Oomf Wanted Me To Draw Dante

Every now and then, I remember that people don't know how much of a game changer (no pun intended) the first Devil May Cry was. Namely in the action genre and combat-driven games. I remember that before Devil May Cry, combat in games weren't really all that focused on combos and skill; at least not in the way the franchise does it. Even games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, there wasn't anything quite like Devil May Cry.

There's a reason why a lot of games that follow that combat style are referred to as "Devil May Cry clones" or "uses the combat style of Devil May Cry". A lot of games wouldn't really be a thing if Devil May Cry didn't happen. God of War. That weird Jack Skellington game. Bayonetta. Ultraviolet. Darksiders. Ninja Gaiden. Nier: Automata.

Hell, even Capcom has used that combat system in their OTHER games. Like Okami, for example.

Don't know where I'm going with this. Just gushing at how Devil May Cry changed the game (lol)

It is sad but true that historical innovations become less appreciated over time. TV Tropes has a page for "Seinfeld is unfunny" to document this trend. We don't appreciate how hard the Forty-Niners had it because we can fly to California in an afternoon and drive around Beverly Hills today.

Devil May Cry started its life as a RESIDENT EVIL game. Which is why the first game had such a dark gothic foreboding atmosphere. Hideki Kamiya was inspired by a game bug in Onimusha, another Capcom game, where they were able to juggle enemies in the air with sword attacks indefinitely. That sort of gameplay didn't fit with the style of game they wanted Onimusha to be, but Kamiya liked that concept so much that he wanted to incorporate it into an intentional element of his own game. Eventually the game they were developing deviated so much from the spirit of Resident Evil, becoming so action oriented, that it was decided that they should divorce the project from any association with Resident Evil and let it be its own thing. (How times change, huh?)

Devil May Cry literally created the character action genre. There was NOTHING before Devil May Cry that was anything like it. "Oh there were hack and slashes before DMC" no dude, calling DMC a hack and slash is like calling What Remains of Edith Finch a First Person Shooter. It's not the same thing and you know it. There was nothing like Devil May Cry before Devil May Cry. And it was such an innovation that an entire genre was born, games that took direct inspiration from Devil May Cry and built upon its foundations.

Now, sadly, because of how much progress there's been, people go back and play the original DMC1 and it feels "clunky" in comparison. It has fixed camera angles (because it was originally a Resident Evil game) which has an impact on move inputs being relative to camera direction, and that doesn't feel natural to what people expect from the genre based on modern standards. It only has two melee weapons, and the melee attacks are based on a one button input. There's no "special moves." The game is limited by memory to only allowing one enemy type in a room at a time so you'll never see mix and match encounters. THERE'S SWIMMING LEVELS!!!

People consider DMC1 "skippable" because it "hasn't aged well." The concept of a game "not aging well" disgusts me to my core tbh. The game is exactly the same as the day it came out. It's the world that has aged around it. Better games have come out since Devil May Cry, but they only EXIST because of Devil May Cry. There would be no Bayonetta or God Hand or Wonderful 101 without Devil May Cry. It is the root from which an entire genre sprang up. Of course they didn't get it perfect the first time, they didn't even know what they were doing.

But sadly video games don't really get respected as an art form. People judge them based purely off some kind of nebulous constantly shifting "objective standard" of pure entertainment, and if a game doesn't measure up then it isn't worth wasting time with. I think media should be appreciated in the context of when it was released. And DMC1s historical importance and everything it innovated relative to what its contemporaries were doing in 2001 deserves to be appreciated.

"mirrorshipping", "doppelbanging", pussy ass behavior. look who can't say selfcest

I TRIED LOL RAAAAAAAHGGH

first nelo angelo fight experience, got disrespected.

💗

dmc madhouse anime they will never make me hate you. you mean the world to me.

Needed to practice drawing men for my ocs' story and uh well dante just kinda trickster'd his way into the sheet lol

My favorite thing about Dante and Vergil is just how they constantly match each other's energy. Like I know DMC5 is a lot more explicit about how Vergil is a silly lil guy underneath the veneer of seriousness, but I wanted to highlight a few of the Vergil lines/exchanges/moments from DMC3 that demonstrate... yeah he was kinda always like this

From right before the first Vergil fight in DMC3:

Dante: You sure know how to throw a party. No food, no drinks, and the only babe just left. Vergil: My sincerest apologies, brother. I was so eager to see you I couldn't concentrate on the preparations for the bash.

I find this one especially fun because pretty much every other boss you fight in DMC (like the entire series) just gets huffy and angry and yells about annihilating Sparda or something. Vergil is probably one of the few major bosses that snarks back

2. After Vergil gets Beowulf he does the Dante thing of playing around with his new weapon

3. From right before the second Vergil fight:

Dante: It doesn't matter to me one way or the other. More importantly, I've come all this way. I'm sure you have time for one more game… right Vergil: Why not? After all we share the same blood… I'll just use more of yours to undo daddy's little spell.

Something about "daddy's little spell" is just so irreverent and funny

4. From right after the second Vergil fight:

Vergil: It is time for the clown to bow out, Arkham. Dante: Dude, the show's over!

To me it comes off like Dante's spring-boarding off of Vergil's theater metaphor that with the "show's over!" line. Vergil set him up for that one

5. This bit at the start of the Arkham fight which Vergil was NOT present for:

Dante: Dude, my father wasn't so hideous. Can't you tell by looking at me? Anyway that shape suits you better. Let's begin the main event!

Followed by this exchange midway through the fight:

Dante: Look at you, making a big dramatic entrance and stealing my spotlight. Vergil: Well... You don't possibly believe that he deserves to be our main event now do you?

Vergil wasn't exactly present for Dante's "let's begin the main event!" line, which means he just came up with the same thing completely independently? That, or he was watching and just decided to wait for the most dramatic possible moment to jump in. Either way, it adds silly lil guy points (either for being just like his brother or for timing a dramatic entrance)

6. Same fight scene, the finger waggle Vergil does as he says "You should come to realize you cannot control the power of Sparda."

7. The classic:

But also the way Vergil immediately knows exactly what Dante is talking about when he says "Remember what we used to say?" and he smiles about it

Arioch, Salamander & Undine