Escaping Pursuers

You start off in the Citadel of Acre. An army of civilians is storming the dock, but honestly, they're not very skilled. They tend to bunch up, making it easy to rack up combos. Don't worry too much about getting a high combo here; just focus on defeating them using the basic X (light attack) and Y (heavy attack) commands. Watch out for the occasional fireball that lands on the dock, but they're pretty easy to avoid.

Once the last civilian is down, a flaming boat will crash into the north end of the area. You need to get on this boat. Double-tap A to jump onto the bow, then hop up onto the ledge.

Move forward from the ledge, and a scene will play out. Dante gets ambushed and is about to meet his end, but he fights back against Death.

This is your first real boss fight! To survive against Death, you'll need to use the Left Trigger (LT) to block and the Right Analog Stick to dodge. Dodging is usually quicker and lets you counter faster than just blocking.

Death has a few attacks to watch out for:

A basic three-hit scythe combo. Remember to block all three hits.

A wide-range attack, often after he teleports away. This has a huge radius, so blocking is safer than trying to dodge it. He might do this twice in a row.

He'll toss his scythe like a boomerang. Block it, and keep holding LT as it comes back.

A fireball attack that can deal decent damage if it hits you directly.

An unblockable grab attack. If he grabs you, mash the B button repeatedly to break free.

The first half of the fight is pretty straightforward. Death teleports around a lot, but he usually stays close enough for you to get hits in. Just block his attacks and counter with light attacks (X).

When Death is down to about half health, he'll start floating in the air. You can still attack him from the ground, but aerial attacks might be more effective. You can still block while in mid-air, so don't forget that. The fight is similar, but moving around in the air can be a bit trickier.

Once Death is almost defeated, he'll fall to the ground. A button prompt will appear over him. Press the indicated button to steal his scythe and use it on him to finish the fight.