Like many, my first encounter with the saga Devil May Cry was with the 3rd, a hack and slash game with frenetic action, good music and Gothic atmosphere, after a few years later I would play the first game of this great saga and until recently I would play the 2nd, which is considered the worst or at least the least loved of the main saga (I do not include the DMC since it is a reboot of it and does not belong to the main saga), sincerely Devil May Cry 2 was not a game extremely good, however it is a game that can be enjoyed in some occasions.
As the title says today's Retro Review is about: Devil May Cry 2.
It could be considered that chronologically the events of Devil May Cry 2 would place him as the last of the saga (Not counting the next new game in the saga: Devil May Cry 5 and the reboot: DMC, since DMC is a totally different game, which happens in an alternate reality to the main saga), therefore chronologically the saga of Devil May Cry would be like this: Devil May cry 3 - Devil May Cry 1 - Devil May Cry 4 - Devil May Cry 2, I must mention that I have not played the 4th game of this saga yet and that due to the little information that there is about the 5th game, it is not known with certainty where it would be placed in the timeline, however, the Dante shown in the trailer of Devil May Cry 5, is a Dante that looks older compared to the 2nd game, which is considered the last of the series, therefore it is speculated that the events that will happen the Devil May Cry 5 are after Devil May Cry 2, although nothing is confirmed yet and we have to wait for the game to know about that.
Devil May Cry was never considered a saga where his argument is the main thing, since the strong point of this game is its gameplay, therefore in this saga we will not find a deep story, but despite having a story simple is very entertaining, but compared to the first game and especially the 3rd, the storyline and how the story of Devil May Cry 2 progresses is much simpler. Dante is working as a researcher on demons and all kinds of magical creatures, for it travels to a small town on an island that has the name "Drumar", in this town there is a family that formerly fought along with Sparda (Father of Dante) against armies of demons, the reason why Dante travels to that island is because a resident of that town entrusted Dante with the mission to stop and eliminate Arius, who behind the facade of a giant international business entrepreneur, is hidden a demon that has as objective to obtain certain objects that will grant great powers, such is the amount of powers that resemble a God, in this new mission in which our protagonist will embark, will have the help of Lucia, also inhabitant of the Island Drumar, a character from which we will discover a past and an origin which is related to the Arius company.
And so begins the argument of Devil May Cry 2, a game that, being honest, is far behind the first game of delivery and despite not being bad enough, so to speak, in many cases is enjoyable, both the story as in some cases the gameplay.
Regarding the graphic aspect, if we compare it with the first game if you notice a bit of improvement, however it is not a significant improvement, although maybe because I have played previously to Devil May Cry 3 and in it if note a little more the graphic improvement, with this I am not being fair with Devil May Cry 2, however really in this 2nd game, the graphic improvement is not so much, we can still find great scenarios very well decorated and with the typical Gothic setting that so characterizes the Devil May Cry saga , as well as excellent animation in each attack and combo that Dante performs when it comes to eliminating a Final Boss or an hour of enemies, there is a lot of fluidity in that aspect, which is undoubtedly the most important aspect when playing a game Hack and Slash, fluency, without fluency in games of this genre, its gameplay would be totally impossible, since we are constantly moving, attacking and defending ourselves from enemy attacks , therefore a bad fluidity of movement will make us go through a bad gaming experience. And I think because it took a lot of movement in this game, that's why most of the scenarios we're going to go to are pre-rendered, so they look flat and "fake", this is an aspect that many people did not like, as there are many scenarios where you see that they "lack life" and feel that they are not finished, but I think the developers made the scenarios in this way so as not to compromise the game with fps drops.
The model of Dante in this second game is better done, with better details and improved facial expressions, tried to resemble reality as best as possible and despite not being extremely spectacular, if you notice a considerable improvement with the first game, likewise There are new enemies, there is a new range of demons to defeat, some of them with quite original designs, but a failure of these enemies is that they repeat a lot on the stage and eventually bored enough to always see the same enemies.
If there is something that characterizes the saga of Devil May Cry in terms of the sound aspect, are its gothic melodies and this is one of the reasons why DMC (the reboot) is not so loved among the fans of the Devil May Cry saga , since in the reboot they totally discarded the Gothic melodies and opted to use a soundtrack of techno music, they left aside the essence that characterizes the saga, although Devil May Cry 2 does maintain that aspect, the quality of these melodies is far behind compared to the first game, if, in some cases the melodies are very good, but in most of the time the game lasts a little unnoticed, you have to listen to the soundtrack separately to be able to appreciate each of the melodies of this game.
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Devil May Cry 2 maintains the same frantic action and fights with large numbers of combos that so characterizes the saga, it is well known that the games of the hack and slash genre are games where attack speed and reaction speed is very important , that we have when fighting against our enemies, In addition to having a good range of short and long range weapons, in Devil May Cry 2 you can find a decent amount of weapons, especially swords of different types and abilities, as well as firearms that will help us maintain to the enemies at bay. Dante moves with great fluidity throughout the stage, is capable of attacking at high speeds and dodging, as well as moving around the walls to carry out attacks that take our enemies by surprise.
However, there is a detail in the Devil May Cry games (at least in the old games) is that it has a fixed camera and that in a game of the hack and slash genre, it is very uncomfortable when it comes to having to attack large amounts of enemies or when we move through certain scenarios, since many times when we fight we will limit our movements and the vision of the stage, also has a gameplay called "tank controls" which is practically that, our character moves as if we were controlling a tank, a fairly clear example is the saga of the first Resident Evil, and no wonder May Devil May Cry have that kind of movement since they are from the same company, Capcom.
Devil May Cry 2 is considered the black sheep of the main saga of Devil May Cry and although DMC (The reboot) is considered one of the worst, because they completely changed the background of the story of Dante for evil, at least in terms of playability it is very fun and entertaining to play. Although I think one of the aspects for which Devil May Cry 2 and DMC are not loved among the fans, it is because they changed drastically the personalities of our protagonist, in one his personality is colder and it seems that he does not care about anything and in the another, they recreated it with a haughty and very rebellious personality, we will have to wait that Devil May Cry 5 brings us to see the Dante returns that we liked so much in previous games.
