Mostly good story and characters with a few moments that could've been better executed. The combat is pretty fun but there's some camera issues when fighting more than a couple enemies. A lot of the RPG elements aren't the worst but they're stiill mostly pointless and only make certain parts more tedious. The content of the game is a lot more than I expected and I appeciate that each of the side quests have their own unique areas. Overall though, it's just a really solid experience that really suprised me considering this series didn't really have anything to say before. God of War III is a more fun game but this has much more interesting story and characters while still retaining the over the top hype.

I'll admit that in some ways, the stories of DMC kind of need the supplementary material to be fully appreciated. A lot of the main character's true motivations and reasons for who they are are either not naturally shown in the cutscenes of the prior games and even this one to an extent. Seeing the real effect Dante's brother has on his life, why Nero cares so much for family, and the true reason that Vergil desires power is much better conveyed in side media like the novels and manga. With that being said, if you have even a slight attatchment to this series, I don't see how this game isn't one of the hypest, most satisfying experiences you can have.

The gameplay has been pretty much perfected for Nero, Dante, and Vergil. All of the new moves and weapons they have flow together even better than DMC 4. A lot of annoying issues from the previous titles have been cleaned up like the camera, level design, and enemy design. This is one of the rare action games where there are no real caveats to the gameplay. Nero, Dante, and Vergil in this game are the 3 most fun characters to play in any action game. The music and presentation are also nothing short of incredible. RE engine makes the environments absolutely stunning, and songs like Devil Trigger and Bury the Light are all time highs. The bosses are the best in the series, with the game's finale being everything a fan could want from this series' return after so long. This game will always be special for me and is the reason that character-action games are something I always look out for. It will never not be peak.

I love this game

The combat is pushed even further in this game with even more combo potential. Nero is a great addition who in this game is even more fun than Dante. That's partly because a lot of the game is designed around him rather than Dante. Because of that, a lot of the enemies don't work great with Dante's move set, making his segment a lot weaker than Nero's. The camera also uses a lot less fixed angles, which seems good at first. However, the combat is so fast and wild that the camera keeps swinging around, messing up some inputs. The action cutscenes and character personality are possibly the best in the series, but the actual story is really lackluster. I sometimes forget how much character development comes from the supplementary material rather than the story mode itself. Still a great character action game and the one that sets the standard for the genre's combat.

Improves on DMC 1 in literally every way. There's actually a plot this time and the characters are all greatly depicted. The action cutscenes and voice acting are unironically great now. Dante's move list was essentially tripled and they somehow made it all naturally flow into one another. The game itself actually feels content complete too, as the first two games could feel incredibly bare and unpolished at times. Only real downside is that a couple of enemies are just not fun to fight against, but those battles still end pretty quickly and they aren't used too often. While I've played some character-action games that have an overall better combat system, this is still one of the best games I've played and I'll never get tired of it.

This is maybe the most replayable game for me. It being less than 3 hours means it's easy to blast through in one sitting. While it's obviously not perfect, all the annoying stuff doesn't last long as the game keeps on moving. Even the combat, for as simple as it can seem at first, has a good level of mastery to it the more you play the game. It also took me until this playthrough to really appreciate how good the atmosphere is in this game. Although it's far from my favorite of the series, this is a comfort game for me that I can always come back to.

A pretty competent action game for the PS2. The combat is generally pretty fun without being frustrating. I appreciate the use of a style meter in this game and it's used pretty well. The bike sections weren't too bad either, but they definitely didn't need to be here. The super moves you get in this game are definitely too strong though. They'll generally cause you to immediately kill every enemy and immediately recharge because of that. I also think this game would've benefitted a lot from some form of weapon variety, as you unlock all of Ghost Rider's moves pretty quickly and it can get a little repetitive. Luckily, the game's pretty short and it's fun enough to just do a quick playthrough in one go.

Of all the games I’ve played, this is one of the ones I think about most. It ends up being such a mediocre game, but I think it’s more interesting than an “average” game. I wouldn’t see this game as missed potential if it didn’t have so much promise. It is such a mixed bag of aspects I wanted to see more fleshed out, things I will never forget, and a couple of awful decisions as well.

The artstyle of the Common is incredible, as it really sells an otherworldly, serene setting. A lot of the games’ UI and menus also have a really pleasing aesthetic. Unfortunately, someone decided that the camera during cutscenes would always be placed in the most uncomfortable location possible. It genuinely drags down the entire experience. Even aside from that issue, the game feels really low budget. Even animations like walking around can look really odd and it’s a little distracting.

I was really interested in how the story and characters might go after playing the first 30 minutes. There was a lot of promise to have a well-developed coming-of-age story for high school girls. While it’s trying to do that, a lot of the dialogue and development doesn’t really work. It’s all very generic and the conflicts the characters go through aren’t given nearly enough time or focus to really mean anything. The first 15 hours of this game were spent introducing a lot of characters and the struggles they were going through. I really thought the game was setting up characters for the first half of the game so the story could really go somewhere in the second. Instead, the game ended only 3 hours later.

The gameplay loop is another part of the game that could’ve been much better. While the actual combat mechanics are solid, everything around them is very lackluster. For one, the enemies are incredibly weak. I did not have a party member die a single time the entire game. There’s almost no challenge on the normal difficulty as you get a lot of strong attacks that hit every opponent. Because all HP and MP rest after every battle, you can just spam these moves at the start of every fight and win before your opponents even do anything. The enemy variety is also really small, so your strategy never really needs to change throughout the game. The one time combat really gets better is during any of the few boss fights throughout the game. The level design is incredibly basic with pretty small areas that you constantly revisit, so there’s no sense of exploration either. The incredibly generic and repetitive side-quests don’t help either.

A lot of this is really negative, but there’s one part that kind of saves this game for me. The soundtrack is my favorite OST of all time. Aside from the pretty mediocre vocal themes, the rest of the soundtrack is amazing. Every single song in this game is so emotionally charged that it’s unbelievable. As someone who basically lives off listening to video game OSTs, I cannot say playing this game wasn’t worth it. Field theme, battle themes, dialogue themes, all of it is unbelievably good. It’s so good that it can make you think the rest of the game is better than it is.

Even if you don’t have any desire to play this game (completely understandable), at least listen to the soundtrack. “Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX)” leaves an irreparable effect on a person.

I really don't know what to think of this game. As the game that follows Dark Souls 2, it has great level design that would be seen similarly in Dark Souls 3. The art design and world is the most interesting of any FromSoft game and has so much detail it's insane. Combat was fun and I liked the faster pace while not feeling very unfair. Most of the bosses were great outside of a few which felt a little hard to read attack patterns for. Personally, I play these games for the gameplay loop more than anything. Bloodborne's flow of combat and exploration is pretty similar to Dark Souls 3, which is my favorite FromSoft title so far. Because of that, I definitely enjoyed Bloodborne and would replay it in the future alongside the DLC. However, it's not one of my favorite games ever made. My expectations for the game we're pretty high and while they were mostly delivered upon, I think this game isn't as much for me as it is for others. Hopefully the more I play this game it becomes something special for me.

A lot of interesting ideas that don't reach their full potential with how the game is structured. Not only is the game short, but a lot of the level design is really basic and they weirdly make you backtrack to completely different areas to grab just one thing. The combat system and monster raising is actually really fun. Juggling enemies for more items and mowing through hordes of enemies with chomp makes the game just fly by. The sprite work and soundtrack are also incredible. If anything, I really want the remake or sequel to this game that can really fix it's issues while fleshing it out to be something amazing.

This game feels like the developers really wanted to make a more focused game than the first two, which depending on what you prefer will be a positive or a negative. Level design is much more straightforward than DS1, but that makes them a lot less frustrating. There's almost no confusion on where to go, and most enemies don't come with really annoying gimmicks. The same can be said for the bosses, which are easily the best in the trilogy. Aside from one or two gimmick fights which are really easy, every boss in this game is well-designed and fun to fight. All of this makes the pacing of the game much faster and smoother to play through. I also appreciate that this game has a different art style than the first game while not feeling confused like the second. They really convey the theme of ash with the much more grey and silver look to the game and it's great. I completely understand why some people would like Dark Souls 1 more, as I think that game has an overall stronger atmosphere and sense of discovery. However this is my favorite of the trilogy and the one I'd most likely come back to in the future.