Collecting Devil May Cry

The trilogy is common, affordable, and full of traps for the unwary.

Devil May Cry is a kind series to collect: the PlayStation 2 trilogy sold in the millions, so loose and complete copies circulate constantly, and the money concentrates in a few specific objects rather than across the board. The traps are structural. Devil May Cry 2 is a two-disc game, one disc for Dante and one for Lucia, and incomplete copies wear complete covers. Devil May Cry 3 exists in two materially different versions: the punishing 2005 original, and the 2006 Special Edition with playable Vergil and rebalanced difficulty, which in North America shipped as a Greatest Hits release. A shelf that wants the game people actually praise wants the Special Edition, red banner or not.

The centerpiece object is the Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection (October 2006): all three games on four discs in one box, at $29.99 new, the Special Edition of the third game included, in plain black-label-style cases whose backs are marked as part of a set. As dated price history: PriceCharting's index in late October 2026 put the set at roughly $80 loose, $85 complete and $200 sealed, with a sealed copy recorded sold at $253.57 in May 2026. A $30 box set from 2006 now trades like a small grail, because it is the only North American way to own all three originals in matching dress.

THE PS2 SHELF

What to check before you pay

Devil May Cry · 2001

Black label and Greatest Hits pressings both exist; the game is identical, so buy the cleaner case and the better disc. The manual matters here: it documents the style gauge that the game itself barely explains.

Devil May Cry 2 · 2003

Count the discs. Two, in one case, Dante's and Lucia's, with the manual. The Japanese release adds a collector's tell: combo charts for both heroes printed on the inside of the case inlay.

Devil May Cry 3 · 2005 and 2006

Know which game you are buying. The 2005 disc is the hardest version of the game in the West by design accident; the 2006 Special Edition is the canonical one. Listings that do not say which are asking you to guess.

The playing copies

For play rather than shelf, the HD Collection (2012, and 2018 on newer systems) and the Switch Special Edition of the third game, with live style switching, are the modern routes. The PS2 originals are for the shelf and the ritual.

THE PRINT SHELF

Paper that outlived its print runs

The guides

Dan Birlew's three BradyGames volumes, plus Prima's and Versus Books' rival guides for the first game, are all out of print and trade on the secondhand market. The Devil May Cry 2 Signature Series guide keeps its fold-out poster only in cared-for copies; check before paying a poster price.

The novels and manga

Shinya Goikeda's two novels (Tokyopop, 2006) are the rare Devil May Cry books with real story weight, including the Tony Redgrave years. The Devil May Cry 3 manga stopped at two of its planned three volumes, and Dreamwave's 2004 comic adaptation of the first game died unfinished when the company went bankrupt in 2005: incomplete runs, collected as they are.

The strategy guides The covers compared The Devil May Cry Gallery

Collecting Devil May Cry

THE PS2 SHELF

THE PRINT SHELF

THE FIRST WORD