Genre: Action
Year: 2001
Developed by: Capcom Production Studio 4
Published by: Capcom
Platforms: PS2 and the rest
#140
Feeling Like: Angel on my shoulder
Henry’s Brain: Hey
Me: Hey, brain! Wow, haven’t talked with you in a while
Brain: No kidding. I thought we’d do another one of these for Devil May Cry.
Me: That’s a great idea! I’ve been on a tear lately with entries, but wasn’t sure how to approach this one.
Brain: I’m really impressed with your consistency lately.
Me: The key was to quantify it.
Brain: You do well when you measure things, and stick to a schedule.
Me: Yeah, consistency can be tough for me. Unless I have it down on a list, I have a really hard time exemplifying discipline.
Brain: Especially since this blog, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really matter.
Me: I’m starting to think it does.
Brain: Explain!
Me: Well, it’s more about setting an audacious goal and working towards it. I’m still a year plus away from finishing the project, but even the notion of getting into the top 100 excites me. Plus, the higher I get, the easier it is to write about games. I never thought I would get to entry #1 (or entry #500 if you look at it that way), but now I know I’m within striking distance, I feel very empowered.
Brain: Looking at your entry list on the Almighty Spreadsheet, you’ve done 94 entries in 2023
Me: 95 in a a few minutes
Brain: That’s more than the previous three years combined. Wow! What happened?
Me: A few things. Mainly, I finished my cricket team’s website. That took about 200 hours of work. If I hadn’t done that, I’d be almost done the 500 by now.
Brain: Yeah, but the lads love the cricket website.
Me: Oh, I was always going to do it. Just…there’s only so much time in the day, you know?
Brain: I do. I zone out often.
Me: So….Devil May Cry?
Brain: Devil May Cry.
Me: I think I might have put this one up too high. Previous hyper action games like Bayonetta 2 or Devil May Cry 5 have far eclipsed the original.
Brain: But don’t forget how amazed you were when you first booted it up.
Me: I’ll never forget it. Moving into 36A King with Lipsit, Danimal, Fuzz, TD and Randy meant we pooled an enormous collection of video games across every console available. I’d never owned a PS2, and here it was for me to play anytime. Including catching up on all the big games I’d missed.
Brain: Heh, remember the tiny TV you played it on?
Me: Very much so, it was a tiny CRT that I had in my room. Strange, after looking at pictures my room had a slightly different layout than what I remembered.
Brain: Sorry, I’m not great at recalling specific, unimportant positioning of accoutrements from 17 years ago.
Me: No worries, it’s not important. It was so fresh, even the controller felt slightly alien. Dante was such an outrageous personality and there was such a strange feel to the world. The entire game is located within a giant castle and I found myself either admiring the fading sunset, admiring the medieval architecture or shooting a floating demon in the face with a shotgun. I loved it.
Brain: That’s quite a contrast.
Me: Yeah, the tone is all over the place. I know it started out as Resident Evil 4 so you get this quiet, no-music sections where all you hear are Dante’s feet echoing against the gothic backdrop. The opening cutscene is batshit crazy and it feels like a B-movie, but then there are cutscenes that try to be dramatic and make you feel for Dante. The crazier it got, the more I was intrigued.
Brain: I definitely remember dying to the lava spider boss about a dozen times.
Me: That was a wake up call. Experimenting with various combos on small enemies was fine, but for whatever reason, that stupid fiery arachnid mashed tme to pieces until I finally figured out the game’s language.
Brain: Lipsit definitely provided a hand.
Me: Oh yeah. I felt like I was fighting the camera too often. Dante auto-locking onto enemies was maddening at times. But, understanding the Devil Trigger power and dodging appropriately were the real keys to success. Plus I had to get used to being aggressive – I also had to keep the moveset within reason.
Brain: Yeah, you’re not the kind of guy to unlock every move and use 16 different combos in a fight.
Me: No, I love passive abilities so I focused more on making myself more powerful with a few moves. In a fracas, I panic a bit and can’t be expected to remember down + x, followed by three sword swings, then hold triangle, etc.
Brain: But man, when it came together….
Me: Oh it’s insane. I know the pistols don’t very much damage, but they look so goddamn cool. This was very much during the Matrix craze and I can’t help but think a trenchcoat-clad dude with a devil may care (heh) attitude pistoling monsters in the face before running them through with a sword caused some gamers to immediately go through puberty.
Brain: ….
Me: I was 21 at the time, thank you very much.
Brain: Despite some design clashes and inconsistent voice acting, it’s still a landmark title…though probably hasn’t aged well.
Me: Yeah looking back on it via YouTube, there’s a reason they re-mastered it. The ideas were there and this was one of many titles showcasing how slick the PS2 was compared to whatever Nintendo and Microsoft were up to. You just wouldn’t find this type of game on the GameCube. With the excitement of moving into a house with my best friends and school not starting for a week, I was in gaming bliss.
Brain: I wonder if the beer consumption detracted from your ability to beat the first boss.
Me: Actually, now that I think about it, Lipsit probably beat it for me. I was very good at outsourcing difficult parts to my friends. Like when Randy got me past Wiegraf in Final Fantasy Tactics.
Brain: You know, for somebody who plays video games all the time, you’re not very good at them.
Me: I know! I should be away better.
Brain: But you’re pretty good at keeping up with the blog. Thanks for the inclusion, I was worried you’d forgotten about me.
Me: Don’t take it personally.
The 500 