Contains spoilers:









This is pretty much the greatest game ever, for the first half. The gameplay is very good, that Devil Bringer is beyond unique. The boses are all interesting. I pretty much got addicted to it within the first hour. Each time a new enemy got introduced, I was like, "oh holy shit this is so great!" Its all going good until about the halfway point. After Mission 11, you switch over to Dante for the first time. And right now I'm pretty stoked because this is what I was waiting for the entire game. And the first mission or two with Dante was pretty great as well, when you have to escape from the castle that was pretty cool.


...But it all turned sour when the cutscene with Lady occurs. First of all, this is her one and only (useless) appearance in the game. And what it does is fuck up the story for the rest of the Dante led missions, except the last one. The next missions for some reason GO BACK to the castle you just escaped from even though in the cutscene you were already back home in the city. Well, that's okay I guess, I mean, its not OKAY okay, but its okay. At least they'll make the missions interesting? No, actually they retrace your steps through the forest, through the castle, and back through the icy wonderland. Its like they spend all their money and creative juices on the first half. Did I say that the boses were all really cool? Well they still are...unfortunately, I have to fight them all again. The first three boses you have to fight again, because for some reason Nero didn't finish them off. And then, when I finally get back into the city I fight Angus...for the third time. Dante's last mission, however, was really really AWESOME!

Then I gain back control of Nero, who has two missions left. The first of those, I have to fight the first three boses of the game....again. The second one, is pretty cool, but its really just a boss fight....actually, both missions are basically cutscene...boss fight....cutscene. With no level design at all. Its like they ran out of time so they decided to just wrap up the game by rehashing the same dice game as in an earlier mission (for the 2nd to last one), and a boss fight with the same design and set up as an earlier one....because in a sense its round 2 against the guy (for the last mission). What I LOVED about the first 11 missions were the cool puzzle-like level designs....and yet even when rehashing the same levels...it was just a simplified run through.

And then the story itself turns into some sort of sappy love story.


More stuff to complain about:

Dante's skills were cool and all...but I really felt as though the fact that you only have him for 7 missions, and you only get his final weapon in the last mission, makes getting used to his character kind of useless, because for the final mission, which I assume you learned all those moves for, you really only need the final weapon. All those cool skills and abilities are well...cool, but they end up being a waste because it ends up literally being, "well okay I did my thing, Nero your turn".

A word about the skills in general....I felt as though I was playing a demo version of the game; the skills were so limited. There were like 3 skill choices for everything that wasn't Nero's sword. Also, Nero's gun was a pretty useless fucking piece of shit.

A word about the story then I'm done. This was basically the deal breaker. I could almost live with all the dumb stuff they made me do with Dante, but not when I realized that after Mission 11, the story which was developing steadily and was ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD, just stopped completely until I got back in control of Nero. At which point, there was really nothing left aside from me having to defeat the final boss and watch a motivational cutscene about how demons can't love.


PS Also, did anyone actually find a use for those purple stars that restore magic? I never used one, nor even understood what it refered to.

I thought it was ok, but I fucking hated Nero so much.

There was really no backstory to him AT ALL as to why he was there and his relationship with all of those people. And you were right when you finally get the chance to use Dante it gets really disappointing. And I liked how they portrayed him as the enemy at the beginning.

But still, it was way too repetitive and Nero is really whiny and shit so I hate him. Also alot of both character's sly comments were really lame, especially Nero. Which is another reason why I hated him so much.



But yeah the introductory battle and shit between Nero and Dante is incredibly cool but they didn't explain WHY he had that fucking arm or why he looks like Dante at all so it was pretty stupid there too. I hated the evil doctor guy too, his character was just really cliche' and annoying.


Those stars were for the devil trigger and I never used them either.

But I'd like to know of some other fairly short, fun shooter/action games like this I could rent to waste some time for the 360. Already played Ninja Gaiden 2 (and halo 3 of course) it was so damn great.

But yeah the introductory battle and shit between Nero and Dante is incredibly cool but they didn't explain WHY he had that fucking arm or why he looks like Dante at all so it was pretty stupid there too.

I thought it was explained with some subtle hints. The arm has some sort of connection to Vergil, Dante's brother from the third game. The fact that he is the only guy that can fix the broken sword hints on this. Then we have the ghost-like spirit that actually looks almost identical to Vergil's Devil Trigger. Basically, having played the previous games you can put two and two together and realise that Nero has inherited some of Vergil's power (or he simply used Nero as a host or something). They also mention that Nero is a "descendant of Sparda" hence the reason why he looks similar to Dante.

Okay yeah, most of what I wrote is just theories or hints but most people agree that the arm and ghost is Vergil in one way or another.

As for the game itself: I love it! Nero is a fun and refreshing character to play. I agree that the backtracking is a bit lame and I don't understand why they couldn't do more areas rather than forcing you through the same levels again, facing the same bosses like three times despite them being fun each time. I'm personally halfway through the "Hell or Hell" mode so I can't hide the fact that I enjoy this game alot.

By the way: How was Lady's two appearances (you said one) useless? It's nice to see that they are actually working after the events of the third game.

Yeah, I love this game. Whenever I just feel like BEATING SHIT UP (coincidentally very often) in a game, I throw this in, play as Dante, and just go nuts. Yeah, I like Nero too, but Dante's more fun to play as.

How does this compare to Ninja Gaiden 2, btw? I was thinking of picking NG2 up because they play sort of similar, if I'm to understand correctly?

pales in comparison, NG2 is so much better and you can't deny that even if you really like this game.

I've never played 2&3 so you're probably right about the virgil thing Liman

By the way: How was Lady's two appearances (you said one) useless? It's nice to see that they are actually working after the events of the third game.

She only shows up during the cutscene before the first forest level with Dante I thought. When is her other appearance?

Combat in NG2 is alot better than DMC4. The game as a whole is not.

I'm curious as to how this is? DMC4 is very stale without the gameplay. The story is bad, the characters are bad, and the dialogue is horrible. It has nothing going for it but the gameplay, which is essentially the whole game.
Now I've never played NG2, but I'm pretty sure its the exact same thing as DMC4, with a little more strategy involved in terms of boss battles. DMC4 bosses were pretty unique, but there weren't enough of them and they got very boring after fighting them over and over again. But the last boss battle with Dante was very well done, once you actually figured out what to do.

well yeah I guess NG2 is kinda cheap, but I'm going to defend it right now.

Its fucking beautiful, seriously. The environments and stuff ESPECIALLY towards the end look so much better than DMC4. I like the range of weapons/weapon styles alot too. The story-line was alot better imo too even though there wasn't much of one.

Kickass Ninja decides to save the world and wreak vengeance upon a bunch of evil ninjas and send some demon things back to hell at the same time. Is alot better than NOOOO Punk half-demon kid has to save girlfriend from Satan worshiping pope.

Although I like Dante's character alot, Ryu's solemness and mystique has its own appeal too and it cuts out alot of the Japanese anime-driven drama bullshit that I can't stand at all.

Also, you have to fight alot of NG2 bosses over again too but it you don't have to go through THE WHOLE DAMN game again.

Anyways, I see the appeal to DMC4 but I just though NG2 was an all around better game.

The only thing that really pissed me off about NG2 (other than it being pretty cheap (fucking dogs)) is that big tittied CIA agent chick. She fit really awkwardly in it imo and I don't remember her from the first game but I didn't finish it so if they just stuck her in there then that's pretty stupid.

HM, if what you are saying about the graphics is true, that's great, 'cause I thought that DMC4 was one of the best looking games I've seen on 360.

Totally gonna go buy that sucker now.

But to be honest NG2 doesn't really pick up environmentally wise until the last 5 or so chapters around when you go from Ryu's village into Mt. Fugi but its still really damn good looking pretty much all the way through, just a little darker than DMC4

Ninja Gaiden 2's graphics are by far less good looking than Devil May Cry 4. The models and textures are very simple and clean in NG2 while you can actually see the skin and fabric on the models of the DMC4 characters. Sure, it's hard to compare the clothes with Ryu since he wears a gimp outfit but... I'm not even going to get into the lip sync and FMV's.

As for the game itself: NG2's camera is really horrible and the battle system is cheap. The enemies have strong attacks but you can easily kill them with cheap attacks in return. Sure, NG has more weapons but overall it feels like a clone of DMC that's tried too hard to be a tougher game.

By the way: Devil May Cry 3 is actually better than either of the two.

DMC4 is very stale without the gameplay. The story is bad, the characters are bad, and the dialogue is horrible. It has nothing going for it but the gameplay, which is essentially the whole game.

Is this a bad thing?

Aye. DMC4 was good for the first half. The only people who think the Dante missions were good are sad Dante fanboys, who own Dante pillow cases and posters. Dante's a fictional character, boys. He's not real and his part in DMC4 was tacked on at the last second to shut you idiots up, and it ruined the game. The ironing is delicious.

Is this a bad thing?

Not at all! I'm just saying, that when thehunter talked about the game as a whole(which I assumed he meant storyline, dialogue, etc), there isn't much else to look at.
But yeah, it's not a bad thing. I enjoy these type of games a lot, and I really enjoyed DMC4, just not as much as DMC3.

I'm in the school of thinking that the original DMC was a fluke.  None of the other games, not even DMC3, had the same kickass feeling of the first one.  DMC2 had some of the stupidest and most uninspired villains in the series and DMC3's Dante was nowhere near as snarky as he was in the first game (and I don't even remember DMC2 Dante ever speaking).  I remember every time a boss appeared in DMC Dante would fucking trash talk them.  It was a really great scene to see this gigantic lava spider burst through a wall and spew magma only to have Dante tap his shell and call him a big bug or something.  I remember that gigantic owl or whatever popping up with the fuckawesome deep voice and Dante starts FLAPPING HIS ARMS and calls him a big cock or something like that.

So yeah, every other DMC game has been uninspired shit that I don't care about!  Capcom has done nothing but ruin series (Viewtiful Joe comes to mind).