About 95% fan service. There are a lot of options here, but I'm skeptical if many of them are useful. The best tools just seemed to be the ones that keep the punching bag enemies close by, as they have a bad habit of bouncing away every second hit. There's real some effort put into making the characters play differently, but V feels a bit antithetical and doesn't gel as well with the character-focused camera.

The environments ended up being a big sticking point. If you're lucky, you're playing a level set in an anonymous, vacant, chunked up cityscape or tunnel that's more invisible wall than interactable terrain. If you're not doing that, you're playing through what looks like a devil's ribcage or colon. I get it's hard to care about what's happening in these games, but it would have been nice to feel like I'm somewhere rather than nowhere in particular.

Nero seems like the protagonist, as the plot effects his health and emotions the most. He also actually interacts with the supporting cast, but no, this is game is about legacy. It's Dante vs Virgil, with the series once again trying to live up to and recreate its finest moment. "How many times have we fought?" says Virgil at one point. I've lost count myself, but rest assured there are a couple more in this one, and then it ends at a point that would be more interesting to play through and develop than the entire game that preceded it.

It's baffling and underwhelming, even to me, someone who's mostly ambivalent to the series.