil back in a really lame way that only seems to appeal to people who disliked the guy already, it reminds me a lot of raiden in MGS4 and i mean that in a very derogatory way, development that really only exists to cater to the worst kind of fans that were needlessly aggressive and hateful towards the guy, though at least 5 does *try* and make up for this with the final few scenes, which i imagine come the closest to what the plan always was for him, rather than this first half's weirdo grimdark edge. the tone in general i really don't enjoy, its the series darkest game and it just doesn't suit the game at all, even the levels are pitch black at times (lol) but the game has tons of blood and is much more violent than usual, plus the horny stuff, it feels so juvenile and bleak in a way that DMC never has been, it just feels wrong, so much of the game feels that way, it all adds up to giving the game just such a wrong vibe and it makes me hesitant to want to go back to it in the same way i do the other games, it's like the fun is mostly gone and i hope they don't lean into this with the next game, this will be a lot easier to deal with if this just ends up being a one time tone change, which does seem like thats what they might be going for with the games ending and i do hope the post credits bit with the women and Morrison leads into giving them more to do next time, and hopefully much less of the overt misogyny too.

the music is very good though (which was done by 2 main composers: Hiromitsu Maeba who worked on monster hunter 4, great ace attourney and some more recent pokemon games, plus Yoshiya Terayama who worked on street fighter 6), some of the best in the series even. Nero's battle theme devil trigger is probably the best battle song in the series (it's only real rival is 4's battle theme) and its became deservedly iconic for the series as a whole, v's is also really catchy and vergils from SE has taken off way beyond the game itself, though i don't think it tops Neros or even V's, but it is still really good, the only weak battle track here is dante's which is just too much for me, it's not one i enjoyed hearing. the main theme of the game too was really good, legacy is a great song and it fits the theme of that last hour so perfectly, it's one of the best songs in the series and it feels like a great sendoff for this era of the series. also worth noting is this games store theme is so good, it reminds me a lot of something out of FF15 and that's vibe i love being reminded of, shoutout FF15. it's one of the best OST's in the series, up there with my two other favourite soundtracks (DMC2 and DMC4) but on the whole i'm not sure it surpasses them, but it is still very good. it's one of the longer games also, about the same length as 3, the variety in characters keeps the gameplay a lot more fresh feeling but the levels make it *feel* longer than 3 i think, as well as the game is paced, it's about 7 or 8 hours all things told, depending on difficulty, i played on normal, but it does have tons of replayability with the difficulties, especially in SE with legendary dark knight mode, and all the unlockables like the ability to use every weapon as dante and the nero stuff, plus super costumes, oh and you can win the supposed-to-lose fights for an extra ending if you have the skills (i did once with a cheese strat), the easy mode here is also super generous if you're having trouble with it, so don't feel bad for using it, easy modes are cool!

for ports you have two main options, the original on ps4, xbox and pc is your standard version lacking extras from later ports and having a ton of dlc, but it did get vergil as a playable character from the later ports as late dlc, but if you have a ps5 you have access to SE, which has vergil on disc, plus legendary dark knight mode (think a musou game), turbo mode and all the dlc, bar some of its own, because they just couldn't help themselves. this would also be the last mainline game so far, we did get a mobile game, which, is not very good honestly and kind of a cashgrab but there is a new anime coming out, that i'm not super looking foreward to due to netflix's very not great track record with original game anime (see: castlevania and dragons dogma) and that's about it, the team at capcom responcible for this went on to do dragons dogma 2 earlier in the year, which looks great and i'm really excited to play it, but that's all we've heard from them, i hope something comes up sooner rather than later because despite my issues with the game, i did enjoy it a lot, but i hope it can be free of the issues with this one next time and leave this as an edgy mis-step rather than the new normal, get hiroyuki kobayashi back, he killed it with 4, and give him the money for a new sengoku basara while you're at it.