Ranking the Devil May Cry Series - Article
by Mark Nielsen , posted on 18 April 2024 / 10,256 Views
Upon finally finishing Devil May Cry 5 recently - after it spent several years on my “I’ll play that soon” list - I considered giving it a fittingly-named Late Look article. However, considering that this was indeed the final piece I was missing in the DMC puzzle, I decided to instead take this opportunity to take a look back at the entirety of this genre-defining series and rank the entries. What also made this a particularly tempting notion was that while most high-profile series have developed fairly evenly over time, with a few bumps on the road, the history of Devil May Cry has, at least in my eyes, been an absolute roller coaster, with everything from total disasters to action game gold.
It’s worth noting that while I'm a fan of the hack 'n' slash genre, I’m not someone who has put hundreds of hours into these titles to master the art of SSS-jitsu. In fact, most of them I’ve only played through once, but that doesn’t stop me from having quite a bit to say about each entry, however surface level it might be. Also worth noting is that this article contains minor spoilers, so buckle up for that.
6. Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 2 is not so much a game as it is a lesson. A lesson teaching us just how little a good combat system amounts to when accompanied by terrible enemy and level design. If there’s one word that describes DMC 2 it would be ‘mess’, and by all accounts that's also exactly what the development process was, with changes in both direction and director in a game that released less than 18 months after its predecessor. They rushed the game so hard that even the cover art looks exhausted.
The result isn’t pretty, with the experience ranging from uninteresting to infuriating thanks to bad AI and boss fights. It doesn’t help that the development team opted for a dual perspective, like the Resident Evil series that DMC grew out from, only here you don't get two different stories, you instead get two halves of a story that make no sense on their own.
Are there only negative things to be said about DMC 2? Not quite. There isn’t much wrong with the combat system itself, so in the rare decently put together section you might find a little oasis of enjoyment in what is otherwise a desert. But, all in all, the game really only holds value today for those badly wanting to experience everything DMC, or for those suffering from a severe case of morbid curiosity.
5. Devil May Cry 4
This is quite possibly the most surprising placement on this list. It’s worth mentioning right off the bat that both the combat and encounters are far ahead of Devil May Cry 2, making this easily the biggest leap in quality on this list. DMC 4 is by no means a bad game, but it has its own non-trivial list of sins. On the gameplay side of things DMC 4 is mostly a natural evolution of what came before, but on the story front it throws audiences a curveball by taking us to church and switching the (main) protagonist from the stylish, sassy, loveable Dante to the *adjective not found* Nero.
When looking at this particular entry it’s very hard for me to not see that change as a downgrade. Not only is Nero blander as a character, he’s also less fun to play as; he has only one weapon available set and lacks Devil Trigger for most of the game. Essentially, he’s Dante with all dials turned way down, and since he’s the main driving force of both the game and story, that feeling of him being a downgrade ended up plaguing much of the experience for me. It also doesn’t help that DMC 4 employs an absolutely baffling handicap system that (in short) forces the struggling player onto a lower difficulty and then proceeds to punish them for it.
4. DmC: Devil May Cry
Okay, let’s get this one out of the way: Dante’s redesign was a horrible idea. At this point in the series history, it seems Capcom was absolutely convinced that the iconic Dante of old was holding Devil May Cry back. But putting that aside, what we’re left with is a mostly great action game - one that feels in many ways more cohesive than the two above.
As a reboot that was abandoned afterwards (to once again continue the old continuity), there’s no doubt that DmC is the odd duckling of the series, and that might actually be its biggest issue. While its different aesthetics and take on the lore are passable in their own right, they inevitable feel off when looking at what came both before and after. Other than that, and a few tone-deaf decisions, it holds up as a competent hack 'n' slash experience - if you can stop yourself from questioning why it even exists that is.
3. Devil May Cry
We're past the halfway point, so it’s high time we get some more positivity in here. Luckily, I have no problem bringing that out for the game that started it all. While there can be no doubt that the two previous entries on this list offered a more fluid combat experience (one area where this title’s age definitely shows), after six games there’s one element I still insist the original Devil May Cry got most right: Dante. Never since his first appearance have his wisecracks been so on point, nor his hair looked so good. In that regard you could say that Devil May Cry is the antithesis of DmC (and yes that is a confusing sentence).
Another aspect that makes this first entry stand out is how clearly you can see the series' Resident Evil roots, from the lock-and-key design of the mansion, to the camera angles as you explore it. And while the demon-slaying action will always be where this series shines the brightest, there’s a certain charm to that unique blend. Unlike the second entry, Devil May Cry is a game I would definitely say is still worth experiencing today, flaws and all.
2. Devil May Cry 5
Redemption seems to be the main theme for this fifth (but actually sixth) entry. Redemption for the series itself, redemption for Vergil in the story, and (largely) redemption for Nero as a character, thanks to a change in personality and his role in this entry's story. I still have to maintain that he’s the least fun character to play as in DMC 5, despite new mechanics, but that is what it is. Dante nonetheless makes a glorious return, with gameplay as fun as ever, and we're also introduced to a third playable character, V, who has a strange but fun playstyle of controlling multiple demons to fight for him.
Devil May Cry 5 also manages to include a solid story to boot. While it sounds rather ambitious on paper to include three different protagonists and bring back several other characters from the series' past, it's all pulled off with relative grace, and though the game can at times feel like it's spread a bit thin (also in terms of buying upgrades separately for three different characters), that's easier to forgive after it's all brought together for one hell of a finale.
1. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening
It’s hard to believe in retrospect that it wasn’t until three entries in that we first got a game with Dante’s twin brother Vergil as a major character, a character that's since become so iconic his name is synonymous with the words Special Edition. At least as far as Capcom is concerned. What can I say about DMC 3 other than... this was it. The first time that all the pieces finally came together. The gameplay was leagues above the first two titles, the story was solid, and the final showdown with Vergil was so epic that Capcom practically couldn't stop itself from reusing it.
Does Devil May Cry 5 have more refined, more varied gameplay? Quite possibly so, but overall I still think DMC 3 has the edge as a more focused experience where everything clicks together. It might not quite be the perfect hack 'n' slash title, but there can be no doubt that it ranks among the best of them, especially for its time.