Devil May Cry - Gameplay
Devil May Cry, the video game series was first released in August 2001. Subsequently, many more versions were introduced. According to the developer, Hideki Kamiya, Devil May Cry was made intentionally difficult as a challenge to light, casual games. The game play involves heavy, fast paced and highly stylized combat scenes, where the players launch extended chain of attacks and at the same time avoid damage to display their skills in stylized combat. The game retains some of the original features of the original Resident Evil survival horror theme such as puzzle solving and exploration elements but, these are secondary. The prime emphasis is on action. The performance of the players is graded on the basis of these skills, time and the number of items collected and utilized in the combat. In later versions, the players have to pro-actively vary the attacks to maintain the style rank grade. The style ranks and performance in each level are graded from D to S, with D being the worst and S being the best. The later versions introduced SS and SSS grades as well.
The player is provided with special abilities and weapons. For example, utilizing the "Devil Trigger" ability enables the player to transform himself into a devilish form with additional powers based on the weapon being used. While the strength and speed of the player increase, health is slowly restored. Some of the special weapons in the series are:
- The swords Force Edge/Sparda in Devil May Cry
- Rebellion in Devil May Cry 2
- Yamato in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
The main aim of Dante, the protagonist, is to avenge the murder of his mother by exterminating the demons. While Dante remains the chief figure, each version has other special characters such as Lucia, Vergil, and Nero etc. The player's guns are semi automatic pistols named Ebony & Ivory throughout most of the series. They have unlimited supply of ammunition based on the style meter and ranking, allowing players to attack continuously while avoiding damage.
The later versions such as Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening introduced a selection of game play styles. The player could focus on their favorite technique and weapon. It could be swords, guns, evasion or defense. Employing each of the four basic styles added to the experience points, which led to unlocking of more techniques and abilities without costing "red orbs", the common currency of the series.