Action video games were coming to an impasse. They were showing a good deal of progress, but still had some technical hurdles to overcome. Stuff like Syphon Filter was showing promise, but when it came to melee combat, it still felt a touch off. Enter Hideki Kamiya, the fastest block button on social media, who had been working with Capcom since the 80's, who headed directorial duties for their flashy new IP, Devil May Cry.

Released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, Devil May Cry was originally planned to be the fourth Resident Evil game (same thing with Onimusha, which was released earlier that year. Boy, if people think Resident Evil was over-saturated TODAY, they wanted to make EVERYTHING Resi back then). Given the series was kinda fleeting action with RE3, Capcom didn't want there to be THAT much action in its more methodically-paced series, so Kamiya came up with the fast-talking demon-slaying son of Sparda. With his dual pistols, Ebony and Ivory and his sword Rebellion, the first Devil May Cry was quite a unicorn for action games during the era.   

With the PlayStation 2 being fairly new tech, some of its horsepower was fairly paramount. The gothic atmosphere and setting is effectively conveyed. Initially, the contrast to the shredding speedrock was fascinating, the styles clash was practically comedy. Because I didn't really play this game on adequate televisions back then (some things never change), the game came off really dark. Not in tone, but in the gammas. Thank goodness for an LCD, but even then, it's just dreary.

Dante also debuted at the time where the trend of guys with red coats were permeating their way into a lot of Japanese entertainment. The anime/manga Trigun was picking up popularity, Alucard from Hellsing, and Edward Elric, the lead character of Full Metal Alchemist would be known to western audiences. Suffice to say, it was a look I was tired of, and Dante was another one. I'll give it that his design is eye-catching. Just wasn't original to me by this point. It didn't help that I found his personality as welcoming as having fire ants crawling into my gaping mouth, but I digress.

The controls for their time were refreshing, creating long combo chains was something not seen in an action game with such fluidity and speed. Seemingly inspired by the chain system in the Capcom Vs. series of games, Dante could launch an enemy into the air with his Rebellion and either keep them suspended via bullets, or finish the melee in the sky. It made the player feel like they were in total control of the action, and it was satisfying...for its time.

Unfortunately, the first game does not particularly age well. Should you revisit it, you might find that Dante's moveset is incredibly dinky, and the combos are rather one-note and linear. The first devil May Cry also suffers from an incredibly annoying camera that can't decide if it wants to be free range motion or fixed. You can't control it, so you're left at its whims when it decides to cut to a different angle, causing me to either drop my combo, or take damage because I can't see what's attacking me.

The level design is quite annoying. It doesn't take much to see that there were origins of this being a Resi game. The maps are large, mostly empty environments that force you to traverse them just to unlock a door or activate a key. this was 2001, so #FuseBoxSyndrome was in full force. 

The first Devil May Cry is the hardest game in the series to revisit, from a gameplay perspective, but it was certainly influential. Not really a great deal of world-building, Dante really just hops around from location to location beating bosses, quipping and making obnoxious one-liners, until the turn at the end of the game happens. Hideki Kamiya was certainly honing his craft, and a good deal was established to flesh out when it came time to develop the sequels (of which Kamiya wouldn't be around for). The first game may be obsolete, but it was important.