Devil May Cry (デビル メイ クライ) is a 2001 hack and slash video game developed by Capcom and directed by Hideki Kamiya. It follows Dante, an aloof yet wisecracking half-demon devil hunter whose only motivations are to put his incredible supernatural powers to use by exterminating demons. When a mysterious woman named Trish informs Dante that the demon king Mundus is planning to return, he quickly sets out to put his skills to work.
Devil May Cry features fast paced, stylish combat that rewards creativity and skill through its innovative "Style Gauge" mechanic, displaying a letter grade on screen that rises and falls during combat to encourage players to experiment and improve at playing the game.
Developed as a first attempt at creating Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry was spun off into its own game when Hideki Kamiya's decision to focus on stylish action was deemed unfitting for the Resident Evil series.
After being reworked into an original title, Devil May Cry released to universal acclaim, redefining and influencing the hack and slash genre with its stylish and rewarding gameplay.
Devil May Cry quickly expanded into a successful multimedia franchise, including several sequels, reboots, mobile games, novelizations, animated adaptions, and various crossover appearances.
Though he created the series, Hideki Kamiya was not involved in any further Devil May Cry games. Instead, the direction of the series was mostly taken over by Hideaki Itsuno, who quickly became recognized as the franchise's lead developer. Hideki Kamiya would later go on to create Bayonetta, which is commonly considered to be a spiritual successor to Devil May Cry.
Connection to The Wonderful 101[]
As arguably Hideki Kamiya's most influential creation, the first Devil May Cry game had a influence on all of his following games, and The Wonderful 101 is no exception.
...that said, most games in the hack and slash genres have been strongly influenced by Devil May Cry, so this section focuses only on the most notable examples in The Wonderful 101.
Note that all points in this section specifically refer to the first Devil May Cry game only:
- The name of The Wonderful 101's development team, "Team Wonderful", is based on "Team Little Devils", the development team of Devil May Cry. Naming their development teams in such a manner is something of a tradition in Hideki Kamiya directed games, including "Team Viewtiful" for Viewtiful Joe and "Team Little Angels" for the first Bayonetta game.
- Wonder-Blue is blatantly based off of (and slightly parodies) Dante. This includes his trench coat wearing design, swordsmanship, flippant attitude, and (attempted) witty humor. Wonder-Blue also makes a few Devil May Cry quotes/references himself in the game's story:
- Wonder-Blue's "Let's rock, baby!" quote in Operation 009-B comes from Devil May Cry.
- Wonder-Blue's "Buzz off, bug-face! Or stick around and find out what a real sting feels like... The Valiantium way!" quote in Operation 003-C is a play on Dante's quote "Flock off, feather face! Or you can stick around and find out the hard way!"
- This quote is also referenced in the first Bayonetta game.
- The Stinger, a lunging sword technique considered to be one of Dante's signature moves, is referenced in The Wonderful 101 through Commander Nelson's "Project Stinger" initiative in the Prologue, and by the Wonderful Stinger Skill usable by almost all Unite Morphs, which is identical in function to the Stinger technique in Devil May Cry.
- Unite Sword's ability to harness electricity is most likely a reference to lightning sword Alastor found by Dante in Devil May Cry.
- The Minor Wonderful One Wonder-Sister's guns, Heaven & Hell, were originally each black and white in their concept art (in-game they both share the same white textures.) This may have been a small reference to Dante's black and white guns, Ebony & Ivory.
- Professor Margarita Redgrave's name is a reference to Tony Redgrave: an alias used by Dante in the Devil May Cry series. More specifically, the name originated from the first game's prequel novel, which Kamiya was involved with writing.
- Later in the Devil May Cry series, the name Redgrave was prominently used in the name of Red Grave City, the setting of Devil May Cry 5.