The first demo for this game was exclusive to Xbox One following the Game Awards back in December, but Capcom released the second demo during the first week of February that was available to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users. This is when I finally had a chance to try my hand at this new entry into the Devil May Cry series.
At first glance, I wasn’t too thrilled about the disposable income in terms of changes to Nero’s Devil Bringer. I took a few days to reflect on it after multiple follow-up playthroughs of the demo, I found myself warming up to it more and more as I replayed the demo, much like I did to Platinum Games’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. There’s some things that I feel like need polish with it, like more options to keep them fresh in combat, such as being able to switch arms at will without sacrificing them, but even that is a minor gripe from me. Being able to "air taunt" (i.e. taunting in the air) is a welcome addition, that I'm positive that will be an asset at maintaining Style points at higher levels, especially if you want that SSStylish grade for your combos. That was something I really enjoyed doing in Devil May Cry 3 and Bayonetta to keep the Stylish meter going at times.
I feel like these changes to the gameplay are an acquired taste. I don’t think that it wasn’t a great idea that Capcom would feature this demo with Nero (who already had a hit or miss reception from most Devil May Cry casual and die-hard fans) being the only playable character. They could have at least let us play as all three protagonists (Nero, Dante, and newcomer simply known as "V" who summons demons to aid him battle in the same vein as the primary protagonist from another Capcom-made title from the PlayStation 2 console era, Chaos Legion). in some fashion. I didn’t get to play the Xbox One exclusive demo from back in December, so this was my first exposure to this new Devil May Cry outside of watching gameplay videos and trailers. I guess they want to sell people onto this new “edgier” vibe to Nero’s character but he still comes off as a poor man’s knockoff of Dante’s natural charisma. Not to mention that Nero gives me more vibes of DmC (Devil May Cry)’s Dante than the one that we know and love from the original continuity.
I still don’t much care for Nero as a whole - both as a protagonist and playable character - but refreshing myself on the Exceed system from Devil May Cry 4 (thanks to a rather handy tutorial online above), really helped me enjoy the demo a lot more and got me more invested into the combat system presented in Devil May Cry 5. I still feel like this game is still Devil May Cry 4 at it’s core, just presented with a much better frame rate for everything that’s going on-screen, coupled with better visuals sported in that last-generation game. Even with the facelift that Devil May Cry 4 got with it’s Special Edition release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the visuals in that game cannot hold a candle to how amazing this game looks in action. You can tell that Capcom were definitely inspired by Ninja Theory’s DmC (Devil May Cry) reboot in some fashion in that regard. No matter how you felt about that game, I think that everyone can admit that it looked great visually.
It took me a while but I’m finally digging the “Devil Trigger” theme for the game’s soundtrack. I’ll be honest - I wasn’t crazy about it when the band came out during the Game Awards in December and lip sync’d their way through that performance but after finding a full version of the theme, I can admit I actually like it. We’ll see over time whether or not that it holds up to Combichrist’s tracks from DmC (Devil May Cry).
There's at least two unused buttons here for both consoles and I'm positive that I'm going to remap taunt to one of the triggers for my own personal preference. I still don't see why they couldn't have put in an option to allow you to swap Devil Bringers on the fly either. That just seems like an odd decision to make them disposable. I would be fine with that if there was a means to like cycle through them with the d-pad or something, especially if they are disposable and hard to come by. I know that's going to be a pain in the ass to micromanage in gameplay at higher difficulties for sure. That's why I was leaning towards just keeping one Devil Bringer I really liked and equipping 4 stocks of it.
Speaking of controls, the demo does a very poor job explaining things for newcomers. The Devil May Cry 5 official site is a great source of information though, which is why I'm pretty surprised this information isn't in the game along with an explanation of Nero's signature Exceed ability. At least they give you an idea of what each of the Devil Bringer arms are capable of too on that site. The developers confirmed that they took a page out of DmC (Devil May Cry)'s playbook in terms of having a training room of sorts to practice/tryout new moves and abilities before you purchase them to get a sense whether they are your cup of tea for your specific playstyle.
I thought it was pretty cool that Capcom took a page out of Platinum Games’ playbook and let your Reb Orbs carry over to subsequent playthroughs of the demo at your heart’s content to buy out all of the moves, abilities, and stock up on whatever Devil Bringers that you wanted to equip to suit your own Nero’s playstyle.
Closing Thoughts
I haven't purchased a new Devil May Cry title at launch since Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition dropped, so I doubt I'm going to pick this up on Day One. That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to a weekend Redbox rental to get it out of my system before it ends up dirt cheap in the bargain bin down the road.
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