it's fine! i'm just not a huge fps guy. gunplay is pretty average, you get some wackier things near the very end at least but it's kinda too little too late for me. movement is a source game so it's obviously fun to run around in but precision platforming still feels a bit silly and awkward. looks pretty great for the time though, and it also has some iconic sound effects and music.

this feels like something everyone who is interested in the behemoths of video game history and especially FPS history should absolutely play. it's obviously very ahead of its time and influential to the genre as a whole, it's just a genre that even at it's peak isn't all that special to me, especially in single player campaigns.

I saw the demo for this game in a Steam demo fest, and I never got around to playing the demo but thought "I like Shmups! I'll wishlist this blindly!" and kinda forgot about it entirely. I then got an email for the release of this game a few days ago, watched the trailer more closely, and instantly thought "This is so sick, how have I never seen a game like this?" and booted up the demo. I was pretty instantly hooked, and bought the game the next day because I wanted to play more.

It's at the end of the day an extremely simple and solidly made shoot em' up mixed with Adventure Game/Metroidvania mechanics. I don't love saying "game but this!" but it is kinda just 2D Zelda as a shoot em' up. I've always loved shoot em' ups and have played a few of them, but never found one that was also an adventure game and it works incredibly well. The ship feels good to control, and the upgrades feel substantial and exciting to get. The bosses are really solid bullet hells, my only complaint being that there aren't a ton of them so the difficulty doesn't ramp up much til the very end and I would have liked a few more tough boss fights. The post game arena helps with this a bit but it is ultimately just refights of the old bosses that are a bit harder. The map is fun to explore and filled with lots of secrets and hidden paths and shortcuts that connect various parts of the map. If you like metroidvania progression it has a lot of that satisfying feeling once you unlock new abilities. Visually it's pretty simple but at least to me very clean and appealing! The music wasn't super notable for me though, but I did have it a bit low and played a lot while talking to friends in a discord call so I don't wanna judge it too hard.

I said it at the start, but the concept for this game so instantly excited me and again I'm surprised I haven't seen any other game do this concept. If the elevator pitch of "2D Zelda but as a shmup" sounds as sick to you as it did to me, I'm very glad to say it lived up to the concept and is well worth the $15!

god. GOD!!!! this is just the best character action game of all time. i have so much i love here but man it just blew me away. after having played every game in the franchise i had built this game up in my head a LOT. i finally beat the dmc reboot and my reward was playing this game... the only problem was this game did NOT click right away. it's not really any fault of the game, it's actually entirely on me for playing the reboot right before this and having the muscle memory of that game fresh in my mind. that coupled with nero being pretty significantly different out the gate and i felt so fucking sluggish and clunky and weird for the first couple missions. i ended up taking a break from the game for a day or two to wash away that damned muscle memory and when i finally came back everything connected how i thought it would and i couldn't have been more in love

before i get into the obvious biggest high point in the gameplay let me just say this game is absolutely GORGEOUS. i know 2019 isn't THAT long ago but the environments are gorgeous, the combat looks better than it ever has with insane and exciting effects and particles. the cutscenes stood out as really well done especially, it feels like they didn't really need to put this much effort into them but they're beautifully animated. the soundtrack is great as well, nero's theme especially stood out as super exciting and blood pumping.

speaking of the cutscenes the story was solid here! it jumps around a lot and i don't think is winning any awards, but it's saved by the return of insane over the top action sequences in most cutscenes! i don't know if they quite reach the absurdity and fun of DMC 3 but it's so much more true to what i loved compared to 4 and they were so exciting to watch. nero as a character becomes so much more likable and fun, nico is an amazing addition and the way she interacts with nero was great. her fan girling over dante when they first meet was amazing as well. i wasn't that big into V as a character but i did like griffon! i got way too excited for vergil after dealing with how much i didn't like him in the reboot. lady and trish don't really do much unfortunately but i was happy to see them regardless. dante of course is still a standout and as wonderful as ever, him getting dr. faust was amazing.

okay this section might be a bit all over the place but i just have to kind of gush about the gameplay here. nero starts out pretty different and it was a bit awkward but once you start unlocking more variation in the devil breakers and understanding what each one does it's unbelievably fun. there's so much love put into each other, but being a huge mega man nerd i loved the mega buster, not only it just literally being a mega buster but nero doing the mega man jump animation and doing the teleport at the start of stages whenever he's using it made me smile a lot. some of my other favorites were punch line namely for it's charge attack being you get to ride on it like a hoverboard, the tomboy for the entirely new moveset that felt super weighty and fun to use, the buster arm because it was a great throwback, and gerbera for it's giant kamehameha charge attack and juggling enemies with the aerial dash was super fun. none of this is to mention how nero changes by the end of the game which i won't spoil but really just takes him up to 11 and makes him so insanely badass and fun.

V was okay, but easily my least favorite of the main 3. i don't hate the idea they were going for, and it did feel pretty badass ocassionally i wasn't miserable playing him by any means. he just felt much less involved, since you're controlling the summons and not attacking with V himself. i also maybe was just not fully understanding how he worked, but i found that the summons, shadow especially just whiffed his attacks constantly. griffon didn't feel particularly satisfying to use, and especially on a first playthrough since he wasn't clicking with me i didn't really wanna use my red orbs on him and opted to generally save them for nero and dante which didn't help. he's not terrible but i would have just preferred more nero/dante missions really lol.

okay this is where i'm just gonna gush like a dork for a little bit BUT OH MY GOD DANTE IN THIS GAME!!!!!! it felt odd going back to dante initially after playing the reboot and doing all the nero/v missions and similarly to the start of this game i had this weird worried feeling they kinda jumped the shark and it wasn't gonna be as fun. this mostly came from general starting awkwardness of having to get back into the groove but especially not super understanding how balrog worked intitially. this was a huge red flag to me, because even in the reboot the gauntlets were easily my favorite weapon archetype throughout the series and they felt so off/confusing initially in this game. it took me like a full mission to understand but holy shit these are the best gaunlets in the entire series. once you fully understand and start swapping between stances and utilizing all of the moves it is so absurdly exhilirating. i do still miss the charge punches a little bit but everything else is so much fucking fun that it didn't matter by the end. on the topic of these being the best gauntlet weapons in the series oh my god is this the best set of weapons in the series. devil sword dante is the best sword in the franchise easily, but even before that rebellion and sparda feel great. this series generally has tried some insane high concept weapons, and while i'm sure they're very satisfying if you learn them they generally felt a bit awkward and hard to justify swapping to for me (nevan in DMC 3, and lucifer in DMC 4) but cavaliere absolutely fucking nailed it. it's an INSANE weapon that's just 2 halves of a motorcycle that absolutely tear enemies up and with the swordmaster style you can combine them and ride the motorcycle to destroy demons. they also brought back the cerberus nunchucks, but not only did they bring them back but they made them even better! they added multiple elements to it, including an electric whip type charge attack, and with swordmaster style equipped a huge flame staff. DMC 3 still has the biggest variety of weapons in the series for dante but this game just absolutely perfected every style of weapon it added and has the best version of them all. the returning guns are fun, but don't really feel any different. dr. faust is the main new gun and it's really cool, but it also uses red orbs (although you can gain a ton back if you utilize it well) and i was too greedy to use it too much. there's just so much fucking depth with dante, it feels like you could play for hundreds of hours and still learn new fun ways to swap between weapons and styles in a satisfying way. i see myself going back to this game a ton to replay missions and just mess around with the combat in bloody palace. there's so much love and passion put into making all of these characters feel absolutely amazing throughout the entire series but it's truly perfected in this game. it's easily the greatest character action game i've played, and i can't imagine any game even comparing that isn't a new devil may cry game. i'm saying all this and i haven't even played as vergil yet!!! god this game rocks!!!

this game was an absolute blast to play. it made me so happy the whole way through. even without having the context of being a devil may cry fan before this year and experencing the lows that led to this, it still just feels like such a beautiful love letter to the franchise as a whole. i'm so glad i didn't start with this game because it made it even more satisfying to finally get here and absolutely understand the love put into this game and why it's so easily one of the best DMC games and character action games as a whole. this series had some highs and lows but 3 and especially this game made the lows so worth it. i'd like to thank all of my friends who hounded me to finally give this series a try, namely my good friend alex who i tortured by refusing to play this series for way too long LOL it was incredibly worth it and i'm a huge fan now :)

by the way, after playing them all my list is as follows
1. Devil May Cry 5
very close 2. Devil May Cry 3
3. Devil May Cry 4 = DmC: Devil May Cry
4. Devil May Cry 1
significantly below the rest 5. Devil May Cry 2

i was a bit worried going back to this game that it wouldn't live up to how absolutely perfect i built it up in my head but i came out loving it even more. everything about this game is absolutely wonderful. super colorful and well done pixel art, one of the best video game osts of all time, a super sweet and meaningful story, and especially some of the most satisfying control in a video game mixed with the most satisfying level design a platformer can have. i really can't sing the praises of everything this game does more. i love this game to death, 2d platformers have peaked.

this was fine! i think there's a lot of context as to why this game would be upsetting to a devil may cry fan, and even as a new fan to the series i can understand most of it but it's a lot easier for me to overall go "yea i don't love that it's a dmc game but i have 5 other games in this franchise to play if i want that! i don't care that much!" which is a pretty unfair stance for me to take compared to other long term DMC fans but impossible to avoid.

that's all to say, the characters and story here overall are rough. i think dante winds up being solid near the end of the game but his first impression is really bad. kat is cool and her dynamic with dante is good aside from the slight romantic undertones which i don't love. i think they work better as friends and a someone for dante to actually care for. virgil sucks, and the villains are overall pretty uninteresting but bob barbas is pretty fucking funny. i actually was kind of a fan of dante and virgil's dynamic in this game. it was something unique, and it was cool seeing them being buddies! (SPOILERS) the end of the game completely throws this out of the window, throwing a random lame twist of him wanting to rule the world epically! the writing overall is okay, again i think it gives a pretty awful first impression, but dante becomes likable and he has some solid dynamics with kat and virgil especially that make me not wanna say it's TERRIBLE but it in general i think tries way too hard to be edgy and badass especially with dialogue between dante and the various villains. i did genuinely get some laughs from those, namely the bob barbas boss fight and dante screaming fuck you back and forth with the succubus. i wouldn't say this writing/story was good by any means, and i understand not being able to recover from the terrible first impression the first few missions give but it's also not the worst thing i've ever experienced by the end, at least when it came to the characters. them trying to convey a message was pretty sloppy and uninteresting.

this game visually is very split for me. i genuinely think some of the things they do here with the limbo gimmick and stylistic choices are pretty cool! i also think it's like peak 360/ps3 era disgusting at some points. some of that to be fair is intentional, like the succubus lair or mundus' spawn but it still just isn't particularly what i love in my games visually. i think it's cool how visually distinct so much of the game is though, that's something pretty new for this franchise and it was nice to see. there's also a lot of crazy pretty cool gimmicks in some of the levels, namely the devil has talent. visually was super crazy and fun to run through. i don't have a ton to say about the music overall but it was pretty good, it's not particularly my style but i caught myself head thumping here and there.

the gameplay here is really sick, not on the same level as dmc 3 or 4 for sure but still lots of fun! solid selection of weapons that all generally feel pretty satisfying to use and a pretty fun grapple hook that was exciting in combat and made platforming/traversal exciting and more fun as well! level design as a whole is pretty solid. platforming and exploring the levels is fun and pretty satisfying and the locations are super varied. enemy design is okay, some of the later enemies are kind of annoying to deal with. i don't even super mind the whole angel/devil gimmick because of how easy it is to swap between weapons. i realize it can discourage using what weapons you want to use but realistically those enemies were pretty few and far between and if anything it encouraged me to use things like my angel weapons more than i was. if there's one thing DMC will always get right it's punch and kick gauntlet weapons because eryx is still the most fun here. the aquilla were really fun on the angel side and rebellion was pretty standard for DMC. the guns were pretty weak here, and devil trigger especially was really fucking lame. i didn't hate the visual flare of it but it just being a freeze time every enemy floats in the air thing was boring and lame.

i think overall this is surprisingly one of the most full and complete devil may cry games. i can't say i had a terrible time, it's a pretty fun character action game! i know it's kind of a popular sentiment that everyone says but if this wasn't a devil may cry game i think so much of it would sting a lot less. there's still problems here regardless of that but the characters and story especially i think would be a lot less frustrating. i think it being devil may cry though sets your expectations in terms of combat and characters at a certain standard and it just doesn't really live up to that. i'd say i liked this more than DMC 1 and especially 2, but it's about on the same level as 4. i'd say it's a better game overall than 4 but the combat and characters in 4 clicked so much more for me that i had a better time with that one. i'm really excited to get into DMC 5 after everything i've heard but also i heard nothing but the worst of the worst for this game and it was a decent time so who knows... (it'll be awesome)

YOU GO TO HELL TO SAVE YOUR BEAUTIFUL LOVING WIFE THIS GAME ROCKS. In reality I did enjoy this game way more then bayo 1. I do think there is some things that holds this game back. This may be because of just skill I have gained from Bayo 1 but this game felt like CONSIDERABLY easier then the first. I don't want to be hit with a stone award after every mission but getting consistent silvers I went "oh?". I also think the retreading of old environments/enemies a little like same-y? It isn't done an insane amount but enough of like "I wish I fought a bit more new enemies and didn't go to a place that feels the same even if the layout is different". The bosses feel way cooler in this game and way more of an epic scale of shit (except nothing like jubileus). I think overall there is just more shit to do in this game including the fact you can just play as Jeanne if you want to aswell. And while she plays similar enough she has her own unique style. I didn't talk about it with Bayo 1 but these games have such good fucking music aswell and 2 doesn't let down. Definitely really glad I started the series and this was a great sequel

this game really fires on all fronts.

gameplay? excellent

music? incredible

visuals? down-right stunning at their heights

and then story exists too i guess!

I kind of wanted to just drop a review akin to just "The Industry yearns for Asura's Wrath" and just leaving it there but I feel like that would be a disservice to the game. There's not gonna be any major spoilers I'll just mention a few story beats here and there that have been talked about publicly.

I'm going to get the negatives out of the way because there's a lot to gush about this game. One complaint I have is the odd performance issues with this game where it kind of chugs sometimes. Plus with all the weird shit you get from being on performance mode. I think my biggest complaint about the game overall is the story, it's really fucking weird. I think the whole analogy of slavery with the bearers is really fucking weird at the minimum. I think the best way I can describe the plot is to paraphrase a polygon article "This is Game of Thrones without any of the satire". Thankfully the game fucking forgets about the slavery subplot about a good bit in but it means you kinda just have to sit there and hear about it for like 15 hours. I think even past that subplot the writing isn't the craziest well written story. I think an article that talks about the story well is the article I mentioned which I'll just link here: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23767374/final-fantasy-16-review-ff16-new-game-plus

Now onto the positives. I have a lot of gush about the game because god does it feel fucking amazing to play. I still think the game could only get better if they just let you break the rules and just put on like more then 3 Eikons but the depth you get with the rules that are set is still great. I love the freedom of being able to mix and match abilities once you start to upgrade more of your abilities. Also I am a simple woman so my monkey brain lit up when I realized this game had dmc4 jump cancelling and I went "alright this game fucking rocks". The game feels so responsive and when you're in fights with groups of enemies has abilities to kind of deal with the fact that groups don't feel so oppressive. An extension of gameplay is I fucking adore the boss fights in this game. The line I said earlier about Asura's Wrath is so true because there was multiple boss fights where I literally started to uncontrollably giggle over how fucking cool it was. Even past the big cinematic Asura-like qte fest boss fights the normal boss fights are also so fucking fun. This game really lets you know "hey this is a fucking boss fight and we're going to make it feel special". The boss fights are also all just memorable designs as well and look so fucking cool. That extends into the general overworld design. The game is one of the most gorgeous games I've ever experienced. Who would've thought you can make a gorgeous game and also just make a great video game (looking at you Callisto Protocol). A lot of environments I had to just sit back in my chair and take it all in. Despite the gripes with the story I think the characters do extreme heavy lifting of it. The voice actors put their all into these fucking roles. With obviously Clive's VA doing his all for being the protagonist. With Jill and Cid's VAs being right behind. I think another VA that stuck with aswell so much was Barnabas' VA being such a massive standout especially later on in the game. I think the overall presentation for this game just does so much for it.

Tears of the Kingdom came out this year but with how this year is looking, plus how this game stuck with me so hard. So far this game and RE4 Remake is neck and neck when it comes to my game of the years. Despite the story beats and odd framerate performance even on this game made me so fucking happy. As somebody who has only played FF7R and this game I can't tell if a final fantasy game is going to like this game but from what I've heard, final fantasy hasn't "felt final fantasy" with every entry since like original FF7. This game was such a fucking joy and I'm probably going to get platinum on it.