Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition is the third installment in the ever popular Devil May Cry franchise for the Sony Playstaion 2. This game, being a prequel, lets players use a younger Dante.
Full Review
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition Review
By, Jason Ferguson
Backdrop
.hack Part 1 Infection (Dot Hack) begins with a bang. Something disastrous happens to your character‘s real world friend, while innocently playing a 20 million-subscriber base, wildly popular online RPG game (MMORPG), The World. To unravel the mystery of your friend’s misfortune, you become an online, ingame rogue hacker, exploring every corner of The World, even some virus-infected ones.
The hero is armed with the special skills of Data Drain and Gate Hack, and some colorful, talented fellow adventurers to fill the two other available party slots. Different adventurers must accompany you depending on the plot‘s development. You have some control over the others in your party, including upgrading them through trades or gifts. You can play only a single class, Twin Blade. Other characters are from different classes, with varied strengths and weaknesses, from a mage type (Wavemaster) to a bully (Heavy Axeman).
Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in three principal areas – towns, fields, and dungeons. Towns house The World’s servers. There, the player can save the game, buy magic scrolls and useful and unique items, store items, buy equipment, and talk and trade with lots of other players in character online. One town has an unusual ranch to check out, a patent homage to an enduring feature of just about every Final Fantasy.
The town’s Chaos Gate provides instant teleportation to a particular wide-open Field, containing monster encounter hotspots, a mystical spring, treasure, and lots of mysterious food. You enter three distinct keywords, some known at the game‘s onset, and others learned through play. Whatever keywords are entered, the difficulty level of the destination is helpfully revealed. This prevents a low-level party from being massacred. Once the keywords are entered, you travel through the Chaos Gate. (You can enter specific keywords learned to continue the plot, do side quests, or do unlimited exploring. Or, you can instruct the Gate to enter random keywords, and take your chances. There‘s also an option to enter any keywords you wish from a word list.) Every Field houses a single Dungeon. The dungeons, where you spend much of the game fighting for your life, are not overly large in size, and always range between three and five average levels.
Many have compared Dot Hack to Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (PSO) on the Gamecube. Let us gently discredit this. We feel Dot Hack has far better graphics than PSO. The Fields and Dungeons contain many colorful, over stylized backdrops and settings, including weather effects. Dot Hack’s monsters resemble the beautifully-drawn monsters of the later Final Fantasy’s. Dot Hack’s world is gigantic with a seeming infinite number of locations to explore. PSO’s world is relatively small, and plot is threadbare, with meaningless, though fun, side quests, which instill no enthusiasm in the player. Dot Hack’s plot is deep and complex, with each subplot advancing the story just a little bit further. (Remember though, the end of this game in no way comes close to wrapping up the story, to be completed in the three games to be released later this year.) One visual treat, however, was lifted directly from PSO – the cascading rings that accompany the teleportation of characters to and from different areas.
Combat
Dot Hack’s combat engine can best be described as modified real-time. Much like the action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts, button mashing can be effective to beat monsters. Monster combat icons appear as large yellow twirling landmarks. As you approach, the landmark dissolves, monsters come at you big-time, and, undoubtedly, players will feel a healthy adrenaline rush. Some of Dot Hack’s many monsters do not stand around waiting to be pummeled, rather some you need to catch. Dot Hack lets you turn combat almost into a turn-based affair. The player needs only to hit Triangle in the middle of battle to pause the game instantly. From there the player can give orders to the others in the party, anything from healing someone, reviving another, casting a spell, designating a target monster. Without jeopardizing your party from the hailstorm of monster blows, combat becomes a calmer, more strategic, experience. This will help the many action-challenged. Camera angles play a big role in successful combat. You must be facing a monster to do any damage. As in many games, manipulating opposing environmental elements, like fire vs. water, is a key to successful monster combat.
Dot Hack’s cyberspace setting provides a wealth of Wow-inducing outbursts. The Data Drain option in combat is a great example. When a monster’s approaches zero, the player can Data Drain to reduce a horrendous, gigantic steel robot, for example, into a sniveling, puny monster, easily defeated with a single blow. Data Drain always results in a nifty, rare item or essential Virus Cores so you can Gate Hack areas of The World now closed, but needing investigation. One bad side effect – if you defeat, a Data Drained monster, but a single experience point is earned. One REALLY bad side effect – if you Data Drain too often without giving the skill a rest, you may overload and explode. Game Over. In the case of Boss monsters, Data Drain works the same, but what remains is no sniveling puny monster, but a full-blooded slightly less tough monster. All of this makes for interesting and captivating combat, a large part of the game.
Fresh Features
Dot Hack is replete with new and interesting features that kept us riveted.
To start, the entire background and story of a real world gamer becoming a rascal hacker, penetrating deep into a virus-infected online game, is quite novel. Combine this with Dot Hack’s emulating the look and feel of an online game universe. (Message traffic on the web shows many gamers mistakenly believe Dot Hack is a real online MMORPG, along with monthly fees! No real Internet connection is required.)
Just like in the real word, Dot Hack replicates your excitement level when “New” appears before a popular forum or on your email screen. Some of the game involves receiving emails as the plot develops, as well as new, crucial information surfacing on The World’s Board. (Look out for emails challenging you to a strange game of Tag.) The online game world looks very familiar with a bunch of characters wandering around the game’s towns, with the ubiquitous balloon icons talking typical “trash” to each other, even criticizing “newbies“.
Combat grippingly called for surprisingly strategic decision-making to succeed, not related to the usual attack or defend choices. Do you go for experience and upgrade your character or try for some special equipment or a Virus Core, vital to Gate Hacking? The innovative control of other party members became second nature to us after some practice. The game rewards a player taking chances, like entering a Field or Dungeon rated 5 levels above the player’s current level. On the other hand, the game scoffed at players entering areas much lower rated the their current level, by awarding negligible experience points for victory.
Dot Hack takes progress reports to a new level, by slowly unlocking books that contain much in the way of statistics and information. There’s even a monster compendium with tips for defeating them.
Some might complain about the minimal “Save Game” ability, but we thrived on it. You explore a very hostile cyberspace environment without the facility to save. Only in a server-hosting town is saving possible at the local Recorder. We may be a solitary voice in the Wilderness, but we like this throwback to the good old RPG days. Those of you old enough to remember the Wizardry series, may recall those fingernail-biting multi-combat treks back to the Castle just to save the game. In case you’re really stuck deep in a dungeon, a common item will teleport you to the outdoor field, from where you can simply gate back to town from the command menu.
Many pieces of equipment come with distinctive powerful attack, healing, and status skills, essential to combat dominance. The player must tradeoff whether to equip something that will raise defense or offense or something less vigorous that lets you use a powerful skill. Trading is the most successful way to upgrade equipment.
In a first, Dot Hack comes with a 45 minute anime video. This gives some great background on what’s going on in The World, as well as provide clues for completing the game. In a nice twist, voiceovers for game speech can be set for Japanese or English presentation. Listening to the authentic Japanese voices really keeps you glued to the game.
Though some may scoff at what follows as meaningless, we liked the game’s unlocking of some nifty new “toys” to like, some only available when the game is cleared. You can unlock many different background music play lists. Tired of creepy tunes, just switch to something more upbeat, or futuristic. Just like real world gamers, who constantly change their desktop wallpaper, new and different wallpapers are unlocked along the way. Some are concept art of characters, while others are full blown anime renditions of the characters. This makes for great fun, and seems to pump additional energy into the game. As you progress over a dozen special cut scenes or movies will become viewable after defeating the game.
Though Dot Hack’s extras and new wrinkles enhance the RPG game experience, much of the gameplay will ring true to those who enjoy RPG‘s. Expect plenty of exploration in a huge 3D world, frequent monster combat, tons of treasure to earn and discover, upgrading your character’s weapons and armor, and needing to level before tackling pivotal story dungeons. The status screens for the characters and all equipment are well laid out and easy to grasp.
Time for Completion
Game length in hours always concerns many purchasers. A short RPG normally takes a lot of flack, and many online are asking about Dot Hack‘s time for completion. (Some have questioned whether Bandai should have released a single 80 hour game for $50, rather than four 20-hour games for $200 for a single story. This matter is beyond the scope of this review, but our high opinion of this game as a standalone is obvious.) Our experience, playing the plot without doing side quests or extra exploration, is in the 12 to 15-hour range. Players side-questing and extensively exploring, aside from the main plot, can expect to spend 25 hours to complete the game. You can even continue to advance your character, after game completion, to get a jump start on Part 2 due in May. In the next game, your character can be imported from Part 1.
Furthermore, imagine trying to explore every nook and cranny of the fields and dungeons accessible by a large number of 3-word combinations. Doing that would put the game in the 50-hour range, if not more. However, at a certain point, new items dry up, and a single experience point is earned for any defeated monster, no matter how tough.
Shortcomings
While, as is evident above, there is much to recommend in Dot Hack, certain concerns to varying degrees deserve mention.
From the “Why oh why did they leave this out?“ File. Pregame game board traffic and information about the Japanese version released months ago had many salivating for replaying the game in “parody” mode. This mode apparently converted all Dot Hack’s game world characters into satirical comedians. Sorry to say, this highly-anticipated feature is missing from the version released here.
The game requires massive amounts of button pressing. Every item or treasure uncovered from combat victories or exploration (opening chests, searching expired adventure remains, collecting food for Grunty’s, as examples) must be confirmed with a button press. When there could be 50-100 such occurrences in a single dungeon or field, over the course of the game, finger cramps seem inevitable. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance also required lots of bashing for buried treasure and chests, but the items literally flew into your inventory, a much better way to handle this.
The manual is woefully terse and lacking in some crucial information and guidance. While the ingame tutorials fill in many of the gaps, one extremely important gameplay feature is missing from both the manual and tutorials – instructions on control your characters directly during combat.
Final Word
We got a kick out of Dot Hack. The feeling of “just one more dungeon” dominated our lives for the 3 days to completion. The engaging environment held our attention without much effort. The strategic nature of combat, plus the convoluted plot kept us going for hours on end. The constant unlocking of both frivolous and important gameplay features created a “what’s next” anticipation. Now, if I could only read Japanese better, Dot Hack Part 2 is already out in Japan!
Final Grade: B
| In late January 2005, Capcom’s action-packed game, Devil May Cry 3, was added to the list of PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits. Unlike most Greatest Hits, Devil May Cry 3 is actually a Special Edition version of the original game released in 2005. This latest version features an all-new boss battle, turbo mode, and the ability to play through the game as Dante’s nemesis, Vergil! |
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The storyline in Devil May Cry 3 revolves around Dante as he is in preparation to open his shop, Devil May Cry. As Dante sits back and indulges himself with some pizza, a mysterious man arrives, informing Dante that his twin brother Vergil has sent him an invitation. Soon after, several demons appear, piercing Dante’s skin with multiple blades. Of course, being half demon himself, Dante ignores these injuries and destroys all of them, but not before setting the mood by playing his jukebox. Dante then heads for the large tower that Vergil has summoned in the center of the city, hoping to bring an end to his brother’s evil doings once and for all.
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| If you didn’t know, Devil May Cry 3 is actually a prequel to the original Devil May Cry that was released years ago. Of course, the Dante in this game is younger than the one in the original game, and it is easily noticeable by his actions. During much of the game, Dante seems to be very cocky and constantly lets out “WAHOOO” while battling through enemies. His overall personality seems very different from the original and at times can be a little bit difficult to take seriously. While Dante’s personality can be a little much and, well, comedic at times, I can assure you that the action in Devil May Cry 3 definitely will not disappoint. |
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Similar to the original Devil May Cry, the latest game features a lot of fast-paced and overall excellent action. The controls are highly responsive, and for the most part are pretty easy. Dante is also able to pull off some new abilities that come in the form of “styles.” There are several different styles of combat that Dante can use, each of which has its own unique abilities attached. One of these is the Trickster style, which helps Dante pull off different maneuvers to avoid incoming enemy attacks. Another style is known as the Gunslinger, which involves Dante pulling off different moves using his guns. Styles have a total of three different levels, each of which has different abilities attached to that level. These styles gain experience by defeating enemies, and once a certain amount of experience is obtained, that style will level up, allowing you access to even more abilities. In order to perform these abilities, Dante must first equip the style that corresponds to that ability. While you might learn a certain ability, it can only be performed if that style is equipped. This new style of combat adds several more RPG elements to the series and adds more depth to the excellent action.
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| Like previous games in the Devil May Cry series, Dante comes equipped with a list of new weapons and some that fans of the serious will recognize. Of course, Dante wouldn’t be Dante if he didn’t come with his pair of pistols, Ebony and Ivory. In the early going, Dante also uses the popular “Rebellion” as his form of melee attack. However, as time goes on he will obtain a new list of melee and range weaponry, including a shotgun, a pair of frozen nunchucks, and a guitar that is able to control bats. The action becomes even better with the ability to automatically switch weapons while in combat. Unlike previous Devil May Cry games, Dante is able to equip two melee and two range weapons, which can be automatically switched back and forth while in combat. This is a great addition because in previous Devil May Cry games it became a little annoying having to go through the entire menu to switch weapons. |
| While Dante is able to perform abilities with the new style system, there are also certain abilities that can be attached to Dante’s different weapons. One of these is a sort of double jump that can be purchased by collecting red orbs that are located throughout the game. The double jump ability can be purchased for Dante’s sword, Rebellion, and for a couple other of Dante’s weapons. It is also possible to upgrade the strength of Ebony and Ivory and other ranged weapons by collecting red orbs. |
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Even though all of these things made the original version of Devil May Cry 3 a great game, the Special Edition version is a hit because of the option to play through as Vergil. However, Vergil does not become playable from the beginning unless you either have a completed file of the original version on your memory card or by completing a playthrough of Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition. The best thing is that Vergil is not just a clone of Dante, featuring the same abilities and movesets. Instead, Vergil is very different, featuring his own unique weapons and abilities. Unlike Dante, Vergil is only able to use the “Dark Slayer” style that he comes equipped with in the beginning. Also, instead of using guns as his range weapons, Vergil is able to summon small swords that launch and damage his enemies. Unlike Dante, Vergil is also able to transform into his demon form at the beginning of the game. This ability to use his demon form from the beginning and the fact that Vergil is overall more powerful than Dante leaves the overall difficulty somewhat easier.
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| The option of playing through as Vergil is fun and interesting, but it could have been done better. When you begin playing as Vergil, you will witness a couple of cinematics that explain part of the story, but that’s all. For the rest of the game you won’t have any unique levels or any other cinematics, even once you have finished a playthrough. Rather than viewing any other cinematics, the game skips all of them and just starts you off in the level, with no real idea of a story or anything. It is also a little odd that rather than fighting an actual copy of Dante, he will instead battle an individual with the exact same movesets and abilities as himself, but with a red coat. Personally, I would have loved to see an actual playthrough as Vergil with a unique storyline from his actual perspective of the events. |
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Aside from unlocking Vergil, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition features even more additions, including an all-new Jester boss battle. If you have played the original version of the game, chances are you will know who the Jester is, but you were never able to actually battle against him. However, the Special Edition features a few moments when you are able to battle against him. Aside from that, the game features an all new Demo Digest mode, which allows the player to view all of the previously viewed cinematics. Some other additions include the turbo mode, which increases the game’s speed by 20%, which isn’t actually all that noticeable.
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| One of the biggest complaints about the original Devil May Cry 3 was the overall difficulty. Personally, defeating the second level alone took me days and days. Well, the Special Edition version of the game has changed the difficulty level to better suit some of our needs. This time around the normal difficulty of the Special Edition version is equivalent to the easy difficulty of the original. Of course, this adds an even easier difficulty to the Special Edition version, which almost makes the game a little too easy. While some gamers might welcome the newer difficulty level, there are still those others that will become a little irritated. |
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As far as the presentation goes, Devil May Cry 3: SE is pretty much the exact same as the original version. However, Devil May Cry 3 featured some great-looking cinematics and beautifully done gothic-styled environments. The game also features some great-looking character models that look and sound excellent while in combat. Devil May Cry 3 also featured some excellent voice acting and some heavy metal background music that fit excellently.
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| Overall, Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition features some fun new additions, including the ability to play as Vergil and a new boss battle. If you have yet to experience Devil May Cry 3, than I highly recommend picking this version up. With a price tag of only $20, gamers can’t go wrong with this action-packed Special Edition of Devil May Cry 3. |
