First of all, thanks to Radix for correcting the desync in segments 2 and 3.

Anyway, this is, hopefully, my last Devil May Cry run. I kept trying to achieve a sub-hour time single-segment, but eventually decided to go with 3 segments to preserve my sanity.

All of the segments are fairly decent, even segment 2...which is obviously worse than the rest. I can't bash them too much though, as I did make it under an hour, so I must have done something right.

Sub-58/57 is possible I think, and with near perfection, a time of 55.xx also. Good luck to anyone willing to try though, you'll need it.

Enjoy the run.

This is my second from-scratch 100% run of Devil May Cry in Dante Must Die! mode, purchasing every skill and Purple/Blue orb, getting every Blue Orb fragment, completing every Secret Mission, and getting S-Ranks or Special Bonuses on every mission.

This one is a major improvement from my earlier run, knocking off 19:31 from the previous run using 15 segments instead of 23. More stingering, DTed running, improved strategies, and the introduction of item usage made for a faster time.

This run was made possible by a collaboration of some of the finest minds the DMC community Joch, Ryan86, Patient Vlakorados, Devil May Asian, Rob, and justaNewbie. The story began when DMA did some experimenting in late 2004 to determine if it was possible to S-Rank Mission 1 in DMD! mode with a fresh Dante. He was able to meet the time and orb limits, taking one hit. It then escalated to a challenge to the other DMC players (mainly Joch, DMA, Ryan86, and myself) to achieve a Special Bonus in Mission 1. I wanted to record this, and so I did. Once completing Mission 1, the way was open for getting SBs on the other missions. After a month or so, several players completed their SB runs of DMD! mode.

There is an audio commentary for this run available in the .mkv files, which aren't listed here due to a technical issue server-side. I couldn't include them in the .mp4 files due to Quicktime being unable to play the audio streams separately. Most of the techniques and strategies used in this run are explained in the commentary, as well as some observations and fireside monologues.

The HQ and IQ versions of this run have been specially filtered with MEncoder to create progressive 59.94fps video from its interlaced NTSC source. A powerful CPU will be required to play these back.

The Matroska files are available for download here.

There are a number of techniques used in this run few outside of the GameFAQs forums have seen.

1) Slash-cancelling
This technique was discovered by Patient Vlakorados, specifically for fighting Nelo Angelo, but has applications outside of this fight. Whenever Dante slashes with his sword, there is some lag time between that slash, and when he puts the sword back, allowing him to move again. This animation can be sped up by wiggling the stick back and forth quickly after slashing. Dante can cancel on his 1st, 2nd, and 4th slash.

Against Nelo Angelo, this allows you to get up to 18 consecutive hits on him before he blocks (or teleports, if attacked from behind). 2-slash SCs work well DTed or not against Nelo's front or back. 4-slash SCs only work against Nelo's front while DTed, but are the easiest to maintain. If Nelo counterattacks, he must be allowed to finish his attack before you start up again, otherwise he'll block after a couple slashes. This is only necessary in the first fight, as Ifrit is much more effective in later fights.

SC'ing also works wonders against the first wave of Maris in the Mission 1 basement fight and the Frosts in Mission 7, keeping them both stunned and unable to start an Icy Inferno.

2) Phantom Critical Hit
Props again to Patient Vlakorados for this one. Phantom has a point where if a downslash connects, it will do massive damage to him, and cause him to stagger. We call this a CH on Phantom. If timed correctly, this will allow you to keep Phantom stuck in a loop where he is unable to get away from you. You can kill Phantom in under 20 seconds if each one connects. This will allow the player to complete Mission 3 with the Secret Mission in under 3 minutes (the time limit for M3).

3) Griffon Meteor2 Double-Hit
If timed and placed correctly, and charged Meteor2 can hit Griffon TWICE, dealing double damage. This is possible because Griffon has 2 hit areas (head and legs). I have not yet heard of a double-hit against Griffon 1, but it is certainly possible against Griffons 2 and 3. The double-hit against Griffon 2 is nigh-impossible to get reliably, as the window for the hit is VERY small. Getting a double-hit at the start of Griffon 3 almost ends the first part right there.

4) Mundus Dragon Double-Hit
With a full 10 runes, it is possible to make the DT Dragon hit Munus TWICE, doing insane damage. This can be done at two points. One: When Dante is point-black with Mundus, unleash the Dragon when he is about to summon the gunspheres (wait until his right hand is staightened out), or from below on the second run (won't work in the first run).

Enjoy :)

This is the speedrun for Devil May Cry on a New Game Normal mode using Super Dante, ending with a time of 43:11.

The point of Super Dante is to take advantage of the infinite Devil Trigger. When DTed with Alastor, Dante runs faster, being able to clear missions faster. The normal way of traveling would be with Stinger 2s, and while Stinger 2 moves faster, there is both a startup time and recovery time, making DT running faster. Stinger 2 is also subject to only being able to move straight and subject to lockon. I also get Vortex 2 by Mission 6, which is the fastest mode of travel, but like Stinger, it can only move straight and subject to lockon. However, I take advantage of enemy positions to travel by Vortex 2 even if there are enemies. There were, however, moments where I screwed up Vortexing especially in the beginning of Mission 12 and in Mission 16.

In Mission 1, I used a technique called slash canceling. To prevent Dante from using the last hit of his sword combo which knocks enemies away, you simply need to wait for Dante to put back his sword, but this takes some time. Slash canceling gets rid of this delay, allowing Dante to quickly start a new combo. It is the fastest way to go through the group of marionettes in the basement, but actually doing regular combos ending with high time is faster for damage against individual enemies. The only other use for slash canceling in this run is against Nelo Angelo. Slash canceling prevents Dante from using any finisher move like a High Time which would cause Nelo to block afterwards. While Ifrit is faster against Nelo, I only use Ifrit against Nelo 3, as I do not have enough orbs by Mission 11 to buy the skills to make Ifrit worth using against Nelo 2.

My main source of red orbs to buy skills is from the S ranks I get at the end of missions. In missions 3, 5, and 8, I also get perfect S ranks known as a Special Bonus, which would award an additional 2000 red orbs.

As a single segment run, there are a few mistakes that costed me some time.

Mission 2: I got some uncooperative Sin Scissors, which took some time to finish.

Mission 3: Phantom was not cooperative so I could not enemy hike off Phantom to get 4 critical hits I need.

Mission 7: I mistimed my jump so hallway Phantom hit me.

Mission 14: I got a Death Scythe in the cliff area, preventing me from doing a stinger jump to the bottom. He also decided to attack when I'm in the cave, hitting me and I really couldn't avoid it.

Mission 15: I got hit twice by Sin scythes. I also got hit by Griffon 3, costing my S rank.

Mission 22: Normally Mundus 2 is a joke on Normal mode, but Mundus 2 did his rare rising dragon attack which I did not expect. I thought he would do meteors in the sky instead so I locked Dante into using the multi-stab move and I got hit . This brought my health down to nothing and I almost would have died if I took a hit from anything. The lava in the battle does damage, but it cannot kill Dante.

Getting under 43 minutes is definitely possible and I might return to this later. After this, I am planning to do a speedrun on Normal with regular Dante, possibly in a single segment.

This is a from-scratch any% run of Devil May Cry in Dante Must Die! mode, going for all S-Ranks ("King of Hell").

This run was a nice change of pace from my previous runs, doing the whole game in one shot, but not focusing on getting everything. Getting S-Ranks is pretty easy, since all you really have to do is not die. The better your ranks early on, the easier the game gets (relatively).

I had to use LDK (a costume change for Dante with DT available on Mission 1) for reasons of sanity. There were too many elements to Mission 1 to warrant doing it over and over and over and over again to get a Special Bonus, only to blow it on Mission 2 or so. LDK makes Mission 1 soooo much easier. Using LDK takes about 1 minute off the regular SB clear time I get for Mission 1. Once you get Alastor, everything is the same as regular Dante.

I don't even want to think about how many tries it took to get this right. Even then, I still blew a few things here and there:

• Mission 5: One of the Shadows exposes its core in midair, making it impossible to attack. That nearly got me killed, let alone costing me the SB.
• Mission 9: A Blade dings me, forcing me to take an extra 20 seconds or so to make sure I make the orb requirement.
• Mission 11: I screw up my Ifrit combo against Nelo and get slashed trying to make up for it, losing the SB.
• Mission 15: I cancel DT in the middle of my Inferno string against Griffon. I get whacked twice for this.
• Mission 16: I get poked by a core ray at the beginning, screwing up my combos and costing me the SB.
• Mission 18: I was unable to block Nightmare's boomerang attack, and floundered about trying to keep the top core green.
• Mission 20: An ice slug sneaks up on me, and screws up my attack on the Final Core.
• Mission 21: A Nobody cracks my skull.
• Mission 22: I got overconfident near the end of Mundus 2 and was nearly wasted.

In spite of this, I'm particularly happy with the way Mission 17 turned out.

Again, I have done an audio commentary for this run. It was surprisingly easy to keep talking for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, I could only do it for the HQ version, as the encoder that was available to me at the time couldn't handle lower bitrates properly. The commentary is in an .mkv file available here. I couldn't put it in the .mp4 file, since the Quicktime player cannot differentiate audio streams, unlike every other media player out there.

There is no IQ version this time around, as having an .mp4 larger than 2GB breaks the A/V stream.

Again, the HQ version has been specially filtered to recreate the original 59.94fps. You'll need some hefty hardware to play it back at full speed.

I intend to combine what I learned in this run with my earlier one in hopes of making a single-segment 100% run of DMD! mode. We shall see...