
This alters the character's appearance, increases attackdefense, slowly restores health,enables special attacks. The Devil Trigger ability enables the player's character to change into a demonic form. Although the game mainly focuses on an aggressive approach to battle, the player must employ some strategy as the enemies have a wide variety of artificial intelligence tactics,will respond to a number of events. The game's battle system allows the player to chain attacks together, with each weapon having a number of unique attacks. The gauge starts with no grade, becomes "Dope" after a minimum number of attacks, then proceeds with "Crazy", "Blast", "Alright", "Sweet", "SShowtime",peaks at "SSStylish" if Dante receives damage, the style rating drops a few levels if the gauge is on "Crazy" or below, it will reset. The longer the player attacks without repeating techniquesevades damage, the higher the gauge rises. "Stylish" combat is defined as performing an unbroken series of varied attacks while avoiding damage,is tracked by an on-screen gauge. Grades are based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of "red orbs" gathered (the in-game currency obtained from defeated enemies), "stylish" combat, item usage, damage taken. The player's performance in each mission is graded from D at the bottom, up through C, B, A, with top ranks of SSS, which have the strictest requirements. Gameplay in Devil May Cry 3 consists of levels called "missions", in which players must fight numerous enemies, perform platforming tasks,occasionally solve puzzles to progress through the story. A manga prequel to the game was first published in Japan in 2005.

Upon release, Devil May Cry 3 was widely criticized for its high level of difficulty, but was praised for improvements over its predecessor,a return to the challenging gameplay of Devil May Cry.

The story is told primarily through a mixture of cutscenes using the game's engine with several pre-rendered full motion videos.
The events of the game take place just as Dante has opened up the Devil May Cry agency (unnamed at this point in the story), before Dante's demonic heritage has reached its full potential. Set in modern times in an enchanted tower named Temen-ni-gru, the story centers on the dysfunctional relationship between Dantehis brother Vergil. The game is a prequel to the original Devil May Cry,is the first game in the seriesstoryline's chronological order.

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, released in Japan as simply Devil May Cry 3(デビル メイ クライ 3 Debiru Mei Kurai Surī ?), is a hackslash beat 'em up video gamethat was developedpublished by Capcom, released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2(also ported to the PCin 2006).
