On March 8, 2019, the fifth installment of the Devil May Cry series released and finally we can shed some light on the ever so growing questions we had on this installment. Devil May Cry 5 continues after Devil May Cry 4 where we were first introduced to the playable character Nero and was the first installment to allow the players to play as Nero and Dante.

Devil May Cry 4 changed the plot of the Devil May Cry series in a huge way. The first three installments in the series were based on the tragic story of Dante and his family. Dante’s father, Sparta, was a demon general and his mother was a human because Sparta fell in love with a human he was cast out by the demon king Mundus and sent an army to slaughtered his family, they succeeded to murder his mother but before that, his father gave him one of his three demonic swords called Rebellion, which is basically a huge sword that can be recalled back whenever he wants. Sparta then committed the ultimate sacrifice by sealing the underworld so that demons could not evade earth and destroy it, but in return, he used up all his life force and perished. Young Dante then ends up as an orphan without a family, except that his brother, Vergil, survived the carnage and is now a bad guy who only seeks power and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. 

Skip to adult Dante in the future, early in his career he created an Organization called Devil May Cry that specializes in the extermination of demons. He's equipped with his demon sword Rebellion and his two pistols called Ivory and Ebony, which specializes in rapid and accurate shooting. Later on in his career in the installment two and three, he fights Vergil who wields the samurai style demon sword also given to him by his father, Sparta, called Yamato that can cut through dimensions. Since they are the sons of a demon and human, both brothers are half-demon and human with an appearance more towards the human side, but possessing powers and a lifespan of a demon. They fight on multiple occasions but always resolve in a stalemate until they clash for the final time, resolving in Dante striking and killing his own brother in the pouring rain, which concludes the end of DMC 2. 

The plot of DMC 3 is Dante’s pursuit of revenge on the Demon King Mundus who’s plan is to invade Earth. Dante sets out to absolutely murder this demon but throughout his adventure, he is faced with some nasty demons in his way, which of course we murder until finally getting to the biggest and worst demon of them all murder him too. The first DMC game came out in 2001 by Campcom and was playable on the PS2. Then Campcom did the unexpected and released DMC 4 in 2008 with a whole new playable character that no one knew anything about and was released for the PS3. The trailer for it was confusing for DMC fan because it made it seem like Dante, which makes a return, as the bad guy and us playing as Nero fighting Dante for whatever reason. Then you play the game and you realize that nothing is as it seems. We learn that Nero is also part demon who possesses a demonic glowing arm which he uses to also beat demonic a**, Dante’s not evil but also trying to stop a cult from opening a portal to the underworld, and that Nero somehow can wield and fix the sword Yamato even though it was broken in half during Dante’s and Vergil’s fight with one another, and now has somehow made its way into Nero’s hands. The special thing about this is that no one else except Dante can wield Yamato because you have to be related to Vergil to be able to use its powers, which raised the biggest question in the series, is Nero Vergil’s son which would mean that he somehow survived and had a relationship with a woman in the decades that past. In the story, we are never told anything about Nero’s parents or past he is completely unknown until DMC 5 at least. 

In the very first hours of DMC 5 you play as Nero with a completely different look, he got a haircut and the most noticeable change is that he is missing his demonic arm, as it’s completely gone, cut off. As you continue on in the level you come across a new character named V who is a complete mystery at the moment but wields a demonic bird, panther, and golem to fight for him and his your employer at the moment who sent you to help fight a demonic threat along with Dante. As you arrive at the threat a cutscene plays out showing Dante getting his a** kicked by the demon you were sent to stop, the cutscene then stops and now you are stacked with beating him and to no surprise, the player gets his a** kicked because it’s a total rigged boss fight that is too difficult by any means but is a planned game design because the moment you die a cutscene plays out showing you retreating with V and Dante staying behind to only lose and having Rebellion shatter to little bits. The story from then on is Nero, V, and Dante make their way back to this demon who considers himself a king and called Urizen by V. 

Capcom strives to improve is DMC series in every new release and being the huge fan I am about this series, I can confidently say that this is their most ambitious and polish series yet which no brings me to my next point. 

Gameplay is extremely polished and is in the genre of a hack and slash game. The DMC series has always been about how you kill all the enemies in the room, and how you use every weapon in your arsenal to absolutely juggle enemies and kill them in style. DMC 5 goes beyond this by allowing you plays as Nero who wields a sword, a revolver that show two bullets a shot, and a plethora of robotic arms that each has their different uses and combos, V who is the simplest from the three who wields his demonic bird, panther, and golem, and Dante which is the last playable character and is by far my favorite. Dante is by far the most fun character and wields the biggest arsenal from all the characters allowing for absolute carnage. There is also a combo rating on the right side of the screen which tells how good your combos are and goes up by performing different ones and gives you a score at the end of a fight which gets add up at the end of a mission to give you a total score of how you did. 

In the end, I give it a 9 out of 10, an amazing game and I highly recommend it to new players. New players don’t need to know the entire DMC history since the game does a great job telling you all the information you need.