Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry is the game that unintentionally gave birth to an entire genre of stylish action called character action. It originally started life as a prototype for Resident Evil 4, but its exaggeratedly flashy, fast, and stylized action deviated so far from the series' horror tone that Capcom decided to spin it off into its own standalone franchise. The demon hunter Dante, half human and half son of the demon Sparda, combines shooting with the twin pistols Ebony and Ivory with the sword Force Edge in addictive combos, whose style and variety the game continuously rates with a letter rank from D to SSS, motivating the player to play with elegance, not just efficiency. Gunfire mainly serves to keep enemies airborne, while the sword delivers the heavy blows, and the player switches fluidly between the two.

The gothic architecture of Mallet Island, fixed cameras reminiscent of the game's roots in Resident Evil, a tough, unusually high difficulty for its time, and unbridled, cascading action full of acrobatics defined a new era of hack-and-slash carnage on PlayStation 2. Direction was handled by Hideki Kamiya, the later creator of Bayonetta, and his passion for cinematic action and gothic aesthetics is evident in every location on Mallet Island and in boss fights like Phantom or Nightmare. The charismatic, cocky, and confident Dante with his iconic red coat instantly became one of the most recognizable characters in video game history.

Technically, the game showed just how well PlayStation 2 could handle fast, fluid animations without frame rate drops, which was no small achievement at the time, and sweeping orchestral and rock music underscored the over-the-top tone of the whole adventure. Devil May Cry laid the cornerstone of modern hack-and-slash entertainment, whose ranking mechanics, combos, and stylish weapon switching are carried forward by whole generations of games from Bayonetta to Metal Gear Rising. Even today it feels like a rough, uncompromising original that demands the player truly learn the controls.