After 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry‘s divisive release and remaster, it took a long time before gamers saw their favourite demon hunter make his return. While the Special Edition re-release of Devil May Cry 4 was a quick yet modest fix to repair goodwill among fans, it wasn’t until 2019 that Capcom unleashed Devil May Cry 5 on eighth-generation consoles. It was an absolute beast of a return for the franchise, and it was even more ferocious when it got a Special Edition on ninth-generation consoles! With every major Capcom release finding its way onto Nintendo Switch 2, it was only a matter of time before Dante’s triumphant return. Are the sons of Sparda too much for the handheld’s specs? What’s new in Devil May Cry 5: Devil Hunter Edition?
Most people didn’t play Devil May Cry 5 for its story, but they should. Sure, it’s about a gang of cartoony demon hunters who are battling their way through an evil world tree to fight a demon king. It’s also a poignant meditation on moving on. Redemption doesn’t require erasing the past; it is possible to break free from its chains. Broken families can begin to mend. Old wounds don’t have to keep bleeding forever. The duality of man and demon symbolises that denying any part of oneself leads to imbalance and destruction, while embracing one’s full self (i.e., character flaws, past mistakes, trauma) allows genuine redemption and forward movement. The over-the-top action sets the stage for a surprisingly heartfelt reflection on identity and family.
Entertaining, well-constructed cutscenes frame these rich, personal themes. A significant amount of effort went into the production of these scenes. The Devil Hunter Edition includes “live action” versions of the cutscenes, which feature actors and stunt performers in amusingly cheap costumes, along with low-budget special effects. These live-action sequences were created to help visualise the scenes for animators and to prepare for motion capture. Scenes are immaculately choreographed and packed with amusing sight gags and subtle character moments that go a long way in defining their personalities. On Nintendo Switch 2, the visual presentation seems very close to how it looked on the base PlayStation 4. Shadow quality, depth of field, model detail, and effects will look the same to the average gamer.
Gameplay-wise, this is still Devil May Cry 5 and is still do-or-die at 60 frames per second. For the uninitiated, this is a stylish action-adventure game that emphasises combo variety, enemy juggling, positioning, and maintaining a high Style Rank. High-level play rewards creativity by mixing attacks, avoiding damage, taunting, and using varied moves without spamming the same attack. Devil Hunter Edition features four playable characters that share core movement: jump, double jump, dash, and air hike, but each has a distinct combat identity.
Nero plays as a balanced, aggressive swordsman with a rotation of Devil Breaker prosthetic arms that offer unique utility like rocket punches, grappling, crowd control, or mobility before they break on heavy use. His Devil Bringer grab can pull enemies in or launch them away, and once unlocked, his Devil Trigger grants strong regeneration and adds even more variety to his move set.
Dante is the most versatile and complex character. He switches on the fly between four melee weapons, four ranged weapons, and four Styles: Trickster for evasion, Royal guard for parrying, Swordmaster, and Gunslinger. His range is near-infinite combo potential through weapon switching, cancelling, and juggling. His gameplay rewards deep mastery and improvisation. If Nero is a smooth luxury automatic sedan, Dante is the souped-up stick shift muscle car.
V is the least fun and trickiest to use due to his reliance on familiars. There’s a degree of separation between him and the monsters, with a delay in inputs because players aren’t controlling them as a single unit, but rather controlling V, who gives commands that the monsters then carry out. V is best when he stays back while commanding three demonic familiars – Shadow, Griffon, and Nightmare – to attack. He still needs to swoop in to finish weakened enemies with his cane for stylish kills, making him a strategic summoner who excels at crowd control but is fragile up close. It’s easy to accidentally earn SSS ranks with him or completely mess up a fight and end up dead in a flash.
Nero and Dante may be fun as hell to play compared to V, but since he was added in the Special Edition, Vergil has become the headliner. He’s present and accounted for in Devil Hunter Edition, and he’s still a high-mobility, precision-focused character built around overwhelming speed and devastating single-hit power. He’s armed with three weapons: the Yamato for rapid slashes and ranged attacks, the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves for heavy blunt combos, and the summonable phantom greatswords for projectile attacks and formations. Vergil’s gameplay is so complex and deep that he is like three characters in one.
Vergil’s Concentration Gauge fills up the more aggressively he plays. It requires clean, precise attacks, taunting, and avoiding unnecessary movements or hits. Higher concentration levels massively boost damage, range, and properties: Yamato gains longer reach and multi-hits, Beowulf unlocks stronger charged attacks, and Mirage Edge creates more blades. At max concentration, his attacks become ridiculous. His mechanics foster the most fluid, aggressive, and visually spectacular gameplay; fast, punishing, and deeply satisfying for players who master his tempo and concentration management. He feels like the ultimate expression of the series’ stylish philosophy.
Sadly, Vergil’s campaign is lazily assembled by recycling all stages for Dante, V, and Nero. The levels just aren’t built to handle the relentless punishment skilled Vergil players will throw at them. It would have been neat if he had some original content to go with his mechanics, and if the game allowed players to run the full suite of levels entirely as the other characters, too.
Devil Hunter Edition is a solid port of Devil May Cry 5 that runs about as well as it can on Nintendo Switch 2. It’s roughly like-for-like as it is on the base PlayStation 4. Yes, it’s true: this is not the Special Edition, despite Vergil’s inclusion and the DLC present and accounted for. There is no 120fps, no 4K resolution, no Turbo mode, and most regrettably, no Legendary Dark Knight mode. Those features demanded the high specs of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S since they boost the game to absurd levels that are not feasible on Nintendo’s handheld.
Losing Legendary Dark Knight mode is the most regrettable cut since that was the best way to farm orbs because it dramatically increased enemy counts tenfold. Vergil has a lot of moves to learn, and not having Legendary Dark Knight mode makes the grind much longer to learn everything. It would have been nice for some Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive features like bonus mini-games for quicker orb acquisition, extra costumes, or another playable character to make up for the compromises.
While Devil Hunter Edition may not match the suite of technical features and bonus modes from the Special Edition, players will still find that this is an exceptional port of a great game that is unbelievably hard to put down. Vergil is here, and he is still the most important addition. Devil May Cry 5 is widely regarded as one of the best games Capcom released during its redemption arc, which kicked off with Resident Evil 7, and for good reason. It's jam-packed with polished action, thrills, and some of the most refined and ridiculous 3D combat ever designed.
