Vezild
Taking Back Lordran One Boss At a Time
So I just beat the HD version of DMC 2 yesterday afternoon (7/7/12), along with DMC 1, which I beat right before it. I played it first before I tried the other games because I wanted to see why it is the black sheep of the series. Now I can understand why.
This is a review for Dante's disk. I have not played Lucia's yet.
Plus:
-Dante looks and feels awesome.
-The combat is surprisingly fun.
-The HD version is the best looking.
Minus:
-There is no story--or maybe there is, but then it's just ripped off from DMC.
-Voice acting is...hit or miss (a lot).
-Dante is too serious for most of the plot. Most.
-No real challenge.
-If there is a challenge, it's because boss attack patterns are random...to the point where you can't even rely on their animations.
-Argosax the Chaos
First Impressions: The game opened up... ambiguously. No explanation for what's going on. Why Dante meets Lucia or why anyone should even CARE about Lucia. The Arcana...no explanation there. I don't know if Lucia's disk tells more, but it would've been great if Dante's had a little more of an exposition.
Then there was the beginning of the first mission. It almost seemed like a copy of DMC 1. Then there were enemies...their design was frightening--with an imagination. Really the models for some of the enemies are downright horrible.
Then I had to fight. And that was...actually pretty fun. Dante moved fluidly--his animations were great and I felt like a badass dropping foes in seconds. Of course, it disheartened me; I was slashing at my enemies because I wanted to, not because I had to. The guns were powerful enough.
Now I will go into detail on each aspect of the game.
Story and Characters: I don't know the story. Well, really I didn't know it until I played DMC 1. DMC 2's story is so generic that it pretty much rips off DMC 1's plot, which was already generic enough. Even the plot twists were copied from DMC 1. It was almost as if the developers just wanted to rehash everything from the first game (DMC 2 was made by a different studio from DMC 1). Simply put, Arius was Mundus and Lucia was Trish. There was also Matier, but...I only remember her because I just beat the game. She was supposed to tell Dante about Sparda, which would have been cool, but nope...never happened.
And either way, there were things that even make sense. Dante went from one place to another for what seemed to be no reason. The story really only opened up at the end...about 4 missions left in the game by that point. And yes, Dante is too serious for most of the plot...until those last 4 missions.
2/5; at least they tried to do something.
Graphics and Presentation: Most of the character models are pretty well built. Dante looks older than his older incarnation, but he looks good, especially in the HD verson. His hair moves in the wind, the tail of his coat sways behind him. Lucia looks great, too...well except for the hair clipping. All of the human characters (okay, there were only 4) looked awesome. Some enemies looked ugly--especially the Finis Demons, who were the first enemies you encounter. Most of the bosses looked awesome, though. Nefasturris was my favorite out of all of them in design.
In contrast to the characters, though, the environments looked...boring. Nothing good to say about them. There's a castle, some ruins, and a city. Oh, and an oil rig.
Menu screens were also boring with this cheesy Halloween font that looked like it was just typed in through Word.
And the voice acting is...ehh. Dante delivers maybe 3 good lines. His voice actor sounded dead.
3/5; The graphics are still great, even though they look boring. And the music? The best in the series.
Gameplay: The big issue with DMC 2 it seems. What you've probably heard is true: It's too easy. Let me emphasize: Way, way, way too easy. You can beat the entire game just shooting Ebony and Ivory. There's an amulet system that actually powers up your Devil Trigger, which makes things even easier! I've beaten bosses (and there's tons of those) in seconds.
If the game does get "hard", it's because it's unfair. For example, the final boss, Argosax the Chaos, had attacks that it just spammed. Nevermind a strategy! If you were standing too close to any part of it, it was spam, spam, spam, spam. With really no warning, too. It wasn't like in other Devil May Cry's that the bosses had little animation cues. In this game there was no warning whatsoever that the boss was going to attack, which discouraged me from actually trying to fight. I finished the game with guns blazing. Not fun.
What is fun, though, is if you actually force yourself to fight. You have three swords (not Demon Arms, just swords) and maybe five guns by the end of the game, and they all make you feel badass. You can jump high into the air and stay afloat, shooting down in a proto-Bullet Rain (introduced in DMC 3 through the Gunslinger style). The melee combinations are for you to discovered. As I fought the third final boss, I was still discovering a few moves. The only problem with this is that all three of your swords do the same attacks. There's only slight difference in stats like speed and damage: Vendetta is slightly slower and more powerful, Merciless is slightly faster and a little less powerful, and Rebellion is in between. But none of that matters: you're still over powered.
When it comes to the enemies, there's tons of them (with funny names, too). Really there are not that many species of enemies, but they all have at least two variants. And there's a LOT of bosses. It's not like DMC 1 or DMC 4, where you had three or four bosses that just repeated. It's like DMC 3, where you meet the boss once (except on special occasions), and that's it. You'll never have time to just memorize enemy patterns for the next encounter. But, again, they are all so easy; you just have to sit back and shoot. And sometimes their attacks make no sense.
3/5: It can be very fun if you try to make it that way. But don't pay attention to the style system here...it makes no sense.
Replayability: There's a mission select mode after you beat the game for you to go and try to perfect your ranking (but it's so harsh and seemingly unfair, that I wouldn't even try). The game prompts you to go play as Lucia. There are harder modes to unlock, but I haven't even unlocked Hard Mode. I'm assuming you have to beat Lucia's story for that. There's a Bloody Palace mode...somewhere, at least. Really, though, there is no real reason to go back unless you just want to play. 1/5: Not much.
Overall Score: 2/5. There's fun to be had here, but it's you who has to bring it because the game can't do it for you. Take this game as if it were a prototype for Devil May Cry 3.
Again, this is unbiased. In fact, I haven't played Lucia's disk yet.
This is a review for Dante's disk. I have not played Lucia's yet.
Plus:
-Dante looks and feels awesome.
-The combat is surprisingly fun.
-The HD version is the best looking.
Minus:
-There is no story--or maybe there is, but then it's just ripped off from DMC.
-Voice acting is...hit or miss (a lot).
-Dante is too serious for most of the plot. Most.
-No real challenge.
-If there is a challenge, it's because boss attack patterns are random...to the point where you can't even rely on their animations.
-Argosax the Chaos
First Impressions: The game opened up... ambiguously. No explanation for what's going on. Why Dante meets Lucia or why anyone should even CARE about Lucia. The Arcana...no explanation there. I don't know if Lucia's disk tells more, but it would've been great if Dante's had a little more of an exposition.
Then there was the beginning of the first mission. It almost seemed like a copy of DMC 1. Then there were enemies...their design was frightening--with an imagination. Really the models for some of the enemies are downright horrible.
Then I had to fight. And that was...actually pretty fun. Dante moved fluidly--his animations were great and I felt like a badass dropping foes in seconds. Of course, it disheartened me; I was slashing at my enemies because I wanted to, not because I had to. The guns were powerful enough.
Now I will go into detail on each aspect of the game.
Story and Characters: I don't know the story. Well, really I didn't know it until I played DMC 1. DMC 2's story is so generic that it pretty much rips off DMC 1's plot, which was already generic enough. Even the plot twists were copied from DMC 1. It was almost as if the developers just wanted to rehash everything from the first game (DMC 2 was made by a different studio from DMC 1). Simply put, Arius was Mundus and Lucia was Trish. There was also Matier, but...I only remember her because I just beat the game. She was supposed to tell Dante about Sparda, which would have been cool, but nope...never happened.
And either way, there were things that even make sense. Dante went from one place to another for what seemed to be no reason. The story really only opened up at the end...about 4 missions left in the game by that point. And yes, Dante is too serious for most of the plot...until those last 4 missions.
2/5; at least they tried to do something.
Graphics and Presentation: Most of the character models are pretty well built. Dante looks older than his older incarnation, but he looks good, especially in the HD verson. His hair moves in the wind, the tail of his coat sways behind him. Lucia looks great, too...well except for the hair clipping. All of the human characters (okay, there were only 4) looked awesome. Some enemies looked ugly--especially the Finis Demons, who were the first enemies you encounter. Most of the bosses looked awesome, though. Nefasturris was my favorite out of all of them in design.
In contrast to the characters, though, the environments looked...boring. Nothing good to say about them. There's a castle, some ruins, and a city. Oh, and an oil rig.
Menu screens were also boring with this cheesy Halloween font that looked like it was just typed in through Word.
And the voice acting is...ehh. Dante delivers maybe 3 good lines. His voice actor sounded dead.
3/5; The graphics are still great, even though they look boring. And the music? The best in the series.
Gameplay: The big issue with DMC 2 it seems. What you've probably heard is true: It's too easy. Let me emphasize: Way, way, way too easy. You can beat the entire game just shooting Ebony and Ivory. There's an amulet system that actually powers up your Devil Trigger, which makes things even easier! I've beaten bosses (and there's tons of those) in seconds.
If the game does get "hard", it's because it's unfair. For example, the final boss, Argosax the Chaos, had attacks that it just spammed. Nevermind a strategy! If you were standing too close to any part of it, it was spam, spam, spam, spam. With really no warning, too. It wasn't like in other Devil May Cry's that the bosses had little animation cues. In this game there was no warning whatsoever that the boss was going to attack, which discouraged me from actually trying to fight. I finished the game with guns blazing. Not fun.
What is fun, though, is if you actually force yourself to fight. You have three swords (not Demon Arms, just swords) and maybe five guns by the end of the game, and they all make you feel badass. You can jump high into the air and stay afloat, shooting down in a proto-Bullet Rain (introduced in DMC 3 through the Gunslinger style). The melee combinations are for you to discovered. As I fought the third final boss, I was still discovering a few moves. The only problem with this is that all three of your swords do the same attacks. There's only slight difference in stats like speed and damage: Vendetta is slightly slower and more powerful, Merciless is slightly faster and a little less powerful, and Rebellion is in between. But none of that matters: you're still over powered.
When it comes to the enemies, there's tons of them (with funny names, too). Really there are not that many species of enemies, but they all have at least two variants. And there's a LOT of bosses. It's not like DMC 1 or DMC 4, where you had three or four bosses that just repeated. It's like DMC 3, where you meet the boss once (except on special occasions), and that's it. You'll never have time to just memorize enemy patterns for the next encounter. But, again, they are all so easy; you just have to sit back and shoot. And sometimes their attacks make no sense.
3/5: It can be very fun if you try to make it that way. But don't pay attention to the style system here...it makes no sense.
Replayability: There's a mission select mode after you beat the game for you to go and try to perfect your ranking (but it's so harsh and seemingly unfair, that I wouldn't even try). The game prompts you to go play as Lucia. There are harder modes to unlock, but I haven't even unlocked Hard Mode. I'm assuming you have to beat Lucia's story for that. There's a Bloody Palace mode...somewhere, at least. Really, though, there is no real reason to go back unless you just want to play. 1/5: Not much.
Overall Score: 2/5. There's fun to be had here, but it's you who has to bring it because the game can't do it for you. Take this game as if it were a prototype for Devil May Cry 3.
Again, this is unbiased. In fact, I haven't played Lucia's disk yet.
