This page is a database of all YouTube videos showing missions of the game Devil May Cry 3 (any edition) completed on Dante Must Die difficulty with an SS rank.
We dedicate this page to all players who had to reset a mission due to a mistimed block, to those who got trampled by the queen dozens of times on Mission 18 and did let that break their spirit. It also goes to those who cannot find a damn consistent strategy for the gigapede. It goes to the players who got hit two seconds before killing the mission's boss, to those who finished the mission no damage only to get an A in stylish points and to those who did not realize they got hit in mission 12 until they finished it. To those who got entangled in the spider webs, blasted by an enigma, melted by the Leviathan's acid, trampled by Geryon's carriage, smashed by Beowulf's crates or smacked in the kisser by a lustercut, we see you, and we salute you!
When you finish a mission in Devil May Cry 3, you get a grade on your performance in 5 different criteria. Grades can be D (worst), C, B, A and S (best). The 5 criteria are (1) the amount of time taken to finish the mission (2) the number of orbs you picked up during the mission (3) your average style rating across all your hits (4) the amount of damage you took and (5) the number of items you used. An S rank is the best grade in each criterion, and if you get an S rank in all criteria, you get an "SS" rank, which can only be seen in your "total ranking" screen.
The game gives you a token of recognition for getting an SS rank in all missions in various difficulties (Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Dante Must Die). These come in the form of an image and a small sentence complimenting your gameplay.
The S rank criteria are usually more relaxed the higher the difficulty. For instance, you can take longer time and take more damage in a mission on Hard vs the same mission on Normal. The major exception is Dante Must Die difficulty, where some sick deranged sadistic dev at Capcom decided to impose the constraint that you can only get an SS rank if you take 0 damage on the entire mission, meaning you have to play the mission perfectly. Coupled with the enemy devil trigger system in this difficulty, the huge HP and aggressive AI of bosses and the unusual battle combinations that are introduced on higher difficulties (e.g., abysses + soul eaters on mission 4, or 3 fallens on mission 14), results in most mission SSs on DMD being ridiculously difficult. Upon obtaining an SS on DMD in all 20 missions, the game rewards you with an image telling you to go out and get a life. I agree with the game.
Three reasons I will list below.
Reason 1: When you look for DMD SS videos on YouTube, you always end up finding the same videos from the same players. Not that they aren't good (they are!), but I've been around long enough to know that there are many insanely skilled players that obtained their SS ranks in very cool unusual ways, and the algorithm doesn't seem to like them for whatever reason. Furthermore, there are many video footages from circa 2007 that pioneered the strategies used to this day by many players, and I want to make sure that these videos are forever preserved. I also wanted to have a resource for people trying to complete the challenge to have a huge number of examples on how to go about a mission, from consistent and carefully crafted strats to whacky and crazy approaches.
Reason 2: Anyone who completed this challenge will tell you how brutal it was. It often takes hundreds of hours (first time I did it in 2007 it took me a whole year). This site is therefore a simple token of appreciation for those who took the time to record their video footage and contribute to the collective knowledge of this game. It is nice to have various examples of how to get an SS, and extremely helpful for new players who cannot figure out a strategy that works for them.
Reason 3: I am a statistics nerd and I would like to have a centralized place with all relevant data collected on people's SS footages, including completion time, style usage, gun/devil arm usage, etc. Why? I don't know, why not?
Happy to! You can contact me in any of the following ways:
For additions, I am currently only adding videos of players who are at least halfway through the challenge with at least one character (i.e. got at least 10 SSs with either Dante or Vergil). This is just to avoid having a barrage of player profiles who only got their SSs on Missions 1 and 2.
I'm Sena :) I stream this game on Twitch (though I mostly do speedruns of other games) and also have a YouTube channel of video essays and speedruns. I first did this challenge back in 2007 on my PS2, with a huge help from players GeM and Pokey86, back when YouTube was still catching on. My last SS with Dante was on August 22nd 2007 on Mission 19, and my last SS with Vergil was on January 8th 2008 on Mission 16. 16 years later I tried this challenge again on the PC HD collection, starting with Dante on May 1st 2023 and finishing on May 29th, and Starting Vergil on May 29th and ending on June 16th. My favorite style is royalguard and I plan on having a full royalguard video for every mission in the game. This is my proudest achievement in videogames and I really like nerding out about it.
Yes! There are a lot of videos to get stats from and it's a good bit of heavy lifting to get all those numbers, so if you would like to help I could really use it :). Just like the previous question, contact me in one of the ways listed above.