Really happy this was actually pretty good, came out of 0 hearing very mixed things about the next chunk of the series so this forebodes well. Definitely not nearly as strong a game story or character wise but still showed flashes of something brilliant here and there. Kiryu and Nishiki's dynamic was easily the highlight of this game and coming from Zero made it so much better. One of my complaints about this game is that it wasn't more focused on them, some of the other characters felt very weak and cliche.

You can definitely tell this is the first story the series told, and they were still getting warmed up in making every element in the game sit together well, especially with how Majima was utilized. He was my favorite character in Zero and it felt like he just kinda got placed here for no reason. Despite my issues, it still feels like it would have been a strong start if I had gone this route instead. Definitely way more excited for what's coming next after playing this.

A game that knows exactly what it is and celebrates that fact wholeheartedly, this is perhaps the best action game I’ve ever played. Stylish and sick as hell from top to bottom, from the characters, to the music, and the combat, the fucking combat. Doing combo after combo on defenseless demons is one of the most hype feelings imaginable, and when you manage to pull off a series of moves you thought up it gets the adrenaline flowing. I’ve never really been a heavy action game player but this makes me feel like I’ve been in love with the genre for years.

I might’ve played this game on the lowest difficulty but I had such a good time even then that I can for sure see myself replaying, something I don’t really do a lot anymore. Hell I already started doing Devil Hunter mode with Vergil. This game is just too fun, yes I know I sound like a broken record saying this as much as I have but man I haven’t had such a good time with a combat system in years. There’s still so much I don’t fully grasp about it but I’m looking forward to unlocking more skills, doing even wilder moves, and fully mastering this game in due time.

As someone who knew about this game for a long time and knew a lot of the story beats being spoiled through osmosis, I’m still very pleasantly surprised how much I adored it still, along with the fantastic characters. Everyone who’s playable has a unique personality and charm to them along with a signature fighting style that conveys that very well to the player. For a game that I completed in about ten hours, I feel like I’ve grown far more attached to these characters than I would in most given ten hour stretches of games. The dynamics between everyone feel so charged with every interaction being a treat. This being my first go-round with the series I feel like there’s definitely a bunch I’m missing but they knew exactly what to do to bring me up to speed.

I could go on about the story for a while but I’ll simply stick to my basic thoughts of it being fun as hell, intense, and cathartic all at once. Given what I do know about the story of the earlier games this feels like such an immense payoff and if I was a lifelong DMC fan I would’ve been so incredibly happy to see this game come to fruition. The climax was incredible and felt like the culmination of so much about the series, from the relationship between Dante and Vergil, to this being a coming of age story for Nero; all incredibly strong notes to end on.

This game is kinda perfect in my eyes, does its job Smokin’ Sexy Style! all the way through