Introduction
I remember playing this originally on the Playstation 2, I was awful at it. My older brothers were much better at it than I could ever. And unfortunately that facts remains still rings true to this day. Now, I have recently beat Devil May Cry once again through the Devil May Cry HD Collection, but I believe it would be much easier to just review each individually starting with the one that started it all. With further to do, it’s time I get started with some story talk.

Story
You play as Dante, a white-haired, red coat wearing, half-demon that hunts demons as his career. Now, Dante is cocky and arrogant yet he’s awesome teeming with such confidence that he’ll mouth off any demon no matter their size and/or strength. Though a lot of his lines sound stupid I enjoy them to be honest. Now, the story of the game is that Dante is hired by a blonde woman named Trish to eliminate the evil that resides at Mallet Island. There he meets an assortment of demons that come to fear and hate him due to the tremendous power inherited from his father, a demon that saved the humans from the demons many centuries ago. The exceptions to this rule are this blob monster and this knight-like character that has something do with Dante. Also I find it pretty cool that each enemy gets their own little cutscene when they’re first introduced. Now, the story is somewhat short and can sound corny at times, but I think it’s told with confidence. But, a game story needs some visuals for it to be told properly.

Graphics
Okay, being of one of the earliest games to arrive on the Playstation 2 when it first released Devil May Cry isn’t going to look fantastic compared to later titles on the system. I mean the dull and dark aesthetic of the whole thing does compliment the whole gothic-like theme of the game. However, texture quality isn’t very good, and certain models can look jaggy at times. Not to mention that the FMVs that play during certain points of the game look blurry and kind of makes your eyes when watching. It also makes me wonder how the FMVs of Final Fantasy IX for the Playstation can look so much than an FMV on the Playstation 2. But, overall I do like the aesthetic of the game, and the models are pretty alright looking for an early PS2 game. Though a good aesthetic is backed up by the quality sound design.

Sound
Okay, some of the sounds in this game aren’t not of the best quality, but I still think that they’re all still pretty great for its era. However on the hand, the voice acting isn’t that great at all if I’m being honest. I hear more from Dante and Trish, and less from the villains, but at times their delivery sounds like someone who just getting into voice acting.  It bothered me a little bit, but it can make a lot of lines sound absolutely horrible. Thankfully though, soundtrack for this game is pretty good. It has this fusion of Rock and some form of Techno that plays during fights, and it sounds pretty cool and makes some fights feel more intense. On the other hand though, the music used in the environment is closer to some light classical music maybe a teensy bit of opera in there as well. And good sound design is integral to making the gameplay a lot more impactful.

Gameplay
Combat
Devil May Cry is a hack n’ slash, which means hitting enemies with your weapon for money, which is called Red Orb in game. Now, Red Orbs are earned by killing enemies, finding them in the environment, and earning them as reward after completing a mission. Now, the Red Orbs you earn from enemies and end-mission reward is based on your Stylish Rank. Your Stylish Rank is a rating of how “stylish” you are during a fight, and it’s raised by unleash a continuous stream of varied attacks without being hit, even though I feel the dodging can be stiff at times. Now, The more stylish you are the higher your stylish rank, which is showcased as a letter grade with D being the lowest and S being the highest of the five grades. Now, whatever rank you have when you kill an enemy will determine the amount of Red Orb they’ll drop. The end-mission reward is essential the same but it works on the average of the Stylish Ranks you earned during the mission. But, the combo system for each melee weapon or Devil Arm is rather simplistic, and firearms aren't strong at all. However, you can purchase new techniques for a weapon, though three of the Devil Arms share the same techniques. Learning these techniques and using them with a great variation together with the combos and firearms to gain and maintain Stylish Ranks. Now, I said that firearms are important to Stylish Ranking as they both help raise and maintain Stylish Ranks. For example: you can hit an enemy into the air then juggle them by constantly shooting with your pistols. However, the usage of firearms in junction with your Devil Arms also needs variation or you risk losing your Stylish Rank, but you can earn and find new firearms. However, switching to a different Devil Arm and firearm requires to go into the menu, selecting the weapon you want, confirming your choice, then finally watch a small animation of the weapon. The constant switching back and forth between the inventory and the game just to change a weapon to get more variation during combat breaks the flow of the whole affair. Now also a bit integral to combat is the Devil Trigger, this empowered state that increases Dante’s power, defense, and grants him a rather slow regeneration ability. Now, those are the basic functions of Devil Trigger during its duration, which be increased with a Purple Orb and restored with White Orbs. Anyways, Devil Trigger grants you access to powerful techniques if they’ve been purchased while you are in that state. But, combat isn’t  everything to this game there’s also exploration.

Exploration
Unlike some previous games within its genre Devil May Cry allows to explore its environment to the fullest extent allowed, which is quite a bit. Now, while the game is separated into missions you are able backtrack to almost the beginning of the island. Now, in order to complete missions you have to find key items scattered to gain access to different area, so in that regard the game kind of has to neat Igavania aspect to it. You may also find Secret Missions, which I will cover more later. You can also find statues that act as the game’s shop, and I’ll talk about how the shop later. Now, you can break certain objects to get some Red Orbs out of them, and you can also find Blue Orb Fragments with four fragments becoming a Blue Orb to increase max health. However, the major issue is exploration is the fixed camera. I found some of the camera angles to be distorting sometimes leading me to make a mistakes, such as missing a ledge or going the wrong direction. But, that isn’t as nearly as frustrating as the Secret Missions.

Secret Missions
Secret Missions are the bane of my existence in this game, I could not for the life of me complete one of them because I’m terrible at this game. But, I know what they are and you get for completing them, so I’ll talk about that instead. Now, Secret Missions are represented in the world as a glowing sign, which when examined will take you to the Secret Mission. A Secret Mission takes place in a separate location where you’re meant to complete the challenge told to you. These challenges are greatly varied and are truly challenging, or frustrating in my case. One of the more interesting challenges involves grabbing a Blue Orb Fragment high up in the air by hopping on the giant floating skulls. Completion of a Secret Mission will get you a Blue Orb Fragment the first time with Yellow Orbs (continues essentially) for the rest of the time. Now, you can’t use items during a Secret Mission, so that seems like a good excuse to start talking about the shop and its contents.

Shop & Items
The game’s shop is represented as a lion-headed goddess holding a large hourglass. Here you can purchase usable items, techniques, and Orbs with Red Orbs. However, you should take note that purchasing an item will increase its price each time until it hits a limit. That can translate to quite a bit of grinding, and more annoying is that you can hold one Vital Star (healing item) at a time while you hold multiple of the other items like Devil Stars (restores Devil Trigger) or Holy Water (Screen Damager). So if you use a Vital Star during a fight, which does heal a lot though, you have to rely on the hope that Green Orbs (healing pickups) can be received from either the enemies or an object. Of course learning when to use items at the right time is all part of the different difficulties.

Difficulty
Now, Devil May Cry is very difficult game especially if you’re terrible at it. In fact when you die when too many times during normal difficulty it will ask you if want to lower the difficulty. I said no to the suggestion as you can’t encounter all of the enemies on easy difficulty, and not to mention the game is less challenging. The completion of a difficulty mode will unlock the next difficulty all the way up to Dante Must Die mode in which enemies have Devil Trigger adding extra challenge to an already challenging game.

Conclusion
Devil May Cry is a great entry in the Hack n’ Slash genre. The story while corny tells itself very competently in my opinion. The game doesn’t look all that great for an early PS2 title, but I do believe that overall aesthetic helps with the gothic theme. It has a pretty cool soundtrack throughout the entire game, but the game’s audio is weakened by the rather subpar voice acting. The game itself is challenging with a combat system that rewards you for putting variety into your combos, and it also rewarded you properly for exploration. All in all I am thankful to Hideki Kamiya for giving us this great yet flawed game.