Capcom had a bit of a misstep when it came to the last game in the Devil May Cry series. Fans soon discovered that it was nowhere near as fun or even as interesting as the original. Now Capcom is back and ready to revive the series with Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening, which Is actually a prequel of sorts to the original game.

The story once again follows Dante, son of the legendary knight Sparda. This time around, a mysterious tower has appeared next to Dante’s investigative agency (Devil May Cry), and his estranged brother is spotted on the top of it, beckoning for confrontation.

Simply put, the game is looking amazing. A stark contrast to the boring environments seen in DMC2, the environments in 3 look great. While the game may start out with Dante heading into a tower, it appears that he will be warped to different environments (which was done in the original), as screenshots have shown a variety of different areas.

Fast paced and fluid action is being emphasized, and the familiar ranking system returns (ranking you on how stylish your moves are, one of the unique things introduced by the original game).  This time around though, there are fighting styles.  These will affect what can be done with Dante, and different players should prefer different fighting styles.

These three fighting styles are Trickster, Gunslinger, and Swordmaster. As a Trickster, Dante will have more agility and be able to dash up walls to avoid enemy attacks as well as run fast in any direction. As a Gunslinger, Dante will be able to shoot in two different directions, and even shoot enemies in mid-air. And finally, as a Swordmaster Dante will have a full arsenal of sword attacks for the player to unleash upon their enemies.

The game is expected to have several different difficulty levels, even some that the developers supposedly haven’t completed yet. In fact, the Japanese Hard difficulty is expected to be the Normal difficulty when the game hits our shores. Don’t expect this to be easy, DMC3 is expected to challenge players nearly as much as Ninja Gaiden.

With the addition of fighting styles and a focus on action, DMC3 should please any PS2 fan, as well as wash out the bad taste left by DMC2. Things are certainly looking up for the game and the series in general. Devil May Cry 3 will be out fairly soon, so be sure to go and pick it up.

Chris Dahlberg