Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition

""Well, ain't that special.""

"Well, ain't that special."

Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition is the third edition in the Devil May Cry series (well it's the fourth if you include the original Devil May Cry 3), since I needed 1700 something words, I thought I should just skippy-doodle to Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, there are many terrific things you could expect from this wonderful game, but step by step, I'm going to show you what makes Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition what it is.

Storyline [8.75/10]: 2000 years ago, a devil of wonderful power only humans could dream of awakened to human violence and stood up for them against all other demons who dared to not see the view and opinion he sees of humans, and lead a legendary rebellion and sealed the gate to the human world to the demon world, till this day his son roams around the world doing what his father does best, killing demons. Enter Dante, one skilled son of a devil(LOL), with both human and demon blood packed in his body sack who seems to have trouble when his previously missing twin Vergil summons a tower and a number of ugly demons, as you progress you will reveal Dante, his character, his enemies and some really impressive cutscenes, more characters will appear and won't hesitate to get their hands of Dante, but knowing Dante, they may have a hard time doing so…

Vergil's intentions in his return is to release the seal on the gate to the human world to the demon world, his actions may cause chaos for the human world and the demons in the world will roam freely, killing innocent people. Dante, however stands in his way, Arkham invites Dante to see Vergil to deliver an amulet to him, which is one of the requirements to open the gate from the human world to the demon world. Dante has different plans. He plans to go to the tower Vergil has raised and raise a ‘party'. Until he meets a woman being preferred to be called Lady, he won't take this situation seriously. Meanwhile, it seems as though Arkham has other unknown agendas and seems to keep most of his plans to himself. Devil May Cry 3 has a consistent storyline and if you want to know the rest you will have to find out for yourself.

Gameplay[9.5/10]: Charging dual handguns, crushing the ground to make a mini-volcano, even creating a huge tornado, yeah it sounds great, but it's even better when you do it, a game with more rewarding gameplay because it punishes mindless button mashing, which either means you can make endless combos or no combos at all, fortunately you do make endless combos, but that's not all, 20 normal missions which will leave you in a state of fun, plus 12 secret missions with a specific task and a great reward, in total 6 styles to show off and perform wonderful combos and deadly moves that will dazzle anyone, 2 moves that aren't in the file(Devil Trigger Explosion/Flux, Jump Cancelling) which you'll have to learn by yourself, 10 weapons to wield, all with different elements, statistics, and properties, 15 different bosses all in line to get their butt handed to them, 1 arena mode like option called Bloody Palace that I'll tell you about later, 2 different characters embracing a brawl with altogether 10 skins to make the moment of conflict more flamboyant and stylish and 7/8 difficulty modes to choose from, this game will leave you more to do than most games.

Devil May Cry 3's Style system is arguably the highlight of the gameplay, it is a new feature that uses the previous other gun button move from Devil May Cry 1. Styles are adjustable features that bring you unique moves with each of these styles you choose from, you use the O button to use styles. There are four original styles that have different properties and can level up to gain more moves and upgrades for move you already have, then when you go on, you will find more styles to help you out in combat. Unfortunately that is only for Dante, Vergil has one and one only, one at the start, one at the end, still he has bigger freedom than Dante from Devil May Cry 1.

The weapons are Dante's/Vergil's arsenal, the design of the weapons are good and the use for them are better, the weapons all have differences in themselves and aren't all the same type of weapons, avoiding weapon repetition in Devil May Cry 2.

Finally, I'll talk about bosses, these tough puppies fight you obviously, but are more advanced than the mainstream demon, these guys have a huge vitality bar and a heap of power, it's up to you to see if you can match them with evading skills and speed, the bosses in Devil May Cry 3 are proven to be very hard but are on the bright side very enjoyable and fun to watch let alone play.

Graphics [8.75/10]: As many know, I don't really care about graphics which would be a reason if my graphic rating is off rating a bit, for a game of it's time, you could say this game has great graphics in cutscenes and the gameplay looks even better for an average game with gameplay graphic expectations, so the graphics seem to be doing really well.

Sound [8.5/10]: A new judgement from me but like graphics, I really don't care if this game had bad music, the music seems to be really well (although I'm more into the R&B/Hip-Hop scene) but since they just loop rather than change songs in the same scene, that causes trouble, but the music doesn't go into a repetitive cycle.

Extras/Replay Value[9.5]: The Extras/Replay Value is really great as long as you keep away from the cheats then it works well, you can level up the styles I mentioned earlier, styles are really useful and can be used for certain things, and can cause mayhem in certain ways, plus the Bloody Palace with 9999 levels does well, leaving you sitting there shooting the socks off the demons you're up against, plus you can go up replay missions to give yourself a S rank in the Devil Hunter ranking thing, look for the secret missions and look for the hidden blue orb fragments. You can buy moves, modify your long-distance weapons.

The highlight for the Extras is the unlockables, especially the skins. The skins are different looks for the characters and for Vergil, one skin has it's own unique features, moving on the videos and pictures, some are good to look at, but some made me really laugh loudly(Japanese re-enactment) and some made me look at the coolness of this game.

Blue orb fragments are obscure pieces of a Blue Orb that is worth a quarter of a Blue Orb. They are easier than Devil May Cry 1 for me to find which is sort of a let down but just lets you receive them easier. The description of these Blue Orbs is that they increase your health by some percentage and can prove to be a bit handy when you face off against bosses or rooms with a big amount of demons.

Pros:
-Awesome gameplay with an original system.
-Nice graphics.
-Cheap and worth it.
-Extras that would keep you addicted to this for a a while.
-Good music.

Cons:
-Music can't be altered.
-Cheesy lines I've ever heard of.

Buy or Rent: My policy is that no matter how good a game is, if it has bad Replay Value/Extras and good anything else, rent before you buy, since it has great Extras/Replay Value, then you do the math, well hope you have considered this review and seen its points so yeah, guess that's it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/07, Updated 09/14/07

Game Release: Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition (EU, 09/29/06)