The Story Timeline Order of Devil May Cry Games
Devil May Cry is a franchise of action-adventure video games. Devil May Cry games are known for the unique protagonist character who appears in many games, Dante, who became a worldwide known game character due to his personality. Likewise, Devil May Cry 5 featured Nero, who also is a famous character among Devil May Cry fans around the world. It is reasonable to describe Devil May Cry video games as action-adventure games with unique protagonists. Devil May Cry games are characterized by the engaging action gameplay, main characters with unique personality, and otherworldly enemies.
Devil May Cry games also allow players to use different fighting styles and weapons, adding to the variety of gameplay and allowing players to choose the fighting styles that they prefer. This unique characteristic distinguishes Devil May Cry among other action-adventure games, as well as among 3D beat 'em up, or hack-and-slash, video games.
What Are Devil May Cry Games Like?
Devil May Cry video games are action-adventure video games, in which the protagonist game characters often fight otherwordly demons. After defeating enemies, the game character can improve through the upgrade of different skills. Quite often, Devil May Cry video games feature different fighting styles that adapt to different players' preferences.
While Devil May Cry games may be accurately described as action-adventure video games, they can also be reasonably described as 3D beat 'em up games, also known as third-person hack-and-slash video games, in which players fight large quantities of enemies in order to progress through the storyline.
Many of the Devil May Cry video games feature the character Dante as the game protagonist, such as Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and DmC: Devil May Cry. However, Dante is not always the only playable main character of Devil May Cry games. Devil May Cry 4, for example while also featuring Dante, also features Nero as a playable character. Devil May Cry 5 features Dante, Nero and V as playable characters.
The first Devil May Cry games feature a tank camera perspective, which was popularized by the Resident Evil games. In Devil May Cry games, the game character often fights enemies in gothic environments, such as abandoned castles. While Devil May Cry video games typically feature gothic envornments, these games are generally set in modern day, which can be observed in some of the moments in which the locations include urban environments like cities.
The first Devil May Cry video games are organized in different missions. In each mission, players fight different enemies, and earn scores based on their performance during the mission. Devil May Cry games often feature large bosses which must be defeated in order to progress through the storyline.
Unlike the first Devil May Cry games, DmC: Devil May Cry features a third-person camera perspective. Just like DmC: Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 5 features a third-person camera perspective as well.
Devil May Cry games are action games, and thus feature a variety of different weapons and moves which can be employed to fight the different enemies presented in the games. It is notable how Devil May Cry games not only feature typical action game elements, such as scores for fighting enemies, but they also reward players for how stylish the gameplay is, a feature quite unique and seldom seen in action games. Certainly, the "style" characteristic of the Devil May Cry games is one of their distinctive characteristic in the action games genre.
Is There an Order to Play the Devil May Cry Games?
While the Devil May Cry video games can be played and enjoyed in any order, it is suggested to play these games in chronological story order for the most comprehensive story experience possible. This is particularly suggested to the players who have great interest of the Devil May Cry games lore and backstory. In general, the Devil May Cry games share common protagonists and characters, who have their own motivations and backstories, and this context can be better appreciated by players who choose to play these games in chronological story order.
While it is suggested to play the Devil May Cry video games in chronological story order for the most comprehensive story experience possible, the exception to this suggestion would be DmC: Devil May Cry, which takes place in an alternate continuity, and for this reason, is not directly related, chronologically, to the other Devil May Cry video games. For this reason, I believe that DmC: Devil May Cry could be played in any order in relation to the other Devil May Cry games.
The Story Timeline Order of Devil May Cry Games
This is the story timeline order of the Devil May Cry video games. This is different than the chronological release order of the games. This is specially true considering that Devil May 3: Dante's Awakening was released after Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2, but chronologically takes place before Devil May Cry. The chronological story order presented in this list is the suggested order in which to play the Devil May Cry video games for the most comprehensive story experience possible.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 4 | Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition
Devil May Cry 5
DmC: Devil May Cry
Despite being the third game in number, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is chronologically set before the first Devil May Cry game, Devil May Cry. For this reason, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening was placed before Devil May Cry in my chronological story order list.
While it is true that Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition adds new content to the original Devil May Cry 4, such as new cutscenes as well as more story content, the main story of the game is the same as the one in Devil May Cry 4. For this reason, I decided to include both Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition as a single entry in my chronological story order of the Devil May Cry video games.
DmC: Devil May Cry is set in a different continuity than the one of the other Devil May Cry video games. For this reason, it would be unreasonable to include this game in the same chronological story order, since it is not related, chronologically, to the other games. Instead, I decided to separate DmC: Devil May Cry from the other games with a blank space, in order to make it clear that this game does not belong to the same continuity.
Sources of Research: