In some ways DMC 1 is my favorite of the series. You can feel the Resident Evil 4 influence throughout the entire game. Mallet island and the castle are more extremely similar to the castle section of RE4. There are also a lot of little details, you can interact with items in the environment and Dante will tell you his thoughts. The combat is surprisingly still quite deep, and even though the game is from 2001. I often enjoyed the light exploration around the castle, which contrasts later DMC games being more or less linear. That is something I hope returns to the series.

The game is generally very good, but has some moments that got annoying: fighting nightmare 3 times, the shmup section, and anytime platforming was required.

Overall I enjoyed my time with the game. It is definitely worth going back to, and generally holds up well in terms of combat and aesthetics.