Oh yeah, it’s time to talk about some character action games, some of the best of the medium, and what better one to start with than the king of them all, Devil May Cry. Or rather, the first one, the weird one where Dante was clearly a Blade or Neo rip-off and the camera sucked a dick. Regardless, still an incredibly fun game.
Devil May Cry follows Dante as he goes to kill demon king Mundus on a secluded island consisting of marionettes, shadow beasts, Nelo Angelos and also something about him wanting to fuck a look-a-like of his mother. Allegedly wants to fuck his mother, granted. Now, like I mentioned before, the camera does suck, but it tries, and this was once Resident Evil 4. Yes, really. Despite that, the game still manages to do a pretty good job of keeping the action on screen and allowing you to maneuver around enemies while striking them back. It’s satisfying to slash at enemies, shoot at them with your guns, and avoid any other attacks from enemies as you see that combo go from a C to a nice, red hot S rank. Trying to get that S on the top right is like a drug. Gotta get the S. Gotta get the S. It’s no harm if you don’t, but seeing your score go down cause you get hit really hurts, and seeing the meter go down cause you’re not hitting enemies makes you move around like a mad man. Gotta find more enemies to kill so I can keep that S rank. But on it’s own, slashing enemies is a ton of fun. And the bosses are a load of fun to. Nelo Angelo, my personal favorite of them. Devil May Cry is a game where I want to do better at it, despite it being the first and the most experimental. But damn, do I want to do better. Sure, it’s okay to go through the level, taking hits and using healing items, but I want to be better, and not use those healing items, not get hit, and master the combos of all my weapons. Speaking of which, the weapons. You got your usual sword Rebellion and dual wield pistols Ebony and Ivory. Other firearms consisting of the shotgun Coyote and the grenade launcher, which is busted as fuck. And other blades, like the legendary heavy weapon Sparda, the massive axe-scythe thing, Alistair, a better sword than Rebellion. Actually, in another Capcom game, Viewtiful Joe, there was a character named Alistair. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I’d like to believe it was. My favorite is are the gauntlets, Ifrit, not to be confused with Final Fantasy Ifrit. Doing hard punches and dives towards enemies is just a ton of fun for me.
Devil May Cry, the first one anyway, is not the most refined of the Devil May Cry games. It’s story is nonsensical and stupid, even for Devil May Cry standards, and it’s laughable voice acting. Who could forget “LIIIIIGGGHHHTTT!”? So much fun. But despite that, it’s still a sick, stylish game. It started a pretty cool franchise that, thanks to the announcement of Devil May Cry 5, is still going strong today. Oh, and as for the other games, just wait. We’ll get to them soon. But not Devil May Cry 2… Cause Devil May Cry 2 sucks.