Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition Review

Capcom's stylish demon-slayer returns, and Switch 2 handles it without breaking a sweat.

Capcom has been on an absolute roll lately, and it's easy to forget that this wasn't always the case. The studio went through a rough patch where quality dipped hard across several releases, and even a polarizing reboot got more grief than it probably deserved at the time.

Resident Evil 7 marked the turning point, and the titles that followed only proved the comeback was real, building momentum that carried into remakes and new entries across multiple franchises. Devil May Cry 5 dropped in 2019 right in the middle of that resurgence, and it stood as proof that Capcom hadn't lost its touch with character-action games, a genre the studio practically helped define decades earlier. 

Now, years later, Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition has found a new home on Nintendo's latest hardware, repackaged as the Devil Hunter Edition, and you get to decide whether this portable version is worth your time. If you've never touched on it before, you're in for a treat, and if you've already finished it elsewhere, you'll want to know what's changed before deciding to buy it again.

It's also worth noting the timing here, since this port arrives years after the original launch and well after the game already received an expanded edition on other platforms, so a lot of what's "new" for Switch 2 owners isn't actually new to the series at all. 

The setup behind the game centers on the city of Red Grave, where a mysterious figure named V shows up asking Dante and Nero for help against a demon called Urizen, who's tangled up with a sinister tree known as the Qliphoth. You'll bounce between three perspectives as the story unfolds—Nero, Dante, and V, each one giving you a different angle on what's actually going on and slowly piecing together how everyone's paths intersect. 

Familiar faces like Lady, Trish, and Nico pop in throughout.

The long-simmering rivalry between Dante and his twin brother Vergil gets plenty of attention too, especially as the larger plot edges toward its climax. If you're jumping into Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition without any history with the series, don't stress too much, since most versions include a quick recap covering Sparda's legacy and how the earlier games connect.

This touches on how Devil May Cry 3 effectively works as a prequel and how Devil May Cry 4 fits awkwardly into the timeline before this entry continues it. It won't make total sense of everything, but it gives you enough context to follow along without feeling completely lost.

The pacing holds up well, the character writing has personality, and even with some occasionally cheesy dialogue, it never feels embarrassing, just charming in that over-the-top way the series is known for. Dante, in particular, only shows up for a handful of missions despite being the face of the franchise, which might surprise newcomers expecting him to be the constant lead throughout.

When it comes to actually playing Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition, you'll spend most of your time hopping between missions, fighting through arenas full of demons, and getting graded on how stylishly you do it. There's no open world here; everything is structured mission by mission across roughly twenty chapters, and between fights you can spend earned points upgrading your characters and unlocking new abilities.

You'll also stumble across optional secret missions.

These task you with clearing out enemies under a time limit, and you can always go back and replay any mission if you want a better score, which adds a surprising amount of replay value to something that's otherwise a fairly linear campaign. Once you've finished the campaign, there's an endless combat mode waiting for you too.

Often referred to as the Bloody Palace, letting you test how far you can push your combos against endless waves of enemies without the structure of a normal mission getting in the way. The heart of Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition, though, is its combat, and it's built around variety more than anything else.

Nero relies on his sword, the Red Queen, alongside his revolver, the Blue Rose, plus a set of mechanical prosthetic arms called Devil Breakers that you can swap mid-fight. These arms range from simple elemental attacks to wilder options, including one inspired by a certain blue robot from another Capcom franchise, and another that's essentially a giant spinning drill that somehow holds together through combat.

The catch is that they're fragile and break easily, whether you use them up, get hit while attacking with one, or sacrifice them on purpose, so you're constantly cycling through your stock instead of leaning on a single favorite. Dante, whom you'll unlock further into the story, brings way more depth, letting you swap between separate fighting styles.

Trickster, Gunslinger, Swordmaster, and Royalguard- the four fighting styles.

He also lets you juggle multiple weapons and guns on the fly, including his signature Rebellion sword and the Ebony and Ivory handguns. He's widely considered the most rewarding character to master, even if the sheer number of options can feel overwhelming at first, and his motorcycle weapon that splits into a pair of buzzsaws remains one of the flashiest tools in his entire kit.

Then there's V, who plays completely differently from the other two—instead of fighting directly, he commands familiars like a panther for close combat, a bird for ranged attacks, and a hulking demon for devastating finishers, only stepping in himself to finish off weakened enemies once they've been worn down.

It's a slower, more tactical approach that some players find divisive, but if you stick with it, V brings a different flavor of style and satisfaction to Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition that the other characters don't really offer. As for what's good and what isn't about the combat, the system clearly rewards experimentation.

Every encounter scores you with a style rank that climbs from D all the way up to the much-coveted SSS, often accompanied by an over-the-top announcer shouting out your performance, and chasing that top rank by mixing attacks, dodging cleanly, and avoiding repetition is genuinely satisfying.

It's less about brute-forcing your way through fights and more about how creatively you can string moves together.

This is part of why people keep coming back to replay missions long after finishing the story. On the downside, V's sections can feel disconnected since you're managing distance and positioning rather than diving straight into the action, and that contrast might throw off players expecting nonstop intensity from start to finish.

There's also a learning curve with all three (and eventually four) characters, since Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition throws a lot of systems at you early on without over-explaining things, so don't be surprised if you feel a bit lost during your first few hours, even on the easier difficulty settings.

In terms of progression, Devil May Cry 5 doesn't lean on a traditional skill tree. Instead, you earn currency through combat that lets you purchase new moves and abilities for whichever character you're controlling at the time, letting you shape your playstyle rather than following a fixed upgrade path.

It's less about gradually getting stronger through grinding and more about unlocking options that suit how you personally like to fight, and you're free to revisit earlier missions to farm extra currency if you're chasing a particular ability.

The Devil Hunter Edition specifically adds Vergil as a fully playable character on top of the base roster.

It also brings extra costumes, bonus tracks pulled from earlier entries in the series, and additional Devil Breaker types for Nero, including that aforementioned Mega Man-inspired arm. Vergil himself fights with his katana, Yamato, plus the Mirage Edge and ranged Mirage Blades, offering a faster and far more precise combat style compared to the other three.

The catch is that his campaign barely connects to the main story and comes with minimal cutscenes, so while he's fun to control, he feels more like a bonus mode bolted on rather than a fully integrated part of Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition's narrative. It's also worth flagging that two modes are available on other platforms.

Turbo Mode and Legendary Dark Knight Mode didn't make it into this Switch 2 release, which means Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition isn't quite the most complete version of the package, even though it includes plenty of other DLC content from the original Special Edition. 

Visually, Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition still holds up impressively well even years after its original release, and the Switch 2 port does a solid job preserving that look. Running on Capcom's RE Engine, the same tech behind recent Resident Evil titles, the game maintains a steady 60 frames per second in both handheld and docked modes without any major hiccups.

Docked play naturally looks sharper with crisper textures and better lighting.

However, handheld mode holds up better than you'd expect, and any softness in detail is far less noticeable on a smaller screen anyway. There are some compromises compared to other platforms, slightly fuzzier hair effects and a general step down in fidelity, along with the absence of ray tracing and higher frame rate options found elsewhere, but nothing that actually hurts the experience or makes Devil May Cry 5 look dated.

One annoyance worth mentioning is that you can't pause during cutscenes; hitting the home button just skips ahead instead of freezing the moment, which is a bit frustrating given how much people use the Switch 2 for portable play on the go. On the audio side, Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition leans hard into its identity with a loud, adrenaline-charged soundtrack that ramps up the moment combat starts.

Heavy guitar riffs and aggressive rock tracks play under every fight, and the music shifts and intensifies as your style rank climbs, which makes pulling off a clean combo feel even more rewarding. There's also that arcade-style announcer shouting out your performance mid-fight, tossing around phrases tied to your rank that add a fun, theatrical touch to the whole experience.

It's a small detail, but it reinforces just how much Devil May Cry 5 wants you to feel like a rockstar while slicing through demons, and it works just as well now as it did on its original release. Pulling everything together, Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition holds up as one of the better entries in the series, and this Switch 2 version makes it more accessible than ever, thanks to genuinely strong technical performance.

You're getting a stable frame rate, no matter how you play.

A campaign that runs around fifteen hours on a first pass, closer to twenty-five if you chase full completion, and four distinct characters that each offer a different reason to keep playing. The missing Legendary Dark Knight and Turbo modes are a real omission if you've already played the Special Edition elsewhere, and Vergil's lack of cutscenes keeps his content feeling slightly tacked-on rather than essential to the overall package.

Still, if portability and convenience matter to you, or if this is your first time experiencing Devil May Cry 5, there's barely a reason to hesitate. The added DLC content sweetens the deal even if much of it is cosmetic, and the gameplay underneath remains as sharp and replayable as ever, thanks to the style ranking system and the endless combat mode keeping you engaged well past the credits.

Whether you're a returning fan or someone discovering Devil May Cry 5 for the first time, this version delivers a smooth, stylish, and consistently entertaining package that's easy to recommend, even with a handful of features held back from other platforms.