GLOG

Vergil's campaign

So after finishing the game on Normal, the most obvious thing to do next was to see Vergil's side of story. Except it isnt during the events of Nero/Dante's side, but rather years before them. Which finally explains the fact that Vergil's clothes dont look any different than in DMC3.
As i was looking forward to some satisfying reveal about how the owner of the so-sought-after Yamato was somewhwre roaming around Fortuna Island, i have to admit i was kinda disappointed. The devs repeated the same thing they had done preciously with DMC3 which was to add a new playable character for a Special Edition of the game, and only adding a new cutscene at the beginning while removing all the usual ones (since it would only create an incoherent narrative).

Beat it!

Played through the last 4 missions today! During my whole playthrough, I did my best to stay away from guides and helpful footage, just so i could rlly force myself to think up strategies on my own. But, at one point, after dying 3 times during the last round of the Savior's fight where you need to hit his chest crystal, i just had to look it up on Devils Lair bc i couldnt figure out for the life of me what to do to deal damage. Since Dante gets to use Yamato, i had thought it had smth to do with the fight (turns out: not much) It was actually way more simple that the fight ended so fast the moment i started using that strategy.
As much as I enjoyed playing Dante, I was relieved to be controling Nero again. I felt like his snatch was more reliable when i needed to stay close to enemies or stun them.

Switching to Dante

(forgot to write smth. ill come back to this later)

Man in Red

Today's session started with the new area: the forest! It reminded me of a lot of things but not rlly DMC. Felt very.. un-dmc-like.. Still, it had some good moments, like the Guiding Light puzzle which im so happy they brought back and revamped! Yet another DMC1 reference hehe! M07 also has one of the coolest creature design so far! Echidna might be a cliche design for smth related to poisonous plants but MAN, shes gorgeous! Seeing her shift forms, wow. Tho, like previous bosses, Snatch was yet again the trick to dealing damage by staying in the air and all. I wonder if im doing smth wrong or if thats rlly how these boss fights are rlly intended to be dealt in that way...

Since the very first cutscene, i'm just desperately waiting for a crumb of Dante every mission _(´ཀ`」 ∠) _ Please... i just wanna see him.. the silly guy... Thankfully! At M10, i finally get what i was asking for! Aaaand more... Bc he then takes kicking my ass and humiliating me very seriously. Dante's 2nd fight is by far the scariest of all boss fights in any DMC game. I made me realize how actually terrifying it is to be on the other side of that familiar sword.. so much, you could say a devil may cr-(sounds of sniper rifle shooting me multiple times). Seriously though, it got me so shaken that he was copying Nero's moves and dodging/blocking everything, that i started doubting it was even intended to be a defeatable boss! Also, that fight proves to me what i was saying in my last entry about his portrayal as an experienced fighter! He moves with confidence and intent, doesnt get stunned in combos too long, parries all gun shots, counters Snatch instead of being stunned. To my biggest surprise (and maybe joy, maybe horror), his rebellion attacks and abilities are mostly the same as DMC3 and he even switches styles! And having spent so many hrs practicing them, i was already better equipped to be able to read his moves and predict some of them. For example, RG seemed to be the style when it is the most possible to stun and deal damage to him. BUT! Knowing how it works, i knew his unwillingness to counter my attacks with anything but blocks meant he was building Release (hurt like hell as expected;().
Tho, it still didn't make it easier to understand what truly works against him. In the end, i figured snatching him in the middle of a combo was my best and safest strategy.

Four at last

MY DMC4 JOURNEY FINALLY BEGINS!!! I'd been anxiously holding back from picking it up for fear of never going back to the older entries, but it needed to happen. I needed to finally see and hear Nero. Thankfully, getting his VA spoiled beforehand didnt ruin it for me like i thought it would. I've known him best for his role as Vash, which i've spent way too many hours listening to, but his performance for Nero is different enough AND so so good. I can't help but hear TP Link with his "hiyah!" and "hah!" LOL
And though i have seen so many spoilers against my will, im glad theres still so much i couldnt possibly expect or predict for the story. Like Dante's entrance! What a guy! What aura! He rlly knows how to leave a strong impression! Bloodied face, ice-blue eyes searching the room, ominously standing on a sullied altar... it's almost like they're trying to paint him as a bad guy...ㅍ_ㅍ Loved it! And the Nero vs Dante sequence that follows..! Tasteful! The whole silent but still cocky attitude he has is such a fun direction for his character. I'm used to him having such a big mouth hahaha! His change in demeanor speaks so much volume for how experienced he must've gotten since dmc3 and 1, therefore confident enough to constantly taunt. Oh, and those taunts! Pure cinema. The dmc3 cerberus reference but this time targeted at Nero? The direspect made me actually gasp.
Speaking of which, the refs in 4 are SO fun to notice! i cant believe ppl suggest skipping dmc1 since it's "old and janky" bc they're honestly missing out. Scarecrows basically being recycled Marionnettes, the icon Nelo Angelo inspiring the gorgeous Bianco Angelo (and their battle theme), Frosts making a (bittersweet) comeback (flashback to those water levels><), Mephistos and Sin Scythes sharing similarities, Fortuna Castle's BGM sounding awfully similar to the one for the Old Castle, Mundus's name appearing on a shop enseigne... even the gates being most definitely based on the one from the 2007 anime! There's also a lot of "clins d'oeil" to dmc3: Bael's attacks reminding me a lot of those of Cerberus, secret missions being marked by glowing red objects, Nero surfing on an enemy just like 3Dante does, or when he mistreats machinery the same way 3Dante "fixes" his not-so-functional jukebox. Those are only some of the ones i noticed and im ever so overjoyed they keep bringing back stuff from the older games. They still have so much charm to them<3

Back at it!

After platinuming DMC2, I'm coming back to this game! Picked up my very first save bc I didn't want to have to start from the beginning.
Finally beat Normal mode! Goddamn, M22 was so freaking difficult bc I didn't have any of the useful skills for it TT Had to farm red orbs for an hour or 2 with the annoying Nobodies. After watching a few clips and reading some tips, I finally got through the 2nd round of the Mundus fight🤕.

Trophy Hunting

Learned your save is locked in Easy mode if you pick that :/ So I had to start a new save on Normal. Hopefully, I'll be able to get farther than M11 (where I had ragequitted on my first playthrough hah). While I'm at it, I'm trying to complete every secret missions. SM1 was so challenging to get right; I'm never doing it again guh

Found a trick online to farm a lot of red orbs quickly. I never get anything better than a B-rank on missions so that was a huge time saver for getting enough to max out all of Dante's gear. Now, as for Lucia, her shooting is slower than Dante so she doesn't really get the luxury of that nice convenient trick. I tried it in the same room as Trish but the margin for error is annoyingly big and found myself barely collecting anything. Trish also has a bug where she will auto-lock on enemies flying behind walls, which will break the combo style. I read it can be avoided by jumping/double-jumping but I always ended up getting hit mid-air. Real pain-in-the-ass. Another way to fix it would be to turn off auto-lock, but I haven't tried that yet.

I'm getting comfortable playing Dante with Beowulf! Once you know how to use it well, it really is a fun weapon.
I'm on the road to A-rank all missions on Normal mode as practice for my Hard mode run. So far, I've made it to mission 5 and I'm terribly dreading mission 9 (Nevan's fight is such a draaag).