Achievement Hunter: Revisiting Devil May Cry HD Collection

With Capcom set to release DMC: Devil May Cry next week for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Dante’s legacy will get quite a kick in the pants, with a fresh new take on his sword-slashing, gun-toting adventures.  But that doesn’t mean you should forego the games that got him started in the first place, as Devil May Cry HD Collection is available for a relatively low price on both consoles as well.

For our latest Achievement Hunter, we’ve decided to revisit all three of these games, and the 99 Achievements – 33 for each game – tied in for each one.  Some of them are rather basic when it comes to completion, while others require more effort to get the points added to your GamerScore (or in the case of the PS3, Trophies added to your collection).

Let’s run down all the Achievements for you, and make notes on the ones that could be tougher to get.

Devil May Cry

The Devil May Cry games have always been about facing an enormous challenge, and being prepared for whatever enemies throw at you.  It’s not just enough that you defeat them; sometimes you’ll be required to meet a specific action to earn Achievements, like facing them a second time without losing a life.

Take, for instance, Phantom.  You’ll need to face off against him in the hall and survive (Arachnophobia, 5 points) and then defeat him by deflecting his shots back at him in the hallway while you rush him (Squashed Like a Bug, 5 points) – a task that’s easier said than done.  Other bosses pose an equal threat, including Nelo Angelo, who you’ll have to survive (You’re No Angel, 5 points), fight for a second time to prevail (Broken Halo, 5 points) and eventually bring down to size (Fallen Angel, 5 points).  Other bosses include Griffon (Bird of Prey, Cold Turkey and Plucked, 5 points each) and Nightmare (Good Night and the Nightmare Is Over, 5 points each) and eventually Nimbus (Defeat Nimbus, 5 points).

Then there are the finishing Achievements, which you get merely by getting through the game.  Warming Up! (10 points) is awarded by finishing the game on normal difficulty; Boiling!! (20 points) unlocks on beating it on Hard; and Combustible!!! (40 points) is awarded if you manage to survive on the Dante Must Die setting – if you can, that is.  Other Achievements are unlockable if you meet certain conditions, like finishing the game without using any yellow orbs (The Devil Made Me Do It, 20 points), and finishing the game with Trish, which earns you an extra 15 points, with the unlocking of Barehand Beauty.

Finally, if you complete secret missions and collect orbs, you’ll unlock a few more choice Achievements.  There are awards for completing one mission (Can You Keep a Secret?, 5 points), six missions (The Secret Six, 10 points) or, if you’re good enough, all the missions (The Secret’s Out, 15 points).  As far as orbs go, you can earn a quick Achievement for collecting your first blue one (Blue Demon, 5 points), and go all out to collecting red orbs, snagging 10,000 (Seeing Red, 5 points), 25,000 (Blood Flows Red, 10 points) and 50,000 (Redemption, 15 points).

Devil May Cry 2

The second game in the series was slightly weaker compared to parts one and three, but there are still 33 Achievements to unlock in this chapter, if you’re up for it.

Most of them run off the usual tasks, like beating the ten bosses in the game (ranking from Tartarussian to Trismagia) for 5 points each (total of 50) and finishing the game on various difficulty settings, whether it’s Normal (Every Knee Will Bend, 10 points), Hard (Every Head Will Bow, 20 points) or Must Die Mode (Every Tongue Will Confess, 40 points).  But there are a few extra worth pointing out, especially if you like leveling up your character.

Reaching level 3 with a variety of your weapons will earn you Achievements, whether it’s with Dante’s guns (Arms Race, 10 points) or swords (Like a Hot Knife Through Butter, 20 points), or Lucia’s blades (Armed and Dangerous, 10 points) or Arsenals (To the Max, 20 points).  If you manage to collect all the weapons for them, you’ll snag the Full Armory (10 points) award for Dante, and the Check Out My Collection (10 points) for Lucia.

Last but not least, we should mention the Bloody Palace Mode, where you’re able to tear through floor after floor of enemies, a survival mode of sorts, to see how good you really are.  Though it sounds like you’ll take forever to pass through 1000 or more of the floors, it’s really not that lengthy a task.  You’ll earn Achievements for 1000 (First Blood, 5 points), 5000 (Blood Letting, 10 points) and 9000 (Over 9000!, 20 points).  We just hope that you like killing.

Devil May Cry 3

Finally, there’s what is considerably the best (and probably toughest) game of the trio, featuring a varying amount of fight styles to choose from, as well as 33 more Achievements to unlock.  Most of them are no surprise, including ones for completing the game (Hell of a Stars, Gone To Hell, To Hell and Back and Hell Hath No Fury…, totaling 75 points), and others that once again have you running through Bloody Palace mode, earning awards for 666 levels (Blood, Sweat and Tears, 5 points), 5000 levels (Blood Donor, 10 points) and completion (Bloody Hell, 20 points).  

You’ll also unlock Achievements for beating bosses, starting with the nasty three-headed Cerberus (Man’s Best Friend, 5 points) and running all the way through Jester’s forms (Who’s Laughing Now, 10 points).  And yes, you’ll have the chance to survive a bush up with Vergil, not once (Sibling Rivalry, 5 points) but twice (Brotherly Love, 5 points).

But there are some quirky awards worth checking out, like killing 100 enemies during the end credits (To Hell With That, 10 points), finishing the game on any difficulty playing as Vergil (Am I My Brother’s Keeper, 10 points) and purchasing all the Devil Arm skills (Big Spender, 20 points).

The rest come pretty much with leveling up Dante to maximum effect, like reaching the highest level in every style (Trend Setter, 20 points), maxing out any given handgun (Locked n’ Loaded, 5 points), pushing the Devil Trigger Gauge to its limits (Give ’em Hell, 10 points) and stretching out his health bar as far as it’ll go (Maximize your Hellth, 10 points).

No matter which game you start out with, you’ll have a lot to unlock, so dive in and, ahem, give ’em hell!

Devil May Cry HD Collection is available now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.