Devil May Cry 2 (PlayStation 2) Review
A Case of the Terrible Twos?
~by tankMage (August 2026)
Score: 70 /100 (Decent)
Upon its release, Devil May Cry 2 was almost universally panned. Expectations were sky high after the success of DMC1, so anything less then perfection would have disappointed fans and critics alike. It’s no surprise that this bland and often dull followup enraged fans and gave critics a punching bag to publicly thrash on the pages of gaming sites and magazines. I’ll even admit to passing this one up after hearing bad word of mouth and seeing its box.
At the same time, DMC2 somehow managed to amass an army of defenders who have given it glowing praise. I’ve even seen this title referred to as a classic, which is honestly baffling to me.
If you brush away all the baggage and look at this title for what it is, you’ll see a very flawed product that must have had a troubled development. In fact it did have a troubled development because, an entirely different team had to be brought on to finish the game after months passed without progress from the initial group of devs. The new team was inexperienced and had a huge job dropped in their laps. All things considered, it’s a miracle DMC2 has any redeeming qualities at all.
It would be far too tedious to rattle off all the details about this game here, so we’ll just jump into the full review.
It’s a game about nothing!!
Devil May Cry 2’s story is arguably its worst quality. While the first game was often melodramatic and silly, it managed to entertain players. DMC2’s plot is far from entertaining, even when it tries to surprise us with twists. You’re given the premise with exposition dumps delivered with limp dialog that makes it difficult to care about what’s going on. The story also lacks the cohesiveness of the first DMC. Things often just kind of happen and the player has to fill in the gaps. Having to use your imagination to tease out details can be a good thing, but the general flow of the plot has to be coherent for that type of storytelling to work, which isn’t the case here.
It’s also clear that the new director struggled to pin down Dante’s character. They tried to do the “bad boy with a heart of gold” shtick that worked the first time, but this Dante feels like a simulacrum of the real deal. The closest comparison I can come up with is when they sometimes replace an actor in a show and keep the character; the new actor doesn’t quite fit the role and everything feels wrong. They even tried to add some flair to pseudo-Dante by having him make decisions by flipping a coin, like Twoface from Batman, but it doesn’t work.
Then there’s Lucia, a new playable character. I don’t even know where to start with her. They tried to make her a tragic, yet strong hero, but it just didn’t land. I think a lot of it has to do with the poor dialog and the apathetic manner in which her backstory is delivered. Regardless, Lucia is just as unlikable and boring as Dante, if not more so.
Next we come to Arius, one of the worst antagonists I’ve seen and I mean worst in terms of how he is written. While we are expected to dislike him because, he looks unpleasant and we are told early on that he’s a bad guy, he doesn’t do anything to illustrate his evil badness. In fact, he barely does anything at all. He comes off more as a greedy CEO who should be in jail for white collar crimes than an existential threat to humanity.
It’s hard to explain what is exactly wrong with the story, so I hope what I said has sufficed. I’ll try to sum it up by saying that the story suffers from its own form of the Uncanny Valley Effect. There’s a plot, there’s dialog, there’s a cast, and things happen, but none of it feels right. It’s as though the story of DMC2 is a random sequence of words and images pretending to be a narrative.
Devil May Diesel
Devil May Cry 2 is generally superior to the first game in terms of graphics despite feeling sterile and empty in comparison. Character models and environments are more crisp, clean, and detailed. There are also some really cool looking bosses and effects.
I really liked the weapon designs because, they were consistently excellent. Many of Dante and Lucia’s weapons looked like they could have been in a low end PS3 title, which was quite an accomplishment for graphics that were made in 2003.
The world is very detailed as well, though it lacks the tight, almost claustrophobic design philosophy of DMC1. Nice as many of the environments were, they felt sprawling and empty all too often. In a way, this benefited the overall mood of the game, but I couldn’t help but think it could have been done far better.
I also have to give Capcom some credit for creating some cool monsters and bosses, my favorite being a demon that possessed an entire skyscraper. At the same time, none of them really measured up to DMC1.
They dropped the ball when it came to Dante and Lucia’s character models. While the quality was there, the actual art style left a lot to be desired. I’m not one to really notice things like clothes and hair color in games, but the way Dante and Lucia are dressed is bad enough to make even me do a double take. They turned the saturation up on both character’s hair to the point where it was distracting in cutscenes. Dante is also wearing this weird vest coat and Lucia has this dumb looking scarf thing. Don’t even get me started on Lucia’s lame demon form, which is just ridiculous.
Capcom seemed to have had a deal with the clothing company Diesel (something I’ll talk about in greater detail later) and I can’t help but wonder if one of their fashion designers was involved in the creation of the heroes’ character models. It would explain the strange clothes and ugly color pallettes. A fashion designer is the sort of person who should be nowhere near the development of a video game because, you get crap like this when hipsters get involved.
Dante Doesn’t Die
The gameplay is basically on par with the story, so I guess Capcom were consistent if nothing else. DMC2 is a series of sprawling, empty areas sprinkled with the occasional group of monsters or item. Gone are the often cramped, interconnected rooms of the castle that made the first game feel so fluid. Gone is the crunchy, fast paced combat, where even Normal Difficulty forced players to be on their toes. It was all replaced with a game that feels flat and lifeless.
You can pretty much get away with just circling enemies while shooting at them for every fight. Most monsters are rather passive, so you do not have to worry about getting rushed by a pack of enemies, plus just about everything can be stunlocked. Even the bosses are pushovers. In fact, I stood in a corner shooting the next to last boss without getting hit for three quarters of the fight. This is a far cry from DMC1, which forced players to use every tool they had in their arsenal and punished them for slight mistakes.
Even if it were necessary to use combos, swap weapons, and play strategically, there really isn’t much for players to work with. Maybe I’m just bad at this game (unlikely since I died once in Dante’s story and not at all in Lucia’s) and couldn’t figure it out, but both characters just use the same combo over and over no matter how you press the stick. I did see Dante use a different move a few times, but I couldn’t replicate it. On the other hand, DMC1 had a repertoire of moves and explained how to use them, plus you actually needed said moves to survive.
The Devil Trigger is no better. Capcom tried to improve upon it by allowing players to swap between gems that added effects to each character’s devil form, which was a good idea. Unfortunately, it was not implemented very well. Unless you need to use the Quick Heart or Aerial Heart gems to get somewhere, there’s basically a best gem setup that you’ll use all the time, so most of the gems are kind of pointless. They also didn’t add any special moves to the Devil Trigger and you’ll basically just brainlessly mash buttons like you do through the rest of the game.
Finding Blue Orbs that increase the life bar, weapons, and gems did add a little variety to the action. Every weapon at least feels different from the rest and players can generally stick with what they like. You can also upgrade gear using Red Orbs, however doing so felt more like a bonus than a life or death choice.
You can also find secret rooms where Dante or Lucia must defeat a few waves of monsters to get some extra Red Orbs and a few other small goodies. Finding these rooms meant tedious searching of doorways and nooks using the Circle Button, which also causes the hero to roll or run up the wall, which made the entire process a headache. Once again, the first Devil May Cry did it better with its challenging, yet relatively easy to find secret missions.
There are two discs, one with Dante’s missions and one with Lucia’s. There isn’t much difference between the two characters despite their aesthetics and a lot of assets are reused in both stories. They even get the same Devil Trigger gems, though the order is switched up. I guess it’s nice they have two characters for people who really like this game. I was basically checked out by the time I got to Lucia.
I’ve criticized DMC2 a lot, but it’s important to understand the gameplay isn’t terrible. Sure, it can get boring and offers little challenge, but it’s not heinous. I had some fun even though I had start forcing myself to play about halfway through the first disc. That said, I can see how fans of the first game were angry. DMC2 is a pale shadow of what came before it and not worthy of the hype it received.
Extra content for those who want it…
To DMC2’s credit, there is a lot of stuff to unlock by completing the game. There’s new skins (not that anyone would want them), higher difficulties, and even a secret playable character. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think DMC2 was good enough to warrant a third or fourth playthrough and I certainly don’t think I should have to wade through hours of overly easy gameplay just to unlock what may or may not be a worthy challenge, but it’s all there if you want it. In the end, it was nice of Capcom to care enough to add replay value, since they could have just completed the game and left it at that.
At Least the Music is Better
I didn’t like the first game’s soundtrack because, it felt incongruous with the atmosphere. Devil May Cry 2 keeps the quasi-techno music, but it’s a lot heavier and more driving, so it fits the mood of the game much better. It’s kind of ironic that the dull action is set to a superior BGM, but here we are. The ambient music and sound which plays between fights is also very good like it was in the first DMC.
Somehow, the voice acting got worse!
The first DMC was notorious for having hammy, amateurish voice overs, however, they were at least funny and entertaining. One could argue that the voice work in this game is more competent than that of its forerunner. At the same time, it’s robotic and soulless, which is worse in my opinion. Lucia also has this fake French accent that I can’t stand. Come to think of it, it’s probably the main reason I don’t like her. At any rate, while DMC1 had me laughing, DMC2 made me wince and I found myself tempted to skip cutscenes just so I didn’t have to hear anyone talk.
They got the controls right!
Of all the things they could have done well, it’s the controls that get high marks. Capcom fixed the button layout from the first game, so you roll and jump with X and Circle instead of using Triangle/R1. They also made targeting automatic, which isn’t great, but better than how it was originally done. You can even change both types of weapons with the trigger buttons now. The menus are also laid out nicely and are a breeze to use.
All in all, both heroes control really well. Everything feels very responsive and is set up nicely. Even the swimming controls, which were weird in the first game, were fixed. Guess they had to get something 100% right.
Wait, where’s Trish!?
This is a major spoiler DMC1 and a minor one for DMC2, so skip this section if you do not want anything ruined. I’ll wait….
.
.
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Ok, if you played DMC1, you might expect Trish to play a major role in Devil May Cry 2. After all, the game ends with Dante and Trish going on a demon hunt together. I’m sure a lot of fans expected Trish when they heard there would be two playable characters. I know I would have liked to see her shooting yellow lightning at demons.
Instead, we got Lucia, who has the personality of a month old banana. I was disappointed by Lucia and I’m sure many other fans were. A lot of continuity was lost when they decided to shoe-horn her in. She would probably have been fine as a side character or a third playable hero.
Oddly enough, you can play Trish as a secret character after beating Hard Mode. Why they put her in as an afterthought is beyond me. I suppose someone figured they had to include her to keep fans from revolting.
And now a word from our sponsor!
If there’s one thing that grinded my gears when I finished this game, it was seeing Dante and Lucia dressed up like rejects from the Village People with an ad for Diesel clothing in the corner. I know advertising has become fairly common in games and everything else, but it wasn’t in 2003. Capcom knew they were in the wrong and hid their little ad at the end, which is even worse.
Remember, DMC2 probably cost somewhere between fifty and sixty-five USD to buy, which was a lot more money in 2003 than it is today. I would have been furious if I dropped money on a new copy of this game just to see an ad at the end. I could rant about how this garbage led to the issues we see in some modern releases, but I’ll leave it at that. Also, I’m well aware that this site has ads, but I’m not charging people sixty bucks to look at it.
Final Thoughts
I know I was hard on this game, but I’ve always been honest about my opinions in reviews, even if it means drawing heat. Devil May Cry 2 isn’t very fun and it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the series aside from a few quality of life improvements. As far as I’m concerned, this sequel is skippable. In fact, I passed on it decades ago when it came out; my recent playthrough of it confirmed that I didn’t miss anything.
Like I said, I have a lot of sympathy for the team who created DMC2. They were put in charge of a project that had been dead in the water for six months and had a lot of pressure on them to follow up a game that had become something of a legend in its own time. They also weren’t responsible for the Diesel ads, which are the sort of thing some greedy, brain dead suit would come up with. The next game in the series turned out to be a redemption arc for the DMC2 team. If there’s something I like more than a good game, it’s one that rose from the ashes of a struggling series.
Usually, I try and recommend a game based on who I would think it appeals to, but I’m hard pressed to think of who would enjoy Devil May Cry 2. It’s not that it doesn’t have any redeeming qualities, it’s just that it’s mediocre in a world where there are thousands of better games to play. That said, one of my friends likes Devil May Cry 2, so clearly there’s a niche for it. The best I can say is give it a try if you’re really curious, otherwise, pass on it.
Thanks for reading this Devil May Cry 2 Review!
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