Table of Contents

General Information


Devil May Cry 3 went through several changes from Vanilla to Special Edition. At the same time Special Edition ports most notably PCs has gameplay differences. This includes 06 Port and HD Collection.

Vanilla :

  • Super Dante costume replenish HP and DT is not drained. DT is also not drained when you use DTE QS or DG.
  • Dullahans are less aggressive.
  • Has different enemy spawn layouts
  • No Turbo mode
  • No Jester Fights
  • JC has less frames. Meaning, you can get less aerial attacks in before the enemy drops to the ground.
  • NTSC-UC port corresponds to Easy and Normal corresponds to Normal and Hard in NTSC-J port.

Special Edition :

  • New playable character, Vergil. He is unlocked by default in NTSC-J port.
  • Bloody Palace mode.
  • New difficulty added Very Hard. This is identical to Hard mode in the US Vanilla, which was made much harder than Hard mode in Europe and Japan. Special Edition Hard is identical to Hard in the EU/JP Vanilla.
  • PS2 PAL removed Turbo Mode due to difficulties in making it run at 50 Hz.
  • Special Edition has an optional continue system, Gold mode. This was in the NTSC-J vanilla, but not in the NTSC-U/C or PAL.

HD Collection :

  • Mission 8 Acid does more damage.
  • Some Camera Angles behave differently.
  • 2018 port has 1 extra frame delay and lacks cutscene movement.
  • Additional taunt sounds.

PC 2006 :

  • Developed by Sourcenext and published by Ubisoft and Noviy Disk.
  • Has less input lag than HD Collection.
  • Ability to move the character in cutscene.
  • Bad performance with frame drops caused by how the sound files are processed.
  • DG can be used infinitely by keeping lock-on held.

Switch :

  • “Freestyle” has been added to Dante as a new element. At the start of the game, you will be able to choose between “original” or “freestyle”. Original and Freestyle are separate modes, and once selected, they cannot be changed.
  • In freestyle, you can't remove your weapons, so in the end you will always be equipped with 5 weapons and 5 firearms.
  • Bloody Palace local co-op mode. Two players decides who is playing Dante or Vergil.
  • The Switch version had a bug that even if you raise the level of the firearm in freestyle mode, the performance remains at level 1. This bug was fixed with a patch 3/10/2020.

JP text does save a little time over ENG.

Stylish Combo

(1) DMC3 changed the way that Stylish Combo works such as:

  • Being hit by an attack will not force you to restart the whole sequence. It will drop the grade down two or three ranks usually to C, depending on how high the Stylish grade was before the strike.
  • The factors of increasing the style gauge meter is similar to DMC2 as players will have to refer to movelists for Dante and Vergil.
  • DMC3 has special influnce where it makes the character's action speed faster than usual by 5% only if the style meter gauge is S or higher.
  • One of Dante's special ability is Crazy-Combo. Higher style rank will extend it's duration and reduce the consecutive hit required to execute.

Rankings
Lowest
Highest

Devil Trigger

(2) Like every DMC games, DT is an essential part of Sons of Sparda arsenal, mostly because it's a universal part of their abilities. You can use it at anytime, and DT enhancements depend upon the weapon equipped. Damage is reduced drastically during in DT mode, and enemy attacks that cause a Regular hit stun no longer affect the characters in DT mode. It should be noted that while in DT mode, you can still be knocked back, although you can almost NEVER be interrupted while in a move animation. In addition, Beowulf DT is significantly more difficult to knockback, and will NEVER be knocked back when not standing still.

In addition to damage resilience, it increases stats by a substantial margin such as running speed, attack rate and life regeneration (except the regular Super-Costumes). These enhancements vary per Devil Arms, and a weapon like Nevan has some DT specific moves. Finally, DT enhances the power of RG by increasing the overall potency of ANY form of Release.

Dante DT Modifiers:
Devil Arms Attack Armor Speed Recovery
Rebellion ×1.10 ×0.33 ×1.10 ×1.60
Cerberus ×1.05 ×0.33 ×1.20 ×2.00
Agni & Rudra ×1.10 ×0.25 ×1.05 ×2.00
Nevan ×1.05 ×0.33 ×1.10 ×3.70
Beowulf ×1.20 ×0.20 ×1.05 ×1.50
Vergil DT Modifiers:
Devil Arms Attack Armor Speed Recovery
Yamato ×1.20 ??? ×1.20 ???
Beowulf ×1.20 ??? ×1.10 ???
Force Edge ×1.20 ??? ×1.20 ???

DMC3 has special burst DT activation known as DT-flux. This system is one of the core aspects of this speedrun.

DT-flux attack power
Level Attack Power Stylish point
0 0 100
1 200 200
2 400 200
3 600 200
4 800 250
5 1,000 250
6 1,200 500
7 1,500 500
Lv0 is activated without Stocking the symbols.

Style

There are 7 types of styles overall. 5 Styles require experience to grow and unlock new actions (New Actions to buy as well for Vergil's case such as Helm Breaker Lv2). Therefore, it's diffcult for Dante to fit in multiple styles in one run. 

Lv1 to Lv2 Style requires 30,000 experince while Lv3 needs 99,999

References

1) DMC3 Official Guide Book - Detailed Gameplay Guide (2005): Tankobon Hardcover. Chapter 1, System; p. 54.
2) DMC3 Raising The Devil Data Book (2006) : KASOU. Chapter 1, System.