Devil May Cry 2

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Devil May Cry 2 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed and published by Capcom and was released in 2003 on the PlayStation 2. This game is a sequel to Devil May Cry and is the second game in the Devil May Cry series, as well as the fourth main entry in the chronological order of the Devil May Cry series.

Devil May Cry 2
"That's just a piece of crap." - Dante's actual words in this game
Protagonist(s): Dante Lucia Genre(s): Action-adventure Hack and slash Rating(s): M Platform(s): PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 PlayStation 4 Xbox One Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch Release Date: PlayStation 2 NA: January 25, 2003 JP: January 30, 2003 EU: March 28, 2003 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 JP: March 22, 2012 NA: March 29, 2012 EU: April 3, 2012 AU: April 5, 2012 PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC March 13, 2018 Nintendo Switch September 19, 2019 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Country: Japan Series: Devil May Cry Predecessor: Devil May Cry (Release and Canon) Devil May Cry 4 (Chronologically) Successor: Devil May Cry 3 (Canon) Devil May Cry 5 (Chronologically)

Development

Before the first game came out, Capcom greenlit a sequel and gave the project to a less experienced team that was more accustomed to making arcade games. Majority of the people who worked on the original didn't even know a sequel was in the works. What's worse is the team behind the game didn't really like the original in the first place. The success of the first lead to this game being rushed and fixed in four to five months.

Bad Qualities

1. As mentioned before, this game was rushed as Capcom greenlit a sequel before the first Devil May Cry game came out and made a very stupid move as they gave the project to an inexperienced team resulting in many of the problems below.
2. Dante was heavily flanderized as he went from being a cocky rouge to gruff and to-the-point as he rarely even speaks. To give you an idea, he is more serious than even Vergil and Credo combined. This is because the producer didn't like Dante's joke-cracking, wiseass personality and did that to make Dante edgy and "cool". It's not as bad as DmC: Devil May Cry's portrayal of Dante, but it's still a step down from Dante's original personality.
   1. It should be worth mentioning that while Dante does take some actions seriously in the previous game(at least near the end), those moments a very few and far between.
3. Despite being an interesting character, Lucia is a carbon copy of Trish from the first game since her backstory is the same as her. In fact, the reason she exists was because fans wanted to play as Trish in the original. This REALLY doesn't make sense when you realize that Trish is an unlockable character, so why is Lucia even here?!
4. Most of the bosses are bad as the fights are boring and uninspired including the final bosses. The bosses tend to not be particularly dangerous and have far too much health. It doesn't help the fact that many bosses require you to shoot more than slash. The demon wolves and infested chopper are the worst offenders of this especially the latter since it's just a helicopter. They even reuse two bosses from the first game like Phantom and Griffon, the latter appearing as part of Argosax's blob form.
   • Admittedly, there are decent bosses like Dante's final boss (the Despair Embodied), however, there are bosses like Lucia's final boss, Arius Argosax, a boss so pathetic that you can beat him by just attacking him at a distance and he can barely scratch you.
5. Dull enemy designs, including many which are just palette-swaps of other enemies that have a bit more health and damage.
6. The enemy AI is also garbage, they can miss Dante or Lucia easily even if they stand still and don't move and sometimes won't even try to attack.
7. The plot is very barebones and it doesn't convey as to what's happening and why, since things happen for no reason (e.g. Arius' ritual being activated even though Dante changed one of the key items in exchange for his coin). The opening sequence doesn't help either since it tells us that Dante is the son of Sparda (something we already know) and it doesn't explain why Lucia and Dante know each other or why they're working together.
   • Not only that, it's essentially a rehash of the same plotline as the first one. Devil hunter Dante is invited by a woman to a remote island in order to stop demonic forces from raising an ancient demon sealed away in the Demon World by Dante's father Sparda. The woman is later revealed to be a demon created by the antagonist. Dante comforts her by telling her "Devils never cry" and, after defeating the antagonist, the woman joins Dante's agency. The main difference between Trish and Lucia is that the former was actually working for Mundus then turned good at the end of DMC1 while Lucia defected from Arius before the beginning of DMC2's story. In the final boss fight of his campaign, Dante also kills The Despair Embodied with a powered-up shot from his handgun, just like how he defeated Mundus in the first game.
8. Bad camera which often forces you to fight enemies that are off screen and is at times placed at strange angles.
9. The collision detection is questionable, there are enemies with attacks that cannot hit you if you are in specific places:
   • The dodge button is somewhat broken, as it allows Dante to evade things that he shouldn't be able to.
     • On the other hand, some attacks executed without activating lock on don't land, more noticeable the attacks with the bazooka. This can be seen with Argosax the chaos again, as you cannot hit his heads without activating lock on. If not, the attack passes right through him without any damage, or even an explosion.
10. The lock on system is terrible, specifically if for example you need to hit a switch while there are enemies around as the lock on will not let you hit the switch as it will auto lock on the enemies, more absurd is the fact that with R2/RT you can turn off the lock on if you hold the button, which is the exact opposite of how it works in every other game in the franchise.
    • Pressing R3 to change the lock on enemy doesn't help because it works whenever it feels like.
11. Terrible and annoying puzzles.
12. Upgrades are extremely overpriced compared to the amount of red orbs the player gets. For example, upgrading Ivory & Ebony for the first time requires 10,000 orbs.
13. This doesn't really matter in the long run, however, since the difficulty is so underwhelming that upgrades are almost pointless. This easiness also makes the combat boring and repetitive unlike the high octane combat of the first game since it constantly tested the player's skill.
14. Lucia's missions are merely recycled Dante missions with little to no variation with you having to fight some of the same bosses that were in Dante's campaign.
15. This repeating of bosses creates continuity errors. For example, in Lucia's campaign it's implied that she killed Plutonian before Dante showed up and when he does, gives him the Arcana. But in Dante's campaign, HE kills Plutonian and gets the Arcana from Matier after Lucia gave it to her.
16. Arius, who's the game's antagonist, is bland and very poor fallow up to Mundus of the previous Devil May Cry game, and his motives are stupid since his plan is to essentially sit on his butt and hope the heroes bring him the stuff he needs. In fact, that is literally what he does in his boss fights. He stands on a few spots while sending in enemies to defeat you, it doesn't help the fact that he is the main antagonist.
    • Also for some reason his voice completely changes before the final battle with him going from sounding actually calm and cold to completely moronic and exaggerated.
    • His design is also reminiscent of Heihachi Mishima from Tekken.
    • Many fans considered him as the weakest villain in the series.
17. Bland, boring, and lifeless environments and locations that are huge for no reason, which just makes getting from point A to point B a massive pain in contrast to the smaller environments of the original game and its sequels.
18. The game doesn't tell you that there are different movesets or additional combos for each character, let alone how to do them. Specifically, the in-game "Actions" menu doesn't even list half of what you can do. This trips up even experienced DMC players, since combos are done differently compared to the rest of the series. For example:
    • Dante's unlisted moves include a shoulder check move (performed with the same input as Lucia's Lush), an aerial combo, and different combos with a shotgun. The game also outright lies about how one of the moves is performed (Rain Storm only says "above the enemy", while it can only be done right after Air Hike or Wall Hike even if there's no enemy around). And most importantly, the move list doesn't list Dante's Desperation Attack (commonly known by fans as the "Majin Form"), or any moves you can perform with it.
    • Lucia's move list doesn't list a front flip kick (performed with the same input as Dante's Stinger), different aerial moves, several moves with her ranged weapons (downward Darts throw similar to Rain Storm, or how to actually throw Cranky Bombs), and DT-only moves that are done by pressing "melee" and "shoot" simultaneously.
    • Trish's move list doesn't list the non-DT Round Trip, any of Trish's barehanded moves, or the DT-only Vortex attack.
19. Many of the weapons in the game are either overpowered or downright awful.
    • The sword combat has barely any moves and is pointless since the guns are extremely overpowered. What doesn't help is that the three swords you get just have stat differences from each other, all using the same moveset.
      • Worst yet, Dante has slightly more moves than at the beginning of DMC1 but doesn't learn any new moves during the entire game. This also applies to Lucia.
      • As an extra, the advanced combos are done by pushing a direction during the attack sequences, unlike the previous game that allowed you to get more advanced combos by delaying button presses. This system is just awkward.
    • The devil trigger is overpowered even more than in any other game in the franchise except for Trish's as it practically melts away the health of bosses.
    • Except for her Daggers and Bow Gun, Lucia's ranged weapons are terrible especially the bomb, which is practically useless.
      • However, you can't use the latter unless you're underwater. There's one underwater segment and it's in the same level you find the Bowgun.
20. Almost no secrets and unlockables. Now there are secret rooms, but they are way too easy to find and are a crappy version of the secret missions in the rest of the series, as its just beating the same basic enemies unlike the secret missions in the other games, which put you through special tasks.
    • In Dante's campaign there are also secret rooms that are filler and don't give you blue orb fragments making them pointless.
    • Some of them are also hidden in places where there's nothing that could indicate that there could be a secret there. There are some that are hidden in completely bland spaces or in walls that look exactly like everything else in the stage.
21. Unlike every other game in the series, the enemies would only respawn if you leave and re-enter a room, here the enemies can respawn by just walking a little and going back.
22. Despite being a hack and slash, the game seems to be too focused on using the guns, which is clearly noticeable especially in the first form of Argosax, in which is incredibly dangerous (downright suicidal) to get close unless you are using devil trigger, but attacking with the guns at distance makes the boss painfully easy. There are even spots where enemies cannot hit you.
23. Speaking of Argosax, in "Dante Must Die" difficulty, the first form of Argosax is broken as he literally uses all his attacks at the same time making dodging his attacks almost impossible, worst yet the lock on system makes attacking the parts that annoy you the most a huge pain in the ass.
    • However if somehow you manage to destroy Phantom's part of his body then you'll have an spot where you cannot be hit by 99% of his attacks, strangely enough the lock on starts to be far more effective, even with the rocket launcher and you can start you shooting Argosax from there until he dies and his attacks will not even scratch you, making him from a nightmare to a boss you can kill by just mashing one button.
24. The elemental part of the amulet system is worthless since the only useful one is cryo heart that slows down enemies when hitting them, the other two don't seem to do anything special.
25. Mediocre voice acting, with Arius's being outright terrible.
26. The game is shorter than the first clocking in at 5 hours and has almost no replay value.
27. Overpriced: Despite lack of replay value and short length, the game costs $50 on the PS2, which is a bad value.

Good Qualities

1. The fact that everything works in the game with little bugs or glitches, is impressive given the short development time.
   • Not to mention compared to most rushed games, this game at least is functional and playable.
2. The game introduces several elements that would become staples of the franchise and be improved in subsequent games.
   • Dante's Rebellion. In this game, it looks generic and doesn't have any background significance. In later games, it has the skull and ribcage motif in its guard and is Dante's keepsake sword from his father.
   • Bloody Palace. Unlike its future renditions in the series, this one is endless until you die.
   • You can customize devil trigger using amulets.
   • Certain moves such as Rain Storm and Fireworks would become series staples. The dodge mechanic would become one of Dante's styles and the cartwheel from 2 was used during 3's development before being replaced with the dash. While 2 lacked the usual dodge mechanic initiated by locking-on and jumping, later games would bring it back.
   • You can now switch between guns at the press of the button instead of having to go into the menu. 3 would allow you to do the same with melee weapons.
   • It also introduced several new mechanics, such as wall running and shooting in different directions.
   • This is the first game to have multiple playable characters. Unlike most of the next games, however, DMC2 has two separate campaigns for its two main heroes.
   • This is the first game that displays health bars for the Mooks and Elite Mooks (DMC1 only had health bars limited to bosses), but it's shown in the HUD as a vertical bar that's mostly difficult to see because of its usually dark red color. This is also the first game that displays a visual indicator over the locked-on target. Later games would combine the two HUD elements by repurposing the rim of the lock-on indicator as the target's health bar.
   • The level select feature is only available after beating the game, unlike in the sequels where it's available right from the start or after you beat the first mission.
3. Good soundtrack.
4. Some of the bosses like Argosax, Nefasturris, Bolverk and Furiataurus are decent and could work in a better game.
5. Despite the dull and lifeless environments, the graphics and character animations look pretty good for the time being.
6. Dante's design and his devil trigger/Majin forms look amazing. Even though he's mostly silent, Dante himself has quite a few good lines.
7. You can unlock costumes just like in the original.
   • Diesel Dante - Complete the game on Normal Mode or enter cheats to unlock Dante in jeans.
   • DMC1 Dante - Complete Dante Must Die Mode. Dante's entire character model is replaced with that of Dante's model from the first game. As a result, the costume does not appear during cutscenes, due to his DMC1 face model lacking facial animations. Rebellion's in-game model is replaced with Force Edge, the latter's level corresponding to the former's. Along with the costume changing Dante's appearance, certain aspects of the game's audio are changed as well. Attacks with the sword generate the slashing sound effects from the first game, and shooting with the handguns will generate the sound effects from the first game as well. Dante will use voice clips from the first game, and certain battles against enemies will trigger the DMC1 Battle Themes "Public Enemy" and "Lock and Load", rather than his standard battle themes
   • Lucia's 1st Diesel Costume - Complete the game on Normal Mode or enter cheats to unlock Lucia in jeans.
   • Lucia's 2nd Diesel Costume - Complete the game on Hard Mode to unlock Lucia in striped pants.
   • Arius's Secretary - Complete the game on Lucia Must Die Mode. She has access to the same equipment and attacks as Lucia.
8. Completing Hard Mode as Dante unlocks the option to play as Trish. She can be used in both Dante's and Lucia's scenarios and is armed with the sword Sparda with Luce & Ombra as her handguns, both starting out fully upgraded. Her sword attacks and punch combos are Dante's moves from Devil May Cry, though she has other moves, and can fire her yellow lightning (However, because of the poor balance of her melee combat, her potential gameplay is kind of wasted).
9. A decent amount of unintentional comedy such as Lucia's ridiculous accent and Arius' frustrated exclamation best described as "WHEEEOOOOO!"
10. Its better qualities have been ported to other games, like Shin Megami Tensei III, where they were paired with better received attributes from Dante's better games and adaptations.
11. Lucia is still an interesting character to some and could work in a better game. Just like Dante, her design and devil trigger form look good too.
12. The underwater sections are decent and better compared to Devil May Cry, especially when considering that they aren't first person sections.
13. The controls are decent and it never feels sloppy in anyways.
14. Most of the events of the game were later retconned in Devil May Cry 5 as the game was moved from taking place long after DMC4 into not long before it and right after the anime. As Dante is heavily implied to suffer from a depressive symptom in said anime from having to slay his brother during the first game, it gives much needed context for his behavior here and suggests that said depressive symptom would have become worse and meeting Nero during the fourth game helped him get over it.
15. It had many great ideas despite its bad execution.
16. Some funny lines, like Dante saying to Arius: King? Yeah, here's your crown.

Reception

Devil May Cry 2 received mixed to negative reviews from both critics and fans alike. The game has been criticized for a variety of development decisions, which made the game considerably different from its predecessor. Chief among these decisions was the lowered difficulty and Dante's new boring and more mature personality. Despite positive reviews from some people and decent sales, this is often considered by many Devil May Cry fans as the weakest game in the franchise, even some more than DmC: Devil May Cry.

Trivia

• This was the first Devil May Cry game directed by Hideaki Itsuno who would also go on to make the rest of the series. And while he is often blamed for the sorry state of the game, in reality he was only brought in during the last few months of development and had barely any time to actually make any changes to it. The original director remains unknown to this day.
• Within the game, Dante has one unlockable costume with the Diesel brand name, while Lucia has two separate outfits. The Diesel logo is also featured in several screens during the game, and a special edition Devil May Cry 2 bullet featuring the Diesel name was planned for inclusion.
• Story structure, Devil May Cry 2 was the final main entry in the Devil May Cry series, as the next two games, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and Devil May Cry 4, serves as prequels to the Devil May Cry series, and DmC: Devil May Cry, serves as a proposed reboot the Devil May Cry series, that is until in 2019, sixteen years later, when Devil May Cry 5 came out, which takes place five years after Devil May Cry 2.
• The reason why Dante is out of character is explained in the game's prequel novel which is due to him killing an army of Trish clones sent by Mundus in an alternate dimension.
• During a Nintendo Direct on September 4th, 2019, Nintendo announced the game being ported for the Nintendo Switch.
• This game was somewhat of a running gag on Vinesauce Vinny's streams, where everyone requested him to "plae dis gaem." This spawned the somewhat famous quote: "Binny, pls plae DMC2!". He did eventually stream the game around the time it got released on the Switch.

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