Just saw your DMC3 write up. I agree it’s got the best weapons in any action game. I actually play with trickster (never tried the others much) and my favorite weapon is Nevan, so it’s cool that it’s so open ended people can play it totally differently. I also agree it’s the best Dante, great Virgil, great Lady, great bosses.
I actually didn’t like playing as Dante in 4. I felt like just giving him everything at once was too much and didn’t feel tight combat, and like you said none of the bosses really fit him. Going from Nero to Dante was like going from slower, precise tight Nero combat (I like the arm + revving) to overpowered godman broken hack mode. I beat it on all the difficulties when it came out and I really soured on Dante’s half. I agree the bosses are not enough and most are just average outside the great Credo fight, the setting is meh and the antagonist and sexualization suck. Also lack of good weapons. All my fond memories of the game are playing as Nero fighting regular mobs in the mansion and normal areas.
The game reminds me of Bayonetta 1, and there’s a lot Bayonetta does better with better enemies/bosses/weapons, though I prefer the core combat of Nero over Bayo1’s combat. I feel Bayo’s combat is like DMC4’s Dante where it’s like here’s 20 moves and just do whatever you want and press A to dodge when enemies are gonna attack, the end. It feel so different from DMC3 Dante & DMC4 Nero where you’ve got to keep moving and working in dodging with your attacks by being mobile and there’s not just an easy press A to dodge as the only defense you need. I’d rank them DMC3 > Bayo1 > DMC4 fwiw. I didn’t like Bayo2 much, I felt like the new director just didn’t have the talent that Kamiya or Itsuno has for combat and like DMC4 the setting and characters were awful (kid was insanely bad). Hopefully 3 is a return to form. Would be nice if DMCV and Bayo 3 ended up being up there with those three. NG:B and NG2 is too, but NG plays so different from DMC/Bayo it’s tough to even compare them. Speaking of character action, the one other game people sometimes put up there is MGS Rising and it annoys the hell out of me. It’s an ok 4 hour game, but the combat is so fucking shallow compared to other character action games I was pretty disappointed. Like Bayo’s one button dodge, MG:R goes a step further with one button win parry & counter. I’m overstating it, and the boss fights were cool, but it almost could work as a mobile game. It’d be better as a brawler than a CA game imo.
