|| REVIEW || Devil May Cry 4 (PS4)

Developed By : Capcom                                                          Published By : Capcom
Category : Action, Adventure, Hack-and-Slash             Release Date : Jan 31, 2008

A Devilish Plot

For a franchise reach it's fourth entry, it comes as a bit of a shock when the series' main-man, Dante, isn't who you step into the role of to begin the game. Instead, you meet Nero who has a connection to Dante that...I will not be revealing. Nero is a member of The Order of the Sword, a group of knights that worship the demon Sparda. These knights are led by Vicar Sanctus who is abruptly murdered by Dante to kick the game off. While others flee to safety, Nero stays behind to confront the murderer. Dante himself flees after Nero rips off the brace covering his right arm to reveal a demon arm.

Nero then takes up the charge and goes after Dante by himself, discovering along the way that the Hellgates have been activated and opened across his island town of Fortuna. Eventually, Nero is trapped as a way to complete a ritual allowing the activation of The Savior, which is where Dante comes in to take down The Order, the Hellgates and anything else standing in his way.

A Demon By Any Other Name...is Another Demon

I hadn't expected to be playing as another character when I fired this game up. Sure, the final boss fight of Devil May Cry 3 has you playing as Dante and Vergil in some weird synchronized hack-and-slash tag team, but to actually play a good portion of the game as not-Dante...I was weary at first. But sure enough, watching the opening cutscene unfold and then seeing Dante depart and you assume the role of Nero...it was clear that this was happening whether I was ready or not. 

Nero behaves in much the same way as Dante, with the stylish addition of his demon arm. He still swings a sword and has a gun that he can pop off with, so as far as the simple mechanics of picking up the game and jumping right into playing, it won't feel all that different. The main difference you'll notice with Nero immediately is that where the Circle button functioned for Dante and whatever style you were playing as, for Nero it's the control for his Devil Bringer hand. This hand allows you to not only grab enemies who are in extremely close proximity, but there is also a move that can be upgraded which allows you to snatch enemies from further away and bring them to you.

Fear not, this just wouldn't really be a Devil May Cry game without playing as Dante, and that's exactly what you will do about halfway through the game. Nero is tricked and taken by the antagonists of the game, who also wish to bring about the very, very bad things, so it's only right to assume that Dante wants to jump in and prevent things. If you're coming into this fresh off of playing the previous game, this is where things will begin to feel more familiar, as everything that Dante could do from his weapons and special attacks is all back. 

The one difference is something that is, in my opinion, an improvement, and it's focused on the playstyles. Previously, at the start of the mission you were able to choose between four different styles for Dante, that each offered their own proficiency. Trickster allowed Dante to perform dodge maneuvers in combat, Swordmaster increased his damage with his sword attacks, while Gunslinger increased your gun damage, and lastly Royal Guard granted you the ability to block. These all return and provide the same focuses, except now you can use the D-Pad to swap between them on the go instead of being locked in for an entire mission. 

The Fire Burns the Same

So far in the series, everything has been about orbs. There are orbs of all different colors, for all different things. Red orbs have always acted as a currency allowing you to purchase the items that you can use as well as special moves to use with your weapons. Yellow ones were a way to resurrect yourself on the spot instead of having to return to a previous checkpoint. Green orbs replenish your health while white ones do the same for your devil trigger gauge. Lastly there are blue orbs to extend your health bar, and purple ones to extend your devil trigger gauge. 

Devil May Cry 4 introduces a brand new kind of currency called Pride Souls. These can only be earned by completing each of the game's missions. How many you earn depends on your ranking based on completion time, highest combo level, whether or not you died or used items, and a couple of other grading materials. What these do is a portion of what the red orbs used to do, you'll need the Pride Souls upgrade your special moves. The red ones will strictly be for purchasing items like your vital star for the entirety of this game. 

Around the midway point of the game, when you perform the switch to Dante, you will be refunded all of your Pride Souls and Red Orbs, and given an opportunity to re-spend these orbs on Dante. For the most part Dante has the same opportunities to spend these currencies. Each of his fight styles can be leveled up a couple of times, and his specific weapons can be upgraded to perform their own special maneuvers. Some of these are similar to moves that Nero was able to learn in his portion of the game. 

Fourth Time is the Charm

Currently on my streams, I'm working my way through the entire DMC franchise. After playing the first three (in a row, mind you) the games were getting a bit stale on me. I was having so much fun blasting through the first two that I was constantly shocked at how quickly I had been progressing. While playing the third one, I kept finding myself looking for the ending, wondering if I was going to get there yet. And I was worried by this because I still had three games left to play, so if things were looking grim at the halfway point, what hope did I have of enjoying the latter half of the franchise?

Well, I can say now that having played this game, whatever was killing the joy for me is long, long gone. I absolutely loved this game and how smooth it played. It was a nice bonus to have majority camera control instead of awkward forced fixed angles. Even without that though, the game as a whole just felt a lot more smooth, the story felt more invested, and once again I found myself having a hard time putting this game down to end my stream. 

One thing that I was surprisingly a fan of in this game was the moment you switch to controlling Dante. A good portion of what follows is a sort of re-hash of the things you did with Nero. You go through the same areas, and face a lot (if not all) of the same people including bosses. Typically, this is a cheap move, recycling fights. Hell, the first game did it with just Dante, I lost count of how many times I fought Nightmare or the Angel. 

However here, it didn't feel cheap. If anything it was almost a perfect thing to do, and at the perfect time too. By the time the switch occurred, I was comfortable with Nero. I'd learned all his moves, figured out the best strategies for taking down all the different enemies I came across...and then the switch. I could say that the switch threw me off, but that would be a complete understatement. It took these fights that I had previously completed, and in my head mastered to a point, and set me all the way back to square one because my brain kept trying to perform Nero's moves, and that just wasn't possible. 

In short, Devil May Cry 4 is in my opinion the best game of the series so far. I obviously still have DmC and 5 to play through, but this one right here completely revitalized my love for the series. Whether you pick this title up on the Playstation 3/Xbox 360 gen, or the current Playstation 4/Xbox One, you are in for one hell of a fun ride. Again the story is a lot of fun, Dante is surely at his wittiest, and the combat is just so absolutely fluid. It's still a fairly cheap game so it won't be hard to get your money's worth out of this one.

Game Rating : 9.5/10

Game Played On : Playstation 4
Also Available On : Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC