Managing distance, taunting, and unleashing a demonic barrage of slashes to wipe out an entire screen of demons is just great times (although he has no Dante/Nero switch so his playthrough might feel even worse from a backtracking perspective). Vergil, on the other hand, is probably the character I have the most fun with in that game. With SE, Trish and Lady are interesting but didn't really click with me beyond one playthrough. I'd have liked more variation in enemies and environments, but the combat in the regular version of 4 was really good imo so I replay it a lot. The backtracking doesn't bother me as much because I really play that game to fight different demons and do cool stuff in combat. Still, DMC4's major strength is how fun it is to just play.
The faults in that game are still the same faults, and nothing they add with SE really hides the fact that they really didn't have enough game in there originally. Yeah they didn't address the backtracking and stuff in any real way.
So, since I'm of the mind where you'll get the best answer by playing the game instead of asking random people on the internet, maybe borrow a copy from a friend, or, just say "fuck it" during a Steam, Humble Bundle or Green Man Gaming sale if PC is an option? But hey, I learned a long time ago that things that I say are just "fine" and "okay" are the Internet at large's worst things ever, so, like with Persona waifu wars, to each their own. Either way, there's a point where comparing 4 to 3 just becomes overthinking since DMC3 is probably still the best character action game out there with Bayonetta 1 or 2 as a close second, and DMC4 is just a couple of inches away from that very high bar, as opposed to DMC2.Īnd as for my take on the backtracking, I didn't complain about it then since finally getting to play as Dante was so awesome and took the rematches against those bosses as "Of course Dante will finish them off for good since he's stronger then Nero", and I can't complain about it now since the variety in what you're doing in those zones has increased by three characters with different mechanics to learn granted that my threshold for backtracking is very high, like, I intentionally do it in RPGs to get more money and such, so doing it in a shorter gameplay-driven game strikes me as a nonissue. On a good day, DMC4 is my second favorite of the series. The funny thing to me about the "Does it hold up?" question is less about the game in question and more about whether or not a person's interests and preferences have changed over that time.