As such, he’s more immediately complex, with the ability to switch between a slate of melee and ranged weapons on the fly allowing players in the know to create more custom combos quickly. Beyond the weapon options there’s also styles to switch between, and these choices interlace brilliantly and in a way that’ll be familiar to long-standing fans and fun for newcomers to experiment with.
The concept of ‘game feel’ is a nebulous one and difficult to put into words, but let me put it like this: when you get up to speed and hit a rhythm, Devil May Cry’s combat feels bloody amazing. It looks just as good to match, too.
Devil May Cry 5's version of Dante is incredibly satisfying to play as and, for longtime fans of the series, it feels familiar. At Tokyo Games Show 2018 I got to play the game for a few hours and, within minutes muscle memory started to kick in. Some of it from Devil May Cry 3 and 4, others from fighting games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, where Dante was also playable and just as complex to control.
Perhaps the most obvious, and biggest addition, is a new weapon called Cavaliere. This is a motorcycle that breaks into two buzzsaw-like blades that are surprisingly versatile. The Cavaliere's attacks are quite slow, with drawn out swings that sweep across the battlefield around Dante, catching multiple enemies and trapping them in place as the blades tear into them. They feel almost like a Monster Hunter weapon: slow, methodical, and demanding of smart timing. However, what they proved to be most effective for was creating a little bit of time that can be used to plan a few moves ahead. While the Cavaliere are slowly shredding enemies, you have the time to think about what the best style to switch to next is, and the weapon you should pair with the style to keep the momentum going. It's a fantastic way of slowing down the breakneck pace of combat for those that aren't able to bash out long strings of button presses for minutes on end.
I would not have thought a motorcycle Devil Arm would be such a satisfying weapon. It sounds ridiculous, even for Devil May Cry, and unwieldy, but it’s so smooth and so easy to use that it overshadows the other new Devil Arm. Why punch and kick demons with fire when you can motorcycle over their faces?
For Nero, I felt more calculated and less improvisational. I also felt like I’d need more time with Nero to truly appreciate the character in DMC5. For Dante, though, it was good times right away. I was using ranged attacks, using the Trickster style to teleport dodge around and then get up close with my motorbike, guns and fists. Nero was fun, sure, but Dante was more so. Dante made me feel cool. Nero less so. But perhaps nothing better sums up those two characters?
