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The jump from the original PlayStation to the PlayStation 2 was one of the biggest in console history. Now developers had the graphics power to deliver on the cinematic promises made by games like Solid metal gear and Final Fantasy VII. Not only could the games be played at a faster pace, but they could also make the player look cool while doing so. No game has made you cooler than The devil can cry.
Although the series is known for its blazing speed and precise action, it began life as Resident Evil 4. RE2 director Hideki Kamiya was put in charge of directing Game 4 of the series, but he wanted to take a different path. Instead of the slow, methodical pace of previous games, he wanted to focus on the action. His version of the game would feature a new character named Tony who had superhuman abilities like those finally seen in Wesker. Capcom wanted the series to continue to focus more on its survival horror roots, but there was no denying that Kamiya and his team were on to something. Eventually, he convinced officials to let him turn it into a new franchise, spawning The devil can cry.
Kamiya was influenced by his love not only for arcade games, but also for the social space itself. In interviews, he has recounted how he saw crowds gathering around a cabinet to watch someone have a good run. The more risks the player took and showed up, the bigger the crowd got. This gave Kamiya the idea of the real-time scoring system that The devil can cry uses. The game is already more of a challenge than most action games of the time, but in addition to requiring the player to vary their combos and attack patterns to keep their style score high. The devil can cry come out.
Including a styling system in the game wouldn’t be worth anything if the game didn’t have some visually interesting attacks to use, and luckily they found a brilliant hook. Kamiya did some testing on another Capcom title, Onimusha, and noticed a bug that allowed players to slash enemies into the air and juggle them. Add that random bug with a pair of pistols and you have a signature move that gave The devil can cry the visual flair he needed. Juggling also had the function of giving you interesting options to make the fight more open. If you find yourself a little overwhelmed by the number of enemies, you can throw one into the air to remove it from the board for a while.
Juggling enemies was just one of the many tools to make your way through the hordes of creatures. Once again, drawing on arcade influences, many of your attacks were performed via combos that included directions of hold and in particular the timing of your button presses. It might seem overwhelming, especially with the challenge level of the encounters, but it keeps you engaged with the style system in a fun way that evolves and expands as the game progresses.
Given the strong identity of combat, it’s no surprise that the story and cutscenes amount to overkill nonsense. A little like Max Payne, released a month earlier, was inspired by classic Hong Kong action movies, but The devil can cry also mixes heavy anime influences with horror elements, stemming from his origins as a resident Evil Game. B-movie one-liners and melodrama litter the storyline, portraying Dante as one of the most memorable characters of the PlayStation 2 generation. You can learn everything you need about the game from its cutscene opening, in which a woman walks into Dante’s office, impales him on a sword and throws a motorcycle at him, which he of course sends back to her with twin pistols.
The game not only spawned four sequels and a reboot, but also influenced countless other games that wanted the same kind of sleek action, complex gameplay based on combos, and larger-than-life protagonists. For example, God of the war amplified the action pieces to epic proportions, spawning its own long-standing series. Kamiya himself became a founding member of Platinum Games, creating the Bayonetta series, a very clear sequel to the The devil can cry formula. Everything Platinum does has traces of The devil can cry, especially their additions to Metal gear and Deny series. Some FromSoft games, in particular Transmitted by blood and Chopped, certainly have the same quick and precise action that you would see Dante play. Even the recent indie first-person shooter Ultrakill has so much DMC DNA that they use the URL “DevilMayQuake” to link to their Steam page.
There is a reason why all The devil can cry games continue to be ported to new systems even 20 years later. Despite the fact that you’ve probably played so many games that have been influenced by them, they still feel completely unique and fresh. It may be trite to describe a video game that makes you feel like a badass, but that philosophy is in every fiber of the game’s being. The devil can cry 5 brought the series back to fame two years ago, but while we have a long wait for the next sequel, we’ll definitely see the The devil can cry spirit alive in countless other games for years to come.
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