PGR x DMC

Kuro Games does collaborations pretty well. I didn't get to play the Nier collab, but the Black Rock Shooter one was great. Currently the game is still in the middle of the Devil May Cry collaboration, and I want to give my overall thoughts about it.

A quick disclaimer: I have not played DMC, and I don't know anything about its characters or lore. This review is purely from a PGR player's perspective.

The new characters

While the collaboration lasts, the players can obtain two new S-rank characters: Dante and Vergil. If you want them only for collection, you don't even need to pull for Dante, because everyone gets him for free after playing the event story. You do need to pull for his weapon, however. As for Vergil, he is obtainable only from his banner, but even that process is made a lot more affordable. Instead of the usual pity of 70 pulls, it's 60. In addition to that, if you pull one copy of either of those characters, you get another one for free. That basically means that you have to spend 60 pulls at most to get an SS-rank character.

Should you go all in on the collab? That depends on how much you like DMC. Like I said, I don't know anything about it, and I'm also not very fond of male characters, so I'm good with S-rank Dante and SS-rank Vergil plus their weapons to complete the collection.

Gameplay-wise, both of them feel very different from other PGR characters. One thing that stands out the most for me is the lack of a dodge mechanic. It is replaced by leaping into the air and towards the enemy. Their kits are definitely meant for more skilled players. Randomly mashing buttons in PGR won't get you far in general, but it's even more evident for these two guys.

I don't think I'll be using them much in the future, but they are definitely a fun addition.

The story

The timing of this collaboration was well thought out because it fits nicely in the main story. During the past few updates, we've established the existence of a multiverse. We even have a playable character from a different universe. Even though the existence of demonic entities is a slight stretch and Kuro Games couldn't tie them to the punishing virus, Dante, Vergil, and the demons crossing into the PGR universe makes perfect sense.

The events of this story are caused by a person named Thomas Hell. He was a member of the Science Council who used to study time and space. After the death of his family, he became obsessed with his research until eventually he stumbled upon a shard from the Hetero Tower. Using the shard, he was able to open a spacetime passage to another universe, which brought in Dante and Vergil, but also countless demons. One of these demons took over Thomas' body and tapped into the ascension network. With these new powers, he launched an attack on multiple conservation areas, including New Oakley. The Gray Raven squad was sent to investigate and deal with this problem.

The big twist of this story was a girl named Lyca. At first we were led to believe that she's a daughter of Thomas, but later on we learn that she's only a copy that houses the other half of the demon, and the only way to kill him is by killing Lyca.

It was a sad story in the end, and I enjoyed it, but there were a couple of strange things that stood out to me. The first one was the presence of Alpha. I like her role in this story, but let's be honest, she wasn't needed there. Unlike the previous one, nothing about this collab would have changed if Alpha wasn't a part of it. I'm not saying that because I don't like Alpha. Her role just felt a bit forced.

The second thing was the mention of the Hetero Tower. We don't really know the timeline of this story, but I assume it's following the events of the current main story, which means nobody should know about the Hetero Tower. The tower shouldn't even exist yet. The only explanation I can think of is that the collab story takes place before the Shaper's Ripples chapter. It would also be a convenient explanation of why nobody will ever mention this event (that's just how it works with collaborations).

Apart from being a collaboration update, it's also a rare breather update that doesn't combine multiple versions while the global servers are catching up with the Chinese one. I've already gotten used to rushing through heaps of content, so this update feels a bit empty even though it's the normal amount of content. I guess that's the downside of this integration process.

My overall opinion of this collaboration is positive. The only big complaint that I have is the final stage of the story being locked behind a certain mechanic that you need to trigger in the previous stage. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do it yet because I have no skill, so I looked it up, and apparently it's a very short stage without much significance. Even so, it's not a good practice.