Cheshire Cat Studios - Video Game and Movie Reviews

Devil May Cry Review
(Playstation 2)

Devil May Cry Series Review: The Rise, The Fall, The Rebirth, and The Re-envisioning

By LaughingMan

Part 2 - Devil May Cry (Playstation 2)

Devil May Cry 1 Review

Devil May Cry: The game that almost single-handedly created the Extreme Action game. Devil May Cry is the father of other games (*COUGH* KNOCKOFFS *COUGH *) that include the popular and well created franchises Ninja Gaiden and God of War, decent games like Heavenly Sword and Van Helsing, and as some really shitty ripoffs like Conan and X-Blades.

If you think that Devil May Cry did not pave the way for Ninja Gaiden and God of War, then open your fucking eyes. Seriously. Besides one being Greek Mythology and the other being Ninjas and Tits, the gameplay is nearly identical to Devil May Cry. The weapon selection system is laid out almost identically, and all the games follow a 'Go to Point A, Get Item X, Return to Point B' mission-based play-style. God of War even directly ripped off the "Red Orbs = Cash in for Power ups" and "Green Orbs = Life" system.

In contrast, Ninja Gaiden and God of War have, in turn, effected Devil May Cry. For example, Ninja Gaiden was much more stylized than the early DMC games, and the effect can be seen in Devil May Cry 3. God of War nearly PERFECTED the Extreme Action game with its innovative use of button timed events and a more grand scale. Example: The final boss in Devil May Cry 4 almost completely ripped off the Statue battle in God of War 2.

But while the later franchises refined the new genre, it was Devil May Cry that was the genre's pioneer and establisher. DMC is the Grand-Poobah of action video games.

So enough ass-kissing, let's rip this fucker apart!

Story

The concept behind Devil May Cry 1 is that you are Dante, the cocky, arrogant son of the great demon knight Sparta who fought legions of demons to be with a human woman. You are also the twin brother of your mysteriously absent sibling, Virgil. Both Dante's mother and your brother were apparently killed years ago by unknown circumstances, and in return Dante has since devoted his life to slaying demons that breach into the human world.

So, Dante is kinda like Batman: He loses his family and started a personal Crusade against those he held responsible. The only difference is that while Batman is extremely grim, Dante is brash, over-confident, and basically a narcissistic prick. But unlike Barack Obama, he can back up his attitude with his insane gun slinging and stylish swordplay.


Dante	Trish

So Dante is sitting in his little shop of horrors, an establishment called 'Devil May Cry' that is littered with pizza boxes, and mounted demon heads on the walls. Charming. A mysterious woman named Trish enters the bar, inquires about Dante's father being The Dark Knight, Sparda, and then proceeds to try to KILL Dante by impaling him with his own sword and then throwing her motorcycle on him. Apparently there are no birth certificates or genealogists in Hell, so attempted murder has to suffice. Dante thwarts the attack and there so proves he is the descendant of The Dark Knight, Sparda.

Trish, who looks strikingly like the picture of Dante's mother, reveals that a dark god, Mundus, is attempting to take over the world (OF COURSE!) and only he, son of Sparda, can stop him. You proceed through an ancient, Gothic castle on a forgotten island, taking down hordes of bizarre demons.

Gameplay and Orbs

Obviously the biggest strength of the entire series is its founding the Extreme Action genre. You don't jump on platforms while throwing turtle shells at enemies, or sneak through government outposts with a headband and cigarettes, or walking endlessly to the right while punching, kicking, stomping, whipping, slashing, jump kicking, shooting, or throwing fireballs like other games before it.

In Devil May Cry, you ran headfirst at the enemy, double-jumped over it, landed on the other side, slashed it with your sword, knock it into the air, and juggle it mid-air with a lightning-fast volley of unlimited ammunition. With its wicked combination system and brutal attacks, Devil May Cry was not just a breath of fresh air to the video game industry, it was a hit from a crack pipe.

The gameplay centers around collecting Red Soul Orbs from vanquished enemies in order to cash them in like currency to upgrade your powers and skills, as well as buy healing items and extra lives. The downside is that each purchase you make results in higher prices for either that item, or in the case of powering up your Devil Arms (your weapons), higher costs for all other upgrades for that weapon.

Devil May Cry - Air Raid

Devil May Cry - Stinger
The most important attack upgrade aside from the Double Jump

I was not fortunate enough to realize that the single exception to this rule are the Yellow Soul Orbs (1-ups) until extremely late in the game. I had spent WEEKS trying to plow through levels without dying for fear of getting to the last stage with no extra lives.

Devil May Cry - Yellow Soul Orb

Red Orbs are not that scarce, but there are tricks to making bank with them. First and foremost is the most straightforward approach: Your Style Rank. What your Style Rank does is factor in how insane you can make your combos and how well you can pull off different attack strings without getting hit. The longer and more unique your string of attacks can get, the higher your Style Rank. You are ranked from lowest to highest like a grade school report card: D, C, B, A, and S. (Not so much the 'S' in American schools).

D = Dull
C = Cool
B = Bravo
A = Awesome
S = Stylish!

Every enemy you kill an enemy in a higher Style Rank, they yield more Red Orbs, so killing in style is a must.

Another rank related method of cashing in on the Red Soul Orbs is the Stage Rank. In Devil May Cry 1, the Stage Rank is determined by the number of Red Orbs you have collected, and the time in which you beat the level. The more Orbs you collect and the faster you finish a level, the higher your Stage Rank, and you will receive a bonus that doubles with each rank. An example being: finishing a stage with a "D" will reward you with 500 Red Orbs, whereas finishing with an "S" will give you a bonus of 5000 Red Orbs.

The final, more exploitative method of collecting Red Orbs is to simply save your game a lot. In Devil May Cry, you can save your game whenever you want. While your level progress isn't saved, your Orbs and inventory ARE. If you are kicking ass and swimming in Red Orbs, or if you have defeated a boss that yielded a couple thousand Orbs, press Select and save your progress. That way you can keep your stash in case you die, or, if the Red Orbs were ridiculously easy to obtain, you can reset the game and go back and replay that level repeatedly to cash in. Doing this will allow you to power up your attacks early in the game, which can be a lifesaver later on. You WILL have to re-fight all of the enemies and bosses of the levels you didn't "officially clear" but that's the beauty of the exploit.

Along with weapon updates, extra lives, and healing items, you can also cash in Green Orbs, Blue Orbs and Purple Orbs. Green Orbs replenish health, plain and simple. Blue Orbs extend your life gauge and can be found in ¼ pieces throughout the game. Often times these blue orb shards are hidden or in hard to reach areas, so you will have to work for them. The saving grace is that they can be purchased with Red Orbs, but each purchase drives up the price substantially, making it extremely hard to max-out your life bar by buying the Blue Orbs. Blue Orbs are also only available in a limited quantity, if I remember right. Where Blue Orbs up your health bar, Purple Orbs extend the length of your Devil Trigger. These can only be purchased with Red Orbs, and are also in a finite quantity.

Devil May Cry Devil Trigger

The Devil Trigger is a special gauge that appears under your health bar after you get your first Devil Arm, the sword Alastor. The Devil Trigger, which look like runes or magic characters, glow white from a left to right as you fight enemies. After three or more of the runes are lit, you can activate your Devil Trigger. Dante then turns into a full-fledged demon with powers bestowed upon him by the weapon of choice. Each Devil Arm (weapon) provides Dante with its own unique powers. For example, Alastor allows Dante to sprout wings and fly, as well as run extremely fast and infuse his attacks with lightning, whereas Ifrit makes Dante's attacks more powerful and gives him the ability to throw fireballs.

Devil May Cry Devil Trigger
Alastor in action

Devil May Cry Devil Trigger
Raining electric death upon blackened wings

Weapons (Devil Arms)

Along your travels through the castle and in and out of the depths of Hell itself, you find new weapons to aid you against enemies. Besides getting new projectile weapons like a shotgun, a grenade launcher, and a demon laser weapon, you also get new Devil Arms that change your fighting style all together:

Alastor - A sword that gives its possessor the ability to harness electricity. You can also use your Devil Trigger and turn into a winged monster that can rain lightning upon your enemies. More often than not, you will progress through Devil May Cry using this weapon. Alastor has since become Dante's trademark sword over his default sword, the Force Edge.

Ifrit - A flaming pair of gauntlets that gives its user control over fire. With Ifrit equipped, your fighting style changes dramatically. Instead of the standard swordplay, you now use hand-to-hand combat against enemies. You punch, kick, roundhouse, uppercut, and jump kick Mortal Kombat style. Your Devil Trigger allows you to extend your combo attacks and lets you throw fireballs at your enemies. Use Ifrit if you want to shake up your fighting style.

Sparda - The sacred sword your father used. This enormous weapon is 'awoken' from your standard sword "The Force Edge" after you collect both halves of your mother's amulet.

Sparda has no Devil Trigger until the final fight against Mundus, but the powerful attacks that it enables make up for it in spades.

Enemies

The majority of the monsters you fight appear to be marionette puppets that look like the flamboyant Victorian forefathers of 'V' from "V for Vendetta". The castle is also haunted by black banshee-like demons that wield scythes and... giant scissors? Armored lizard men are frequent in later chapters of the game, and are the more difficult enemies you will encounter. Less common enemies include insects, miniature Phantoms, ice demons, and the grotesque, laughing abominations of Hell itself.

Blood Puppets Marionettes Devil May Cry
The 'Marionettes' or 'Blood Puppets' are the most common enemy.

Bosses

You also face off against enormous boss characters:

	Phantom - The giant lava spider/scorpion from the pits of Hell. The most memorable boss because a lot of gamers got too pissed off at the difficulty and thus is the only boss they ever really saw. (Originally, I was one of them.) Still a cool design, though. The Phantom attacks with fireballs and lava geysers, as well as trying to leap on you and crush you beneath its rock body. Its head and back are vulnerable, but are guarded by its scorpion-like claws and tail. Attacking its face is nearly futile, save for the split second when you can do a Stinger with your sword when he attempts to blow a fireball from his mouth, thereby leaving him defenseless for a moment. Instead, focus your attacks on its back with your Alastor Devil Trigger to make quick work of him.
	Griffon - An enormous demon chicken. I fuck you not. The biggest annoyance with Griffon is that it will stay air born for most of the fight, forcing you into a horrible platforming experience while being barraged by its electrical attacks. Despite being fairly difficult to defeat, the Griffon isn't that memorable. His most vulnerable part is his rib cage that will expose his heart after enough hits.
	Nightmare - Lovecraft's "Shoggoth" crossed with a cannon. This shapeless mass of bile, human body parts, and technology is actually my favorite boss just because of the design alone. Killing it off is no easy task. You must trigger a mechanism in the room to force the creature to take shape, then avoid its barrage of missiles and lasers long enough to take out whatever vital part is then exposed. Apparently the boss can absorb your Devil Trigger and unleash its own massive attack. While Devil May Cry implies that you are supposed to use the Sparda sword to take him out, I have always had the best luck using the Alastor Devil Trigger and weathering out its barrages.
	NeoAngelo - The black Hellknight that, while always trying to kill you, seems to have some odd aura of honor while fighting you. Devil Trigger with Alastor and combo attack relentlessly, you will manage to penetrate his defenses with the last half of a combo attack. When you are out of Devil Trigger, double jump vertically and drive your sword downward on his head. This will build your Devil Trigger and keep you (relatively) out of harms way. In his last incarnation, NeoAngelo begins to manifest swords and you will be attacked from nearly all sides. Keep jumping to avoid most of the attacks. After you finally defeat NeoAngelo, he disappears, leaving behind the second half of your mother's amulet. It is then, to Dante's remorse and horror, that he learns that NeoAngelo was the enslaved soul of his twin brother, Virgil.

Controls

Everyone is going to hate me for saying this, but as awesome as Devil May Cry is to play, the control scheme feels ASS Backwards. Square shoots and Circle attacks with the Devil Arm, which is good, but then you have Triangle jump and X open doors? What the hell is up with that? The Triangle button isn't a fucking Up Arrow, and even if there was an 'Up' button, games that require you to push 'Up' to jump suck. And having X open doors but do nothing else? X is the second most commonly used button on a Playstation controller, so why the hell was it demoted to just opening fucking doors?

The first two hours of playing this game with this controller layout was just PAIN... pure and unrelenting torture that made you think that the fucking control schema was some bastard child of Satan Himself. Devil May Cry my fucking ass, The Devil is crying because he's laughing so hard, bringing misery to the masses WHILE BEING PAID BY THE PEOPLE HE'S TORTURING. Does the word "sadomasocapitalism" even exist? If not, I am putting dibs on it, patenting it, and getting paid a quarter for every time someone buys a game that brings only misery and pain. Shit, I could retire off of the Angry Video Game Nerd.

"HA HA! Benjamins!"

Even worse is the infamously awkward 'Rail Shooter' segments at the end of the game. You finally get the hang of the hack-and-slash controls to the point where you can defeat the later bosses with relative ease, but then, like running into a bad ex-girlfriend by mistake, you are reminded of the painful memories of yore. The rail shooter involves Dante turning into his 'True Demon Form' and fighting Mundus in the skies. Not only does Mundus throw everything at you except for the kitchen sink, but up is down, and down is up on the control stick. You are FORCED to replay that segment over and over again until you familiarize yourself with the 'new' controller layout, AND IT BLOWS.

Graphics

While the graphics are definitely not up to par by today's standards, back during the turn of the century the graphics in Devil May Cry were... good.

That's it, just 'good'. They were not horribly abysmal like some of the early PS2 titles, but they were definitely not up to snuff with the smooth presentation of games like Final Fantasy X.

"Oh fuck..."

The textures were pretty rough in areas, but were very intricate in others. Prime example being a contrast between the sewer level and the library: The sewer was very bland, with nothing especially noteworthy in the wall textures of the rigidly square rooms, where as the Library had not only rows of books, but also curvature in its architecture and layout, as well as more organic elements, like trees and roots breaking through the corner of the room. And when a library is more 'organic' than a sewer, you know you have problems. Also, the characters were rendered pretty roughly, and their textures (save for their faces) were pretty low-res. As sexy as Trish was supposed to appear, her figure was as curvy as a stop sign. However, the bosses like the Phantom were well done for the time period, and some of the effects were certainly impressive.

Devil May Cry Dante
It's pretty rough, but what do you expect on a 299MHz PS2 graphics processor?

...I actually expect more impressive graphics like this:
Devil May Cry Graphics

Sound

When it comes to Devil May Cry's sound, one thing pops into mind: Resident Evil? Yes, the music in Devil May Cry is very 'Resident Evil-like'. I fucking wonder why... The music is very dark and brooding while you are castle exploring. Not exactly like Silent Hill, but it's extremely moody with its deep droning melodies. However, during fights the music picks up into one of the many electronica battle arrangements. While unique depending on the type of fight, the music retains its 'Gothic' overtone with the use of organ music and deep bass but is accompanied by frantic guitars and an impressive rhythm. But regardless of how it sounds, it is both epic and adrenaline pumping at the same time.

NeoAngelo Battle Theme, give it a listen.

Voice acting is an obviously noticeable aspect to point out. A lot of people have a problem with the dialogue in the game, but that doesn't have any bearing on the VOICES. I can't believe how many people don't realize that there is a difference. Regardless, the voice acting is pretty good in my opinion. The demons like Phantom have reverberating, deep, raspy voices, but the voices of Trish and Dante sounds wooden and relatively uninterested in their roles. Of course, if I had to read dialogue like below I wouldn't be too anxious about any of it, either.

Sweet love of crap, did Dante's balls drop on the word 'light'?

Dialogue

I rarely give Dialogue its own category but I feel like it will be warranted for this particular series, mostly because of the whole "LLLIIIIIIIIIGGGHHTT!!!" thing mentioned above.

Needless to say, in some spots the dialogue is not just 'rough', it's a goddamn TRAIN WRECK. Some dialogue is sly and witty, while other times it is just down-right cheesy. Prime example being the "Devils Never Cry" speech that Dante gives Trish at the end of the game:

PICTURE THE FOLLOWING IF YOU WILL:

*Dante and Trish are trapped in the sewers with no way out as the castle is caving in upon them. Trish begins to cry.*
Dante: "Trish... Devils never cry. These tears... Tears are a gift only humans have."
Trish: "Dante... it's too late."
Dante: "No Trish, It's never too late. For we humans never give up."
*A goddamn airplane falls into the sewer*
Dante: "Are you ready?"
Trish: "Yes!"
*Running to the airplane to escape. Shoot out a wall with a machine gun and fly out a cave to safety.*

... CAN YOU NOT PICTURE THIS AS THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO KIDS 'ACTING' IN AN 8TH GRADE DRAMA CLASS? THE DIALOGUE WRITING IS JUST ABYSMAL. IT'S TOTAL B-MOVIE MATERIAL.

"Tears are a gift only humans have"? MOVE OVER SHAKESPEARE...

"It's never too late. For we humans never give up"? I'VE HEARD BETTER MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES IN PORNOS. AND SINCE WHEN IS DANTE 'HUMAN'? ISN'T HE HALF-DEMON? DOES THAT MEAN HE ONLY CRIES OUT OF ONLY ONE EYE? WHAT THE HELL?

"HA HA! Half-people!"

Besides the aforementioned examples of the horrible writing, here is the icing on the cake.

*Dante stands defiant in front of the statue of Mundus. Mundus shoots a bolt of energy at him, which he easily deflects.*
"Mundus! Why don't you stop ZAPPING and show yourself!"

Stop 'zapping'? That's something I would expect to hear on a playground. Kids running around with plastic laser guns making *ptew ptew!* sounds and one of them gets pissed and shouts back, 'Stop zapping me!"

Alright, I'm done knocking the dialogue. There's just too much to cover, and I feel like )'m laughing at kids running in the Special Olympics: At least they tried their best, and I probably couldn't do any better...

As for the story itself, it's very good overall. A lot of expected plot twists, but they are twists none-the-less. To be honest, NeoAngelo's "revelation" caught me off-guard, and )'m usually good at catching plot-twists in movies like: The Secret Window, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Sixth Sense, etc. I won't say that Trish's betrayal and redemption was any surprise, however. The scale of the story is pretty big, but far from being considered an 'epic'.

Come to think of it, most of the characters are under-developed. You get the general idea of Dante's personality and his motivation, and later on Trish starts showing some character. However, NONE of the bad guys (Phantom, NeoAngelo, etc.) have much depth besides, "We don't like you! DIE!"

Take Mundus, the antagonist: What made him a bad guy? Besides being big and ugly, what kind of a villain is he really? Was he the one who killed Dante's mom? And also, why did he create Trish to bring Dante to the island he was going to resurrect on? Why not resurrect in secrecy, take over the world, and then kill Dante?

I've played this game too many times, and I don't want to think about these gaps in the story anymore...

OVERALL

Devil May Cry was impressive. Hell, it STILL IS. Sure, the graphics are dated, the gameplay feels a little 'unpolished' in comparison to its successors (both its sequels and its copy-cats), and the dialogue will make you CRINGE in some places, but overall, Devil May Cry has aged well from a gameplay standpoint. While far from perfected, Devil May Cry was the game that introduced the world to Extreme Action and brought gamers a little closer to the fantastic effects and style of The Matrix. Capcom gambled and it was the gamers who won.

Devil May Cry was a smash hit. The reception of Dante's first adventure was overwhelmingly positive, though not without a few complaints. Common complaints ranged from 'Devil May Cry was too hard' to 'the camera was horrible (I agree)' to 'Trish wasn't playable'. Regardless, Devil May Cry was a critical and commercial success, and Dante had gone from a gaming nobody to the most extreme video game character during the first few years of the 21st century. As I mentioned in the Devil May Cry 1 review, Dante's adventure was the adrenaline jolt that shook the gaming industry.

Devil May Cry established itself as a game whose inevitable sequels would only improve on an already solid experience.

... Or would they?

Devil May Cry Mission Clear

Graphics
8.0	For the time, the graphics were fairly good. Nice special effects like the electrical and fire attacks, but only average rendering for faces and textures.
Sound
9.0	Dark, brooding, and eerily suspenseful when exploring. Hard hitting and adrenaline pumping when fighting. Voice acting sounds wooden and detached.
Gameplay
9.0	The overall gameplay and style of Devil May Cry is one of the single-most revolutionary in all of gaming history. But the controls still piss me off. Triangle jumps and X doesn't do shit. Docked a point from a perfect 10 for the retarded controller layout.
Story
8.5	The story has a lot of things going for it: intrigue, mystery, action. Too bad the dialogue is so horribly awkward that it ruins the experience.
Replay Value
8.0	)'m giving it an 8 simply because you will find levels and boss fights you would want to replay, while other parts of Devil May Cry are so damned hard that once you beat it, you never want to torture yourself with it again.
OVERALL
9.0	Fantastic. Revolutionary. Bad-ass. Tripped over itself once or twice, but a solid package and a classic game.