Definitely better atmosphere and enemies, also less gimmicky bosses.
I liked 3 but it was very annoying in a lot of the level design, the "hardest" part of the game to me was navigating that shitty tower

>>12533015
It's the one I enjoyed the most. It has the best enemies in the series, and the focus on quickly and efficiently defeating foes appeals to me more than flashy combos and endless juggling. I really enjoyed 3 at first, but it became increasingly tedious on the higher difficulties.

It made me think "wοw this is what 3d castlevania should have been" minus the mission structure

>>12534515
CV games were never about combos

>>12534608
Neither was DMC1

>>12533015
It was innovative and unique for its time but was still a shitty game that aged horribly, similar to GTA3. There is really no reason to play DMC1 nowadays aside from novelty or crippling autism, the game is genuinely an unfun piece of shit.

>key upgrades unlocked behind jarpig grinding crap and collectible hunting bullshit
>camera is about as awful as they come in a 3D action game, especially since movement is relative to camera (unlike RE for example)
>difficulty levels are completely fucked where on the highest difficulty, regular enemies are actually much weaker. They have the same health, and only deal 60% more damage while your HP (with all blue orbs) is 3x higher. Then you factor in all the additional moves and increased DT you've unlocked, and they just became total trashmob pushovers, while bosses have a fuckhuge damage and health increase. Basically just turns the game into a glorified bossrush.
>levels are big labyrinthine areas with time-wasting fetch quest nonsense where you aimlessly wander around looking for some random arbitrary gizmo trash and then run across the map to stick it in the random designated gizmo slot to progress
>despite literally having an entire system to lock onto enemies, even when it's NOT ACTIVE, Dante STILL magnetizes to the nearest enemy whenever he attacks even if they are 30+ feet away. It's also extremely finicky to lock onto the proper enemy you want. It's impossible to emphasize just how much these factors make combat feel like complete shit and fundamentally cripple the game
>absolutely AWFUL underwater sections
>constant slow, clunky menu weapon changes
>recycles each boss multiple times, overall low enemy variety in general (but again, they become irrelevant on anything beyond a new fresh run)
>items completely trivialize all challenge in the game, and you can even still earn S-ranks with these items

>>12533015
I don't like 3 cause Dante acts like a fucking faggot and it ruined his character forever

>>12534667
I agree with the camera and the underwater section. I hate it when developers get insecure and turn the game into something it's not because of a fear of "repetitive gameplay" dings from reviewers. With that being said, I guess I have crippling autism because I enjoyed it.

>>12534667
>>key upgrades unlocked behind jarpig grinding
You don't have to grind. You can unlock almost everything just by playing normally in one playthrough. The only thing I might agree on is the health upgrades from secret missions being a big help but they're not easy to find without a guide.

>>camera is about as awful as they come in a 3D action game
It's not so bad when you learn where the angle changes and you get good enough to stand and fight instead of having to run so much but it could've been better.

>on the highest difficulty, regular enemies are actually much weaker
That's not really true because they can go into DT mode if you don't kill them quickly enough. It stops the game from becoming a slog by making them as hard as the bosses become in DMD. By that point I don't think you really need to be tested against normal enemies as much if you made it to DMD.

>>absolutely AWFUL underwater sections
It's like 2 minutes total and feels fine as long as you make use of the swim/turn faster buttons. The little bit of variety is especially nice during replays.

>>constant slow, clunky menu weapon changes
Yeah that could've been more similar to DMC3, as long as it let you adjust your quickswitch loadout at any time.

>>recycles each boss multiple times
The bosses function pretty differently each time so it's not like it's straight recycling.

>>items completely trivialize all challenge in the game, and you can even still earn S-ranks with these items
I didn't know you can get S ranks with items but if you're at that point where you're able to do that then items probably aren't making a huge difference for you anyway.

>>12534882
>You can unlock almost everything just by playing normally in one playthrough.
No the fuck you aren't unless you are already an experienced player getting max ranks in every stage. Regardless, both DT and health require you to find dozens of bullshit collectibles, and those do not have any way around them other than following a guide or scouring every inch of every level.

>It's not so bad when you learn where the angle changes and you get good enough to stand and fight instead of having to run so much but it could've been better.
Camera is one of the most important elements of an action game, and to have a fixed camera that is constantly changing perspectives in the middle of combat, while also having actions and combos RELATIVE to said camera is fucking unacceptable. Give a little bit of credit because it's one of the earliest of its kind, but holy shit is it a headache to go back to and does it massively inhibit the combat and bossfights.

>That's not really true because they can go into DT mode if you don't kill them quickly enough
They're not entering DT if you have any idea what you're doing. The issue is that they are weaker than your very first noobie run *even before you account for the fact that you are MASSIVELY upgraded and MUCH more experienced*, so regular enemies might as well not even exist as they are just pointless cannon fodder trashmobs that offer zero threat or resistance whatsoever.

So basically now DMD is just a bossrush, except with pointless filler enemies, and pointless filler puzzles, and big fucking labyrinthine areas with time-wasting fetch quest nonsense where you aimlessly wander around looking for some random arbitrary gizmo trash and then run across the map to stick it in the random designated gizmo slot to progress.

>>12534882
>It's like 2 minutes total and feels fine as long as you make use of the swim/turn faster buttons. The little bit of variety is especially nice during replays.
No the fuck it isn't. It's an entire chapter, like 15 minutes at least, plus you backtrack through it again. Variety that is pure trash gameplay is not a positive.

>The bosses function pretty differently each time so it's not like it's straight recycling.
90% the same, with slightly different movesets. Lazy and boring as fuck.

>I didn't know you can get S ranks with items
Because you're a fucking poser shitter, fuck outta here dickriding a game you know nothing about.

>items probably aren't making a huge difference for you anyway.
Yeah the fuck they do, they can trivialize the entire game for you even on DMD, even a single item can easily make a hard fight a pushover, what the fuck are you talking about?

>>12534957
You only collect health upgrades, DT upgrades need to be purchased. Just getting another 2-3 of them is plenty until DMD. Though it's true I was basing that off my recent playthroughs where I do get higher scores, but even then there are only a few moves you might consider necessary until later.

I'm mixed on the camera because I personally hate games that require you to use the right joystick to control which means taking your thumb off the face buttons. I'd rather deal with the quirks of something like the DMC1 camera over that.

I'm pretty good at DMC1 but will still occasionally have enemies get into DT and that could still easily trip someone up.

>So basically now DMD is just a bossrush
Is that really so bad though after you've already beaten the game twice? When I first got into DMC1 I kept a save file before the Mundus fight so I could replay it, I wouldn't really do that for normal enemy fights. The puzzles get a little pass for being cool in style. I never really had an issue with them but I guess I can understand just wanting a more straightforward action game.

>>12534960
>No the fuck it isn't. It's an entire chapter, like 15 minutes
For your first time maybe when you don't really know what you're doing. It's barely a few minutes of actual content. Never really understood the hate it got, or the first Mundus phase.

>90% the same, with slightly different movesets. Lazy and boring as fuck.
Nah they're pretty different with different major moves each time.

>Because you're a fucking poser shitter, fuck outta here dickriding a game you know nothing about.
I've played the game like 20 times, beat it with no items and no grenaderolling/slash cancelling glitching, etc. Why are you so mad lol

>Yeah the fuck they do
If you're able to S rank even while using items and getting penalties you're probably skilled enough for the items to not matter as much at that point and you could probably do it without items too.

Why did Capcom become obsessed with spinning orb weak points for bosses around the turn of the century? Is it a Japanese folklore thing?

>>12534657
DMC1 still doesn't have proper platforming challenge, and that didn't stop Iga from ripping it off wholesale for Lament of Innocence.

>>12535170
DMC3 ripped off the Succubus boss fight from Lament

>>12533015
I got filtered by the first boss, the spider thing

>>12533015
I prefer 1 to 3

4 was underrated too

5 was awful

>>12533015
I played it for the first time in 2023 and had fun. I only did a single playthrough on normal though.