"Devil May Cry's a Rockin, don't come a knockin baby yeah!"
So for a long time this was my favourite game ever and was the start of my solidification into a hardcore Capcom fan which has continued to this day. When this came out I was around 18 and a friend had bought it. We played it together and seeing a leather clad biker girl smash through a bar, a gothic castle and uppercutting a marionette with a sword then juggling it with dual wielding pistols was, at the time, the coolest thing ever. I knew this game inside and out speed running it, learning every move, or collecting over a million red orbs because I could. One weekend when I had the house to myself that same friend came and stayed over playing all night by setting up two PlayStation 2's next to two TVs so we could both play Devil May Cry on our own saves hunting S ranks until we had every one on every difficulty level including Dante Must Die. I loved it.
The thing is I'd never played a game like this before. It's roots starting as Resident Evil 4 before changing into it's own series are pretty evident in aspects of it's design. The gothic horror atmosphere slightly underlining it's occasionally camp and over the top exterior gelled for an extremely unique experience. I've seen a lot of reviews on here being pretty negative about it and you know what? I get it, I do. The static camera angle and controls built around it for people who having not played it during that era wouldn't care for or have the patience to learn would feel dated. The thing is though, the game is built around it fundamentally when you learn how to use it on it's terms. Enemies even off screen give audio attack cues, the controls are built around directions and angles in relation to the camera but are also designed for angle changes when you know how. It's a clever game for it's time and the mixture of basic exploration, puzzles and scattered battle arenas was just a fun mix as the game understands the importance of downtime.
It's also an impressive looking and sounding game. Remember this came out only a year after the PS2 launch and has these large levels, detailed character and enemy models and insane boss fights in which each feels like a real event to behold. I love the enemy designs such as shadow cats that launch spikes, incorporeal grim reapers and giant lava spiders. Though the boss fights do repeat they are such big spectacles and some of the hardest challenges in the game with some insane music. Speaking of which whilst the later soundtracks went a lot more metal with vocal tracks the original game has this mixture of gothic haunting melodies that could easily be in a horror game to sort of electronic rock tracks and just stands out a lot more from it's later sequels due to it.
Coming back to this in 2012 for the remaster and all the trophies then playing it again now and I still love it. Yes it's terribly cheesy with laughable lip synching, yes it's fixed camera can make the action feel unwieldly and yes it's probably one of those games you had to be there for....
....but it's the best Devil May Cry game though.
+ Horror and action roots mixed.
+ Combat and boss battles are exciting.
+ Great music and visuals.
+ Sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally.
- Fixed camera angle can take getting used to.
So for a long time this was my favourite game ever and was the start of my solidification into a hardcore Capcom fan which has continued to this day. When this came out I was around 18 and a friend had bought it. We played it together and seeing a leather clad biker girl smash through a bar, a gothic castle and uppercutting a marionette with a sword then juggling it with dual wielding pistols was, at the time, the coolest thing ever. I knew this game inside and out speed running it, learning every move, or collecting over a million red orbs because I could. One weekend when I had the house to myself that same friend came and stayed over playing all night by setting up two PlayStation 2's next to two TVs so we could both play Devil May Cry on our own saves hunting S ranks until we had every one on every difficulty level including Dante Must Die. I loved it.
The thing is I'd never played a game like this before. It's roots starting as Resident Evil 4 before changing into it's own series are pretty evident in aspects of it's design. The gothic horror atmosphere slightly underlining it's occasionally camp and over the top exterior gelled for an extremely unique experience. I've seen a lot of reviews on here being pretty negative about it and you know what? I get it, I do. The static camera angle and controls built around it for people who having not played it during that era wouldn't care for or have the patience to learn would feel dated. The thing is though, the game is built around it fundamentally when you learn how to use it on it's terms. Enemies even off screen give audio attack cues, the controls are built around directions and angles in relation to the camera but are also designed for angle changes when you know how. It's a clever game for it's time and the mixture of basic exploration, puzzles and scattered battle arenas was just a fun mix as the game understands the importance of downtime.
It's also an impressive looking and sounding game. Remember this came out only a year after the PS2 launch and has these large levels, detailed character and enemy models and insane boss fights in which each feels like a real event to behold. I love the enemy designs such as shadow cats that launch spikes, incorporeal grim reapers and giant lava spiders. Though the boss fights do repeat they are such big spectacles and some of the hardest challenges in the game with some insane music. Speaking of which whilst the later soundtracks went a lot more metal with vocal tracks the original game has this mixture of gothic haunting melodies that could easily be in a horror game to sort of electronic rock tracks and just stands out a lot more from it's later sequels due to it.
Coming back to this in 2012 for the remaster and all the trophies then playing it again now and I still love it. Yes it's terribly cheesy with laughable lip synching, yes it's fixed camera can make the action feel unwieldly and yes it's probably one of those games you had to be there for....
....but it's the best Devil May Cry game though.
+ Horror and action roots mixed.
+ Combat and boss battles are exciting.
+ Great music and visuals.
+ Sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally.
- Fixed camera angle can take getting used to.
Man, there's something about the Capcom games of this era. The early Monster Hunters, Resident Evil 4, and now Devil May Cry, they have an ambience that just feels like home to me.
Revolutionary when it came out, and honestly it hasn’t aged the worst. Combat still holds up fairly well, and while simple compared to character action games even just a couple years down the line, there wouldn't be character action games down the line if not for this. It does come with drawbacks however. You can definitely tell this was a repurposed Resident Evil game. The slower pace, the lock and key style progression, the annoying fixed camera angles, not to mention the game has a very economical feel to it with a lot of reused enemies and boss encounters. The platforming segments as well really annoyed me, demanding precision of you that the game isn’t reliably capable of. And lastly I found there was some pretty wild variance in how long and how difficult some missions were compared to others. Some only ask something trivial of you, like “leave this room,” then you’ll have others like “find this mcguffin, carry it all the way across the map, figure out this obtuse puzzle, navigate this horseshit invisible platforming course, then beat this boss who has a move that sends you to fight a whole ass other boss among those you’ve already faced EVERY single time it hits you, and if you use up all your lives you gotta do the whole thing all over again. Good luck dick face.”
Hiccups aside though, there’s a very solid foundation here and it definitely raises my expectations of what’s to come.
Revolutionary when it came out, and honestly it hasn’t aged the worst. Combat still holds up fairly well, and while simple compared to character action games even just a couple years down the line, there wouldn't be character action games down the line if not for this. It does come with drawbacks however. You can definitely tell this was a repurposed Resident Evil game. The slower pace, the lock and key style progression, the annoying fixed camera angles, not to mention the game has a very economical feel to it with a lot of reused enemies and boss encounters. The platforming segments as well really annoyed me, demanding precision of you that the game isn’t reliably capable of. And lastly I found there was some pretty wild variance in how long and how difficult some missions were compared to others. Some only ask something trivial of you, like “leave this room,” then you’ll have others like “find this mcguffin, carry it all the way across the map, figure out this obtuse puzzle, navigate this horseshit invisible platforming course, then beat this boss who has a move that sends you to fight a whole ass other boss among those you’ve already faced EVERY single time it hits you, and if you use up all your lives you gotta do the whole thing all over again. Good luck dick face.”
Hiccups aside though, there’s a very solid foundation here and it definitely raises my expectations of what’s to come.
The first Devil May Cry has simple but satisfying combat, a fun and overly edgy story, and really, really cool atmosphere. This is a good first entry to a series, it's rough around some edges in terms of game design and mechanics, but we can cut it some slack since it invented a genre. The world for this game is sick, I loved the atmosphere the entire way through. The music is awesome too. The only really big downside is that camera. It SUCKS. Very clearly was a reworked Resident Evil game. But, I got used to it, and when I did I was having a really fun time with this game.
I'm so excited to play the amazing future entries!!! Wait what? A really bad sequel? Oh yeahhhh, guess I gotta get through that first.
I'm so excited to play the amazing future entries!!! Wait what? A really bad sequel? Oh yeahhhh, guess I gotta get through that first.
Vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUjTO1k1Q_8
Onde uma árvore cresce mais rápido: no campo ou no meio de uma grande cidade?
Existe um termo em Game design sobre o jogo se fazer por conta própria, geralmente atribuído a jogos que têm uma mecânica principal tão inventiva e robusta que se ramifica quase naturalmente em submecânicas e dinâmicas diferentes e igualmente inventivas. O resultado desse processo criativo geralmente são jogos que surpreendem do começo até o final e demonstram um domínio de seu núcleo de gameplay que torna o level design intuitivo e coeso. Seria o game design emergindo de forma quase espontânea.
Geralmente, esse fenômeno acontece em uma atmosfera saudável de desenvolvimento e cooperação, mas eu acredito na existência de outro tipo de game design emergente, um que, apesar de muitas falhas, suas exceções florescem em uma essência imponente e até criam raízes fortes dentro da cultura de jogos.
Apesar de uma árvore seguir o processo natural de vida em um campo ou floresta remota, um estudo publicado na Scientific Reports indica que árvores podem crescer mais rápido em certas cidades devido ao fenômeno da ilha de calor. Ilhas de calor são caracterizadas pelo aumento acentuado de temperatura em cidades grandes e estão diretamente ligadas à modificação do meio ambiente pelo ser humano, como o desmatamento, a drenagem de rios e lagos, e, claro, o concreto e a poluição, que criam um microclima que pode ser de 3 a 10 graus mais elevado do que o normal. Grosseiramente falando, o caos das cidades cria uma estufa acidental que favorece o crescimento das árvores. Quem diria, não é?
Portanto, vamos imaginar esse bravo jardineiro amador que se sente corajoso o suficiente para plantar uma árvore grande no quintal de sua casa e escolhe plantar um Plátano, uma árvore linda e muito simbólica, não apenas por sua representação no panteão grego (que falaremos logo mais), mas também por ser uma árvore que cresce muito e muito rapidamente, especialmente em ambientes extremamente urbanos. Apesar de nosso jardineiro estar cuidando muito bem dela, ela aos poucos cresce sem a necessidade de seu jardineiro e muito logo, é um ser que o jardineiro não consegue mais controlar. O Plátano se molda ao seu ambiente, com vida própria e com uma capacidade entrópica de crescimento. Devil May Cry é exatamente esse Plátano para mim.
Devil May Cry é uma obra anárquica em contexto, que surge como a prole de uma entropia que só pode ser cultivada em um ambiente caótico, incerto e poluído. Eu não conheço o desenvolvimento de Devil May Cry, mas sua história ecoa em substância, tornando-se, como todo jogo acidentalmente criativo e emergente, deslumbrante.
Esse jogo possui 3 camadas que expressam intensamente. A primeira delas é uma faceta rasa, mas criativamente competente, de survival horror. Uma gestão de recursos que, a princípio, parece até sem sentido, mas vai se moldando à medida que o jogo cresce, se mostrando parte vital não apenas de suas mecânicas, mas também de seu carisma e substância. Em survival horror, no geral, se espera fragilidade. Precisamos nos ater aos recursos, pois eles fazem parte da casca vulnerável e, até mesmo, incompetente. Fazer o que queremos muitas vezes não é intuitivo e, em grande parte, nos veremos em um labirinto de chaves e portões, estaremos presos com criaturas monstruosas ou ameaçadoras.
Essa primeira camada colide com outra camada relacionada a Hack n slash e character action. Nesses tipos de jogos, esperamos POWER CREEP e estaremos o tempo todo sujeitos a testes de habilidade com botões. Reflexos, timing e precisão fazem parte das exigências de gameplay de um jogo em que somos, geralmente, deuses ou criaturas extramundanas. Tal qual em God of War, Darksiders, El Shaddai, em Devil May Cry nos apoiamos em entidades mitológicas para desconectar a protagonista do mundo material e trazer ainda mais a ideia de um ser poderoso e destruidor. Hack and slash brinca com poder e a capacidade mecânica de fazer o que quiser em termos de golpes, geralmente, os monstros estão presos com essa entidade divina ameaçadora.
Essas duas camadas possuem contrastes claros em ideias e projeções. Poderíamos esperar que elas não funcionassem bem juntas, mas Devil May Cry tem uma terceira camada que une esses dois opostos em uma prole essencialmente completa.
Dante é a camada que emulsiona os contrastes criativos e filosóficos do design de Devil May Cry.
Se voltarmos ao nosso imaginário caso anterior, um grande Plátano no meio de uma cidade pode parecer contrastante, mas para o panteão grego, essa seria uma paisagem que simbolizaria a passagem de Teofrasto, em que Creta tinha uma cidade com um grande Plátano, a árvore de Helena e as Ninfas. Esse Plátano era especial, pois suas folhas nunca teriam caído, acredita-se que sob sua copa teria acontecido um casamento de deuses, tornando-a uma árvore santa e eterna. Esse contraste entre o natural e o não natural pode ser relacionado contextualmente com um simbolismo tão simples quanto a espécie de uma árvore protagonista.
Em Devil May Cry, iniciei um jogo edgy e impenetrável sobre poder. Um personagem que parecia uma carapaça adolescente e implacável, como esperado de um hack and slash de PS2. A minha surpresa foi terminar um jogo sensível e vulnerável sobre orfandade.
Dante é um personagem ríspido, mas que com o tempo se mostra cheio de ternura e simplicidade. Dante é amoroso, sensível e suas tristezas florescem como poder, mas também com fragilidade e vulnerabilidade. Isso se torna mais forte ao final do jogo quando percebemos que Devil May Cry é sobre família e sua falta na vida de Dante, um personagem que, sem pai e sem mãe, busca um significado em coisas simples como a espada de seu pai, o brasão de família e uma mulher que parece sua mãe. Na busca por vingança, Dante terá conflitos com esses símbolos familiares e até enfrentará e matará o próprio irmão, Dante chega a ser digno de pena. Ao final do jogo, Dante está derretido e sua faceta indestrutível dá espaço a uma ternura suculenta que se mistura perfeitamente às mecânicas vulneráveis e implacáveis de Devil May Cry.
Dante é maior do que Devil May Cry mecanicamente, mas também substancialmente. Essa receita caótica desabrocha em um enorme e lindo Plátano no meio de uma selva de pedra impossível.
Dante é, de fato, filho de duas entidades platonicamente opostas.
Onde uma árvore cresce mais rápido: no campo ou no meio de uma grande cidade?
Existe um termo em Game design sobre o jogo se fazer por conta própria, geralmente atribuído a jogos que têm uma mecânica principal tão inventiva e robusta que se ramifica quase naturalmente em submecânicas e dinâmicas diferentes e igualmente inventivas. O resultado desse processo criativo geralmente são jogos que surpreendem do começo até o final e demonstram um domínio de seu núcleo de gameplay que torna o level design intuitivo e coeso. Seria o game design emergindo de forma quase espontânea.
Geralmente, esse fenômeno acontece em uma atmosfera saudável de desenvolvimento e cooperação, mas eu acredito na existência de outro tipo de game design emergente, um que, apesar de muitas falhas, suas exceções florescem em uma essência imponente e até criam raízes fortes dentro da cultura de jogos.
Apesar de uma árvore seguir o processo natural de vida em um campo ou floresta remota, um estudo publicado na Scientific Reports indica que árvores podem crescer mais rápido em certas cidades devido ao fenômeno da ilha de calor. Ilhas de calor são caracterizadas pelo aumento acentuado de temperatura em cidades grandes e estão diretamente ligadas à modificação do meio ambiente pelo ser humano, como o desmatamento, a drenagem de rios e lagos, e, claro, o concreto e a poluição, que criam um microclima que pode ser de 3 a 10 graus mais elevado do que o normal. Grosseiramente falando, o caos das cidades cria uma estufa acidental que favorece o crescimento das árvores. Quem diria, não é?
Portanto, vamos imaginar esse bravo jardineiro amador que se sente corajoso o suficiente para plantar uma árvore grande no quintal de sua casa e escolhe plantar um Plátano, uma árvore linda e muito simbólica, não apenas por sua representação no panteão grego (que falaremos logo mais), mas também por ser uma árvore que cresce muito e muito rapidamente, especialmente em ambientes extremamente urbanos. Apesar de nosso jardineiro estar cuidando muito bem dela, ela aos poucos cresce sem a necessidade de seu jardineiro e muito logo, é um ser que o jardineiro não consegue mais controlar. O Plátano se molda ao seu ambiente, com vida própria e com uma capacidade entrópica de crescimento. Devil May Cry é exatamente esse Plátano para mim.
Devil May Cry é uma obra anárquica em contexto, que surge como a prole de uma entropia que só pode ser cultivada em um ambiente caótico, incerto e poluído. Eu não conheço o desenvolvimento de Devil May Cry, mas sua história ecoa em substância, tornando-se, como todo jogo acidentalmente criativo e emergente, deslumbrante.
Esse jogo possui 3 camadas que expressam intensamente. A primeira delas é uma faceta rasa, mas criativamente competente, de survival horror. Uma gestão de recursos que, a princípio, parece até sem sentido, mas vai se moldando à medida que o jogo cresce, se mostrando parte vital não apenas de suas mecânicas, mas também de seu carisma e substância. Em survival horror, no geral, se espera fragilidade. Precisamos nos ater aos recursos, pois eles fazem parte da casca vulnerável e, até mesmo, incompetente. Fazer o que queremos muitas vezes não é intuitivo e, em grande parte, nos veremos em um labirinto de chaves e portões, estaremos presos com criaturas monstruosas ou ameaçadoras.
Essa primeira camada colide com outra camada relacionada a Hack n slash e character action. Nesses tipos de jogos, esperamos POWER CREEP e estaremos o tempo todo sujeitos a testes de habilidade com botões. Reflexos, timing e precisão fazem parte das exigências de gameplay de um jogo em que somos, geralmente, deuses ou criaturas extramundanas. Tal qual em God of War, Darksiders, El Shaddai, em Devil May Cry nos apoiamos em entidades mitológicas para desconectar a protagonista do mundo material e trazer ainda mais a ideia de um ser poderoso e destruidor. Hack and slash brinca com poder e a capacidade mecânica de fazer o que quiser em termos de golpes, geralmente, os monstros estão presos com essa entidade divina ameaçadora.
Essas duas camadas possuem contrastes claros em ideias e projeções. Poderíamos esperar que elas não funcionassem bem juntas, mas Devil May Cry tem uma terceira camada que une esses dois opostos em uma prole essencialmente completa.
Dante é a camada que emulsiona os contrastes criativos e filosóficos do design de Devil May Cry.
Se voltarmos ao nosso imaginário caso anterior, um grande Plátano no meio de uma cidade pode parecer contrastante, mas para o panteão grego, essa seria uma paisagem que simbolizaria a passagem de Teofrasto, em que Creta tinha uma cidade com um grande Plátano, a árvore de Helena e as Ninfas. Esse Plátano era especial, pois suas folhas nunca teriam caído, acredita-se que sob sua copa teria acontecido um casamento de deuses, tornando-a uma árvore santa e eterna. Esse contraste entre o natural e o não natural pode ser relacionado contextualmente com um simbolismo tão simples quanto a espécie de uma árvore protagonista.
Em Devil May Cry, iniciei um jogo edgy e impenetrável sobre poder. Um personagem que parecia uma carapaça adolescente e implacável, como esperado de um hack and slash de PS2. A minha surpresa foi terminar um jogo sensível e vulnerável sobre orfandade.
Dante é um personagem ríspido, mas que com o tempo se mostra cheio de ternura e simplicidade. Dante é amoroso, sensível e suas tristezas florescem como poder, mas também com fragilidade e vulnerabilidade. Isso se torna mais forte ao final do jogo quando percebemos que Devil May Cry é sobre família e sua falta na vida de Dante, um personagem que, sem pai e sem mãe, busca um significado em coisas simples como a espada de seu pai, o brasão de família e uma mulher que parece sua mãe. Na busca por vingança, Dante terá conflitos com esses símbolos familiares e até enfrentará e matará o próprio irmão, Dante chega a ser digno de pena. Ao final do jogo, Dante está derretido e sua faceta indestrutível dá espaço a uma ternura suculenta que se mistura perfeitamente às mecânicas vulneráveis e implacáveis de Devil May Cry.
Dante é maior do que Devil May Cry mecanicamente, mas também substancialmente. Essa receita caótica desabrocha em um enorme e lindo Plátano no meio de uma selva de pedra impossível.
Dante é, de fato, filho de duas entidades platonicamente opostas.
Worth a play but its dated. Its hard to play in the modern age. Camera angles mess you up constantly. Gameplay is fine and lays the groundwork for ALMOST all the games after it to be good to great to fantastic.
Initially developed as a Resident Evil game, Devil May Cry 1 ultimately ending up becoming its own thing, although vestiges of Resident Evil can still be seen in it.
The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.
The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.
The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.
The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.
The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.
There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.
The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.
The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.
The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.
The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.
The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.
There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.
A very decent starting entry to the series. The game takes upon some Resident Evil quirks with camera angles which probably what makes some of the levels in the game very frustrating to go through. Weirdly enough liked the punishing nature of this game that you have to reset to the start of the level after you run out of lives challenging you to play the level as best as you can. Despite the game only taking place in one area, it is probably a very fun game to play through and figure out the patterns of the boss fights. The story is decent in introducing Dante and the antagonist of the game and a weird plot twist I will not mention here. Overall fun action game with a decent difficulty and an alright story.
The 'relevant' start of the stylish-action sub-genre of beat-'em-ups (glossing over Rising Zan here), and, for my money, one that's still yet to be surpassed.
Kamiya had vision for what being 'stylish' meant in an action-game, and he realized it here drawing influences from his favorite action-game ever made (Castlevania (1986)), a 'complete' game (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)), even a wee bit of Space Harrier (1985) was snuck in there, built off the bones of a Resident Evil 4 prototype. This vision was the juxtaposition of an unstylish struggle filled with dodges, flailing, and unnecessary attacks against doing the right attack at the right time for an instant-kill (coined Critical Hit by the Secret Mission that introduced the concept). The effortless dispatch of enemies done by exploiting specific windows was his idea of cool.
This system never saw another implementation. It gave way in the sequels, starting with Devil May Cry 3, to sandbox combo-construction done with the use of a larger tool-set and cancels. Something akin to the hyper-combos seen in fighting-games like Marvel vs Capcom. The community seems to favor the skill involved with the complicated inputs required for the more appreciated combo-vids in these games, but they're a significant enough deviation that I would say Devil May Cry 1 doesn't actually have a successor.
I find the game's design is fairly tight. Aside from slash-cancelling and some shenanigans with Air Hike and the shotgun, it's all on point. There are specific situations that have to be individually learned, such as the swimming-sections and pre-set camera angles, that can be frustrating since there isn't a systematic-solution to these instances. The game is also cryptic with where it hides its secrets, but that's par for course from its influences. The Secret Missions also work well as advanced and optional combat-tutorials. Running from Normal to Hard to Dante Must Die is also a smooth learning-curve to what I believe is the intended experience, a fully-upgraded Dante on Dante Must Die.
It's my favorite entry in its genre, so it deserves the 5/5.
Kamiya had vision for what being 'stylish' meant in an action-game, and he realized it here drawing influences from his favorite action-game ever made (Castlevania (1986)), a 'complete' game (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)), even a wee bit of Space Harrier (1985) was snuck in there, built off the bones of a Resident Evil 4 prototype. This vision was the juxtaposition of an unstylish struggle filled with dodges, flailing, and unnecessary attacks against doing the right attack at the right time for an instant-kill (coined Critical Hit by the Secret Mission that introduced the concept). The effortless dispatch of enemies done by exploiting specific windows was his idea of cool.
This system never saw another implementation. It gave way in the sequels, starting with Devil May Cry 3, to sandbox combo-construction done with the use of a larger tool-set and cancels. Something akin to the hyper-combos seen in fighting-games like Marvel vs Capcom. The community seems to favor the skill involved with the complicated inputs required for the more appreciated combo-vids in these games, but they're a significant enough deviation that I would say Devil May Cry 1 doesn't actually have a successor.
I find the game's design is fairly tight. Aside from slash-cancelling and some shenanigans with Air Hike and the shotgun, it's all on point. There are specific situations that have to be individually learned, such as the swimming-sections and pre-set camera angles, that can be frustrating since there isn't a systematic-solution to these instances. The game is also cryptic with where it hides its secrets, but that's par for course from its influences. The Secret Missions also work well as advanced and optional combat-tutorials. Running from Normal to Hard to Dante Must Die is also a smooth learning-curve to what I believe is the intended experience, a fully-upgraded Dante on Dante Must Die.
It's my favorite entry in its genre, so it deserves the 5/5.
Usually I feel like youd have to go easy on game thats both the originator of a genre and also just an older game in general - but seeing as many of the "sluggish" parts of the genre that are still being repeated today were penned by this game, I have to hold DMC1 accountable as a Bad Influence.
I feel bad for this but I cannot rate it any higher right now since this is just the experience I had with the game, as with DMC 3 I never played the franchise back when it released and I'm only getting into it now, so nostalgia and context regarding it's realease are not really that much of a factor.
The atmosphere is good and the music is great, most bosses are decently designed and the combat is okey, but it is the camera placing that absolutely drives me nuts in some action sequences, theres some encounters where you litterally cannot see where you are being attacked from and are meant to dodge some attacks that you have no way of expecting, most of the difficulty comes from the cameras sabotaging your ability to grasp what's going on and this is also true for the few platforming sections of the game, where movement is straight up frustrating because of this, some jumps even seem kind of "scripted" and are hard to get right, it all adds up to the clunkyness of the game, camera angles also serve to confuse you while navigating the map.
Level design is pretty good, even the exploration which in this kind of game I'm not usually a fan of is pretty good, the enemies have cool designs and as I said before if it wasn't for the cameras most bosses would be fine.
I like this version of Dante even if it's not my favorite, he is kind of edgy/intense but not too much, and he is serious when he needs to. After experience both the Dante from this game and the one in DMC 3 I believe I can begin to piece together how the modern Dante has evolved from here.
I like that the game treats the subject of humanity (It is a subject I enjoy after all) , like DMC 3 did, even if it's somewhat brief ( it's a 6 hour long game after all)
All in all most of my criticism comes down to how frustrating certain parts of the game feel because of the camera placement, this game separated Devil May Cry from Resident Evil and deserves credit for it, it features good level design, glimpses of the combat that is to come in future titles, great art, a decent story, great atmosphere and great music.
The atmosphere is good and the music is great, most bosses are decently designed and the combat is okey, but it is the camera placing that absolutely drives me nuts in some action sequences, theres some encounters where you litterally cannot see where you are being attacked from and are meant to dodge some attacks that you have no way of expecting, most of the difficulty comes from the cameras sabotaging your ability to grasp what's going on and this is also true for the few platforming sections of the game, where movement is straight up frustrating because of this, some jumps even seem kind of "scripted" and are hard to get right, it all adds up to the clunkyness of the game, camera angles also serve to confuse you while navigating the map.
Level design is pretty good, even the exploration which in this kind of game I'm not usually a fan of is pretty good, the enemies have cool designs and as I said before if it wasn't for the cameras most bosses would be fine.
I like this version of Dante even if it's not my favorite, he is kind of edgy/intense but not too much, and he is serious when he needs to. After experience both the Dante from this game and the one in DMC 3 I believe I can begin to piece together how the modern Dante has evolved from here.
I like that the game treats the subject of humanity (It is a subject I enjoy after all) , like DMC 3 did, even if it's somewhat brief ( it's a 6 hour long game after all)
All in all most of my criticism comes down to how frustrating certain parts of the game feel because of the camera placement, this game separated Devil May Cry from Resident Evil and deserves credit for it, it features good level design, glimpses of the combat that is to come in future titles, great art, a decent story, great atmosphere and great music.
The controls are very annoying to use and the camera is extremely frustrating.
not dmc2
it's gothic and punk and oh-so corny. as someone who adores the era of 00's action/horror films such as blade (1998) and constantine (2005), i was kind of just bound to love this. it's exactly that.
devil may cry leans very heavily into gothic aesthetics, and does so with prowess. most obviously would be the architecture riddled throughout the game and the supernatural terror dante faces. these themes are not only surface level, but within the game's storytelling and symbolism.
what makes the series so unique is how intensely gothic it is, while having a main protagonist such as dante. he's the gothic and broken hero but also immature, and brings a sense of youthful deviance (and sexuality) into his story.
devil may cry knows what it is and is exactly my favorite type of media.
devil may cry leans very heavily into gothic aesthetics, and does so with prowess. most obviously would be the architecture riddled throughout the game and the supernatural terror dante faces. these themes are not only surface level, but within the game's storytelling and symbolism.
what makes the series so unique is how intensely gothic it is, while having a main protagonist such as dante. he's the gothic and broken hero but also immature, and brings a sense of youthful deviance (and sexuality) into his story.
devil may cry knows what it is and is exactly my favorite type of media.
UN INICIO IMPERFECTO PERO ÚNICO
De la idea de ser creado como la 4ª entrega de Resident Evil, se decidió coger lo ya creado y readaptarlo para crear una nueva franquicia, la mejor decisión que pudieron tomar.
Es cierto que, a día de hoy, el juego no tiene nada que hacer comparado al Hack'n Slash actual, es un juego limitado con jugabilidad limitada. Pero que está adaptado para que todo funcione una vez sabes dominar el juego.
Por no hablar de que, gracias a su concepto previo de ser un Survival Horror, posee un estilo oscuro y siniestro que le da mucho carisma y que, desgraciadamente, no repitió en la saga.
Un gran clásico, pero ten en cuenta a lo que vas cuando lo juegues.
De la idea de ser creado como la 4ª entrega de Resident Evil, se decidió coger lo ya creado y readaptarlo para crear una nueva franquicia, la mejor decisión que pudieron tomar.
Es cierto que, a día de hoy, el juego no tiene nada que hacer comparado al Hack'n Slash actual, es un juego limitado con jugabilidad limitada. Pero que está adaptado para que todo funcione una vez sabes dominar el juego.
Por no hablar de que, gracias a su concepto previo de ser un Survival Horror, posee un estilo oscuro y siniestro que le da mucho carisma y que, desgraciadamente, no repitió en la saga.
Un gran clásico, pero ten en cuenta a lo que vas cuando lo juegues.
ok ending is so fucking weird, combat it takes a min to learn how to do your combos but saying that, that happens in all dmc games expect 2 and going for 100 percent will take alot of patience believe me i will give it this though it is a true dmc experience and would recommend
Devil May Cry is a series I knew virtually nothing about before I played this, but if the rest of the series is like this game I can see why people like it so much. The Basic gameplay loop of fighting enemies by executing different moves and combos and collecting the red orbs they drop to get upgrades was pretty satisfying and addictive and the mission level structure felt pretty good and made sure no section outstayed it's welcome. The game's setting and atmosphere reminded me a lot of Resident Evil in ways, a secluded island with a large manor and evil creatures dwelling within it made for a really interesting place to explore and I was always wondering where the game would take me next. Probably my favorite thing about the game was just how damn goofy it was in the best way possible. Though he didn't get many lines seeing as the gameplay was clearly the main focus here, almost every word out of Dante's mouth was a riot, combine that with incredible early 2000s voice overacting, and I can see why people love this silly character so much. Apart from just Dante though, the story, dialogue, and overall vibe of the game felt cheesy in a way that felt endearing and I absolutely loved it. My only real complaint with the game were it's boss fights, some of them were ridiculously easy while others were punishingly difficult and there really was no in between. On top of that the game reused the same four bosses over and over and it just didn't feel that fun to fight the same thing over and over again as opposed to something original. Apart from that the game only allowed you to save at the end of levels (at least as far as I could find) meaning if you died in a level and didn't have any yellow orbs left to revive you then you had to restart the whole level over again which just took me out of the game a few times during difficult missions, overall this is more of a symptom of being an older video game rather than a problem with DMC specifically, but it still wasn't great. On the whole though, I really enjoyed Devil May Cry and look forward to playing more of this series.
I am completly baffeld. This is what started the character action genre ? Its been a while since I playd a game that activly fights you having fun with every mechanic it has. My previous experience with the franchise was only DMC 3 aswell as the Reboot and I liked them quit a bit. So I thought I should play the other DMC games largely considerd "the good ones". Guess I was wrong, this sucked.
Like a skeletal boney boy that comes out the crypt and does a little dance for us; He hasn't got much meat on the bones, but boy has he got some moves on 'em.
For an smt spinoff, its really good.
Focusing on a character that, frankly, didn't get all that much development in smt3 worked wonders.
Being able to flesh out his backstory as a campy demon hunter really sets contrast with what smt3 was trying to tell, and surprisingly, I think it works. He was always an oddball cast member, so going the extra mile with him like this makes him a super entertaining character.
The switch to real-time combat is surprising for an atlus game. But the gameplay, whilst clunky, manages to still feel satisfying. Hasn't aged badly at all.
One thing it really nails is the atmosphere. As should be expected, considering smt3 is drenched in it.
Definitely check this out if you like action games, or want to learn more about Dante.
Focusing on a character that, frankly, didn't get all that much development in smt3 worked wonders.
Being able to flesh out his backstory as a campy demon hunter really sets contrast with what smt3 was trying to tell, and surprisingly, I think it works. He was always an oddball cast member, so going the extra mile with him like this makes him a super entertaining character.
The switch to real-time combat is surprising for an atlus game. But the gameplay, whilst clunky, manages to still feel satisfying. Hasn't aged badly at all.
One thing it really nails is the atmosphere. As should be expected, considering smt3 is drenched in it.
Definitely check this out if you like action games, or want to learn more about Dante.
Devil May Cry 1 provided a nostalgic journey into the simplicity of classic games. The straightforward gameplay, where progression meant acquiring stronger weapons and enhancing personal abilities, was a refreshing departure from the information overload and busywork prevalent in contemporary titles. It's a reminder of a gaming era where the focus was on the core experience of playing and growing stronger, a sentiment often missed in today's more complex gaming landscape.
One of those games from my childhood that I had such a fondness for, that did not age well at all. At the start of the year I had a couple goals that I set out to complete, this is one of the final goals, Play through the Devil May Cry series (again).
It's serviceable, and overall still a fun game to go through. I just know that now I don't ever really need to go back to this or the second game ever again.
It's serviceable, and overall still a fun game to go through. I just know that now I don't ever really need to go back to this or the second game ever again.
"I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with LIGHT" is, even today, one of the best lines in gaming history
pretty cool game tho
pretty cool game tho
Difícil, em absolutamente todos os aspectos
I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO FILL YOUR DARK SOUL WITH LIIIIIIGHT
(WHAAAAT IIIIIIIVE DOOOOONE I FACE MYSELF)
(WHAAAAT IIIIIIIVE DOOOOONE I FACE MYSELF)
Good game and atmosphere, garbage water level
I love the idea of playing this game. Actually doing it, however, is more often than not a pain. The controls are clunky and the camera system is entirely unfit for an action game. The save system is horrible and actively hurts the enjoyability of the game. There is nothing I hated more than dying to Griffon 3, and because I had no Yellow Orbs, having to do the whole ass fetch quest including the garbage platforming section again every single time. Speaking of Griffon, almost all bosses in this game suck. Nelo Angelo and (maybe) Phantom are the only ones I'd call enjoyable. Nightmare, Griffon and Mundus on the other hand are pretty much atrocious projectile spam and little else. One thing I did like about the game was the atmosphere. Great care has clearly been put into making Mallet Island feel like an eerie place meant to make you uneasy, something the amazing soundtrack majorly contributes to. I also just think Dante is pretty cool.
Devil May Cry is one of Capcom's most popular franchises, and despite being a fan of some of the games that it went on to inspire, I never had any experience with the series itself. As an outsider, the general consensus seemed to be that a majority of people started with Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening or even the latest game in the franchise, Devil May Cry 5, but I figured that I should try and get into the series with the one that started it all. Devil May Cry was one of those games where, for a majority of my six-ish hour playthrough, I genuinely had no idea whether or not I was enjoying what I was playing, because while the game does have some good elements and interesting concepts, it is so heavily bogged down by poor and outright frustrating design choices that it boggles my mind how the game was even able to make it to store shelves, let alone spawn several sequels.
Before I go on and rant about everything that I found wrong with this game, I want to first start off with what Devil May Cry did well, and it's a good thing that there's quite a lot of positives to choose from. Stylistically, Devil May Cry is very striking and memorable, as the decrepit castles, damp caves, and especially the fleshy, pulsating depiction of the underworld made the game feel like an interesting tonal balancing act between effortless cool and an almost horror-like sense of unease with how you're venturing into the unknown. The score by Masami Ueda, Masato Kohda, and Misao Senbongi was incredibly effective in establishing the game's mood with its shifts between roaring, blood-pumping guitars and ominous ambient music, with the darkly ethereal track used for the Divinity Statues eventually becoming a favorite of mine. The core gameplay of Devil May Cry was also quite good, as the twitchy, fast-paced attacks and dodges not only made fighting enemies fun on its own, but it also made chaining combos together in order to get more red orbs feel satisfying. I didn't even mind the exploration that usually took place in between combat encounters, because while this was clearly an element of the game that was left over from when this was initially envisioned as the fourth Resident Evil game, it still gave me more chances to take in the setting's sights and sounds. Despite the unintentionally funny dialogue and voice acting and somewhat barebones storytelling, I still found the game's lore and Dante himself to be compelling enough for me to want to see it through to the end, although I felt that the relationship between him and Trish was a bit forced due to the sudden attempts at emotional impact being at odds with the little time these two characters actually spent with each other.
For every good thing I have to say about Devil May Cry, there's some aspect of it that aggravates me to no end, and while none of it was enough to make me outright hate the game, the flaws still felt glaring. For starters, the game's camera is absolutely atrocious, as having it constantly cut to different angles was annoying enough when you're exploring the area, but it made some of the boss fights barely even playable with how you get attacked by moves that you couldn't even see in the first place, whether it was because the camera was pulled too far back for anything to be visible or it was because it was at an angle where the objects of focus were straight up hidden. This makes the game's repeated boss fights even more annoying to deal with, as the game only has about four or five bosses that are repeated several times each (and in the case of Nightmare, having to repeat a boss fight just to repeat a boss fight), and it gets to the point where you fight a boss in one mission to go on and fight the exact same one in the very next mission. I also felt that the mission design was radically inconsistent, as some missions featured several bosses and took a good fifteen or twenty minutes (which was especially annoying thanks to the continues being consumable items), while others could be beaten in less than five minutes. Although the controls felt good when it came to combat, I can't say the same for the other game's aspects, as the clunky and unreliable wall jumps made platforming take way longer than it needed to and the underwater sections that turned the game into a first-person shooter were so jarring and controlled so poorly that I had no idea why they were even included in the game to begin with. There's a good game here somewhere, but there was a lot about Devil May Cry that held it back for me, but despite my mixed feelings on this game, I'm still interested in checking out the rest of the series (including the infamous Devil May Cry 2).
Before I go on and rant about everything that I found wrong with this game, I want to first start off with what Devil May Cry did well, and it's a good thing that there's quite a lot of positives to choose from. Stylistically, Devil May Cry is very striking and memorable, as the decrepit castles, damp caves, and especially the fleshy, pulsating depiction of the underworld made the game feel like an interesting tonal balancing act between effortless cool and an almost horror-like sense of unease with how you're venturing into the unknown. The score by Masami Ueda, Masato Kohda, and Misao Senbongi was incredibly effective in establishing the game's mood with its shifts between roaring, blood-pumping guitars and ominous ambient music, with the darkly ethereal track used for the Divinity Statues eventually becoming a favorite of mine. The core gameplay of Devil May Cry was also quite good, as the twitchy, fast-paced attacks and dodges not only made fighting enemies fun on its own, but it also made chaining combos together in order to get more red orbs feel satisfying. I didn't even mind the exploration that usually took place in between combat encounters, because while this was clearly an element of the game that was left over from when this was initially envisioned as the fourth Resident Evil game, it still gave me more chances to take in the setting's sights and sounds. Despite the unintentionally funny dialogue and voice acting and somewhat barebones storytelling, I still found the game's lore and Dante himself to be compelling enough for me to want to see it through to the end, although I felt that the relationship between him and Trish was a bit forced due to the sudden attempts at emotional impact being at odds with the little time these two characters actually spent with each other.
For every good thing I have to say about Devil May Cry, there's some aspect of it that aggravates me to no end, and while none of it was enough to make me outright hate the game, the flaws still felt glaring. For starters, the game's camera is absolutely atrocious, as having it constantly cut to different angles was annoying enough when you're exploring the area, but it made some of the boss fights barely even playable with how you get attacked by moves that you couldn't even see in the first place, whether it was because the camera was pulled too far back for anything to be visible or it was because it was at an angle where the objects of focus were straight up hidden. This makes the game's repeated boss fights even more annoying to deal with, as the game only has about four or five bosses that are repeated several times each (and in the case of Nightmare, having to repeat a boss fight just to repeat a boss fight), and it gets to the point where you fight a boss in one mission to go on and fight the exact same one in the very next mission. I also felt that the mission design was radically inconsistent, as some missions featured several bosses and took a good fifteen or twenty minutes (which was especially annoying thanks to the continues being consumable items), while others could be beaten in less than five minutes. Although the controls felt good when it came to combat, I can't say the same for the other game's aspects, as the clunky and unreliable wall jumps made platforming take way longer than it needed to and the underwater sections that turned the game into a first-person shooter were so jarring and controlled so poorly that I had no idea why they were even included in the game to begin with. There's a good game here somewhere, but there was a lot about Devil May Cry that held it back for me, but despite my mixed feelings on this game, I'm still interested in checking out the rest of the series (including the infamous Devil May Cry 2).
A strong contender for the best opening cutscene in gaming history
Man am I glad to be done with this one. This game has been a barrier to getting into the Devil May Cry series for me because it's hard to get myself to play games that I don't really like. I could have skipped over DMC 1 but the fans kept saying that this one is worth playing - with some fans even saying that it's the purest form of Devil May Cry and future entries water things down. The idea of anyone being elitist over this game is ridiculous to me. I suppose if the motto of JRPG fans is "It gets good after 80 hours" then the motto of character action game fans is "It gets good after you go for a perfect ranking on the hardest difficulty". Yeah, I'm not doing that. I'd rather invest my time in an action game that isn't randomly flipping the camera all over the place with no regard for the player.
The camera ruins the game for me. In a game that's supposed to be hard but fair, the camera does everything in its power to make sure the player experiences plenty of cheap deaths. It should be obvious, but a resident evil style camera doesn't work for a game that's very fast paced, relies on a quick succession of inputs, and allows the protagonist to perform different moves depending on the direction he's facing. A random camera shift could happen at any moment that changes what your inputs do, resulting in a loss of player control. Once again I have to ask why there are any hardcore fans that prefer this game when the constantly shifting camera limits the degree that you can be in control of your own moveset. I know people prefer Kamiya directed games because of their focus on the ranking system but this easily one of Kamiya's worst games. It has a solid combat system for the time and you can really see the aspects that make it a Kamiya game... But it's just needlessly frustrating due to the camera.
Devil May Cry can feel like a boss rush at times and while there are a number of challenging encounters, most of them you have to fight 2-3 times with little variation in their movesets. I can see that Devil May Cry wants to be the game that's constantly throwing challenging fights at the player, but this isn't as impactful when it's the just the same fight in the same way repeatedly. The final boss encounter was also underwhelming. There's a shmup section for the first phase, which is fine. It is a Kamiya game after all. But the second phase which is fought on land is also just a battle of projectiles, which seems like a ill-fitting way to round out the experience. It's not an outlandish idea to suggest the final boss should have used the melee mechanics which you've been using the entire game.
For the origin of the acclaimed Devil May Cry series I was pretty surprised to see how weak the story is. I enjoyed the character Dante more from cultural osmosis, memes, and SMT Nocturne than I did in his own game. His personality is far less confident and quippy than the internet would have you believe. I've heard from purists that the games after DMC 1 ruin Dante's personality... bro, what personality? When people compared original RE4 Leon to Dante I was expecting him to be similarly badass... But it turns out Leon makes a better Dante than Dante himself. I never once bought into Trish and Dante's character relationship. The game expects you believe that these two care for each other but they've only spoken to each other a handful of times... And one of those times was Trish betraying Dante.
I respect and appreciate what this game accomplished by inventing the character-action game genre. But as a game I didn't enjoy it very much. This is the only DMC game I've played so I can't speak for the series, but I'm already seriously doubting the purists who say that this one's the best.
The camera ruins the game for me. In a game that's supposed to be hard but fair, the camera does everything in its power to make sure the player experiences plenty of cheap deaths. It should be obvious, but a resident evil style camera doesn't work for a game that's very fast paced, relies on a quick succession of inputs, and allows the protagonist to perform different moves depending on the direction he's facing. A random camera shift could happen at any moment that changes what your inputs do, resulting in a loss of player control. Once again I have to ask why there are any hardcore fans that prefer this game when the constantly shifting camera limits the degree that you can be in control of your own moveset. I know people prefer Kamiya directed games because of their focus on the ranking system but this easily one of Kamiya's worst games. It has a solid combat system for the time and you can really see the aspects that make it a Kamiya game... But it's just needlessly frustrating due to the camera.
Devil May Cry can feel like a boss rush at times and while there are a number of challenging encounters, most of them you have to fight 2-3 times with little variation in their movesets. I can see that Devil May Cry wants to be the game that's constantly throwing challenging fights at the player, but this isn't as impactful when it's the just the same fight in the same way repeatedly. The final boss encounter was also underwhelming. There's a shmup section for the first phase, which is fine. It is a Kamiya game after all. But the second phase which is fought on land is also just a battle of projectiles, which seems like a ill-fitting way to round out the experience. It's not an outlandish idea to suggest the final boss should have used the melee mechanics which you've been using the entire game.
For the origin of the acclaimed Devil May Cry series I was pretty surprised to see how weak the story is. I enjoyed the character Dante more from cultural osmosis, memes, and SMT Nocturne than I did in his own game. His personality is far less confident and quippy than the internet would have you believe. I've heard from purists that the games after DMC 1 ruin Dante's personality... bro, what personality? When people compared original RE4 Leon to Dante I was expecting him to be similarly badass... But it turns out Leon makes a better Dante than Dante himself. I never once bought into Trish and Dante's character relationship. The game expects you believe that these two care for each other but they've only spoken to each other a handful of times... And one of those times was Trish betraying Dante.
I respect and appreciate what this game accomplished by inventing the character-action game genre. But as a game I didn't enjoy it very much. This is the only DMC game I've played so I can't speak for the series, but I'm already seriously doubting the purists who say that this one's the best.
Very pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable this was. Definitely shows its roots as an RE4 concept quite clearly with its puzzles and level design, but feels like it comes into its own thing towards the end. Except from that ending, which is straight up the same as RE4's ending lol. Camera angles were really cool as well, but the game controlling the way it does make this a bit finicky at times. I also wish it was more clear with the combos you can do. I went through the entire game without realising you could use R1 combined with the melee attacks for different moves. Maybe this was just me being dumb though?