Devil May Cry 2
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| Devil May Cry 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom Production Studio 1 |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Release date(s) | NA January 25, 2003 JPN January 30, 2003 EUR March 27, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) ELSPA: 15+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Media | 2 DVDs |
| Input | Dual Shock 2 |
Devil May Cry 2 (デビルメイクライ2 Debiru Mei Kurai Tsū?) is a video game by Capcom that features Dante as the game's main hero, with the addition of Lucia who is playable in a second disc.
Taking place after the conclusion of Devil May Cry 4 (unrelased), Devil May Cry 2 begins with Dante being invited to Dumary Island (known as Vie De Marli to the local people) by the mysterious Lucia and her mother, Matier, whose clan once protected the island from demons alongside Dante's father Sparda. Matier had enlisted Dante's help to prevent the Arcana, a set of magical artifacts, from falling into the hands of Arius, the game's antagonist. Arius was the president of an international corporation and desired to have supreme power; in his own words, he wanted to "transcend all living things". To accomplish this, he sought to obtain the Arcana and perform the ritual that would grant him the powers of the evil god, Argosax the Chaos.
[edit] Criticisms
The majority of Devil May Cry fans are disappointed with this sequel for various reasons. It is considered by many to be the worst game in the series and by some not acknowledged as a DMC game. What with the numerous glitches, long load times, lack of storyline or originality, and very low difficulty, it would seem that DMC2 was produced for the advantages of money. The combat system is less refined, with individual weapons being essentially weaker or stronger variants of each other as opposed to totally different weapons with totally different uses, and the boss battles are much less strategic than in the original. The level design was also far less detailed. The addition of a second disc was seen as a cheap way to increase replay value, since Lucia's missions are mostly the same as Dante's but in reverse order. Many find the plot utterly incoherent, and several of the gameplay sequences are somewhat odd; for example in the city stage, the player fights against several "zombie" tanks and helicopters; later, the player fights a boss in the form of a demonically possessed building.
It has been said that part of the reason for this is that originally the game that became Devil May Cry 2 was not a Devil May Cry game at all, but a similar game starring Lucia and not including Dante.
However, the seemingly unrelated, inconsequencial plot of DMC2 may make sense after the release of DMC4. The series does not follow a chronological order. The games go in the order of: DMC3, DMC1, DMC 4, and DMC 2. The events of DMC2 take place a considerable amount of time after the events of DMC4.
The cocky Dante received a noticeable change in his personality, which did not go well with players who enjoyed his trash-talking attitude in the first DMC. DMC2's Dante is more serious and seemingly less charismatic, though this can be attributed to him being older and more mature than in the first game.
This too can be sort of be explained in DMC4 in which the character does not play as Dante or Vergil, but as "Nero", who is extremely similar in look and style to Dante. Therefore, it could be presumed that the quiet, serious character featured in DMC2 could be Nero. However, events in the game contradict this heavily (especially the ending of DMC2).
Because of DMC2's bad reception, Capcom polled gamers about what made the first DMC so great and attempted to build on that in DMC3. Many of the cumbersome controls in DMC2 were remedied with the addition of a 4th action button, the "style" button, that allowed all the additions of DMC2 combat system to be kept. DMC3 was eventually hailed as just as good as, and maybe better than, the original. Devil May Cry 2 brought down the series' reputation because of its horrific reviews and gameplay, but the prequel has gone far in restoring Capcom's reputation with difficulty and gameplay and storyline improved.
[edit] Trivia
- The English voice track is used in all releases of Devil May Cry 2, including the original Japanese release.
[edit] External links
- Devil May Cry 2 at Capcom Japan
- Devil May Cry 2 at MobyGames
- Devil May Cry 2 Devil May Cry 2
