Hello, this is Rock Paper Shotgun and that is a man riding his own rocket-powered arm.
That's not a sentence I expected to utter today, and yet here we are.
The man in question is Nero, one of three stars of Devil May Cry 5, but the only one
who comes with a limb that doubles as the hoverboard from Back to the Future Part 2.
It's also one of my favourite things about Devil May Cry 5, so what better place to start
this breakdown of 9 features I think you'll love about the game.
Nero's incredible toy is called Punch Line, and is one of several Devil Breaker robotic
arms that can be attached to his left stump - he used to have a demon arm there, but that's
been removed for, shall we say, anime reasons.
This particular arm is normally a Rocket Punch, that flies around demon heads bopping them
repeatedly.
It's what you'd get if you could crossbreed a fly and The Incredible Hulk - just don't
imagine how you'd crossbreed them.
Yikes.
The game's director Hideaki Itsuno tells me that he wanted to create a Rocket Punch
move, but that it was actually the arm's artist - legendary Mecha designer Shoji Kawamori
- who suggested Nero could ride it, and then designed it to unfold into a vehicle.
Once you're on it different buttons do different attacks, from shunts to ollies that punt demons
into the air.
As with everything in DMC5 it's all about style - the higher your Stylish Ranking, the
longer you can ride it.
One of the things I enjoy most about DMC5 is how deep it all goes.
Think about it, this is just one function of one arm of one of three characters - and
I could have messed about with it for hours.
But before I get into other DMC5 features I had fun with, I will warn you that there
are some spoilers - nothing from the plot, but action is taken from the first ten missions
- and this was captured on Xbox One X, so is no indicator of how it will look run on
PC.
While we're talking about how Nero puts the arm in harm, let's celebrate the other
Devil Breakers.
Every arm has a basic attack and a Break Age, which is a powerful move that destroys the
arm.
So the Overture here gives people an electrified high five in its common move, but its Break
Age punches the fist into the enemy and snaps it off and leave an explosive embedded in
them.
You can wait for the countdown or manually detonate with a pistol.
I also like the Buster arm, which instantly kills smaller enemies, but has long wind up.
If you're attacked when using any arm, it'll instantly shatter.
But it's worth the risk for the feeling of tossing away tiny demons as if they were
old crisp packets.
And even if the bigger monsters take a couple of buster hits to kill, you have to love the
animations of a tiny man throwing a giant lizard.
The more industrial player might favour Helter Skelter, which turns Nero's hand into a
drill - pummel the b-button and the drill goes faster and faster.
Particularly good at whittling away at shields or, er, giant pairs of scissors.
If you're feeling particularly cruel, the Break Age pushes foes into the air, where
you can mince their delicate underparts.
The worst verb and noun combination in the English language.
I'll admit that I spent too much currency buying Punch Line refills to experiment much
with the Rawhide whip arm, though I like the charged version that grabs a nearby enemy
and turns Nero into a tiny white haired tornado.
Likewise, I only ever had one Ragtime arm, which creates a bubble of slow time - it brought
to mind Bayonetta's Witch Time for the few seconds I saw it.
I need to experiment more.
Of all the Devil Breakers, the Tomboy is the most practically useful - activating it supercharges
sword and pistol attacks - it turns your gun into a straight up laser cannon.
For a more casual player it helps stand in for the exceed system - this is where Nero
revs his sword handle to power-up his hits, but I couldn't master the timings in the
demo.
Tomboy power doesn't match an exceed, but it certainly made short work of whatever this
thing is.
If Nero's arms allow for experimental stuff, they've got nothing on new character V.
This Kylo Ren-lookalike is a big departure from Nero and Dante - instead of wading into
the fight, he sends animal familiars to do his bidding.
In effect it splits him into two characters - the animals you control in the distance
and the frail body you keep safe in the foreground.
It's pretty far out to describe, but makes perfect sense after a short tutorial.
The animals mimic the melee and ranged split of both Nero and Dante - you have the shadow
panther who acts as the melee moves with the lunges and aerial launcher you'd expect.
You then have Griffon, who fires lightning projectiles but can also surround V with electricity
or charge up a strong aerial bombardment.
If their designs seem familiar - pardon the pun - it's because both appeared in Devil
May Cry 1.
Shadow was a cat enemy and Griffon was a boss you fought several times.
He's also the reason for this legendary slice of cheese:
"Flock off feather face"
I adore these creatures - there's something so undeniably cool about V's restraint while
two mad beasts go ballistic.
What other game lets you tear a garage to pieces with your own demonic shadow cat?
Or even better, kick the shit out of a replica of London's Borough Market.
Your mileage may vary on that last bit - for me it was sweet revenge for the time I got
food poisoning from one of their artisan sausage baps.
Let me tell you, that was not Smoking Sexy Style.
The icing on the V cake is that only the man himself can finish off enemies - once they've
been softened up with the bird and cat you teleport across for wonderfully creepy takedowns
that involve sticking V's walking stick into painful parts.
Look how relaxed he is with a monsters eye on the end of his stick.
The real showstopper is V's third bodyguard - another returning face from Devil May Cry
1.
This is Nightmare, a vast morphing beast that would be pretty terrifying to behold if he
didn't sometimes arrive with a comical splat.
Part of the fun of Nightmare is seeing how he arrives in the fight.
Sometimes he does an impression of a comet falling to earth.
Sometimes he just bursts out of nearby walls.
And he's even better once he turned up, conjuring all kinds of mayhem from fireballs
to uppercuts that hit with the power of Dwayne Johnson flicking a gnat.
Nightmare is an uncontrollable force of nature until you purchase the Promotion skill that
lets V jump up onto his shoulder and steer him around.
Even then, he only has a very basic moveset, but it doesn't matter when one of those
moves is punching with a fist the size of a bungalow and the other move turns him into
the punching version of a spinning top.
Reading bible - Clip7 :17:30 The craziest bit is that you summon him with
a bible.
You need to fill the devil trigger to call him - they're the purple bars in the top
left.
They fill as you land attacks, but they really fill up as read verses from V's holy tome
- a wonderfully flamboyant touch that sees V very calmly spouting scripture as the world
explodes around him.
I mean, I kinda feel that Nightmare makes his own case - he's a demonic wrecking ball
powered by preaching.
Need I say more?
Okay, that last section was a little noisy, so let's quickly enjoy a quiet moment.
I want to tip my hat to the environmental artists who designed these bookcases in the
library.
Look at the way a tiny tap sends books tumbling off shelves.
I'm honestly mesmerised by this obscenely detailed bookshelf animation - a prop that
isn't even on the main path - you have to climb up some stairs to find it.
It's the best scene of wilful library destruction since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
A bold claim, yes, but I think it holds up.
When I quizzed Itsuno on the bookshelves - because I am a professional games journalist who asks
professional games journalist questions - he explained that there's "one guy on the
team who works his ass off to implement this stuff - and not only does it look good, but
it's very cost effective for the hardware."
Congratulations anonymous environmental artist, this is the best book case I've ever punched.
Now let's get back to monsters.
Of course, to some creatures in the world of Devil May Cry 5, our heroes are nothing
but a flesh bookcase to be smashed into a pulp.
I'm talking about the bosses, and DMC5 does great bosses.
It does bosses that unfold across multiple stages, punching you through walls and causing
so much damage to the wider world that it feels like you've basically lost even when
you win.
There are bosses that are so big they make the floor go all bouncy just by putting down
a foot.
And there are bosses that make weird noises that remind me of playing with those whirly
tubes as a child.
Only the whirly tube didn't ever murder me.
What I love about the bosses is the way they push everything you can do with a character.
V, in particular, gets a proper work out as he sends his animal friends to bite and claw
while he lurks in the distance dodging every projectile that gets thrown his way.
This creature, which is basically My Little Pony if it could shit lighting, is one of
the best showcases for V's unique moveset, with the battle taking place in two areas
at once.
It's exciting, fierce and smart.
I asked Itsuno what he thought the secret to a great boss fight is, and he says it's
as simple as having a challenge that you're supposed to pull off in a very specific way.
He uses the example of this meaty freak Nidhogg, who is designed to test your mastery of V's
Nightmare summoning - you know that there's a very small window when this ugly Jelly Baby
reveals himself, so the aim is to have Nightmare turn up at that exact moment.
Of course, you'll find plenty of other ways of bringing down big bads, but tapping into
the designers mind, exploiting those powers with brutal efficiency, makes these thrilling
scraps to unpick.
And let's not forget the man himself.
Dante only appears about five hours into the game - so we only had a brief time to check
in with the OG, floppy haired demon slayer.
After V's weird combat and Nero's magic arm, Dante feels closest to his traditional
self - although the new game engine - Devil May Cry 5 has shifted to the RE engine - does
give him a weight and heft that really helps separate him from Nero.
Dante still has four fighting styles, each with a depth of options and mastery that you
can't hope to fathom in a 30 minute demo.
What I did immediately take to, however, is his wonderful Balrog weapons - named after
the Street Fighter boxer they turn Dante into a powerful pugilist who bops demons repeatedly
on the nose until their whole bodies explode.
Paired with his Royal Guard style - which is a stance built around perfectly timed blocks
to build up a vicious counterattack - this is the most intimate weapon we see in the
game, bringing Dante dangerously close to his opponents, hoping for a window of opportunity
to box their ears into the sides of their skulls.
You can even ignite the punches, just in case all of this doesn't look painful enough.
It comes in two flavours switching between the gauntlets and grieves that offer powerful
kicks and breakdancing floor spins.
Like most things in Devil May Cry it's a showy fighting style.
Invest your red orbs in upgrading the swordmaster discipline and you can even unlock a flaming
uppercut - it's a Street Fighter dragon punch in other words, right down to the sound
effect.
Now I just want them to give Nero Dhalsim's stretchy arms.
There will be many YouTube channels, far more experienced than ours, to break down this
ludicrously detailed fighting system in good time.
But for the time being, lets enjoy a few brief seconds of Balrog boxing set to the Raging
Bull theme tune…
Whoops, how did that bookcase destruction footage get in here.
Apologies...
One of the greatest pleasures with this kind of game is seeing it played by the most high
level players - I thank you for sticking with my B to A-grade button mashings for this long
in the video.
One neat feature that plays into this idea is the cameo system, which Itsuno describes
as an online feature designed to strengthen single player.
At moments throughout the game you fight alongside other characters - like Nero and V tackling
these tricky Scudo Angelo.
The cameo system seamlessly brings in another human to control your AI partner.
There's no awkward matchmaking - it's done behind the scenes, bringing in a live
player or using shadow data.
For example, you choose to play as V or Nero in this underground train station, but you'll
be able see the other character fighting battles on their path as you go along.
Itsuno argues that knowing you might be watched by others means you're encouraged to play
more stylishly - in the final game there's a system where another player can reward you
with gold orb health item at if they've deemed your performance stylish enough.
A really fun way of giving a stranger a pat on the back.
Itsuno hopes we might make new friends through gamertags and such.
Of course, we doubt our skills will tempt anyone to seek companionship, but if you do
see some lost soul endlessly spamming the Red Queen's high roller launcher and downwards
Split, then it's probably me.
Please give me health.
I will need it.
After the first five hours of DMC5 I'm impressed - in a way I wasn't expecting to be.
I'm more of a casual one and done kinda player - but there's so much playful potential
in all three characters that you're constantly thinking about what you could be doing differently,
or what combination of arms you should have equipped, or whether you want to replay the
library and punch those bookcases again.
Sorry, that last one's all me.
It has a lovely difficulty curve, helped by V being such an accessible and spectacular
character off the bat - Itsuno says V's intentionally more powerful from the start,
so that returning fans enjoy playing as him and want to learn his depths.
The side effect of this, is that beginners have the chance of hitting that SSS ranking
a bit more quickly.
But don't worry - Itsuno promises that on harder difficulties or the Bloody Palace mode,
V is going to be a real challenge to play as.
And it all feels so nice under the thumbs - those surgically deployed hit pauses giving
every attack a huge amount of wallop, or the way the music intensifies with your combo
grade, rewarding skillful play with heart-thumping stimulus.
And even if you are just scraping by, with the game giving you a D for dismal, you're
only ever a few red orbs away from buying some juicy new attack to level the playing
field.
I can't speak to how experts will find progression and pace, but as a more infrequent dabbler,
I found the pacing sublime.
I did not expect to have this game on my Steam wishlist when it was announced last year,
but here i am counting down the days until the 8th of March.
I hope you've found this video interesting, if there's anything you'd like me to explain
in more detail, pop your questions in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.
If you did enjoy this video, why not check out our other previews of upcoming PC treats,
like Metro Exodus or The Division 2.
And I'd obviously love it if you subscribed to Rock Paper Shotgun.
Because if there's one thing that makes me happier than a crumbling bookcase, it's
a regular viewer.
Thanks for watching, hopefully see you soon.
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