I’m not completely certain Capcom and Ninja Theory understand what “more accessible” really means.

The entire purpose of rebooting the Devil May Cry series was to introduce it to a new audience, particularly appealing to Western gamers. It was the entire reason Dante, both visually and in personality, was changed and the game designed to be easier. A player doesn’t need to be a master of pulling off combos any longer in order to get decent rankings and complete the game.

To the latter, I am actually quite gleeful. I enjoyed Devil May Cry 4 quite a bit, but in order to have any hope of completing it I had to play on the easy setting. Even then I had some trouble with enemies and bosses, and a lot of the combat segments felt as if foes simply soaked damage up like a really, really big sponge. DmC feels a lot more fast-paced, moving from one combat arena to the next with a few split up by exploration and platforming. Levels don’t feel so long and seem to go by much faster, leaving a player thinking “just one more level” as the clock ticks closer and closer to bedtime.

What prevents the game from being accessible is the sheer number of tools and weapons on hand. It doesn’t take long before the player is introduced to Osiris and Arbiter, a scythe and axe that fulfill different roles in combat. The former a low-damage crowd controller, the latter a lumbering heavy damage dealer. Each weapon appeals to an angelic or demonic power, and also can lash out a chain that either pulls Dante towards enemies or objects, or pulls anything he snags towards him. These chains are an evolution of the function Nero’s arm provided in Devil May Cry 4, and are the mechanic that helps make both DmC and its predecessor stand out. Being able to speed across the battlefield or draw foes towards you helps keep the action going, while also providing escape routes in moments of duress.

Yet still more weapons fulfilling similar functions are introduced as the game goes on. While each weapon follows the same formula in terms of combos and attack types, it still becomes a bit overwhelming to a player not so used to action games.

Where the accessibility comes in is the simple fact that the player doesn’t really need to master any of these systems. While the game still ranks the player’s performance, with greater combat variation being rewarded the most, a player can still achieve an S or even SS ranking by using little more than the default sword and the chains.

DmC isn’t necessarily less complicated than the previous games, merely easier. I feel this is an example of Capcom not being certain what to do with their main franchises, wanting their titles to see even half of the success as titles like Call of Duty. As always, this turns out to be a jumbled mess, a complete mistake, as the game no longer has a clearly defined target audience. They still want current fans of the franchise to be happy while simultaneously catching the attention of a nebulous group that’s busy buying games that are not Devil May Cry.

What they instead got was a game that failed to meet sales expectations and became ignored by Japanese fans and players. Too many previous fans snubbed the game and not enough new players were convinced to give it a try.

So does this make DmC a bad game, a flawed one, or even a garbled mess of mixed ideas and signals?

Hardly. The game will appeal to a different sort of player than your typical action fan, but there are “hardcore” gamers out there looking for something mechanically rich without being brutally punishing. It might be better to characterize the difficulty to such systems heavy games by apprentice, journeyman and masters instead of your typical challenge ranking of easy, casual, normal, hardcore, etc. After all, how hard of a time you have simply depends on the mastery of the game’s inner workings, and I feel the majority of enthusiast players will fall along the lines of “journeyman” as they play.

Yet there’s more to the game than simply hacking blades into the skulls of your enemies. While the exploration element is nothing to write home about, it gives plenty of reason for a player to go back and replay earlier levels. Seeking these hidden alcoves and treasures out is also greatly incentivized with either currency, restorative items, or pieces of health and power upgrades. The challenge rooms in particular offer a nice little distraction that will throw more difficult trials and conditions at the player than what they’ll typically run into during the main story.

Perhaps one of the best executed elements are the aforementioned platforming segments. The cost of failure is only a small portion of the player’s health, and the segments are rarely long enough to ever prove a true problem. Most of the time what a player must do is outlined well by the environment, an incredible accomplishment considering how busy the screen is at all times. A challenging obstacle course can be completed on the first try simply due to the game giving enough reaction time whilst also telegraphing what a player must do.

Things don’t always work according to plan as many of these moments rely on the player to keep moving, and at times you just need to take a moment to look around and figure out what is going on. The camera is also a frequent opponent throughout the game, though rarely while needing to leap and grapple across the environment. Yet there are times where the player will plummet through no fault of their own, shoved right back atop the platform they started on.

DmC did not really manage to accomplish its original goals, but Ninja Theory certainly managed to make a mechanically satisfying game. There’s plenty of reason to return, especially with the “Bloody Palace” DLC, a form of survivial mode, being free to download.

Yet the game is not truly “accessible”, and the aesthetics certainly have a limited appeal even amongst Western gaming enthusiasts. Yet there’s a lot to enjoy here, and I feel anyone that usually finds games such as Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden too difficult will find DmC to be just right.