Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed and published by Capcom in 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows platforms. The game is the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry series.

In 2015, a remastered version, Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This feature features new playable characters, new cutscenes, polished gameplay, improved graphics, the option to switch between English and Japanese voice tracks, and additional costumes.

Development
Capcom greenlit Devil May Cry 4 soon after its predecessor's success but was underfunded (it was reported to have had the same budget as Devil May Cry 3, which was on a console generation before it), on top of being pressured to release it before a deadline. This lead to Dante's levels and boss fights to be recycled from Nero's as they didn't have enough time to create his own original levels. And it didn't make matters better by how the PlayStation 3's architecture was a pain to develop on.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Just like in Devil May Cry 2, you play as another character as well as Dante, Nero, who is the nephew of Dante and son of Vergil.
 * 2) The game has an interesting story with Nero trying to help Dante put a stop to the Order of the Sword, a religious cult who worships Sparda as a god and intends to use Vergil's Yamato to create a demonic army, and imbue high-ranking members of the Order with demonic power.
 * 3) Lots of new Devil and Fire Arms, most are restricted to a specific character.
 * 4) *Nero
 * 5) **Devil Bringer: With his demonic arm, Nero can grapple, snatch enemies, hold enemies, search for Secret Missions and Hidden Red Orbs, and activate Gyro Blades with it.
 * 6) **Red Queen: Unlike Dante's Stinger, Red Queen has an Exceed meter which allows it to rev like a motorcycle engine. Revving it up enough allows an Exceed bar to fill which increases the range and inflicted damage of its attacks. For certain techniques this changes their behavior entirely. Because Exceed attacks generate more style points and inflict more damage, mastering the technique is vital to competently playing as Nero.
 * 7) **Blue Rose: It is a unique revolver with an over and under barrel style allowing it to fire two magnum rounds with each pull of the trigger.
 * 8) **Summoned Swords: Nero's Summoned Swords function in much the same way as Vergil's, however; they can only be used while Nero is in Devil Trigger. Unlike Vergil, Nero will fire his Blue Rose in addition to the Summoned Swords, and using them affects his Devil Trigger Gauge; the gauge will deplete faster when Nero uses this skill. Because using Summoned Swords does not interrupt actions, Nero can use them while performing any action, including Buster, for additional damage.
 * 9) *Dante
 * 10) **Gilgamesh: A set of gauntlets, greaves, mask, and back armor. It's fundamentally a revision of the gauntlets in past games, sharing many of the same techniques and focusing on the same slow but hard-hitting combos. Almost all of its attacks can be charged, and offer significant damage with every hit. The Gilgamesh has two levels of charge, and when fully charged, the attacks are utterly devastating; a fully-powered, Devil Triggered Dash Straight can kill a Scarecrow (Leg) in a single hit, and a Devil Triggered Real Impact can even kill almost all lesser demons except for the Blitz. Both normal and Devil Triggered charged attacks can be "Just Charged" by releasing the charge button the instant the Gilgamesh flashes. This drastically increases the strength and Stylish Rank of the technique, as well as slightly modifying the technique animation.
 * 11) **Lucifer: It takes the form of a skull shaped backplate from which two wing shaped sheathes extend outward. These sheathes are able to spawn a countless number of swords that are supercharged with demonic power, allowing them to hover in mid air or be launched with explosive impact. These swords can be rearranged, thrown, or wielded, and will explode either after a short duration, at a command from Dante such as a clap or throwing the rose held in his mouth, or once fifteen more blades have been spawned.
 * 12) **Pandora: It is potentially one of the most powerful weapons Dante collects throughout the Devil May Cry series. It is able to transform into 666 different and devastating forms, some of which are powered by the weapon's Disaster Gauge that was built into it as one of its functions, although the player only has access to seven of its forms.
 * 13) ***Epidemic - It serves as this game's standard rocket launcher, functioning similar to Kalina Ann or the Grenade Gun. A single button press transforms Pandora from a briefcase into a rocket launcher that fires two rockets. It has a long recoil and Dante is unable to move until the recoil animation is completed, but it is the fastest and easiest form to use. The rockets themselves only travel mid-distance before exploding. By holding the firearm button, the rockets will not fire and letting go of Lock-on at the same time will allow the player to aim up and down.
 * 14) ***Jealously: It's Pandora's only airborne exclusive form as well as the only form to fire bullets. It shoots at a downward angle and cannot hit targets directly below Dante. While in Devil Trigger, Jealousy fires charged shots.
 * 15) ***Hatred: Activated by wiggling the analogue stick left and right three times (two in Devil Trigger) while Epidemic is active, making it better suited to fire against enemies that are a bit further away. It fires 3 rockets that have higher damage and travel further than Epidemic's rockets. It has a long recoil similar to Epidemic's, but Pandora returns to its briefcase form, meaning that the player has to go through the process of reactivating it again. Hatred will not fire until the firearm button is let go and letting go of Lock-on while holding the firearm button will allow the player to aim it up and down.
 * 16) ***Revenge: Pandora's strongest form in its basic moveset. It is capable of stunning the Savior with one hit and can knock it down in a few hits. As a trade-off for this power, it takes a long time to activate, it requires the player to cycle through Epidemic and Hatred. Revenge can be transformed from Hatred by rotating the analogue stick twice (once in Devil Trigger) while Hatred is active. Dante fires one blast that travels indefinitely and explodes on contact. As with the previous forms, Revenge will not fire until the firearm button is released, and can aim up and down if the Lock-on is disengaged while holding the firearm button.
 * 17) ***Argument: Pandora's most utilitarian form. On activation, Dante will hover at the height he was when it activated and can move in any direction, but Dante can't move vertically. Argument can launch one rocket at a time which uses up a little bit of the Disaster Gauge per shot or launch rockets from all the barrels at once at the expense of about half of the Disaster Gauge.
 * 18) ***Grief: Has the most control and precision of all Pandora's forms and will remain active until the Disaster Gauge runs out or the player releases the Style button. Dante himself is left immobile in his throwing pose while Grief is active, but it can travel anywhere on the screen and will move to any enemy that the Lock-on is switched to.
 * 19) ***Omen: Uses all of the available Disaster Gauge in one attack and affects all enemies on-screen. It is capable of destroying Mephisto, Faust, and Blitz cloaks even without Disaster. With a full Disaster Gauge, Pandora can kill most lesser demons. It takes the longest of all of Pandora's forms to use due to the long animation. Dante slams the briefcase on the ground waits for it to open up. While most enemies are stunned by the hit, Dante takes a long time to recover from the attack, leaving Dante open to an attack from enemies who recover and attack faster, or if an offscreen enemy makes its way back on-screen after Omen is used.
 * 20) *Trish
 * 21) **Bare Knuckle: Is Trish's signature hand-to-hand combat style involving lightning-infused punches and kicks, and, occasionally, the Sword of Sparda.
 * 22) * Other
 * 23) **Yamato: Both Dante and Nero wield Yamato. Nero's use of Yamato is limited to when he is in Devil Trigger, and even then he only has a few attacks with it. While in Devil Trigger, Yamato also grants Nero the ability to use a slightly different version of Summoned Swords. When Dante obtains Yamato, he gains access to Vergil's signature Dark Slayer Style, but Dante doesn't have that many attacks with it.
 * 24) Amazing graphics for the time that still look good today. What's even more impressive is that it runs at a consistent 60 FPS even on consoles.
 * 25) Great soundtrack.
 * 26) * The opening song, "Out of Darkness", fits in with the church setting that Kyrie's singing for, given that the Order of the Sword worships Sparda.
 * 27) * "The Idol of Space and Time", which plays at the Divinity Statues, is a calm, soothing track that provides the much needed respite from constant battles.
 * 28) * "The Time Has Come", Nero's battle theme, and by association, "Shall Never Surrender," the closing credits. "The Time has Come", being a battle theme, is very in tone with the music of the past games, whereas the second half, "Shall Never Surrender", is more soothing, almost displaying how Nero's come to terms with his demonic side, as has Kyrie, and his relationship with Dante being much closer than at the start of the game.
 * 29) * "Blackened Angel" and "Forza del Destino", Dante's boss themes. The first one helps establish Dante's status as The Dreaded, who only plays around with Nero because it amuses him. "Forza del Destino" plays during the second battle, where Dante stops pulling his punches and becomes the ultimate test of Nero's mettle before confronting Sanctus.
 * 30) * "Lock and Load (Blackened Angel mix)", Dante's battle theme. A remix of the battle theme from DMC 1, it adds lyrics from "Blackened Angel" to show that Dante has grown stronger and wiser during the time between two games while still retaining his laid-back outlook.
 * 31) * "Sworn Through Swords", the theme of Berial, would fit right in with the OST of the third game.
 * 32) * "Baroque and Beats" which plays when Nero first encounters the Order's Angelos. A haunting blend of organ music and techno gives off a sense of both sanctity and dread as the angelic warriors ruthlessly annihilate everything in their way.
 * 33) * "Swipe of Sword" is almost the successor to the original game's "Ultraviolet".
 * 34) * The Last Judgement (a Pachislot version of 4) has "Dream Out Loud", an absolutely rocking song with vocals provided by Yosh of Survive Said The Prophet, made exclusive to this version of the game that wouldn't sound out of place in an anime opening.
 * 35) Good voice acting.
 * 36) Despite the lack of variety, all the bosses are great (except Dante's) in their own way.
 * 37) *Bael/Dagon: Toad-like species that possess two anglerfish like glowing feelers which resemble young, nubile women. They're able to emit a gas that renders them invisible and can use their feelers. They can also shoot icicles, freeze Nero/Dante, and can lunge and scoop up the player into their mouths which is their most dangerous attack.
 * 38) *Berial: A massive leonid centaur demon hailing from Fire Hell. His attacks are mainly fire based attacks and wields a large flaming zweihander sword, which he uses to deliver slow, but powerful strikes.
 * 39) *Echidna: A giant serpent demoness who rules the great forest in the depths of Demon World. She is able to fly and combine the plumes on her head to form a snake tongue to use as a whip. Her main ability is the ability to lay seed like eggs, which hatch into demons called Chimeras, her "children". These creatures then seek out lesser demons to use as hosts, blooming and sprouting bladed tentacles to help defend its host.
 * 40) *The Savior: A gargantuan statue of the Dark Knight Sparda, brought to life by the Order of the Sword.
 * 41) *Angelo Credo: The Supreme General of the Holy Knights and brother of Kyrie. His fight is regarded as the most memorable boss fights from this game. From a storytelling perspective, you fight him during an impactful event while playing as Nero, and from a gameplay perspective, he's an overall challenging boss who moves and attacks fast, can block your attacks with his shield, and is more of a boss who tests the player's dexterity than a boss who has cheap, lethal gimmicks. Nero's Buster even has several unique interactions against him.
 * 42) *Agnus: The Chief of Alchemy and Technology Research for the Order of the Sword. He can summon his artificial demons such as; the Gladii and Cutlass to aid him in battle, he can call upon the Basilisks to summon a burst of fireballs, and has the power to drain health from the player and enhance it himself.
 * 43) The style system has been changed to where you can now switch between your styles at any time when playing as Dante.
 * 44) While still difficult, the game drops the difficulty down some from its predecessor. From the playable characters alone, Nero has a powerful grapple move, Buster, that can quickly take a significant chunk of the enemies' health. For Dante, he can now access all of his weapons and styles in real-time, and they are much easier to manage and upgrade compared to the previous game locking him to one style at a time. The Western release of 3 being infamously difficult also contributes to this in retrospect.
 * 45) The Special Edition makes several changes to the original.
 * 46) * Three additional playable characters.
 * 47) ** Lady, marking her very first appearance as a playable character, has very unique gameplay mechanics compared to the other characters. Instead of using swords and guns like Dante, Lady only uses firearms like the Kalina Ann, using said weapon's bayonet as her only melee weapon. She is Nero’s replacement in her Story Mode part.
 * 48) ** Trish, marking her second appearance as a playable character after 12 years (Devil May Cry 2), also returns along with her weapon, the Sword of Sparda. She is Dante’s replacement in her Story Mode part.
 * 49) ** Vergil, marking his second appearance as a playable character, also returns with a new fighting style and mechanics. Most moves from Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition also return with the new "Concentration" mechanic, which complements Vergil's signature style, "iaijutsu." This means his attacks become stronger if he's played in a calm, flawless way. Unlike the other characters’ Story Modes, which features two characters in one storyline, Vergil is playable in all story chapters.
 * 50) * 2 additional campaigns over the same set of levels. Each campaign's difficulty mode are unlocked individually.
 * 51) * New game mode: "Legendary Dark Knight Mode" - A feature that was originally intended for the PS3 and PC release, is included in the Special Edition. This mode pits players against a tremendous amount of enemies. The players must adjust their own fighting style to adapt, making for a fresh gameplay experience for both new and long-time fans of Devil May Cry.
 * 52) * Improvement on gameplay and general quality of life improvements, several of them include:
 * 53) ** All demonstration view for moves are now fully animated to help players get a grasp of the move's qualities, where in the original, opening move list anywhere outside the Library will have demos display only transitions of still frames on loop.
 * 54) ** The "Sprint" ability now cost less Proud Souls and activates much more easily; almost instantaneous when there's no enemy. This allows players to move around levels much faster in totality.
 * 55) ** Vergil's campaign does not have character-specific limitations on collectibles, this makes doing his campaign the fastest method of gathering all Blue Orb Fragments which bonus is shared across all three campaigns.
 * 56) * The game runs at 60fps/1080p.
 * 57) * New costumes for all the playable characters which are compatible with in-game cutscenes.
 * 58) * There is also new Downloadable content, which includes Blue Orbs, Red Orbs, unlocking all the game modes and unlocking the Super Costumes for Nero, Vergil and Dante. It also includes two extra costumes for Trish (Gloria) and Lady (DMC3 lady).
 * 59) * New opening and ending cutscenes for Vergil's and Lady/Trish's story.
 * 60) ** Vergil's story timeline takes place before Devil May Cry 3.
 * 61) ** Lady/Trish’s story takes place around the same time as the game's main storyline (Nero/Dante's story).
 * 62) * A newly recorded Japanese voice over.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some aspects of the game are pretty frustrating.
 * 2) * Mission 10 will make you hate lasers because they can be difficult to dodge. And that's just before fighting Dante.
 * 3) * The second boss fight against Dante will kill even the most experienced player countless times. Using cheap moves, incredible combos, and with few openings to attack him, he will brutalize the player all too often. It's partly because his A.I. has computerized accuracy; he can react to and counter your attacks as soon as you input them. However, the player can cheese the fight by using Devil Bringer.
 * 4) * Secret Mission 8 requires you to perform Royal Block 5 times consecutively. It can throw off a first-timer by surprise because the objective text is actually misleading as it doesn't tell you about the "consecutively" part. This means that getting hit or mistiming Royal Block will reset your objective counter to zero. The enemy type in this mission can make things harder as well; you're faced off against Mephistos in Son of Sparda difficulty, you have to learn the perfect timing in at least three different attack variations, and the pace can become a waiting game because the Mephisto can be idle for a few seconds. Overall, this secret mission is a pure test of skill, but it's necessary if you want to obtain the "Nothing Left Unsaid" achievement and collect all of the Blue Orbs to fully upgrade your vitality.
 * 5) Because the game was rushed, there wasn't any time to implement new stages for Dante. Just like Lucia's Missions in Devil May Cry 2, Missions 12-19 revolves around the same exact levels and bosses from before except you go backwards and you're playing as Dante.
 * 6) Missed Opportunities:
 * 7) * As mentioned by Sanctus, Nero is eventually revealed to have inherited the power and blood of Sparda. What's the reaction of the cast? Nobody cares. Dante mostly ignores it, Kyrie never learns it, and Nero doesn't react too much on it, especially when he and Kyrie were being absorbed into The Savior when Sanctus revealed it. All anyone gets out of this plot point is Nero acquiring Yamato and accessing his Devil Trigger in Mission 6, and having the right to inherit Yamato in the finale. Outside of subtle hints, the game itself never explained how exactly is Nero a descendant of Sparda, though it took some supplementary materials and a sequel for the answer to be revealed.
 * 8) * Vergil's inclusion in 4:SE was likely an attempt to rectify Vergil Mode in 3:SE, namely giving players a look at what Vergil was up to in Fortuna prior to the events of 3. Unfortunately, it's just as woefully brief as the new story material added in 3:SE; all that we get are a brief shot of a suspicious woman who looks at Vergil in the prologue, and Vergil's monologue in the ending cutscene summarizing his experience as he leaves Fortuna.
 * 9) The new campaigns in the Special Edition (outside of the cutscenes) don't affect the story.
 * 10) The physical copies of the Special Edition are released exclusively in Europe and Japan while North American only gets the digital version of it.

Reception
Devil May Cry 4 received favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a "Platinum" rank as part of its review. It praised the difficulty balance and gameplay options.

Xbox World Australia called it "the most solid of all of the Devil May Cry games" citing its responsive controls despite being the first game in the series to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. PSM3 rated the game's degree of difficulty positively based on how the system ranks the player and the challenges the game offers. 1UP.com praised the gameplay and "predictably slick" looks. However, sites often criticized the game's backtracking elements, a big issue found within the level design. Some criticized the theme songs. The use of boss fights and the approach to the action's style was well received by GameSpot. They felt it would attract and appeal to gamers despite the backtracking issues.

As to the presentation, GameTrailers praised the voice acting, fight scenes, but criticized the corny dialogue. GameSpy said the game succeeds thanks to its gameplay and visuals. The introduction of Nero as new protagonist was well received. Bosch's voice acting in the English-language version was also praised by GameZone and GameSpot. Despite the similarities between Nero and Dante, IGN still found the new protagonist appealing based on how different his gameplay is from the returning hero's. IGN agreed, finding Nero's story appealing. The GameSpy review also praised the Nero character for "bringing something fresh to the franchise" and being "as diverse as DMC3 SE's Vergil". When it came to the console version, IGN said fans would enjoy the video game, but might be disappointed that Dante had fewer weapons and missions than he did in Devil May Cry 3. GameSpy also said that "it cheapens things a little to see that the team has opted to recycle assets in lieu of showing us more of this rich world". They did not find the soundtrack appealing. Hyper 's Dirk Watch commended the game for "looking great, combos galore and being more fun than Devil May Cry 3". However, he criticized it for "still playing like Devil May Cry 2" and for its "choppy pacing and level design".

The PC version received mixed reviews. 1UP.com appreciated the port's exclusive Legendary Dark Knight mode where the character is cornered by multiple enemies in a single battle. However, they felt that Capcom could have made a more comfortable controller as it had similar issues as the one from Resident Evil 4. They expected the developers to have put in more features. While also appreciating Dark Knight and the Turbo mode that increased the game's speed, IGN said this port was only for hardcore fans of the series since it was not too different from the original console versions. Nevertheless, GameZone said that Capcom did not rush the port and praised it for being as enjoyable as the original game in contrast to other PC ports.

Sales
Capcom expected Devil May Cry 4 to ship 1.8 Million Units by the end of its fiscal year. Upon its release week in Japan, the PlayStation 3 version outsold the Xbox 360 version—140,000 units to 28,000. On February 20, 2008, Capcom's president Haruhiro Tsujimoto announced in a press release that the game shipped two million copies in its first month, making it the fastest selling title in the series. By the end of the title's launch year, it had sold 2.32 million copies and would eventually reach the milestone of three million units sold by December 31, 2014. Capcom's Christian Svensson noted the PC retail version's sales in the US did not meet his expectations. A digital download version was only available in pirated form as Capcom Japan did not allow the game to be sold online. A PC digital distribution release was made available over a year later.

Trivia

 * Hideki Kamiya played this game as part of research for the gameplay of Bayonetta.
 * This is the last game in the franchise to have anime-esque aesthetics for the character models similar to other eastern games like Final Fantasy and Tekken, and every game going forward, starting with Devil May Cry 5 (not counting DmC Devil May Cry, the supposed reboot of the series), has new aesthetics for characters similar to western game franchises, due to the use of RE Engine.
 * The scene where Dante goes "What the hell is this?" became a meme and is now used as greenscreen material.