Long before the “hoard” genre became a “thing” with Gears of War, Capcom’s iconic hack n’ slash series in Devil May Cry had quietly set a standard with its own bloody take in Bloody Palace.
Having first appeared in the not-so-great Devil May Cry 2 and becoming a series staple, even appearing in Ninja Theory’s “rebooot”, DmC, from a few years back, this single-elimination “tournament” has in many ways helped defined the DMC series, known of its outlandish environments and explosive, stylish combat.
Before DLC was actually a thing, Blood Palace was an included component of the DMC franchise, although you had to pick up Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition if you were so inclined, given the original release didn’t include the mode. So in essence you could maybe treat that as “DLC”, in that you needed to make an additional purchase (if you already owned the game) if you wished to play that new content.
Capcom probably took on the community’s feedback in that regard — as great as the Special Edition of DMC 3 was — by including it in the base version of Devil May Cry 4, although Vergil,Lady and Trish were added as other playable characters.
DmC received Bloody Palace in the way of free DLC, and also included 101 floors of bloody mayhem, far below the 9,999 in Devil May Cry 2.
As for Devil May Cry 5, we’ll need to wait on Capcom’s release of the post-release content, with only Bloody Palace currently on the roadmap for an April 1 release. It’ll be free — as it should be — and at the moment, details are limited, but given Capcom says Devil May Cry 5 is the “biggest” in the franchise, we should probably hope for more than 101 floors.
You may be wondering how to unlock Bloody Palace in-game, and its release is scheduled exclusively as DLC on April 1.
There are murmurs that it could be cooperative, but we’ll need to wait until closer to launch to see just what Capcom has in store.
Devil May Cry 5 is out March 8, with Bloody Palace DLC set to release on April 1.
