Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening is the third video game in the series of Devil May Cry.  It was released on the PlayStation 2 on February 5, 2005. It serves as a prequel to the first two games. It has been praised for returning the game series to its roots.

Gameplay 
The gameplay has a similar playstyle to the first game in the series. It has fast-paced combat, and players fight demons using many different kinds of melee weapons and guns. Combos are pulled off by carefully moving the control stick and timing presses of the attack button.

However, new gameplay features have also been added. The biggest change is the inclusion of different fighting styles, which were also in Devil May Cry 2. These fighting styles give the player additional moves and techniques the player can use to fight. The Swordsman Style gives the player additional melee attacks, the Gunman Style gives the player additional gun attacks, the Trickster Style gives the player additional dodge maneuvers to more easily avoid enemy attacks, and the Guardian Style allows the player to guard and counter enemy attacks if the player carefully times their button presses.

The game's overall difficulty is also higher than the first two games.

Plot 
The game is set 10 years before the first game. The game's main character, Dante, is in the middle of opening his private investigation firm, which he has not even named yet, before he is attacked by demons in his office. After fighting off the demons, a very large tower comes out of the ground, Temen-Ni-Gru. It is brought forth by Dante's twin brother, Vergil, and a demon-worshiping human named Arkham. Their plan is to use the tower to bring demons to earth, take Sparda's power, and to take over the world. 

Sparda was a demon knight who betrayed his fellow demons so he could protect humans. After Sparda saves mankind from a demon invasion, he has a pair of twin sons with a human woman name Eva. These twins are Dante and Vergil. Each son has half an amulet given to them by their mother, who herself received them from her husband Sparda.

Dante enters the tower so he could stop Vergil and Arkham and end the demon invasion. On his way to the top, Dante fights many demons and receives new abilities and weapons from them. He also comes across other characters, including Mary, a demon-hunting human girl who wants to kill her father, Arkham, for killing her mother, and Jester, a mysterious clown who helping and attacking Dante at the same time for unknown reasons.

The first time Dante met Vergil on the tower, Vergil defeats Dante, stabs Dante with his own sword, and takes his of the amulet. Unintentionally, Dante's blood unlocks a seal on the sword and awakens his demonic powers.

As Dante chases after Vergil, he meets a large demon named Beowulf, who wants to get revenge on Sparda's betrayal of demons by killing his children. However, Dante blinds him by cutting out his other eye, so Beowulf runs away and looks for Vergil. The second time Dante and Vergil meet, Vergil kills Beowulf and acquires a new weapon to fight Dante with. Before the fight finishes, they are interrupted by Mary and Jester. It turns out that Jester was Arkham the whole time. Arkham then uses the twins' amulet and sheds blood of his own daughter, Mary, the daughter of the priestess, to break Sparda's seal. This transforms the tower and unlocks portal to the demon world. Arkham wishes to go to them demon world to take the Force Edge, Sparda's sword, to take Sparda's power and rule over a demon-infested earth.

After falling off the tower, Dante fights Mary for the right to fight Arkham. After winning the fight, Lady rewards him with her strongest weapon. Dante then climbs to the top of the tower and enters the demon world. Meanwhile, Vergil regains consciousness after passing out from his fall and immediately heads to the top of the tower, completely ignoring Mary on the way.

As Dante catches up to Arkham, Arkham takes the Force Edge. He takes the form of Sparda and then turns into a large blob monster. In the middle of the fight, Vergil joins Dante to defeat Arkham and they both take him out the demon world. After Arkham falls back into the human world, Mary disowns her own name and kills her own father. From then on, she would call herself Lady. This was the nickname Dante would give her because she refused to tell him her name.

After the fight with Arkham, Dante and Vergil have a third and final fight to take the Force Edge and both halves of the amulet. Before Dante wins the fight, the portal to the demon world begins to close. Vergil warns Dante that if he does not leave immediately, they would both be trapped in the demon world forever. Dante refuses to leave until he defeats or kills Vergil, but Vergil chooses to stay in the demon world since the it was once their father's home. Vergil then refuses Dante's help and falls down a waterfall so that Dante would return to the human world without him.

After the portal closes Dante returns to the human world, Dante meets with Lady again and gives her back her weapon. She then sees Dante crying over the loss of his brother. This is how Dante chooses the name for his investigation firm, "Devil May Cry". The two then become demon-hunting partners. While the game's closing credits are rolling on the screen, they fight the all the demons who were still on earth during the demon invasion.

After the closing credits, Dante finally opens his investigation firm with the name "Devil May Cry". In this scene, we see him wearing the same clothes that he will wear in Devil May Cry, which is set ten years later. Also in this scene, the office is shown decorated with the corpses of the demons Dante has killed throughout the game.

Also after the closing credits, after Vergil falls to the bottom of the waterfall in the demon world, Vergil runs toward his father's old enemy, Mundus. After this, the game ends.

Special Edition
An upgraded version was first released in 2006 and included the ability to play as Vergil and optional boss fights with the Jester.

The Normal Difficulty of the North American version was also lowered to match the Japanese version. The Normal Difficulty in the original North American version was actually the Hard Difficulty in the original Japanese version, but this was fixed in the Special Edition.

2005 video games
Devil May Cry
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 3 games
PlayStation 4 games
Video game prequels
Xbox 360 games
Xbox One games