Devil May Cry 5's Multiplayer Is Called The Cameo System

A store page for Devil May Cry 5 listed "online multiplayer" a few months ago, leaving fans scratching their heads over what this could possibly mean. Capcom wasn't keen to answer those questions before, but has now revealed how players can play together in Devil May Cry 5 in what they're calling "The Cameo System."

The way the system works is that the three characters — Dante, Nero, and V — are occasionally in the same place in the story. To Capcom, that means it makes sense that the characters would be fighting alongside each other rather than just taking turns hidden away. In the Cameo System, a player playing as Nero in a city that Dante is also fighting in might see Dante fighting in the distance or possibly right up next to Nero. It turns out that Dante is another player.

"The game is primarily a single player experience, but director Itsuno-san and the team really wanted to tell an epic story with three distinct perspectives and play-styles, where the main protagonists run into each other and collaborate from time to time," writes Capcom's Yuri Araujo on Capcom-Unity. "So to make that a reality, they’ve implemented a system where, while connected to the Internet, players will make guest cameo appearances in each other’s games in real time, or through ghost data gameplay recordings. Depending on the mission, you’ll see another player in the background, but in other cases, you’ll actually be slicing and dicing demons side-by-side with another players! Again, our focus is in providing a single player experience like no other, so this cameo system also ensures the experience is always smooth as possible with no downtime."

After a mission is finished, players can grade their anonymous compatriot on how stylish they were. So rest assured, everyone is judging how well you pulled off that combo or whether you just completely dropped your flow when you should have DTed. Players who get high rankings get rewards from it, so try not to be too critical.

The cameo system only factors in on stages where the characters would be together. If Nero and V are hypothetically in different dimensions, they probably won't be able to meet up in battle. Some levels are also going to be strictly alone, so no one will show up to fight alongside you.

This is actually not the first time the series has seen multiplayer. An unadvertised feature of Devil May Cry 3 allowed a second player to take control of Dante's Doppelganger skill and act independently. In Special Edition, they could also control Dante's brother Vergil during the game's penultimate boss fight.

A demo for Devil May Cry 5 released today exclusively on Xbox One. Further demos will be available on other platforms, as well. You can check out the full version of last night's trailer right here.

Devil May Cry 5 releases on March 8 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.