I bought a new chain for Sparda’s amulet. Now it looks perfect, more similar to original one from DMC1. Unfortunately now it’s too heavy to wear it all the time so it rests between swords of Sparda twins.

guys i refuse to spell his name nelo angelo i m sorry. thats nero angelo to me, okay?

I got to credits of Devil May Cry (2001) on normal difficulty for the first time yesterday. It was an interesting experience, especially in contrast with the only other DMC games I have lots of experience with, DMC3 and the reboot

At the start, the thing that tripped me up the most is how shooting guns can only be done while locked-on, and the fact that Force Edge combo B and C have the same initial inputs but different pause timings. I got used to it eventually, but it was a struggle

What I didn’t get used to was the way attacks will turn towards the nearest enemy instead of in the direction I’m moving towards, and how it will do that even when I’m holding down the target-lock button

Admittedly, I’m an advocate for games forcing their players to learn esoteric character controls, but it’s more along the lines of giving players “too much control” and having them deal with the consequences of being bad at it

Like, the game already lets me attack empty air when no enemies are in range. Is it really so bad if those empty-air attacks can be directed with player input? Is this auto-target safety net really necessary?

Another thing that tripped me up were the fixed cameras. More often than not, DMC1’s camera framed the action in a way that was readable and artful, but sometimes I’d stumble into camera triggers in the middle of battle and the enemy I was fighting is suddenly off screen

There’s also the rare times I had to do platforming, which did no favors for this game’s camera. Like, sure, game, the angled view of the platforms as seen from the corner of the room is very pretty. But I would like a straighter angle so I can line up my jumps

I also have minor complaints about how nearly every single boss on normal difficulty seem to be complete pushovers. With a full Devil Trigger gauge and minimal knowledge of their openings, you can stun lock them to death with disappointing consistency

The little I’ve played of hard mode suggests this will still be the case on higher difficulties, though the game makes up for it with more interesting enemy encounters. The earlier shadow fights were especially delightful—they’ve a more interesting moveset than most bosses

Not Nelo Angelo 3, tho. His moveset is probably the most interesting one in the entire game. I counted at least 6 unique attacks, each with mix-ups, variations, and a chance for him to combo them into each other. Learning his moves was so fun!

But yeah, other than my above complaints, DMC1 is quite solid. It holds up remarkably well for a game from 2001, with enemies and bosses whose movesets and AI would still be good even if you dropped them into a more modern game

Next Saturday, I’m playing through DMC2 just so I could experience for myself why everyone seems to hate it

Loving your friend so much that you’re playing the worst game imaginable

My Thoughts on Devil May Cry (PS2)

Devil May Cry is always a series that has always eluded me. I always seemed like a series that I would love to death, I love Dante as a character and I was always awe-struck at the combo’s that people would post online and thought it looked awesome. I bought DMC 5 on my PS5 in an attempt to get into the series, but I thought it was a little daunting to get into, and I couldn’t fully get into it at the time because I was busy (I have since played it and it is fantastic as well). But recently, I was mass downloading PS2 games I was interested in for the PCSX2 emulator (as one does in their free time) and found myself thinking about DMC again, as it had a huge presence on PS2. Seeing as I had a bit of free time, I decided to get into the first DMC game in hopes that it could ease me into the rest of the series. I ended up really enjoying myself and I was glad to know that I do have in interest in the rest of the series now.

So what did I think?

As much as I enjoyed my time with the game, there were a couple of major gripes, but as for the the positives, I have a lot more of those so I want to begin with them.

Firstly, the presentation. This game oozes charm from start to finish. I was immediately hooked from the opening. I remember just being dumbfounded at the fact that Dante was able to not only survive and walk around with a giant sword in his chest, but also repel a whole motorcycle with just his guns. It was so silly and weird but also kinda cool, I knew from that moment that this series was incredible.

(usually I like to try to get my gameplay captures on my own, but DMC resets your save file to unlock hard mode, so most of my screenshots come from this long-play by “The Ladslade”).

Atmosphere & Music

Going beyond the intro, the setting of the game is really cool. There something about this castle environment that I really like. Maybe because it almost feels like a horror game environment. Also maybe because it partly was in a way design to be a horror game. Supposedly, DMC was originally supposed to be Resident Evil 4, but was turned into a separate thing after the action focus felt too different from Resident Evil. I think the result of this is a very interesting dynamic between the environment and the player, where some sections feel big and scary, but you have the means of fighting back at any time and feel badass doing it, as if you were the scary one (if that makes any sense). I remember when you go back to the castle for the last third of the game and all the lights are replaced with this contrasting harsh bright white light and it made me feel pretty spooked.

Another thing that I contributes to that atmosphere is the soundtrack. The game does something I think is pretty cool, in that it’s actually a pretty quiet game. Like when someone thinks of DMC nowadays I believe that one thing that comes to mind would be its soundtrack, think “Devil Trigger” or “Devils Never Cry” as popular songs that people think think of immediately when they think of DMC. However DMC 1’s soundtrack contains a lot of droning atmospheric noises that fits its dark castle setting. Which I think makes it all the more cool, when enemies show up, the cool battle music starts to play which gives you that confidence to fight. “Public Battle” itself is such an exciting track, it carries all the swagger that Dante exudes and makes you feel like a badass. Of course, you are going to get your ass handed to you often because DMC is a pretty challenging game, but at least you are going to hear some jams while that happens.

Combat & Customization

One thing that I also enjoyed about DMC was it’s combat. It might sound a little strange given that this is the most simplistic game when it comes to it’s combat depth (maybe besides DMC 2 but I haven’t played it yet). But I actually don’t think thats too much to its detriment, from the lens of someone who tried to play DMC 5 previously and was intimidated by all of it’s mechanics, I found DMC 1’s simplicity to be great training wheels to see how the combat systems would develop to where we are today. This isn’t to say that DMC 1’s combat is shallow, I’ve seen some pretty cool DMC 1 combo videos that look very impressive. Of course there’s a lot less options compared to something like DMC 5, there’s only a handful of weapons and there are no other characters or style switching, but I found that in DMC 1 especially I appreciated each weapon I got more. Like half-way through the game when you unlock Ifrit, it feels like a pretty substantial side-grade that changed up the pace of the game, same thing for when you unlock Sparda. It also meant that I didn’t have to choose a couple of weapons to stick with and only upgrade a few like how I handled DMC 5, I could give each weapon the same amount of care. Not to say that the variety of weapons in DMC 5 is unneeded or something dumb like that, the variety I would say is probably the best part of DMC 5, I just think it’s two separate sides of the coin, where DMC 5’s combat is so deep you can just get lost in the possibilities. They are just different and I think that is okay.

Alright so I’ve sung a lot of praises for DMC 1 but there are some major gripes I have with it, so ill start with that now.

Continues

I’m not sure how this is received in the DMC community, but I really did not enjoy the Continues/Gold Orb system much at all. For those who don’t know, DMC runs on a mission based format where if you die (which is a lot), you are given the option to revive yourself using an item called a Gold Orb, which is a limited and rare item. The problem comes from what happens when you run out, because if you die without a Gold Orb, you have to restart the entire mission. This is pretty harsh in a game as hard as this, especially when its a boss mission, which could take many attempts to fully understand. It’s a little frustrating to die to a boss at the end of a mission, and have to replay the entire thing again just to get another attempt at it. I can understand people who might like this, it sort of gives a similar vibe to the Dark Souls boss runback, where there is more pressure and more of a feeling of success when the winning attempt finally comes. But to me the replay’s of the mission felt a little to long to be satisfying, so I ended up using save states to give myself a checkpoint before every major boss. Usually I don’t like doing that in games but I just found that this is a part of the game I really would rather not go through again. I feel like even the DMC developers realized this, because I believe starting with DMC 3, they gave checkpoints before every major boss, which I feel is much better.

And finally…

The Fixed Camera

This part is a little hard for me. Because I think the fixed camera in this game is both a blessing and a curse. For one, I think the fixed camera is incredible for establishing atmosphere and framing cool scenes. The areas in this game look incredible, and that is because of the fixed camera. It is definitely a remnant from it’s Resident Evil roots. However, this camera, as pretty as it makes the game looks, makes combat so much worse than it really should be. This is probably the biggest knock against DMC and I totally get it. Take the last battle against the boss Nightmare. The camera is so focused on Nightmare itself that you can barely see whats going on, let alone predict it’s already unpredictable attacks. There are times I remember when I was fighting enemies that were completely off screen, because the camera wants you to go down towards the screen. This resulted in times where I would get hit from places I could not see, or have me shoot at enemies and pray that I am doing something to them. It really is a huge knock against a combat system that I think otherwise is really great. The fixed camera is both the best and worst part of the game. I’m also not entirely against the usage of a fixed camera, I feel like it could be done pretty well, it’s just that in DMC I don’t think it works well as it could.

Not sure if my critique of the camera is a common complaint in the fanbase, but that’s just how I feel.

(Like seriously, tell me you can understand whats going on here)

Conclusion

Generally, I enjoyed Devil May Cry a lot, despite the issues I had with it. I actually think its a pretty good start for anybody getting into the series actually (like me!), this is because I feel like some of the flaws with it may strain the experience for people who are more familiar with the modern games, making it a little more unapproachable. But if you look past the problems I think it has a gripping atmosphere and pretty good combat, I definitely think it’s worth a play if you are a fan of DMC, or just a fan of action games in general.

Finally getting somewhere with this piece, it takes me forever to get anything done

please kill me omg I’m so tired of these moving platforms in mission 9 I’ve spent collectively 2 hours trying and failing 2 jump onto th 2nd platform

this is why I usually just watch othe ppl play games 😭💔

I beat DMC1 ^.^

Seriously hope they go back to the more gothic look this game has its so cool aaaa

The details on this couch are killing me slow and I’m not even done yet

WOAHHHHHH WOAH WOAH WOAH! I AM GOING TO BE STREAMING? FINISHING UP DEVIL MAY CRY 1 IN LIKE 15 MINUTES? OOOOOOOOO you wanna hang out with me while I get drunk and say inappropriate things sooooo baaaaad.

I forget to post just abt anything on here lately but I’m determined to get this Dante piece done.

This is kinda old and the quality is ass but I still like it so yea

O////O <3

My little DMC1 Dante blorbo :3

He lives in my sketchbook/scrapbook with a bunch of art practice, OCs and TF2 Medics LMAO

Me, when i find the one responsible for my procrastination:

.

Late night Dante expressions practice.

Only had time to make 2 but still…😅

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