Devil May Cry 1

Despite the site practically being an ode to the game, I never truly dove into the first title. I beat it on DMD in the HD collection years ago by spamming items and never looked back. Slowly trying to pick it up again as a side game since it is so short. Started my Hard Mode run on my original PS2 copy I snagged a while back. Was surprised to see such a weird controle-scheme. Triangle for jumping huh?

I do still like the game, some of the fights are pretty wack but the enemy-lore menu is good at informing you on little hidden weaknesses and tells so you can adapt. I do still play it pretty lame with my Alastor+E&I combination, would've liked to use more of Dante's arsenal but it just feels so unbalanced. Sparda is technically better if you're out of DT, but you rarely are. NightmareBeta doesn't see a lot of uses either.

I'll just add this to the list of your gaming crimes.

I used to play this extensively in my early 20s. It was all I had along with Onimusha and Chaos Legion.

I’ll describe my brief experience with DMC1.

At first sight, the game seems to have been superseded by many other games. What bothered me the most were the everchanging camera angles. I’ve hated the two first Nightmare fights, and the sight of a third fight made me quit the game.

I expected to do a first run in a quite casual way (learning combos, cancels, secret missions at my own pace), to get a global sense of the game. But it was as if there was no « sense » to get at all : almost each small part of the game seemed like it necessitated a proper study, mostly unrelated to others. For instance, I believe that for a given fight, you must know exactly where the viewing angle is going to change. And it is not something I was inclined to do on a first playthrough. Undoubtedly, the game can be deep, but is not suited for easy-going play sessions. It is, in my (very humble) opinion, a game in which you get all or nothing.

I think that's fair, that every room is its own little game. That said, I would urge to play the game more at its own pace. It is by definition and origin an Arcade game, where each room needs its own approach and each enemy has numerous ways of dealing with them. Style is an option, with enemies giving players options to 'show off' which is reflected in rank i.e. standing on the spike of a Shadow or OHKO'ing a Blade by hitting him in his spine.

So instead of a game from start to finish, see the levels as a little game in and of itself. A little game that can be mastered, optimized, styled upon etc.

Since my last post on the game in 2018 I've played the game a lot more and learned to appreciate it more as a result.

I've fired up the game again. I'm now trying to S-rank a mission (in normal mode) before moving on, and it is indeed much better. I've only done the two first missions yet, and as short as those missions can be, there are many things to experiment.

Yeah once you see it kind of like a lot of little arcade games, it gets a lot more fun. Then trying to go for a better run, using what you know, or for a whole run, there's just a lot to appreciate. Also note that you can sometimes backtrack for weird hidden fights. Lots of fun details. Enjoy man :)

A common criticism of DMC1 is that it tends to play "outdated" and I often wonder how many of those people have played games with tank controls/fixed camera or follow that mantra of "Well it's this series game, so it -has- to play like the others to be good," and, consequently, aren't that interested in learning the game on its own terms. DMC1 is ultimately no different than other DMCs in that it was made to replay. It just also isn't all about style the way later entries inherently were. There's definitely some jank, yet I have the hardest time calling a single section of this game irritating. And even then, when you have enemy design like Shadows or bosses like Nelo or Nightmare, there's so much more to like. It's an early action game, so it not being an entirely conventional idea of an action game makes sense - it's sort of a "prototype action" game with puzzle ideas (as Roy said) to it.

Dan.A wrote:A common criticism of DMC1 is that it tends to play "outdated" and I often wonder how many of those people have played games with tank controls/fixed camera or follow that mantra of "Well it's this series game, so it -has- to play like the others to be good," and, consequently, aren't that interested in learning the game on its own terms. DMC1 is ultimately no different than other DMCs in that it was made to replay. It just also isn't all about style the way later entries inherently were. There's definitely some jank, yet I have the hardest time calling a single section of this game irritating. And even then, when you have enemy design like Shadows or bosses like Nelo or Nightmare, there's so much more to like. It's an early action game, so it not being an entirely conventional idea of an action game makes sense - it's sort of a "prototype action" game with puzzle ideas (as Roy said) to it.

I prefer its simplicity in combat sometimes to the further entries in the franchise. Going one on one with Nelo is still great fun and also those shadows on DMD mode require tactical combat decisions.

I still regard DMC1 as the best overall action adventure game ever created.

It was way, way wayyy ahead of its time.

Yep. You also play on DMD and you realize some of those fights are genuinely rough. Nelo 3, Nightmare 3, and Mundus 2 really force you to think about what you're doing.

The whole 'outdated' element to most games of that era tends to be weird for me. It was once said that tank controls are an IQ-check, and the older I get and more bitter the more I tend to feel it's correct haha.

If anything, I think the game might actually benefit - strangely - from a re-release with a different name and different protagonist name. It's too heavily linked to what came after which is just night-and-day (not better or worse mind you) compared to it, making people play DMC1 thinking it's going to be like the later ones while having a very different vision.

The simplicitiy of it all, while the depth is more in the detailings, really pulls me in. While with games like DMC3 and up most of the depth is found in Dante's moveset and its combinations, this title more has combinations of enemy-moveset and how Dante interacts with them.

Still haven't played this game, but wanted to share something about it. This is apparently a pretty huge feat:

Basically if you spend more than 60 seconds in that secret mission, then it is a net loss to your mission rank. Normally people ignore that secret mission because it is a huge timesink, but he managed to get it done in about 45 seconds. That's on top of M7 already being a big pain in the behind to Special Bonus.

Phoenix Wright wrote:Still haven't played this game, but wanted to share something about it. This is apparently a pretty huge feat:

You still haven't played DMC1? Get on that shit asap bro

For insight, to get Special Bonus you need to score the maximum-score in every category (500 points) (time/orbs/damagetaken). Secret missions give about 100-200 points depending on which one it is.

Getting a Special Bonus while doing a Secret Mission is often not possible or extremely hard, especially on a New Game, since the time lost often isn't rewarded enough by the points gained by beating the Secret Mission. Add to this that this one is fully RNG dependant, it's crazy. Can't imagine the stress he was under when he nailed that Secret Mission that fast.

Few fun notes, DMC1 honestly has quite a cool ranking-system under the hood. It's very possible to get S-rank on DMD even when using items if you're smart. You only need 700 points for an S-rank.
So for example you can do:
Damage: 500
Time: 500
Orbs: 500
Untouchable used: -500
Devil Star used x2: -200
Holy Water used: -100
For a total of 700 points. And ofc. any mixture of the set.


Notes here: https://new.reddit.com/r/DevilMayCry/comments/3yf97h/about_a_year_ago_i_figured_dmc1s_ranking_system/