Devil May Cry 2 HD — Fans Did Cry

Devil May Cry 2 is seen as the black sheep of the franchise, a stark contrast in quality compared to the superlative first game. Anyone who intended on purchasing the HD Collection knew it was only thrown on there to make the package look like a better deal, and it’s probably the reason why it exists in physical form outside of Japan. They couldn’t have just gone the digital download route similar to the HD-ified Resident Evil titles, because no one would buy it separately due to its reputation.

But is that a reputation it deserves? When I first played it in 2003, I came away thinking it was one of the most disappointing games I’d ever played. My sole reason for playing it again here was to see if it was as bad as I remembered. Surprisingly, it’s worse. Playing it immediately after the first game (which was, interestingly, better than I remembered), really shows how flawed of a product it is. It does a fantastic job taking nearly everything the first game did well and manages to make those elements tedious and boring. And here it is in this collection for players to discover again so they can all remember, remastered in HD.

Why aren’t these guys any fun!?

The over-the-top cheesy sensibilities everyone loved about the first game? Gone. In its place is one of the most boring and unlikable casts of characters ever assembled. And that, sadly, includes Dante himself, whose prior ability to chew up the scenery has been replaced by one with a sterile personality, reduced to making a bunch of ostensibly clever one-liners. He also determines some of his decisions by the flip of a coin, because apparently he’s Two-Face now. The other protagonist, Lucia, is tough to take seriously due to her voice actress not knowing what accent she should be using. The main villain decides he wants to get hammy by the end of the game, but it’s way too late to redeem the plot by then.

The Gaudi-inspired Gothic backdrops that were in the previous game? Gone. The environments are bigger and more open than DMC1’s, but that’s hardly a positive when they’re considerably less detailed and, thus, not fun to explore. Here we have loads of boring and monotonous metropolitan environments (which come in both interior and exterior varieties) and similarly mundane caves and ruins. Both Dante and Lucia have to go through the same locations, so you don’t get a break with one or the other. The enemy designs are also a massive step down. The marionettes were the most common enemy in the first game, which were nicely designed. They’re replaced with robotic-looking versions of them here, which couldn’t look more bland. This might be a result of technological limitations, due to so many resources being dedicated to larger environments.

 And this is one of the better-looking environments.

DMC1 prided itself on having combat that was tough and frenetic, but rarely frustrating. This game counters that with a boring and tedious combat system that requires nowhere near as much skill. The developers listened to everyone who thought the first game was too tough, and considerably lowered the difficulty so you can either shoot or button mash to victory. But this is a good thing in a small way. Remember the complaint about the camera screwing the player in the first game due to suddenly switching views? It’s exacerbated here. The game’s combat also hurt by the lack of weapon variety. Both Dante and Lucia eventually acquire three melee weapons throughout their campaigns, but they’re just variations of their default weapons.

And really, you don’t even have to change weapons. It’s easy to take out enemies by just standing in place and shoot at them while dodging an easy-to-see attack every once in a while. Long range attacks are way too powerful, and it gets worse once you obtain heavy hitting ones later in the game.

You’re so overpowered in this game that you almost don’t need Devil Trigger.

There’s a contingent of the opinion that while DMC2 may not be a good DMC game, it’s still a good action game. After playing through Dante’s campaign again — along with trying and throwing my hands up in surrender at Lucia’s — I can’t agree with this. While it’s definitely a bad DMC game, it’s also not good as a standalone action game. It’s not bad, just mediocre. I know the internet at large tends to deal in absolutes too often for its own good, but there is such a thing as the middle ground.

If there’s anything that’s as good as the first game, it’s the music. The ones that accompany battles are just as good as the compositions provided for the previous game, if not better. The faster paced music is played during battle, while ambient material is played during exploration. The menu tracks are no slouch either, especially this beautiful piano piece. A pity that the game they’re attached to does them a disservice.

Lucia is a nice change of pace, but only for an hour.

DMC2 had a very troubled development, something clearly evident while playing the game. Capcom assigned a new team to develop it while the DMC1’s dev team, Team Little Devils, was working on the first game’s localization for the western market in late 2001. Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first game, was naturally disappointed that Capcom didn’t choose his team to develop a sequel. It’s pretty clear that the other team, headed by director Hideaki Itsuno, hadn’t examined what made DMC1 tick thoroughly, leaving us with this pale imitation. Meanwhile, Kamiya and his team wanted nothing to do with the franchise any longer, and left with a few other teams to establish a base of operations outside of Capcom called Clover Studios; they went on to develop Viewtiful Joe. Isn’t executive meddling great?

That’s not to throw Itsuno’s team completely under the bus. They, after all, subsequently crafted the superlative Devil May Cry 3, a game made after the team did extensive studying about what everyone liked about the first game. It’s the game DMC2 could have been had the team been given enough time, and if Capcom’s higher ups weren’t so concerned with making a quick sequel to strike while the iron was hot. As it stands, it’s a good history lesson that shows what happens when the corporate arm doesn’t have the smartest decisions in mind.