Devil May Cry (video game)

The gameplay consists of levels called "missions", where players must fight numerous enemies, perform platforming tasks, and occasionally solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player's performance in each mission is given a letter grade D increasing to C, B, and A with an additional top grade of S. Grades are based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of "red orbs" gathered (the in-game currency obtained from defeated enemies), how "stylish" their combat was, item usage, and damage taken.[7]

Dante attacks an enemy using the sword Alastor. The word "Cool!" qualifies the player's performance in combat.

"Stylish" combat is defined as performing an unbroken series of varied attacks while avoiding damage, with player performance tracked by an on-screen gauge. The more hits the player makes, the higher the gauge rises. The gauge starts at "Dull"; progresses through "Cool", "Bravo", and "Absolute"; and peaks at "Stylish". Repeatedly using the same moves causes the gauge to stop rising, forcing the player to use every move in their arsenal. The gauge terms are similar to the grades given at the end of the missions. When Dante receives damage, the style rating resets back to "Dull". Players can also maintain their style grade by taunting enemies at close range.[7]

The player can temporarily transform Dante into a more powerful demonic creature by using the "Devil Trigger" ability. Doing so adds powers based on the current weapon and changes Dante's appearance. The transformations typically increase strength and defense, slowly restore health, and grant special attacks. It is governed by the Devil Trigger gauge, which depletes as the ability is used, and is refilled by attacking enemies or taunting in normal form.[7]

Devil May Cry contains puzzles and other challenges besides regular combat gameplay. The main storyline often requires the player to find key items to advance, in a manner similar to puzzles in the Resident Evil games, as well as optional platforming and exploration tasks to find hidden caches of "orbs". Side quests, called "Secret Missions" in the game, are located in hidden or out-of-the-way areas and are not required for completion, but provide permanent power-ups. They typically challenge the player to defeat a group of enemies in a specific manner or within a time limit.

Devil May Cry begins with Dante being attacked in his office by a mysterious woman named Trish. He impresses her by easily brushing off her assault, and tells her that he hunts demons in pursuit of those who killed his mother and brother.[8] She says the attack was a test, and that the demon emperor Mundus, whom Dante holds responsible for the deaths of his family, is planning a return.[9] The scene jumps to their arrival at an immense castle on Mallet Island, whereupon Trish abruptly leaps and vanishes over a high wall.

Dante explores the castle and encounters the game's stock enemies, demonic marionettes. He also finds a new sword called Alastor, and battles the first boss, a giant spider/scorpion demon named Phantom. Dante wins the battle, but in what becomes a recurring theme, the defeated boss monster reappears a short time later in a corridor, forcing Dante to choose a narrow escape or to fight in the tight confines. After further exploration and combat, Dante battles a demon named Nelo Angelo who impresses Dante with his confidence.[10] Dante manages to defeat Nelo Angelo and is about to deliver the final blow - but unfortunately, Nelo Angelo evades him, and counterattacks Dante furiously with a series of punches and kicks. The demon prepares to kill Dante but suddenly flees upon seeing the half-amulet Dante wears, which contains a picture of his mother. The demon attacks twice more in later missions, and is eventually revealed to be Dante's identical twin brother, Vergil. After Angelo/Vergil's death, his amulet joins with his brother's half, and "Force Edge", the game's default sword, which had belonged to the twins' father, changes into its true form and becomes the Sparda sword.

When Dante next meets Trish, she betrays him and reveals that she too is working for Mundus, but when her life is endangered, Dante chooses to save her. Claiming he did so only because of her resemblance to his mother, he warns her to stay away.[11] Yet when he finally confronts Mundus, who is about to kill Trish, Dante again chooses to save her and is injured. Mundus tries to finish him off, but Trish takes the attack instead. This unleashes Dante's full power, thus allowing him to take on the form of Sparda.[12] Dante and Mundus then battle on another plane of existence.

Dante is victorious, and leaves the amulet and sword with Trish's immobile body before departing.[13] Returning to the Human World, Dante finds that the island is collapsing, and is cornered by the injured Mundus, who has followed him back to the Human World. Dante fights Mundus, now back to his regular strength, when Trish also returns and lends Dante her power. Dante defeats Mundus, who vows to return and rule the human world.[14] When Trish tries to apologize she begins to cry, and Dante tells her it means she has become human and not just a devil, because "devils never cry".[15] Dante and Trish escape on a plane as the island collapses. After the credits, it is revealed that Dante and Trish are working together as partners, and have renamed the shop "Devil Never Cry".

The game is very loosely based on the Italian poem Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (pictured).

First hinted at in early December 1999,[16] Devil May Cry started out as the earliest incarnation of Resident Evil 4.[17] Initially developed for the PlayStation 2, the game was directed by Hideki Kamiya after producer Shinji Mikami requested him to create a new entry in the Resident Evil series.[18] Around the turn of the millennium,[1] regular series writer Noboru Sugimura[2] created a scenario for the title, based on Kamiya's idea to make a very cool and stylized action game.[19] The story was based on unraveling the mystery surrounding the body of protagonist Tony,[20] an invincible man with skills and an intellect exceeding that of normal people, his superhuman abilities explained with biotechnology.[1] As Kamiya felt the playable character did not look brave and heroic enough in battles from a fixed angle, he decided to drop the prerendered backgrounds from previous Resident Evil installments and instead opted for a dynamic camera system.[18] This new direction required the team to make a trip to Europe where they spent eleven days in the United Kingdom and Spain photographing things like Gothic statues, bricks, and stone pavements for use in textures.[21][22]

Though the developers tried to make the "coolness" theme fit into the world of Resident Evil, Mikami felt it strayed too far from the series' survival horror roots and gradually convinced all of the staff members to make the game independent from it.[23] Kamiya eventually rewrote the story to be set in a world full of demons, taking it from the Italian epic poem Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri;[24] he changed the hero's name to "Dante".[1] The title character from Buichi Terasawa's manga series Cobra served as the basis for Dante's personality.[25][26] Kamiya based his idea of Dante on what he perceived as stylish: wearing a long coat to make the character "showy" and a non-smoker, as Kamiya saw that as "cool".[25] The character wears red because, in Japan, it is a traditional color for a heroic figure.[26] Kamiya has also stated he perceives Dante as "a character that you would want to go out drinking with", someone who was not a show-off but would instead "pull some ridiculous, mischievous joke" to endear people to him. He added that this aspect was intended to make the character feel familiar to audiences.[27] The cast of characters remained largely identical to that in Sugimura's scenario,[28] although appearances of the hero's mother and father were written out of the story.[29][30] The game's new title was revealed as Devil May Cry in November 2000.[31]

The game was developed by Team Little Devils, a group of staff members within Capcom Production Studio 4.[32][33] Some of the major gameplay elements were partially inspired by a bug found in Onimusha: Warlords. During a test-play, Kamiya discovered that enemies could be kept in the air by slashing them repeatedly, which led to the inclusion of juggles by gunfire and sword strikes in Devil May Cry.[34] According to the director, Devil May Cry was designed from the ground up around Dante's acrobatics and combat abilities.[35] The decision was made late in the development process to change the game to a more mission-based advancement, instead of the more open-ended structure of the Resident Evil games.[36] Devil May Cry's difficulty was intentional, according to Kamiya, who called it his "challenge to those who played light, casual games".[37]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 94/100 [38] Review scores Publication Score AllGame [39] Eurogamer 9/10[40] Famitsu 34/40[41][42] Game Informer 9.5/10[43] GamePro [44] GameSpot 9.1/10[45] GameSpy [46] IGN 9.6/10[47] Next Generation [48] The Electric Playground 9/10[49] GameCritics.com 9/10[50]

Devil May Cry received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[51] indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[52] By July 2006, Devil May Cry had sold 1.1 million copies and earned $38 million in the United States alone. Next Generation ranked it as the 48th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of the Devil May Cry series reached 2 million units in the United States by July 2006.[53]

The game received critical acclaim, with reviews from video game news websites typically praising its gameplay innovations, action, visuals, camera control, and gothic ambience.[40][44][45][46][47][49][50] The game also received positive reviews from video game print publications for similar reasons.[38][54] Game Informer summarized their review by saying the game "makes Resident Evil look like a slow zombie".[43] Devil May Cry also frequents several Top Video Games of All Time lists. Gamefury, for instance, listed Devil May Cry at #31 in their Top 40 Console Games of All Time feature.[55] In 2010, IGN listed it at #42 in their "Top 100 PlayStation 2 Games".[56] Dante also received noteworthy praise to the point of becoming one of the most famous characters in gaming.[57][58][59]

The game was also subject to criticism, however. Next Generation objected to the difficulty level, wondering if the challenge was added to prolong the gameplay.[48] The Electric Playground pointed to the unusual control scheme and lack of configuration options.[49] GameSpy cited the camera's behavior, the learning curve for the controls, and graphical shortcomings such as flickering and jagginess.[46] GameSpot criticized the game's conclusion for its dramatic change in gameplay to a rail shooter-like style at the story's climax, as well as a leveling-off of the difficulty.[45] Lastly, Gamecritics felt that the story was overly short and the characters were underdeveloped.[50]

• Bayonetta
• Dante's Inferno, another game based on Inferno by Dante Alighieri
• Devil May Cry

• Devil May Cry at MobyGames