I was skeptical knowing that Capcom was going to attempt to help create a mobile game set in the Devil May Cry universe with NebulaJoy. I wouldn’t really call this part of the franchise, since it’s more or less just a spin-off with a very loose story featuring key members from the Devil May Cry series. But given Capcom’s previous foray into the mobile genre with Sengoku Basara: Battle Party, my hopes weren’t exactly high on whatever it was Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat was potentially going to deliver. While there is some good in this portable action game, the entire experience is bogged down in over-complicated systems that encourage players to dip into their wallets was early as the first mission.
Over the years, I’ve come to the realization that I’m a real hound for Capcom games. Resident Evil. Sengoku Basara. Devil May Cry. Haunting Ground. If it happened to come out during the PlayStation 2 and GameCube generation, I probably played it. Mostly because I just really liked what Capcom was dishing out. So naturally, given my propensity for the company’s games and my love for all things Devil May Cry (even the Japan-exclusive stage play that was really just OK), that I’d be down to eat up what Peak of Combat was selling. Unfortunately, the game itself is really inconsistent in several ways that dragged down whatever good was left in it.
The translations and voice acting are all over the place. In-game cutscenes are rarely voiced, and when they are the voice acting is flat and sounds like middling to bad attempts at impersonating the core cast of Devil May Cry. It could be a case of bad direction, but it’s very uneven when you realize that the voice actors for Peak of Combat didn’t even end up voicing the barks and battle noises for the characters when you do play the game. While Lady has an entirely new voice actress throughout, but Johnny Yong Bosch, Ruben Langdon, and Dan Southworth’s performances in previous Devil May Cry games seemed to have been reused. So it’s really jarring when you jump from a cutscene into gameplay and Dante, Vergil, and Nero just sound, well, right. In relation to the translations, there are loads of grammatical errors and sentences that are in sore need of localization. Some of it seems machine translated, or not cleaned up in a way to make character descriptions or tutorials sound natural. Going through the early segment of the game I had to double-take when Lady asked me to “Use potion to level up character.”
Character designs have remained mostly the same throughout, with players able to obtain new cosmetic options by obtaining weapons from the gacha. The gacha, which also shares materials, means that your Epic level drop could be a catalyst for upgrading a weapon and not the weapon itself. Now, one of the first things the game allows you to do is to perform ten x10 pulls to celebrate the (eventual) release of the game, with the option to pick one of those x10 pulls at the end. But there’s a catch.
You need to pay $60 to keep that x10 pull.
What seems like a generous offer and is pretty standard with a lot of modern mobile games is actually just a way to get you to spend money. Same with obtaining a “better” version of Vergil, as you can pay a total of $10 for to push him up to S-Rank (because everything functions on Devil May Cry‘s style ranks). This offer is given to you immediately after the game lets you try him out in one boss encounter. Boosting characters doesn’t even make a significant difference, because there are so many systems layered on that wants you to use Red Orbs to level things up.
You can use Red Orbs to unlock more combos for characters and even level up attacks, which is admittedly really cool because that’s stock and standard for Devil May Cry. But Red Orbs are also used to level up Cards, which increase passive stats, level up your character, level up your weapons, and so forth. The currency that seems bountiful in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 ends up getting drained pretty quickly. I would generally say it isn’t worth investing in lower rarity weapons, but because Peak of Combat x10 pulls are so expensive that you may as well just make what you’re given work for you.
Concerning gameplay, the game actually has that cool factor Devil May Cry is known for. Attacks are tied to whatever weapon the character has equipped, which changes how they play and is important for your party composition. You can take a total of three characters onto the field with you, that you can switch between almost-freely bar a few second delay. It felt awesome chaining combos between Dante, Lady, and Nero, getting that SSS Rank, which isn’t super hard to do, but still makes you feel cool. Which plays into the design philosophy around Devil May Cry, so in that Peak of Combat absolutely nailed it. Everything else? Not so much.
The game gives you way too much to do outside of going through the main story to rank up your own personal office to unlock more quests. This becomes an issue because the game functions on a stamina. Thankfully this doesn’t include the main story, so you can just keep chugging along there until you hit a hard block. But you grind out materials and Red Orbs this way through several different game play systems that seems kind of overwrought. It’s just too much of a not-good-thing, when there’s so much potential for this to genuinely just be awesome there.
Devil May Cry: The Peak of Combat is a cool game dragged down by the need to make more and more money every year. It has all of the hallmarks of a game that desperately wants you to spend something on it. Be it the three-tiered Battle Pass, weapon pulls, character upgrades, stamina refills, whatever. It’s hard not to be cynical about it, but I’ve seen the way Sengoku Basara: Battle Party went with it’s VIP levels and upgrade systems. But maybe Peak of Combat will have a longer lifespan due to it’s fun combat, perhaps even drawing players who want a more active experience in. It’s just hard not to see getting worse from here.
Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat is available in early access for Android and iOS.
