DMC5 is probably, in my humble opinion, is as perfect as a game will ever be. Not that absolutely everything in this game is objectively groundbreaking but it all culminates in such a way that really struck me. The game play is better than ever, the visuals are groundbreaking, the music is amazing, the characters are awesome, the writing and voice acting are delightfully cheesy, the levels and combat encounters are fun to blast through and the story is simultaneously simple and batshit insane. And that's not even scratching the surface. DMC5 does away with dated mechanics of the past instead of holding onto them, a fate many franchises suffer. The omission of the consumables mechanic makes playing skillfully absolutely paramount on higher difficulties. I have played through the story roughly 6 or 7 times in the last month ever since getting my hands on the game and I'm still not sick of the scenarios, boss fights, characters and gamplay that this game brings to the table. Not to mention Special Editions inclusion of Turbo Mode and Vergil, even further increasing replay value. I look forward to even more playthroughs in the future and I hope to get the platinum trophy as well as pay a visit to the PS4 original and do the same there. This game sets a gold standard for the genre and videogames in general. My only regret is not playing it sooner.

It's extremely invigorating to see the pioneer of the hack and slash genre come back and completely do away with the worst trappings of the genre.

Quick time events? Pffft what are you on about? Walking sections? Rule of thirds camera angle? Nowhere does it touch the combat, which is my opinion is the fastest and tightest feeling string of combos and weapons across the entire series.

Nero from DMC4 is back with some add variety in the form of new Devil Breakers that give him new abilities to chain into your Exceeds and grappling hooks. He feels exceptionally good in this game, so much fun to hack and/or slash away at demons and I've no doubt merely scratched the surface with him. And spoiler alert, you're not even halfway through with Nero's mechanics until the very end of the game, getting his old Buster moves and Devil Trigger. His moveset is cleverly delivered to you piecemeal as not to overload you on mechanics.

Newcomer V is a bit of a letdown. An interesting concept, Pikmin reworked into a hack and slash character unfortunately leaves the most of V's interesting mechanics and enemies to simply button mashing. V himself is a cool character and it can be fun to chain kills together, but if the game has a lull at any point, it would be him. Props for originality, but relying on wonky AI assist characters to kill wonky AI enemies isn't the most fun.

Nero is fantastic, V is..interesting, but the real star of the show here would have to be old series standby Dante (from the Devil May Cry franchise.) No shitty behavior and screaming about killing "demon bitches," no awful "hold the trigger to use your other weapons" just Dante at his core. Styles, and weapon switching, taunts (now with air taunts!) and Devil Trigger. Every weapon has its intricacies and nuances to master and is prime for many different circumstances. Like Nero, Dante can honestly feel a little bloated, but the game's generous loadout customization and accessibility features deliver these mechanics to you when you feel ready for them. It's so validating to see such a mechanically rich character step out of an action game in the current generation.

New to Special Edition are the additions of the approaching storm Vergil being fully playable, Turbo Mode (which was on the entire time of my playthrough,) and Legendary Dark Knight difficulty, alongside some added bells and whistles. Some of these features, probably should've been in the game at launch, and it does feel like Capcom forced the developers to withhold them for a special edition rerelease as has been series standard by now, but you can access Vergil in the original release via DLC and mods on PC have already implemented most if not all of SE's additions so you're not out of luck if you didn't have a house to mortgage just to get your hands on a PS5 or Series X.

Speaking of tech, this game looks stunning, and runs at a solid 60 fps even on base PS4 and Xbox One. The RE Engine the game is built on really comes into its own here, bringing the monsters to life in such a way they never were before. Keeping that gay cowboy flare was clearly extremely important and I'd say they succeeded.

Through its ups and downs, Devil May Cry introduced a whole new genre back in its heyday, a genre given new life by Devil May Cry 3 and games like Kingdom Hearts and Bayonetta. And now here, in the current era, it delivers what's perhaps the gamiest game I've ever fucking played. Few games can match the satisfaction of a stylish combat encounter like Devil May Cry, but while the combat is what's most important to a game like this, don't let that take away from a really touching narrative that warps the thesis of the previous games on its head: we don't have to kill each other. We can move past this petty rivalry. Bringing in Nero from DMC4 and Vergil (spoilers) from DMC3 brings the whole series together in such a way that is incredibly poignant for this big franchise return, and the final two encounters feel as though the entire series, hell, MY PLAYTHROUGHS of the entire series was always leading to. Devil Trigger is a fantastic main theme and, hell no, the entire soundtrack fucking rocks. Bloodpumping and energetic but also quiet and moody when they need to be.

I think what was most telling for me about this game's quality were Nico's Reports. She's the mechanic who builds all of Nero's equipment, a fun character in her own right. The logs from previous games that detail characters, enemies,, and items, are now entirely written from her perspective. That's such a lovely detail they didn't need to do, but it speaks to how much everyone behind the scenes cared about this project. Hell, even the MENUS have loads of easter eggs to look out for. They clearly put a lot of love into this project, and it shines across the entire game. No game is perfect, but few other games make me feel as perfect as when I land a stylish triple SSS combo. I'm so glad to have triggered these devils.

The game is in the same vein as it’s predecessor which is a good thing considering the long break between the 4th and 5th game.

It continues to follow the trend of multiple playable characters trough the story that DMC4 introduced except this time we have a third character accompanying Dante and Nero.

Dante was the one that felt very familiar in gameplay, he gets new weapons and combo but if you’ve played the previous games you get the hang of his play style quickly.

Nero was an interesting one, for story reason instead of his demonic arm, we are introduced to his new combat mechanic the devil breaker. Each of them have different uses and effects depending on the ennemies and unlike any other fighting mechanic, they work as ammo. Meaning you can run out of them and have to refill once you go empty. But you can also find them on the field. My biggest gripe with this feature is that there is no button mapped to manually switch between all devil breaker you equip. If you want to use a specific one you have to either configure it trough the customization menu before the mission or you have to actively get rid of the one you have currently equipped until you get the devil breaker you want.

And lastly V, one of the newest major character. His gameplay involve him using familiar demon to fight but they are very limited. Because of that his gameplay feels very repetitive. I haven’t gotten the chance to unlock all his abilities but from what I got they also didn’t offer a large variety of combo.
But nonetheless all 3 have one thing in commons: they are very cool to play as which makes up for their shortcomings.

Other than that the rest is standard DMC. The story isn’t the most profound but that’s not really the franchise’s identity anyway. It does what it’s good at : killing demons while looking spectacular and that’s all I need for a dmc game.

Even though I played both vanilla DMC and this w putting this here lo
A game not just for die-hard of the series but newcomers alike, what feels like hours of fan-service is also an amazing game in it’s own right. The combat is fucking stellar and when mastered, it’s honestly crazy to watch. Even the smallest things, like taunts being incorporated into combos and such.
The OST is great, but honestly kind of lacks the metal feel that DMC3 had, replacing it with meh dubstep. Where it realy shines is the lyrical songs. Such as Devil Trigger, Crimson Clouds, Subhuman(i like the new version ok), and most importantly Bury The Light. With the small but amazing edition of chorus and different parts of the song coinciding with your style meter, normal fights almost feel like cutscenes.
The story is crazy and as corny as ever, with your average cringy lines especially from the newcomer V. V’s gameplay lacks sometimes, but his character is very fun to watch on screen and in cutscenes. Overall, this game is an amazing culmination of everything the series has to offer, and I strongly recommend playing the rest of the series before to fully enjoy this.

I know within my heart that this game certainly isn't perfect, but I cannot deny its pure excellence and how it overall appeals to me.

Yeah, the later missions are a bit samey, there's a few little performance hitches even when having the game set to its dedicated "performance mode," but the pure thrill of combat - especially with DMC's fantastic enemy variety - makes this game a pure masterpiece.

Helming nowhere near the best story in gaming, Devil May Cry 5 might have the best gameplay out there, full stop. These compliments are only further lifted by the awesome inclusions made for this Special Edition re-release.

Of course, this second playthrough meant that I finished the game as Vergil, who's definitely a much harder character to play as than anyone else, yet is infinitely more rewarding because of that fact. Playing like he does in DMC3, Vergil is undoubtedly the most powerful character in this entire game, as long as you know how to use him. That sense of rewarding skillful play has always been something I've loved about DMC as a series, overall.

Additional inclusions to this Special Edition release is the long-awaited turbo mode for making the game run 20% faster (highly recommended), Legendary Black Knight difficulty if you're either way too good or you just hate yourself, and neat performance tweaking options to find your optimal graphics/performance foothold.

My one serious complaint with this re-release is why it couldn't have been on PC. I wouldn't have played it there, but it's still rather dumb that these inclusions just aren't available on PC besides the Vergil mode. I know that modders have essentially brought through the additional Special Edition features over to PC, but it shouldn't have to be a mod, Capcom...

Anyway please play this game and show it some support cause I want more games like this in the mainstream; thanks.