Game Discussion of the Week: Devil May Cry

It was supposed to become a Resident Evil, but they decided to turn it into a new IP. At the time this felt very revolutionary. It started the whole action genre in the like of Lament Of Innocence, the newer Ninja Gaiden games, Bayonetta, and God Of War. It is probably my favorite Devil May Cry, I think I may like it more than even the third Devil May Cry. I still need to play more of Devil May 4 to really form an opinion of which game I like more, but the first one is great nevertheless.

I heard they are bringing the original trilogy to PS4 this year. I already have it for the PS3 so I may pass, but it is still great these games are still becoming available for people to enjoy them.

I wish the DMC-like games from more current years would take some notes from DMC1. In what would become highly unusual for the genre, DMC1 actually had good level design and enemies. Sections between fights consist of the puzzle-solving and backtracking you might see in Resident Evil, but since you're lighter on your feet in DMC, there's also some platforming fused into these bits. This type of level design may put a damper on replay value if you're just itching to get to the next fight, but I'll take that over hopping from arena to arena. To help ease the monotony of traversing stages in subsequent playthroughs, most missions feature plenty of hidden goodies such as orbs, health upgrades, or secret missions. Most of these are well hidden, so it's highly unlikely you'll be finding everything in your 1st or even 2nd playthrough.

DMC also has a pretty strong lineup of regular enemies, which is something I value in an action game. You've got your standard sandbag mooks, but some of the deadlier enemy types include Death Scythes that can phase through walls, Plasma which can clone themselves and mimic your moves, Shadows which are highly mobile and can self-destruct, and plenty more I'm missing. What I like about these enemies, even more than how they're designed, is how they're put to use in the levels. Enemy placement manages to compliment the RE-like level design well despite being an action game, and the overall difficulty curve also serves to keep the game exciting. Whether it be a particularly nasty encounter with enemies, an introduction of a new enemy type, a boss, or some sort of combination of the 3, most missions progress in such a way that leaves you looking forward to the next one just to see where DMC's wild ride will take you next.

DMC1 gets points off in my book for having a completely busted rating system for combat. I'm not talking about the overall rank you get when you beat a stage, but the style ranking you get during fights. The point (I'm assuming) was to discourage using the same attack over and over again and reward players for getting creative with their attacks. This was a good idea and was executed well enough in DMC3-4, but the idea seems to have gotten lost in translation in DMC1, since you're often rewarded for doing repetitive attacks or combos. I can also see where some people are coming from in regards to the Resident Evil style camera, and while it's caused me some pain during fights on occasion, I overall didn't find it to be much of a nuisance.

Yeah, I miss more games in the genre having this balance between fighting and exploration/platforming/puzzle solving. The only other game I can think of is the first Ninja Gaiden, and that's the reason why I love it above all the other spectacle fighters: there are a lot of secrets hidden in Tairon that can be only found by a clever use of Ryu's platforming abilities. Some sections of the game are practically devoid of enemies, just so you can go for a calm platforming and exploration: after the first boss, when you're descending that well before the Bone Dragon, the underwater section etc. The game has a lot of quiet time to calm the player down between confrontations.

Both DMC and Ninja Gaiden abandoned this for their sequels, which are strictly linear affairs, and the same goes for other games like Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising and Furi (though the last one can be excused for being a boss rush). Since the controls in these games are so good, I wish they used platforming/exploration sections more often.

Two Words: Nelo Angelo
My favorite part of the game was these fights with Nelo.
Sadly, the genre is all but dead these days, with bayonetta 3 sparking some hope.

They said its a few years off, or 'in the shadows' for now.
DMC5 is being teased constantly, so there is that.

It has been too long since I played the game to have much input on it but can definitely say I liked it. I do have the HD collection on PS3 and need to get around to that eventually.