If you ask any long-time action game fan about the biggest "what if" in history, they’ll probably point a finger directly at Devil May Cry 2. It is the black sheep. The middle child that everyone tries to ignore at Thanksgiving. Released in 2003, it stands as a bizarre monument to how a masterpiece can somehow trip over its own feet while trying to run.
Dante changed. He went from the pizza-loving, trash-talking hybrid demon we loved in the first game to a guy who mostly just stares at coins. Silence. Total, brooding silence. It's weird.
Honestly, the development story behind this game is almost more interesting than the game itself. You’ve got a project that started without the original creator, Hideki Kamiya, and was reportedly being handled by a team that had never even made a 3D action game before. By the time Hideaki Itsuno—the man who would eventually save the franchise—was brought in to fix things, there were only about four or five months left in the schedule. Four months. That’s why the game feels the way it does. It’s a miracle it even launched.
The Combat Problem and the Dante Identity Crisis
The first thing you notice when you boot up Devil May Cry 2 is the weight. Or rather, the lack of it. In the original 2001 game, hitting a puppet with the Rebellion felt like slamming a truck into a brick wall. In the sequel, it feels like you're waving a pool noodle at a ghost.
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Dante’s movement became floaty. He can run on walls now, which looks cool in a 2003 "I just watched The Matrix" kind of way, but it doesn't actually add much to the fight. And the guns? Oh man, the guns are broken. You can basically beat 90% of the enemies in this game just by holding down the square button and checking your phone. The Ebony & Ivory pistols are so overpowered that they trivialized the swordplay, which is a death sentence for a "character action" game.
Dante’s personality shift is still the biggest point of contention. In the first game, he was cocky. In the third game (a prequel), he was a total brat. In Devil May Cry 2, he’s... a stoic? He barely speaks. He uses a coin flip to make decisions, which is a blatant rip-off of Two-Face but without the cool scarring.
Why the environments felt so empty
Capcom decided to go big. Huge, sprawling city streets. Massive tanks. Choppers. The scale was massive compared to the tight, Gothic corridors of Mallet Island. But bigger isn't always better. Because the environments were so vast, the camera often zoomed out so far that Dante looked like an ant. You lose that intimacy. You lose the tension.
The enemy AI didn't know how to handle the space either. Half the time, the demons just stand there while you pepper them with lead from a mile away. It’s a strange contrast to the hyper-aggressive enemies that defined the rest of the series.
Lucia: The Redeeming Quality Nobody Remembers
We have to talk about Lucia. She’s the second playable character, and honestly? She’s kinda great. While Dante was busy being a mute wallflower, Lucia brought a completely different flavor to the table. She uses curved daggers and has this acrobatic, fluid movement style that feels much more "Devil May Cry" than whatever Dante was doing.
Her story is actually pretty tragic. She’s an artificial being created by the villain, Arius, and she struggles with her own humanity throughout the campaign. It’s classic DMC melodrama, but it works.
- Her Devil Trigger design is stunning, featuring a bird-like, angelic aesthetic that contrasts Dante’s more traditional demonic look.
- She has underwater combat levels. Okay, fine, underwater levels usually suck in gaming, but at least they were trying something different here.
- Her presence offered a second perspective on the plot, even if that plot was a bit of a mess involving an evil corporation and an ancient demon god named Argosax.
If you skip her campaign, you're missing the best parts of the game. She’s the reason the "two-disc" setup existed back on the PS2, and she deserves a comeback in a modern title.
The Itsuno Factor: Saving the Franchise from Itself
As mentioned earlier, Hideaki Itsuno was brought in at the eleventh hour. Imagine being told you have to finish a marathon, but you’re only allowed to start running at the 25th mile. That was his reality.
He didn't have time to fix the core engine or the boring level design. He just had to make it functional. Despite the critical lashing the game took, it actually sold pretty well—enough for Capcom to greenlight a sequel. Itsuno reportedly begged Capcom to let him make Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening because he didn't want his legacy to be defined by the "failure" of the second game.
He wanted a redo. He wanted to prove he understood what made Dante cool. And he did. Without the lessons learned from the mess of Devil May Cry 2, we never would have gotten the "Styles" system (Trickster, Swordmaster, etc.) or the incredible boss fights of the later games. This game was the "growing pains" phase of the series.
The Argosax Fight and the Infamous Infested Tank
Let's get specific about the weirdness. There is a boss in this game that is literally a tank possessed by a demon. An "Infested Tank." It sits there and fires at you while you slash at its treads. It is the antithesis of "stylish action."
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Then there’s the final boss, Argosax the Chaos. This thing is a literal blob of all the previous bosses stuck together. It’s visually impressive in a "Cronenberg body horror" way, but mechanically? It just sits in the middle of the arena. You stand still. You shoot. It dies.
Compare that to the Vergil fights in DMC3 or the Nelo Angelo duels in DMC1. The drop-off in complexity is staggering. It’s like the developers were so focused on the look of the game that they forgot to make it a game.
The Soundtrack Still Slaps
If there is one thing that stayed consistent, it’s the music. The industrial, pulse-pounding metal tracks are top-tier. Songs like "Shoot the Works" and "Heads or Tails" capture that early 2000s edgy energy perfectly. Even if you hate playing the game, the OST belongs on your workout playlist. It’s aggressive, noisy, and perfectly captures the "dieselpunk" vibe they were going for.
What Most People Get Wrong About DMC2
Most people say the game is "unplayable." That’s an exaggeration. It’s actually very polished; it’s just boring. It doesn't crash. It looks decent for its era. It’s just... empty.
Another misconception is that it’s no longer canon. For a long time, fans thought Capcom had wiped it from the timeline. But with the release of Devil May Cry 5, they officially confirmed where it fits. For years, we thought it was the "end" of the timeline. Dante rides off into hell on a motorcycle at the end, after all. But Capcom eventually shifted the timeline so that DMC4 and DMC5 happen after DMC2.
This retcon was actually pretty smart. It explains why Dante is so grumpy—he was just going through a mid-life crisis before he found his spark again later on.
Should You Play It Today?
If you bought the Devil May Cry HD Collection, the game is sitting right there in the menu. You’ve already paid for it. Should you sink 6 hours into it?
Only for historical curiosity.
If you want to understand the evolution of the genre, it’s a fascinating case study. You can see the seeds of the "Bloody Palace" mode, which actually originated here. You can see the attempt at a more "cinematic" camera. But if you're looking for a deep, rewarding combat system that makes you feel like a stylish badass? Stick to the other four games.
Actionable Insights for the Curious:
- The Gun Strategy: If you just want to see the story, play as Dante and upgrade your Ebony & Ivory immediately. Use the "Twosome Time" skill to clear rooms without ever breaking a sweat.
- Play Lucia First: Her campaign is shorter and arguably better designed. If you only have patience for one playthrough, pick her.
- The Secret Ending: To get the full picture, you have to beat the game on Hard and Dante Must Die modes to unlock secret characters like Trish. Trish actually plays exactly like Dante did in DMC1, complete with his old moveset, which makes the game infinitely more fun.
- Watch the Prequel Novel: If you're confused by the plot, there’s an official prequel novel (titled Devil May Cry 2) that explains Dante's connection to the character Matier and why he’s so depressed. It fills in the massive gaps the game leaves wide open.
Devil May Cry 2 is a failure, but it’s an important one. It taught Capcom that you can't just coast on a brand name; you need soul, speed, and a protagonist who actually wants to be there. It’s the game that almost killed the series, but in doing so, it forced the creators to reinvent the wheel and give us the genre-defining masterpieces that followed.