User Reviews
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 Something For Everyone (Except Europe) |  4.5
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by  Deathman48
| Sep 4, 2006 |
THE GOOD:
Vergil as a playable character
Bloody Palace
True Super Dante/Vergil
Only $20
Very Hard DifficultyTHE BAD:
No new storyline for Vergil
Not released in Europe! SUMMARY:
This game came as a surprise to most people, we were all looking ahead to DMC4 when Capcom surprised us with this. The initial revelation that Vergil would be a playable character opened up many people’s expectations to a different storyline, or playing from Vergil’s point of view and more importantly, finding out what happened after Mission 20 when he ran off to confront Mundus. Ultimately anyone who was expecting that was disappointed because you didn’t get it. In fact, the only new thing storyline wise you get are 2 cut-scenes before the first game, one that places Vergil at the foot of Temen-Ni-Gru and then somehow he winds up in Dante’s office at the start of the first mission. Also all of Dante’s cut-scenes were removed from the game when you play as Vergil, but that admittedly makes sense.
Now before anyone says it, I know this game was merely an expansion pack and didn’t have the same time devoted to it as a main instalment, so not getting a new storyline was justified. But this was a golden opportunity to explain things from Vergil’s point of view. Maybe Capcom want to leave how Vergil turned from himself to Nelo Angelo as a mystery, but it would have been nice to get some kind of explanation and this was the perfect opportunity. Making a DMC game with Vergil as the main character is unlikely to happen, so this scenario seems as though it’ll never be revisited, which is disappointing to me personally.
That said, you get pretty much everything that you got in the original game, Dante is still playable with all his 20 missions. The biggest addition to this game is obviously being able to use Vergil as a playable character. He has all 3 weapons (Yamato, Beowolf, Force Edge) that he has when you fight him as an enemy during the course of the game but you have to unlock many of the moves just like you do with Dante. Using Force Edge is really like using Dante all over again, using Beowolf can feel similar but most of the combos are different, instead of Straight he has Lunar Phase, which is what he uses on Beowolf at the end of the mission 12 cut-scene and using Yamato is completely unique because Dante doesn’t have anything even remotely close to that weapon. Judgement Cut is my favourite move and can deal some good damage even to bosses. Because he doesn’t use guns, the Summoned Swords are his long range weapon, something he only uses against you on DMD mode. You can use them while you’re using your melee weapons, unlike Dante’s guns, to deal some quite high damage. There’s only one move you can buy for them and that’s the spinning sword formation. This will surround you with swords (at the cost of 2 DT runes), adding an extra shield from enemies until they break, or you can fire them at enemies or make them surround a targeted enemy, something you’ll no doubt have been on the receiving end against Vergil on DMD mode many times before. On mission 7, 13 and 20 you fight a red version of yourself (dubbed “Vante” by some) rather than Dante. Although the game mechanics are the same, playing as Vergil is remarkably different to Dante mainly because of the availability of different moves and while most of them are fun to use, his recovery time from some moves is appalling so watch out for that or like Judgement Cut you have to stand still to do the move. Situations like that are where the spinning sword formation can help protect you. He only has one style, Dark Slayer, which is essentially a better version of Trickster. Each level gives you a new move but also, some of the melee weapon moves can’t be bought until you level up Dark Slayer to level 2 or 3. His “Trick Up” move is what you will have to use to replace Air Hike, something that I didn’t realise how much I used until I couldn’t use it with Vergil.
There’s been a few changes, one is that the widely-criticised ridiculous difficulty of the game has been toned down. Each difficulty has been bumped down a level (Normal here is Easy in DMC3, Hard here is Normal in DMC3 etc..) and Very Hard has been inserted after Hard, which is the Hard difficulty from the original. Dante Must Die mode is still as hard as it always was, but something to aid those who struggle with it is that after you beat Very Hard mode you get a Super Dante/Vergil costume, which has infinite Devil Trigger (no health recovery) which may help you getting through tough spots. After you beat DMD mode you get a true Super Dante/Vergil costume, one with infinite DT and health recovery, plus you can use Doppelganger/Quicksilver/Summoned Swords without restriction. The Super Vergil Devil Trigger form is actually Super Nelo Angelo, complete with many of his moves as you saw them in DMC1. It’s practically impossible to lose using these costumes because you take far less damage and you regain health at an almost alarming rate. Another thing that helps those who struggled with the difficulty is that there’s a Gold Orb system now, which allows you to carry on exactly where you died rather than at the previous room, this helps a lot during boss fights.
The other big addition to the game is Bloody Palace, returning from DMC2. This is 9’999 levels of fighting, but unlike in DMC2, this version actually has an ending. There’s no difficulty setting because as you advance through the levels (1, 10 or 100 at a time) the enemies gradually get harder, until you reach the 9’000’s where they go into DT. One big feature I like about this mode is that it put sets of enemies together that you simply don’t come across in the course of the regular game, like Enigmas/Soul Eaters or 3 Hell Greeds where the most you fight is 2 at once in the regular game. No matter how many times you play the regular game, the sets of enemies you face simply won’t change. When fighting more than one type of enemy, you may fight differently than you do when you face them individually so that really gave this mode some extra kick to it. And for those of you who thought DMC3 was too easy, you can now speed the game up by 20%, good reflexes are in order for this mode.
One other notable addition is that our old friend Jester is now a boss to fight on Missions 5 (compulsory), 12 and 17 (non-compulsory) and he’s the only new enemy in the game. It’s a pretty wacky fight, which I guess keeps it in line with his personality.
Because this is only $20 and contains everything that DMC3 does and more, you’d be better off getting this instead of DMC3 if you don’t already have it. The only reason to get DMC3 is if you want to experience the ridiculous difficulty we all had to put up with originally. You’ll note I said $20 despite the fact I’m not American. The reason for that is that the game wasn’t released in Europe. There was some ridiculous reason that they couldn’t release a game with new content on the Platinum range (ie. cheaper) over here because it’d be unfair to competitors or something. Frankly that’s bullshit in my opinion, I know many people who would have wanted to play this game and I also know many people who got it imported like I did so they could play it. They did release the game for the PC over here but that’s just as ridiculous as not releasing it on PS2 here, in fact it feels more like a slap in the face than anything else. Corporate bullshitty politics like that really piss me off, but to be fair it wasn’t Capcom’s fault, they wanted to release it here, I believe it was Sony Europe who wouldn’t let them. I can’t remember exactly off hand, I just know that Capcom weren’t to blame for it. Nevertheless, it’s worth getting imported if you like the idea of playing as Vergil, Bloody Palace and all the other extras that come with this game, you won’t be disappointed and even if you’re annoyed Vergil doesn’t have his own story, after playing for a while you’ll soon get over it. |
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| Let's raise hell, everyone! | 4.5
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by  Divine Rose
| Aug 9, 2006 |
THE GOOD:
You get to play as Vergil, Bloody Palace is back, You can view the game's cutscenes, More costumes, incredible gameplay.THE BAD:
Bad camera angles every now and then, Vergil doesn't have his side of the story. SUMMARY:
Devil May Cry 3, a game that takes place before
Devil May Cry 1, is known as one of the hardest games on the planet. Although one of the hardest games on the planet, it is also one of the most action-packed ones out there as well.
I remember when my friend had let me borrow one of his games a long time ago. The game was called "Devil May Cry 2." This game was the first Devil May Cry game that I had every played before. Since it was the first Devil May Cry that I had played, I had no idea of what to expect. When I started playing it, I was surprised. Never had I played such an intense fighting game in my life. It was then that I decided to go online and check out what other players had though of it. Boy, was I surprised.
Just about every single reviewer had bashed it. But seeing how this game was the first Devil May Cry game that I had ever played, and since I had enjoyed it so much, I, myself, just couldn't agree with these reviewers.
Since I had enjoyed Devil May Cry 2 so much, I started to become excited once I heard about Devil May Cry 3. The same friend who I had borrowed Devil May Cry 2 from borrowed Devil May Cry 3 from somebody else that I know. After he completed the game, he lended me the game (Naughty him). Since I had played Devil May Cry 2, and had seen my friend play the third, I knew what to expect, and had just as much fun with it as I did with the second (remember, I was absolutely blown away by the second).
Months later, I looked up this game on the internet and discovered that they had made a special edition version of it. As soon as I learned that you could play as Vergil, I bought the game shortly after...
Now that that is done, allow me to show you my review.
STORYLINE 7/10: The storyline is pretty decent. The game's story isn't as impressive as something like that of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but it still entertaining to watch how these characters develop and react with one-another.
There's Dante, the half-demon demon hunter who is boa*bleep*l and has an upbeat, and sort of streetboy, attitude who loves to rock. Then we have his twin brother, an honorable swordsman who believes that guns are only meant for mere humans, and, unlike Dante, doesn't get all excited, doesn't boast about things, but instead keeps his cool. He is also the main villain of this game, who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal: obtaining ultimate power. After that we have Jester, a dark, mysterious clown who follows and helps Dante on his journey through Temen-Ni-Gru. Next is Lady, A woman who thinks that all demons must be killed and, just like Vergil, will stop at nothing to accomplish this goal. Finally, we have Arkham, a man who works with Vergil and wants to obtain the power of Sparda.
GAMEPLAY 9/10: What more can be said about the gameplay. Out of all of the games that I have played, this one is one of the (if not the) most action-packed ones out there. With Dante, you can equip him with different styles, with each of them specializing in certain things. The Trickster style is meant to do special evasive movements. The Swordmaster style is used for pulling off amazing, flashy combos with your close range weapons. Gunslinger is just like Swordmaster, except it specializes with guns instead. Then we have Royal Guard, a style that meant for blocking and countering your opponent's attacks. There are styles that Dante can unlock, but I'm not telling you what they are.
Vergil has his own style called Dark Slayer. The only downside is that this is the only style that Vergil can use. The Dark Slayer is very similar to Dante's Trickster style, except that it's better. With it, you can perform all sorts of teleporting moves and combine them with the power of Vergil's Devil Arms (Close-range weapons) and his Summoned Swords (Which are Vergil's only long-ranged weapons).
The reason why I gave the gameplay a 9/10 is because Vergil doesn't have his own side of the story, meaning that he must play through Dante's side of it, which leads to the fighting starting to feel repetitive.
SOUND 10/10: The sound is absolutely amazing! Everything that you do (such as slash with your swords or shoot with your guns) sounds very realistic. Not only that, but you can use the sound to tell you what your enemy is going to do.
MUSIC 8/10: I only gave it what I did because I'm not exactly so much one for rock music, although the music does fit the scenes perfectly.
GRAPHICS 10/10: Out of all of the game graphics that I have seen for the PS2 this game's graphics are the best.
REPLAY VALUE 9/10: Because of the gorgeous gameplay, the many things to unlock, and the many difficulty modes that this game has to offer, this game will keep you playing it for hours and hours. I only gave it a 9/10 because after you beat all six of the game's modes (Easy, normal, hard, very hard, dante must die, heaven or hell) you will probably feel like that there isn't much else to do after that, although that's just how I felt. How you may feel will probably be different.
OVERALL: Overall I will give this game a 4/5.
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| Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition |  4.8
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by  Subzer0
| Jun 23, 2006 |
THE GOOD:
- Huge arsenal of weapons including handguns, powerful shotguns, tricked out guitars and much more
- Combo system allows players to equip up to four different weapons that can be swapped at any time
- Customize Dante's fighting style with short range, long range, evasive choices and more
- Enhanced graphics with fully textured 3D backgrounds and real time rendering for in game cut scenes and intro movie
- Hidden weapons, items, characters, difficulty levels and more
- Special Edition feature: Now play as Dante’s twin Vergil
THE BAD:
- Camera can get really annoying at times
- Dante/Vergil Must Die mode is ridiculously hard which is a real let down (for me) SUMMARY:
Features of this new edition include: Playing as Dante's brother Vergil and using his Dark Slayer fighting style, a new boss, adjusted difficulty levels, turbo mode, Demo Digest (view all cutscenes), alternate save and continue system and an insane visit to The Bloody Palace where you can try and survive thousands of waves of enemies.
First off, I'm sure you're pumped about playing as Vergil, Dante's far more powerful bro who blows through waves of enemies as though he was blowing his nose. The extra character is a slight misnomer as you will actually have to beat the game or have ANY save file from DMC3 on your PS2 memory card to get your hands on Vergil. Don't crap yourselves though - you can still play as Dante throughout the entire game. And again, you do not need a completed game save from the original DMC3; any save in any spot will do. Using a save from the original game will unlock Vergil and Bloody Palace in the Special Edition. Unfortunately, if you do have a completed DMC3 saved file, you won't be able to use your tricked out Dante in the new game. Yeah, that blows. Turbo mode is unlocked from the start and is said to increase the speed of the action by 20%. While it's not noticeable at first, if you take the game for a spin at regular speed again, you'll feel the difference.
If you were frightened off by DMC3's difficulty rest assured the game has been adjusted. Die three times in Normal and you'll be given the opportunity to play in Easy mode. The other factors that affect the overall difficulty (good or bad depending on how you look at it) is the ability to choose Gold or Yellow when you begin a game. Choosing Gold will allow you to continue from the exact point your weak-ass gaming skills ultimately failed you if you have a Gold orb. It will also allow you to continue from the last checkpoint an infinite amount of times. Yellow requires you to use a Yellow orb to continue from the last checkpoint. With these alterations to the core save system and the Easy mode in place gamers looking for a break will certainly get it. In total there are 5 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard and DMD (Dante Must Die). To unlock Very Hard, you'll have to beat the game on Hard and to achieve DMD you'll have to beat Very Hard. I'm telling you right now, I'm not even close to getting near DMD mode. How's that for honesty in game journalism?
Players who can walk the walk and talk the talk will enjoy their ultimate reward: playing through Dante's storyline with Vergil. Unfortunately you won't find anything altered - even the boss battles against Dante's bro will feature a doppelganger Vergil, albeit this time in a red trench coat. You will also be treated to a new intro scene as well as the ability to play through Bloody Palace with the super powered demon.
Considerably more than a mere palette swap, Vergil uses his own personal fighting style (Dark Style) which is limited when compared to Dante's variety of styles, but it definitely gets the job done. Dante can use some of the same weapons as Dante but players will most likely focus on using Verg's unique weapons and attacks, since that's why purchased this Special Edition in the first place. Vergil has 3 melee weapons available: Yamato, Beowulf and Force Edge. Like Dante, each can be upgraded by collecting red orbs. Ultra-fans will love all of the extras thrown in such as the extra Vergil costumes and Devil Trigger appearances by beating the games several difficulty modes (check CCC's cheat code section).
To the untrained eye, DMC3 comes off as a no brainer hack and slash and shoot, but nothing could be further from the truth. Discovering hidden combos, weapons and other power upgrades is part of the games overall charm. That was true for the original game and it's true for the Special Edition. It's those little things you discover that sometimes aren't meant to be part of the game, such as the jump cancel or shoot cancel, that resonate with affectionate DMC enthusiasts. Ask anyone who has seen the ending on Normal, Hard or higher and they'll assure you that this is game is all about skill.
For $20, you'd be crazy to pass this up. It's one of the most intense action games available on the PS2 and it's just begging to be opened up and shot (figuratively of course). Even if you've beat the original; heck, even if you own the original, it's money well spent. If you've walked by the game case at Wal-Mart and thought that this was just a Greatest Hits version of DMC3, think again - and a big Boo Hiss to Capcom for not altering the cover art - it's much more. It's one of the tightest game experiences to come along in a good long while. It's a definite must play and because it only adds to the overall bounty of DMC3 goodness without taking anything away, I see nothing wrong with scoring it higher than we did for the original. It deserves it.
Graphics= 4.5
The graphics are beautiful, but I don't score as high as StewXX does, so that's why I've scored it lower than a 5.0. It's more realistic.
Control= 5.0
The camera can be crap sometimes but for the most part enemies won't gang up on you if you can't see them (except the bosses of course). Everything else is video game buttah.Vergil may require a different control config for ease of use.
Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting= 4.5
Great music, great voice acting and great sound effects. Triple threat.
Play Value= 5.0
Extra points for this category. So much to do, so little time. Play the real game as Dante or play as Vergil...or do both. Play Bloody Palace. Play Turbo mode. It's all good. 5 difficulty levels to choose from.
Overall= 4.8
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| The Devil's Odyssey |  5.0
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by  Irish Battousai
from , , | Jan 24, 2006 |
The mark of a great last boss is when players can look at their maxed-out, unstoppable juggernaut of a hero, then glance at the final foe and still wish that they could switch places. Of course, Dante is no slouch, but the confrontation with his katana-weilding brother Vergil at the end of DMC3 is the only time he has ever paled in comparison to his opponent. Now, with the release of this special edition, Dante's demonic kin is no longer confined to pivotal boss battles; he's unleashed as a fully playable character, and brings a whole new dimension to this already amazing game.
Far more than a new skin for the same action, playing as Vergil drastically alters the way you approach Devil May Cry. While many of the basic commands remain the same, you'll need to re-calibrate your style of play to adjust to Vergil's array of unique attacks. For instance, guns are out of the picture now. He has phantom swords for ranged attacks, but the real focus is on mobility and fancy swordsmanship. He uses the Darkslayer style (as opposed to the five styles at Dante's disposal), which allows him to instantly teleport to enemies to keep the carnage flowing. While this makes him slightly less versatile than Dante, he gains some ground by having all three of his weapons (katana, gauntlets, and dual blades) available to him at all times.
The only twinge of dissapointment you'll feel as you mow through the hordes of demons is when you realize that barely any new material was added to accomodate Vergil. Apart from a new prologue, no new cutscenes are shown, and Dante isn't even substituted in during the brothers' key battles. It's just Vergil versus Vergil. Lastly, to even access this fantastic new character, you need to either beat the Special Edition (which is a more realistic goal thanks to the re tooled dificulty levels) or have clear data from the original DMC3 release. But it's worth it.
As someone who has been burned by several "special editions" that don't offer anything special (why is there a director's cut of Elektra?!), I love how this release made me want to play through the entire game all over again. A turbo option, the Blood Palace challenge, and a series of boss fights against Jester round out an array of great new additions. Plus, if you missed the train the first time around, the $20 price point means it's the perfect opportunity to hitch a ride to Hell and back.
So here's the break down:
Concept: The sons of Sparda cross blades again in a fully-loaded special edition.
Graphics: Jester's added battle effects are hilarious, whether he's spanking himself or bleeding confetti. Superb all around.
Sound: Vergil doesn't say much, which can sometimes be an improvement over Dante's party attitude. All in all though, excellent voice work for everyone.
Playability: The new moves are great, but the problematic camera angles are still a persistent problem when facing a dozen foes.
Entertainment Value: A more managable difficulty means that more people can enjoy the stylish combat, but the hardcore set will still find near impossible challenges.
Replay Value: You'll be coming back for more demon killing pleasure whether it's as Dante or Vergil, trust me. |
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4.70/5.0
