dantemustgrind
Well-known Member
Bloody Palace History & Evolution
Bloody Palace got its start with DMC2. DMC3 vanilla release didn't have Bloody Palace at first, but the Special Edition added it. DMC4 had it at launch, and DmC also had it at launch. However, DMC5 had to add it later with DLC.Originally, Bloody Palace was just an endless mode to test your skills and see how far you could go with random enemy floors to face. In DMC2, enemies would not drop any health at all. You could only heal by using DT, and if you used infinite DT code on the European release only then you could not heal at all during your BP run.
Noticeably, both DMC4 and DMC5 have static enemy challenges without RNG determining the enemies you would face. This may be true in DmC as well (I've not really tested that one at length).
For the rest of the series there was an end game in mind. In DMC3 you had to get past 9999 floors, and in DMC4, DmC, DMC5 it was 100 floors to get to the end (technically 101 including the finale). In both DMC2 & DMC3 if you played it by choosing the single floor portal, the game would let you get up to round 9999 (or higher in DMC2) by playing a single floor at a time, but you had the option to skip 10 floors, or 100 floors at a time.
All of the games exhibit a grand challenge to reach your goal of completing the BP. You have to bring some skill to the table, and it is quite an unforgiving grind. At minimum you are looking at about an hour and a half of gameplay to beat a BP mode depending on if you use Super Characters or not, as well as your play style.
Picking a Favorite
My favorite Bloody Palace is DMC3. I like it because of the random enemy challenge. I've given it a lot of thought, but the triple Hell Vanguard fights that DMC3 requires you to get past have to be some of my favorite challenges to face in the game mode. I find it is harder to beat 3 Hell Vanguards in DMC3 than to beat the 3 Furies in DMC5. You could possibly convince me that the latter is a harder challenge, but I just have more trouble with the Hell Vanguards (and I happen to like the reaper design). Those are comparable enemies for sure—each with multiple teleportation attacks. The tools at your disposal in DMC5 can trivialize the Fury fights, however. The Hell Vanguard challenges of DMC3's BP are just brutal, and probably the most common run ender for me personally.I also prefer the boss fights of DMC3. They are my favorite boss fights in the franchise overall. There is a wide variety of boss types, and while some are not the greatest boss fights, there are enough of them that once you hit that 1000th floor of each thousand floors, you hold your breath before you enter the portal to find out which of the randomly selected fights will come your way. Jester is heavily featured as a boss fight, especially when you do a Vergil run for some reason. I think Lady is always the third or fourth boss fight no matter what. Beowulf and Cerberus do not always make an appearance, but the Vergil-2 and Vergil-3 fights are quite common. Sometimes you can face Vergil-3 multiple times. He is a challenge, too! If you know the fight well, you can beat it with relative ease, but he can still mess up a run for you with his Judgement Cut End attack string. I have lost runs to Vergil-3 for sure. Not to forget, the Chess Board from Mission 18 often appears when you are close to beating BP. I always loved the creativity of that fight! It is one of the coolest aesthetics in the entire series. If you've ever checked out the details of the chessboard arena then I'm sure you were amazed at the level of attention to detail that the devs had for that battle venue. I actually wish that arena would be used for other boss fights during BP. That would be sick!
I have probably spent the most time in DMC3's BP of all the games, however, DMC4's BP is awesome as well. The final challenge of facing DMD Dante's boss fight in DMC4 is just daunting. That fight can be extremely difficult. I have lost several BP runs to Dante. Oh, when I first beat him with Trish on DMC4SE I celebrated for like 10 minutes jumping up and down and cheering. That was the last trophy I got prior to the Platinum in that game!
I like the mode in every iteration—even DMC2 required that you use some strategy and display skill (except for Super Trish infinite DT spamming her aerial golden space laser attack). Technically, you had to learn how to get that move off without losing a lot of health against the various Goat enemies of DMC2. They made BP a seriously daunting task at the endgame. DMC5 has a horribly difficult end, pitting your skills against Urizen (Chair), Urizen (Standing with crystal), Urizen (Standing without crystal), and finally facing off against a DMD level attack pattern Vergil (although he does not deal DMD damage in my experience). That Vergil fight at the end of DMC5 can absolutely crush you if you do not deal with him correctly. For those reasons, I can't really decide which game has the hardest BP. I've made a post about it before, but this post is not about that. It is just about what you like best! The difficulty is something that I really like about this game mode, though, so I still included my thoughts on difficulty in this post.
If you are running the Crimson Mod, the depth of Dante's kit is just bottomless. It does not trivialize the BP at all, though. Fights are still hard, but you've got everything at your disposal, except for the quick weapon switch advantage of running a vanilla-DMC3 run. There is something good about working within the limits of the original intent of the game, too. I play both ways—full kit and vanilla, so it doesn't matter to me which way that someone prefers to play. The combat system in DMC3 is my favorite overall in the series, and so it makes it a natural fit as my favorite BP. My goodness, Crimson even allows you to quick-swap to Vergil with his full moveset and right back to Dante in a quick button press. Just wrecks things when you can combine their moves. Yamato jump cancelling is just amazing and so addictive, I don't think I'll ever get enough of that.
Some people are going to prefer DMC4's Dante kit to anything else in the series, and those people are NOT wrong. There is a depth in DMC4 that I just don't think the rest of the series quite touches, especially with respect to Dante players. DMC5's Dante loadout is amazing, and he is just so powerful with the Sin-DT that it's hard to argue against it. That game certainly makes you feel great as Dante. I tend to be a Dante main, however, I like every other character in the series, so my analysis is not limited to Dante. As an aside—it is a crying shame that DMC4 doesn't allow Dante to fight against Credo except in BP.
The merits of DMC5's combat system with both V and Nero are notable as well. Nero is just a powerhouse for air combos in DMC5, though I think he hits a bit harder in DMC4 (maybe I just like the fire particle effects in DMC4 better than DMC5's). V is fun because you get to see that SSS-rank on screen a whole lot. There is something just so good and satisfying about that. It also gives you a chance to face enemies you otherwise could not face—like V getting to face off against Vergil, for example.
Vergil in DMC5? It's just wrong for a single character to be that powerful! He is amazing. Just amazing. I like Vergil a whole lot better in 5 than 4. I like Vergil in 4. Don't get me wrong. But he is just a beast in DMC5 and a delight to crush enemies with in every way.
All that said? Give me DMC3. It's my favorite overall DMC game, and because of that the BP on that game is just my favorite. I just did another playthrough that I streamed on Twitch and posted on Youtube of beating the BP without any blue orbs as Dante. I have yet to beat DMC4 BP without blue orbs. I've gotten close, but failed. One day I will likely be able to pull it off, but that challenge is noticeably harder in DMC4 because you just cannot farm DT in 4 like you can in 3.
Bloody Palace Quick Comparison Chart
| Game | Floors/Goal | Enemy Setup | Healing/DT Notes | Key Challenges/Bosses | Community Vibe / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DMC2 | 9999+ (endless) | Semi-random | No drops; DT only (EU inf DT = no heal) | Goat swarms, bosses every 10th; despair grind | "Hardest" (due to boredom/no heals) |
| DMC3 | 9999 (Vergil finale) | Semi-random | Orbs via portals; farmable DT | 3x Hell Vanguards, Vergil-3 JCE, Chessboard | Fan favorite for RNG thrill & variety |
| DMC4 | 101 | Fixed | Green orbs, timed bonuses | DMD Dante finale, Credo (Dante only in BP) | Deep kits, tough timers/no saves |
| DmC | 101 | Fixed w/ gimmicks | Standard | Mundus/Vergil, hazard floors | Solid but often overlooked |
| DMC5 | 101 x5 (per char) | Fixed | Orbs/time rewards, suspend saves | 3x Urizen + Vergil, V vs Vergil; practice modes | Polished, QoL features, replayable |
What about you? What is your favorite?