Retro Review: Devil May Cry PS4 Port

<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot in terms of variety when discussing hack n&&num;8217&semi; slash titles&period; From <em>Metal Gear Rising&colon; Revengance<&sol;em> to <em>Ninja Gaiden<&sol;em>&comma; the genre seems to have a little something for everyone&period; That being said&comma; it would be a different story if it weren&&num;8217&semi;t for games such <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> paving the way for newcomers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now&comma; after having received a semi-recent port for the PS4&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a great opportunity to see if <em>Devil May Cry <&sol;em>still<em> <&sol;em>holds up after all these years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Story&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The story of <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> is a somewhat complicated one when analyzed in full&period; The plot of the game revolves around Dante who runs a business by the name of Devil May Cry&period; The story beings when a female hunter named Trish attempts to enlist the help of Dante&period; She crashes a motorcycle into his store and stabs him&period; After Dante agrees to lend his skills&comma; the pair travel to Mallet Island&period; They hope to destroy the Prince of Darkness&comma; Mundus&period; All in all&comma; in retrospect&comma; the story of <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> is still as good as it needs to be&period; A dude goes to an island to kill a big demon&comma; done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Gameplay&colon;<strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;138293" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-138293" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-138293" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;15015427&sol;Devil-May-Cry&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-138293" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay for this title has aged like a fine wine&period; One might suspect that seventeen years later it might leave a few rusty hinges&comma; but this is not the case&period; Everything still flows nicely and the combat is complex enough to be engaging&period; Yet&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not so complex that it becomes convoluted&period; The combo system is also as fun as ever&comma; racking up hits in order to increase one&&num;8217&semi;s ranking just never seems to get old&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Visuals&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>I suspect this is why the PS3&sol;PS4 versions of the game had occurred in the first place&comma; other than&comma; you know&comma; publishers just being greedy&period; Although&comma; if one were to look back on the original entry to the franchise&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not hard to see that time has not been kind to <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em>&period; This is to be expected for an older title&comma; however&comma; as the muddy graphics and darker tone of the game didn&&num;8217&semi;t exactly make for the best visual style&period; With that in mind&comma; a much-needed upgrade goes a long way when remastering visuals&comma; but it won&&num;8217&semi;t earn any points here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Characterization&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Where <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> does earn points is in its characterization&comma; specifically that of the main character&comma; Dante&period;  Dante is one suave individual that puts so much care into not caring&period; Throughout the game&comma; Dante is shown as being cocky&comma; brash&comma; and ultimately disinterested towards those he has to fight&period; However&comma; there are times when Dante starts showing more emotional qualities rather than defaulting to his usual passive nature&period; It is through these brief glimpses that one can see Dante as a more complex character than originally thought&period; His style may come off as &&num;8216&semi;devil-may-care&&num;8217&semi;&comma; but those playing begin to realize that it&&num;8217&semi;s simply a vale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Replayability&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;138295" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-138295" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-138295" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;15015718&sol;dmc&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-138295" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The last thing I&&num;8217&semi;d like to mention about <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s is its level of replayability&period; This game is chalked to the brim with hidden levels and interesting easter eggs&period; The time one individual could spend finding all there is to find is certainly a plus in regards to&comma; not only replayability but also the sheer amount of variety&period; Basically&comma; the more things there are for players to achieve&comma; the more time they&&num;8217&semi;ll spend trying to achieve them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; I still think that <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> holds up for the PS2&period; With everything taken into account&comma; one can see that the characterization&comma; the gameplay&comma; and the story are still strong pillars that hold up the foundation of this amazing title&period; The only real negative is that the visuals may not hold up as well&comma; but in the grand scheme of things&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter in terms of lastability&period; So&comma; if you haven&&num;8217&semi;t already&comma; check out <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em> on the PS2&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;