Devil May Cry 5’s Live-Action Cutscenes Are An Absolute Delight

Devil May Cry 5’s cutscenes are stylish as hell, and it must have taken a lot of work to get them right. The Deluxe Edition breaks down that process with behind-the-scenes versions of some of the best cutscenes, and it’s amazing.

The Deluxe Edition has a few extras, including access to the Mega Man mega buster as a Devil Breaker for Nero and special costumes for the heroes. This edition of the game also has a very interesting feature: the ability to substitute some of the game’s cutscenes with live-action pre-visualisation scenes that the developers used to plan out the final product. These videos feature actors and stunt persons acting their way through the scenes, often in clumsy ways. The props are mostly made of cardboard, the monsters are dudes wearing black costumes and silly claws, and the more intense acrobatics are handled by action figures. The result is tons of fun to watch and provides a neat look at how cutscenes are made.

Devil May Cry’s cutscenes go through a lot of different stages after this pre-visualisation phase, including intense motion capture. In some cases, such as with Dante’s actor Reuben Langdon, both the vocal performance and motion capture are handled by the same person. Between all the different steps, the end result is a lot of bad-assery. Even the pre-vis stuff has a lot of style, particularly with Nero’s actor nailing the young devil hunter’s swagger.

Above all, though, it’s just fun. From cardboard vans crashing into junk to a bunch of dudes shooting their pew-pew fake guns at stand-in demons, these are great to watch. Check out the differences above for some laughs and some really great performances.