This deserves some recognition for bringing Bloody Palace and the Majin Form, the story alone is worth buying this game!
Pretty much I say, theres only a couple of problems with this, so I'll start with the story. The story goes as this, Dante is called to Dumary Island after meeting with a strange female in a museum, whom you later find out to be Lucia, the female heroine. A "old granny" as Dante refers to, who is called Matier, tells you of a corporate leader and internation businessman called Arius, who wants to collect the 4 Arcarna's and use his demonic powers to conquer the world. Eventually you find out that Lucia collected a Arcana in the museum where Lucia collected the Medagila, 1 of the 4 Arcana's, as well as finding out that Lucia's real name is Kai, and that she is really a clone, and the fact that Matier fought alongside Sparda, Dantes father. It's quite good how it unfolds, as well as the fact you can play as both Dante and Lucia, but each on seperate discs, Lucia showing more of her story.
As for graphics well they are worse than Devil May Cry, which is a shame considering how good they were. It doesn't get in the way much, as considering the size of the maps are a lot bigger in Devil May Cry 2, Capcom probably couldn't fit every inch of detail in the discs.
Not the best graphics on PS2, but there are a lot worse then this if you look hard enough.
The gameplay length is very long, as well as the introduction of Bloody Palace. Bloody Palace is basically Survival Mode, you get pit into a room, where you have to defeat the enemies on screen, and 3 portals will appear, one that will skip you 100 levels, one that will skip you 10 levels, and the other moving you to the next level. This adds to the replay value a lot, considering there are 9999 levels to complete, if you complete all then your quite the patient and talented one. The only problems with the gameplay are the fact you can complete the game by only using the guns. True, this is a good thing as new players might find using Rebellion boring, but as for veterans of the game it makes it too easy. Also there is Desperation Devil Trigger, or Majin Form as it's more properly known. You can only activate this once you health is red, and thus making you into a Devil of great power, which you can obliterate a boss and enemies in a matter of hits. At first you'll think "awesome!" but it cheats you out of the fun and skill completely, you'll grow to think that it's more like a "easy way of cheating death" instead of using a Gold Orb. The plus side is there is a Mission Select, which lets you select any mission once completed. The original Devil May Cry never had this, but this addition adds to the replay value immensly. You can switch guns on the go now, which is a whole lot easier than pausing the action and scrolling through the menu. You can upgrade your guns and swords, which you'll gather and unlock throughout the course of the game. This helps you in your battles, and is a worthy addition to the Devil May Cry 2 universe. The only thing is doesn't include that the original has is the fact of buying new moves, that was fun to perform Kick-13 and so on, but this has no new moves to buy what so ever. On the plus side is that you get tons of moves, which are all very stylish, especially when you kick flip an enemy whilst in the air, then upper kick them and finally using your sword perform a downward cut sending them flying backward. They don't have any names either, which again, the original includes, but you can tell that the "forward lung" is Stinger and the "downward cut" I mentioned is Helm Breaker. More moves you'll notice are Round Trip and a move freshly introduced, which you can fire both Ebony and Ivory at the same time but locked onto different enemies.
The music in the game is probably better than Devil May Cry, as it gives off more of the "Gothic Rock" and "Emo Rock" theme to it this time, especially Nefasturris's battle music. If you can listen to the music by all means do so, you'll most likely prefer it.
This game has many downs and ups, but giving a score of like 6 or 7 isn't worthy, this game deserves some recognition of it's inventive enemy names, the story, added gameplay experience, the introduction of Bloody Palace and the amazing music. It's a great sequel, even if there could have been room for improvement.