Devil May Cry 5 is shaping up to be the best in the series so far

Capcom’s stylish hack-and-slash series is finally back, and it’s never looked so good

11 years since the release of Devil May Cry 4, people have been longing for their favourite demon hunters Dante and Nero to return.

What officially began as the earliest incarnation of Resident Evil 4 in 1998, Devil May Cry quickly became a different beast entirely. Boasting numerous sequels, one ill-received spin off and an anime series, Devil May Cry is comfortably one of the flagship franchises for Capcom.

Devil May Cry 5 is the long-awaited fifth entry in the mainline series and, after a little bit of retconning with the previous entries, it’s chronologically the latest in the game world. Main character Dante, the wise-cracking monster slayer with his large sword and trademark red coat has returned and this time he’s brought a lot of friends with him.

In Devil May Cry 4, Nero had an arm called the Devil Bringer, which was his own arm, just demon-ified. As far as we know from details released by Capcom, certain story events lead to Nero having his powerful devil arm literally ripped from him by an unknown assailant, theorised by many to be Dante’s often ­ambiguously evil brother Virgil.

Capcom released a playable demo where you take control of Nero and fight your way through a bunch of demons to eventually battle a huge boss called Goliath. After getting our hands on the demo we’re more than excited for the full release.

The demo looks stunning on next-generation consoles and even though it’s the same old obscenely stylish combat Devil May Cry is famous for, it’s everything we love just extremely polished and refined unlike any of its predecessors.

Since Nero is now down an arm, the game has set it up to have him use robotic arms called Devil Breakers, created by new character Nico.

In the demo you’re limited to three: Overture, Gerbera and Punch Line. Each function entirely differently; Overture releases a massive spark of electricity, while Gerber creates huge shock waves which can stagger enemies, all of which allow you to pull off some truly unholy combos. The combat, if you’ll pardon the pun, certainly packs a punch.

Like every DMC game, you’re ranked by how well you pull off combos, dodge attacks and mix things up in combat which is more than enough to make every encounter exhilarating without feeling burnt out, especially when it comes to boss battles.

Nero has a reliance on limited devil breaker arms. They’re powerful, but they feel like a pointless gameplay gimmick more than anything else considering how his arm was used in DMC 4.

The demo also suffers from some extremely long load times on a standard PS4, hopefully this is simply because it’s an early-release demo build of the game, but it really hinders the fast-paced experience the game wants to give to you when you’re frequently stuck behind loading screens.

In terms of the story, from everything teased by Capcom we know that Red Grave City, where our heroes are based, has been attacked by monsters. To stop this, mysterious new character V, who of course has a penchant for quoting William Blake, has hired Dante to take down a powerful demon who is trying to resurrect.

This doesn’t break any barriers, but it’s more than enough to get us interested in it with such a large cast of characters old and new mixing together like this just from the trailers. Besides, people seldom play Devil May Cry for their story. It's the characters and combat that make it interesting, and when you consider our beloved demon hunters have been absent since 2008, we’re definitely ready for the next stage in Dante’s story and some trademark smokin’ sick style along way.

Not playable in the demo is newcomer V, who is definitely the most enticing character shown to us so far. From trailers we see he plays in a way never seen in a Devil May Cry game. That is, he doesn’t have a massive sword, powerful guns or a ridiculously chiselled jawline. Instead, V fights by summoning demons, or familiars, to fight for him while he devastates them from afar with magic.

V is a tactical character with a unique type of style. Along with his powerful magic, he wields a cane and will have to be used more from a distance as opposed to up close and personal, owing to his smaller pool of health points compared to Nero and Dante.

His enigmatic character and combat style could bring a whole new dynamic to Devil May Cry games going forward, and we can’t wait to start whacking demons away with his trusty cane.

After playing this demo, we’re more than excited to see where Devil May Cry 5 will go with the story and its character development. So far, it looks to be another in a longline of triumphant releases for Capcom.

From their record-breaking release of Monster Hunter: World last year to the near perfect remake of Resident Evil 2 back in January (Read our review here), Capcom haven’t looked this strong since the 80s and 90s. In fact, few companies seem to be coming anywhere near to their success and they don’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

Devil May Cry 5 is released on all platforms on 8 March.