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Of course, not everything is heavenly in Devil May Cry 4. While Nero is a great character, and the Devil Bringer is a fantastic addition to the combat system, I still wish that I could’ve had some more play time with Dante since his arsenal of weapons and the flexibility he has to switch between both them and his styles on the fly made for some really intense and spectacular looking combat sequences. Even after you beat the game, the game still doesn’t let you choose to play as Dante through Nero’s portions and vice versa. A part of that is probably due to the fact that Nero’s Devil Bringer is essential in some levels since he uses it as somewhat of a grappling hook to reach places Dante could never reach. Still though, it would’ve been nice for the developers to find some way around this and give the players the choice of who they want to use in their successive playthroughs.

The other big problem with the game is one that the DMC series is no stranger to, and that is the copious amount of backtracking you’ll be faced with. You’ll find a locked door, go through an entire level’s worth of fighting and boss battling until you find the one-time use item or key you’re looking for, and then spend the majority of the next level traveling backwards until you can get back to the locked door so you can then repeat the process. To make matters worse, almost all of Dante’s missions are essentially the same levels that you went through with Nero, only in reverse. You’ll travel through the same locations, fight with many of the same enemies, and battle with the exact same bosses who don’t even really alter their tactics. It’s simply poor level design and I really hope that future games in the franchise can work on this issue.

Speaking of poor level design, I have a personal grudge against whoever it was who designed Mission 19 and thought it was a good idea to leave it up to luck to decide whether or not you progress and fight one of the game’s bosses for a third time, or you fight in a potentially tough battle with no chance of recovering health unless you land on a specific space. I honestly wanted to punish the game the same way it punished me by lowering its score to the 70’s just because of that one level, but luckily I eventually managed to calm down and recover my rationality.

Other than those gripes and my own personal vendetta against Mr. Mission 19 designer, there is really not much else negative for me to say about Devil May Cry 4. The combat system is still one of the best and most satisfying out there, rivaled only by Ninja Gaiden and God of War, the graphics and cutscenes are jaw droppingly beautiful, the voice acting is probably the best its ever been in the series with one of my own personal favorite voice actors, Johnny Yong Bosch, doing the voice of Nero, and the story is engaging all throughout the twelve hour long adventure. It may not be quite as good as DMC3 in my book, but it’s definitely worth a buy for fans of the series and newcomers alike.