"Looks like we have a winner." "Jackpot."

It's well known that Devil May Cry started development as Resident Evil 4, (in fact it started as Resi3 even), and that lineage is obvious when you play. Fixed camera angles. Take items from one part of the castle to another to solve puzzles. Yeah, I see it. But on this playthrough, I noticed some Resi DNA that I hadn't before. That this game is actually kind of terrifying in its own right.

It all comes down to the music for me. You step into the castle, greeted only by piano notes being slammed down in what is almost a rhythm if you squint hard enough. And occasionally there's an actual nice song being played, but it sounds like it's far off. No matter where you are, that nice music is somewhere else. Even the shop music is creepy! C'mon man, this is supposed to be a happy screen! This is where I get all my powers! How are you gonna do me like this? And then of course you encounter your first bad guy and the game goes from very scary to downright horrify... wait hang on. This song is banging actually. Oh, that's right. I'm playing as Dante. Let's rock. And you proceed to wipe the floor with the dumb puppet.

Or you get kinda owned, like I did lmao. This game is tough, but not overbearingly so. The Devil Trigger mechanic helps immensely. Of course it feels great to go into that state and decimate the demons, but the real beauty of it is when you aren't in your DT form. The gauges fill up so wonderfully fast, which made me play more aggressively than I would have otherwise. Even when things looked bleak, it never felt like a comeback was out of reach. "Just gotta hit the guy a couple more times, then I can activate DT, get some health back, and can turn this around aaaand I died. Aw well, let's go again."

And no matter whether you're styling on the enemies or not the combat just feels and looks great. (Though some parts taking getting used to, like how dodging in certain directions sends you 50 feet in the air, instead of just doing a simple roll). I never got tired of watching Dante just unload an endless amount of bullets into the demons. Infinite ammo baby, and he doesn't even need a bandana. Dante himself is just rad as hell, and his cockiness is always well earned. You bet I was feeling just as smug as he was every time a boss went down.

Devil May Cry is all about empowerment. It throws this dense atmosphere and freakish, unforgiving enemies at you, but it knows you can come out on top. And you're gonna do it with style.

Now go beat it again on hard mode.