Review #640: Fate/EXTELLA LINK

 A rainbow-colored vomit made playable.

 Well, another year, another Musou/Warriors clone hits the shelves, this time inspired on the Fate series. As a matter of fact, this one's a sequel, but you don't need to have played the previous game, I think, to play this one, since the plot will make as little sense as if you had.

 The story pits you as Hakuno, kinda, a 'Master' that seems to be the Master of all the 'Servants' inside a virtual world of... sorts? Stuff happens, Nero's city gets invaded by glitchy enemies and a new servant, Charlemagne, jumps in to protect Hakuno. While the story is narrated from Hakuno's point of view, you'll be playing as any of 26 different Servants in an effort to protect Hakuno. The plot is completely boring and borderline nonsensical, but I don't think the plot was something the developers spent much time with. The game is made up of 27 story missions, divided into three 'routes', as well as a bunch of 'Extra' missions. For what it's worth, the game feels relatively lengthy even if missions are rather short, which, in turn, makes it great to play on the go. There's no split-screen multiplayer, which is a huge bummer, but there are a couple of online mode if you are so inclined.

 Fate/EXTELLA LINK plays like a Warriors/Musou game on crack. You've got a weak attack string that can be ended with different attacks depending on when you press the strong attack button. There's a gauge below your health bar that fills as you battle, and once it's full you can enter Moon Drive mode, which makes you stronger and lets you fire off a super move by pressing the Moon Drive button again. Killing enemies in Moon Drive mode fills yet another gauge that lets you use an even stronger super move, which can pretty much kill anything besides a final boss in one go. Lastly, holding the R button lets you use any of four Special Moves equipped on your character. Each character has about 6 of them, but you can only have four at a time. These special moves are strong and can usually cover wide areas, so as not to abuse them, they run on a cooldown timer.... which doesn't matter much, since they recharge fairly fast and are way useful than your normal attacks, so you'll be spamming a lot of these.

 Stages are comprised of various areas interconnected by gateways through which you character flies through. Enemies will respawn endlessly inside an area until you defeat the aggressors and/or enemy generals occupying them, as you play through missions, enemy reinforcements will arrive and try to reclaim zones, so it's a bit of a tug-o-war. That said, there's no penalty for losing areas, as rare as that is, so long as you and Hakuno stay alive you'll be good to go. Not to worry, since the game is rather easy and unless the mission scripted it so, generals won't target Hakuno's area. To aid you in battle, you can customize each Servant with a few passive boosts, found as spoils of victory, as well as craft items for Hakuno that'll allow him to temporarily buff your servant with a spell. Each Servant has an unlockable alternate costume, which is pretty neat.

 The entire game is a visual overload of colors and lasers. 70% of the time I wasn't able to even make sense of what was going on, I'd just be pressing buttons and watching colors fly on the screen. Hundreds of non-dangerous enemies swarm the screen on enemy-controlled areas, and they respawn as soon as you kill them, which is usually in a single swing of your sword, so it's not unusual to rack over 6000 kills on a single mission. This brings along the drawback of scoring kills feel a bit unrewarding and 'floaty', since every time you swing your sword you'll hit something that'll just keel over before being instantly replaced by another faceless goon. Which kinda lacks the 'magic' Warriors games have. Generals put up more of a fight, but they are the only enemies that feel like proper accomplishments. You can lock onto enemy generals, but they need to be inside the screen for it to work, which is a bit annoying, since sometimes you just can't move your finger to the right analog stick since you are trying to make mad combos but the enemy just got out of your zone of view, with nothing but a red arrow pointing you in their direction. It would have done wonders for the game for the game to just lock onto whatever this red arrow was pointing when you pressed the lock-on button. On another note, I wish mid-mission cutscenes, like the repetitive general-introduction ones, could have been disabled completely so as to do away with those pesky mid-battle loading screens.

 Fate/EXTELLA LINK is an entertaining but unremarkable time waster. It's a game with no depth and a few flaws but also a game that's not afraid to look bombastic as well as being simple, mindless fun.
7.0 out of 10

Review #639: Earth Defense Force 2 - Invaders from Planet Space

 At least it's not planet water or planet air.

 The bugs are back and the Vita needed great exclusives, so it's only natural they'd call the EDF to squash some bugs and leave their mark on Sony's latest, and at this point in time final, handheld console. Fans of the franchise rejoice, and those that dislike it, well, this one isn't gonna change your mind anytime soon.

 As per usual, giant bugs invade the Earth and it's up to the EDF to defend the Earth from these invaders. The game is made up of 78 short-ish missions, in which you can take any of the three different playable character classes to protect the earth. The game could be played online in multiplayer, or if by chance you know someone with a Vita, via ad-hoc. Each character is very different from one another, for instance, the Trooper is the vanilla generic soldier that can equip 'normal' weaponry, from bazookas, to missile launchers or assault rifles while also being able to ride Vehicles. The Air Rider is strictly support, it can ride vehicles too, but it's gameplay is all about laying mines, turrets or even call on air-strikes... he isn't so good in a single player run. Lastly, the pale wing, aka the lass with the jetpack. She uses powerful area-covering energy weapons that run on the same energy from her jetpack, if you deplete the entire gauge it overheats and you must wait a while before you can reload or fly again. Basically, every character will give you an entirely different playstyle, which makes the game oh so replayable. Add to this that you are supposed to replay every mission in all 5 difficulty settings, encouraged by the fact that higher difficulties means better weapons!

 And that's pretty much the entire point of Earth Defense Force: Kill giant insects, collect their armor or weapon drops, customize your loadout and jump into the fray again. Armor drops increase your total health by 1 point per pick-up, so it's in your best interest to gather as many of these as you can. Weapon drops are a bit random, while you are guaranteed a weapon for your selected class, it may be a repeat. To help you in battle, pretty much every single outdoor mission features at least two vehicles. They control like butt, but they are useful, particularly on the latter missions. Oh boy, are the final missions tough, I had to scale down to the Easy difficulty since enemies could shred through my HP in a few seconds flat. To be fair, most of the fun in the game comes with replaying missions while increasing the difficulty setting as to get better weapons and thus be able to handle tougher customers.

 One of the things that hurts the most in the game is dying, since it means losing anything and everything you may have picked up on the level, and while stages are short, drops are random, so it always stings. But the worst thing about it... is that your loadout may not always be up to snuff. I was loving my time rocking an assault rifle with a shotgun as my secondary weapon, but when the giant UFOs came into the scene, my bullets just couldn't reach the enemy. I had to forfeit all my sweet, sweet loot and restart the mission with another loadout. This happened more times than I would've liked, and while I appreciate having to experiment with other weapon types, I even found a few favorites thanks to this, it would've been better if the game gave you some kind of warning about a suggested loadout or at least let you keep some of your drops upon death.

 While vehicles have the worst controls ever in the history of mankind, the on-foot controls fare much better. Aiming is alright, but it´s not as precise as the game needs, that said, the game is not as brutal as to demand pixel-perfect precision. The R button is used to shoot, which is brilliant, and L jumps, which makes perfect sense. Sadly, rolling and jumping, with the on-foot classes, share the L button, and the game decides whether you jump or rolling depending on how you hold the left analog nub, hold it anywhere but up and you´ll roll... which is a bit too sensitive and will make you roll a few times you just wanted to jump. All in all, it works decently, but it's nor perfect... at least unless you include vehicles into the equation, in which case... I'd rather not say.

 Earth Defense Force 2 - Invaders from Planet Space for the Playstation Vita is quite probably the weakest EDF game I've played yet, understandable since this is a simple remake of one of the older games, but even then it's still a bloody good time. Blasting giant bugs feels great, and the constant influx of new weapons and health upgrades makes for a very rewarding experience, at least when your loadout doesn't prevent you from finishing a stage. The brevity of each mission(save the last one...) makes for the perfect on-the-go experience, since you can just pop your Vita, play a couple of missions and go on with your day. The Vita struggled for exclusives, and while EDF 2 is not a system seller, it's still one you'd want in your library.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #638: Capcom Belt Action Collection(Capcom Beat'em up Bundle)

 No quarters required.

 If there's one thing I love in this world, it's beat'em ups. Well, at least I used to love them back when I was younger. Konami, SNK and Capcom's were easily the best, so you bet I'm quite happy with this little bundle o' fun. Contained within are 7 of Capcom's best. True, a few classics are missing, but you can probably chalk it down on right(Aliens VS Predators, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or the Dungeon and Dragons games) or because they were console games, like the Final Fight sequels. Capcom Belt Action Collection(Capcom Beat'em up Bundle) brings together familiar faces in the form of Final Fight, Captain Commando, King of Dragons and Knights of the Round with a few games that either never had a localized home release, namely Warriors of Fate, or never had a home release to begin with, Battle Circuit and Armored Warriors.

 These games are quarter munchers, no doubt about it, so they are not really fair, which is why every game is in its 'Free Play' setting, which means infinite continues. And you'll need them, no matter the difficulty setting. All these games are pretty simple two-button affairs, one for hitting stuff and one for jumping. Sadly, there isn't much in the way of customizing, you can pick between the English and Japanese versions of the games as well as change the amount of lives per continues or even the difficulty itself, but it's not much. Noteworthy absences come in the form of graphical filters or the ability to change the size of the screen, although it seems a patch seems to have taken care of these. Also, while each game has a 'How to Play' option, it's not very thorough. Most games here have input-only special moves or mechanics that the game won't tell you about, which could limit your fun with them. Lastly, there's a bunch of good-quality art for each game waiting to be admired.

 Beat'em ups as we know them are long dead, and there's a reason for that: There's no market for them anymore. These games are as unfair as they come, with enemies being able to swarm you or take huge chunks of your health with few attacks. They are hard, and at face value, they don't sound like a fun time. But there's a certain charm to their simplicity, to just bashing enemies left and right with the added benefit of infinite continues while going mission through mission on what feels like a medium-sized adventure. Every game can be played with at least two players, and they become much more fun that way. I've known all these games like the back of my hands for years now, thanks to MAME emulation and my childhood, when it came to Final Fight, so it's a treat to finally be able to own all these games. The emulation is spot-on and everything feels, sounds and looks like it should. Each game also comes with a save-slot, so if you get tired you can just continue from where you left off later.

 Battle Circuit

 The crowning jewel of this collection, Battle Circuit is loud, colorful and, above all, ridiculous. The plot, the playable characters, the enemies and the stages are all over the top, with wackiness being the central theme. Nothing makes sense, nothing needs to make sense. But beauty isn't just skin deep, there's a big focus on landing combos to earn more money so that you can then buy more moves or extend the health bar of your character. Movesets aren't incredibly large, but getting to upgrade your character as you play through the game feels great, and landing hits feels incredible, thanks to how good the sprites look and how well they made the audiovisual feedback feel. If there's one thing to complain about is just how short it is, even for the genre's standards. One or two more levels could've made this game just perfect.

 9.5 out of 10

 Warriors of Fate

 Warriors of Fate is based on a manga that was based off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but you wouldn't know that since the localization changed everyone's names. As a matter of fact, this is Capcom's second game based on the same manga. Regardless, Warriors of Fate is a good one, featuring five different characters, each one sporting a secret command-special move alongside their trusty combo string. The game is noteworthy for letting you ride horse, as well as slashing enemies in two or even smashing their torso into chunky bits if you finish them with a pummeling special move or with a blunt weapon, like a mace. This one is particularly tough because enemies swarm you from every single angle, but the colorful cast of characters and the cohesive, but diverse, locales makes it a fun romp.

 7.5 out of 10

 Captain Commando

 So... I went back to check on my review for this game on Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 and it turns out that my notes were pretty much identical to everything I had to say about it back then. Captain Commando is a giant tribute to the genre, featuring every trope and theme you could think of. Samurai? They are here. Sewers? Them two. Riding on waterboards? OF COURSE! Movesets are a bit more extensive than usual, but there are a ton of neat graphical details, like characters falling against a wall or the fact that even playable characters can get bisected by attacks that make it a pleasure to look at. The game itself is almost as ridiculous as Battle Circuit, which is some of the highest praise I can give it.

 9.0 out of 10

 Final Fight

 Not the first, and definitely not the last, but it was the beat'em up game that made the genre popular. The game has certainly seen better days, as it feels rather stiff and slow compared to the other games, but it just had to be here for nostalgia's sake. On another note, in the last few years I got used to Final Fight Advance, which used the SNES port's sprites, so I had forgotten just how large and beautiful, for its era, the sprites were. You know, the proportions are off, the animation is limited, but you can tell that a lot of work went into making these sprites, from the pretty walk cycles to the vicious punches. Honestly, don't feel too bad about ignoring this one, it deserves a playthrough based on reputation alone, but every single game here does what this one does but better.

 6.5 out of 10

 King of Dragons

 I don't know why, but I thought I had hated this game... but then I went into my older review and... turns out I liked it as much 5 years ago as I do now. Characters have a single attack animation, which sounds lame, but it lends itself to its fast pace. Everything is very colorful and fast, and the fact that you level up and enhance your weapons as you advance through the game makes you feel good. But, as good as it feels, lets be honest, it takes a long while before you actually feel like your weapons are dealing more damage... but having new weapon sprites to look at makes it worth it. The game is made up of 16 short stages, which makes me think they wanted everything to feel quick and snappy in this game, something they achieved quite well if so. It's definitely a fun time.

 8.0 out of 10

 Armored Warriors

 Ah! Armored Warriors, how I remember the first time I played this game. It was on a Highschool morning, back when I had dial-up internet, and after figuring out how to run the... Winkawaks emulator, which took me what it felt like the entire night, I left this game downloading while I slept. My father wakes me up for me to get ready for school, but not before I take the game for a spin. And it was brilliant. This is the only game with a third button, which is used to shoot whichever gun your robot has equipped, for you see, in this game you play as a robot and beat'up other robots. A few of them drop their arms, legs or guns, which you can then equip on your own machine. Each arm has a few combo strings or special functions that makes it different from the others which is pretty cool, even though I tried to stick with the traditional beam-sword for most of my playthrough. Armored Warriors is pretty good, there's a nice amount of variety and the game is long enough so that it doesn't get old before it ends.

 8.5 out of 10

 Knights of the Round

 Five years ago I gave this game a perfect 10. While this time around I didn't feel it was THAT good, it's still one of my favorite beat'em up games of all time, and one of the best games in this collection. And, also, keep in mind I played the entire collection in one sitting and left this game for last, so even if I didn't notice it I might have been a bit burned out. In this one you can level up as you score points, which in turn changes how your character looks. Each character has a secret special move as well as the ability to defend or parry attacks. It's pretty darn deep, lengthy and fun, although it's not as colorful or wacky as the rest of the games. Unless you consider King Arthur beating up giant mechs or Samurai as wacky.

 9.0 out of 10

 Let's be honest, this collection itself is pretty barebones. No graphical filters pre-patch, very basic information on how to play each game, very little information on each game besides the random assortment of official art.... but, and it's a GIANT but, every single game in this collection is fantastic. Except, maybe, Final Fight, but it gets away with it since it's a bonafide classic. So while there's very little fat in this package, it's premium quality meat all the way through. The beat'em up genre has become a tough sell in this day and age, but it's great that the few of us that still adore it can get a bone thrown out way every now and then.

 9.0 out of 10

 Now, then, Capcom, since you've clearly gotten the rights for Aliens VS Predators, how about getting a second volume on the way? You could also include SNES classics like the Final Fight sequels. And you could try to work things out with Marvel, so that you can bundle up The Punisher or even the SNES X-men game. Get on it!

The DLC Report: Travis Strikes Back DLC #2 Bubblegum Fatale

 The one with Badgirl ends up being the good one.

 Shinobu's DLC left a lot to be desired, but here comes Bubblegum Fatale to add actual content to the game. It's a new character, a new visual-novel scenario and a new level alongside a new chip as a the cherry on top, making for one neat little package that makes the first DLC look like Bethesda's famous horse armor DLC.

 Let's start with the new character, Badgirl, which can only be used after you finish the new level. Her two exclusive skills are pretty neat, so much so that she's the only character for whom I'm actively using both on my skillset. One is a powerful blow that needs charging up and the other one is a buff that makes Badgirl's attacks deal extra damage and push back enemies. Sadly, she shares Badman's poor stats and weaker playstyle, as I had theorized from the first DLC. Beating the new level also unlocks a new cheap which is a grapple-wire shot that deals a ton of damage, with decent cooldown to boot!

 The new visual-novel chapter is completely insane, which makes it very entertaining. It features the long-awaited return of Travis' brother, Henry Cooldown, as well as Sylvia. Also, it might contain a few hints about what No More Heroes 3 will be all about. Albeit, knowing Suda 51, it's all just a nonsensical red herring.

 Once you finish reading the new chapter, the Killer Marathon DLC level will finally unlock. The game warns you about it being 'extra long', but it's a lie, it lasts little less than an hour. A lot of crazy stuff happens in this level, and you move from segment to segment, from a western scenario to one in outer space. It's crazy, and this much variety and action makes it feel less repetitive than any other level in the base game. On the other hand, every part of the level is timed, and if you run out of time you have to start over from the segment's beginning, which isn't so fun. There's this one segment in which you have to conserve Oxygen which is absolutely dreadful until you figure out that the game is trying to hint you into holding the weak attack button as you advance, making Oxygen consumption much more tolerable.

 All in all, THIS is the DLC to get. A new character, a new visual novel scenario as well as a great new level. Don't get me wrong, the new level isn't perfect by any means, but even with all its flaws it's still one of the better levels in the entire game thanks to how much variety went into the environments and how you move from area to area, feeling like a mini-adventure of sorts. Badgirl's playstyle follows Badman's, which means she's rather weak, but her exclusive skills are pretty neat, which makes her a better alternative to her father.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #637: Yakuza Kiwami 2

 Just like Marvel's Hidden Invasion, but with Koreans instead of Skrulls.

 It's been a long and fun ride, but here we are, Yakuza's latest entry: Yakuza Kiwami 2, a remake of the fan-favorite Yakuza 2. Running on their new Dragon Engine, the very same one from Yakuza 6, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is just like the first Kiwami, a near exact replica from the original game, but with better graphics and a better engine. And this time around, bosses don't get to recover their health!

 I once enjoyed the story of Yakuza 2, and while I think it's still a fun tale of criminal drama, with Ryuji being and interesting villain wanting to prove himself as the only Dragon of Japan, as well as Sayama being and endearing love interest for Kazuma... some of the sillier aspects of the plot were easier to take in when the saga was in its infancy and the game rocked its PS2 graphics. Because while the game have always tried to keep grounded in reality, as ridiculous as the stunts and plot twists are(In the best kind of way), a Korean doppelganger that acted as a Japanese person for six months as well as a giant golden castle that rises up from the ground while another castle splits apart... are kinda hard to take seriously. Don't get me wrong, the story is still good, the characters are still good... but they feel a bit out of place. Latter games would do a better job at selling their ridiculous plot points, like the underwater arena or the hidden Yamato Nadeshiko. Then there are also details, like the fact that over 30 bombs get planted right under the Florist's nose, someone who's supposed to know everything that's going on at any time.

 This is like the seventh time I've got to describe Yakuza's gameplay, so I'll make it simple: Story-driven beat'em up game set in an open-worldish city, in which you can partake on silly sidequests or various minigames such as darts or golfing. As far as sidequests go, they kept most of the ones from Yakuza 2, although it's missing the one in which Kazuma becomes a host, which was one of my favorites. The arcade games included in this entry are the original Virtual-On, which is pretty neat, and Virtua Fighter 2(As well as a remixed Virtua Fighter 2.1) which is alright, but 6's Virtua Fighter 5 was a much better deal. The new 'pervy' minigame is a cringy photoshoot session in which you must chain the right words to flirt with a real-life model as Kazuma takes pictures of her. It's naughty, it's silly... it's pure Yakuza. Other activities include a revamped Kiryu Clan mode, now named Majima Clan in which you aide Majima's forces in defending the construction site, and the return of Yakuza 0's cabaret minigame. Both activities have their own complete storyline, with rivals, twists and what have you.

 Other sidequests include Bouncer missions and Komaki Student hits, both with revolve around Kazuma laying the smackdown on someone. For the first time in the series, and golly, how much was it needed, we get a 'sub-story finder', which marks sidequests on the map. This is a godsend, no more missed missions! There are over 70 of those, so the game could keep you busy for a while. They also included 3 Majima chapters, which are unlocked midway through the game. These chapters are about 2 hours long in total, which means they feel like those lackluster DLC episodes modern games like to sell you nowadays, albeit free and on-disc. They delve into Majima's affairs between Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2. The villain of the story is a bit lame, but Majima finally gets closure on his Sotenbori ordeals. Fans of Yakuza 0 get to see a more serious Majima again, and offers even more insight on how he balances his crazy side with his sensible one. As for the gameplay, Majima has a very reduced, but entirely unique, moveset and can't level up nor use weapons. All in all, while extremely short and not very rewarding, it was a nice change of pace to get to play as Majima again.

 As for the main game, Kazuma plays and fights just like he did in Yakuza 6, even the fantastic Extreme Heat mode is back. The upgrading system works just like it did before, with various activities, from fighting mooks, to eating food to even playing the minigames rewarding you with five types of experience points which you can then spend on your stats or learning new moves. It's much more generous than Yakuza 6, so you'll easily have a fully upgraded Kazuma by the end of the game. The ability to store weapons is back, so now you can carry all sorts of objects to bash enemies with. Basically, it's an expanded version of Yakuza 6's combat, which is what we've come to expect from the ever-growing Yakuza franchise: Always adding on top of what came before.

 Yakuza Kiwami 2 is yet another fantastic Yakuza game. I'll admit that this particular game's story isn't as strong a second time around as, say, Yakuza 1, but it still gets the job done thanks to its memorable cast of characters. The game is running on the Dragon Engine, which makes it quite a looker as well as quite fun to play. And with this, until Yakuza 5 on PS4 makes it outside Japan... it's goodbye to Kiryu.
 9.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC #1 - Joker

 Ready to Smash Nintendo's servers.

 As a fan of Shin Megami Tensei, and as someone who enjoys Persona.... Joker is a bit disappointing. His new stage, Mementos, and the new songs are fantastic, the stage changing color schemes to reflect Persona 3,4 or 5 depending on the song, which is neat, and they chose some of the most popular songs from each game, which is great.

 As for Joker himself, he is kinda meh. Starting from the fact that his proportions are kinda odd, other animu characters, like Shulk, look huge next to him, and Link's head makes Joker's look like a peanut. That aside, his moveset could've been so much more. They played it safe. He is yet another Down+B counter character, coupled with the fact that he is yet another animu swordsman(kinda) makes him already kinda meh. Down+B could've easily been a special move to switch Personas, but Joker can only summon Arsene.

 Arsene works on a gauge, not unlike Cloud's Limit Break, which once it feels Arsene joins Joker, enhancing all his moves. It works, it's safe, but it's also kinda boring considering Joker can swap Personas in his own game.

 All in all, Joker's an interesting addition, since he represents Persona and, by extension, Shin Megami Tensei, but more could've been done to make him more fun. He could also use a small bump to the size of his character model. But, y'know, he is fine. Just fine.

 6.5 out of 10

Review #636: Devil May Cry 5

 Which goes to show that even Capcom's got a soft spot for Donte.

 Alright, so Devil May Cry 4 was pretty good but lacking in content while DmC was an underrated and overhated game because it wasn't more of the same. Capcom listened, and here we've got Devil May Cry 5 which is more of the same. But golly, how GOOD it feels.

 The story is a mess. It is. Our precious boy Nero gets his arm severed by a demon-man in ragged clothes, taking Yamato for himself, but luckily he knw the crazy inventor Nicolette, 'Nico' for short, who builds him a mechanical arm. Plenty of robotic arms actually, and together they set out for vengeance. At the same time, Dante gets hired by series newcomer V to slay this demon-man, named Urizen. As the story moves forward Dante, Nero and V's roads will intertwine, and you'll also get to see Lady's and Trish's behinds, because this is a Japanese game, and dammit, they can't live without fanservice, even if it means ruining their characters. But I digress, the story is probably the weakest it's ever been, but at least it looks great and gives you a bit of eyecandy between stages. On another note, there are plenty of callbacks to DMC 1 and 3, in the form of returning enemies, as well as a few callbacks and references to DmC, which is an incredibly bold move by Capcom to show that DmC was a Devil May Cry game, whether you like it or not. In other words, the script is exactly what you'd expect out of Devil May Cry, nothing more and nothing less. The characters are fun and dumb, and the story is as good an excuse as any to slay demons.

 The game does little to change up the formula, which is perfectly OK since why fix what ain't broken? You go through each mission as any of Dante, Nero or V, trying to defeat enemies with complex combos in order to rack up your style bonus and thus ramping up the red orbs they leave when defeat, said red orbs can then be spent to upgrade your abilities. Hidden throughout missions you may come around 'Hidden Missions', which short challenges rooms, blue orbs to extend your health bar, purple orbs to extend your Devil Trigger gauge(Your super mode) or gold orbs which act as a limited form of continues. Much noise was made about the game's microtransactions, and it is slimy for a full-price game to include them, but truth be told, the game is fairly generous with red orbs, which can also pay the price of a continue, so I never felt as if the game was trying to open up my wallet. Well, mostly, each character's final unlock, the EX Taunt, is worth 3.000.000 red orbs each, which isn't exactly a petty sum.

 Sadly, Devil May Cry 4's weakness carried over to this game: Too many characters and not enough game. Devil May Cry 3 did it best by allowing you to play the entire game as either Dante or Vergil, but in this game all three characters get a piece of the 21 missions. Nero, the main character, gets the first 8 stages and then gets another 2 by the end, a couple of these missions he shares with V and Dante. V gets a measly 6 missions peppered in-between Nero and Dante, two of which he shares with Dante and Nero. Lastly, Dante gets the final eight stages, sharing one of them with V and Nero. That said, there's absolutely no backtracking in this game, to the point that no mission has you covering old ground, making it the most linear DMC game yet, but also meaning that at least the second half of the game isn't made up of recycled, simpler stages, so while I still wish I could have played any mission as any character, thus getting to enjoy a character's particular gameplay and get more content to experiment with, it's not as bad as DMC 4, as a matter of fact, even though V gets so few stages, I still didn't feel shortchanged with him.

 As far as characters go, Nero plays pretty similarly to how he did in DMC 4, he's got his sword, red queen, which he can rev up for extra damage, and, if you time it just as you hit an enemy, get a full charge out of a single L2 press as well as his gun, the blue rose. Since his Devil Bringer got chopped at the start of the game, now he can use any of about 10 different Devil Breakers, mechanical arms with special properties. Each one has different uses, like a multi-hitting whip or one that can be used to zip around by discharging energy. You have to be careful though, getting hit while using a Devil Breaker will cost you the arm, or you can press L1 to destroy it, pushing away nearby enemies. At first I thought that having limited arms was lame, but Nero's stages have a few arms peppered throughout its layout, so very rarely will you be lacking in... arms. Lastly, even if you run out of arms, you can press R1+O to either jank a weak enemy towards Nero or push Nero towards a heavy enemy. Beating the game unlocks a Devil Trigger for Nero, as well as his abilities from DMC 4, so you can mix his new tools with the old. Pretty neat.

 Dante is his usual DMC 3 incarnation with the tweaks from DMC 4, namely, you can switch between his four different styles with the directional pad, each style altering what his circle button does(More melee attacks, more gun attacks, defensive moves or evasive moves). Unlike Nero, Dante unlocks more weapons as he goes along, for a total of 4 melee weapons(6 if you count the extra swords) as well as 4 guns(5 if you count the extra rocket launcher), and he can swap between either in real time, as per usual. This is easily the deepest Dante yet, and he even gets a second Devil Trigger form midway through his campaign.

 Lastly, there's V. He... he is nothing the series has ever had before, in fact, I'd say he is a nod to how in DMC 2 you could go through the entire game with guns, if only for the simple fact that he is a pew-pew kinda guy. Square button summons a devil crow to peter his enemas with energy bullets, while triangle summons a Shadow panther, which you might recognize from Devil May Cry 1, to close in on his enemies and skewer them. His Devil Trigger summons Nightmare, a massive golem that lays waste to anything and everything. That said, he has to give enemies the coup-de-gras, his only offensive move, but it's fairly easy to just zip-in thanks to R1+O's homing properties. While I'm sure V has his depth, and there are plenty of unlockable moves for his familiars, I never upgraded anything besides his Devil Trigger consumption since it's pretty easy to mindlessly press Square and Triangle and just rake in the SSS style points. I wasn't much of a fan of V, I like my DMC characters with swords and guns, so V just didn't do it for me. Not to say that I hated playing as him, because he is something very different from Dante and Nero, just that I wasn't a fan of his style.

 As a whole, Devil May Cry 5 feels like the apex of the formula. You get three very distinct characters with the added benefit of a good amount of unique stages for each. The combat is fast and furious, while there were a few Framerate drops here and there, it was mostly, if not only, during the exploration segments. I really liked Nero, and how fun it was to relearn to take control of your positioning as well as your enemies, pulling and pushing them out of your combos. And then you finish the game and unlock his Buster abilities from DMC4, which you can use alongside his Breakers, turning Nero into a wrecking machine. Dante has so many options it isn't even funny. I was perfectly content switching between Rebellion and his Fist-type weapon, which can switch between boxing and kicking modes, and, as a matter of fact, with proper Style use you can get at least S-ranks without having to switch weapons, in case you think it's much too complicated to learn his different weapons, and then the new twin-sword-saw weapons got introduced, giving me an entirely new slew of attacks to mix things up with. Regardless, there's a ton of possibilities with Dante. And then there's V, with whom you can, um... unlock more combos in case mindlessly mashing buttons isn't doing it for you.

 All in all, Devil May Cry 5 is phenomenal. Like, honestly, the first thing I did after I finished the game.. was replay it, albeit on the lowest difficulty setting, to get a few of the trophies I missed. And it was just as fun as the first time through, and now I'm feeling tempted to go back a third time, but on the difficulty setting I unlocked my first time through. It's THAT fun. Honestly, I think the only DMC I'd put above it would be 3, but only for a slight margin. While I liked Donte and DmC a lot, I'm glad Nero and classic Dante are back.
10 out of 10