7/10
DMC 4 had a ton to live up, as DMC 3 was quite honestly insanely good, especially in the gameplay aspect. DMC 4 also has really good gameplay aspect... but considering how rushed the development was for this game, shows signs that it took off more than it could chew even before the halfway point begins.
Story
The story of DMC 4 is quite honestly... a mess. The first chapters have a pretty good start, and setup the main 2 characters and conflict pretty quickly. However the game fails to flesh out the characters that aren't the main characters, which leaves an antagonist with a very generic motivation, and a love interest who had so much potential, just to fall flat and barely speak halfway through only until the very end. It is still enjoyable of a story, as a ton of that DMC quirk is still there in the writing, and the characters are still interesting, particularly of course dante and the newcomer Nero. It mainly follows a corrupt religious group wanting to gain power over im guessing the demon world? I've tried looking up the motivation for the main antagonist and it doesn't really amount much other than bad guy bad. Apart from that, even though the story has a ton of potential, it REALLY falls flat after chapter 12, when Dante takes over, as the pacing goes from messy to just plain GONE, as nothing happens in the story apart from backtracking and revisiting older bosses again and again. You can tell they ran out of development time around that point as dante just wanders around the same map till the finale, where the story FINALLY continues again, but by then its already too late. At least it ends on a pretty good note, but that middle half of nothing is easily noticeable.
Characters
DMC always had strong characters, and for all the complaints I have about DMC 4, it still has strong characters. However it isn't the best of the series imo. The main characters to get a ton of development is of course, Nero and Dante. Kyrie also gets development but starts to stray a bit halfway thru, and her brother gets a ton of development as well. Some of the antagonist's followers also have character as well. Lady and Trish are a bit less fleshed out this time around, especially Lady who I swear we see once then never again, even though she apparently contributes and ESPECIALLY trish, who also has her arc cut really quickly on and turns into a Dante helper for the rest of the game. The antagonist like said before, is pretty generic and is NOWHERE near as interesting as of course, Vergil which like duh. Of course the main theme of this game was love, and while the connection between Nero and Kyrie was apparent, I do wish they were fleshed out a bit, as they take a sideline in the of course, middle half of the game. Dante is easily the one I expected way more from, as being an already established character, he shows a ton of arc with understanding who Nero is in the very beginning. However consequently, his chapters are also past chapter 12 when the story halts. This causes the fun lovable Dante to turn into the more one-liner, backtracking heavy Dante, and barely experiences much apart from shit talking bosses which quite honestly... is what he did in DMC 1 so whatever. His best scenes are when he was interacting with Nero, and I wish those scenes and the VERY few scenes where he talks with trish and Lady were more displayed, as the segments in between were lackluster at best. Nero is great in this game, even though he is pretty much a shadow of vergil, it fits with his character as he also struggles with his love with Kyrie. He again, takes a sideline around chapter 12, but rushed game so whatever.
Gameplay
Here is why you play DMC for, and the gameplay for DMC 4 is easily one of the best... but also one of the most flawed in the series. To begin with, the game is slower than DMC 3, even with turbo mode on, however the apm is WAYYYY more compared to dmc 3, especially with Dante who with the addition of stance switching mid combo, makes his gameplay SO much fun to experiment with. Nero's gameplay is also a ton of fun, with the more simpler but air juggle heavy compared to Dante's stance switching and more complex system. The best part of this game IS just Nero and especially Dante's fighting systems. However the levels around them is a bit of a downgrade compared to dmc 3. For starters, the game has much weaker bosses compared to dmc 3, and while later enemies don't get as annoying as they did in dmc 3, they are still pretty annoying especially once you switch to Dante. I said it before, but this game was easily rushed out, as for the first 11 chapters, you are just going through new stuff, getting into puzzles that are a bit lame, but is still subpar to dmc 3. But just like dmc 3, falls off the 2nd half... but even harder somehow. Dante's sections are just backtracking Nero's sections, fighting Nero's enemies, which means enemies that are trivial with Nero mechanics, are a pain in the ass with Dante now. It is saved by the fact that Dante is just hella fun to play as, but especially the shield enemies who were easy with Nero's grab, now make me want to tear my hair out with Dante, who basically has to run around them or break their shield to deal with them now. There are also a ton of sections where its just pointless puzzle solving, or random bs with the dice rolling with Nero. I was so glad Dante went into that same room just to cut it in half... only for Nero to come back to the same mechanic and do it again.
Music
Good, but not as good as DMC 3. It is still way stronger than 1 and 2, but didn't have a standout like the credits theme of 3. The battle themes for example were really good, and of course out of darkness was really good. I feel like it was maybe the weaker usage of the songs but in general, weaker overall OST compared to dmc 3, but still good.
Last Positives/Nitpicks
-PC port is pretty trash. Minor ones like screen tear cause max framerate is 120fps and I have a 144fps, but lowering it down to 120fps fixed it. But majors ones like the game would indefinitely black screen if I even dared to tab out or focus on another monitor, losing 30 minutes of progress just like that.
- If they gave Dante his own levels this game would instantly go up a score, especially give him enemy types that fit his playstyle.
- It was more interesting looking at the rushed development and cut content at times, giving this game a ps2 budget and half the time on a next gen console was just insane.
- Secret missions this time around were just trash, at some point I just started avoided them cause they were not that good, like looking for an invisible item you being fr?
- If only Kyrie got more development man sadge.
Conclusion
DMC 4 is easily the most flawed of the DMC games. I still enjoyed this game a ton, but its hard to not notice the flaws in this game due to its rushed development cycle. I know that DMC 3 also had the dreaded falloff 2nd half, but DMC 4 is not only insanely obvious, but even the 1st half had a ton of issues that is bandaged by the fact that nero and dante are just so much damn fun to play as. I am glad that DMC 5 was able to be amazing, cause I can imagine how painful it was to be a dmc fan who had only dmc 4 as their latest title, and having to go back to dmc 3 instead.
7/10
DMC 4 had a ton to live up, as DMC 3 was quite honestly insanely good, especially in the gameplay aspect. DMC 4 also has really good gameplay aspect... but considering how rushed the development was for this game, shows signs that it took off more than it could chew even before the halfway point begins.
Story
The story of DMC 4 is quite honestly... a mess. The first chapters have a pretty good start, and setup the main 2 characters and conflict pretty quickly. However the game fails to flesh out the characters that aren't the main characters, which leaves an antagonist with a very generic motivation, and a love interest who had so much potential, just to fall flat and barely speak halfway through only until the very end. It is still enjoyable of a story, as a ton of that DMC quirk is still there in the writing, and the characters are still interesting, particularly of course dante and the newcomer Nero. It mainly follows a corrupt religious group wanting to gain power over im guessing the demon world? I've tried looking up the motivation for the main antagonist and it doesn't really amount much other than bad guy bad. Apart from that, even though the story has a ton of potential, it REALLY falls flat after chapter 12, when Dante takes over, as the pacing goes from messy to just plain GONE, as nothing happens in the story apart from backtracking and revisiting older bosses again and again. You can tell they ran out of development time around that point as dante just wanders around the same map till the finale, where the story FINALLY continues again, but by then its already too late. At least it ends on a pretty good note, but that middle half of nothing is easily noticeable.
Characters
DMC always had strong characters, and for all the complaints I have about DMC 4, it still has strong characters. However it isn't the best of the series imo. The main characters to get a ton of development is of course, Nero and Dante. Kyrie also gets development but starts to stray a bit halfway thru, and her brother gets a ton of development as well. Some of the antagonist's followers also have character as well. Lady and Trish are a bit less fleshed out this time around, especially Lady who I swear we see once then never again, even though she apparently contributes and ESPECIALLY trish, who also has her arc cut really quickly on and turns into a Dante helper for the rest of the game. The antagonist like said before, is pretty generic and is NOWHERE near as interesting as of course, Vergil which like duh. Of course the main theme of this game was love, and while the connection between Nero and Kyrie was apparent, I do wish they were fleshed out a bit, as they take a sideline in the of course, middle half of the game. Dante is easily the one I expected way more from, as being an already established character, he shows a ton of arc with understanding who Nero is in the very beginning. However consequently, his chapters are also past chapter 12 when the story halts. This causes the fun lovable Dante to turn into the more one-liner, backtracking heavy Dante, and barely experiences much apart from shit talking bosses which quite honestly... is what he did in DMC 1 so whatever. His best scenes are when he was interacting with Nero, and I wish those scenes and the VERY few scenes where he talks with trish and Lady were more displayed, as the segments in between were lackluster at best. Nero is great in this game, even though he is pretty much a shadow of vergil, it fits with his character as he also struggles with his love with Kyrie. He again, takes a sideline around chapter 12, but rushed game so whatever.
Gameplay
Here is why you play DMC for, and the gameplay for DMC 4 is easily one of the best... but also one of the most flawed in the series. To begin with, the game is slower than DMC 3, even with turbo mode on, however the apm is WAYYYY more compared to dmc 3, especially with Dante who with the addition of stance switching mid combo, makes his gameplay SO much fun to experiment with. Nero's gameplay is also a ton of fun, with the more simpler but air juggle heavy compared to Dante's stance switching and more complex system. The best part of this game IS just Nero and especially Dante's fighting systems. However the levels around them is a bit of a downgrade compared to dmc 3. For starters, the game has much weaker bosses compared to dmc 3, and while later enemies don't get as annoying as they did in dmc 3, they are still pretty annoying especially once you switch to Dante. I said it before, but this game was easily rushed out, as for the first 11 chapters, you are just going through new stuff, getting into puzzles that are a bit lame, but is still subpar to dmc 3. But just like dmc 3, falls off the 2nd half... but even harder somehow. Dante's sections are just backtracking Nero's sections, fighting Nero's enemies, which means enemies that are trivial with Nero mechanics, are a pain in the ass with Dante now. It is saved by the fact that Dante is just hella fun to play as, but especially the shield enemies who were easy with Nero's grab, now make me want to tear my hair out with Dante, who basically has to run around them or break their shield to deal with them now. There are also a ton of sections where its just pointless puzzle solving, or random bs with the dice rolling with Nero. I was so glad Dante went into that same room just to cut it in half... only for Nero to come back to the same mechanic and do it again.
Music
Good, but not as good as DMC 3. It is still way stronger than 1 and 2, but didn't have a standout like the credits theme of 3. The battle themes for example were really good, and of course out of darkness was really good. I feel like it was maybe the weaker usage of the songs but in general, weaker overall OST compared to dmc 3, but still good.
Last Positives/Nitpicks
-PC port is pretty trash. Minor ones like screen tear cause max framerate is 120fps and I have a 144fps, but lowering it down to 120fps fixed it. But majors ones like the game would indefinitely black screen if I even dared to tab out or focus on another monitor, losing 30 minutes of progress just like that.
- If they gave Dante his own levels this game would instantly go up a score, especially give him enemy types that fit his playstyle.
- It was more interesting looking at the rushed development and cut content at times, giving this game a ps2 budget and half the time on a next gen console was just insane.
- Secret missions this time around were just trash, at some point I just started avoided them cause they were not that good, like looking for an invisible item you being fr?
- If only Kyrie got more development man sadge.
Conclusion
DMC 4 is easily the most flawed of the DMC games. I still enjoyed this game a ton, but its hard to not notice the flaws in this game due to its rushed development cycle. I know that DMC 3 also had the dreaded falloff 2nd half, but DMC 4 is not only insanely obvious, but even the 1st half had a ton of issues that is bandaged by the fact that nero and dante are just so much damn fun to play as. I am glad that DMC 5 was able to be amazing, cause I can imagine how painful it was to be a dmc fan who had only dmc 4 as their latest title, and having to go back to dmc 3 instead.
7/10