Plot: (Full spoilers)
After being defeated, Vergil retreats and makes it to his mother's grave, where he finally collapses from the wound Dante gave him. He suddenly wakes up in a strange dimension, where he is guided by the voice of Eva to "head toward the lights". Vergil, having already been weakened by his wounds, also discovers that his amulet is lost. Vergil reaches the light area, which is the gate to his old home. However, he is stopped by an illusion of Kat and Dante, who stabs him again with his sword. Vergil collapses again, and then wakes up in a desert, where he is greeted by a hollow version of himself. Hollow Vergil pulls out Vergil's heart, which then shows 3 wounds. Vergil is then given a "second chance".
Having healed all the wounds, Vergil now has a thirst for power, and he demands Hollow Vergil to give up his amulet. After a long fight, the hollow is defeated, and Vergil absorbs him as well as takes his amulet back. Having become more powerful than ever, Vergil returns to the area he was teleported to in the first place, and makes his way back to "the light". As he steps through the gate, Vergil wakes up at Eva's grave, where he finds his wounds fully healed. An army of demons approach him, but as his eyes begin to glow, the demons bow before him. Vergil, knowing he is no longer the man he once was, becomes the leader of the demon army. - via Wikipedia
Gameplay:
Much like Dante in the original game, Vergil acquires the means to use his katana, Yamato, in both Angelic and Demonic modes. Demonic properties grant Yamato with powerful, yet slow attacks, while Angelic grants him faster, crowd-clearing attacks.Vergil even has his own variations of Angel Lift/Demon Pull mechanics as well, allowing him to traverse the environment much like Dante could, even though I feel that Vergil would have benefited more with an air dash or a few more mobility options than Dante to distinguish him from his twin brother.
From here, this is where the similarities between the twins end. Instead of an evade, Vergil is equipped with a teleport to maneuver around enemy attacks. This teleport also replaces Dante's double jump, so many players will find it to be a bit cumbersome to get used to at first. Instead of firearms, such as Dante's pistols or shotgun, fans will see the return of Vergil's iconic Summoned Swords as Vergil's preferred projectile of choice.
Finally, Vergil acquires the Doppleganger ability after defeating the boss of this DLC episode. Series veterans should remember this ability from Devil May Cry 3, which allowed another player to control the clone one-screen for tag team combos with style. It was primarily used solo for the most part though, allowing players to deal double damage with their shadow mimicking their every move. In Downfall, it seems to function a bit differently. It consumes its use from the Devil Trigger gauge, but Vergil is allowed to command it independently via commands on the d-pad. I'm intrigued to see what insane combos the folks at Devil's Lair cook up over time with this very interesting mechanic.One thing players will notice right off the bat that the Stylish meter is tweaked a bit in this mode. While I was easily ranking up S, SS, and SSS ranks with Dante, I could only get A's or barely even B's consistently with Vergil until I got to near the end of this campaign. I thought the change was for the better as it was mindbogglingly easy to score S, SS, and even SSS consistently on this game with Dante. As one would expect, Vergil's 'style' requires a bit more finesse and variety than his show-off of a brother.
The DLC includes roughly an additional two hours of gameplay to the main game's narrative, offering four difficulty modes and a few new enemy types. Unlike the retail release, majority of this story is told in hand drawn cutscenes. I'm not sure if that's everyone's cup of tea as Asura's Wrath pulled that same stunt for their first few episode DLCs and was frowned upon for it. At least it's not still images like those found in Soul Calibur V's story mode...
 |
| My thoughts exactly, Vergil... |
The Verdict:
Much like the review on the full game, this was a VERY hard review for me to write up. As a fan of the entire Devil May Cry series thus far, plus with Vergil being my favorite character without a shadow of a doubt, I can't really say that I like this version of him.In terms of the plot, his path down the dark side seemed a bit forced, especially with all of this "Mommy and Daddy loved Dante more!!" crap. Where did that come from? Wasn't Vergil the one who raised by a wealthy family, while Dante was bounced around from orphanage to orphanage like a toy nobody wanted? So shouldn't Dante be the one who should be jealous? Despite the fact that Kat choose to stay with Dante over Vergil, she still begged Dante not to kill him. I just really don't see where he got all of these diluted thoughts from that everyone is against him. My only guess on the huge shift on his character is maybe he was 'poisoned' by Mundus when he absorbed him during their final battle. I get that he showed hints of being tainted before then, especially when he killed Lilith's unborn child, but one can simply dismiss that as revenge for what Mundus has done to their parents. Plus, Phineas did say something on the lines of balance between the two worlds, Mundus must have a successor after he is defeated. I guess Vergil was groomed to be that new king all along. I will admit that I did enjoy the fact that the plot here is straightforward and lacks the political agenda propaganda that the main story thrived upon.
In terms of gameplay, this iteration of Vergil is a bit inferior to his Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition version. He lacks his wide arc of range and length to the bulk of his attacks, plus it annoys me to no end that his teleport lacks the invulnerable frames from DMC3SE to dodge attacks properly. This headache can be relieved somewhat by using Rapid Slash's invulnerable frames though. After experimenting, you can rule out using his Demonic style almost entirely to an extent as well. You can expose shielded foes with the Demonic Pull, then launch them into the air and still deal great amounts of damage to them with the much safer Angel attacks. You can see for yourself some of Vergil's gameplay here as you can watch me struggle to play Vergil effectively in this DLC boss fight.
I found it difficult to fire Summoned Swords and perform attacks simultaneously - another staple tactic that is unique to Vergil. Back in DMC3SE, this is was a bread and butter technique to help rank up to higher stylish grades. Finally, we have the Doppleganger technique. Like previously mentioned, I'm anxious to see what the pro players at this series can do with that thing, but as for the average player, it's a bit useless. There should have been an option to switch between normal Devil Trigger activation or Doppleganger. These frustrations are amplified from the one of the main issues with the core gameplay already - the lack of a lock-on button. As a result of these blunders, Vergil comes off as a mediocre alternate to Dante.
At the end of the day, this DLC serves it's purpose - it answers the question of what happens next after the credits roll and it leaves the door open for this re-imagining of the Devil May Cry franchise to continue. While I don't agree with paying for this add-on in the least - it could have been easily the main story's epilogue or unlockable bonus chapter, but if you can obtain it for free then be my guest and go ahead to try this out. Everyone else is better off just watching a video walkthrough of it on YouTube or Dailymotion, unless you are really looking for something new or extra to do with DmC after clearing the game with Dante. As far as add-on DLC goes, this isn't the worst and it's definitely far from the best. I'm giving this a 3 out of 5.
Post a Comment