After years of anticipation and an ill-received reboot of the franchise, Capcom released Devil May Cry 5 in March of 2019 to critical and commercial acclaim. Hailed as one of the best action games of its generation and "of all time," the title set a brand-new benchmark for the genre with a return to form for the Devil May Cry franchise. Capcom had been silent on DLC coming out for its flagship action game, with Bloody Palace being added as a free update post-launch. With the upcoming launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, Capcom opted to revisit their legendary title one more time.
Announced at the PlayStation 5 Showcase, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition is confirmed to be a digital launch title for the next generation of consoles, with a physical copy coming at a later date. As is customary with the release of a Special Edition version of Devil May Cry, the biggest main addition is the inclusion of Dante's twin brother Vergil as a playable character, following the tradition started with Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.
With the upgrade to the next generation, DMC5SE is bringing more to the table with a promise to take advantage of the power of the next generation.
The Technical Changes of DMC5SE
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, DMC5 Producer Matt Walker took the time to describe some of the changes under the hood of the game on its journey to the next generation platforms. Going in-depth with its graphical changes, Walker demonstrated the new ray tracing technology implemented in DMC5SE, noting that the PS5's capabilities would allow the game's engine to "calculate light bounces, and therefore draw truly dynamic reflections and provide even more realistic lighting and shadows." Walker would go on to state that this allowed for three different options for players whether they prioritize performance or graphical fidelity. With ray tracing enabled, players can go 4K at 30FPS or 1080p at 60FPS. Should players disable ray tracing, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition is able to go up to 120FPS at 4K, promising smoother gameplay for players.
Owing to the PS5's SSD, DMC5SE will also see much reduced load times, effectively eliminating one of the few complaints that players held against the original title on its previous release. Further attributed to the power of the next generation platforms, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition will also feature 3D audio, allowing players to hear where enemies are approaching based on sound alone. In the PS Blog post, Walker used the example of being surrounded by an army of Hellbats. After being surrounded by the Hellbats, Walker said that players will "be able to pinpoint specifically where they all are in relation to the camera based on their cries".
The Gameplay and Content Changes to DMC5SE
Content-wise, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition promises to load the game with a promising suite of gameplay features and additions when coming to the next generation of consoles, with the new features having a history of being added in the Special Edition versions of Devil May Cry titles. The Turbo Mode, seemingly inspired by Capcom's own Street Fighter 2, returns from DMC3SE, with players now able to set the game to run at 1.2x the normal speed. Fans of the franchise will be happy to see this feature return, as the Turbo Mode has become a long-standing favorite since its inception, with Walker mentioning that the increased speed finds "a perfect sweet spot of speed vs. controllability."
Also returning to the franchise is the Legendary Dark Knight Mode that was introduced in the PC version of the original Devil May Cry 4 as well as Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition across all current generation platforms. Legendary Dark Knight Mode takes the game's "Son of Sparda" difficulty setting as a base while throwing many more enemies at the player, with rooms flooded with demons numbering in the double-digits where there would normally be less than a handful. In praising the technology that made this possible, Walker states that "this can only be done at this graphical quality, thanks to the upgrades in horsepower and memory that PS5 features."
Perhaps the most notable addition, however, was the inclusion of Dante's brother Vergil. Having seen his playable debut in Devil May Cry 3 through an "easter egg," he would be fully playable for the first time in Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition. With Devil May Cry 4 following the story of Nero, Vergil would not see another playable appearance within the DMC franchise until the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 4 released seven years after the original. With the upcoming re-release of Devil May Cry 5, history repeats itself as Vergil, absent as a playable character in the original version, would return once more in the Special Edition.
With this suite of features and the return of Vergil as a playable character, Capcom looks to make the next generation release of Devil May Cry 5 a stand-out title to herald the launch of the new consoles. The Special Edition releases of Devil May Cry tend to follow a pattern of simply adding to the existing package, and Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition looks to continue the cycle as the critically-acclaimed action game looks to meet the launch of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, ensuring that players will have one of the best action games made even better at the onset of the next generation of platforms.
Source: PlayStation Blog