Vergil Writeup

Basic Mechanics:

Yamato has been buffed significantly. The various combos flow nicely and deal decent damage, it has the best air game of Vergil’s weapons, and its large moveset makes it versatile. If you’re VERY precise with your timing you can do a Just Judgement Cut in the middle of your combos for extra damage. While Devil Triggered, Rapid Slash can be chained for insane damage. Overall, it’s your bread and butter weapon for crowd control and the weapon with the most depth because of the Just mechanics; just don’t expect it to be the most damaging weapon in Vergil’s arsenal.

Beowulf has been changed from its DMC3SE appearance. It can now be charged up for attacks and those charged attacks have just frames. It still deals absurd amounts of damage but Starfall is less useful now because it doesn’t track and is significantly harder to Jump Cancel. Use it for single enemies or large amounts of burst damage for bosses.

Force Edge plays like a combination of Rebellion and Agni & Rudra. It deals a bit more damage than Yamato and is good at juggling a crowd of enemies. It’s a good weapon but it suffers from lack of depth. Outside of the hilarious midair Stinger, there’s no air game to speak of. It shines best when chained into combos for extra style and damage.

Summoned Swords are very, very good. They come out fast, deal great damage, pin enemies in place, and upgrades deal crazy damage. I played with default controls and they worked fine with that, but I expect binding them to triggers would make them deadly. This should be your upgrade priority after staple Yamato upgrades.

Dark Slayer is good. It’s a bit hard keeping track of what does what and Trick Down being a DT only move is disappointing but it lets you chain just about everything together if used correctly. Think of it as a mix between Trickster and Nero’s Devil Bringer’s approach games.

Vergil’s Devil Trigger keeps Dante’s Distortion mechanic while slightly changing your moveset while it’s active. Distortion means that Beowulf is a powerhouse with Just attacks, while Yamato can use DT exclusive moves. Force Edge didn’t seem to gain much from DT which was a bit disappointing.

Concentration is an… interesting mechanic. It definitely adds a lot of depth to what Vergil can do but at the same time you’re dragged along by how the game wants you to play. Think of it as a second Style gauge that rewards precision and calculated play with extra damage and combat options.

What this means for speedrunning Vergil:

Devil Trigger is incredibly useful and proper management of it is probably going to be one of the most important combat strategies.

Concentration encourages safer play. Pay more attention to not getting hit and not whiffing and less to just dealing raw damage.

SUMMONED SWORDS ARE REALLY GOOD. USE THEM A LOT.

Distortion is still around which make some bosses a complete joke. At the same time most bosses were designed to be fought by Nero so Vergil has to improvise a bit.

Vergil is overpowered, but he’s a bit shy of being broken and he’s looking like he’s going to be very hard to master.