DMC1 is - I think - the first character action game I've ever played. Hitting stuff in this game feels soooo good. The combo meter is a little wonky since it doesn't disappear or give indication the combo is over, so I kept thinking I could extend the combo only to have it reset to Dull. Combat is fun and I really enjoyed navigating the castle. This game rules! And then it hits Mission 15 or 16, and it really feels like they wanted to focus on the bad parts of the game. Navigation outside of the castle was very confusing for me. The map is extremely unhelpful and for some reason has completely inverted controls. Mission objectives are often very unclear. For some reason they decided to give boss rooms like 15 different semi-fixed camera angles in a game where a good amount of actions are tied to how you point your stick in relation to Dante's body (which also moves automatically if you're holding R1, which you have to do for some of these actions). There's a lot here, especially in the second half, that feels clunky and strange. I'm not sure who playtested the second half and thought "Yes, this is what we should do." That said, some of the bosses are super fun. The combat and hammy cutscenes carry this game to insane heights, but it falls flat by focusing very hard on its weaknesses.