I was too harsh on Devil May Cry...

Originally dropping the game a couple of years back being completely lost in it's design and gameplay plus dropping it to play Devil May Cry 3 I'd return with a new understanding of its Character Action/Hack & Slash genre and a newfound appreciation for the series.

Presenting itself as a cool 2000’s somewhat serious somewhat over-the top story born out of the rocky development of Resident Evil 4, fearing it wouldn’t fit with the franchise, it’d turn into its own project (though keeping a lot of its RE-like elements, sometimes for best or worse)

Often criticized for those very elements alongside how much it has “aged”, I can’t say I agree. Devil May Cry is a replayable, short and honestly fun more times than not experience, with a basic combat system in comparison to its future titles, it all feels familiar enough for most to enjoy as they progress through the game and gain new weapons and skills, leaving a very satisfying feel once you get to the point that almost no enemy is ever an unfair problem.

Returning back to my original playthrough, I really had no idea what I was doing but I fear I might have given up on the game too quickly. This game is honestly pretty forgiving if not just easier than my experiences with DMC3, as long as you put the time to try out new ideas of course. For example, did you know you can just melt through Phantom if you keep thrusting into him from above, or how Ifrit’s charged attacks just melt Nelo Angelo to death (at least in the starting difficulty)

Speaking of the bosses, they’re so satisfying to play through… while there might not be many, it ends up being a quality over quantity case.

Phantom is a nice wall for anyone first getting into the game, forcing you to learn how to properly use Dante’s move set as without rolling, jumping or devil trigger the fight gets a lot more tedious
Nelo Angelo unfortunately while really cool, ends up being a pushover in your very first playthrough as soon as you realize how you can repeat one move to just stun his every move, story and presentation wise he’s great though
Griffon challenges your knowledge of the game again by giving you more difficult patterns to avoid (only getting harder as the game progresses and in contrast to Phantom, you’d want to stay away.)
Nightmare
Mundus while being the final boss of the game, ends up feeling more like a victory lap to your first playthrough as you are thrown into a flying phase in your brand-new Devil Trigger with Sparda, eventually leading into a traditional boss fight where you are just powerful enough to melt through Mundus, though not the last we see of him, we are by then too powerful for him to even be considered a boss.

Moving on from the gameplay/bosses aspect, Devil May Cry’s presentation still holds up to this day. The fixed camera angles work really well as you travel through the gothic slash surreal environment you are stuck in for the majority of the game, there’s a certain charm to seeing the game present to you the way it wishes to and never feeling like it drags the quality down (except in your final encounter with Nightmare…)

The island itself and the way the missions are formatted leave for very little room to get lost in as the game is very clear as to what you should do next, and the story accompanying it gives the game a more serious Dante which makes the game stand out a lot more in comparison to its later entries.

Born out of the unwanted pieces of a different project, Devil May Cry would find its own identity and go from not belonging in its original vision to be loved once standing on its own. I don’t regret dropping it years ago, clearly my original vision is not one I see today, I was too harsh on Devil May Cry…