Devil May Cry (2001)

Solid action-adventure and start of a series. I believe it was meant to be resident evil game at some point, and it shows(positively).

Rather shameless recycling when it comes to bosses. I liked that snail/slug boss so much I wanted to fight it two more times, obviously.

(Edit) Also has one of the greatest spoken lines in the history of games.

I can see how this game would've blown everyone's mind back in the day, but a lot of its elements haven't aged well (and probably weren't great at the time). The biggest and smelliest rotten fruit is the camera, which more often than not points precisely the wrong way. So many of my deaths were from enemies that I literally couldn't see or falling through a ledge that the fixed camera made it impossible to gauge the distance of.

The upgrade system is also utterly unbalanced and unfair. Upgrades are super expensive at the start and by the end I was using red gems as paperweights. Consumables are tided to the same currency and get more expensive each time you buy them, so novice and lower-skilled players, who most need them, not only cannot afford them, but will also not get to buy the upgrades that make the game easier.

Those problems (and others) make the game hard to play and tempered my enjoyment, but the game's charm and uniqueness manage to come through. The nonsense plot is ridiculous and the try-hardy writing is elevated to new levels of camp thanks to a so-terrible-is-great voice acting. The setting is stellar. The interconnected levels in a run-down castle covered in as much atmosphere as dust is just fun to be in, and the enemies are all weird or disgusting, or both. The combat is also fun when it works (mostly in the more open areas that are more camera-proof). Dante has a bunch of movements and special abilities and enemies are genuinely different and require different skills to keeps things varied enough. Light puzzle solving break up the combat sections to tickle different parts of your brain.

So yeah. Overall it's not a terrible game even playing it today. At the very least it made me want to play the other games (except 2, which is universally reviled with good reason).

Really disappointed in the dip in quality near the end of the game here. I was pleasantly surprised for the majority of my playthrough, especially juxtaposed with my recent sour playthrough of the first God of War, but chapters 16-18 have been for the most part a frustrating slog, with the only highlight being the third fight against Nelo Angelo. The bosses have gotten considerably more difficult this far in, and having to replay entire levels mostly void of enemies and filled with time consuming but easy puzzles just to get back to a boss for another attempt (sometimes 5-10 times) is really dragging the experience down for me.

I'd like to think it'll get better again before the end, but knowing I still have Nightmare fight 3 ahead of me doesn't inspire confidence.

One of the most important action games ever made and honestly I think it holds up despite it's jank. It's impressive how much Hideki Kamiya got right on his first try. He wanted to recreate that feeling he got in the arcades growing up. Watching and studying someone else play so you could play better and conserve your coins. Then once he got good, he would show off with style. This later bit of trivia is what inspired the style meter which was a brilliant addition. It encourages you to play better. You could completely ignore it since it isn't required, but people have a tendency to want to improve on something they really enjoy thus having a measure of performance encourages you to master the game.

There really isn't an inch of fat in this game, even if you aren't a fan of every mechanic in the game (I'm looking at you swimming section, though to be fair it is quick and about as inoffensive as swimming can be in such a game). The combat is surprisingly deep yet simple, making it easy to learn but hard to master. For example, different combos are executed by delaying the time you press the attack button between each strike. While the game may only have a few main weapons (excluding fire arms) each one feels impactful for their niche. Which is a good thing.

The boss fights each have a gimmick that force you to play differently which again is a strength of the game. You could argue that bosses get repetitive due to each being fought at least 3 times, but I personally didn't mind it. Each encounter introduced a new mechanic which also included some ludo-narrative. The first time you fight a boss, they hold back because they underestimate you. As you fight them more and more, they try harder and harder. Not a complex arc by any means, but it's a nice subtle touch that doubled as being economical.

The jank in the game would be the auto-lock system and fixed camera angles. Both can be problematic. Sometimes you may feel like you are fighting the camera more than a given enemy. I honestly didn't feel this was a huge problem, but it did happen enough to be mildly annoying. Nightmare was probably the worst example since you need to deal with multiple mechanics involving striking certain objects. The auto-lock system could make this annoying by forcing you to swing towards the boss rather than the object of interest. Again it was annoying, but not game breaking for me.

In conclusion, a classic for a reason and important from a historical perspective. Yes games have drastically improved on the mechanics presented here, but there's no denying the importance of seeing those mechanics first in this game. Modern games are built on the shoulders of giants.

Devil May Cry originally came out in 2001, and I never got to play it.. I was a little worried to play this now, but I was surprised to find that nearly 20 years later, the game still holds up.

The game reminds me of the early resident evil games due to the fixed camera angle I rarely have any problem with it aside from some platforming segments. The boss battles are almost all great except the one that you need to go to space but is a small complain. the graphics were just amazing for it's time then the story is really cool. The cut scenes are memorable which is a good thing, combat is faced paced with a great and fitting soundtrack.

Despite it's clunkiness, I highly recommend this if you are looking for tough, old-school action game.

My first foray into pre-reboot DMC (yes I played DMCV) was a success. Despite a few dated annoyances, this is a very cool and fun game.

Pros:

• Engrossing atmosphere and solid visual presentation for the era. Does a great job in big spectacle moments, dark and more tense sections, and giving an otherworldly feeling when needed. Enemy designs are usually really good, with some feeling really unique
• RE-lite map design lets you get familiar with areas without lingering in them too long and breaks up combat with little adventure style progression puzzles. Combining this with the short mission structure makes the game amazingly well paced
• Fun combat, didn’t necessarily make me want to engage with it at the highest level, but it is satisfyingly challenging and flexible
• Great challenging bosses, gets a lot of mileage out of repeating some bosses and letting you see how much better you’ve gotten — would have liked to see even more variation on repeat fights. Besides an issue I mention below, Normal was a perfect non-frustrating but challenging difficulty for me

Cons:

• Visuals occasionally got too messy during busy moments, combined with fixed camera there was the occasional “what is even happening?” moment
• Checkpoint / retry system with limited retries and permanent loss of consumables was unnecessarily annoying, made it tense in tough sections for the wrong reasons. I only “Game Over”-ed a few times, but resetting the game entirely and replaying the whole level starts to makes more sense at some points than retrying
• Voice acting and dialogue doesn’t quite enter the “so bad it’s good” zone — it’s just kinda bad usually
• Occasionally have to fight with the controls, for example in terrible swimming and vehicle sections, and a boss where the game points me toward the boss when I attack even though I’m supposed to hit a separate target. And why does the final boss throw away the game’s core gameplay so much? Cool fight but weird

Very glad I played this! Will be jumping into DMC3 soon, then maybe look at 4 and 2 down the line.