Devil May Cry Review

Every idea here radiates out of the style meter. Dante's arsenal exists to keep a combo alive rather than to end a fight quickly, so juggling an enemy with the pistols while the sword resets, then landing with Ifrit, is not showing off but the actual scoring system. That single feedback loop invented the character action genre. Capcom built it out of a discarded Resident Evil prototype, which explains the fixed camera angles and the gothic castle you circle back through half a dozen times, and the seams show whenever the level design asks you to fetch a key.

Fighting Nightmare three separate times is the exact point where padding becomes visible. The plot is thin pulp about a demon-hunting son of Sparda delivered with a smirk, and the voice work knows it. What holds up is feel: the lunge of a Stinger, the lift of a Helm Breaker, the way a clean run reads as choreography rather than input.