I played DMC4 around release and was wondering how the Special Edition is. I quite like DMC4 but still kinda sore about the backtracking even to this day.

Does it hold up? Do the additional characters make this worth another go?

I'll answer your questions with some questions: How much did you like playing as Virgel in DMC3? How interested are you in playing as Lady and Trish? And was backtracking really that bad?

(I timestamped it for the DMC4:SE part).

I love DMC4, the Special Edition doesn't really change all that much it still has the same problems as before, but i enjoyed messing with the new characters purely because i love DMC4 so much.
Lady is a weird challenge due to her lack of a sword, Vergil is Vergil, much like you remember him from DMC3, and Trish is an overpowered monster who i enjoyed using the most.

Don't pick it up if you're looking for improvements, they are there but they're minor, pick it up if you're certain you'll still enjoy it.

I love this game, and it's a prettier, smoother version for sure. I only bought it because my 360 copy was messed up, which is a fine version that doesn't suffer from lacking the bonus characters, which are a fun and cool addition, but hardly as profound as the changes in the amazing DMC3:SE.

However, it's usually pretty dirt cheap in sales and whatnot, and it starts to make sense as a nostalgic, capricious purchase when you're paying $8 for it or whatever.

@cikame: @facelessvixen: The inclusion of Vergil, Lady, and Trish is cool but I'm asking 'cause I don't think of DMC4 as timeless like DMC3. I really did like DMC4 at the time but I do wonder how it's aged. I did think the backtracking was that bad, it's awful and indefensible in my eyes.

It's still Devil May Cry 4, so it's still a really good combat system stretched over half a game. I think the new characters are a lot of fun, and there are some neat little quality of life changes, but you're still going to go through almost every area twice fighting most of the same bosses, just with a different character (or, in Virgil's case, just fighting every boss like 3 times). That didn't bother me all that much, and I ended up beating the game with all 3 sets of characters, but if that was a deal breaker for you a decade ago it hasn't changed now.

I will say the game goes on sale pretty frequently, so for like... $7 or however much they charge for it, I'd say it's worth your time even in that context.

@liquiddragon:Well, the funny thing to me about the "Does it hold up?" question is less about the game in question and more about whether or not a person's interests and preferences have changed over that time. In my case, not really. On a good day, DMC4 is my second favorite of the series. On a bad day, it's my third. Either way, there's a point where comparing 4 to 3 just becomes overthinking since DMC3 is probably still the best character action game out there with Bayonetta 1 or 2 as a close second, and DMC4 is just a couple of inches away from that very high bar, as opposed to DMC2.

And as for my take on the backtracking, I didn't complain about it then since finally getting to play as Dante was so awesome and took the rematches against those bosses as "Of course Dante will finish them off for good since he's stronger then Nero", and I can't complain about it now since the variety in what you're doing in those zones has increased by three characters with different mechanics to learn; granted that my threshold for backtracking is very high, like, I intentionally do it in RPGs to get more money and such, so doing it in a shorter gameplay-driven game strikes me as a nonissue. But hey, I learned a long time ago that things that I say are just "fine" and "okay" are the Internet at large's worst things ever, so, like with Persona waifu wars, to each their own.

So, since I'm of the mind where you'll get the best answer by playing the game instead of asking random people on the internet, maybe borrow a copy from a friend, or, just say "fuck it" during a Steam, Humble Bundle or Green Man Gaming sale if PC is an option?

@facelessvixen: Dude, if you don't want to answer, that's fine, don't. Some ppl don't have friends that play games anymore, I'm sry I'm asking strangers on the internet. I don't get it, some other guy got all pissy I asked how Mario + Rabbids was 'cause it's last year's game and the conversation had apparently been exhausted. Are we really not allow to ask about games anymore? I still like character action games but it's a decade old game. I don't think it's so crazy to ask if the game holds up.

As for backtracking, there are ways to do it cleverly and meaningfully. This is a prime example how not to do it. You go from A to B to B to A and the reason you do it is because developers wanted to pad out the hours. Again, I enjoyed the game but I don't think it's the internet being the internet. It's an insulting aspect of the game and it's a reasonable criticism.

@liquiddragon: Nah, I'm not one of those angry weebs and didn't mean to come off that way. I'll just mark this down as another case of my facetious persona and DIY tendencies not [emotionally] translating as intended through text. It's been a running thing for me since 2013. I'm a nice person once you get to know me. ;)

Anyway, I pretty much gave my two cents on the game: Pretty decent as both a DMC and a character action game. Playing as Virgel again is awesome. And backtracking isn't a big deal for me, even in Kingdom Hearts 1.

@liquiddragon: it’s the same game with some minor improvements.

So that’s about that. All the bad parts are still there with no effort to bring in any quality of life improvements. If you enjoyed it then and was able to look past the shitty check pointing, some bad camera situations and a game that gets mirrored halfway through then you’ll get all that in the SE with a few more characters and some sharper textures.

Yeah they didn't address the backtracking and stuff in any real way. The faults in that game are still the same faults, and nothing they add with SE really hides the fact that they really didn't have enough game in there originally.

Still, DMC4's major strength is how fun it is to just play. The backtracking doesn't bother me as much because I really play that game to fight different demons and do cool stuff in combat. I'd have liked more variation in enemies and environments, but the combat in the regular version of 4 was really good imo so I replay it a lot. With SE, Trish and Lady are interesting but didn't really click with me beyond one playthrough. Vergil, on the other hand, is probably the character I have the most fun with in that game. Managing distance, taunting, and unleashing a demonic barrage of slashes to wipe out an entire screen of demons is just great times (although he has no Dante/Nero switch so his playthrough might feel even worse from a backtracking perspective).

I say the special edition is worth it (especially considering the sales it goes on these days), but if 4 in its original version wasn't a game you were really interested in going back to ever, this version probably won't change your mind on it.

Same as the original release. Suburb, absolutely unmatched character action combat system wrapped in a incomplete mess of a game. This one has 3 extra characters to play as and, if you only ever played it on a console, runs at a more solid framerate and looks better.

I enjoyed playing as Trish and Vergil (Lady aint great) but the stages and boss fights are bad in my opinion. They were impressive at the time due to their size but they werent very fun to fight and i'm worried that DMC 5 will make the same mistake of spectacle over substance. (boss fights that require good timing and pattern recognition)

That being said there arent a lot of these types of games being made these days and if you want something to tide you over until DMC 5 and you havent already played the Bayonetta games then it's worth getting since it's usually pretty cheap. Just be aware, as many have pointed out, that they didnt really fix the issues they just added more characters.

DMC4 still has some of the best mechanics in a character action game for my money, it's just a shame that the game they're attached to is pretty lame. The backtracking is as rough, if not more rough, as you remember it, and it's really messed up that halfway through the game they make you play as a character with entirely different controls while also scaling up the difficulty. Then they make you switch back in the final boss fight just to see if you remember how to play this character you haven't seen in several hours!

As for the new characters they added, they seem to just be the game on easy mode. They all feature mechanics that enemies can't deal with and kind of break the game. They're a fun novelty, but not really the additional challenge you might hope them to be. The main story stays the same regardless of character choice.

In brief: if you want to spend a lot of time in the bloody palace mode then maybe buy this game, but if you're coming to it for the story mode or additional content then just wait until DMC 5.